Dr. Shaw then went into the subject of the free school to be established on the Goeberlin estate for the education of the colored people of that neighborhood.
“It is the first thing to be taken in hand,” he said, “and one thing at a time is my maxim.”
The three held counsel together on this subject, and settled a part of the plan.
There was no building on the plantation that was suitable, or that could be spared, so it was decided to erect one.
“And there is no need to engage a contractor for the simple building of a country schoolhouse. We will employ local stone masons and carpenters, and have a personal supervision over them,” said Dr. Shaw, and he took his tablets and pencil from his pocket and drew a design, which he submitted to Roma and Paul Stone. Both approved, yet suggested some little changes, which Dr. Shaw accepted as improvements on his plan. Then the diagram was laid aside for future consideration and their attention was turned to the subject of teachers.
Both Dr. Shaw and Mr. Stone were in favor of engaging male teachers, for they argued, and with good reason, that, if besides children and young girls, there were to be young men in the school, they would require men to govern them.
But Roma was opposed to the plan, and was in favor of women, and here she was as firm as adamant. She would try women and moral suasion first, before resorting to men and corporal punishment—for that was what men’s rule in such schools generally meant, she thought. Moral suasion was so much holier an influence than bodily fear.
“My dear,” said the old parson, with an odd smile, “‘the days of the years of my pilgrimage on earth’ are seventy-seven years and five months, and during this long experience I have learned that all women are not lambs, nor all men lions. I have known one or two mistresses of plantations so cruel and tyrannical that the lives of their slaves were hells upon earth; and, on the other hand, I have known one or two masters who ruled entirely through conscience and affection; and one or two other people of each sex who were utterly incapable of ruling in any manner.”
“These were exceptions, and the exception proves the rule, it is said. I know that women have more patience with children than men have, and these young colored men and girls, whose docility you doubt, are, in their ignorance, no more than children. Oh, Dr. Shaw, don’t you know that all the little children of our Lord are not under three feet tall? Some of them are over six. But there is another reason why I prefer to engage women for the school. There are so few fields of labor free to women, while there is such a vast area open to men.”
No doubt the old minister had an overwhelming argument against this last “reason” in the fact that, as a rule, women were not required to work in any field of labor, but only in the lovely garden of home, cultivating the flowers of the nursery and the fruits of the dining-room, with a prospect of a harvest of domestic happiness, while the men worked for them in these outlying fields; but before he could utter his thought they were interrupted.