Martha Schofield, pioneer Negro educator / Historical and philosophical review of reconstruction period of South Carolina

by Matilda A. Evans

Therefore, the work Miss Schofield undertook to do and accomplished in spite of all opposition, that of educating the ignorant Negro and empowering him with the sword of reason, in order that he might not be led unwisely by those who sought to use him and did use him for selfish purposes, was the great need of the times.

A former member of one of the many “Red Shirt” bands who participated in the outrages of the Ellenton and Hamburg riots and is at this time (1916) an inmate of the home for Confederate soldiers at Columbia, S. C., stated to the author that it was the firmness, the reasonableness and plausibility of the arguments of Martha Schofield that influenced him and his compatriots in crime from molesting the Schofield school. He states that he and his friends once made designs looking to the destruction of the school as a part of the plan in terrorizing the Negroes and “scallawags,” but were prevented from doing so only by the patriotism expressed by this little woman in a casual, brief conversation, at a time when she least expected their design against her. “We all felt, also,” added the old rebel, “that since we could not possibly kill all the Negroes some of them would be forced to live amongst us always, and since the more useful arts, such as farming, house-keeping, sewing and cooking which we satisfied ourselves were specialized in by Miss Schofield, were better done right than wrong her work might be helpful to us, and so we agree to let her alone.”

The great mission of her work was to teach the Negro the necessity of preparing himself for the duties devolving upon him after freedom and to place in his hands the knowledge with which he would be better able to discharge these duties. This took him first through an elementary course in physiology and hygiene, as the first duty of man as Miss Schofield understood it, was to make of himself a good animal. The author, by reason of her position in the medical profession and on account of her attendance at the Schofield school is in a position to know that the principles of hygiene and sanitation as taught and practiced by Martha Schofield thirty years ago among the Negroes were far in advance of that time, so far in advance that at this day and time we see the same identical principles in use among us, improved upon but slightly, if any.

The fact that Miss Schofield had the intelligence and genius to begin her work where it should have been begun, in the home, appealed to the good common sense of her white neighbors who for economic reasons, if not for nobler motives, desired improved living conditions to obtain among the Negroes. In the moral and intellectual aspect of the lives of the latter the white man took little or no interest, except to disparage the work done in this direction; but morality and intelligence are bred on physical prosperity. Instruction in the art of farming and in the laws of sanitation and health served to free many who came under the influence of the school early in life from the shackles and bonds of a form of slavery woven in the factory of ignorance. Immorality, superstition, disease and death are some of the products of this factory. Great joy is taken in the fact that not one of the graduates of Miss Schofield’s school has ever been convicted or sentenced to penal servitude. This demonstrates the wisdom of education as a means of stamping out crime.

Robbery and murder by the Negroes in the new situation which freedom had placed him was very uncommon, but he did practice a form of conduct more humiliating to the whites than that of stealing their trashy purses or taking their lives, which with the loss of their slaves and their old aristocratic prestige, they considered worse than blasted. He “mustered” into the service of the army, aspired to official recognition and even cast votes and that at a time when his old master was disfranchised! Why, he even arose to the position of Sheriff and Attorney-General, Legislator and city Marshall. And in the execution of the duties of his high office he often had occasion to arrest some of his old masters or their best friends, and this aroused far more anger among the whites than any of his lesser crimes, such as assassination, robbery and the like. The white man resolved about like this: “The Negro who steals my life and purse stealeth trash but he who steals my high-blown greatness, takes that which shall not elevate him but make him lie low, indeed, beneath six foot of earth and clay.”

For want of a cool, calm and deliberate judgment which education is supposed to give to man, regulating his action to suit occasions and emergencies, the Negro in office, erred egregiously in his dealings with the whites, as white men and the men of all races before being made efficient by the refining influences of enlightenment, will err and do err. As a legislator he enacted some very foolish and unnecessary legislation, impracticable if not discriminatory.

Among the ordinances of the town of Hamburg, which was ruled entirely by Negroes, was one designed for the purpose of entrapping the white men into the meshes of the law, although it was ostensibly passed in the interest of the public health. It forbade any one to drink at a public spring within the limits of the town except from some vessel such as a gourd, cup or dipper, and was rigidly enforced by the town marshall who was always a Negro. As many of the whites who passed by it had no dipper or cup and were not disposed to use the one at the spring for the public use as the Negroes enjoyed the same privilege as they in its use, this ordinance caused the death of one of the marshalls of the town and may have produced many riots if the Negro authorities had resented extensively the defiance of this law which the whites took particular pains to glaringly flaunt in their faces.

On one occasion a white man was arrested and taken before “General” Prince Rivers and fined five dollars for drinking from the spring without a cup. Sometime after this incident a Mr. Cockrell in attempting to drink from it in a similar way was arrested by the Negro marshall who it is charged, used insolent and abusive language. Cockrell resented it by stabbing the officer to death with a knife. He escaped capture and trial for murder only by getting out of the town in a coffin-box which a friendly merchant arranged for his convenience. No one knew till years afterwards who it was that killed the vigilant of the town’s peace, but everybody felt that this act also killed the enforcement of the “Spout” spring ordinance even as dead as the town’s dead marshall.

Miss Schofield’s teaching included helpful instructions in the matter of the responsibility of those entrusted with the exercise of power and had for its object the work of storing the minds of the Negroes with correct and practical principles of government, such as would promote peace and contribute to the happiness and progress of both races alike. With equal force she applied herself strenuously to the task of impressing every Negro official that she could possibly reach with the fact that the dignity of their office required an unostentatious exercise of authority rather than a lavish display of power, which, unfortunately for the Negro, seemed to characterize his first attempt to rule. She taught that good government rested upon the exercise of intelligent judgment and was made strong or weak in proportion to the intelligence of those delegated to perform its functions, supposing, of course, that intelligence also qualifies an individual (as it most certainly does if it is heart deep), in moral fitness for the duties and honors of office.

No one can know her life and work as the author knows about them without acknowledging that want of her divine messages is, at bottom the sole cause of much of our present woe, as want of them were the cause in 1860 and 1870 and 1880 of our suffering and misery then.