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

by Matilda A. Evans

This demonstration in his own case of the saving efficacy of prayer was worth more to him than all the volumes of theology ever written could have been in reaching the ears and hearts of his benighted followers, who had to be made to see and feel with their own sense of sight and touch the evidence of the tangible things which an educated mind finds, without literal interpretation, in everything, even in rocks and stones and running brooks.

He preached not to the heads of his hearers, but to their hearts; not about Emerson, Spencer, Napoleon, or Shakespeare, but about Jesus Christ, His death, His resurrection and His power to resurrect even them, as He was resurrected if only they would believe on Him and live such lives as He had lived.

Is it not remarkable that a man with the power to carry such a message to those who stood in such great need if it should have been singled out for destruction by those whose interest he was serving in disseminating the unadulterated doctrine of the lowly Nazarene? Yet history of sacred and profane origin all record that the men and women who really benefit their kind do so at the risk of martyring themselves.

The power of prayer which the Rev. Alexander Bettis used so dramatically in rescuing himself from an ignominous death was used effectively in the establishment and later the development of a great school in which through the adoption of the methods pursued at the Schofield school at Aiken, the condition of thousands of children and hundreds of homes have been reformed, even transformed, revolutionized and made new. This school in honor of its founder and executive head until the day of his death is known as the Bettis Academy and is located on a farm of several hundred acres near Trenton, S. C. The interest taken in it at its earliest inception by Miss Schofield, together with the great work done by Mr. Bettis at his own expense without any compensation whatever, made the institution possible and a force from the start in the education of the Negroes from many of the counties of South Carolina and Georgia.

The great personality of the founder attracted to the school like a loadstone, large numbers of Negroes, and Miss Schofield, who enjoyed Mr. Bettis’ confidence in full, seeing the opportunity which the school afforded her to accomplish the maximum of results, most heartily cooperated in the conduct of it. She not only wrote and lectured for her school but for Bettis Academy as well.

In fact, every line written and every word spoken in the interest of, or inimical to, the interest of all related enterprise affect each other for good or evil, in the same proportion. This makes the attempts to injure one race of human beings by another race without injury to itself impossible, and is the foundation rock upon which the Negro race can stand with perfect confidence, that absolute justice will eventually be done it.

To the intelligent supervision of the organization of the Bettis Academy much credit is due Martha Schofield. She was the store-house from which ideas of the most experienced and practical sort emanated for perfecting all departments, especially the industrial department. The school in a few years, paid her back many times by the wide interest its patrons took in the Farmers’ Conference, a local organization for every colored school in the country, original with the Schofield Normal and Industrial Institute, having for its object the encouragement of the farmers to buy land, to raise more food supplies, to stop mortgaging their property and to extend the term of the country school. At the general meetings of these Conferences which were held in February of each year in the chapel of the Schofield school, Bettis’ followers were largely in attendance. This gave Miss Schofield the opportunity she so much desired of meeting face to face the fathers and mothers of those whom she regarded as the foundation-stone for the new structure of civilization which freedom and her educational work was building.

Among the wide range of subjects discussed, no question was given so much importance as better living conditions. These discussions, in which hundreds present participated, discouraged the habit of living in cabins. With what practical knowledge the attendants gained at the general meeting, augmented by the instruction given the students of the schools, every Negro family in a wide area was greatly benefited. Miss Schofield, out of the funds of her school employed an organizer whose duty it was to organize a conference in every community, without cost to the members. The benefits to be derived from the work were apparent in a short time in many ways. One room cabins soon evolved into homes of at least two rooms and even three, four and five; tenants as fast as they could became owners of homes; many mortgages were burned and few were given, and increases in production of crops were very noticeable. Terms of schools were lengthened from two months to four, five and even six months, as a result of the work of the conferences. But better than all was the extraordinary improvement apparent in the manners, morals, habits and dress of all who came to the general meetings. At these meetings Miss Schofield, who was host to the large gathering, made up of delegates from each conference, presided, and each session was conducted in a parliamentary manner, thus educating the delegates in the matter of conducting the meetings of the various local conferences to the best advantage.

Thus it will be seen that Miss Schofield’s activities embraced a wide range of influence and as her contemplations, of course, extended beyond the reach of actual performance it is to be regretted that time enough from the drudgery of work in her school was never found for her to write and publish a manual of important information for the guidance and direction of missionaries in welfare work. It is an extravagant waste of any system of social responsibility to permit the departure of its members before first obtaining for all time the entire treasury of their store house of wisdom and compiling the information in convenient form for future use.

Miss Schofield’s organization of the Negro farmers into clubs for the purpose of mutual helpfulness indicates that she appreciated the fact that one person can do but little within herself for the benefit of the people, but by securing their cooperation to the extent of getting them to practice as a whole and teach in unity the things most needed to be taught, results of the most far-reaching consequences could be achieved. She was a labor-unionist with most practical and up-to-date ideas.