Various

“ Fisk University to Africa have left behind them an enthusiasm for missionary work. The students are now praying and planning for the conversion of Africa by missionaries of their own color. There is nothing that so lifts up a people as a definite and high aim. These students justly feel that in this land, and abroad, there is work for them to do. A glorious future lies within their reach, and the fact stimulates them to faithful study and gives them Christian manliness, as could nothing else. ”

“ Our Sunday-school has always claimed our best efforts, and we are glad to know that more than two-thirds of our older scholars are professing Christians. But the work done is but a drop [177] compared with that which is not done. We have lived to see very many hopes and dreams fade out, and to learn that manhood and womanhood are not plants of the gourd family—Jonah’s kind, at least. The knowledge of what we have not done, and cannot do, is sometimes very hard to bear; and, perhaps, we have thus learned to do what we can the more gladly, feeling sure that we, ourselves, grow thereby. ”

“ Hundreds, who had engaged their passages months before, were left behind, for want of room. How long this enthusiasm will continue, and what may be the success of this first company, of course are questions to be answered by and by. We dare not venture any prophecy, either good or evil. It is an experiment, some features of which are not in the line of our ideas; but if, in the providence of God, it shall prove to be to Africa what the Pilgrim enterprise has been to America, we shall rejoice. ”

“ There are many children in our neighborhood who belong to our school, but we find it very difficult to get all, or the most of them, to attend school regularly. We have a pretty good average attendance, but do not at all times have the same scholars, which causes much discord and delay.
The children seem to be anxious to learn, but it is done in the midst of hardships which are uncommon to children in many other places. The older people are not as much interested in the education of their children as they should be, by a great deal. ”

“ As the Indian who could bring home from the war-path the most scalps, or from the hunt the greatest amount of venison or furs, was the man for chief; so the exhorter who could pick up the most texts of Scripture, and evolve from his own understanding the greatest amount of rhetoric, and with arrows of his own manufacture pierce the largest number of souls, was the minister by universal consent.
Schools do not make brains; they only develop and bring out what Nature implanted in a man. Leaders by the voice of God need not fear those made leaders by the voice of a theological seminary. ”

“ We starve and pinch the American Missionary Association, giving little more than $200,000 a year towards founding Christian schools, and planting Christian pulpits, among four million freedmen, in the pit of ignorance and degradation; we do little to speak of among the Celestial pagans on the Pacific slope; and our labor among the Indians is light. ”

“ We realize in how large a degree our success has been attributable to the faithful prayers of you and your fellow-students, sent up daily in our behalf from Fisk University; and let us assure you that while you are doing battle for the Master, by helping to lift the dark pall of barbarism and superstition which enshrouds our kinsmen, you, in like manner, will be sustained by the prayers of your fellow students, and warm, earnest Christian hearts, not only in our own native land, but in Great Britain, Holland and Germany. ”

“ We should prefer to have a different class of emigrants undertake this work, and lay the foundation of African civilization upon a broader foundation. Our object is to raise up men of intelligence, and sound and broad religious principle, for this work, and we naturally look with some anxiety to the effect of turning loose in Africa the freedman, as we find him in the South at present. We hope for the best, however, and shall pray for the success of the movement, that God may overrule all our fears, and make it for good. ”

“ The University students desirous of a school must first hunt up children who will agree to come; then secure the use of some little colored church at the cross-roads, or, perhaps, of a vacant log-cabin; then they must obtain permission of the county commissioner to teach the school. It evidently requires courage and resolution to succeed under such circumstances, and yet these students earn every summer, in from three to five months of teaching, about a hundred dollars apiece. Sometimes parents are willing and able to educate their children, without throwing them thus on their own resources. ”

“ In a word, our aim is Education, in its broadest and best meaning. The elevation, the prosperity, the highest manhood, and the co-ordinate rank of the African race in America, in the friendly rivalry of races, are still in the future—whether in the near or remote future, depends largely upon the race itself to determine. ”

“ As he warned us of the perils of a life without Jesus, and the depths of despair into which life’s trials could plunge a soul unsupported by the Everlasting Arms, his peaceful face and silvery hair assuring us he knew whereof he affirmed, some of us had rare glimpses into the blessed beyond. ”

“ Their social privileges in both cities are few or none at all, and some of them, for the sake of the work they are in, have refused tempting offers from Northern schools. They are teaching the colored race from a high sense of duty, and are filled with a missionary enthusiasm in their work. Often did the eye flash and the face glow, as they spoke of the trials and advancement of their pupils. ”

“ The mission of the Free and United Presbyterian Churches is in danger of being driven from its station at Livingstonia, on Lake Nyanza, by so insignificant an enemy as a fly. The bite of the tsetse, deadly to all domestic animals, has sadly impoverished them, impeded their industrial operations, and curtailed their usefulness in advancing the civilization of Africa. ”

“ We feel sure we could readily obtain 100 scholars if we had the accommodations.
The tribe has asked the Department to appropriate, from their funds in the United States Treasury, $6,000 for the erection of a suitable building.
We see the dreadful results, in other tribes around us, of allowing the youth to grow up, without education, in contact with the whites, learning their vices and not their virtues, and it makes us long to see something done to save this people from the blight which has fallen upon so many other tribes before them. ”

“ The discipline of these institutions is evidently giving the pupils rare qualities of earnestness and self-reliance. Undoubtedly those who have these qualities inborn are [167] the ones who are most likely to be in the schools. But once in the course of study, all the influences tend to develop a manly and persevering spirit. The students are accustomed every summer to scatter through the South, in search of schools. These, in most of the States, they do not find ready to their hand. There are few organized schools and few school-houses for the colored people outside the cities. ”

“ In South Africa another missionary institution has been endangered by the Caffre War, three English officials having been murdered not far away; while missionaries Smith and O’Neill, of the Church Missionary Society in Central Africa, have been killed by hostile natives, on their way back to Uganda, the capital of King M’tesa. We believe that our forces at Good Hope and Avery are not liable to any of these perils. The station is accessible and reached; no deadly venom is in the insect life around them, nor are there unfriendly nations near. ”

“ Without speculating upon the cause, certain it is that we find among the colored people of the Crescent City a quickness of intelligence, and a capacity for the best culture and the noblest development, and withal a thirst for knowledge, which is worthy of our best sympathy and most generous benevolence. ”

“ Some of my pupils have to come between two and three miles, and then cross a creek. I have a sewing-school for my girls once a week. I read to them, and teach them things to sing while they are sewing. They are to keep what they make. I have been teaching three-and-a-half months. The age of my scholars is from three-and-a-half to twenty-four years. I have enrolled thirty scholars, most of them very good, all anxious to learn. The people are very, very poor, and have real hard times in getting clothing, and keeping from starving. ”

“ Soon the scarlet-fever broke out, and before the close of the term twenty-three boarding scholars, and many of our day scholars, had been sent home on account of sickness.
The boarding scholars seem, generally, to be happy and contented with us, and eager to return at the opening of each new term; and their progress in their studies, and general deportment, is much greater than with the day scholars. The general interest, [183] also, of the tribe in the subject of education is greatly quickened. The boarding-school, with suitable accommodations, might be made a great blessing to the tribe. ”

“ We were greatly pleased at the piety of the students in both institutions. Most of them, particularly among the boarders, are earnest and consistent Christians. We were much moved at some of their prayers, they were so tender, earnest and child-like. The prayer of one of their number is still treasured up in the memory of the instructors. Jubilee Hall had just been completed. It seemed a paradise to the colored people. A farewell meeting was held in the old dingy barracks, in the centre of Nashville, where the school had hitherto met. ”

“ The cold weather has prevented many from coming out, but the prospect is that very soon the school will be crowded. A small sum is in hand, with which to purchase catechisms and lesson-papers.
New Orleans, La.—“The year has been in every way delightful and profitable. God has blessed us in every department of our work. Every month, and indeed every week, has brought some new expression of the Divine favor. Upon our catalogue, soon to be issued, between 280 and 300 names will appear, and they represent as good a class of students as were ever gathered in the University. ”

“ The youth who desire an education generally are obliged to secure the means themselves. We were much touched with the story of one young lady (as truly so as any in our Northern seminaries) , who, at the age of fourteen, determined to go to Fisk University, and went to teaching till she had earned the means. For five years she has been securing an education, paying her way by teaching every summer. ”

“ The African and the Indian meet at Hampton, to be trained together, to be intelligent citizens and Christians, and the teachers of their people. Thus the two races are brought face to face—“the two races whose past involves America’s greatest responsibilities; whose future, some of her hardest problems.”
It costs $115 to keep one of these Indian boys at Hampton for a year—that, with what he is able to earn by his labor. This amount has been pledged by individuals alone, or together, for the education of most of the number. ”

“ Our school aims to fit its graduates to be competent teachers. Forty-six have been engaged in the public schools of the State—schools first in rank, in scholarship, and discipline. Forty-one of the forty-six are teaching to-day; seventeen hold State certificates.
One young man of the class of 1872 is an ordained minister. He was also graduated at South Carolina University in 1877. Another from that class, and one from the succeeding class, are studying with the ministry in view—one at Madison University, New York, the other at Atlanta University, Georgia. ”

“ The education of these students is rapidly progressing. We must remember that most of them were born in slavery, and have learned to read since the war. A generation or two must pass before we can see the results of life-long training in schools. What we now see, however, is sufficiently surprising. It would be hard to find at the North better teachers or better schools than the two Universities of which we speak; and their influence over the pupils is marvelous. Many of the recitations were very fine. The normal training of Fisk University seemed to deserve special commendation. ”

“ One of the results to be anticipated from the establishment of new missionary stations in the interior of Africa, is the effect which such civilized settlements among the hunting-grounds of the slave-traders will have in suppressing that terrible evil. It is still the whole business of thousands to buy or steal Circassian, Abyssinian, and negro boys and, especially, girls. ”

“ In the first Indian Legislature after the treaty, a law was passed refusing to comply with the treaty; so that, in the land where they were born, and where they toiled in slavery to enrich their masters, they can own no land, cannot send their children to the nation’s schools, are not permitted to vote, and have no protection from, nor access to, the Indian courts of law. So, the big fish eat the little fish, all the way down. ”

“ Of course, many come to read the Bible only for the sake of learning the English, but in time we hope, when they know the truth of God, they will change their mind and heart, as some of them have already done, who are now on Christ’s side, battling for the Lord. ”

“ The Sabbath-school is prospering. We have no well qualified teachers as yet, but Twichell School is preparing instructors for this work. We need lesson papers and other papers. Who will help us in this direction? Our Band of Hope consists of both adults and children. This society is working hard to save men from a drunkard’s grave, and hell. It has much opposition to overcome. The rum-sellers and whisky-drinking church-people are its worst enemies.
Twichell School.—This school is held in the church, and is taught by the pastor. ”

“ Jurists of reputation and successful practice at the bar of Louisiana have kindly offered their services, with little hope of adequate compensation, and every facility is provided for young men of talent, who are attracted by the profession of the law, to fit themselves for honorable and successful practice. Regular graduates from this department, at the conclusion of a two years’ course of study, and a well sustained examination, are admitted to the bar of New Orleans, with authority to practice in all the courts of the Commonwealth. ”

“ Art. VIII. This society, in collecting funds, in appointing officers, agents and missionaries, and in selecting fields of labor, and conducting the missionary work, will endeavor particularly to discountenance slavery, by refusing to receive the known fruits of unrequited labor, or to welcome to its employment those who hold their fellow-beings as slaves. ”