CHAPTER IV.
EPISCOPAL SCHOOLS.
While the Episcopal Church has not built up as many schools for the education of colored people in the South as many other denominations, the work it has accomplished is of the most thorough and systematic character.
REV. JAMES S. RUSSELL, ARCHDEACON OF VIRGINIA.
Mr. Russell's early training was under sober, illiterate Christian parents. In very early life he made a profession of religion, was baptized and joined a neighboring denominational church. His membership remained here until he had read the book of Common Prayer, when he at once changed his faith and offered himself as a candidate for the ministry in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He at first felt that he would like to be a missionary to Africa, and his mind was so made up until it was changed by the earnest persuasions of his aged mother, whose only child he was. He has long since felt that rich fields, white and ready to be harvested, awaited him in his own native State, where his ministry is considered a success.
REV. JAMES S. RUSSELL.
Mr. Russell had been appointed on different committees in the diocese of Virginia, and at the council in Norfolk in 1893, diocese of Southern Virginia, he was made a member of the Committee of the State of the church. He was also notified by Bishop Randolph at this council that he had nominated him for his Arch-deacon of the diocese, to have general charge of the colored work in Southern Virginia. This nomination was confirmed at the meeting of the Church Commission in Washington, October 11th, of the same year, and the Venerable Arch-deacon Russell entered upon his new duties immediately thereafter. This new office relieves him of none of the work already carried by him as principal of the school, for he has the entire care of raising funds to operate his large school at Lawrenceville, situated in the heart of the "Black Belt" of Virginia. The school is inculcating the self-help principle in its students. The education of head, hand and heart are combined.
The industries carried on at present are Blacksmithing, Wheelwrighting, Carpentering, Printing, Shoemaking, Farming, Grist and Saw-Milling for the boys, and Cutting, Fitting, Dress-Making, Tailoring, Cooking, Washing and Ironing for the girls. Machinery and material for these departments are needed and earnestly solicited.
The school has been, and is still, dependent upon voluntary support from the friends of industrial education.
The cost of educating a student in St. Paul's is only $75.00 a year, and the student is required to pay $50.00 in money and labor, and the friends of the school are asked to give the $25.00, styled a scholarship.
There were over 300 students in attendance for session 1895-96. The graduating class numbers twenty, and they represent nine distinct States. The school has students from sixteen States in the Union.
No discrimination is made on account of one's religious belief, but all are treated alike and all are required to comply with the rules and regulations as laid down.
The Arch-deacon would find no trouble in admitting 500 or more students if he only had the necessary accommodations for them. The Arch-deacon is meeting with great success in the mission work of his church in the diocese of Southern Virginia.
COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL,
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA.
This is one of the most interesting Institutions I know of in the South. It was chartered by the Legislature of Virginia, in the year 1889, and is established for the benefit of colored orphans of the whole continent, to rescue them from brutal treatment, ignorance, vice, and lives of shame and crime, and to endeavor to make of them sensible, sober, chaste, industrious, religious, and useful members of society.
No higher education is here contemplated, exceptional cases aside, than to make of them intelligent farmers, mechanics, cooks, etc.
This is a much-needed work. Most abject poverty, ignorance and improvidence cause the death of many, whose offspring are left to the mercy of the poor neighbor. The orphan, originally received out of kindness, is kept as a slave, when it is able to do any kind of work; and no one suspects that there are innumerable orphans scattered in cabins, who are practically slaves, groaning under the bitter burden of work and the lash of taskmasters of their own race. The slavery of adults has been abolished, and the slavery of children has been made more bitter and more brutal. Now brutal treatment produces brutes; the man avenges by crime society's guilt in heartlessly neglecting innocent childhood in its sufferings and degradation.
Sufficient as is the direct object of redeeming neglected orphans, by itself, to appeal to the heart and conscience, it is also the most promising work for the elevation of the whole race.
This race needs examples of new life to free itself from the influences of the past. It needs examples, not so much of college-bred men who follow the professions, as of pure men and women who walk in the common paths of life, and who can lead in the way of sensible, honest, industrious, cleanly, and thrifty living, that the sense of sin and virtue, of the morally right and wrong, may be developed. This is the noblest and most promising of charities, because it is for the youngest, the weakest and the lowest.
The institution occupies a farm of one hundred and a fraction acres, in a most healthful spot, affording as fine an opportunity for the bringing up of children as is to be found in the whole country. When completed, several hundred children will be comfortably provided for and trained for their life's work. One wing has been built, and shelters between fifty and sixty children, who range in age from infancy to fifteen or sixteen. A second wing is in progress of erection at this writing. A steam brick yard furnishes the brick and will also form part of the industrial system.
HOFFMAN WING OF COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM AND INDUSTRIAL
SCHOOL.
As to results, so far, it is but the literal truth to say that orphans who would otherwise have been doomed to child slavery and devoted to destruction of body and soul, not only wonderfully prosper in health, but are manifestly influenced by the regular occupation, the firm discipline, the atmosphere of honesty and fidelity in work, and the mental and religious instruction. The Rev. Paul Sterling, of Melrose, Mass., writes to the New York Churchman: "It goes without saying that such a work is doing good, but its beneficial effects are very evident, even in the case of the youngest child, and are the best possible endorsement of the wisdom and capacity of those who have the Institution in charge. The scrupulous cleanliness and orderliness that prevail is also a thing that commends the Institution to the observer."
THREE ORPHAN SISTERS AT LYNCHBURG SCHOOL.
This Institution is without any endowment and is entirely dependent for building fund and for daily bread upon voluntary contributions. The small sum of sixty dollars a year rescues, shelters, trains, feeds and clothes one child! In consideration of the great need of such work as this institution is doing, and of the many well-equipped Institutions all over the South for meeting the other needs of the race, it is to be hoped that means will be soon forthcoming to complete and endow this noble work. Contributions may be sent to Rev. A. Jaeger, D. D., general manager, or to Rev. C. Breckinridge Wilmer, Superintendent, Lynchburg, Virginia.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S SCHOOL.
While mission work of various kinds must be carried on, it is evident that, through the work of schools, the Church will accomplish its greatest work. The ambition of the people for education is very great, and it must be along these lines that the Church will not only satisfy the longings of the people, but also give them the greatest training in Christian discipline.
St. Augustine's School, at Raleigh, N. C., has led the way in this training. It has already sent out from its walls hundreds of teachers and over twenty of the colored clergy. A large number of the teachers and clergy now at work under the Commission for Work among the Colored People received their training here. It was founded just after the war by the Rev. J. Brinton Smith, D. D., from the diocese of Pennsylvania, with the hearty co-operation of Bishop Atkinson, of North Carolina. Dr. Smith secured money with which its land was purchased and buildings erected.
Its work is carried on along three lines—Industrial, Normal and Collegiate. With the exception of a cook and farm hand, with occasional assistance, the whole work of the school is done by the students. The girls have the care of the household, the young men the care of the grounds. Besides that, the girls receive thorough and systematic training in both cooking and sewing, the courses extending over several years. Instruction has been given to the young men in carpentering and in brick-laying. It is greatly to be desired that this trade instruction might be furthered by the establishment of a trade school, modelled after the New York Trade School, founded by Col. Auchmuty and so well endowed by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. The skilled mechanics of the South were largely trained in the days of slavery, and, with the passing of this generation, it is important that younger men should be thoroughly trained and enabled to earn an honest living. The development of the South depends not alone upon its rich and various resources, nor upon the muscle of the colored laborers, but also upon the brain and skill of those laborers.
In its normal work, the school is continually sending forth a stream of teachers for the public schools as well as for the Church schools. There is little danger of carrying on higher education, as some have thought. The greatest difficulty is in securing, at this stage of the race's development, students who have the grit to persevere in their school work so as to reach the higher classes.
The school has an endowment of about $30,000, of which $25,000 reverts to the Board of Managers of Missions, in case of impairment or misuse. There are large buildings for both girls and young men. Two of the buildings have been erected almost entirely by the students.