The same lesson is just now being diligently conned by the Indians. Carl Schurz, in his speech at Hampton, declared that the Indians were discovering that they must work or starve, that hunting would no longer support them, and that the land must be cultivated for food. A similar truth was uttered by “Bear’s Heart,” an Indian youth, who made an interesting address in broken English on the same occasion. Said he: “Before I come here, I play; my mother and sisters work. When I go back, my mother and sisters do housework: I dig the ground”—a purpose which was loudly applauded. An amusing story is told of a certain great General who is supposed to sympathize with the barbarous sentiment, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.” Driving out from Fortress Monroe to examine the progress of the Indians at Hampton, he was inveighing against them, and declaring vehemently that they could not be taught to work, when he cast his eyes on a field belonging to the Institution, and there were ten Indian boys vigorously hoeing corn.
As to property, the desire is coming to be very strong among both Indian and colored for the possession of land. It is well known that many Indians on Western reservations are seeking an ownership of land in severalty. A similar desire has long stimulated the colored man. We had the honor of talking with a man of unmixed negro blood, who owns in fee simple, about twenty miles from Norfolk, a good farm of 171 acres. He and a friend purchased together an estate of 342 acres of woodland, paying $1,300 for it. He took one-half, paid in cash $200, which he had saved up during the war, and the remainder in three years. He has since fairly stocked his farm, built him a little house, comfortably fed his family off his farm, and secured about a hundred dollars a year in cash. When we met him, he was on the way to Hampton to see his son graduate with valedictory honors. Geo. Sykes, of Lake Drummond, Va., is a man whose name deserves to go on record. Mr. Sykes affirms that eight years ago he was the first colored man in his township who owned land. Now twenty-five own from five to thirty acres each, and have their deeds without encumbrance, while twenty-five others have bought land and are paying for it.
As to self-help, we heard the most encouraging words from speakers on graduation day. “We must stand on our own feet,” said one speaker, “and must not trust alone to missionary societies or State or individual aid.” “No talk,” he added, “will make me equal to other men, but I must equal them, if at all, by my own exertions.” A striking instance of self-help is more conclusive testimony. We conversed with a certain young Hampton graduate who gave us a remarkable history. He was an orphan. After saving up $125 by farm work, he went to Hampton for study, receiving no aid, and working summers. At the end of two years, he found he had not more than forty dollars left, so he went to teaching. But he was paid only in orders on the State Treasury, which he could not get cashed except at a discount of generally twenty per cent. With business wisdom, he secured a living by farm-work in summer, saved up his orders on the Treasury, till at the end of three years the State cashed them in full, and then he went back and graduated. Not even Dr. Goodell, of missionary fame, carrying his trunk on his back to Andover for the sake of an education, showed more heroism than this colored boy.
The colored people’s desire for education has long been known, and the incident just related well illustrates it. The same spirit appears in the support of the “Butler School,” situated on the grounds of the Institute, and taught by its graduates. The State of Virginia furnishes funds to keep this school open only five months; but the parents of the children, finding employment in a canning establishment on the Institution’s property, gladly pay ten cents a week for each child from their slender wages, and so keep the school open the rest of the year.
As to responsibilities, the colored students recognize their duties as leaders of their people. Some of them who would gladly be teachers have found that orders on the State Treasury, subject to ten or twenty per cent. discount for cash, are not very remunerative, and are looking in other directions for employment. Undoubtedly, as skillful farmers and successful merchants, no less than as teachers, they can elevate their people. But at Hampton, a stalwart black man, in a post-graduate address, gave the students a ringing exhortation not to desert, because of its hardships, the vocation of a teacher, “which,” said he, turning to President Hayes, who sat before him, “is a nobler position than even that of President of the United States.” The responsibilities of the negro for village improvements in the South and for the evangelization of Africa were points dwelt upon by other speakers.
We listened with peculiar interest to references made in the graduating addresses to the relation of the colored man to other races. It was pleasing to see the kind and forgiving spirit manifested. No bitterness was shown either publicly or privately because colored teachers had failed to secure their pay. An interesting essay on “The Advantage of Disadvantages” referred to their ill-treatment in the past, with no word of reproach. One speaker advanced the sentiment that the colored man need not feel specially troubled at his past deprivation of political privileges; that it was better for him not to have much influence in government until he had become fitted to exercise that influence wisely. Other like utterances were made, full of patience, modesty, loyalty, hopefulness and a worthy ambition.
As to religion, everything is most encouraging. We attended a revival meeting in a neighboring church, which was conducted with great decorum and genuine feeling, entirely different from the wild hurly-burly of war times. The students of the Institute are carefully trained in religious truths, and it is seldom that a graduate goes out who is not a sincere Christian. The spirit of the anniversary exercises was that of a deep, but unostentatious piety. The same influence is exerted among the Indians. We were told a touching story of “Walking Cloud,” an Indian boy whom nothing could move from his stolidity and his unwillingness to put away the badges of his barbarism—his blanket and long hair—till the chaplain of the Institution showed him a picture of Christ on the cross and explained its meaning. This boy, soon afterward taken sick and dying, gave expression in the peculiar metaphoric speech of his race to his desire to live a Christian life.
We are abundantly satisfied that these noble institutions through the South, of which Hampton is one of the best-known and most efficient, are surely and not so very slowly re-shaping the races which are under their influence. We think there was abundant reason for Governor Long, of Massachusetts, in his address at Hampton, to use these words: “Horace Greeley was wont to say that the way to resume is to resume, and so we would say, the way to solve the race problem in this country is to solve it;” and this is what the Hampton Institute is doing.