Part 3 (2/2)
”Let me relate to you a little incident that will illustrate 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 ero children, one about seven, the other not more than three years old
The elder had his arly 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 God bless the little ones!
”This desire, or rather eagerness, to learn to read, is manifested by all I have stopped by the wayside roup of old and young about me, and have made them repeat the alphabet after reatest kindness I can show them, and as I turn to depart, the fervent 'God bless you, massa,' 'Tank de Lord, massa,' reach my ears”
MORALS OF THE FREEDMEN
After the mission had been established, one of the officers' wives res nowadays”
Nearly all the church e
”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 i authoritative language to one another All these vices are clearly the result of _slave education_, and will gradually disappear under iets their confidence, the rest is easily accoe portion, probably, at least, more than half of the ”married” freed people, had been ether,” or living together by e ceremony The reeably 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 coo 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 sanctity of the e relation, proceeded to unite in wedlock several couples, aave each of the parties a certificate, in handsohly It appeared to have a most beneficial effect upon the parties themselves, and the whole population
NATIVE ELOQUENCE
Not a few of the freedh illiterate, exhibit re 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 ere in rebellion against God, striving to put down rebellion in this land, and asked theht to read the Bible, and had learned the Lord's Prayer in infancy froh denied the Bible, had been taught of God, and found their way to Christ, should rise up and condemn them He then turned to his fellow 'contrabands,' and entreated theiven He considered the present a pledge of the future--the virtual ehteen hundred the promise of the emancipation of four reat”
CHURCH MEETING
The missionary wrote: ”Last Thursday I had an opportunity to observe the intellectual state of a considerable nu I was surprised at their understanding and wisdoard 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 alulations froround 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 ad articles to the caed his fault, and pro wrongs, was also insisted on Several had been ih 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-fellowshi+p unconditionally”
One of the ed leader, stated that he had on one occasion been seized by a white deacon, dragged down froallery, and threatened with thirty-nine lashes, because there was a little of the Methodist in his co”
On another occasion, William Davis concluded so, will learn to read, as I did
When I was converted, I was anxious to learn to read God's book I kneeled down by my book, [he here kneeled by the table,] and prayed that God 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 ill show ourselves capable of knowledge Sos hite folks All ant is cultivation What would the best soil produce without cultivation? We want to get wisdoet that, and we are made for time and eternity”