Duncan, Mrs. M. D.—This lady who began and is now operating a female academy, was born in the year 1864, March 8, in Jefferson county, Ala. She, for one, has made her mark in life. She professed a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the year 1876—was baptized by Rev. E. T. Winkler (white), and joined the Baptist church of Marion, Ala. She worked her way in school. After she finished the primary department (taught by Mrs. Frances Nickerson,) she entered the Lincoln Normal University, where she was graduated in 1882. Then she was thrown out on the great voyage of life, to meet the many hindrances and obstacles that fall in the pathway of life. But being a brave and persevering woman, she triumphed over them all. She commenced teaching school in 1879, in Marion, Perry county. In 1882, she taught a three months’ term in Bibb county. She was then highly recommended by the President of L. N. University to Tuskaloosa, where she taught in the city school for two terms; then removed to York Station, Sumter county, and there taught two terms, and in 1889, taught one term in Forkland, Greene county. She was then called to Demopolis, to take charge of the Female Institute, where, for five years, and up to the present time, she has given mutual satisfaction to the entire city and community.
The above is given to show the spirit of enterprise among us and to excite others to work on the same line.
Closing the chapter which brings into prominence notable individuals of the denomination, the author feels that it is only just to remark that many of the most cultured and deserving of our number are not mentioned. This comes of the facts that limited means made the production of a large book impossible, while, on the other hand, as the author was hard pressed with other business, his survey of the field was necessarily imperfect. Such persons as the learned and industrious Prof. J. W. Beverly, of the State School at Montgomery; Prof. A. H. Parker, principal of one of the city schools of Birmingham; Prof. R. B. Hudson, principal of the City School of Selma; Prof. E. W. Knight, of the faculty of Selma University; Prof. Phillips, principal of one of the city schools of Montgomery; Mr. Edgar A. Long, the business manager of the “Alabama Publishing Company,” Birmingham; Mrs. A. A. Bowe, teacher of the sewing department of Selma University; Mrs. M. A. Boothe, the first president of the Colored W. C. T. U. of Alabama, and Mrs. S. L. Ross, the first secretary; Mrs. S. A. Hardy (once Miss Stone) who led the women in their successful money effort in interest of our brick school building at Selma; Mrs. C. Copeland and Miss Octavia B. Boothe, who have been in the employ of the Baptist Women’s Home Mission Societies as missionaries; Mrs. Amanda Tyler, of Lowndesboro; Mrs. R. T. Pollard and Mrs. S. H. Wright, of Montgomery; Mrs. Rebecca E. Pitts, of Uniontown; Mrs. Alice Gray, of Talladega; Mrs. Lula Patterson (once Miss Lula Watkins), the very capable teacher of music in Selma University; Doctors Robert and Felix Tyler, of Lowndesboro; Prof. Samuel Roebuck, of Elyton; Rev. T. W. Robinson, of Gurleys; Rev. H. Zimmerman, the efficient leader of Bibb County Association; Mrs. Nancy Nickerson, the first teacher of colored children in Perry county; Rev. F. L. Jordan, pastor of the Sixteenth Street Church, Birmingham—of all these, with many other worthy persons, our book fails to give any notice. Their absence from the biographic sketches is to be accounted for solely in the reasons mentioned, namely, that means were limited and the author’s time and energy were divided between so many different lines of work as necessitated an imperfect survey of the field.
V. SUMMARY.
We now turn our pen toward the conclusion, on our way to which we will briefly consider: (1) From whence we have come; (2) How we have come; (3) The point we now occupy.
I. FROM WHENCE WE HAVE COME.
We have seen the tree—dwarfed and yellow-leafed—in the sterile rock-bound soil of the mountain peak, and we have felt that its life was a mere existence, a mere hair’s-breadth remove from death. The fearful regime of slavery had reduced the mental life of the Negro to the point where its activity was a simple, natural struggle for existence. By the terms mental life are designated especially the knowing faculties and voluntary powers, as well as that part of the emotional nature that has to do with character-making. I mean to say that in his intellect, will, and moral sense, the Negro was, by slavery, reduced to the minimum. It could not be otherwise for these reasons: (a) It was unlawful for him to know books; he must know nothing save what his master told him, and must never ask for a reason. (b) He was not allowed to have any will of his own except in minor points, with reference to a brute or a fellow slave. His master’s will was substituted for his, and out of his master’s choice his words and deeds must proceed, even as concerned the most sacred relations of life. At his master’s choice he took the wife, and at his choice he gave up the wife. (c) He was not allowed to have any conscience, except where his master had no choice. Whatever the master said the slave must do, that he must do, conscience or no conscience. Now this state of things had gone on for over 200 years. From this condition we came forth into liberty, and with this eking existence of wilted life we must make a beginning as freemen. With nothing of that sort of manhood which comes only of the well ordered domestic circle, we had to put our shoulders beneath burdens which come of the family institution. The duties of citizenship were imposed upon us, notwithstanding we had never felt or studied anything of the privileges and obligations which center in individual sovereignty. Though we were ignorant of the gospel for the most part and knew nothing of the order of business in church meetings, we found ourselves suddenly forced into the management of church affairs. We had now to look to our own heads for light, to our own hearts for courage, and to our own consciences for moral dictation. So much for the hinderances from within ourselves.
