At the close of the examination, the rewards, consisting of books, work-bags, &c. &c., chiefly sent by a society of females in England, were distributed. It was impossible to repress the effervescence of the little expectants. As a little one four years old came up for her reward, the superintendent said to her--"Well, little Becky, what do you want?" "Me wants a bag," said Becky, "and me wants a pin-cushion, and me wants a little book." Becky's desires were large, but being a good girl, she was gratified. Occasionally the girls were left to choose between a book and a work-bag, and although the bag might be gaudy and tempting, they invariably took the book.
The teachers were all but one blacks, and were formerly slaves. They are very devoted and faithful, but are ill-qualified for their duties, having obtained all the learning they possess in the Sabbath school. They are all pious, and exert a harpy influence on the morals of their pupils.
The number of scholars has very greatly increased since emancipation, and their morals have essentially improved. Instances of falsehood and theft, which at first were fearfully frequent and bold, have much lessened. They begin to have a regard for character. Their sense of right and wrong is enlightened, and their power of resisting temptation, and adhering to right, manifestly increased.
On the whole, we know not where we have looked on a more delightful scene. To stand in front of the pulpit and look around on a multitude of negro children, gathered from the sordid huts into which slavery had carried ignorance and misery--to see them coming up, with their teachers of the same proscribed hue, to hear them read the Bible, answer with readiness the questions of their superintendent, and lift up together their songs of infant praise, and then to remember that two years ago these four hundred children were slaves, and still more to remember that in our own country, boasting its republicanism and Christian institutions, there are thousands of just such children under the yoke and scourge, in utter heathenism, the victims of tyrannic law or of more tyrannic public opinion--caused the heart to swell with emotions unutterable. There were as many intelligent countenances, and as much activity and sprightliness, as we ever saw among an equal number of children anywhere. The correctness of their reading, the pertinence of their replies, the general proofs of talent which they showed through all the exercises, evinced that they are none inferior to the children of their white oppressors.
After singing a hymn they all kneeled down, and the school closed with a prayer and benediction. They continued singing as they retired from the house, and long after they had parted on their different ways home, their voices swelled on the breeze at a distance as the little parties from the estates chanted on their way the songs of the school room.
When we entered the school house at Willoughby Bay, which is capable of containing a thousand persons, a low murmur, like the notes of preparation, ran over the multitude. One school came in after we arrived, marching in regular file, with their teacher, a negro man, at their head, and their standard bearer following; next, a sable girl with a box of Testaments on her head. The whole number of children was three hundred and fifty. The male division was first called out, and marched several times around the room, singing and keeping a regular step. After several rounds, they came to a halt, filing off and forming into ranks four rows deep--in quarter-circle shape. The music still continuing, the girls sallied forth, went through the same evolutions, and finally formed in rows corresponding with those of the boys, so as to compose with the latter a semicircle.
The schools were successively examined in spelling, reading, writing, cyphering, &c., after the manner already detailed. In most respects they showed equal proficiency with the children of Parham; and in reading the Testament, their accuracy was even greater. In looking over the writing, several "incendiary" copies caught our eyes. One was, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal." Another, "If I neglect the cause of my servant, what shall I do when I appear before my Master!" A few years ago, had children been permitted to write at all, one such copy as the above would have exploded the school, and perchance sent the teacher to jail for sedition. But now, thanks to God! the Negro children of Antigua are taught liberty from their Bibles, from their song books, and from their copy books too; they read of liberty, they sing of it, and they write of it; they chant to liberty in their school rooms, and they resume the strains on their homeward way, till every rustling lime-grove, and waving cane-field, is alive with their notes, and every hillock and dell rings with "free" echoes.
The girls, in their turn, pressed around us with the liveliest eagerness to display their little pieces of needle-work. Some had samplers marked with letters and devices in vari-colored silk. Others showed specimens of stitching; while the little ones held up their rude attempts at hemming handkerchiefs, aprons, and so on.
During the exercises we spoke to several elderly women, who were present to witness the scene. They were laborers on the estates, but having children in the school, they had put on their Sunday dresses, and "come to see." We spoke to one, of the privileges which the children were enjoying, since freedom. Her eyes filled, and she exclaimed, "Yes, massa, we do tank de good Lord for bring de free--never can be too tankful." She said she had seven children present, and it made her feel happy to know that they were learning to read. Another woman said, when she heard the children reading so finely, she wanted to "take de word's out of da mouts and put em in her own." In the morning, when she first entered the school house, she felt quite sick, but all the pleasant things she saw and heard, had made her well, and she added, "I tell you, me massa, it do my old heart good to come here." Another aged woman, who had grand-children in the school, said, when she saw what advantages the children enjoyed, she almost cried to think she was not a child too. Besides these there were a number of adult men and women, whom curiosity or parental solicitude had brought together, and they were thronging about the windows and doors witnessing the various exercises with the deepest interest. Among the rest was one old patriarch, who, anxious to bear some part however humble in the exercises of the occasion, walked to and fro among the children, with a six feet pole in his hand, to keep order.