GENERAL SURVEY.
FREEDMEN.
The fortunes of the freed people during the current year indicate a marked degree of progress. A healthy growth in all the branches of our Southern work is quite discernible. It is strikingly evident that the Freedmen are discovering the extent of the horizon opening up before them through our educational institutions. At one time, many of their leaders were attracted by the allurements of political preferment, and counted nothing so good as position in office, and many such, doubtless, there will be to the end of time. There is, however, an increasing number among them who are coming to realize that intelligence and character developed by Christian education have a commanding worth and solid value that cannot be conveyed by an appointment or imbibed during the sessions of a legislature. This good result has been hastened by Teachers’ Institutes, conducted by Southern and Northern educators, among the black and also the white citizens, sometimes large numbers of both classes mingling in the same convention.
Possibly never have our missions been more richly blessed by the outpourings of the Holy Spirit than during the past year. Whole classes in a school have indulged the hopes of a new life, and the rich experiences gathered during revivals have been borne forth into the villages and the country during the summer months by our students. Sabbath-schools have everywhere received due attention, and temperance work has been well sustained and productive of much good. Missionary meetings and societies have been encouraged, and the gifts from the hard earnings of the poor to the cause of missions abroad, indicate what may be hoped for when the colored people become educated and prosperous.
EDUCATIONAL WORK.
Our eight Chartered Institutions, including Berea College and Hampton Institute, which were founded by this Association, have experienced a year of unusual prosperity. The number pursuing a higher grade of study has been continually on the increase, and the quality of the work done, as testified to by many who have witnessed it, indicates that the grade of teachers has been improved, not only by self-culture on the part of those who have been long in service, but also by accessions from among the best educators in the country. Three of our teachers have received honorary degrees from important colleges at the North, and others have been encouraged by many tokens of appreciation and esteem.
During the year, the Tillotson Institute at Austin, Tex., took possession of its new building, a brick structure one hundred and four feet long, forty-two feet wide and five stories high. From the first this school has met with the hearty approval and sympathy of a large number of the best citizens of Austin. The new building was opened in January, and before the close of the spring term 107 students had availed themselves of its advantages.
The college at Berea has added $50,000 to its permanent endowment fund; the Fisk University has received $4,000 endowment for student aid. At Hampton, two new buildings, one for Indian and one for Negro girls, have been provided by the friends of the Institution, and a new Academic Hall, in place of one that was burned, has been dedicated. At Tougaloo, Miss., a boy’s dormitory of brick, with accommodations for about 75 students, has been completed. This building was made especially necessary by the ravages of fire, which destroyed the wooden structure that had served in a very inadequate way both for school rooms and boarding purposes.
Other buildings at Straight University, New Orleans; Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.; Talladega College, and Atlanta University, provided by the gift of $150,000 by Mrs. Valeria G. Stone, have either been completed, or are in a good state of progress. At New Orleans, there was added to the half square of land on Canal street, before owned by the A. M. A., the remaining half. Upon this site has been erected a neat three-story building, ninety-two feet on Canal street and ninety-one feet on Roche Blave street, containing dining-room, kitchen and laundry for the whole school, parlor, bath-room, apartments for teachers and dormitories for about 60 girls.
At Talladega, Stone Hall, for boys, has been completed. It is three stories high, with a basement, and contains printing office, reading-room, bath-room and dormitories for 76 students. With a portion of Mrs. Stone’s gift, supplemented by $1,000 from Mr. Gregory, of Marblehead, $100 from Gen. Swayne and a few smaller sums from others, Swayne Hall has been remodeled and thoroughly repaired from pavement to bell-tower, including roofing, flooring, blackboarding, etc. A house for the accommodation of the President will soon be completed. With these improvements the college will be ready for a great work.
At Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn., Livingstone Missionary Hall is nearly inclosed. It is two hundred and four feet long, sixty-two feet wide in the centre, and has four stories and a basement. The foundation is of stone and the walls are of pressed brick. A mansard roof with brick gables and ornamented chimneys crowns the edifice. It will contain chapel, lecture-rooms, recitation-rooms, teachers’ apartments and dormitories for 120 boys. Although planned with a strict regard for economy, it will be a grand and stately companion for Jubilee Hall. Several months will be required for its completion.
At Atlanta, a new wing has been added to the girl’s dormitory, and plans for a school building between the two dormitories have been completed and some materials purchased. It is expected that the building will be finished and ready for occupancy in a year from this time. In planning these various buildings, it has been the aim to provide the best facilities possible, but the claims of architecture have not been wholly ignored. Some of the best architects in the country have been consulted, and all the plans have been examined carefully by your Executive Committee.
It will be seen by this review that each of our eight chartered institutions has received permanent and substantial aid either in funds or in buildings, and that never before were they so fully equipped for the great work thrown upon them. The prayer of the last half score of years for room has been wonderfully answered, and the blessing of Heaven is crowning the labors of workers with rich rewards.
Our other schools, 46 in all, normal and common, have met with favor on every hand, and have experienced uninterrupted progress throughout the year. At some of them the industrial work has been pushed forward with gratifying success. Attention has been given to household industries in two or three places. A class of girls at Memphis, Tenn., has been carefully instructed with actual practice in an experimental kitchen, on the nature, relative values, and healthful methods, of cooking food. Classes in needle work, knitting, and in the use of sewing machines, have had daily lessons and practice.
We have had in all 230 teachers in the field, a gain of 30 over last year. Of these, 14 have performed the duties of matrons and 15 have been engaged in the business departments.
The total number of students has been 9,108, a gain of 1,056 over the previous year. They were classed as follows: theological, 104; law, 20; collegiate, 91; collegiate preparatory, 131; normal, 2,342; grammar, 473; intermediate, 2,722; primary, 3,361; studying in two grades, 136.
Our normal and common schools, like our chartered institutions, are constantly sending up the call for more room. Permanent accommodations have been provided at some points and temporary ones at others. At Wilmington, N.C., by the gift of Hon. J. J. H. Gregory, the school building has been remodeled for the accommodation of a large number of students. A new mission home has also been built by the munificence of the same gentleman. At Athens, Ala., the colored people have done nobly toward furnishing material for the school-house now under process of construction. They have already made two hundred thousand bricks with their own hands, and are placing them in the walls to represent their interest in the property. It is hoped that the work will be completed by January 1st, and that Miss Wells, who has been Principal of the school for fifteen years, will be rewarded for her labor and patient waiting by ample accommodation for all the students who may seek the advantages of her excellent normal school.
During the year we have inaugurated work at Topeka, Kan., the chief rendezvous of the refugees, where a lot has been purchased and a building suitable for both church and school purposes erected. Divine services are held on the Sabbath. A Sabbath-school with an average attendance of 170 has been gathered, and a prosperous night-school sustained. Much good has been done by our missionary and others at this point in the distribution of supplies to the destitute, and by speeding them on their way to homes among the farmers and mechanics of the State. We have also resumed our church work at Lawrence, Kan., with good results.
Commencement days, or the closing exercises at our different institutions, are becoming more and more eventful as the years go on. One feature of especial interest at Hampton was the delivery of orations and the reading of papers by the alumni of the school. These displayed an amount of character and culture on the part of those who had been several years in the field since their graduation which was very gratifying.
Commencement day at Berea College is unlike any other in the South or elsewhere in the country. Hours before the exercises begin, the streets are thronged with hundreds of people, black and white, old and young, properly dressed or dressed in rags, some riding on the finest steeds produced in Kentucky, some on plough horses, mules and ponies, riding single, riding double, with a child or two between. The exercises are held in a large open tabernacle seating about three thousand persons. The building is usually decorated with mottoes and banners, with plants and flowers and miniature fountains. The college band furnishes the music. Not the least interesting is the basket dinner on the college campus. The fame of these days spreads far and wide for hundreds of miles, awakening an enthusiasm on the part of the young for an education, and winning words of praise and tokens of cheer from the very best people throughout the State.
At the Emerson Institute, Mobile, Ala., eight hundred people crowded into the Third Baptist Church to see and to hear of the work for themselves; while, at Montgomery, on the theory that what is good for a part is good for all, every scholar, from the least to the greatest, was given a speech. As there were more than three hundred to take part, the authorities decided that all the exercises should not be crowded into a single day. Consequently, in order that a good thing might last a good while, it was arranged to devote three evenings to the speaking.
The growing interest in these anniversary occasions all along the line of our work, the attendance of leading white citizens, and their readiness to occupy seats on the platform with our teachers and workers, the enthusiasm of the colored folks to throng in and catch every word that is uttered, all combine to lift up the work from the low place it has occupied among those at the South who have looked unfavorably upon it, and to magnify in the minds of the colored people, who have struggled so hard to send their children to school, the dignity and importance of Christian education. With a few more years of progress like the past, our educational work will outrun and leave behind the obstacles and the enemies which have stood in its way during the past years, and God is speeding the day.
CHURCH WORK.
Our Church Work is attaining a steady and healthful growth. We do not seek to force the founding of churches where there is no urgent demand for them; while this might swell our rolls, it would only serve to weaken and discourage ultimately. Our purpose is to establish churches where there is sufficient intelligence and outlook to give reasonable hope that a Congregational church may do good service for the Master, not only by the benefit accruing to its own members, but also by its influence upon other and older churches that have not had the advantages of an educated ministry. Our whole number of churches is 78, being an addition of five over last year. These have been organized at Washington, D.C., Louisville, Ky., Little Rock, Ark., Thibadeaux, La., and Houma, La. The total number of church members is 5,472, a gain of 511 on last year. The number in Sabbath-school, 8,130, a gain of 1,806. New meeting houses have been constructed at Peteance, La., Little Rock, Ark., Lassiter’s Mills, N.C., and Wilmington, N.C. At the latter place a tasteful structure, with accommodations for 400, was provided by the gift of Hon. Mr. Gregory, at a cost to him of $3,600, and dedicated with fitting ceremonies, which were heartily participated in by the leading white clergymen of the city. Church buildings are under process of erection at Caledonia, Miss., Luling, Tex., Frausse Point, La. Parsonages have also been built at Florence, Ala., Flatonia, Tex., and houses for the Presidents at Tougaloo, Miss., and Talladega, Ala.
The material prosperity of our churches indicated by these statements is very encouraging, but the spiritual activity and growth is far more so. More than one-third of our churches have reported revivals, with conversions numbering from seven to forty-four, resulting in a large number of accessions to the churches.
Our church work is gradually creating a demand for the services of the students graduating at theological departments under our supervision at Howard University, Talladega College, Fisk and Straight Universities, and these are taking the places of white clergymen from the North in many localities.
The growing interest in theological seminaries for Freedmen is happily illustrated by the gift of $25,000 to us, for endowment of the theological department at Howard University.
We have seven State Conferences, embracing the most of the territory occupied by our schools and churches. These hold annual conventions, at which large numbers assemble.
The Alabama Conference has associated with it a woman’s missionary society, which reports the operation of its auxiliaries in different parts of the State. It is an active, hard-working and successful society, that does great credit to the missionary workers connected with it. This Conference also has a Sabbath-school convention representing many county organizations, and the Sabbath-school interests of the State. The meetings of this Conference, as well as those of the others, exert a beneficent and wide-spread influence, which serves not only to cement, but to make active and strong, the Congregational church work at the South.
The movement made a few years since on the part of a few leading ladies at the North to send forth female missionaries to labor in the homes of the poor and destitute colored people, and to assist otherwise for their temporal and spiritual improvement, has met with marked approval and encouraging success. We have commissioned eleven in all during the past year, and their reports have been full of interest. We believe the work they have been doing is a vital necessity, and that it should be extended as rapidly as may be consistent with the other interests we have in charge.
It is fitting before bringing to a conclusion the report of our operations among the Freedmen, that proper recognition be made of the improved sentiment among the whites at the South relative to our work. We entered the South with right principles. We did not inquire especially what was good policy, but what was required by justice, and what was consistent with righteousness. To promote these ends our missionaries were ready to sacrifice, if need be, their lives. They never advanced to retreat, but to conquer. Amidst hardship, ostracism and poverty, they toiled on; the Southern people watched them; little by little they came to recognize their worth; they saw massive structures rear themselves in choice locations in the great capital cities of the South. They were led to recognize the ability and integrity of the self-denying workers, who pursued their toilsome way in leading young Freedmen up to Christian manhood and womanhood; they saw church after church founded with a pure and educated ministry; some of the best of them ventured to visit the teachers and their schools. The work grew on. The children who had been under the care of leading white citizens in service or in household, exhibited the value of the work done so strikingly as to remove all doubt of the purpose and success of the teachers from the North. United States Senators, the Governors of States, Legislative bodies and companies of good men, out of interest, out of patriotism, out of curiosity sometimes, attended anniversary occasions, and lent their interest and gave their influence to promote the welfare of the institutions under our care. The result of it all has been to emphasize and establish the principles with which we started out, and to revolutionize the sentiment of many leading minds throughout the Southern country; and now halls of legislation and portions of the press of the South sparkle with sentiments that would do honor to Northern patriots, who battled early for the existence and success of this Association. Governor Brown of Georgia wins his election to the United States Senate after affirming before the Legislature, “We must educate the colored race. They are citizens, and we must do them justice.”
Governor Holliday, of Virginia, who lost an arm in the Confederate service, comes forward and makes good use of the other in expressive gestures while urging the claims of the colored people for education at the anniversary at Hampton.
General Humes, a Major-General in the Southern army, consents to give the oration at the anniversary of the Le Moyne Institute, and conveys assurances of the active sympathy of the best citizens of Memphis for the work carried on; while Dr. Atticus G. Haygood, the President of Emory College, bursts forth with the exclamation, “Suppose these Northern teachers had not come, that nobody had taught the negroes, set free and citizens, the South would have been uninhabitable by this time. Some may resent this; be it so, they resent the truth.”
The utterances of the press are not less significant. An editorial in the Memphis Appeal affirms: “The Southern States have too long stood aloof and allowed the stranger to do for the negro what they should have done themselves.” “There is but one thing for the people of the South to do, and this is, to throw themselves into the work of educating the negro. We must go forward, and must take the negro by the hand and make him feel that he is a part of the great column of the people.” The Nashville American, the most influential paper in the State, through its leading editor, in giving a report of the anniversary of Fisk University, goes on to say: “In the labor of regeneration of a race, no agency will have so high a place as this conservative school.” The Vicksburg Herald strikes another note on the gamut and illustrates a change of sentiment on this wise, in response to a narrow-minded, complaining correspondent: “We are heartily in favor of the South from the Potomac to the Rio Grande being thoroughly and permanently Yankeeized. Yankee energy, Yankee schools, Yankee cultivation, Yankee railroads and Yankee capital are badly needed in the South, and will be welcomed by every Southern progressive patriot.”
We believe there is nothing to hinder this tidal wave of better feeling from sweeping the entire South. For our part, we have only to hold on and press on.