Part 5

But the white man is not ready to give the chance—in other words, surrender the vantage ground his color gives him. Here is a call for an appeal to conscience. The subject must be discussed, North and South, among white and black alike. As the anti-slavery reform arose not out of the stagnant waters of indifference, but out of the dashing stream of healthful agitation, so must the caste reform be brought about. That discussion has begun in earnest, and will not cease till caste be sent to that bourne to which slavery, its ancestor, has gone and whence it shall never return. But discussion must take shape; the Church must cease to sustain caste. The time was when men were afraid to oppose slavery because it would hinder the spread of their churches in the South. They urged: “Why endanger the growth of our denomination by joining in this useless clamor against slavery?” But the time came when these same persons decided that it was more important to destroy slavery than multiply churches that sustained slavery. Missionary societies abandoned their churches in the South, and the great national churches allowed themselves to be rent in twain rather than uphold slavery. Only such an attitude against caste will avail anything. When the North feels that ten churches or schools that stand unequivocally against caste are more important than a thousand churches or schools that sustain caste, then we shall see the beginning of the end.

But the colored people themselves must be educated out of caste. Strange as it may seem, some of them are its abettors, and, stranger still, they are so religiously. As men, they repudiate it; as Christians, they sustain it. They prefer separation mainly, perhaps, because they think the whites would not welcome them. Other reasons may be given. Some of the members love excitement in their worship, and this they can enjoy better if no whites are present; the leaders can be bishops and rulers among their own people, but, if joined to the whites, these honors are denied, or, at least, unequally divided. Why is it that religion is compelled to shield some of the greatest wrongs on earth? Albert Barnes said, long before slavery was abolished: “There is no power _out_ of the Church that could sustain slavery an hour, if it were not sustained _in_ it.” Must sinful and harmful caste, the baleful progeny of slavery, find its bulwark in the Church—nay, in some of the colored churches themselves?

But this wish or willingness of these churches for separation is gravely made use of by many most excellent people as a reason for ceasing to make war against caste. It is said triumphantly: “See how the colored people, welcomed to Dr. Goodell’s or Dr. Rankin’s churches, prefer churches of their own.” Does their abetting caste help to destroy it? Did the wish of the Israelites in the wilderness to return to Egypt help them on to Canaan? If the slaves in this country were ever content to remain slaves, as was sometimes alleged, that was all the greater evidence of the curse of slavery. If the Soodra consents to remain a Soodra, all the more does he need the breaking of his bondage that he may become a man. And so, if the colored people consent to caste separation, all the more do they need emancipation from the bondage of caste.

In this point of view the action of some of the large religious bodies North and South in consenting to a separation on the color line is riveting the chains of caste on the colored people, and sustaining caste-prejudice in the hearts of the white race; and it is seriously questioned by many considerate persons whether the presence of two Congregational Missionary Societies in the South, the one working mainly for the whites, and the other side by side, mainly for the blacks, will not, with all explanations, be construed into a sanction of caste. The question is fairly before the churches, and should be met in a frank and Christian way.

The presence with us to-day of a committee appointed by the American Home Missionary Society to confer on this very subject renders its consideration by this meeting a matter of comity and of Christian duty, and to aid in its intelligent and harmonious settlement I beg leave to contribute some facts and considerations.

The A. M. A. was organized when the great missionary societies, home and foreign, aided churches in the South that received slaveholders as members. It was formed not as an anti-slavery society, nor merely as a formal protest against slavery, but as affording a channel through which anti-slavery Christians might carry forward missions without complicity with slavery. Hence it established missions in foreign lands and among the Indians, and also home missions in the West.

But in the progress of the anti-slavery movement the large missionary societies withdrew their aid from slaveholding churches, and soon thereafter came the opening for the great work to be done for the freedmen. The Association was believed to be providentially prepared to undertake this work, and hence it gave up its home missions in the West and among the Indians and entered with alacrity into this new field.

The territory it occupied was the whole South, its schools being located in every Southern State. But gradually it withdrew from Delaware, Maryland, and unwisely, as I then thought, and now think, from Florida. At the West it organized a few churches in Kansas, which, however, it at length turned over to the American Home Missionary Society, only resuming limited efforts there when the great exodus of colored people thither took place. In Missouri it never attempted much in church planting. It found that the Home Missionary Society that had done so grand a work from the Atlantic to the Pacific, rearing its monuments of light and piety along the whole line of its march, had entered Missouri so effectually that there was no more call for the Association in those parts, and hence that state was soon and cheerfully surrendered to the occupancy of that Society. In Texas the Association has established one of its chartered institutions at Austin, the Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute; it was the earliest Congregational Society to plant churches in the State; its churches there, though few, are more in number than that of any other Congregational Society, and two calls are pressing upon us now for the organization of new churches. Thus its field may be said to be the “Solid South” leaving out Delaware, Maryland, Missouri, Florida and the new State of West Virginia. In this territory it has planted its large and permanent educational institutions; its 89 churches, united in eight conferences, covering nearly the whole South.

The Association has been as much opposed to caste as to slavery, as its early publications abundantly show, and has ever refused to accept the limitation of a color line. Its schools and churches have seemed to be almost wholly confined to the blacks, solely because it allowed them to enter at all. But it has not confined itself entirely to efforts for that race. It has founded schools and churches mainly white. The church in Jacksonville, Fla., was organized under its auspices. Its founders did not ask pecuniary aid, but they did ask one of our District Secretaries to assist in the organization, which he did, and spent nearly a month with them afterward, supplying the pulpit until a permanent pastor could be obtained. In Kentucky, John G. Fee, its first missionary in the South, commissioned in 1848, formed white churches on an anti-slavery basis. The same was done by Daniel Worth in North Carolina. That church planting in Kentucky was followed by Berea College, the most conspicuous example in the South of an anti-caste institution, its pupils being in nearly equal numbers of both races; and now more recently the example of Berea has been followed by a church and school in Williamsburg, Ky., and in Clover Bottom. Other openings of the same sort are presenting themselves in the same region.

The only movement made by Congregationalists to found white churches in the territory occupied by the Association was begun during or soon after the war. At that time the work of the Association was in its infancy, and the broad and permanent foundations which it has since laid were scarcely anticipated. On the other hand, this new movement for white churches was mainly confined to the largest cities and perhaps the thought of possible competition was not entertained. At all events the movement was not very successful and was very nearly abandoned.

Whatever general impressions may have existed at that early day as to the special work of the Association or whatever special designations may since have been used as to the classes for which it was mainly to labor, it never supposed that it was to be confined entirely to those classes; and certainly now, after nearly twenty years of almost exclusive occupancy of the special territory to which it has confined itself, so far as Congregationalists are concerned, it may well be supposed to look with some surprise upon a movement recently inaugurated to enter that same territory with missionary efforts that practically places it on one side of a color line.

An agreement was made between the two societies when this question came before them, which provides temporarily and tentatively against the repetition of any such interferences as that which started this discussion. Both societies have agreed not to enter into any field occupied by the other without mutual consultation. But this agreement provides no permanent basis for a settlement of the question which field each society shall occupy. It only insures Christian co-operation and forbearance until a settlement be made. What that settlement shall be is for the constituency of our societies to determine, and to them we must leave it. The American Board and the Association have made a harmonious arrangement of their respective fields of labor, and it is to be hoped that an adjustment equally satisfactory may be reached with the American Home Missionary Society.

In view of all this several questions ought to be considered.

1. What is the field open before us among the white population of the South?

It is not the extent of the territory, nor the number of millions of white people that are in the South, nor even the number that need our school and Gospel advantages, but it is: _How many of them can be reached by an anti-caste Gospel?_

It is not enough to say that we are to preach the Gospel, and if people are converted the caste question will take care of itself. Well do I remember when that plea and policy were in vogue in regard to slavery. The Gospel was preached, churches were formed, and the denominations were happy in their enlargement. Slavery also did take care of itself, and good care, too, for it found snug homes in these very churches. And well do I remember when these same denominations cast slavery away from them and the coveted churches along with it!

The American churches cannot afford to repeat that experience in regard to caste. What was done then in comparative innocence, because done in ignorance, cannot now be done without great guilt in the light of that experience. We must remember that it is more important to destroy caste than to found churches that will sustain caste. No work can be done by our churches among the white people of the South that will stand the test, that does not proceed on the avowed and practical repudiation of caste; no school opened that does not welcome the colored child; no church formed that does not present the open door, the open hand and the open heart to “Our Brother in Black.” There are Congregationalists in the South that are ready to welcome again the polity of New England and at the same time welcome among them the colored races, and there are native Southerners ready for our schools and churches, and also ready to make no distinction on account of color, and to all such we ought to carry with joyful hearts and ready hands the institutions we so much cherish. But we ought not to enter upon the effort under a misapprehension. The number of openings for this kind of labor is not great.

2. The question of two Congregational Societies on the Southern field receives its greatest importance from its relation to caste-prejudice. There are other difficulties. One of the saddest features of the modern church extension at the West is the starting of two or more feeble churches of different denominations in small villages or among sparse populations, creating frictions and rivalries where harmony and Christian fellowship are so essential, and a waste of men and money where there is so much need of economy. This would be aggravated in the poorer and sparser settlements of the South, and still more aggravated if the same denomination should, by two of its own societies there, thus come into rivalry with itself. In the one case two houses are arrayed against each other; in the other, a house is divided against itself. It is the same railroad company running parallel lines in competition with each other.

But all these considerations, grave as they are, are of small importance when compared with the danger that the division of the labors of two societies, running mainly along the color line, would be construed as lending the sanction of the denomination to caste separation. This is the gravamen of the difficulty. I am happy to say that the two societies are equally committed against caste, and will equally and honorably repudiate all intentional sanction of it. But the bare fact that one is avowedly working mainly for the whites and the other mainly for the blacks, will, in spite of all protests to the contrary, array them before the public as separated only by the color line. It is not proper for me to speak for another society, but for my own I must speak. The American Missionary Association was born an opponent of slavery. Amid poverty, sneers and reproach from the best of men, as well as the worst of men, it pressed forward in its opposition till the glorious end came. It must oppose caste as it did slavery. It began its work among the freedmen as the avowed enemy of caste, and amid much misapprehension and reproach at the South, it has pressed onward until it has gained the respect of both races. That position it cannot, and it ought not to be asked to, surrender or jeopardize by being placed on one side of a line of separation in missionary labors that has no reason for its existence except the colors of the people to be benefited.

3. If, in view of all the facts, it should be ultimately decided that the Congregational churches should be represented at the South by one missionary society, the decision should be reached in the broadest spirit of Christian wisdom and kindness.

The American Missionary Association is not eager to be pushed forward into the mission work among the whites, but it knows something of their needs, especially their need of deliverance from caste-prejudice that mars the symmetry of their piety and chills their hearts as slavery did, and that perpetuates a race antagonism that must be crushed before the South can be safe or prosperous. If the Association should be called to that work, it has some experiences and facilities that would be helpful. Its past record would be a guaranty that it would not foster caste. It would have no temptation to found schools and churches mainly white that should be rivals of its schools and churches mainly colored, and it could have no reason to hesitate in establishing both, if both were needed. It is not “handicapped” for this work except by its firm and well-known attitude against caste, and any other society equally faithful on that subject would soon be equally handicapped. Its large planting of schools and churches, with a value of property of nearly a million of dollars, gives it a position and an influence that it would take any other society a long time and a large outlay of funds to acquire—to say nothing of the facilities it thus possesses to extend its work among both races. It has a wide acquaintance with the Southern people, both white and colored, and has won for itself a large place in their confidence, by its quiet, unselfish and useful work for both. It has, moreover, already done something in bringing the two races together in school and church, and for this reason it is fitted to be a bond of union and Christian fellowship between them.

This Association, standing on the ruins of slavery, and amid the schools and churches it has erected thereon for the benefit of the colored race, and to some extent also for the white, would find it both cognate and congenial to enlarge its work among the whites, both the ignorant and the educated, carrying to them a gospel that is not only uplifting and purifying, but that makes no caste distinction in the school room or in the house of God.

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REPORT ON EDUCATIONAL WORK.

The Committee on the Educational Work of the A. M. A. would respectfully report that they find the history of the past year highly satisfactory and encouraging. It is a record of enlarged accommodations at several of the institutions. Stone Hall, at Atlanta, the fourth of the buildings erected by the munificence of Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, has been completed. New buildings, or very considerable additions to former buildings, have been constructed at Midway, Macon, Talladega, Williamsburg, Hillsboro, Memphis and New Orleans; yet from several quarters the call still comes for more room.

It is a record of increased practical efficiency. Industrial training, which forms so important an adjunct of the work, has been making progress by workshops established at Macon and Memphis, and arrangements for carpentry schools at Tougaloo and Atlanta; while farming education and training in housekeeping go on at various points as heretofore, supplemented at Memphis by instruction in nursing and hygiene; and Hampton continues to teach more vigorously than ever a variety of handicrafts, such as printing, bookbinding, iron and tin work, carpentry and wood turning, the manufacture of sash and doors, shoe and harness making, tailoring and farming. All this is, for the present, a very essential element of the educational work.

It is a record of some degree of expansion, although the main aspect is rather one of consolidation and elevation. The number of teachers has increased by twenty-eight and the number of common schools by four; the number of pupils being but slightly greater than last year. The grade of these institutions is steadily advancing. Among these pupils are found, we are happy to say, ninety theological students—twelve more than were reported last year. The three Teachers’ Institutes, held in as many States, may prove to be the entering wedge of another great instrument of power and quickening influence. The crowded halls and interested audiences of the anniversaries of so many of our Institutions are a striking manifestation of genuine progress. When we remember that the oldest of these institutions has seen but a quarter of a century, and practically but twenty years of life time, and that now we rejoice in eight chartered institutions, comparatively strong and effective, twelve high and normal schools and forty-two common schools, with 279 teachers doing their soul-expanding work, we may well say “What hath God wrought.” Far as it falls short of our desire and our duty, so far and more also does it exceed the boldest reasonable expectations of the dark and cloudy time of the beginning.

But far the most satisfactory statement of the annual report is its record of the religious spirit which guides, controls and pervades this whole educational movement. The information that at seven out of eight of the chartered institutions “special religious interest has been manifest, adding scores and scores of these scholars to the number of the disciples of Christ,” and that, “as yet, but very few have been graduated from our various courses of study who had not become Christians,” is a record of the crowning mercy of God. So may it ever be. The heart and conscience must be quickened with the intellect or there is no good hope for that race, or for any other race. It must be _Christian_ education. The school and the Church must move on together at the South as they started together from Plymouth Rock, and they must extend, as far as possible—certainly must offer—their joint benign influences, not to a portion of the population, but to all classes and races alike. For the part can receive its full benefit only in conjunction with the benefit of the whole. This is no new principle, but the method in which, as our annual reports show, this Association has been proceeding throughout its history. Having always refused to recognize the color-line, it can proceed on no other basis without defeating its own ends, and compromising its own principles. And the recent decision of the Supreme Court has rolled a new burden on the Church.

Hence it is that your committee look with much interest upon the experiment, tried and effectually settled at Berea, and now extending thence among the “mountain whites,” of including all classes and races in the purview of our educational and Christian work. We refer to the movement at Williamsburg, a county-seat on the Cumberland River, which is simply a repetition of the movement at Berea of twenty years ago—with this difference, that the abolition of the color-line, both in church and school, at Williamsburg, is fully accepted beforehand by an actual constituency in that place. Here the establishment of an academy to educate teachers for the common schools of the county—of whom, as of the population, but a small portion are colored persons—went hand in hand with the opening of the church to both races alike, and has led most naturally to the establishment of three adjacent preaching places, and the formation of another church at the nearest railway station. This method, when viewed simply on its own merits, seems to be at once the dictate of a wise Christian economy, and an almost necessary sequence, or rather part, of the work of Christian education. Within the particular regions where this Association is planting its schools, exerting its influence and gaining the confidence of the community, it would seem to have peculiar advantages and a special call to leaven the whole community with the institutions of the gospel; while the molding influence of its Christian schools will be left incomplete, except as permanently embodied, fortified and nourished by surrounding Christian churches, built upon the same fundamental principles. Similar in condition, character and wants to this Whitley County, in Kentucky, is a great area of five hundred miles by two hundred, beginning in Virginia and extending to Alabama, occupied chiefly by a white population numbering nearly two millions, of whom more than half the adults can neither read nor write. It is one of the most needy and neglected regions of our country, and presents a pressing call to Christian philanthropy to enter and occupy.

S. C. BARTLETT, Chairman.

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ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT S. C. BARTLETT.