The large rice planters are doing nothing for them, only to keep them on their farms and get all the work out of them they can, and pay them as little as possible for their work. How is this done?
By giving them great feasts on the Sabbath. At these feasts they have the colored people come into the big house (this means the white people’s house) and shout for them, as it is called here, but I call it dancing. They are given ginger snaps, rum and wine. This kind of a party, or feast, or shout, was given last Sunday (they are called by all these names). I am told that the colored people on a certain plantation ate two boxes of ginger snaps, and drank two gallons of wine and four gallons of rum. They have them on the Sabbath so as not to stop the work.
This is the way they hold them. I said in my haste last Sabbath, if the white man was to tell them that on the other side of Hell they could get as much rum and wine as they could get free, many of them would try to cross over. Many of them have given up all they have for it, and will go anywhere to get it. This is awful, but it is the truth. Our work will tell in the end in saving those that believe. Please excuse any rough expressions, but this is not half like it is. I am not able to tell just how the people do act here; still they are my people, and I must do all for them I can. Pray for me, that I may have courage to do my part of the work.
A Lady’s Sunday-School and Missionary Work.
MISS O. B. BABCOCK, MACON.
My infant class in Sunday-school has grown from five to forty-five since I came; and, as I visit all my scholars, it keeps me busy. Monday afternoons I give to practising music in the Sunday-school; Wednesday, we have our school prayer-meeting; Thursday, a mother’s meeting, for prayer and conversation. This last has always been an interesting feature in my labors among the poor, and I trust it will be so here. Friday evening, I have a meeting for Bible-reading and prayer in the cabins near by. The reading is greatly enjoyed by the people. Sunday evenings I usually spend in the same way. Saturday, at 2 P.M., I have the sewing-school, numbering seventy-five, and weekly increasing in numbers and interest. The mothers are delighted, and the children not less so. As the entire burden of the work rests on me, with no white help, you can see that my moments at home are all occupied with cutting and basting. I have finally succeeded in getting some colored teachers, and may, in time, have help in preparing work. I try to visit the homes of all the scholars, that I may know their condition and needs. This is one of the very best means of access to the people, and helps to fill up the Sunday-school with needy ones. I feel as much at home as if I had always lived here, and can go to any part of the city with perfect ease. I have visited Vineville, Unionville, East Macon, Tybee, Sandy Bottom, etc., the suburbs of the city.
There was one dear old colored aunty here who was sick for months, but always so tender and thoughtful of me that my visits were a comfort and even pleasure. She went home last week, after a blessed death, singing with her last breath: “I’se passed over Jordan! Hallelu! Hallelu!” I wouldn’t have believed that I should miss her as I do. I don’t find many like her.
I feel very grateful for the barrels that I have received; I have received one barrel from Boston, a cask and barrel from Newburyport, one from Wentworth, N. H., one from Chicago. I have written letters to nine different Sunday-schools, and keep up a constant correspondence with my own church and Sunday-school, also with the Ladies’ Society in it. This was at first a burden to me, but it becomes easier and more of a pleasure. I find I have made 150 calls during January, and though this is not a large number, still it implies a great many miles of walking. I often can make but one or two calls in half a day, the distances are so great and there is no way to ride. I have spent a great many hours in teaching children their A B C’s and reading to them. I carry primers with me and find plenty of teaching to do.