FootNote
The new kid on the block, FootNote is known for digitizing historical
documents... many of which are genealogical gems. With naturalizations,
city directories, war records, newspapers, town records, etc... this new
kid is quickly being recognized as an alternative to Ancestry.
While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
We have seen a large map of
a Southern railroad, on one side of which
were some highly-colored pictures. The first
showed the tumble-down cabin of a colored
man, himself, wife and boy carrying from it
their few belongings to the favored land of
promise. The next picture shows him and his
family in the woods in his new location,
getting ready to build his house. The third
picture represents a fine log house, with
green fields well fenced, a mule and pigs
and chickens in the yard; and the last
picture presents a large frame house with a
veranda, in which the colored man is seated
in a large arm-chair, reading a magazine,
and his wife sitting by his side in a
rocking chair, while near at hand is the
capacious barn, with mules grazing in the
adjacent lot.
By the side of each picture is a running
comment, supposed to be made by the colored
man himself, describing his hard lot 'where
he first lived, then telling of his purchase
in the new land of promise, stating the
price and the terms of purchase; then
follows his happy rejoicing over his new
location, and finally his triumphant joy in
his wealth and fine mansion.
It is by such representations, we are told,
that the colored people in various parts of
the South are tempted to leave their homes
for new locations. The experience of those
of their number who have made such
migrations has not usually been encouraging,
and we fear that thousands more will acquire
a good deal of bitter knowledge learned in
that same expensive school.
We conscientiously believe that educated
Christian Negroes are to be the safe and
trusted leaders of their people in the
crisis which is coming in the South. Their
wisdom and Christian character will
counterbalance the rash and reckless
impulses of others of their race, and
instead, therefore, of its being unwise to
educate the Negro, as some Southern white
people believe, the Christian education of
these colored people will be the sheet
anchor of safety to both whites and blacks
in the South. As a specimen of the counsel
given by the influential Christian Negro, we
clip the following from the Christian
Recorder of Philadelphia, the organ of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church:
While we believe in all men being
courageous, we encourage none to be rash. We
are at the mercy of a powerful class. It is
always best to remember this and apply the
ounce of preventive to save the fifteen
ounces of cure. Our brethren must be very
careful in respect to the position taken on
all subjects. Take no position from which
you are likely to be forced to your
disadvantage. In all writing and speaking
forget not that discretion is the bitter
part of valor.
We append, as germane to the subject, the
following piece of sensible advice given by
Rev. J.C. Price of Salisbury, N.C., to his
brethren:
I have no faith in the doctrine of
assimilation. The blacks may say their color
is against them. If that could only be
changed, all would be well. I believe that
color has nothing to do with the question.
Black is a favorite color. A black horse we
all admire. A black silk dress is a gem. A
black broadcloth suit is a daisy. Black only
loses its prestige, its dignity, when
applied to a human being. It is not because
of his color, but because of his condition,
that the black man is in disfavor. Whenever
a black face appears, it suggests a
poverty-stricken, ignorant race. Change your
conditions; exchange immorality for
morality, ignorance for intelligence,
poverty for prosperity, and the prejudice
against our race will disappear like the
morning dewdrop before the rising sun.
The Southern Congregationalist gives the
following hopeful statement:
One of the most distinguished
representatives of our Baptist brethren,
whose name is a household word in that
communion throughout the South, expressed a
common view among us when he said in our
office not long since:
"We once thought that Negroes were incapable
of education, but we have found ourselves
mistaken, and now favor the education of the
race, trusting that with better edification
better ideas will come."
The first Conference of Educators of Colored
Youth, which met in Washington, D.C., March
25-27, was a large and interesting meeting,
and the results were very gratifying.
Representative instructors were gathered
from various parts of the country—chiefly
from the Southern States—at the invitation
of the College Alumni of Howard University,
to review the educational progress of the
past twenty-five years; to compare views of
the status and needs of the work, and to
consider plans for the future. It was felt
that there were certain questions and
special needs arising out of the condition
of the colored people in this country, which
required earnest consideration, the solution
of which rests largely with the Negro
himself. The presence of so many colored men
and women who had graduated from the
institutions of learning they now seek to
foster, including Presidents of colleges and
normal schools and principals and teachers
of public schools, professors of Greek,
Latin, mathematics and theology, physicians,
lawyers and ministers, was an object-lesson
of the educational progress of the race.
Able papers were read on practical subjects
of all phases of educational work.
Industrial work, normal training and higher
education, were fruitful topics of
discussion. While each had its advocates, it
was the consensus of opinion that each of
these departments has its place, and that
all were needed in the education of our
colored youth. Judge Tourgee addressed the
Conference on National Aid to Education; and
Hon. W.T. Harris, the Commissioner of
Education, advocated the higher education of
the Negro. National Aid to Education was
strongly advocated by the Conference, and is
emphasized in their address to the country.
That address commends itself to the
thoughtful consideration of the friends of
education. The report closes with the
following appeal in behalf of the
institutions that have been established in
the South: "A crying need at the present
hour is the making permanent of the larger
and more central institutions of learning
for colored youth in the South, through
permanent endowments, by private
contributions. Many of them have struggled
along for a quarter of a century, doing much
good, it is true, but greatly hindered in
their progress because of the uncertainty of
their financial support. We appeal to the
wealthy and philanthropic everywhere to
contribute of their means to such
endowments."
Four college Presidents were in attendance,
and took part in the Conference—Rev. Dr.
Simmons, of Kentucky State University; Rev.
Dr. Brackett, of Storer College, Harper's
Ferry; Rev. Dr. Bumstead, of Atlanta
University and Rev. Dr. Rankin of Howard
University. Prof. J.M. Gregory of Howard
University was elected President, and Prof.
S.G. Atkins of Salisbury, N.C., Secretary of
the Conference. The next meeting will be
held at Atlanta, Ga., January 1, 1891.
Not long
since Rev. R.S. Storrs, D.D., preached a
sermon in his own pulpit, presenting the
claims of the American Missionary
Association for the annual collection in its
behalf from the Church of the Pilgrims,
Brooklyn, N.Y. This sermon appeared in print
in one of the daily papers, and attracted
the attention of a benevolent gentleman
deeply interested in the Christian education
of the colored people, who was so impressed
with the great value of the address, that he
has furnished the Association with the means
to print a large edition for general
circulation. This we have done, and we
presume that already, many of our readers
have had the opportunity of reading this
eminently wise and timely utterance on one
of America's greatest problems. Should any
one desire an extra copy, we will gladly
furnish it on application.
Although the discourse has had large
circulation, we cannot resist the temptation
to extract a few of its forcible utterances
on some very important points.
Permanent popular liberties have their only
sure foundation in sound moral conditions
practically universal. We must secure these
among those to whom we have given the
ballot, and who are to be henceforth
citizens with ourselves. Otherwise, we are
building our splendid political house on the
edges of the pestilential swamp from which
fatal miasmatic odors are rising all the
time. Yes, we are building our house on
piles driven into the thick ooze and mud of
the pestilential swamp itself. We are
building our cities, which we think are so
splendid, and which are so in fact, as men
built Herculaneum and Pompeii, on a shore
which ever and anon trembled with
earthquake, over which was hung the black
flag of Vesuvius, and down upon which
rolled, in time, the lava floods that burned
and buried them.
We have got to meet this immense problem,
which is not far off, but right at hand;
which is not a problem of theory, or of
distant history, but of practice and fact;
and which concerns not the well-being alone,
but the very life of the nation. Noble men
and women at the South are engaged in it
already, with all their hearts; and we must
help, mightily! It would be the craziest
folly of the age for us to be indifferent to
it.
Some men may say, perhaps, "But this is a
work that cannot be done. It is too radical
and vast to be hopefully attempted."
Nonsense! There is no work for the kingdom
of God and the glory of His name, which
cannot be done! With the Gospel in our hand,
we can do everything.
There has been a good beginning made
already. This Society, to which we are to
contribute to-day, the American Missionary
Association, has four established colleges,
three of which are entirely supported by
itself, have been founded by it and are
carried on by it; and the fourth very
largely so. It has multitudes of high
schools, normal schools and primary schools.
First of all, we want men trained, and women
too, in the knowledge of the truth as it is
in Christ, and then to have them teaching
others. And that is precisely the line along
which the Society to which we are to
contribute to-day, as we have done gladly
and largely heretofore, is carrying its
incessant operation.
Now I affirm absolutely that if ever there
was a work of God on earth, this is his
work! If there was ever anything to which
the American Christian people are called,
they are called to this. If there was ever a
great opportunity before the Christian
church, here it is.
Ah, my friends, don't say "It is too great a
work." It is going to be done! You and I may
do or may not do our part in it. It is going
to be done!
There are some people who seem to see only
the ignorance and vice of the Negro, and the
inveterate race-prejudice against him; or at
least they appear to be so occupied in
dilating upon these hindrances that they
have no time to devote to their removal,
and, so far as their influence goes, they
discourage others from doing anything.
On the other hand there are those who, while
they see all these difficulties, only find
in them the strongest incentives to the most
earnest efforts to relieve the Negro from
them. Which of these two classes is the
wiser?
Some persons propose as the solution of the
race problem, disfranchisement; and they
point to the bad legislation of the blacks
in South Carolina and Louisiana a quarter of
a century ago, when scarcely any of them
could read, and almost none owned property.
On the other hand, there are those that are
industriously trying to educate the blacks
and inspiring them to the acquisition of
property, and not in vain. More than two
millions of the blacks can now read, and
more than two hundred million dollars' worth
of property is now owned by them. They are
thus being prepared to vote wisely.
Which of these two classes of persons is
solving this problem to the best purpose?
There are other persons, in Congress and
out, urging the deportation of the blacks to
Africa, a thing impossible to be done, and,
if possible, it would be harmful to those
that were sent, as well as useless to
benighted Africa. On the other hand, there
are those who are training the colored
people of this country in education,
industrial habits and stable Christian
character, thus preparing them as
missionaries to Africa.
The eagerness of our colored population for
education is strikingly shown in the reports
given on another page from our institutions
in the South—reports of over-crowded rooms,
and students dismissed by scores, and even
hundreds, for want of accommodations.
We call special attention to the report from
Fisk University, in reference to the higher
grades of education. It will be seen that,
even in that place, a relatively small
number are in the higher classes, and yet
there is a sufficient number of these to
indicate that some of the pupils are seeking
what is absolutely essential to the race, to
wit, that some should have the best
education attainable.
While it is true of this race as of all
others, that the masses can receive only
primary training in letters and in industry,
there must be some of their number who can
be leaders in thought and influence. No race
can make progress without such leaders, who
can command the line of march. There must be
the inspiration that comes from the success
of the leaders. Hooker's men did not ascend
Lookout Mountain in a steady line. There
were some far ahead of others, cheering and
encouraging those following at greater or
less distances, till at length the whole
array stood on the brow, and thus won their
position.
The warfare is different, but human nature
is the same. The Negroes are no more of
equal capacity than white men, and there is
just the same call for differences in their
attainments in scholarship and in general
influence. And if those advanced in
scholarship shall have Christian character
as well as education, it will render their
leadership all the more safe for their
people and the nation.
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