The American Missionary — Volume 32, No. 06, June, 1878Various
Religion
The American Missionary — Volume 32, No. 06, June, 1878
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Visitors to St. Augustine, Fla., during the last three years have
been directed to Capt. Pratt’s Indians as among the objects of
interest in Fort Marion. There they were carried, as prisoners of
war, in the spring of 1875, after the terrible massacres which
had taken place in the Indian Territory by the Five Tribes. They
went South, each with his legs fastened to a log with chains.
They were filled with hatred over their real or fancied wrongs.
One jumped from the cars, and was shot by the guard; one killed
himself on the way. They wore only their Indian blankets, and had
great brass hoops in their ears. They knew no word of English.
It was their good fortune to fall into the hands of a Christian
army officer, who, by his skill in management, and patience in
seeking to do them good, at length won their confidence, and
succeeded, with the help of a few benevolent ladies, in teaching
them some of the simplest elements of civilization and learning.
A few of them can read very well.
At the end of their second year, Mrs. Dr. Caruthers, of
Tarrytown, N. Y., who had been teaching among them, determined to
secure, if possible, the education of two young men of her class.
She obtained permission from the Indian Commission, and raised
money for the purpose. Other means and offers of help came in.
At length it was found that twenty-two of them desired to go to
school. They are now discharged from their imprisonment. The old
chiefs go back to their people, greatly changed for the better.
Fifteen of the young men were left at Hampton, April 13th, to be
educated in the Normal Institute. They have begun their regular
studies, and have been detailed to various departments of work,
in shop and on farm. They seem perfectly happy and contented, and
their new comrades treat them with kindness and consideration.
Here is another of those curious comminglings, and crossings of
lines, of which life is so full, and yet which never cease to
surprise us. The African and the Indian meet at Hampton, to be
trained together, to be intelligent citizens and Christians, and
the teachers of their people. Thus the two races are brought face
to face—“the two races whose past involves America’s greatest
responsibilities; whose future, some of her hardest problems.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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