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THE FREEDMEN'S RECORD
VOL. I., No. 3
BOSTON, MARCH, 1865.
"THE FREEDMEN'S RECORD" is published monthly, and is the organ of the NEW-ENGLAND FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY.
All communications for or relating to the "RECORD" should be addressed to Rev. M. G. KIMBALL, 8, Studio Building, Boston; and must be accompanied by the name and address of the writer.
Terms per annum, $1.00 in advance; single copies, 10 cents.
GENERAL SHERMAN AND THE FREEDMEN.GREAT injustice has been done to Gen. Sherman by some of the friends of the negro. There is no evidence as yet, that he is a friend of negro colonization, in any odious sense of the term. With thousands of the freed people—not only men able to do military service, but women and children— flocking to his standard, what else could he do with them, than what he has done? He could not keep them in his camp, nor send them back.
Nor is his order which seems to banish white men from the points occupied by the freedmen apparently caused by any other than the benevolent desire to protect them against white speculators and adventurers. We have abundant reason for knowing, that the order was not intended to apply to teachers accredited by our own and similar associations. What perhaps is even more to the point is, that Gen. Saxton has been appointed to the charge of the freedmen, with full powers. What better guaranty could their friends ask, that a policy wise and humane will be pursued?
The freedman compared with the educated white man is a child needing instruction and guidance. He needs to be protected for a time against the unscrupulous and designing. But it will not be well for him to be treated like a hot-house plant, the wide fields of competition as well as of toil shut out from him. He must learn from the white men, who are his superiors at least in the acquirements of a better training. He must unlearn much : not only the vices of slavery, but its shiftlessness and improvidence. He must unlearn not only old ideas that freedom from work is a blessing; but also old ways of doing work with clumsy implements, and sluggish effort, not caring to do it better. The Southern freeman must see how Northern freemen work, and learn by their example how much better, more profitable, intelligent and energetic labor is, than that which he has learned; and which, without this spur, he will be likely to be content with. To these ends he needs contact with, and not isolation from, those who are to be his teachers.
That Gen. Sherman holds any views opposite to these is not apparent. He has shown his characteristic good judgment in selecting, to carry out his intentions, one who is not a mere soldier, with no interest or faith in the negro; and, on the other hand, not a mere philanthropist, to whom the negro is an ideal, if not a faultless, personage. We are confident that neither the freedmen nor their friends will have reason to question the wisdom of this appointment.
"DIDN'T WE TELL YOU SO?" Thus ask some persons, when told of the destitution of the freedmen. Didn't we always prophesy, that, if they were turned loose upon the community, they will starve? And this is supposed, strangely enough, not only to be indirectly a defence of a system, which, it is assumed, incapacitates men for self-support, but as a proof of the hopeless incapacity and degradation of the negro race.
But are there no white people fit the South, who in these days, these exceptional days, need Northern assistance? Are those in Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia, for whom subscriptions have been taken up in our cities and towns, all black men? Are there no white masters, who in these times are "turned loose upon the community?" and who find it hard to make a living;" harder even than
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their black servants, who, unlike them, have learned to labor?
No one who is familiar with what has been exhibited at Port Royal, Norfolk, Nashville, and on the banks of the Mississippi, of the willingness of the negroes to work for moderate wages, believes that their present needs will be permanent. At first, the negro oftentimes feels as if freedom were another name for idleness; but as he gradually learns, under the stringent regulations of government, which furnishes rations only to the workers, and from the inculcations of his white teachers, that this is a mistake ; as he learns, more especially, that new wants can only be supplied by labor, he becomes as industrious, to say the least, as his white neighbors. Indeed, Dr. Eliot of St. Louis says on this point, that, owing mainly to different previous habits of labor, the question, what will become of the poor blacks? is not nearly so difficult as the other question, what is to become of the poor whites?
It cannot be too often repeated by those who appeal to the public for aid for the freedmen, that it is only for temporary exigencies, that this class need or will need assistance.
We would commend to the attention of those who knew how it would be, and who would be very likely from this text to speak especially of the destitute condition of the Georgia and the Washington negroes these facts, viz.: that scarcely had Sherman occupied Savannah, than the free negroes had a public meeting; took measures to establish schools, without the assistance of any white men; chose, for the superintendent of schools, a colored man who had been secretly a teacher during the past year; and subscribed on the spot, to pay expenses, one thousand dollars in the United-States currency; and that in Washington, where perhaps, to a superficial observer, the prospects of the colored man's elevation seem most depressing, the colored people of the District of Columbia paid in 1862 taxes on real estate valued at six hundred and fifty thousand dollars; (three thousand six hundred dollars of the amount paid going to support of schools devoted exclusively to the education of white children!)
Is it too sanguine to hope that in what these freedmen of many years standing have effected, we may see what these freedmen of a few months or weeks will one day do! Perhaps not many years will pass, when their friends, pointing to manifold evidences of their progress in the arts of life, shall be able to say, " Didn't we tell you so ?"
MOSES.
ONE of the teachers lately commissioned by the New-England Freedmen's Aid Society is probably the most remarkable woman of this age. That is to say, she has performed more wonderful deeds by the native power of her own spirit against adverse circumstances than any other. She is well known to many by the various names which her eventful life has given her; Harriet Garrison, Gen. Tubman, &c.; but among the slaves she is universally known by her well-earned title of Moses,— Moses the deliverer. She is a rare instance, in the midst of high civilization and intellectual culture, of a being of great native powers, working powerfully, and to beneficent ends, entirely unaided by schools or books.
Her maiden name was Araminta Ross. She is the granddaughter of a native African, and has not a drop of white blood in her veins-She was born in 1820 or 1821, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her parents were slaves, but married and faithful to each other, and the family affection is very strong. She claims that she was legally freed by a will of her first master, but his wishes were not carried into effect.
She seldom lived with her owner, but was usually " hired out " to different persons. She once "hired her time," and employed it in rudest farming labors, ploughing, carting, driving the oxen, &c, to so good advantage that she was able in one year to buy a pair of steers worth forty dollars.When quite young she lived with a very pious mistress; but the slaveholder's religion did not prevent her from whipping the young girl for every slight or fancied fault. Araminta found that this was usually a morning exercise ; so she prepared for it by putting on all the thick clothes she could procure to protect her skin. She made sufficient outcry, however, to convince her mistress that her blows had full effect; and in the the afternoon she would take off her wrappings, and dress as well as she could. When invited into family prayers, she preferred to stay on the landing, and pray for herself; " and I prayed to God," she says, "to make me strong and able to fight, and that's what I've allers prayed for ever since." It is in vain to try to persuade her that her prayer was a wrong one. She always maintains it to be sincere and right, and it has certainly been fully answered. In her youth she received a severe blow on
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her head from a heavy weight thrown by her master at another slave, but which accidentally hit her. The blow produced a disease of the brain which was severe for a long time, and still makes her very lethargic. She cannot remain quiet fifteen minutes without appearing to fall asleep. It is not refreshing slumber; but a heavy, weary condition which exhausts her. She therefore loves great physical activity, and direct heat of the sun, which keeps her blood actively circulating. She was married about 1844 to a free colored man named John Tubman, but never had any children. Owing to changes in her owner's family, it was determined to well her and some other slaves ; but her health was so much injured, that a purchaser was not easily found. At length she became convinced that she would soon be carried away, and she decided to escape. Her brothers did not agree with in her plans; and she walked off alone, following the guidance of the brooks, which she had observed to run North. The evening before she left, she wished very much to bid her companions farewell, but was afraid of being betrayed, if any one knew of her intentions; so she passed through the street singing, —
" Good bye, I 'm going to leave you,
Good bye, I'll meet you in the kingdom," —and similar snatches of Methodist songs As she passed on singing, she saw her master, Dr Thompson standing at his gate, and her native humor breaking out, she sung yet louder, bowing down to him, —
" Good bye, I'm going for to leave you "
He stopped and looked after her as she passed on, and he afterwards said, that, as her voice came floating back in the evening air it seemed as if—
" A wave of trouble never rolled
Across her peaceful breast."Wise judges are we of each other! — She was only quitting home, husband, father, mother, friends, to go out alone, friendless and penniless into the world.
She remained two years in Philadelphia working hard and carefully hoarding her money. Then she hired a room, furnished it as well as she could, bought a nice suit of men's clothes, and went back to Maryland for her husband. But the faithless man had taken to himself another wife. Harriet did not dare venture into her presence, but sent word to her husband where she was. He declined joining her. At first her grief and anger were excessive. She said, "she did not care what massa did to her, she thought she would go right in and make all the trouble she could, she was determined to see her old man once more, " but finally she thought " how foolish it as just for temper to make mischief," and that, " if he could do without her, she could without him," and so ' he dropped out of her heart," and she determined to give her life to brave deeds. Thus all personal aims died out of her heart, and with her simple brave motto, "I can't die but once," she began the work which has made her Moses, — the deliverer of her people. Seven or eight times she has returned to the neighborhood of her former home, always at the risk of death in the most terrible forms, and each time has brought away a company of fugitive slaves, and led them safely to the free States, or to Canada. Every time she went, the dangers increased. In 1857 she brought away her old parents, and, as they were too feeble to walk, she was obliged to hire a wagon, which added greatly to the hazards of the journey. In 1860 she went for the last time, and among her troop was an infant whom they were obliged to keep stupefied with laudanum to prevent its outcries. This was at the period of great excitement, and Moses was not safe even, in New York State , but her anxious friends insisted upon her taking refuge in Canada. So various and interesting are the incidents of these journeys, that we know not how to select from them She has shown in them all the characteristics of a great leader, courage, foresight, prudence, self-control, ingenuity, subtle perception, command over others' minds. Her nature is at once profoundly practical and highly imaginative. She is economical as Dr Franklin, and as firm in the conviction of supernatural help as Mahomet. A clergyman once said, that her stones convinced you of their truth by their simplicity as do the gospel narratives. She never went to the South to bring away fugitives without being provided with money, money for the most part earned by drudgery in the kitchen, until within the last few years, when friends have aided her. She had to leave her sister's two orphan children in slavery the last time, for the want of thirty dollars. Thirty pieces of silver, an embroidered handkerchief or a silk dress to one, or the price of freedom to two orphan children, to another! She would never allow more to join her than she could properly care for
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though she often gave others direction by which they succeeded in escaping. She always came in the winter when the nights are long and dark, and people who have homes stay in them. She was never seen on the plantation herself; but appointed a rendezvous for her company eight or ten miles distant, so that if they were discovered at the first start she was not compromised though she often gave others directions by which they succeeded in escaping. She always came in the winter when the nights are long and dark, and people who have homes stay in them. She was never seen on the plantation herself; but appointed a rendezvous for her company eight or ten miles distant, so that if they were discovered at the first start she was not compromised. She started on Saturday night; the slaves at that time being allowed to go away from home to visit their friends, — so that they would not be missed until Monday morning. Even then they were supposed to have loitered on the way, and it would often be late on Monday afternoon before the flight would be certainly known. If by any further delay the advertisement was not sent out before Tuesday morning, she felt secure of keeping ahead of it; but if it were, it required all her ingenuity to escape. She resorted to various devices, she had confidential friends all along the road. She would hire a man to follow the one who put up the notices, and take them down as soon as his back was turned. She crossed creeks on railroad bridges by night, she hid her company in the woods while she herself not being advertised went into the towns in search of information. If met on the road, her face was always to the south, and she was always a very respectable looking darkey, not at all a poor fugitive. She would get into the cars near her pursuers, and manage to hear their plans. By day they lay in the woods; then she pulled out her patchwork, and sewed together little bits, perhaps not more than inch square, which were afterwards made into comforters for the fugitives in Canada.
The expedition was governed by the strictest rules. If any man gave out, he must be shot. " Would you really do that ?" she was asked. "Yes," she replied, "if he was weak enough to give out, he'd be weak enough to betray us all, and all who had helped us; and do you think I'd let so many die just for one coward man." "Did you ever have to shoot any one" was asked. "One time," she said, "a man gave out the second night; his feet were sore and swollen, he couldn't go any further; he'd rather go back and die, if he must." They tried all arguments in vain, bathed his feet, tried to strengthen him, but it was of no use, he would go back. Then she said, "I told the boys to get their guns ready, and shoot him. They'd have done it in a minute; but when he heard that, he jumped right up and went; on as well as any body." She can tell the time by the stars, and find her way by natural signs as well as any hunter; and yet she scarcely knows of the existence of England or any other foreign country.
When going on these journeys she often lay alone in the forests all night. Her whole soul was filled with awe of the mysterious Unseen Presence, which thrilled her with such depths of emotion, that all other care and fear vanished. Then she seemed to speak with Her Maker " as a man talketh with his friend ;" her childlike petitions had direct answers, and beautiful visions lifted her up above all doubt and anxiety into serene trust and faith. No man can be a hero without this faith in some form; the sense that he walks not in his own strength, hut leaning on an almighty arm. Call it fate, destiny, what you will, Moses of old, Moses of to-day, believed it to be Almighty God.
She loves to describe her visions, which are very real to her; but she must tell them word for word as they lie in her untutored mind, with endless repetitions and details; she cannot shorten or condense them, whatever be your haste. She has great dramatic power; the scene rises before you as she saw it, and her voice and language change with her different actors. Often these visions came to her in the midst of her work. She once said, "We'd been carting manure all day, and t'other girl and I were gwine home on the sides of the cart, and another boy was driving, when suddenly I heard such music as filled all the air;" and, she saw a vision which she described in language which sounded like the old prophets in its grand flow; interrupted now and then by what t'other girl said, by Massa's coming and calling her to wake up, and her protests that she wasn't asleep.
One of her most characteristic prayers was when on board a steamboat with a party of fugitives: The clerk of the boat declined to give her tickets, and told her to wait. She thought he suspected her, and was at a lose how to save herself and her charge, if he did; so she went alone into the bow of the boat, and she says, "I drew in my breath, and I sent it out to the Lord, and I said, O Lord ! you know who I am, and whar I am, and what I want; and that was all I could say; and again I drew in my breath and I sent it out to the Lord, but that was all I could say ; and then again the third time, and just then I felt a touch on my shoulder, and looked round, and the clerk said,'Here's your tickets.'"
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Her efforts were not confined to the escape of slaves. She conducted them to Canada, watched over their welfare, collected clothing, organized them into societies, and was" always occupied with plans for their benefit. She first came to Boston in the spring of 1859, to ask aid of the friends of her race to build a house for her aged father and mother. She brought recommendations from Gerrit Smith, and at once won many friends who aided her to accomplish her purpose. Her parents are now settled in Auburn, and all that Harriet seems to desire in reward for her labors is the privilege of making their old age comfortable. She has a very affectionate nature, and forms the strongest personal attachments. She has great simplicity of character; she states her wants very freely, and believes you are ready to help her; but if you have nothing to give, or have given to another, she is content. She is not sensitive to indignities to her color in her own person ; but knows and claims her rights. She will eat at your table if she sees you really desire it; but she goes as willingly to the kitchen. She is very abstemious in her diet, fruit being the only luxury she cares for. Her personal appearance is very peculiar. She is thoroughly negro, and very plain. She has needed disguise so often, that she seems to have command over her face, and can banish all expression from her features, and look so stupid that nobody would suspect her of knowing enough to be dangerous; but her eye flashes with intelligence and power when she is roused. She has the rich humor and the keen sense of beauty which belong to her race. She would like to dress handsomely. Once an old silk dress was given her among a bundle of clothes, and she was in great delight. "Glory!" she exclaimed; " didn't I say when I sold my silk gown to get money to go after my mother, that I'd have another some day?" She is never left in a room with pictures or statuary that she does not examine them and ask with interest about them.
I wish it were possible to give some of her racy stories; but no report would do them justice. She gives a most vivid descripti6n of the rescue of a slave in Troy. She fought and struggled so that her clothes were torn off her; but she was successful at last. Throughout all she shouted out her favorite motto. "Give me liberty or give me death," to which the popular heart never fails to respond. When she was triumphantly bearing the man off, a little boy called out, "Go it, old aunty!you're the best old aunty the fellow ever had," She is perfectly at home in such scenes; she loves action; I think she does not dislike fighting in a good cause; but she loves work too, and scorns none that offers.
She said once, just before the war, when slavery was the one theme agitating the country, — "they say the negro has no rights a white man is bound to respect; but it seems to me they send men to Congress, and pay them eight dollars a day, for nothing else but to talk about the negro."
She says, "the blood of her race has called for justice in vain, and now our sons and brothers must be taken from our hearts and homes to bring the call for justice home to our hearts." She described a storm; "but the thunder's from the cannon's mouth, and the drops that fall are drops of blood."
She was deeply interested in John Brown; and it is said, that she was fully acquainted with his plans, and approved them. On the day when his companions were executed, she came to my room. Finding me occupied, she said, "I am not going to sit down, I only want you to give me an address;" but her heart was too full, she must talk. " I've been studying and studying upon it," she said, " and its clar to me, it wasn't John Brown that died on that gallows. When I think how he gave up his life for our people, and how he never flinched, but was so brave to the end; its clar to me it wasn't mortal man, it was God in him. When I think of all the groans and tears and prayers I've heard on the plantations, and remember that God is a prayer-hearing God, I feel that his time is drawing near." Then you think, I said, that God's time is near. "God's time is always near," she said; "He gave me my strength, and he set the North star in the heavens; he meant I should be free." She went on in a strain of the most sublime eloquence I ever heard; but I cannot repeat it. Oh how sanguine and visionary it seemed; then! but now four little years, and Maryland is free by her own act, and the bells are ringing out the declaration, that slavery is abolished throughout the land; and our Moses may walk, no longer wrapped in darkness, but erect and proud in her native State; and the name of him who was hung on the gallows is a rallying cry for victorious armies; and the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. What shall we fear whose eyes have seen this salvation?
When the war broke out Harriet was very
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anxious to go to South Carolina to assist the contrabands. The only condition she made was, that her old parents should be kept from want. It was wonderful to see with what shrewd economy she had planned all their household arrangements. She concluded that thirty dollars would keep them comfortable through the winter. She went to Port Royal, and was employed by Gen. Hunter, in scouting service, and accompanied Col. Montgomery in his expedition up the Combahee river. She was afterwards engaged by Gen. Saxton, to take a number of freed women under her charge, and teach them to do the soldiers' washing. She has also been making herb-medicine for the soldiers, which she gives away gratuitously, feeling it to be impossible to receive money from sick soldiers; and she has made cakes and pies for sale, in the intervals of other work.She has had no regular support from Government; and she feels that she must have some certain income, which she wishes to apply to her parents' support. This society consider her labors too valuable to the freedmen to be turned elsewhere, and have therefore taken her into their service, paying her the small salary of ten dollars per month that she asks for. She is not adopted by any branch as she could not fulfil the condition of correspondence with them. She says, when the war is over she will learn to read and write, and then will write her own life. The trouble in her head prevents her from applying closely to a book. It is the strong desire of all her friends that she should tell her story in her own way at some future time. We think it affords a very cogent answer to the query, " Can the negro take care of himself? "
NOTE. — Some of the statements in this sketch are taken from a notice of Harriet Tubman in "The Commonwealth" of July 17, 1863.
WORCESTER FREEDMEN'S RELIEF SOCIETY.— We have received the report of this enterprising local society for the month of January by which it appears they have received $1.471.46, and expended $1.296.78. They have forwarded forty-two and a half barrels of new and second-hand clothing and bedding, six boxes of shoes, and two boxes of groceries and articles for the sick.
The officers of this society are, Mrs. I. Washburn, President; Mrs. J. Davis, Vice-President: Mrs. Theodore Brown, Secretary; Mrs. Edward Earle, Treasurer.
MINISTERS AND CHURCHES AND THE FREEDMEN.
MINISTERS and parishioners of even wealthy societies, sometimes hesitate when asked to appeal to congregations for aid in our cause. What can we do? they ask. Here is what some others have done, showing how, sometimes at least, it is safe to trust generous impulses. The Sunday after news of the distress among Sherman's freedmen came to our city, a parishioner of the West Church in Boston requested the congregation to remain after service, laid the matter before them, and a subscription of seventeen hundred dollars was taken up on the spot. At another church in Jamaica Plain, the minister suggested that those who were in the habit of remaining at home on Sunday afternoons, could not do better than to collect garments for the poor negroes. The result of the appeal was some twelve barrels of clothing, and nearly two Hundred dollars in money. Another minister in Taunton sent us one hundred and fifty; and several others, without taking up a subscription at the time, spoke earnest words, the results of which, we are sure, were seen in the sums sent to our office subsequently.
A COLORED speaker at the A. S. Convention, said of his race, " We are not revengeful, we are always looking for a better day." Is not this the true secret of the forbearance and long suffering of the African race, and also of the generous spirit they have shown towards their former masters'! They do not dwell in the past; they are imaginative, hopeful; their future is before them. The slave wishes to escape from bondage that he may begin a new life, "forgetting those things which are behind."
A distinguished anatomist says, " the negro is a young race, the North American Indian an old worn-out race," so the Indian gloomily frowns over his lost past, but the child-like negro smilingly welcomes a possible future.
We expect all possible mistakes and shortcomings in our children, excesses of youth, selfishness, lying even; but still we hope also that these faults will be left behind them as they advance: and so it is with the freedman ; long periods of discipline and trial, of work and of suffering will necessarily be his lot: but they will serve to educate him, and his very mistakes will give him a new incentive to greater effort and higher progress.
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EXTRACTS FROM TEACHERS' LETTERS.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Feb. 8,1865.
THE military force is so small here now, that the rebels are giving us some annoyance. Dickinson's band of cavalry, about two hundred strong, is in this vicinity, and have recently captured several small parties of our soldiers, amounting, in all, to over a hundred men.
Our Schools are in a flourishing condition; we have an average attendance of one hundred and sixty. I have organized a sewing-school,—the children bringing such work as they have, — and we teach them to mend, and patch, and the older ones to cut by patterns, which we prepare for them. It is an interesting sight to see my sewing-school; and the delight of the smaller ones, who are being initiated into the mysteries of making rag babies, is comical to see. It is the best I can do, we have so little to do with besides. I have great faith in the knowledge which comes to children through their dolls.
Last Saturday, I visited thirty-seven different families, white and black, in town. I wish I could give you some idea of the difference between the two, — equally poor, equally dirty and destitute! The whites, have a hopeless, listless appearance; and no words of encouragement or cheer seem to reach them. They do not hesitate to beg, and are full of complaints. There is no elasticity in them; with the blacks, it is just the opposite: they are cheerful, willing to work, do not beg or complain, and are far more hopeful objects to labor for.
I ought not to have said they are equally dirty; some of them are; but we have many colored families here who are patterns of neatness; and I make them all "cleanup," once a week, or as often as I go amen" them, which they do cheerfully, and are improving much in this respect.
The health of the place is remarkably good at this time.
ESTHER H. HAWKES.
NEWBERN, Feb. 11, 1865.
NEW YEAR'S day being on Sunday, the celebration was the day following. I had told my children to be there at nine, and I would come and help them start in good order. At the time appointed, I went to the church, and found my scholars shivering in the street; and, on asking why they did not go in, found that the house was occupied by one of the " Leagues," and we were left out in the cold. One of the leaders soon came out, and gave us permission to occupy the galleries. The house was crowded with old men and matrons, young men and maidens.. They had several banners ranged around the pulpit, ready for the march; and on the table, an untold quantity of red, white, and blue rosettes, with which to decorate the members of the league. When I went in, they were all talking at once. Soon the chairman called the house to order, and they commenced by singing "Am I a soldier of the Cross," the chair " lining it off." After the opening exercises, they proceeded to appoint their marshals, and fasten the rosettes to the members of the league. I don't think I ever realized before what they have gained. We're free, shone in every eye, and echoed from every tongue, and was acted in every gesture. So much real enthusiasm I never saw on any occasion. They were very quiet in their demonstrations; but as I watched them from the galleries, it seemed to me to be a perfect " little heaven below." My innumerable host had kept very quiet during the proceedings; but, just as the league was about ready to march out with their flags and banners, I set them to singing " Yes, we'll rally round the flag, boys." The people below were unaccustomed to any singing, except their native hymns; and, when my two hundred happy voices broke upon their ears, I think they wouldn't have looked more surprised or pleased, if the roof had been lifted off, and they had seen and heard the heavenly choirs singing hallelujahs for their celebration
After the league had passed out, a man came to me and said, "Miss, a gentleman wishes to see you at the door." I went down, and be took me to the middle of the street, where I found a colored man on horseback, who very politely informed me he had come " to escort the James School in the procession." So I hastened back, and made ready as soon as possible.
Don't think we were without the usual paraphernalia of such occasions. When we received our invitations to join in the celebration, we knew that banners and badges must be had, even if there were no materials from which to make them this side of New York. We had but one day to do it in. But as our life in Newbern had taught us that bricks can be made without straw, we went to work. All day long, the work of preparation went on, .interrupted constantly by colored people, large and small, asking for shoes, or " one coat," or " top-clothes " to march in; and by night (notwithstanding our obstacles), with the aid of an old sheet, a little red dress from the second-hand clothing department, and some blue cambric, fortunately found at "the store" down town, we had a flag quite good enough for any school to rally around; a very presentable banner, and sis badges.
The trimmings for our flag and banners were not second-hand, neither did we have to pay war prices for them; and yet more beautiful decorations we could not ask for, — the bright green leaves and brilliant scarlet berries of the southern holly. Our boy-marshals did their duty well, and they started from the church in very good order.
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We had forgotten to provide a sash for our flag-bearer; so I took off a red scarf I was wearing, and tied it round his waist,—and I think, young America at the North never walked with a prouder or more independent air than he did, as he marched off, bearing the stars and stripes. It was a glorious day for the colored people, and we poor whites were, for the time being, thrown entirely in the shade.
Anne C. G. Canedy.
Beaufort, Feb. 11,1865
I returned last night at 7, p.m. from Hilton Head, whither I again went Thursday morning to hasten the coming of the schooner Howard, laden with our long delayed relief for the freedmen and refugees. By two days hard work (sleeping on the floor at night) I succeeded in getting the tax remitted on all goods for the refugees; a promise by the quartermaster of wharfage at once; and an agreement by the captain to work day and night to unload his cargo, and then to come to Beaufort instantly.
Meanwhile water freezes in the streets: and in Beaufort fifteen hundred wretches without shirts or blankets, huddled like pigs in old cow-sheds, under public buildings, and on the sunny side of any wall or fence they can find, — dying by scores, of cold, and diseases caused by cold. Every day as I ride by, I am greeted by the piteous cry, " Massa has dem close come ? " and have to frame some new form of reply to reconcile encouragement with disappointment.
They are coming into our lines now at the rate of about one hundred a day, and should communication with the army be re-established, or should it move toward Charleston this number will be largely increased.
Those families which have able-bodied men or women among them are taken by the cotton-planters to their plantations; but the sick and old, who are a very large proportion of the whole, are left in the charge of the Superintendents of Freedmen, and are, from necessity, huddled into churches, under buildings, and into tents, barns, and even cow-sheds, for shelter. Government gives them rations, but not clothing or utensils.
I am doing my utmost to have the goods judiciously given out, so that if there should be a surplus of any thing we could send it elsewhere; but I have very little idea that there will be. We are very much in want of men's underclothes and women's dresses.There are at least three women to supply, for every man; most of the latter being supplied by the Government in one way or another.
I wish to repeat, in order to emphasize what I have already said about some money for straw &c. Many of the people are entirely without any sort of bedding, and sleep at night on the bare floor or ground.
I am perhaps less able to give a general summary, than those who have seen the whole field at a distance, and have not had their attention absorbed by particular details and occurrences; but, as nearly as I can remember, about the 2d of January four hundred refugees arrived in Beaufort, and were distributed among the plantations on Port Royal Island, — about the 6th two hundred and fifty more came, very decrepit and feeble, and were sent immediately to Saint Helena Island. During the next week, perhaps five hundred more arrived; and by that time the movement of Sherman's army to Beaufort had begun, and transportation could not be given to the negroes.
Nevertheless a few hundred got to Hilton Head Island, and were mostly distributed among the plantations there.
Since Sherman's army moved from Beaufort, five or six hundred more have come into Hilton Head Island from Savannah and from the main land north of Savannah, and about as many more from Sherman's rear into Beaufort.
There are at present, on those of the Sea Islands occupied by our forces, about four or five thousand refugees.
The rest who lingered at Savannah, being about two or three thousand more: and, probably in all, at least one thousand have died of disease and exposure.
James P. Blake.
Mitchelville, Jan. 20,1865.
A regiment of colored soldiers have recently encamped a short distance from us; they attend our evening school, and evince a great desire to learn; they are new recruits, and were slaves previous to Sherman's march through Georgia, and capture of Atlanta and Savannah. They are a fine-looking set of men, much superior in intellect to the South Carolina negro.When evening comes they crowd around our house anxiously waiting for the school to open, and when the lamps are lighted they hasten in, eager to commence their reading. We have had sixty or seventy soldiers present beside our usual number.
About half of them can read a little, just know their letters, and are commencing easy words.
For two evenings past the soldiers have been prevented from coming to our evening school by order of their officers; as, under pretence of coming to school, many have only left camp to commit depredations on the poultry yards, &c. in the village. Some of the friends of the colored who have assisted us in teaching here gained permission of their officers to allow them to come out on Monday eve under the care of a guard. I think no further trouble need be anticipated.
It is unfortunate for those who wish to learn to
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be deprived of the privilege of so doing for the misbehavior of a few.
Jan. 24.
Sunday-school every Sunday morning brings about the same number as we have in the day schools, all ages drinking in eagerly every word poured out to them. Last Sunday, after the services, I invited those who could read any, and who would like to, to stop, and I would have a class to read the Testament. I had about twenty; they did enjoy it, and asked me if I would hear them again next sabbath. Sunday afternoons we read in some of the cabins to those who cannot come to the school. One old man said last Sunday, " Oh, if I only had your knowledge of letters, I reckon I should be happy; and I wouldn't part with it for all Uncle Sam's money if I had that".
Sarah Clark.
JACOBS SCHOOL.
Alexandria, Jan. 13,1865.
I must say one word about our school. While we were fitting up the house, the scholars were very much scattered in other schools, particularly the most advanced scholars. With the new year many of them have come back.
My daughter's health will not allow her to be confined to the school. She has charge of the Industrial Department, is teacher in the sabbath school, and assists me in my out-door work. We need another teacher.
The school is making progress under the charge of their teachers. It is the largest, and I am anxious it shall be the best. The New-York and Pennsylvania associations are establishing new schools in Alexandria. All seem to be well attended.
We have three large churches, beside the L'Ouverture hospital. At this hospital, they are erecting another large building.
The chaplain at the L'Ouverture has opened a school for the soldiers. It is well attended. They need a building for this purpose. Could you see the young men with one arm and leg, with their book and slate, crowded into a small room, I know you would suggest something better for these brave boys.
Yours truly, H. Jacobs.
At a recent meeting, Rev. James F. Clarke stated that a Kentucky slaveholder once said to him, " Talk of the inferiority of the negro! I've been in the Kentucky Legislature and I know all its members, and I've three negroes on my farm that are fully equal in mental capacity, to any of the Kentucky legislators, and just as fit to conduct the business of the State."
DOINGS OF OTHER SOCIETIES.
We gather from the minutes of a meeting of the United States Commission, Held in Washington on the 19th January, the following facts in respect to the doings of the last year of the different Freedmen's Associations. Mr. Shaw, President of the New York Society, stated that they had done a business during the past year of about, probably, upwards of $100,000; and that their receipte of money and goods since their origin as an Association were not less than $200,000. They were probably more: he spoke only from conjecture.
They had commissioned in all one hundred and forty-four teachers, of whom one hundred and thirty-five were now in the field. They were supporting several, say four, Orphan Asylums, and probably the same number of Industrial schools.One of these orphan asylums was in Fernandina, another in New Orleans, a third in Vicksburg, a fourth, if he remembered aright, in Natchez.
Mr. McKim reported on behalf of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association, and of Philadelphia, by submitting the following paper: —
The Freedmen's Associations in the city of Philadelphia have raised during the past fourteen months, for the purposes of their organization, as nearly as can be computed from data now at hand, $200,147.90 in money.
This money has all been contributed by the people of Philadelphia and neighborhood, with the exception of about $31,500, most of which came from England, Scotland, and Ireland, and nearly all of which came from Friends in England to the Friends' Association of Philadelphia.
This money was raised without the aid of any salaried agent, and without the expenditure of a cent in the way of commission for collecting.
In fact, it was not " raised " at all in the ordinary sense of that word: it was received as the almost spontaneous result of statements made, publicly and privately, as to the destitution and wants of the Freedmen.
Of the sum above-named $61,147,90 were received into the Treasury of the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association; $129,000 (including $30,000 from Friends in England as above-mentioned) into the treasury of the Orthodox Friends' Association, and the residue into the treasury of the Hicksite Friends' Association.
The $61,147.90 received by the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association have been expended, with the exception of the balance now
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in the treasury, in the purchase of supplies in the way of clothing, blankets, shoes, &c, in the erection of and toward the support of hospitals, and in the establishment and maintenance of schools.
The Association has in successful operation sixteen schools, taught by thirty-eight teachers; viz, four schools and eight teachers in South Carolina; six schools and thirteen teachers in Tennessee and Alabama; and six schools and seventeen teachers in Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria.
The Association has purchased property and erected buildings in Washington to serve the purposes of a residence for teachers: a store for the receipt and dispensation of goods for the poor; an Industrial School for instruction in sewing, and in cutting out garments, and a Normal School, at which to fit advanced and promising scholars for the business of teaching.
In the corps of the Association's employees are two ladies, — one just appointed, the other having been six months in the work, — whose especial business it is to seek out and relieve by means of clothes, food, and sanitary appliances, the sick, destitute, and suffering.
The Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association has been instrumental recently in calling into existence an able ally in the Pittsburg Freedmen's Aid Commission, the value of whose cooperation may be computed from the fact, that, in the first few hours of its existence, it raised upwards of $5,000,— a large portion of which it sent at once to Philadelphia to be expended in the purchase of blankets, flannels, and shoes, for the suffering blacks of Tennessee.
The association has also done something toward the establishment of a similar organization in Maryland, — as is testified by the existence and effective action of the Baltimore Association for the elevation and improvement of the colored people.
They report that the results of their operations have been most satisfactory; that the objects of their care have progressed rapidly, and risen visibly; and that they are fully convinced that these Freedmen's Aid and Education Associations have furnished a complete solution to all the difficulties of our great social problem.
Mr. McKim stated that he had no information in detail as to the operations of the Association of Friends known as Hicksites, and could only say, they were taking a creditable part in the great work of relieving and educating the freed people ; but that in regard to the other Friends' Association he had a letter from one of its members, Richard Cadbury, containing the following: —
The Friends' Association of Philadelphia have had paid into their treasury, including the
Women's Aid Association which works in connection with them, nearly one hundred and twenty-nine thousand dollars. They have distributed 47,159 articles of new clothing, made up almost entirely without cost, except for material; 1,456 pairs of shoes; 1,084 blankets, in South-East Virginia, Washington, Coast of North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi Valley; and have on hand nearly 10,000 articles, a large portion of which will be shipped in a few days to Beaufort, S. C.They have seven teachers in Washington, and fifteen on York-river Peninsula. They have also established two stores in Virginia, one at Hampton and the other at Yorktown, with a capital of $7,800, loaned without interest for the purpose of furnishing goods at or near cost. The sales have been in seven months about $110,000.
They have also furnished instructors in agricultural pursuits, and have given, loaned, or sold at part of their value, a large number of farm and other tools, seeds, &c.
The Women's Aid Association's labors have been in making and distributing clothing not included in above summary; also shoes, stockings, blankets, &c.
They also have under their care an orphan house for girls at Hampton.
Mr. Shepherd, on behalf of the N. W. F. Aid Commission, stated that he was not prepared to make a report, and could only approximate the figures denoting what his Association had done.
Since the first of February last the Association had received and disbursed in cash about $60,000, and in goods about $40,000. They had commissioned about one hundred teachers, and had now in the field say sixty-five, not over that number. They had collected their money and supplies from five States, and employed for that purpose seven agents. They give these agents salaries, and allow them no commission on their collections. They realized $10,000 from their Chicago Fair.
D. W. Gage, of the Cleveland Aid Commission, gave an encouraging account of the doings of that body. They had raised a liberal amount of money and a considerable quantity of clothing, and with the aid of their President, II. B. Spelman, Esq., government agent for the purchase of cotton on the Mississippi, had been able to render effective service to the Freedmen in that part of the South.
Mr. Channing, on behalf the Washington National Freedmen's Relief Association, of which he is President, said that he had nothing to report in comparison with the statements
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which had here been made by others. Theirs was a weak body, being, like other Washington organizations, without a constituency. They had done something in establishing schools. These schools they had handed over to the care of another and a stronger association. They were now doing something toward ministering to the physical necessities of this city which he represented as very great.
They had received blankets, shoes, and wood from the Government, which they had distributed; and a sum of money, of which they have $500 remaining in hand.
GREAT distress still prevails in Washington among the liberated negroes, and will continue for some weeks to come. In response to an earnest appeal, we sent, in the middle of last month, over one thousand dollars' worth of clothing. As soon as the more pressing physical needs of the freedmen are met, we purpose to open an employment-office. This will remove many of the able bodied freedmen from the city, and meet the demand for labor which is beginning to spring up in Maryland. In the opinion of Washington Friends, next to the furnishing to the needy shelter and food and clothing, this is the best means of meeting the exigencies of the case. Another urgent want, as we have already remarked in our last number, is the erection of small cheap dwelling-houses to replace the huts and shanties " more like pig-pens than human dwellings," which are now filled to overflowing by these miserable creatures.
We do not feel that this enterprise comes within our province as a society ; but we would none the less urge its necessity upon individuals asking, What can we do to help these destitute human beings? We must add for the benefit of any who may ask, "do they not feel as if they would be better off in slavery ? " that we asked this same question of one who had been among them day after day; and his reply was, — I, too, put this query to every one I talked to; and the reply was, in every single case, an emphatic denial.
A GOOD EXAMPLE.
THE Freedmen have perfect faith in Uncle Sam. One old aunty said, " I thank the Lord I never cost Uncle Sam a cent. I never drawed no rations. I tries to help myself, but I likes Uncle Sam, and I'd be willing to share my last cent with him."
THE NATION AND THE NEGRO.
I do not believe that the history of any nation can show any thing more deeply touching, more truly and profoundly Christian, in the simplest and best meaning of the word, than the attitude and conduct, I may say, of the better portion and of a growing portion of our people towards the black race. It is not affected; it is not forced or sentimental; it is not strained nor heated; it is not weak, capricious, or unstable. The conscience and heart of the nation have been touched as by Heaven's own grace. I have often spoken of the, I will not say heroic and patient, but happy devotion of men and women of noblest character, finest culture, most respectable social connections, to the work of teaching and educating these poor children of ignorance and sorrow and degradation; a devotion the like of which has never been seen among any people, in any clime, or in any age of the world. Often as I have spoken of this, and feelingly, I have done nothing like justice to it. And yet this, hearty as it is, and urgent and general as it is, great beyond all power of expression in deeds, is but one indication of the tender charity that is felt for this poor people, at an hour, too, when the war is making its tremendous draughts on time, thought, and purse. Stronger than the military power, stronger than the civil power, stronger than any power we know, is the power of justice and of sympathy towards the little ones. Again and again have the ablest men, the most eloquent and persuasive orators of the country, made the halls of Senate chamber and House of Representatives resound with their appeals in behalf of these poorest of God's poor; again and again have they carried their point, and seen the fetters of old prejudice melt like ice before the spring sun.
" The quality of mercy is not strained," we say, as we witness the silent action and the grand effect. " It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath." What stones has it not worn away by its quiet dropping.— stones of strong heart! Generals and major-generals, and officers of every degree, soldiers firmest in soldierly pride, have softened and melted, and confessed the common blood of common valor. Courts of justice have opened their gates to the fugitives, and judges have opened their ear to the fugitives' cry. The national flag waves over them its welcome as cheerfully as over the Caucasian or Anglo-American, and makes his person sacred in the sight of foreign nations. The dark stains of inhumanity have disappeared from the marble halls of Washington. The acts that oppressed them of old have faded out from the pages of our statute-books, and Charity has written her merciful decrees in their place. The broad Western lands of the Republic open
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arms and welcome the little ones to upland and prairie, to forest, river, and Jake. It will not be long ere a movement of the last spring is consummated, and the care of these orphans of the human race will be solemnly undertaken by the Northern government, pledging to them safety, opportunity, privilege, nurture, and growth. During the year past, four great states, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Maryland, have admitted the humanity of the pariah, have accepted their first duty to the serf. His long, earnest, devoted, powerful friend sits on the bench of the Supreme Court as Chief Justice, insuring to him the protection of that august sanctuary, — this last boon granted within these few last weeks. Was there ever any thing like it? Truly, in view of all this, we shall have some title yet to be called a Christian people, for though much of this justice has been wrung from us by the necessity of the war, still, much of it springs naturally and spontaneously from the sorrow and sin-touched heart of the people. God, God be thanked for it! This charity will cover a multitude of sins.
— O. B. Frothingham.
The last five or six weeks have been marked by much success in our field of labor. In addition to some $4,000, paid to our Treasurer from various quarters, we are glad to record the following facts: In the Eleventh Ward of our city, by a Committee chosen for the purpose, there has been raised $1, 800; in the Ninth over $2, 000, and more yet to come in; and in the Sixth, measures are being taken to collect, it is hoped, a liberal sum.
The appeal of the Executive Committee in behalf of " Sherman's Freedmen, " realized §7, 000; and Branch Societies pledged to pay yearly $300 for the support of a teacher Have been organized in the Arlington-street Society (Dr. Gannett's) in the Essex-street (Rev. Nehemiah Adams's) and in the Twenty-eighth Congregational Societies (formerly Rev^ Theodore Parker's); while the work of organizing Branch Societies in country towns still goes rapidly on. Still other tokens of the public sympathy will be found mentioned in another column.
Martin R. Delaney, of Pittsburg, has received his commission as Major in the regiment of United States Colored Troops, and will be stationed at Charleston, S. C. The major is a black man, of unmixed African descent, and received his diploma of medicine from Harvard University. This is the first instance in which one of his race has been commissioned to such a command in our army.
ANOTHER STEP.
For the first time in the history of the country, a colored minister preached in the Senate chamber at Washington, invited by the chaplain of the Senate, Rev. Mr. Channing. Those who heard Rev. Mr. Garnet seem to agree that his discourse was sensible and timely, and, though on slavery, moderate in its tone, and free from all bitterness. The audience was decorous and attentive; the colored portion, who it was thought by some would exercise their admitted right to occupy any seats they pleased, modestly taking possession of one side of the gallery. Honor to the black preacher who, from the condition of a slave, could raise himself to such a position. Honor to the white preacher in whose place he stood, —and yet how strange that such an event should excite special surprise or comment!
As a general rule, there is no reason why, when other things are not equal, a black preacher should be invited into a pulpit in preference to a white one. Certain it is, that even the warmest abolitionist will not feel obliged to prefer the ministrations of an uneducated, and in no way gifted black preacher, to the services of a white one, admirably fitted and trained to his work. But, all this admitted, it is hard to see why one not often darker probably than Augustine, bishop of Hippo, was, should not occasionally preach to white auditors. In South America, and at the church of the Propaganda in Rome, a negro priest often officiates at the altar. Why should Protestantism be more exclusive and undemocratic then Roman Catholicism?
FREE AND SLAVE LABOR.
Thirty-three Freedmen have leased abandoned plantations upon the Mississippi River during the past year. They must have been entirely without capital; for, two years ago, they did not even own themselves. They have been exposed to incursions from guerillas, and subject to many obstacles and disadvantages; but by working themselves, and hiring their less enterprising companions, they have made a crop of 377 bales of cotton, of which 101 bales had been sold, at the date of Mr. Yeatman's report, for $24, 239. 70; and, if the remainder be estimated at the same rate, the total value of their crop was over §91, 000, or nearly $3, 000 each, on an average, for the work of a single season.
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From this result, we may draw a comparison between the systems of slave and free labor.
Under the slave system, the force required to produce 377 bales of cotton would have been forty-seven full hands, and, with each full hand, at least two children, useful only during the picking season. This force would have represented a capital or necessary investment as follows: —
47 full hands at $1, 000 each $47, 000 94 children at $300 each $28, 200 Total $75. 200 This quantity of cotton would be sufficient for the supply of 3, 600 spindles, on medium cloth, No. 30 yarn. A mill of this capacity, with all requisite tenements, could have been built, in 1860, for less than $60, 000, or four-fifths the sum then required to be invested in human chattels to supply it with raw material. In England, such a mill could have been erected for less than $40, 000.
SLAVE LABOR,
To produce 877 bales of cotton, required 141 chattels, representing a capital of. $76, 200
FREE LABOR,
To produce 377 bales of cotton, under every possible disadvantage, required 88 freemen, representing a capital of. $100, 000
Among this thirty-three, is it not fair to take one as the criterion of what one in every thirty-three may accomplish?
Take, then, Sancho Lynch, at Goodrich's Landing, — "a right - smart handy nigger-boy," to use the terms of two years ago: hiring his associates, he produced 75 bales of cotton, valued at $18, 000.
One slave-owner would have required an invested capital of $15, 000 to accomplish what this man, less than two years old in freedom, has accomplished with no other capital than his own ability; and yet this man could not be trusted to take care of himself!
Under the slave system, one may picture to himself the large plantation, — perhaps one-tenth under cultivation; the rest held or purchased for the purpose of keeping at a distance the poor white trash who own no slaves; upon the field, the men and women, working with rude, strong tools, under the lash of the overseer, clad in the coarsest garments made by the spinning-jenny and the hand-loom upon the plantation; the children grovelling in vice, and ignorance legally enforced; no marriage-rite, no law but the law of force often administered by a drunken brute; in the master's house no God but the God of infinite justice, destroying those who would resist his divine command, but, in the field, the God of mercy, saving, by their patience, by their innate cheerfulness, by the fulness of their affections, the poor victims of oppression for the day of their deliverance now dawning upon them.
Then picture this land as it shall surely be a few years hence, — the land divided, if not by confiscation, then by the operation of the ordinary working of our system of land tenure (for, with the restoration of the State, comes back the mortgage for foreclosure, or the need that the owner shall sell a portion of his land, in order that he may be able to use the remainder); the Freedmen developing, as at Port Royal, the desire to become land-owners, and enabled to become so by the large profits which the next few years must yield to all cultivators of cotton; villages established; the Yankee school-teacher everywhere at work; the men in the fields; the women in their own homes; the children at school; none clad now in coarse hand-made fabrics, but in New-England manufactures purchased and paid for with their own money; the poor white trash no longer repelled, and forced to spread over southern Illinois and Indiana the darkness of Egypt, but at home, slowly and surely learning that true independence which they now honestly but blindly seek under the false lead of the Slaveholder of the South and the Copperhead of the North; and everywhere the chureh-6pire pointing its finger toward heaven, leading up to the one Infinite Power which is now guiding this nation, through sorrow and tribulation, —the atonement for its great national crime, —to liberty and union eternal as the heavens.
E. A.
Mr. KIMBALL, Corresponding Secretary of this Society, will respond to invitations to lecture in behalf of the freedmen throughout the New England States.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.
DURING the month ending on the 18th of February, the following donations of clothing have been received by the Clothing Committee: —
Amesbury and Salisbury, 2 boxes.
Andover, West Parish, 1 barrel.
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Andover, Ladies' Benevolent Society of Free Church, 1 barrel.
Andover, 1 barrel.
Andover Hill, 2 barrels.
Lady of Brookline, 2 parcels.
Beverly, 3 barrels. Brighton, 1 half barrel and 1 parcel.
Gentleman of Brookline, 1 bale of blankets.
Burlington, Vt., 1 box and 1 barrel.
Brook field, First Congregational Unitarian Church,
1 box and 1 barrel. Belmont, 2 barrels and 1 parcel.
Brattleboro, 1 barrel. Bangor, Me., 1 box.
Boston, Young Ladies' Society, 1box.
Boston, Mayhew Society, several hundred new garments.
Cambridge First Baptist Church, 8 barrels.
Lady of Cambridge, 1 barrel.
Concord, Mass., 1 barrel.
Chicopee, Branch Society, 1barrels.
Chicopee, 1 barrel. Cambridgeport, 1 box.
Coventry, Vt., 1 box.
Clinton, Baptist Sewing Circle, 1 box.
Dorchester, 3 boxes.
Dorchester, F. A. Society of First Parish, 1 box and 1 barrel.
Dedham, 3 barrels and 2 boxes. Dover, N. H., 1 box and 1 barrel.
East Middleboro,1 box.
East Bridgewater, 1 box.
East Bridgewater, Union Church Sewing Circle, 1 box.
Fayville, 2 barrels.
Framingham, 7 barrels.
Groveland, 1 barrel.
Georgetown, Rev. Mr. Beecher's Society, 1 barrel.
Groton, First Parish, 2 barrels.
Haverhill, Freedmen's Relief Association, 1 box.
Jamaica Plain, Rev. Dr. Thompson's Society, 3 boxes and several parcels.
Keene, Unitarian Society, 1 box.
Lancaster, 1 box and 5 barrels.
Lady or Milton, 1 parcel.
Millbury, Second Congregational Church, 1 barrel.
Medford, 10 barrels.
Maiden, 17 barrels.
Norton, Wheaton Female Seminary, 1 box.
North Billerica, 2 parcels.
Northboro, 1 box and 1 barrel.
Newton, 1 barrel.
Newton, Channing Church, 3 barrels.
Newtonville, 1 barrel.
Northampton, 1 box.
Pepperell, 1 barrel.
Plymouth, Mass., 3 barrels.
Plymouth, N.H., 2 barrels.
Portsmouth, N. H., 1 box.
Roxbury, Branch Society, 4 boxes.
Rockland, Me., 1 box.
Roxbury, 2 barrels.
"Society No. 1." Unknown, 2 boxes and 5 barrels.
Salem, 2 boxes and 9 barrels.
South Boston, 1 box.
Topsfield,2 barrels.
Gentleman of West Cambridge, 1 parcel.
Woburn, Branch Society, 2 barrels.
West Fairlee, Vt., 1 barrel.
Washington, Vt., 1 box.
West Roxbury Branch Society, 2 parcels.
Walpole, N. H., 1 barrel and 1 half barrel.
A few ladies of Wellingsley, 1 barrel.
West Newton F. A. Society, 1 box and 5 barrels.
Westboro, 1 box.
Unitarian Society, unknown, 1 barrel.
Unknown, marked " for Savannah," 2 boxes.
I. F. H., 8 boxes.
B. W. P., 1 box.
C. B., 1 box.
Holbrook & Co., flannels, socks, &o.
Churchill and Watson, piece of denims.Besides these have been received 6 boxes and 14 barrels, from persons whose names are unknown; also many parcels of valuable clothing from friends in Boston, Salem, Brookline, Cambridge, Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, &c.
The report, in the last number, of goods forwarded was imperfect, owing perhaps to the baste with which it was prepared. In the following statement are therefore included all the supplies which have been forwarded to the Port Royal Islands for Sherman's refugees, since the call from there was received last month : —
4 bales 200 pairs blankets; 15 cases 800 pairs shoes; 1 case 50 doz. woollen socks; 3 cases flannels and woollens; 42 cases 5G barrels new and second-hand clothing; 10 doz. axes; 100 iron pots for cooking.
One thousand dollars has been placed at the disposal of a member of Gen. Saxton's staff. It. Tomlinson, for the purchase of-sweet potato seed or such other supplies as he may consider more needed.
The Committee have also forwarded since the last report, —
To Newbern ... 1 case and 1 bale prints, 3cases shoes.10 cases and 21 barrels clothing.
To Norfolk .... 3 cases shoes, 1 case and 22 barrels clothing.
To Eastville, Va. . 3 cases and 2 barrels clothing.
To Washington, D. C. 2 cases shoes, 5 cases and 2 barrels clothing.
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BRANCH SOCIETIES.
CONSTITUTION OF THE FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY.
ART. I. This Society shall be called the FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY
ART. II. the object of this Society shall be to act as a Branch of the New-England Freedmen's Aid Society, by furnishing contributions of money or of clothing or of other supplies, the money to be paid into the treasury of that Society. Any branch paying $300 into the treasury are entitled to adopt a teacher, who shall correspond directly with them.
ART. III. Teachers adopted by this Society may be selected from those already at work under the New-England Society, or may be nominated by this Society, subject to the election of the Committee an Teachers of the parent Society.
ART, IV. Any person may become a member of this Society by contributing to its funds.
ART. V. The officers of this Society shall be a President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Canvassing Committee, who together shall constitute a Board of Directors, who shall be responsible for the efficiency of the organization.
ART. VI. The meetings or this Society shall be held as the Board of Directors may determine, but not less frequently than once a month.
ART. VII. This Constitution maybe amended by a rote of two-thirds of the members present.
ART VIII. The Annual Meetings of this Society shall be held on the day of for the election of officers and the transaction of other business.
REGULATIONS IN REGARD TO TEACHERS.
1. All applications must be made in person at this Office, between 11 A.M. and 1 P.M.
2. Transportation is furnished from Boston to the place of employment.
3. Shelter and rations for its Teachers are allowed by Government to this Society.
4. The salary of female Teachers is, usually, for the first year $20 per month; of male Teachers $30 per
month.5. Salary begins on leaving New York.
6. One month's salary in advance, if desired.
7. The Teacher will draw salary from the Treasurer of the Society.
ROXBURY.
President, Mrs. L. C. Bowles.
Secretary, Miss Anna C. Lowell.
Teachers; Lucy Chase, Norfolk. Esther C. Warren, Newbern. Arthur Sumner, St. Helena Island.W. ROXBURY.
President, Mrs. Charles W. Dabney.
Secretary, Miss Emily Greene.
Teacher, Frances W. Perkins, Washington.CHICOPEE.
President, Mrs. John Wells.WEST NEWTON.
President, Mrs. J. A. Newell.
Secretary, Mrs. Edward Hinckiey.
Teacher, Sarah M. Pearson, Newbern.WOBURN.
President, Mrs. A. G. Carter.
Secretary, Mrs. S. R. Pippy.
Teacher, Anne C. G. Canedy.DORCHESTER.
(BARNARD FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY.)
President, Daniel Denny.
Secretary, Mrs. Wm. Pope.
Teachers, Virginia LAwton, Alexandria. Mrs. Pillsbury, Hilton Head. Sarah Clark, Norfolk, Va. Helen M. Ireson, Newbern.BROOKLINE.
President, Rev. William Samson.
Secretary, Miss Ellen M. Wellman
Teachers, Ann P. Merriam, Newbern. J. S. Banfield, Alexandria.
BOSTON YOUNG LADIES.
President, Miss Annette Rogers.
Secretary, Miss Lilian Clark.
Teachers, Louise Fisher, Norfolk. Elizabeth Condon, Newbern.AUGUSTA, ME.
Secretary, Miss Eliza Judd.
Teacher, Harriet R. Smith, Norfolk.NORTHAMPTON.
Secretary, Miss Mary E. Cochrane.
Teacher, Eliza. P. Breck, Mitchell, S.C.BEVERLY
President, Mrs. Samuel D. Herrick.
Secretary, Miss Eliza Choate.
Teacher, Margaret R. Smith, Newbern.SOMERVlLLE.
Teacher, Sarah E. Foster, Norfolk.LEICESTER.
Teacher, Sarah E. Chase, Norfolk.GRAFTON.
Teacher, Mary C. Fletcher, Norfolk.HlNGHAM.
President, Rev. J. Young.
Secretary, Mrs. L. B. Lincoln,
Teacher, Anna Gardner, Newbern.HOPEDALE.
President, E. D. Draper.
Secretary, Jerome Wilmarth.
Teacher, Sarah P. Lillie, Mitchell.WHITNEY FAMILY.
Teacher, Elizabeth H. Botume, South Carolina
OLD CAMBRIDGE.
President, Miss Maria Bowen.
Secretary, Miss Sarah Ropes.
Teacher, Harriet Carter, Washington, D. C.
48.
Mayhew Society in Boston.
President, Mrs. Charles G. Loring.
Secretary, Miss Horatia Ware.
Teacher, Esther H. Hawkes, Jacksonville, Fla. Emma V. Brown, Washington.Plymouth.
President, Rev. Edward H. Ball.
Secretary, Miss Mary E. Kendall.
Teachers, Martha H. Chase, Norfolk, Va.Haverhill.
President, Mrs. W. H. Hewes.
Secretary, Mrs. R. C. Howe.
Teacher, Angelina Ball, Norfolk.The Little Society.
Secretary, Bessie Lehmann.
Teacher, Jane Cooley, Hilton Head, S. C.Billerica.
President, Dr. Frank Bundy.
Secretary, Miss Anne R. Faulkner.
Teacher, Elizabeth A. Boll, Norfolk.Old South Church, in Boston.
President, Mrs. Blagden.
Secretary, Miss Abby Walley.
Teacher, Mary A. Yenter, Norfolk.Arlington-Street Church, in Boston.
President, Mrs. Henry Grew.
Secretary, Mrs. E. W. Forbush. Teacher,Theodore Parker Freedmen's Aid.
President, Mrs. Otis.
Secretary, Miss Babcock.
Teacher, Arthur T. Morse, Port Royal.Dr. Nehemiah Adams's Society, in Boston.
President, Mrs. Arthur Wilkinson.
Secretary, Miss Gray.
Teacher, Frances E. Ellis, Newbern.Danvers.
President, Augustus Mudge.
Secretary, John S. Laroyd.
Teacher, Sarah P. Towne.OTHER TEACHERS.
William H. Alden.... St. Helena Island.
Ellen M. Lee...... ""
Harriet Tubmann..... Port Royal.
James P. Blake..... ""
James H. Crosby....""
Amanda S. Ruggles.... St. Helena Island.
George A. Warren.... Newbern.
Ellen B. Haven..... Norfolk.
Anne R. Gordon..... ""
Mariana Lawton..... Alexandria.
Louisa A. Morse..... Port Royal.
Lymas Anders..... Hilton Head.
NEW ENGLAND FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETY.
Organized in Boston, Feb. 7, 1862.
OFFICERS.
President, His Excellency John A. Andrew.
Vice-Presidents.
Rev. Jacob M. Manning. Rev. B. N. Kirk, D. D. Rev. Edward E. Hale. Rev. A. L. Stone. D. D. Rev. J, W. Parker, D. D. Edward L. Pierce, Esq. Rev. J. F. Clarke, D. D. Rev. W. S. Studly. Hon. Jacob Sleeper. George B. Emerson, Esq. Dr. Robert W. Hooper. Rev. Chas. F. Barnard. Prof. William B. Rogers. Rev. R. C. Waterston. Rev. Wm. Hague, D. D.
Treasurer. William Endicott, Jun., No. 38 Summer Street.
Recording Secretary. Edward Atkinson, No. 40 State Street.
Corresponding Secretary. Marshall G. Kimball, No. 8 Studio Building.
Committee on Teachers.
Rev. John Parkman.. 8 Park Square. Miss H. E. Stevenson.. 8 Studio Building. Sec'y.
Loring Lothrop.....43 Pinckney Street.
Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney... Jamaica Plain. Rev. Charles Lowe... Somerville.
Committee on Clothing and Supplies. George Atkinson... 60 State Street. Mrs. Samuel Cabot.... No. 11 Park Square. Mrs. William B. Rogers.. No. 1 Temple Place.
Mrs. J. A. Lane.....No. 623 Tremont Street.
Georgb S. Winslow... Ho. 83 Water Street. Mrs. Abner L. Merill.. 154 Newton Street.
Committee on Correspondence.Francis J. Child.... Cambridge.
Dr. H. I. Bowditch... No. 112 Boylston Street.
Dr. Samuel Cabot.... No. 11 Park Square.
Miss Ellen Jackson... No. 2 Hamilton Place.
James B. Thayer 30 Court Street.
Jona. A. Lake.....623 Tremont Street.
Committee on Finance.Edward Atkinson.... No. 40 State Street.
Martin Brimmer.... No. 48 Beacon Street.
William Endicott, Jun... No. 83 Summer Street.
Mrs. George R. Russell.. No. 1 Louisburg Square.
James M. Barnard... No. 97 State Street.
Charles R. Codman... No. 7 Park Square.
E. W. Kinsley.....37 Franklin Street.Executive Committee.
Rev. John Parkman... 8 Park Square.
Marshall G. Kimball... 8 Studio Building.
Prof. F. J. Child.... Cambridge.
William Endicott, Jun... No. 33 Summer Street.
All supplies for Freedmen should be addressed, "Wellington Bro's & Co., 103 Devonshire Street, Boston, Mass.
For N. E. F. A. Society. From-------. "
Each package should contain an invoice or the contents; and a duplicate copy should be sent by mail to M. G. Kimball, 8 Studio Building, Boston, Mass.
Printed by John Wilson and Son, 16 Water Street.
An American Antiquarian
Society Online Exhibition
Curated by Lucia Z. Knoles, Professor of English, Assumption College