Mary S. Peake Part 3

On the 8th of August, 1861, a letter was addressed to Major-General Butler, then in command at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, by the treasurer of the American Missionary a.s.sociation, respecting the people whom he had denominated "contrabands." In this letter, the writer communicated to General Butler the wishes of some persons in the free states, that, as considerable embarra.s.sment was felt by the public authorities with regard to the increasing numbers of colored persons who had fled and were fleeing for protection to the forts and camps of the United States, they should be sent into the free states to obtain employment.

A prompt and courteous reply was received, and, in reference to the desire expressed, General Butler stated that the "contrabands" would be protected; that many of them would be employed in government service; that there was land enough to cultivate in Virginia; and as the freedmen would never be suffered to return into bondage, there was no necessity for sending any of them to the Northern States.

The executive committee of the a.s.sociation, feeling highly encouraged by these a.s.surances, at once determined to commence a mission at Fortress Monroe. Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood was commissioned as their first missionary to the freedmen. He repaired to Was.h.i.+ngton, where he received encouragement from the government, and recommendation to the commanding general, Wool, who had succeeded General Butler. General Wool received him cordially, heartily approved the plan, and afforded him all needful facilities.

Mr. Lockwood conferred with the leading persons among the freedmen, investigated the condition and wants of the people, made arrangements for week-day and Sabbath meetings, organized week-day and evening schools, employed several of the most intelligent and gifted colored people as a.s.sistants, and through the committee in New York made urgent appeals for clothing, &c., for the dest.i.tute, and also for additional missionaries and teachers.

The late lamented Mrs. Mary S. Peake was the first teacher employed.

She continued to teach as long as her health permitted, and near to the time of her decease. Other teachers have been employed; chaplains in the army and pious soldiers have proffered their occasional services, and the religious meetings, Sabbath schools, and week-day schools, have been well attended. Mr. Lockwood labored there thirteen months, and then removed to another field. In his final report, he states that he had ministered to a congregation at Hampton, where the average attendance was four hundred; and to a congregation at Fortress Monroe, where the average attendance was about the same.

A day school was kept in a house, near Hampton, formerly the residence of Ex-President Tyler, which was wholly given up for the use of the freedmen. This school was subsequently removed to the old Court House at Hampton, which had been fitted up for the purpose, government furnis.h.i.+ng a portion of the lumber. This school became the largest under the care of the freedmen's teachers, and numbered at one time five hundred scholars. Among the ruins of Hampton, which had, at an early period of the rebellion, been burned by the rebels, the colored people erected rude cottages, the materials being gathered from the vacated camps, the deserted dwellings of fugitive slaveholders, &c.

Such of the freedmen as were not employed by government have obtained a living by fis.h.i.+ng, oystering, huckstering, carting, was.h.i.+ng, &c.

INTERESTING FACTS.

Many highly interesting facts have been communicated with regard to the freedmen--their natural endowments, their facility in acquiring knowledge in letters and arms, their industrial habits, their shrewdness in business transactions, their grat.i.tude, their courage, their acquaintance with pa.s.sing events, their confidence that the result of the rebellion will be the liberation of their people, and their piety. Some of these facts have been extensively published, and have been read with high gratification. It is thought that a few of these facts may add to the value of this little publication.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A "CONTRABAND" SCHOOL.]

SCHOOLS FOR THE CHILDREN.

A young teacher at Hampton, Virginia, writes as follows: "When I first commenced the school here, I found the children such as slavery makes--quarrelsome, thievish, uncleanly in their persons and attire, and seemingly inclined to almost every species of wickedness; and it appeared to me that they were too far gone to be ever raised to any thing like intelligent children at the North. But I found that I had reckoned without my host in the persons of these children.

"At the end of the first week there was a decided improvement manifested, and in four weeks you hardly ever saw one hundred and fifty children more cleanly in their persons and apparel. Their lessons were, in most cases, quickly and correctly learned, and their behavior was kind and affectionate toward each other, while in singing the sweet little Sabbath school songs, I should not hesitate to put them side by side with the best of our Sabbath-school scholars at the North. And they so fully appreciate my humble efforts in their behalf, that my table in the school room is loaded, morning and noon, with oranges, lemons, apples, figs, candies, and other sweet things too numerous to mention, all testifying their love to me, although I can do so little for them."

Another teacher, at Beaufort, South Carolina, writes: "My school numbered about forty of the children. Most of them were very dirty and poorly dressed, all very black in color. A happier group of children I never expect to witness than those who composed my school: bright eyes, happy looks, kind and patient dispositions, made them look attractive to my eyes, though they were 'horribly black,' as some have called them, and very dirty at first. But they were so innocent, so despised by others, and withal so anxious to learn, that I felt a true sympathy for them.

"Their masters have kept them in darkness and degradation. This is only the result of slavery.

"They are very eager to learn. Every one wishes to be taught first; yet, unlike some white children, they are patient and willing to wait.

They do not easily tire of study, but are very diligent in getting their lessons. I have known them to teach each other, or sit alone and drill over a lesson for two hours at a time.

"Let me relate to you a little incident that will ill.u.s.trate what I have just said. One day, at Beaufort, soon after we landed, while walking through the upper portion of the town, I heard a little voice saying the alphabet, while another wee voice, scarcely audible, was repeating it after the first. I looked quickly around to discover from whence the voice came; and what do you think I saw? Why, seated on the piazza of a large empty house were two of the blackest little negro children, one about seven, the other not more than three years old.

The elder had his arm thrown lovingly around the almost naked form of the other, and with an open primer in the lap of one, they were at their study. An hour after, I returned by the same spot, and was both pleased and surprised to find them still at it. G.o.d bless the little ones!

"This desire, or rather eagerness, to learn to read, is manifested by all. I have stopped by the wayside many a time, and have immediately collected a group of old and young about me, and have made them repeat the alphabet after me slowly, letter by letter. They esteem it the greatest kindness I can show them, and as I turn to depart, the fervent 'G.o.d bless you, ma.s.sa,' 'Tank de Lord, ma.s.sa,' reach my ears."

MORALS OF THE FREEDMEN.

After the mission had been established, one of the officers' wives remarked to another, "I do not miss my things nowadays."

Nearly all the church members had taken the temperance pledge.

"They have their vices," writes a northern physician on one of the plantations on Port Royal Island; "deception and petty thieving prevail. They are careless, indolent, and improvident. They have a miserable habit of scolding and using authoritative language to one another. All these vices are clearly the result of _slave education_, and will gradually disappear under improved conditions.... If one is honest with them, and gets their confidence, the rest is easily accomplished."

MARRIAGE.

A very large portion, probably, at least, more than half of the "married" freed people, had been married only in slave fas.h.i.+on, by "taking up together," or living together by mutual agreement, without any marriage ceremony. The missionary proposed to such that they should be married agreeably to the usages in the free states. The leaders of the colored people were conversed with, and they, without exception, agreed as to the propriety of the measure. One, now advanced in life, said, that when he proposed to his companion to go to a minister and be lawfully married, she replied, "Oh, what use will it be? Master can separate us to-morrow." But he coincided fully in the propriety of the proposed course.

Mr. Lockwood, after preaching on the sanct.i.ty of the marriage relation, proceeded to unite in wedlock several couples, among whom were some who had lived together for years. He gave each of the parties a certificate, in handsome form, which they seemed to prize very highly. It appeared to have a most beneficial effect upon the parties themselves, and the whole population.

NATIVE ELOQUENCE.

Not a few of the freedmen, though illiterate, exhibit remarkable powers of eloquence. The missionary, in describing the address of one of them, after a discourse by the former, says, "The address was a masterpiece. It melted every heart. He appealed to the soldiers present who were in rebellion against G.o.d, striving to put down rebellion in this land, and asked them how they, who had been taught to read the Bible, and had learned the Lord's Prayer in infancy from a mother's lips, could stand in judgment, when a poor, despised, and inferior race, who, though denied the Bible, had been taught of G.o.d, and found their way to Christ, should rise up and condemn them. He then turned to his fellow 'contrabands,' and entreated them to embrace thankfully, and improve, the boon already given. He considered the present a pledge of the future--the virtual emanc.i.p.ation of fifteen or eighteen hundred the promise of the emanc.i.p.ation of four millions. The Lord works from little to great."

CHURCH MEETING.

The missionary wrote: "Last Thursday I had an opportunity to observe the intellectual state of a considerable number of the brethren at a church meeting. I was surprised at their understanding and wisdom in regard to church order and propriety, and tone of discipline. As the church records had been burned up in the church edifice at Hampton, I inquired how far any of them could recall their contents. One or two replied that they could almost repeat the church regulations from memory.

"In the discussion, high ground was taken in regard to the Sabbath, the temperance cause, and other matters of Christian morality. In discipline, stress was laid on the propriety and duty of private admonition, in its successive scriptural steps, before public censure.

On this point one brother said he had privately admonished a neighbor of the impropriety of taking articles to the camp on the Sabbath, and he had acknowledged his fault, and promised amendment. The duty of forgiving offenders, and undoing wrongs, was also insisted on. Several had been improperly excluded from church privileges through the influence of white power. It was, therefore, decided to-day that those who had the confidence of the church should be restored to church-fellows.h.i.+p unconditionally."

One of the members, and an aged leader, stated that he had on one occasion been seized by a white deacon, dragged down from the gallery, and threatened with thirty-nine lashes, because there was a little of the Methodist in his composition, and he had "got happy and shouted in meeting."

On another occasion, William Davis concluded some remarks as follows: "I hope that all of you, old and young, will learn to read, as I did.

When I was converted, I was anxious to learn to read G.o.d's book. I kneeled down by my book, [he here kneeled by the table,] and prayed that G.o.d would teach me to read it--if only a little, I would be thankful. And I learned, and you can if you will, for you have no one to hinder you, as I had. We should all show that we are worthy of freedom. Only educate us, and we will show ourselves capable of knowledge. Some say we have not the same faculties and feelings with white folks.... All we want is cultivation. What would the best soil produce without cultivation? We want to get wisdom. That is all we need. Let us get that, and we are made for time and eternity."