WOMAN’S WORK FOR WOMAN.
MISS LAURA A. PARMELEE, MEMPHIS, TENN.
We give the closing portion of a paper read at the Woman’s Meeting, held in connection with the Annual Meeting at Chicago. In the opening portions of it, Miss Parmelee describes with frank truthfulness the perils which encircle the colored girls of the South by reason of the family habits, the laxity of the marriage relation, the ignorance of the laws of health, the late hours of their religious and social gatherings, &c. We print her statements and suggestions as to the remedy and protection.
Of special agencies for training colored girls to better habits, boarding schools claim the first place. If there had been seventy, instead of seven homes of this kind, we could to-day report a fairer record of virtue and purity. Under the constant supervision of faithful teachers, who regulate the hours, walks and visits of those in their charge, there is opportunity to acquire a love for systematic ways and a pure home life. With the instinctive imitation of their race they adopt the manners and sentiments of the ladies living under the same roof and sitting at the same table. Yet with this help, there has been frequent occasion for teachers to ponder the story of the young crabs that went from the sea-side to a seminary among the mountains, where they became ashamed of their own gait and diligently tried to learn the new way of walking, succeeding to the entire satisfaction of their teachers as well as themselves, and seeming to have forgotten the old ways, but, upon returning to parents and friends at the shore, relinquished the accomplishment and walked backwards as in other days.
In two or three schools—possibly more, but I speak only from personal knowledge—it is the duty of one of the lady teachers to give the girls instruction in dress, manners, morals and health, particularly in matters relating to their peculiar physical organization. Once a week the regular lessons are postponed or laid aside, that the pupils may have a half hour for listening to the lecture that has been thoughtfully prepared for their exclusive benefit. Commencing with points of etiquette, dress, sketches of lives of famous women, announcing the latest fashion items when they happen to be suitable, and so winning the confidence and arousing the interest of the class, it is comparatively easy to come to graver counsels concerning morals, health, danger of association with people of loose principles, the lowering of standards of personal honor, and finally the teaching properly due a daughter from her mother’s lips.
This branch of work is neither light nor pleasant. False delicacy, fear of speaking injudiciously and of being misunderstood by the girls and their mothers, too long kept us silent. We shrank from meeting our full responsibility in this direction, and nerved ourselves to the task only when circumstances convinced us that it was an imperative duty. The ordinary study of physiology is good, but in colored schools something more is needed. Teach young girls to reverence the body, to regard all its functions as gifts of God, and the possibilities of motherhood to be sacredly guarded, and they are transformed from animals to thoughtful women. Do any regard this as dangerous argument? Those who have tried the experiment are satisfied of its worth. More sensible and healthful modes of dress, increasing discretion of manners and modesty of deportment, are immediate results of a plan that a few regarded as an innovation, but which has abundantly justified itself. If every well-established school of the American Missionary Association could be furnished with models for this purpose, far more good would be accomplished than with empty hands, however wise the teacher’s lips.
These health talks include cookery, sanitary measures, medical hints, and a thousand items of common information in a land of newspapers, but unknown to people who depend upon neighborhood gossip for all their knowledge.
As teachers became better acquainted with the needs of their fields, sewing lessons were given, or sewing schools established in connection with daily work. While teaching deft use of the needle, to mend old garments and cut new, there is opportunity to speak apt words about love of finery, habits of wastefulness or extravagance, and improper hours, all of which find quick lodgment in minds eager for new ideas. It is no slight gratification to teachers that, in large assemblies, they can select their students by a more quiet, suitable dress and dignified bearing.
House-to-house visiting is another important means of elevating the homes and making “life among the lowly” cleaner and purer. In the early days of labor for the Freedmen, ladies were commissioned by the American Missionary Association for this purpose. It is encouraging to note that, through the parent society, the Christian women of the North are adopting representatives to carry on this branch of work more systematically. Year by year there are changes in methods, and teachers have less time than formerly for this outside visiting.
Honorable mention must be made of the part Congregational churches bear in this work of regeneration. Too much time would be consumed in explaining the opposition they meet, or the great need of planting this little leaven that is already moving the mass of blind superstition. Suffice it to say, that one of the two denominations claiming the religious loyalty of the Freedmen insists that, once in Christ, a soul is forever safe, and can commit sin with impunity, because forgiveness frees from all restraints of the law. The other great body of believers is equally false in its explanations of truths held by followers of Whitefield and Wesley.
These are the principal agencies operating for the redemption of the colored homes, and through them for the emancipation of Africa, latest called of nations, now stretching out imploring hands for the light, and health, and hope, streaming from the cross of Christ. I will not stop to detail incidents illustrating various phases of the one great plan, nor recount successes attained, nor introduce you to the homes—truly homelike in peace, purity and domestic love; or to the little centres of social influence, where refinement and virtue invite your respect and friendship. There are such homes and circles, although they are not sufficiently numerous to have the power in their communities that they deserve.
Between the graduates of Atlanta or Fisk, and the toilers in cotton patch or rice swamp—between the better homes of Memphis or Charleston, and the cabins in piney woods or Louisiana glades—there is a great gulf, to be spanned only by the prayers and labors of Northern Christians. I have chosen not to paint prospects and aspirations of the dwellers this side of that chasm; but rather to give you a glimpse of life beyond in the darkness, that you may comprehend in some degree the urgency of the need to chase away the clouds that obscure the light of hope and purity.
I have thought it possible for women to do more than they have heretofore in distinct efforts for their own sex; that some new effort might be made to efficiently supplement the work of schools and churches.
Two years ago, we made a bold venture at Le Moyne Normal School. Health talks had become popular, and the teachers were convinced of the wisdom of taking further steps in that direction, when, most opportunely, there came to Memphis a lady physician, well advanced in years, of evident culture, and provided with an excellent life-size model of the human frame. She was invited to lecture to our female pupils and their mothers, and did so very acceptably. Her gray hair commanded respect, although the girls were at first a little suspicious of the manikin. Satisfied with the effect upon the students and of the lady’s good judgment, her services were secured for a course of lectures, to which the friends of the girls were invited. It was a happy idea, as was quickly proven. I cannot tell how many times teachers were thanked for the privileges thus afforded, or how many mothers exclaimed, “If I had only known these things sooner, I should have saved myself and my children worlds of sickness and trouble and disgrace!”
Ever since that experiment I have longed to see a similar opportunity offered to all the colored women. If a discreet, motherly woman, who understood anatomy, hygiene and medicine, could be furnished with a model of the body and sent through the large cities and villages, giving free lectures upon health, care of their own persons, proper food, training of children, and responsibility to God for the chastity of their sons and daughters, the Freedwomen would receive incalculable benefit. The teachers cannot always reach out and control the mothers; the missionary meets but a part of the women in a single city; but an itinerating lady physician could influence thousands of the very class most in need of the instruction she could give. I wish the heart of some woman, qualified for the undertaking, would be stirred to consecrate herself to this work. I think the officers of the Association would indorse such a movement. Certainly, pastors and teachers in the field would heartily welcome her to their churches and homes, to which she would be a valuable auxiliary, while exerting a more positive and direct influence upon the women than is possible from any one of the already established methods of work.
Dean Howson says: “How can you convert a country unless you convert the families? How can you convert the families unless you convert the mothers?”
It was once my privilege to minister to an honored friend who was gently falling asleep in Jesus. Happening to draw up a window-shade an hour before the eyes closed upon the scenes of mortal life, I received from the beloved lips this last commendation and counsel: “That’s right; give us more light.”
Speaking to-day in behalf of our colored sisters, I appeal for light. “Give us more light” to dispel the heavy clouds of ignorance and sin, to show plainly straight paths for the feet of stumbling ones, and for the praise of Him who is able to keep us from falling, and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.