Not long since in Alabama I came across certain ones which are types; and as types I present them. The environment which conditions their work and gives the color of it must needs be included. Situated among the hills of Eastern Alabama is a thickly settled community of people about two-thirds of whom are colored. It is in the County of Elmore, and bears the Indian name of Kowaliga. Being near the corner of two adjoining counties, it is a rural centre from which large numbers of children can be reached who ought to be educated, and who are anxious to "get an education" as their one chance in life, a chance which so far has been beyond them.
Kowaliga settlement is remote from any railroad and consists wholly of plantations. These plantations were formerly tilled by slaves, but since freedom came to those who gave their unrequited labor, the rich white planters have become poor and many of their sons now may be seen themselves following their plows, tilling the fields and driving mules instead of men. The country is fertile and repays intelligent tillage.
The American Missionary Association has been applied to repeatedly for help in this settlement of Kowaliga. Under the lead of two young college graduates, both of whom I had met while they were students at Fisk University, the colored people with great sacrifice had contributed building material and labor in the construction of a very substantial two-story building with attic and basement, which, however, is yet incomplete and unfurnished. The people with few exceptions, are extremely poor and very ignorant, and have an imperfect idea of what a school means with its proper appointments and teachers.
Kowaliga Industrial School.
In answer to the most urgent appeals of the two young educators, I arranged in my recent journeying in the South for a personal investigation. One of the former student acquaintances came for me in his "one horse shay" and with him as my courier and companion I rode through this rural district. I found that the white farmers are gradually leaving their plantations while the colored people are as gradually becoming land owners. Abandoned farms, which through poor culture have not paid the farmers for cultivation, can easily be secured by industrious colored people who are willing to deny themselves and work hard for an independent start in life.
The father of the young man whom I accompanied on my long ride through the country is one of these who has already won his success. His experience and achievement are typical in illustrating the trends and the probabilities.
Mr. J. A. Benson—at this present time forty-six years of age—was born a slave three miles from the great plantation which he now owns. When his owner's estate was divided he was a part of the property which fell to an heir in Talladega, Alabama. There as property he was sent, and there he worked as a slave until emancipation came. At the age of nineteen years, with a hundred dollars saved from his earnings as a free man he returned to his birthplace and purchased on credit 160 acres of land. His first year of crops gave him a handsome profit and soon he was able to pay for this land. Again he bought land, and again more year by year. Now I found him with his new house of twelve rooms nearly completed on the site of his old one, the construction of which was under the direction of a Negro contractor whose leading workman was a white man; a native of that same community. The mason who did the masonry was also a Southern white man. While engaged on this "job" both white men ate at the same table with the owner. In the "Merchant of Venice" we read of one who said, "I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you and so following, but I will not eat with you." Nevertheless there are times when "Necessity knows no law" and this was one of the times. It was the common opinion, however, that the excellent mason was much more expeditious than is common about his job, though he was working by the day. His work was completed in about one-half the usual time allowed for it. He stayed, not upon the order of his going. Doubtless a second experience would come with less self conquest than the first.
Mr. Benson began his independent life with his unpaid farm of 160 acres. Now he owns 3,000 acres of land paid for and without encumbrance, with the virtual ownership of a fine stream, at some points 500 feet wide, which for five miles runs through his extensive plantations. On this stream he has a brick yard, a saw mill, a grist mill and a cotton gin and compressing mill combined in one and operated by the water of this stream. The farm is worked on shares chiefly, the owner furnishing the land and the stock, the laborers dividing the products half and half.