The movement made a few years since on the part of a few leading ladies at the North to send forth female missionaries to labor in the homes of the poor and destitute colored people, and to assist otherwise for their temporal and spiritual improvement, has met with marked approval and encouraging success. We have commissioned eleven in all during the past year, and their reports have been full of interest. We believe the work they have been doing is a vital necessity, and that it should be extended as rapidly as may be consistent with the other interests we have in charge.
It is fitting before bringing to a conclusion the report of our operations among the Freedmen, that proper recognition be made of the improved sentiment among the whites at the South relative to our work. We entered the South with right principles. We did not inquire especially what was good policy, but what was required by justice, and what was consistent with righteousness. To promote these ends our missionaries were ready to sacrifice, if need be, their lives. They never advanced to retreat, but to conquer. Amidst hardship, ostracism and poverty, they toiled on; the Southern people watched them; little by little they came to recognize their worth; they saw massive structures rear themselves in choice locations in the great capital cities of the South. They were led to recognize the ability and integrity of the self-denying workers, who pursued their toilsome way in leading young Freedmen up to Christian manhood and womanhood; they saw church after church founded with a pure and educated ministry; some of the best of them ventured to visit the teachers and their schools. The work grew on. The children who had been under the care of leading white citizens in service or in household, exhibited the value of the work done so strikingly as to remove all doubt of the purpose and success of the teachers from the North. United States Senators, the Governors of States, Legislative bodies and companies of good men, out of interest, out of patriotism, out of curiosity sometimes, attended anniversary occasions, and lent their interest and gave their influence to promote the welfare of the institutions under our care. The result of it all has been to emphasize and establish the principles with which we started out, and to revolutionize the sentiment of many leading minds throughout the Southern country; and now halls of legislation and portions of the press of the South sparkle with sentiments that would do honor to Northern patriots, who battled early for the existence and success of this Association. Governor Brown of Georgia wins his election to the United States Senate after affirming before the Legislature, “We must educate the colored race. They are citizens, and we must do them justice.”
Governor Holliday, of Virginia, who lost an arm in the Confederate service, comes forward and makes good use of the other in expressive gestures while urging the claims of the colored people for education at the anniversary at Hampton.
General Humes, a Major-General in the Southern army, consents to give the oration at the anniversary of the Le Moyne Institute, and conveys assurances of the active sympathy of the best citizens of Memphis for the work carried on; while Dr. Atticus G. Haygood, the President of Emory College, bursts forth with the exclamation, “Suppose these Northern teachers had not come, that nobody had taught the negroes, set free and citizens, the South would have been uninhabitable by this time. Some may resent this; be it so, they resent the truth.”
The utterances of the press are not less significant. An editorial in the Memphis Appeal affirms: “The Southern States have too long stood aloof and allowed the stranger to do for the negro what they should have done themselves.” “There is but one thing for the people of the South to do, and this is, to throw themselves into the work of educating the negro. We must go forward, and must take the negro by the hand and make him feel that he is a part of the great column of the people.” The Nashville American, the most influential paper in the State, through its leading editor, in giving a report of the anniversary of Fisk University, goes on to say: “In the labor of regeneration of a race, no agency will have so high a place as this conservative school.” The Vicksburg Herald strikes another note on the gamut and illustrates a change of sentiment on this wise, in response to a narrow-minded, complaining correspondent: “We are heartily in favor of the South from the Potomac to the Rio Grande being thoroughly and permanently Yankeeized. Yankee energy, Yankee schools, Yankee cultivation, Yankee railroads and Yankee capital are badly needed in the South, and will be welcomed by every Southern progressive patriot.”
We believe there is nothing to hinder this tidal wave of better feeling from sweeping the entire South. For our part, we have only to hold on and press on.
AFRICA.
The development of the work among the Freedmen, the interest taken in African civilization by the most thoughtful people in the country at large, and the enthusiasm awakened among the blacks for the land of their ancestors, constantly remind us of the call we have for mission work in Africa. We have paid much attention to the consideration of this call. In accordance with the suggestion of the last Annual Meeting, we have appointed a Superintendent of African Missions, not only to supervise the work we have carried on so long on the West Coast, but to lay the foundations of the Arthington Mission on the Upper Nile. Great care was taken in selecting a Superintendent, resulting in the choice of Rev. Henry M. Ladd, the son of a missionary, who spent the first sixteen years of his life in the East, after which he came to this country, pursued a course of study and entered the ministry at Walton, N.Y. Mr. Ladd left America for the Mendi Mission in February, reaching the West Coast the last of March. He made a careful examination of the methods of missionary work at Freetown, Sierra Leone, under the care of our British brethren, and afterward proceeded to Good Hope Station, where we have a church and school. Mr. Ladd was accompanied to Africa by Mr. Kelly M. Kemp and his wife, from Lincoln University. A council was called at Good Hope Station for the ordination of Mr. Kemp, and representatives of the Shengay and other missions were present. It was thought advisable that Mr. A. E. White, who had acted as teacher at this point, should return to America. He has since done so, and at present is pursuing his studies at Oberlin College, with a view of preparing himself for better service on the mission field. Mr. Nurse also retired from the mission, giving place to Bro. Kemp, whose experiences and education rendered himself a desirable person as pastor over the church at this point. After arranging details of affairs at Good Hope, Mr. Ladd visited the Avery Station, and was encouraged by the good work under the supervision of Mr. Jackson at this inland station.
Our saw-mill, being the only one on the coast, can be brought into service constantly. Logs are plentiful in the neighborhood, and the people are willing to work. The coffee farm at Avery shows signs of progress, and very soon we may hope for a yield that will test the value of the experiment. The church and school have been kept up, much attention being given in the church to rigorous discipline, where the members had inclined too strongly toward the barbarous customs of the heathen about them. We have long felt the need of a business superintendent to manage the affairs of the mill and farm at Avery, to take care of the property at Good Hope and Debia, and to keep the temporary home at Freetown in readiness for the missionaries on their way to and fro. Mr. I. J. St. John, a man of considerable experience in business affairs, has been appointed to fill this position. In common with other missionary societies, laboring for the redemption of Africa, we find that where there are no roads or domestic animals, but many rivers, a suitable steamer would be quite serviceable in promoting the interests of our civilizing operations, and in adding to the comfort of our missionaries. We believe we ought to provide such a steamer for the Mendi Mission as early as possible, and our appeals are already out for $10,000 as a special fund for this purpose.