THE BY-WAYS OF TENNESSEE.
In February, 1878, we printed a letter from our Bro. Cutler, in which he spoke of a young girl who wanted to get an education, but who was entirely without means. He procured for her half enough to keep her at study for a year, started her on her course, and pronounced her “the happiest girl in the land.” The following description of her first field and work as a teacher will certainly interest those who aided Tennie Morford, and, we think, many others.—Eds.:
There is situated in the eastern part of Tennessee a beautiful, lonely, little valley, called the Sequatchie Valley. It is sixty miles long and five miles wide, containing about four hundred inhabitants. This is one of the by-ways of Tennessee, or, as it seems to be, from the condition of the people, Africa at home. It is hedged about with mountains, and its inhabitants scarcely hear of any other place than their own valley. They are very ignorant, and their chief occupation is farming.
I spent my last vacation among them, and tried to teach and show them the need of an education. There were persons who were forty and sixty years old who could not count a hundred. Scarcely any of them had seen a steam-boat or car. They know only of the wilds of Sequatchie, where they have spent their lives. Near the head of the valley was my place of work, principally inhabited by drunkards of both colors, who spent their Sabbaths in intoxication and in the use of profanity. Their places of enjoyment were three still-houses about half a mile apart, where the price of their labor was given in liquor.
On my arrival at Pikeville I was conducted to a little house on the main street, where I remained one week. I was examined three days after my arrival. My examination seemed very simple, and I received first grade certificate. During that time it was noised abroad that school would open Monday, June 10th. Bright and early Monday morning I commenced my summer’s work; but as I met only twelve bright faces I felt somewhat discouraged, and was beginning to think that I would go elsewhere if I did not have more next week. To my surprise, by that time I found nineteen, and felt more reconciled. After I had taught a while I visited some of the children’s parents, and found that every body wanted to go to school, both young and old. Every one began to show an interest, and the number of scholars grew to fifty-seven, a few of whom had been to school before, while the others were only making a beginning. My most advanced pupil studied only the Third Reader and the Elementary Speller, which was considered by him quite an education. The most of them said that they did not want to go any higher than the Speller. Others only wanted to get as far as “publication.” In one case a lady came and brought a little girl to me who did not know the alphabet, and asked me to get her to “baker” as soon as possible, for she wanted her, as they say, to “help to lay by crop.” She said that if she got as far as “baker” she would be half through the Speller, which she considered half of an education; but I told her that that was only laying the foundation for the great work intended for them to do. They had often heard of schools, and half realized that they had minds to be cultivated, but not until last summer had they become interested in the real work of learning. They had a very good school-house for dry weather, but when it rained we had to shelter ourselves the best we knew how. The house would seat about sixty scholars comfortably, and was beautifully situated on a small hill called “Cedar Bluff,” which was surrounded by large oaks.
The people do not have very much preaching, but when they do have it it must be by daylight, on account of the white people stoning them at night. The colored people are still living as slaves, and are afraid to live otherwise. The laborers do not work by the day, as they do here, but as they are told. They get up about three or four o’clock in the morning and work until about midnight, and sometimes later if their employers desire to have the work finished. This is what they consider a day’s work. They have the same idea about teaching. They wanted that I should teach from sunrise to sundown. They know nothing of the eight or ten hour system of labor.
Those who live along the highways of trade and culture in our State, that are participating in the active work of the world, would scarcely believe that some parts of their own State are half civilized if they did not occasionally see it; but one has only to cross the Cumberland mountain to find his mistake. The Sequatchie Valley is only catching a ray of light now and then from the sunrise. When the sun comes up in the east it is first seen by those who live on the mountain tops and those who live in the highest places; but it keeps rising until it shines on valleys and plains. So with the morning that has dawned upon the people of the South; it is first grasped by those on the highways, and then it begins to shine into the hidden corners until all shall be lighted. What can be expected of the children of the next generation if their parents are not more than half civilized? We need educated parents, so that the children may be properly trained. In order to do this we must go into these by-ways of our State and sow our seed, though it be on untilled soil. I think that the time is fast approaching when the public school system, carried out by earnest teachers, shall reclaim these valleys, and make them an honor to the State instead of haunts of ignorance and vice.