Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Sept. 1, 1903, edition 1 / Page 7
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Tuesday, September 1, 1903. THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER OUR SOCIAL CHAT VSe P?o" rSfe Farmer. Raleigh, rf. C. of Tbe Aunt Jennie's Letter. The article "For Editors. to Think About' on page 9 of last week's Progressive Farmer, is exceedingly timely and merots the most thought ful consideration. It is time that some brave spirit breast the tide and face the false friend who claims to cter to the literary appetite of the reading public. If the filth that fajjs its way into the daily press, and into many weeklies is really rel ished, who has caused it to he so? nice cow will learn to drink slops if you persist in giving her no clear water. Is it right or healthful for vou to consume quantities of lauda num just because you like it? Of course you know of the harmful effect on the human system. Could you tolerate the person whom you know was insiduously poisoning your child? Should you allow such person free, access to your home circle? Well, let me tell vou that vou are doing that very thing not in the form of a human being, it is strue, but to most young persons in a more enticing form of a 'new paper.' Most of us are hlest with curiosity and will read articles with big head lines, and sometimes (to our shame be it said) we are prone to hide behind the door or out on the porch anywhere in order that the members of the household may not see us reading so black an article. If we had a law compelling every such editor to use yellow paper for such vile print we would then know by its color what we were consuming and not he deceived into thinking that we were to satiate our appetites on pure milk and then sud denly realize that it is slops we are drinking. Human scanvengers we have with us, of course, whose ap petites call continually for putrid stuff, but can it be all our editors have come to the deliberate conclu sion that all of us are such and that they must deal u nauseating stuff at every meal I Why do they persist in compelling lls to swallow it? 7- , -endurance ceases to be a virtue s-metime. and I for one think that it is time to call a halt and demand a clean press. Knowledge of evil in creases the capacity for evil, and if the papers are not educating crimi nak then what are they doing? If manhood would assert iier prerog ative ami demand purity of the press. die would get it, for if in no other "a.v. we could simply say that such ad such papers are not fit for our h"ine circle, and have them stop mmp. Were we to take so deci lvc a step, think you there is an ed- ltr,r obtuse that his business, if ms innate sense of right, would lln 11 for a reform in the make l,P "f his paper ? If t every mother and father who r(ads this department in our paper rfad carefully every column of news paper matter that comes to the home r 011 week only and then they will realize, as perhaps they have not done hitherto, just what I mean by calling on them to help rectify this wrong that is being continually wrought, and let them ask themselves if they feel justified in allowing it to continue. News is news, of course, but no news is better than some we are forced to read. AUNT JENNIE. More Recollections of Negro Life. Dear Aunt Jennie: In my last communication I spoke of the South as a vast missionary field; that the ho mes of the slave holders were training- schools where the slaves were fitted for the various occupa tions of life. All that know the ne gro race are aware that they are very imitative and readily copy the man ner of the family to which they be long, not only in the use of language but even to the tone of voice. Gen erally the planters of the South were courtly in their manners, surpassing in this respect any people in the United States. When a small boy, I heard an old neighbor remark to my father that if a negro was taken and put in Judge Kuffin's family and permitted to associate with none else, he would still be a negro in his manner. In this the old man was mistaken. All the old negroes that I know retain the good manners of their early training. The old men doff their hats and make a courtsey bow and the old women drop a "courtesy" when addressing their superiors. Profanity was not common among the slaves. In Christian families moral training was not neg lected, and I am sure the moral con dition of the slaves was much better than that of the freedmen, as our court records will show. They were compelled to observe the Sabbath, and permitted to attend church on Thanksgiving and fast days, besides the regular services on each Sab bath. My father, who was a strict churchman, on such days and Sab bath mornings called his servants in to family prayers. In the year 1835 there was a law passed in North Carolina, prohibit ing the negroes from being taught to read and write. It was found that Northern emmissaries were travelling through the South, dis guised as peddlers, and were dissem inating abolition sentiment. Nat Turner's insurrection oc curred in Virginia in the year 1833, and one in Hayti a few years pre vious. This caused considerable alarm in sections where the slaves greatly outnumbered the whites. This. scare soon passed away, and in many families the negroes were stil taught to read by the white children. In my father's family I taught sev eral of the negroes to read. Charity, my mother's laundress, learned to read at Sunday-school, before 1835. Valentine, her husband, informed me that he was sent to school with his master's little children to take care of them and that he often re cited his lessons with the white chil dren. He at that time belonged to the elder Phileman Holt. I was a small boy and he well paid me for my services, giving me sometimes as much as two dollars! He and his wife learned to read quite well. He somehow obtained a geography and of this study he was very fond, soon learning the directions on the maps and names of the different States. Adroitly he would inquire which were the free States, and which the direction to them. Shortly before the war Dr. Thomas Griffis, who then owned him went to Texas. Quite a number of persons wished to buy him, as he was anxious to remain in North Carolina, and he was a val uable smith. Many good men great ly sympathized with him. His mas ter would not sell him. One of his friends, a prominent man, procured for him a free pass that had belonged to p free negro, who had died. (Prior to 1835 all free negroes were required to carry a pass with the county seal on it.) By the use of this, working as a journeyman blacksmith, a he reached Gallipolis, Ohio. Not feel ing secure there, on account of the fugitive slave law, he went to Can ada, where he remained-until after the war, when he returned to Colum bus, Ohio, and sent to North Caro lina for his wife and children. The negro, like Diotrephes,. loves pre-eminence. This he shows in all meetings where he is permitted to take a part. He is also very fond of exercising his authority over others whenever he is able. He makes a cruel taskmaster ,and as a foreman in slavery time, he often unmerci fully whipped those in his division. If Mrs. Stowe, instead of depicting Uncle Tom as helping those under him to perform their tasks, had rep resented him as chastizing them and compelling them to wait on him, she would have more trully delineated the negro character. The negro is very fond of showing his ability to speak in public. As the ministry affords the best opportunity for this and the qualifications required for this are not very high, many of them take to this profession. It may not be amiss to mention some of their efforts in the pulpit. Prior to the year 1835, when they were prohibi ted by public statute from speaking, churches of different denominations appointed negroes to exhort and preach to those of their own color. The Hawfields church session ap pointed Baker's Sam, and he was permitted to occupy the church on Sabbath nights. At his first appoint ment a large congregation of ne groes and quite a number of bad white boys assembled. Sam arose with great solemnity and com menced: "My disco'se to-night is founded on these words : Every tub must stand on its own bottom. Let every man chaw his own terbacker, and mind his own business." It was said to have been a very original ser mon. As u?;al i 'hose days he called up :K- moor .if rs. A number of the whi ' : ys niie forward and made the 3 uh' hid us with their groans and s oj.ihv. The negroes, be it said to rb-ir . lit, did not come forward. At 'hi-. Sam became very indignar and cie winced them bitterly, calling them 'ignorant gourd-headed, jug-taverned nig gers." His next effort was a funeral sermon on the death of a man who left a widow. In his discourse he remarked that "No doubt the dear departed was at that moment before the throne of God interceding for. the widder." He was arraigned for heterodoxy, and asked if he did not know that Christ was the only in tercessor? He answered yes! "Then why did you preach differently?" "I jes said dat for de comfort of de widder." Sam was stopped from ex ercising his gifts in public. About this time 'Squire George Mebane's Sam also preached. His sermon was on the judgment day, and was somewhat as follows : "Gabel will bio' his trumpet. He bio' so loud he crack de ground an' de dead come outen der graves. Den your eyes will shine like a highten' bug; you will tremble and your knees will knock together chickechack, like Marser George's cutting box. Immediately after the war our country was over run with negro preachers. One preached at Battle boro. A friend and myself went to hear him. A large number of negroes had gathered in the old cotton ware house. A small black negro arose and announced himself as divinely called and sent to preach to them that day. As to his call, he told the Lord he was not able to go; that he could not read and that if he did go he would be killed. The Lord com manded him to go and he would be with him. He was informed that men with guns and dogs lay in wait for him on the way, but the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall on them and he passed right through them and they did not wake, and he hadn't heard that they had waked up yet. He said he could not read a word, but it was all revealed to him. The design of his discourse was to prove that the negroes were the descend ants of Ishmel. He gave a very graphic account of the casting out of Hagar; that Haga's little boy laughed at Sarah's boy and that made Sarah mad and Sarah ran Ha gar with Ishmal off. , I think these notices of negro ser mons are sufficient. It must be said, however, that many negroes are good speakers to the amount of knowledge they possess. To discuss all the pe culiarities of the negro would re quire more space tjian could be given in an agricultural paper, v B. F. WHITE. Alamance Co., N. C. A Beautiful Resolution. It makes no kind of difference who said it, but some sensible man or woman wrote : , "Let us resolve, first, to cultivate the grace 'of silence; sec ond, to deem all fault-finding that does no good a sin, and to resolve, when we are ourselves happy, not to poison the atmosphere of our neigh bors by calling upon them to remark every painful and disagreeable fea ture in their daily life; third, to practice the grace and virtue of praise." Did we ever read anything more appropriate for these times? But we' will forget if we don't take care. Exchange. V
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 1, 1903, edition 1
7
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