An ex-soldier wrote in a note, found in a box of valuable clothing sent to the refugees in Kansas: "I send this as a small token of the gratitude I owe to the colored people for saving my life when I was sick and escaping from a loathsome rebel prison. They took care of me and conducted me safely to our Union camp. This goes with a prayer that God will bless that suffering people."
We have the testimony of many witnesses. Among them is J. C. Hartzell, D. D., of New Orleans, editor of the Southwestern Christian Advocate. He says, "The cruelties endured by the colored people of the South can not be overdrawn." He knew of a number of families that took homesteads on government lands and were doing well for themselves, but masked "Bourbons" went in a company and drove them off, telling them they "had no business with homes of their own. The plantation was their place, and there they should go." One man undertook to defend himself and family with his gun, but receiving a serious wound from one of the Bourbons, he hid from his pursuers. One of his white friends heard of what had befallen him, and took him to New Orleans for safety, as he knew him to be an industrious and peaceable man. Here he employed a skillful surgeon to treat him. Our informant saw the bullet taken from his body, and thought his life could be saved. But he is sure to lose it if he returns to his own home. Rev. J. C. Hartzell said he had received letters from various places all over the South, written by intelligent colored ministers, that their Churches were closed against them until after election. The same thing was told me by many of those I interviewed.
The Bourbons said their meetings were the hot-beds of emigration and Republicanism. In some places they were forbidden to meet in their private houses for prayer-meetings, as their enemies said they met to make plans to go to Kansas. Is there no guarantee for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What a state of society is this for a free country? Our first duty as a government is protection. But if it is too weak for that, the second duty is to welcome the fleeing refugee and point him to work, or to the thousands of acres of good government land, and help him where he needs help to keep body and soul together during the few months it may require to make himself self-sustaining.
From Daniel Votaw's report from Independence, Kansas, I extract the following: "Thomas Bell, of Dallas County, Texas, was hanged about October 5th for attempting to go with his family and a few neighbors to Kansas. Blood and rapine mark the fugitive. After supper, from meal furnished them for this purpose, they gave us a history of their trials in Texas, which was truly sorrowful; and with the notes, mortgages, and credits given—to the whole amount, two thousand five hundred dollars—for their farms, they were compelled to leave and flee for their lives, as David did before Saul."
Shot-gun rule still continued. Philip Fauber, recently from near Baton Kouge, Louisiana, testifies as follows: "I rented land of Bragg and James McNealy, and was to have one-third of the crop and furnish team and seed. I took three bales of cotton to the weigher, who read my contract, and set aside one bale for me. But the McNealys claimed the three bales, and I referred the matter to the Justice of the Peace, who, after reading the contract, sanctioned the decision of the weigher. But the McNealys brought another officer, who asked to see the contract I handed him the paper, which he read and tore up and threw away, and McNealy took possession of the last bale of cotton, which I told them was my only dependence for my family's support for the Winter. On my way home through a little woods I received the contents of a shot-gun in my face, both eyes being put out. In great distress I felt my way home. The doctor took a number of shot out of my face, but he couldn't put my eyes back. I can now do nothing but depend upon others to feed and clothe me till God takes me from this dark world to that glorious world of light and peace. The old man, McNealy denied shooting me, but he never said he did not know who did. But he and his two sons died within a few months after I was shot In the last sickness of Bragg McNealy he sent for me to tell me for the last time that he did not shoot me. Still he would not tell who did." The industrious wife of this poor man whose face is speckled with shot scars, is anxious to get four or five acres of land to work herself, and support herself and blind husband.
A. A. Lacy, an intelligent colored man from New Orleans, who came to us indorsed by a number of others from the same city, testifies to the facts related by him as follows: "May 5, 1880, I called at the custom-house to report for duty to General A. S. Badger, collector of customs, by whom I had been employed. He directed me to Captain L. E. Salles, the chief weigher, to whom I had reported a number of days, but failed to get work, and as I failed this time I asked if I had better continue calling for work. He replied, 'You had better call again.' As I was passing out of the door his partner, Michael Walsh, came to me (in a gruff, commanding tone), 'What is that you say, Lacy?' 'Nothing to you,' I replied; 'I was speaking to Captain Salles.' At this he gave a stab, and as I turned to see what he was hitting me for, he added two stabs more with cursing. As I was going down the steps I felt the warm blood running down my side, not yet realizing that I had been cut. I opened my vest and saw the flowing blood. I stepped into Mr. Blanchard's office, the assistant weigher, who was a Republican, and showed him my side, with clothes saturated with blood. He was so shocked and excited that he was taken ill and died in just two weeks. He advised me to enter a complaint against Michael Walsh, which I did, and he was placed in jail in default of thousand dollar bond. I was sent to the hospital. As there were many friends and reporters calling on me, the surgeon forbade callers except immediate attendants and my wife. He said the deepest wound reached the left lung, and an eighth of an inch deeper would have produced instant death. On the tenth day I was allowed to be removed to my home, and pronounced to be convalescent. Michael Walsh was released from prison with no other mark of displeasure resting upon him for this attempt at murder than a few days' imprisonment. As soon as I was able to walk about I took a boat with friends whose lives had been threatened for Kansas, where we arrived July 15, 1880. I am only able to light work, for which I am thankful. Yet it seems hard to lose all this time from the assassin's stab in a custom-house that belongs to the government I fought two years to sustain."
Uncle Peter Cox, an aged man of eighty-eight years, has a wen on the back of his neck, running between his shoulders, larger than a two-quart bowl, that has been over thirty years coming. It was caused by heavy lifting and continued hard work during his slave-life. He came to Topeka, Kansas, in July, 1880, with his aged wife and deaf and dumb grandson of eighteen years. His advanced age and deformity induced me to inquire more closely into the cause of leaving his State (Louisiana). After giving the sad history of his slave-life—the common lot of that class of goods and chattels—he said: "Missus I stay'd thar as long as I could, when I seed my brodder in de Lo'd hangin' on a tree not more'n a hundred rods from my house, near Baton Rouge. A sistah was hanged five miles off, on de plank road, in West Baton Rouge, in a little woods. Her sistah followed her beggin' for her life, and tole de bulldosers she couldn't tell whar her husban' was that da's gwine to hang. But da swore she should hang if she didn't tell." Giving his head a shake, while tears dropped thick and fast down the deeply furrowed cheeks, he continued: "O, Missus, I couldn't live thar no longer. I's so distressed day an' night. De chief captain of dis ban' of murder's was Henry Castle, who wid his ban' of men was supported by Mr. Garrett, Mr. Fisher, an' Mr. Washington, who were merchants in Baton Rouge."
But that poor grandfather's heart was filled with grief to overflowing when the faithful grandson was walking alone in the railroad track, and was run over by the cars and instantly killed. Although the warning whistle was given the poor deaf boy heard it not. As he was all the aged pair had to depend upon for their living, it was to them a heavy stroke. No one can look over these testimonies without exclaiming, with David, "Is there not a cause" for the flight of this persecuted people? We find many among them, like Lazarus, begging for the crumbs that fall from the rich man's table; but let us not allow them to die in this land of plenty.
Yet, through all these dark clouds, we perceive the silver linings. The heaven-born cause of temperance is gaining a foothold in our Southern States. A crusade against the liquor-traffic commenced in Ohio, and has swept over Michigan and other neighboring States, and is still going on conquering and to conquer.
CHAPTER XIX.
PROSPECTS OF THE FREEDMEN.
Our last chapter contains the dark side of our picture. In this we present the brighter prospects for a long and sorely oppressed race. We first note what has been and is being done for the fifty thousand who have emigrated to Kansas As I have been a co-laborer with Elizabeth L. Comstock more than two years in rescuing the perishing in their new homes, I speak from personal knowledge.
During the first Winter—1879-80—as mild as it was, more than one hundred refugees were found with frozen feet fingers. Five were frozen to death coming through the Indian Territory with their teams. Through faithful agents, with supplies forwarded from other States, and even from friends in England in response to appeals sent out by Elizabeth L. Comstock, very many sufferers were relieved. The goods from England were forwarded mostly by James Clark, of Street. Over seventy thousand dollars' worth of supplies have passed through my hands for the relief of the refugees between September, 1879, when I commenced working for them, and March, 1881 Thirteen thousand dollars of this amount came from England, having been sent by Friends or Quakers Besides money, we received new goods, as follows,
Warm, new blankets, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
New garments for women and girls, . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,000
New garments for men and boys, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
New garments for babies and small children, . . . . . . . 5,000
New knitted socks and hose, five hundred dozen pairs, . . 6,000
Large quantity of sheets, pillow-cases, bed-quilts,
towels etc, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000
Queensware—Six large crates, one hundred and nineteen
dozen plates in each, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,568
Cups and saucers, nearly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000
Bowls and mugs, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Platters, pitchers, and chamber wares, . . . . . . . . . . 3,500
Scissors, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000
Sets of knives and forks, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Spoons, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,000
Needles, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000
Knitting needles, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500
Rags, with sewing materials, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,500
Papers of pins, six hundred and fifty dozen, and tape, 350, 1,000
Tin-cups and basins, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000
Bed-ticks, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500
Wash-dishes and pans, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000
Woolen dresses for women and girls, valued at . . . . . . $1,680
New overcoats for men and boys, valued at . . . . . . . . $650
Three whole bolts of Welch flannel (seventy-two yards each) $150
Two bolts heavy broadcloth, for overcoats, valued at . . . $144
Women's cloaks and shawls, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . $2,250
New red flannel, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150
Muslins, valued at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $150
Gray flannel and three hundred pairs mittens, valued at . $500
Buttons, hooks and eyes, cotton thread, silk, etc., . . . $500
New pieces goods, chiefly cotton, valued at . . . . . . . $5,000
Over ninety thousand dollars in money and supplies were distributed by the Kansas Relief Association, until it was disbanded in May, 1881, and its head-quarters removed to Southern Kansas, where thousands of these Southern emigrants are congregated. That locality is more favorable to cotton raising. Many of the refugees know but little of other business; hence the necessity for an agricultural, industrial, and educational institute, of which Elizabeth L. Comstock is the founder. At the present date (August, 1881) eight thousand dollars are invested. This includes the Homestead Fund. To meet the crying need of this people she, in connection with her daughter, Caroline DeGreen, are untiring in their efforts to establish a permanent or systematized work. They have established this much needed institution on four hundred acres of good land, which is tilled by colored people, who receive pay for their work in provision, clothing, or money until they can purchase cheap land for their own homes.
It has been no small task to disburse wisely the large supplies sent from every Northern State and England in various portions of the State of Kansas. It has been done through the instrumentality of self-sacrificing men and women. The noble women of Topeka did their full share. They districted the city, appointed a large investigating committee, and gave tickets calling for the articles most needed in the families found in a suffering condition. By this plan impositions were avoided.
While we have entered bitter complaints against our Southern ex-slave States, we ought to call to mind many persecutions endured by the opponents of slavery in our own States of the North. I have still in remembrance the many mobs to which abolitionists were exposed for discussing their views. I have not forgotten the burning shame and disgrace upon our whole North because of the treatment it allowed to an earnest Christian philanthropist, Prudence Crandall, of Windham County, Connecticut. She opened a school in Canterbury Green for girls, and was patronized by the best families, not only of that town, but of other counties and States. Among those who sought the advantages of her school was a colored girl. But Prudence was too thorough a Quaker to regard the request of bitter prejudice on the part of her other patrons to dismiss her colored pupil. But she did not wait for them to execute their threat to withdraw their children. She sent them home. Then she advertised her school as a boarding school for young ladies of color.
The people felt insulted, and held indignation meetings and appointed committees to remonstrate with her. But she stood by her principles regardless of their remonstrance. The excitement in that town ran high. A town meeting was called to devise means to remove the nuisance. In 1833 Miss Crandall opened her school against the protest of an indignant populace. Another town meeting was called, at which it was resolved, "That the establishment of a rendezvous, falsely denominated a school, was designed by its projectors as the theater to promulgate their disgusting theory of amalgamation and their pernicious sentiments of subverting the Union. These pupils were to have been congregated here from all quarters under the false pretense of educating them, but really to scatter fire-brands, arrows, and death among brethren of our own blood."
I well remember the voice of more than seven thousand, even at that day, who had never bowed the knee to the Baal of slavery that was raised in favor of the course pursued by the noble woman. Against one of these young colored girls the people were about to enforce an old vagrant law, requiring her to give security for her maintenance on penalty of being whipped on the naked body. Thus they required her to return to her home in Providence. Canterbury did its best to drive Prudence from her post. Her neighbors refused to give her fresh water from their wells, though they knew their own sons had filled her well with stable refuse. Her father was threatened with mob-violence. An appeal was sent to their Legislature, and that body of wise men devised a wicked enactment which they called law, which was brought to bear upon her parents on this wise: An order was sent to her father, in substance, as follows: "Mr. Crandall, if you go to visit your daughter you are to be fined one hundred dollars for the first offense, two hundred dollars for the second offense, doubling the amount every time. Mrs. Crandall, if you go there you will be fined, and your daughter, Almira, will be fined, and Mr. May,—and those gentlemen from Providence [Messrs. George and Henry Benson], if they come here, will be fined at the same rate. And your daughter, the one that has established the school for colored females, will be taken up the same way as for stealing a horse or for burglary. Her property will not be taken, but she will be put in jail, not having the Liberty of the yard. There is no mercy to be shown about it."
Soon after this Miss Crandall was arrested and taken to jail for an alleged offense. Her trial resulted in an acquittal, but her establishment was persecuted by every conceivable insult. She and her school were shut out from attendance at the Congregational Church, and religious services held in her own house were interrupted by volleys of rotten eggs and other missiles. At length the house was set on fire, but the blaze was soon extinguished.
In 1834, on September 9th, just as the family was retiring for the night, a body of men with iron bars surrounded the house, and simultaneously beat in the windows and doors. This shameful outrage was more than they could endure. Prudence Crandall was driven at last to close her interesting school and send her pupils home. Then another town meeting was held, a sort of glorification, justifying themselves, and praising their Legislature for passing the law for which they asked. All this abominable outrage I well remember, and am glad to see it called up in Scribner's Magazine for December, 1880. A scathing denunciation of the outrage was published in the Boston Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison.
Prudence Crandall did more for the cause of freedom by her persistence in the "Higher Law" doctrine of eternal right than the most eloquent antislavery lecturer could have accomplished in molding public sentiment of the whole North. Her name became a household word in thousands of Northern homes. When we see the changes forty and fifty years have wrought in the North, surely we may look forward in strong faith for like changes to take place over the South. It may take longer, but come it will.
We note with pleasure the rapid strides of education among the colored people in sixteen years. In 1864-5 I visited large schools in slave-pens that had become useless for the purposes for which they were designed. The stumps of their whipping-posts and the place of the dreaded auction block was vacated. Although many of their public schools are not all that could be desired, yet they have them, and they are doing a good work. In Virginia, beginning with 1871, the colored children enrolled for successive years numbered as follows: 38,554; 46,736; 49,169; 54,945; 62,178, 65,043; 61,772; and 35,768. In South Carolina the enrollment from 1870 was, 15,894: 38,635; 46,535; 56,249; 63,415; 70,802; 55,952; 62,120; and 64,095. In Mississippi, beginning with 1875, the enrollment was 89,813; 90,178; 104,777; and 111,796. At the present we foot up the astonishing number of 738,164 pupils. Maryland has appropriated two thousand dollars per annum for the support of normal schools for the training of colored teachers. An ex-Confederate and ex-slave-holder of high degree subscribed five thousand dollars toward a college for colored people under the patronage of one of the colored Churches in the State of Georgia. All honor is due such noble deeds. May there be more to follow his good example.
From the best authorities we have the figures of over a million communicants among the colored people in the United States. Of those in the Southern States we have as follows, at this date, 1881:
African Methodists, . . . . . . . . . . 214,808
Methodist Episcopal Church (Colored), . 112,000
Colored Baptist Church, . . . . . . . . 500,000
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, . . . 190,000
Methodist Episcopal Church, . . . . . . 300,000
Almost every Church in the North has contributed to educational purposes in the South, but they are doing none too much. The Friends have done much toward supporting a school in Helena, Arkansas, under the supervision of Lida Clark, an untiring worker for that people. But we have not the figures of amounts. But the Methodist Episcopal Church has done, and is still doing, a great work, as our figures will show, in building commodious schoolhouses in various States.
Schools of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 1880-81:
CHARTERED INSTITUTIONS.
TEACHERS. PUPILS.
Central Tennessee College, Nashville, Tenn., . . . 12 433
Clark University, Atlanta, Ga., . . . . . . . . . . 7 176
Chiflin University, Orangeburg, S. C., . . . . . . 9 388
New Orleans University. New Orleans, La., . . . . . 4 200
Shaw University, Holly Springs, Miss., . . . . . . 8 277
Wiley University, Marshall, Texas, . . . . . . . . 6 323
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS.
Centenary Biblical Institute, Baltimore, Md., . . . 4 118
Baker Institute; Orangeburg, S. C., . . . . . . . . … …..
[Footnote: Pupils enumerated in the other schools]
Thompson Biblical Institute, N. Orleans, La., . . . … …..
[Footnote: Pupils enumerated in the other schools]
MEDICAL COLLEGE.
Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., . . . . . 8 35
Institutions NOT CHARTERED.
Bennett Seminary, Greensburg, N. C., . . . . . . . . 5 150
Cookman Institute, Jacksonville, Fla., . . . . . . . 5 166
Haven Normal School, Waynesboro, Ga., . . . . . . . . 2 60
La Grange Seminary, La Grange, Ga., . . . . . . . . . 2 96
Meridian Academy, Meridian, Miss., . . . . . . . . . 3 100
Rust Normal School, Huntsville, Ala., . . . . . . . . 2 112
Walden Seminary, Little Rock, Ark., . . . . . . . . . 2 60
West Texas Conf. Seminary, Austin, Tex., . . . . . . 3 101
La Teche Seminary, La Teche, La., . . . . . . . . . . 3 100
West Tennessee Seminary, Mason, Tenn., . . . . . . . 2 75
We must here put in our claim for the fifty thousand emigrants in Kansas from the South. The Freedmen's Relief work in Kansas has been thoroughly organized and officered, and the contributions received for the refugees judiciously distributed. An agricultural and industrial school was established some time ago, and is meeting, so far, with good success. It will, if properly sustained, prove to be a blessing not only to the colored race, but to the State. From a circular issued in June last, by Elizabeth L. Comstock, one of the superintendents of this work, I extract the following paragraphs:
"Our first object is to employ those who come for work or for aid. We are strongly advised by their best friends, and the kind donors both sides the Atlantic, not to give any thing (except in return for labor) to those who are able to work, especially during the warm weather. Wages are paid regularly every Saturday, and they come with their money to buy and select from the stock on hand what will suit themselves. Second-hand clothing and bedding have a price affixed almost nominal. Coats, 10 cents each to $1, very few at $1; pants, drawers, shirts, and vests, 5 cents each; shoes, 5 cents a pair; stockings and socks, two pairs for 5 cents; women's dresses, 10, 20, 30, and 40 cents each; children's clothes, 5 to 10 cents a garment; bed-quilts, comforters, and blankets, 20 to 50 cents; new ones, $1 each, if very good. New shoes and other articles, provisions, etc., that we have to purchase we buy at wholesale, and try to supply them below the market price, some of them at half the retail price. Thus what little is gained on the old clothes makes up in part what we lose on the new. We could employ more laborers if we had more money. The state of the treasury is low now. It seems hard to turn away any poor people who want to work. We should be very glad of help just now in the way of seed for sowing, money to provide food and shelter, and to finish up our buildings. We greatly desire to start several industries before Winter, as blacksmith's shop, carpenter's shop, broom factory, etc., etc., that they may have work during the cold weather. We hope to have our school-house soon ready and to educate the children, and have an evening school for adults.
"An important part of our work will be to train the women and girls in the various branches of household work, and sewing, knitting, etc. Nor do we lose sight of the spiritual garden while providing for the intellectual fields and the physical wants. We greatly desire that this long-oppressed race, who have been kept in darkness and ignorance, should have the light of the glorious Gospel, and should have the Bible put into their hands, and be taught to read and understand it. Of course we meet with some opposition in our work, as many a brave soldier has done before us, in battling for the right and for the colored race."
We extract an item from the Columbus Courier (Kansas): "We are proud of the work of the 'Agricultural, Industrial, and Educational Institute,' and earnestly desire its success, and we feel proud of these good men and women who are led on by Mrs. Elizabeth L. Comstock at their head, and Mrs. Laura 8. Haviland, their secretary. Characteristic spirits of the broad philanthropy of our beloved land, they need no commendation to sustain them. This has been their life-work, and they now select our State for their field of labor. J. E. Picketing was chosen from a body of eighteen directors as its president, because of his experience in this kind of work, having at one time been a conductor on the 'Under Ground." He does not receive or ask for salary. He only presides at meetings of the Board of Directors, and has general oversight of the work in progress. His son, Lindly, was selected by the Board according to the expressed wish of Mrs. Comstock as superintendent. His wife is acting in the capacity of matron, but neither of them receives a salary, and they are to be paid by some friends of the work when it is established. But now pay is a matter of no consideration. Charity does not require that these people should leave their comfortable homes and devote their time and energies to the laborious duties of their positions without some reward. "Forty acres of the four hundred upon which the institute is located was purchased of Lindly M. Pickering, at one hundred dollars less than he could otherwise have obtained for it. It was selected for its improvements and its fine location, unsurpassed in the country. In conclusion, we desire to refer to the good management with which without ostentation its affairs are vigorously pushed forward, believing that the ever-living, ever-aggressive principle of right will sustain them and secure the success which so commendable an enterprise deserves. May heaven prosper the work of the nation's truest spirits and best and most respected citizens!"
From the financial statement from April 15th to June 13, 1881, we find that there has been received fur this industrial institute, in cash, $6,931.96. Two large consignments of goods were received about the last date at Columbus by Elizabeth L. Comstock for the same object. We appeal to the Christian public to give us at least one school in Kansas for the refugees.
"Sow thy seed in the morning, and in the evening withhold not thy hand, for thou knowest not whether this or that will prosper."
"Sowing the seed with an aching heart
Sowing the seed while the tear-drops start,
Sowing in hope till the reapers come,
Gladly to welcome the harvest home.
O what shall the harvest be?"
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's A Woman's Life-Work, by Laura S. Haviland