The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 6, June, 1881Various
History
The American Missionary — Volume 35, No. 6, June, 1881
Various
Congregational churches -- Missions -- Periodicals; Home missions -- Periodicals
Our treatment of the negro, whether as slave or Freedman, has
been and will be shaped by our theories in regard to him, but it
is time we honestly sought to know what the facts are, and draw
our theories from them rather than attempt to limit him by our
prejudices, as if they were indisputable facts of nature.
The master said the negro’s place is that of a chattel slave, and
he wisely enacted that he should neither be educated out of it,
nor be allowed to escape from it. The fortunes of war (should we
not say the misfortunes, if the theory were correct?) broke the
chain and palsied the whip-arm of the master, and now his friends,
many of them, who rejoice that he has escaped from his old place,
would attempt to fit him for a new one, but determine for him what
it shall be, and express grave apprehensions of evil if we say he
should have the best possible opportunity to find for himself what
it is. The war destroyed the old chain by which he was held in his
appointed place, but has not eradicated the disposition of the
Anglo-Saxon to decide for him what his new one must be, and in the
minds of many it is that of a laborer of the lowest grade; and lest
he might escape from it by rising above it, they would see to it
that his education shall be of such character as to fit him for it
alone.
While the wise teacher sees to it that he shall not neglect
thorough training in the most elementary branches in order to
become a smatterer in Greek and Latin, it should be done on the
general principle applicable to all races and every individual,
that any other course would be consummate folly. The theory to
which our practice should conform is this: Give to every child of
God the best opportunity possible for him as such, and let him in
the untrammeled exercise of his powers find out what his Creator
designed him to be and assigned him to do.
The time is coming when it will appear incredible that a man’s
place in the intellectual and social world shall be assigned to
him because of the color of his skin, any more than because of the
color of his eyes, or of his clothes. Educate not the negro, but
the child, not for his place, but that he may find his place, and
do his work among his fellows.
* * * * *
ANNIVERSARY ANNOUNCEMENTS.
FISK UNIVERSITY, NASHVILLE, TENN.—Baccalaureate Sermon, Sunday
A.M., May 22d. Anniversary of Missionary Society, Sunday evening.
Examinations, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Commencement
Exercises, and the ceremony of laying the corner-stone of
Livingstone Missionary Hall, Thursday.
TALLADEGA COLLEGE, TALLADEGA, ALA.—Baccalaureate Sermon, by the
President, Sunday, June 12th. Examinations, Monday, Tuesday and
Wednesday. Commencement Exercises, Thursday.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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