A Woman's Life-Work-Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland Part 47

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 n.o.ble 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 n.o.ble 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 pa.s.sing 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 astonis.h.i.+ng 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 n.o.ble 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 INSt.i.tUTIONS.

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 Inst.i.tute, Baltimore, Md., . . . 4 118 Baker Inst.i.tute; Orangeburg, S. C., . . . . . . . . ... .....

[Footnote: Pupils enumerated in the other schools]

Thompson Biblical Inst.i.tute, N. Orleans, La., . . . ... .....

[Footnote: Pupils enumerated in the other schools]

MEDICAL COLLEGE.

Meharry Medical College, Nashville, Tenn., . . . . . 8 35

Inst.i.tutions NOT CHARTERED.

Bennett Seminary, Greensburg, N. C., . . . . . . . . 5 150 Cookman Inst.i.tute, 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 Sat.u.r.day, 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, s.h.i.+rts, 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 Inst.i.tute,' 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 inst.i.tute 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, unsurpa.s.sed 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 inst.i.tute, 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