Chapter III: Part 3

It is evident, then, that education is at a low ebb in that dark State of Alabama; and such as we have, bear in mind, is the growth of the last twenty years. It is an infusion of Northern ideas and Northern civilization; and these first friends of learning must be its friends still. Just now I remember calling but a few weeks since at an important point where two railroads cross each other, where iron and coal lie side by side, where different forms of industry,—blast furnaces and machine shops—are going up, and it is a place of great prospective importance that we ought at once to occupy. I called upon the county superintendent of education, a rebel colonel, I think six feet and more in height. He seemed to look down upon me. I am sure he did when I announced myself from Talladega. He at once branded me with “N.T.”—that means a Negro Teacher, with two g’s in the word Negro. I asked him concerning the education of the black man in that growing town. He said he knew very little of it; he paid out ninety dollars of public money for a teacher, but he knew nothing more. Said he, “We don’t think much of nigger education here.” It almost took my breath away. I said to him there might be others in the town who had different views of negro education, and asked him if there was not some friend of liberty with whom I might speak; and he replied, “We have not much of the nigger about us;” and I went out. Now it is very evident, my friends, that the work of education, so imperative, must be carried forward by Northern consecration still.

Well, if you now turn from our intellectual need to our industrial wants, I can show you a State whose mines and hills are full of treasure, where forest trees grow in rank luxuriance, where our cotton fields are sufficient to wrap half America in their folds. And yet our homes are mean and miserable, and dark and dirty, and there is physical want and physical poverty and physical distress. You tell me the black man is indolent. I say yes, but he is among a lazy generation. You tell me the black man is thriftless, and I say yes, but he is among a shiftless race. It is true that the industrial idea of those Southern States must be carried forward, and we must do it.

But the wants that I have referred to thus far are not our most serious need. We come to manhood, to morality, to Christian virtue, and there, brethren, we are just where you might suspect. Bear in mind, it is but a few years since slavery, the sum and the mother of villainies, was sustained by the law and defended by the pulpit. The piety and the morality of the colored people have been strangely divorced. As was said here yesterday, we are not opposed by skepticism. I grant it; we can subscribe to the whole catechism and take it in bodily, with one exception, and that exception is the Ten Commandments.

Now, “from one,” as Burke said, “learn all.” Let me tell you two or three facts that in my mind stand for a great deal. Recently a Doctor of Divinity, a foremost man in the Southern Presbyterian church, told me that near the city where he lives he has a plantation where he often spends a few days at a time, and preaches. That minister, like others, wants his Aaron and Hur about him. There is a church established there, and on his right hand was a colored minister, and on the left a deacon. That minister had three living wives. That deacon was a butcher, and lately there were dug up out of his barnyard the skins of fifteen cattle that he had stolen.

The facts concerning Southern churches are not well recognized, I suspect, at the North. A recent letter from one of our most trusted young men, told me that where he was working this summer as a teacher there are two colored churches, and that a woman, excluded from one of them on the Lord’s day because of her gross immorality, was on the next Sabbath received into the other church without a letter; and this represents the type of Southern black piety.

Brethren, I have come to believe that the seventy-three Congregational churches that you have planted there stand like light-houses in the midst of surrounding darkness. And another fact means much to my mind. When the census agents were with us, and our young men were arranged in the parlor for convenience, the officers asked them their fathers’ names. Some of the young men blushed as they gave them, and others handed them in on bits of paper. Young men of high character, students in our theological seminary, were born out of wedlock. They blushed at the infamy, and their blushing was because of Anglo-Saxon blood that was wickedly in their veins. I tell you, brethren, if you should reverse the course of the Queen of the South, and instead of going to the North you should go to the South, you would say with her, though in a different sense, that the half had not been told. It is fair to believe, then, that the Christian work of the South is most imperative, and I am glad to turn from the wants of the field to something of our undertakings. * * * * * *

Is it strange, then, that those of us who are allowed once more to face the front, and go personally into the conflict hand to hand, are looking Northward for supplies? I can remember, when we stood there in hours of need, how the Northern people did not withhold munitions of war or what was necessary for our comfort. We are engaged in the same warfare, and we need a large supply of munitions.

It is not seven days since, at New Haven, under the elms that shade Yale College, I saw light-bearers in martial array passing through the streets, and, when the band struck up the music that I heard once on the tented field at the South, my heart grew large. When I saw the marshaling of soldiers as in battle array, I thought of what I had seen at Cold Harbor, at Drury’s Bluff, at Richmond, and at Petersburg. They went on in the mimicry of war with mounted men, and my heart was full. But soon came a noble battalion of black men, side by side, step by step with their brethren, looking as grand as any of them, with their lighted torches going on towards the front. I saw there a parable. There is Alabama and the South, there is the Dark Continent with a sixth of the population of the globe, 186,000,000 waiting for the Gospel. Now, then, shall we fill those torches with oil and light them? We have men ready to be trained to go there, and, believe me, they will not only bless Africa, but do a large part in saving America.

Do you remember, my friends, that the oldest monuments we have, the most ancient coins that come down to us, represent the negro kneeling before his captor, with his hands clasped in petition, yet wearing shackles, and there kneeling in prayer to an enemy? That is the old picture of Africa that has come down through the sun-burnt ages. How is it to-day? Thank God, in our country the scene has changed. The black man is not kneeling before his captor. He stands erect with us, and with us he stands close to the ballot box. Those shackles are broken—do I say broken? No, they were cut asunder by the red sword of war, but still they lie at his feet. Those hands are not clasped now, but open, and they are extended, not to his captor, but to his old-time friends and liberators, to Christian men and women of the North. He holds in one hand a spelling-book and a Bible, and he stretches it out to us and says, “Come and teach me.” Brethren, it is blessed to hear that call. It is blessed to have a share in that work.

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REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CHURCH WORK.

The Committee upon Church Work would emphasize the fact that the religious work among the Freedmen is essentially that of reformation. The churches of this Association are the Reformed Churches of the South. Incidentally, they are Congregational. The reason which called them into existence, and which justifies their separate organization, is the demand for a pure, intelligent, progressive Christianity. The Association steadily refuses to multiply churches, or to increase their membership, except as the true type of personal piety can be established and maintained. And, acting upon this principle, the growth of the church is made to depend upon the material which can be prepared for it; in other words, the church is essentially the product of the school. There only can the foundations be laid for an intelligent faith and a pure morality.

Your Committee desire to commend the patient adherence, not only of the Association, but of the churches themselves, to this principle. They would also acknowledge with gratitude the prosperous condition of the churches, as set forth in the more detailed reports submitted. With hardly an exception, they are provided with houses of worship, they are substantially free from debt, discipline has been thoroughly maintained, mission work has been earnestly carried on, benevolence has been largely increased, the pulpit has been well supplied, and in many cases there have been most gracious proofs of the special work of the Spirit of God.

The present number of churches is 73, an increase the last year of 5, with a present membership of nearly 5,000, an increase of 635.

The question of greatest urgency connected with the department of Church Work, is that of education for the ministry.

Three of the schools have a theological department—Fisk, Talladega, and Straight. There is also a theological department connected with Howard University, partly under the care of the Association. But no one of these has any endowment. No permanent provision whatever has been made for the instruction or support of those studying for the ministry. The work is carried on under every possible disadvantage. Meanwhile, the demand for an educated ministry is steadily and rapidly increasing. The work of education has now reached the point where the ratio of increase will soon be enormous. Over 150,000 children have been under instruction the past year. The material for churches will soon be abundant. The only question will be, can it be used?

Other denominations, too, are looking largely to the schools of the Association for ministers. And England, in her missions for Africa, naturally turns to the Freedmen of America for missionaries.

Your Committee would call the attention of the churches to the growing prominence of the religious question at the South, and would most earnestly advise the patrons of this Association to make fit provision and endowment for the permanent work of educating men for the ministry.

WM. J. TUCKER, _Chairman_.

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OUR DISADVANTAGES AND ADVANTAGES.

FIELD SUP’T J. E. ROY, D.D.

Our church work at the South has its disadvantages, its advantages, its obligations, its encouragements.

I.—ITS DISADVANTAGES.

1. One is that our church system is entirely unknown among the Freedmen. It is a singular fact that they should know absolutely nothing of the churches which had led in the anti-slavery reform, and which, through this Association, are now, as is confessed on all hands, doing more for the lifting up of these lowly poor than any other. The occasion of this ignorance is at hand. The doctrine of equality in Christ’s house, as based on his own words—“All ye are brethren”—precluded the setting up of this order of church life among a people, where master and slave should vote, side by side, upon all church business. I know that it will be said at once that the Baptists, with their congregational polity, did prevail all over the South. But theirs was, after all, not a Christian democracy, but an aristocracy of the white members. All right of voting was denied the colored. Even those two much-praised ancient Congregational churches at the South, the Circular in Charleston, and the Dorchester in Liberty County, Georgia, which took root in that soil, did so only by denying suffrage to the colored members. When one of the pastors of the latter, with the Bible in one hand and a whip in the other, drove his brethren as his slaves to their tasks, if that had been a genuine Congregational church, an appeal would have been taken to the brotherhood for an application of that Scripture: “Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.” One of the colored members of that church, now a worthy deacon, told me this bit of experience. His master, a fellow church member, had found him with a Webster’s spelling book in hand, trying to learn to read. For this crime he was tied down, with his face to the ground, his hands and feet made fast to four stakes, and then upon his bare back he received such a flagellation that, under the torture, he cried out: “Oh, massa, do stop, and I’ll never again look into a book as long as I live.” With a fine turn he said to me, “I GRADULATED THEN.” Now, if that brother had had the right of telling that trespass to the church, and if all the members had had the privilege of voting upon the case, that would have been a piece of pure Congregationalism. Evidently such a church system could not obtain in a slaveholding community. So it is entirely unknown in that region; and this fact becomes a disadvantage in introducing it now.

2. Another disadvantage is that the Freedmen are so largely wedded to other denominations. It is popular to belong to the church. The mass, although they may not be members, will call themselves either Baptists or Methodists. One of them on being asked, “Are you a Christian?” responded: “No, Sah, I’se a Baptist.” The spectacular element of immersion afforded by this church order, and the scope given by the other to the emotional nature, have proven a great attraction to these rude and simple souls. Then it is easy for their zeal to rise into sectarianism and superstition, bitter and hostile, such as leads them to denounce the new church as having no religion, because it has no dreams and visions, no physical contortions—such as lead them to sneer at our members as only “Bible Christians,” while they have, instead, direct manifestations of the Spirit. It is a surprising revelation to our teachers and preachers who go to the South with nothing but love in their hearts, and their hands full of the best things they could take, to find such heat of sectarian opposition as soon as it is proposed to set up the church life, which represents the educational effort that is so highly prized.

3. Another disadvantage for the time in setting up our churches, is the standard of intelligence and of morality to which we seek to bring them. The colored man who confessed that he had broken every one of the commandments, but blessed God that he had kept his religion, stood in part, at least, for a good many of his people. It is hard for us who come in contact with that state of things to accept the facts. Even then we would not wish to take the risk of making them public, only so far as is sustained by their own newspapers and official reports. The saddest part of it is the impropriety of the leaders, ministers, and official members. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the ditch. Each, in self-protection, condones the other’s guilt. We know that the system of slaveholding is largely responsible for this divorce of religion from morality. But the fact, as we have to confront it, is all the same. If you propose to set up a church that shall be clean and be kept clean, in pulpit and pew, you have undertaken a difficult task. The gravity of depravity is against you.

II. ITS ADVANTAGES.

1. One is that our church system had not previously prevailed at the South, to become modified by the influences of slaveholding, and identified with it in the associations of the colored people. As individuals become intelligent enough to rise above the prevailing sectarianism; as they learn the anti-slavery history of our churches; and as they learn that the nature of our polity prevented it from coming South in the days of slavery, they turn to the Puritan way with avidity. It is to them a new discovery of friends, who had stood by them when they knew it not. Indeed, these people, whose ancestors were landed upon these shores the same year the Pilgrims came, appear to be the Yankees of the South. They fall naturally into the observance of Thanksgiving, and on that day they love to hear over and over the story of the Pilgrims and Puritans, their exile, their hardships, their poverty, their simplicity of life, their struggle for liberty. They soon learn that the Puritan ideas have taken possession of the North, are now penetrating the South, and are rising to a supremacy over the nation. As they advance in understanding they take in these ideas; and, more and more, will they be disposed to seek the church form which represents them.

2. Another advantage is the adaptation of this church system as an educating process for the colored people. Any one who considers the untutored quality of the communities in which the Apostles planted their self-governing churches, must give up the notion that they were New England people. Indeed, as one becomes acquainted with the qualities of mind and elements of character in these sable Christians, he can see that the Epistles of the New Testament were addressed to much the same sort of people. These can govern themselves as well as those. And, coming forth from the house of bondage, much more do they desire their largest liberty in Christ Jesus. The working of this autonomy of the churches is to them an educating process. It puts responsibility upon them. They must study its principles in order to exercise its function. Even such men as Senators Lamar, and Hampton, and Hendricks, in the _North American_, have argued that the elective franchise is not only the means of defense, but of education, among these new-made citizens. Precisely so does it work in church relations. Some of us, who have observed the process, have been surprised and delighted to see with what decorum and parliamentary skill they will handle a deliberative assembly. As, in the days of bondage, the only outlet for their native talent was the pulpit; and as their church was about their only arena for organic efficiency, so now they love most of all to handle their church affairs. And so does their self-governing fellowship become a means of education.

3. Another advantage comes from our preliminary educational work. At the first, it was thought by some that the Association was too tardy in advancing the church process. Soon it was learned that the right policy had been pursued in developing the educational interest, which was itself really missionary work, and which was the necessary preparation for a more organic way of Gospel propagandism. In connection with all our high schools and colleges, churches have been organized. These have been immediate sources of power and influence. They have also served as models and stimulus for others that have grown up around them. In almost every case our churches have been an outgrowth from these educational centres, or have been developed by the teachers and preachers who have been trained in them. Thus far, in the main, we have been preparing our machinery. I remember that our Elgin Watch Company spent its first two and a half years in erecting the factory and in manufacturing its own machinery. Now it is in competition even with London and Switzerland for the trade of Europe. We have been building up our Elgins—the Fisk, the Howard, the Straight, Atlanta, Talladega, Tougaloo, and Berea. They are furnishing us their approved mechanism. This correlation of the school work to the church work is after the wisdom of all successful missionary enterprise in foreign lands. In India the American Board tried the experiment of dispensing with the school process, only to put the mission back for years.

4. Another advantage is that by their slower growth, we can the more completely assimilate and mold the material of our churches. Drawn together by affinities of character, the more readily do they receive instruction and take over the ideas and the style of our system; the more certainly can discipline be maintained, purity and sobriety secured. Heterogeneous masses would swamp church order. At one of our Conferences, some of the brethren were bemoaning the slow growth of our churches. A Baptist minister being present, turned the tide by asserting that, for the present, there were advantages in that state of things, and that his denomination had suffered somewhat from the embarrassment of numbers. He said that when as a farmer’s boy he stood at the tail end of a steam thresher for shoving away the straw, if left alone, he found himself unable to keep up, and was soon covered down with the accumulation. So they were sometimes bothered in handling their great numbers in the way of discipline, and of effort at moral elevation.

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THE NEED AND THE OPPORTUNITY.

PROF. WM. J. TUCKER, D. D., ANDOVER, MASS.

In the midst of the struggle and the difficulties attending work among the Freedmen, there has been one point about which we have allowed our minds to be at rest. As we have been vexed with the problems of education and with the problems of citizenship, we have said to ourselves, one thing is sure: the colored race is religious. And so we have allowed the religious question to remain comparatively in abeyance; we have said, this can wait; we have work in hand which we must attend to; by and by we will look after this.

But in that strange haste with which God has been forcing questions upon the American people as touching the Freedmen, we have come, sooner than we thought, upon the religious question at the South. I think we have made a mistake in that we have not given it more prominence heretofore. I think we shall make a grievous mistake if we do not carefully look this subject in the face now.

In what sense is it true that the colored race is religious? How far does the religion of the negro of the South fit him for the essential work which his race has now before it? His religion, it seems to me, has been peculiarly, by God’s providence, the religion of the slave, and now the religion demanded is the religion of the man. The most beautiful illustration in all history has been given us by the negro, of the words of Scripture touching God’s gift to his people: “He giveth songs in the night.” The great, happy heart of that people has been singing through all these dark years, while the great heart of the North has been heavy in its shame. The negro of the South has been living for half the century in another world than this. It his been literally true—“his citizenship was in Heaven.” He had no citizenship anywhere else. Now he is a citizen of this world, and the religion that fits a citizen of this world must be his, or he will fail religiously in the problem which is now working out in this country.

I think the question is very much, to-day, with reference to the Freedmen of the South, as it would be if the Christian of the second century could have been taken out from his persecution, from his sense of that other world, from his prayer for the speedy coming of Christ, and plunged into the hard, practical uses of this nineteenth century. We have taken the Freedman out of his Heaven where he was living with something of joy; we have brought him before the great duties of this world and this century. How is his religion fitting him for the change? I have said that his religion has been a religion of joy, fitting him to bear, fitting him to endure; but life has become something more serious than suffering—life has become to him a practical work. What De Tocqueville said to Charles Sumner in his youth, may be said to the young Freedman to-day: “Life is neither a pain nor a pleasure, but a most serious business, to be taken up with courage, to be laid down, if need be, in self-sacrifice.” The nation has made a change necessary in the type of his religion. He must be refitted religiously to the work which attends citizenship, its rights and its duties. How is he fitted for it? If we do not answer this question practically, ten years will show us how he is unfitted for it.

Meanwhile, too, we, as an Association, through our educational work, have been robbing him of his past religion. We have been letting in the light upon his superstitions; we have dissolved his dreams; we have put his Heaven a little farther off—he cannot fly into it so quickly as before; we have let in the strong, hard light of this world. We must give him something. If we simply give him education, even though it be so much of religious education as may be given in the schools, we are doing no more than sowing the seeds of scepticism—as when the Romanists of the old country lose their faith, it were better for them to stay in their faith with its tinge of superstition, than simply to be sceptics. We cannot afford to have this pure, tender, loving, spiritual life, developed during these last years, caught up by the scepticism of this century and hurried on into ruin. We have sceptics enough at the North; we have sceptics enough through the South; the nation is drifting fast enough into that way. Let us keep what religious sense there is in this race trained of God, pure, by making it strong, hard, substantial enough to stand the difficulties and the trials of their present condition.

The question then comes up, Can the Freedman be made a pure, honest, reasoning, intelligent Christian man? Can the type of piety be changed? Still his music if you will; take away something of the glow of his faith; push his Heaven a little further off—can he be made a man fit to live, and act, and do his work, in this our century, and assume the great duties of Christian discipleship here and now? Can he be made sufficiently moral, can he be made sufficiently intelligent, to do practically the work which all Christians must do, with clean hands and with pure hearts?

Well, Mr. President, there have been a great many theories on the matter, and very many men are ready to say, “You can do nothing with the Freedmen at this point.” I think it is the simple office of this Association to fly in the face of the theories of men in this century, to take one race after another, treat it for ten years, and then say to men, “There are your theories; here is the _fact_.” Men have said of the Indian, “He won’t work.” This Association takes men who say that, and quietly shows them the Indian at work. Men have said of the Chinaman, “You cannot change the type of his religion and give him any sense of faith in Christ,” and this Association is quietly showing souls won to the Redeemer. Men used to say, “The negro won’t fight; put him before the eye of his master and he will quail.” The negro saw his master in battle, he never quailed, he fell at his feet only in death.

A friend told me yesterday coming on the cars, that when the question was agitated as to whether a steamship could carry coal enough to cross the Atlantic, one of the scientific men of the day addressing a large audience in New York, made this statement, “If you load a steamship when it shall leave Liverpool with coal sufficient to last over the voyage, as you withdraw the coal, gradually the ship will lighten and lift, and by the time the ship is half over the sea the wheels will be out of the water.” Six days after he made that statement, the first steamer came plowing steadily up the Narrows into New York harbor. Men say of the negro, “He can’t do this, he won’t do that.” Meanwhile, the American Missionary Association is doing its strong work with him, and he is just plowing his way steadily into public notice and disproving everything flung in his face.

There are signs—and some of them very manifest—of the capacity of the Freedmen for great moral strength. Have you read Judge Tourgee’s reference to the fact that when the opportunity was given, after the war, for the negroes to register themselves for marriage—to be married by the laws of the State in wholesale—how eagerly they availed themselves of that opportunity, that they might have the form and reality of marriage, and the stamp of legitimacy upon their children? The negro knows what a home means; he has been wanting it; now he will have in time as clean a home as you or I may have. What do you think I discovered a few days ago in one of the historic towns of New England? A friend looking over the records of that old town, came upon the list of baptisms, and this fact came out: in early Puritan days in a town not twenty-five miles from Boston more children were born out of wedlock than in wedlock; and the Puritan says to the negro, “You don’t know what a home is.” Wait;—give him a chance.

You see how it is with regard to his industries. Men say he is lazy: why does he go to work as soon as he leaves the land which induces laziness? The reports come from Kansas that he is thrifty, that he is putting his hand to the plow, that he is doing the work he is given there to do. Individuals taken as types of the race are declaring their capacity for strong industrial development. You know his record in matters of education; you know he is beginning to make himself, so far as he has the chance anywhere, a power in citizenship. I believe that this question of morality will settle itself, that the negro can at least show, under right training, an average development in the morals of religion.

One question then remains: What is the true way of approach to this religious question of the South? Something has already been done through the strong, patient work, known as the _church work_ of this Association—taking the products of the school, young men and women as trained in the schools, and organizing them into churches, for the churches are merely the outgrowth of the schools. The old churches of the South are not fit to be transferred into the churches of this Association. We are all the weaker for any church that might be allowed to come in in that way. The greater approach—and that which I believe the Association, so soon as it has the means, will endeavor to carry out—is in the larger training of leaders, to meet what will be within ten or twenty years the enormous demand for Christian leadership through the South. In other words, give to the millions of the colored race at the South a sufficient number of trained, educated, common-sense ministers, and they will make that people in half a century the joy and the pride of our land.

We need to do this to save the bright, strong men among the negroes from going elsewhere. A young man of good parts came to his church five years ago, and said to them, “Take my name off the church-roll; I am going into politics.” His brethren said to him, “Wait a little; you do not want your name off the church-roll if you are going into politics. But must you go there?” They showed him the more excellent way, and to-day he is one of the most effective ministers in the South. We want to lay our hands, while we can, while we have the material, on the very pride of the youth of the colored race, and secure them to the ministry. We want hundreds of men—the best men, who have the instinct of leadership about them—men who have that strong, organizing, executive force, as well as the sympathetic power, by which they can build up churches in the name of the Redeemer throughout that country.

What is the furnishing for this at present? Here are four schools: Howard commands the north-eastern section, situated at Washington; Fisk, in Tennessee; Talladega, in Alabama; and Straight in New Orleans; and nearly a hundred men from these departments are in the process of studying for the Christian ministry. We want to enlarge, and that speedily; for, as I have suggested, the ratio of increase through the educational work within ten years will be enormous. We want to enlarge greatly this productive power for the ministry; and to that end I believe, as the report has stated, we need substantial endowment for permanent work of this nature. It has been suggested in the report that we need men for more than home affairs. England, with generous look, is ready to enter into Africa and do large work there for Christ. What she wants is men. Fisk University has consecrated itself largely to the work of supplying Africa with missionaries. We want to respond to England, with her generous means, by the gift of men, sending out worthy men, by which the two nations shall go hand in hand in bringing light into the dark continent.

Meanwhile, I say as I sit down, that, with regard to this whole question touching the South, there seems to me to be two aspects of it; the one of which will give us at present only discouragement, the other giving us the largest hope and joy.

When Henry J. Raymond was editor of the _New York Times_, some of you may remember, after one of his stirring editorials, some one at the South sent him this laconic letter: “Henry J. Raymond. Sir: Come down South, and we will tar and feather you.” To which Mr. Raymond replied in equally laconic fashion: “Sir: I think I will wait; the inducements are not sufficient.” Capital, looking South, says, “The inducements are not yet sufficient.” Society, looking South, says, seeing the ostracism there, “I think I will wait; the inducements are not sufficient.” The North, ready to pour in its own civilization there so far as it might be accepted, has come to say to itself, “I will wait; time on this continent is on the side of the Puritan.” But the American Missionary Association, touching the conscience and the heart of many strong souls at the North, said, long ago, “I wait no longer; the inducements _are_ sufficient.” Knowing the ostracism, knowing the persecution, knowing the difficulties, the inducements for Christian work, for education, prevailed upon that heart; and to-day we have the result of what that spirit has been that has looked the South in the face, that has taken the Freedman by the hand, that is pushing the glorious work of reformation and reconstruction; not in the name of a party, hardly in the name of the country, but in that ever-blessed name above party—even greater than country—the Crucified.

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AFRICA.

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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.

The Committee, to whom was referred those portions of the Report of the Executive Committee relating to the work of the Association in Africa, beg leave to submit the following report:

We stand at the opening of a new era in the history of African missions. No real cause for discouragement in the present aspect of affairs presents itself. There is, on the contrary, abundant reason for gratitude to God, that through the darker experiences of the past, in which He has revealed to us more clearly what are His plans, He is leading us to the brighter issues of the future. The logic of events is irresistible. We, of this Association, are driven to certain hopeful conclusions.

1st. Africans for Africa. This is the evident teaching of God’s providence. It is the great lesson of the Mendi mission. The long list of the heroic dead, martyrs for the Gospel in Africa; the vast expenditure of resources necessary in supporting white missionaries; the peculiar dealings of God’s providence with the negro in this country, especially fitting him for this work—all point in this direction. This is the fact which gives peculiar significance to the work of this Association, both in this land and in Africa, and we hail it with encouragement and hope as one element of the new and happier era of lasting success, which we believe will, in the future, attend, under God, the missionary work of that waiting continent.

2d. Need of careful supervision. In view of the facts laid before us, and in view, also, of the important enlargement of the work contemplated, we most heartily commend the determination of the Executive Committee to appoint a general superintendent of the work of this Association in Africa. Such a superintendent appears to us to be a necessity. We believe that he would have more than he could conveniently do in devoting himself to systematizing the work in its various phases, providing a suitable literature for the people, supervising educational and industrial enterprises, keeping account of the financial matters of the missions, giving character and direction to the counsels of the missionaries, studying new regions for advance movements, reporting needs and plans, and thus enlisting interest at home and abroad. We urgently hope, therefore, that the appointment of such a superintendent, residing at some healthful point, easily accessible to the missions, will be made at the earliest practicable moment.

3d. The subject of the Arthington Mission is no longer an open question. You have already determined, upon conditions believed to be practicable, that you will occupy that land for Christ. The money, we have some reason to hope, is coming, the men are coming, the Association is only waiting to begin wisely. In an enterprise of such vast moment to all concerned, care is better than cure. Your Committee believe that they only give voice to the earnest desire of the churches, when they express the hope that, as soon as the necessary funds are received, you will go forward with the same judicious care as in the past, and take the proper steps to ascertain more fully the best ways of entering this open door for enlarged work and greater results.

4th. In view of the events of the year, so full of sadness in the history of many African missions, your Committee recognize the fact more clearly than ever before, that the call of God rests, in an especial manner, upon this Association, to maintain and enlarge this African work in the way of His own appointment. The great results it is achieving for the negro of the South have received a new meaning and impetus in the light of African missions. The whole problem of the negro in America is finding its solution slowly but surely. In the providence of God this Association, in the two-fold relation which it holds to the Freedmen of America on the one hand, and to the pagans of their fatherland on the other, more truly than any other, we believe, holds the key to the evangelization of Africa.

Your Committee, therefore, feel warranted in suggesting that the true attitude of this Association, in view of the report of its missions in Africa, should be one of thankfulness for the experience of the past, encouragement in the work of the present, and earnest expectation for the future.

HENRY M. LADD, _Chairman_.

* * * * *

THE MENDI MISSION.

PROF. T. N. CHASE, ATLANTA, GA.

In November last, I received a letter from Secretary Strieby, asking me to visit the Mendi Mission in West Africa, which invitation, after consultation with my family, from whom I was separated, was accepted, and on the 6th of December I sailed for that land.

My instructions required me to make such changes in the force of missionaries and their respective duties as seemed best, and to obtain information, and report, upon the following topics, viz.: The health of the missionaries; the church, school, and industrial work; finances and accounts; the removal or retention of Good Hope station; extension of the work into the interior, and the use of the Mendi language.

Upon all these topics, and some others, I reported as well as I could to the Executive Committee of the A. M. A., and some extracts have been embodied in their Annual Report of the work of the Association. Most of the information and reflections in this paper will be supplementary to that report.

Between Liverpool and Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a weekly line of steamers, one of which we took; and, after touching at Madeira, Teneriffe, Grand Canary, Goree, and Bathurst, we landed, on the twenty-second day of our voyage, at Freetown. Thence a small steamer conveyed us to Bonthe, where is the Good Hope station of the Mendi mission. The Sherbro river runs between the main land and Sherbro Island, being quite like Long Island Sound; and into it flow several branches that penetrate the Mendi country. On the inside of Sherbro Island, about fifty miles from its northern extremity, where is the mouth of the river, and ten miles from its southern point, is Good Hope, with its church, school and home. The buildings are on the bank of the stream, and the peaceful river, several miles in width, studded with green islands, presents a beautiful view. On the Sherbro Island a few miles south of Good Hope, is Debia, and thirty or forty miles up the Small Boom, a branch of the Sherbro, is Kaw Mendi, which has been described in a recent number of the _Missionary_.

Starting from Good Hope, and sailing north, down the Sherbro twenty miles, and then east up the Bahgroo twenty miles more, we come to Avery. For most of the way the banks of the river are lined with mangrove trees—appearing at high tide to stand in the water—whose trunks rest, at several feet above the ground, upon pyramids of stems or roots, and whose outspread branches send down to the earth numberless rope-like twigs of various sizes, altogether forming an almost impenetrable jungle. But about a mile below Avery the scene changes. The mangroves disappear, the low banks give way to quite high bluffs, and for a long distance stretches a rolling surface, with a soil of partially decomposed iron-stone. In a bend of the river, on a conspicuous bluff, stand the buildings of Avery, the component parts of the station being a home, a church, a school, a saw-mill, a garden, a coffee-farm, and a fakir.

The home is beautiful for situation, being so nicely located as to command a view of both banks of the river for half a mile in each direction; water, rocks and foliage being blended most charmingly. In this home dwell the pastor of the church with his wife, the superintendent of industrial work, and ten little native boys and girls, whose voices cheer the heart of one who loves children, as the little fellows nearly exhaust their stock of English words in saying “amen,” and the end of grace at meals, repeating the Lord’s Prayer, and saying, “Good night, sir,” at their hour for retiring. Some of these buds of promise have such illustrious names as Robt. Arthington, Wm. E. Gladstone, A. K. Spence, Jennie Pike and M. E. Strieby.

It was our privilege to attend church twice, and prayer meeting several times. The dress of the congregation, so far as it went, was novel, these people having never submitted to the cruel tyranny of fashion, but in most cases the amount of apparel met the requirements of decency. Milliners, however, would have a dry time in this region, for I noticed but one hat or bonnet, and I could not tell which. In other cases the head was bare, or surmounted by a turban made from a handkerchief ingeniously twisted and tied. Some of the men had full suits, others only a country cloth wrapped about them, and a few seemed satisfied with simply a large handkerchief about their loins. But, notwithstanding their lack in style and quantity of clothing, they were good listeners, and doubtless carried away much that was said; at least, the writer of this paper found great pleasure in preaching a lay sermon from the text, “God so loved the world,” &c. The tithing master, who paces up and down the aisles, has as little to do in keeping drowsy persons awake as he would in many New England churches. Some entries in the agent’s ledger seem to indicate that attendance upon church and other religious services is not altogether voluntary. One entry reads, “Cut (docked) for staying away from church, one shilling;” and another, “Being late to morning prayers, one shilling.” And in estimating the rigor of this discipline, one need to know that a shilling pays the wages of a common hand a day and a half. They have no trade-unions there.

The school at Avery is taught by Mr. Jowett, a native, who speaks English correctly and fluently. The pupils appeared very much like other children. Some read and spelled well, and some had to “get their lessons over.” Little John Bull showed that he had some surplus energy by thrusting his fist into the mouth of his drowsy neighbor.

The sawmill is said to have been erected by Mr. D. W. Burton, with the assistance of natives alone, and is a monument to his ingenuity, energy and perseverance. Small logs are sawed by a circular, but most of the work is done by an up-and-down, which allows the logs to drag their slow length along sufficiently fast to make the mill pay its way under careful management, with sawyers at fifteen dollars a month, and lumber at forty-five dollars a thousand. Other entries in the ledger show a high state of discipline in _this_ department of mission work. “Neglecting to tie a canoe, one shilling.” “Smoking in the mill, four shillings.” “Neglect of duty, one shilling.” “Not obeying, two shillings.”

The chief productions of the garden are cassada, sweet-potatoes and pineapples. The cassada is a root of milk-white color, and is the leading article of food. It is usually boiled, but sometimes baked, or eaten raw. The sweet-potato flourishes well and is very palatable. The pineapple grows on bushes or shrubs two or three feet high, the fruit standing up in the midst of long, narrow, serrated leaves. The yard has cocoanut, banana, orange and cinnamon trees. In reading lists and descriptions of the African productions, one might conclude that this is the land for an epicure; but the fact is that none of these things take the place of the beef, wheat, vegetables and fruit of the United States, and a person who has lived in the tropics for a little while, longs for a Fulton or Quincy market.

The coffee farm consists of 1,500 trees from two to six feet high, set in rows eight feet apart and just beginning to bear. The coffee grows in pods about the size of a robin’s egg, in each of which are two kernels enveloped in a skin or husk. To keep down the rapid and rank growth of grass with the hoe alone, requires a vast amount of labor. I find that these industries are highly appreciated by travelers and traders, and have made the name of Mr. Burton well known on the coast. The natives have felt their influence already, and will be more and more inspired by them to habits of industry and enterprise.

The remaining element of the station is the fakir, or native village. Most of the houses have mud walls, with bamboo or thatched roofs. They are built without much system, and are huddled together, because, probably, where wars prevail, it is necessary to wall in the towns and villages for defence, and so the houses must not occupy too much ground. Such is Avery, with its material, mental, and religious machinery, all tending to produce an intelligent and stable Christianity.

And now those who have become interested in the experiment of manning the Mendi mission with graduates of A. M. A. schools, are asking whether the plan is successful, and I am supposed to have some information upon this point. It is not quite three years since the first party of these colored missionaries sailed for Africa, two of whom have returned, and the others have had a shorter term of service. So it is too soon to say whether the experiment has been a success or a failure. If the work had been carried on by them in the most approved manner, it would be premature to say that the problem of African evangelization had been successfully solved. And, on the other hand, if the experiment thus far had been an utter failure, it would be unjust to the colored race to conclude, from this one brief trial, that they are incapable of carrying on mission work by themselves in Africa. Those who are most ready to embark in an enterprise of this kind are not always the best qualified. Zeal is needed, and in no leas degree, sound judgment also.

Fisk University graduated its first college class in 1875, and Atlanta hers in 1876, so that from these Institutions have come only five or six small classes that have completed a collegiate education, and the first one of these students to graduate from a full theological course has just received his diploma. And then the officers of the Association have not had their pick from the graduates of their schools. Some of those best qualified for mission work abroad are fully persuaded in their own minds that their field of labor is at home.

So the experiment at the Mendi mission has not been tried under the most favorable circumstances. The officers of the Association have not had, like those of the American Board for _its_ work, a large number of fully educated, mature and consecrated men and women from which to select candidates for their African mission.

But what is the actual outcome of this brief experiment? The colored missionaries have kept alive the churches and schools, have well cared for the buildings and grounds of the stations, have cultivated the coffee-farm, have bought logs, manufactured and sold lumber, have organized a new church of considerable promise, and all but one of them have kept unbroken the brittle thread of life.

[After granting that the mission has as a whole met with serious drawbacks, and suffered from the lack of character and wisdom on the part of some of those to whom it was entrusted, Mr. Chase refers at some length to the following as reasons why mission work in Africa is, and must be, slow: 1. Polygamy; 2. Mohammedanism; 3. The superstitions of the people; 4. The rum trade; 5. The unhealthfulness of the climate; 6. The pernicious influence of traders; 7. The inability of the natives to procure the equipments of Christian civilization. The paper concludes as follows]:

Now, in view of this rather gloomy presentation, does any one say, “Let us abandon the Mendi Mission; money enough has been spent, lives enough have been sacrificed”? I have not written with any such object in view. My purpose has been to state plain facts as they exist, for the consideration of wise men, believing that if there is any lack of tangible results, it is not all the fault of management or workers, and that great things ought not to be expected in the immediate future.

But there are grounds for hope as well as for despondency. The mission has a good name. The labors of Raymond, Thompson and others, are fragrant in the memories of natives and foreigners, so that even the British colonists in Sierra Leone are loud in their praise. The industrial work, instituted and carried on by the wonderful ingenuity and energy of Mr. Burton, has secured the good will of traders and foreign residents. I heard many encomiums upon the mission, especially upon its early history.