Читать книгу The American Missionary. Volume 50, No. 09, September, 1896 - Various - Страница 2
The South
ОглавлениеA NEGRO UPON SELF-HELP AND SELF-SUPPORT
BY REV. ORISHATUKEH FADUMA, TROY, N. C
One reason why the question of self-help as it relates to the Negro is so difficult of solution, is his previous condition of slavery.
Slavery was first and last selfish. The training received by the Negro under forced labor had no ethical meaning. The Negro labored, but was not taught the dignity of labor; he did not find any dignity in it. If there was any, his masters would have labored as he did, but the Negro served as the cat's paws to get the nuts from the fire. The fire burnt him severely, but he had not the benefit of the nuts. Thus the moral and ethical benefit which he might have received from labor was lost. Let our moralists ponder over this. The Negro's masters did not believe in self-support during slavery; they were supported. Now that his freedom is secured, the Negro also would like to have and hold as the masters did.
The result of this forced selfish labor may be briefly summed up thus. The Negro by training and example became prejudiced against severe struggle and toil, physical or intellectual. He is now distrustful of attempts made to induce him to labor. He is willing to let somebody else do the work while he reaps the benefit, just as his masters did during slavery. Thus slavery became a foe to true Christian manliness, self-respect, and faith in one's self and others. It took 200 years to force these traits into the Negro's being. It was destructive of all that is uplifting to his soul. There is now a reaction going on. Unless the forces of the Christian schools and churches are applied with energy, the work of construction will not soon overcome that of 200 years of destruction.
Foremost in the education of the Negro along the line of self-support is the American Missionary Association. That the policy of the Association regarding self-help is not theoretical, but practical, may be seen in the statement of Rev. Dr. Beard concerning the work in the South, before the National Council for 1895. He says: "We are realizing also that the independent methods of Congregational polity develop self-help. These churches each year are bearing a larger part of their own support. When it is remembered that formerly their preachers were seldom paid anything, it can be understood that this new way of church life is full of meaning."
The Association states in emphatic and unequivocal language its belief, founded on long experience, in an indigenous ministry. As Dr. Beard says: "Our general policy has been to prepare the race to save the race. This is based upon the conviction that in the long run, and in the large view, the most effective way to lift up the masses is to do what we can to help the relatively few to climb into higher intellectual and moral power."
One means toward the solution of this problem of self-help is the industrial solution. Many overlook it because they think the Negro has already had much of it in his past history. But the Negro has never had the best of it. His industrial training before the war was immoral as well as unscientific. The industrial education of the Negro then was carried on without mental and moral culture; now the head, the hands, and the heart are the triplets which must control his development. Before the war he was simply a machine in industry; now he is to be trained as a living soul. Before the war he had some restraint through industrial work, but it was physical, not moral. The education which the coming twentieth century requires of the Negro through industry will be imperfect unless it shall be permeated with the best and purest of ideals. It is also a recognition of the fact that man is more than a physical creature; he is a combination of the physical and the spiritual. It must be two natures working in harmony with each other's development.
The modern industrialism is a combination of preaching and practice. It has in it a larger conception of God's Kingdom as seen in the world of matter. If it is not the highest conception, it is not the lowest, and should not be despised in the education of a race just emerging from ignorance. One has only to see the Negro in the plantations of the South, and observe his methods of work, to be convinced of the necessity of industrial training as a means toward self-help. Look throughout these farming districts and you will see houses fit for pigs to dwell in rather than men; you will eat food the mode of preparation of which is unworthy of a human being; you will see women in laundry work who have never seen a washing-machine all their life; and gradually the idea will flash into your mind that industrial training is needed.
The question may be asked, What is the American Missionary Association doing along these lines of self-help and independence? Much has been done, and is being done. The Association has not said much, but it is doing much. This is better than saying much and doing little. At the present time, when much is said about the industrial development of the South, there is danger of following the crowd whose ideals are not the highest. The popular cry is for a rejuvenated South, a South with prosperous mills and factories, and the Negro with it. The Association has wisely kept out of this, and yet has done more than any other organization toward the industrial independence of the people. It was the first to start industrial schools for the Negroes. Its first industrial school was founded at Talladega, Ala., in 1867, where it now works about 300 acres of land. Modern farming in its most important branches is taught here. In connection with the school are popular lectures, which are listened to, and scattered by the students throughout the country. White and black farmers are being improved by them. The instructor in farming, a graduate of the Amherst Agricultural College, is both scientific and practical. In the same school, at Talladega, young men and women are taught various other branches of industry.
Tougaloo Institution, in Mississippi, has a farm of 500 acres, which supplies cities in the Northwest with her produce. There are no less than fifty industrial schools under the American Missionary Association, not to mention independent schools, which are largely fostered by Congregational influence. The reflex influence of these industrial schools upon the whites is marvelous.
While we labor to plant seeds of true manhood in the hearts of the people, we recognize the fact that there must be a going-out and a taking-in. The involution of the race must precede its evolution. It therefore requires time to see fruits. Time will tell; it is already telling. With boards devising, and schools, churches, and pastors formulating, methods to bring about the solution of the problem, we shall reap an abundant harvest. When it is known that the larger portion of the colored race in the South is still living on the plantations, practically untouched by the Christian influences of this century, living without God and not touched by our mission work, it accentuates the imperative duty of the churches and pastors of churches to hasten the work of self-support. In concluding, I emphasize the following points:
1. That the work of educating a race to manly independence requires time as well as energy.
2. That it behooves all teachers of the race to do their utmost to rid the minds of the people of those ideas of slavery which strike a blow at their independence.
3. That the position taken by the American Missionary Association is the true one in preparing the people for self-support, and thus toward the self-support of our churches.
4. That while recognizing the difficulties in the way of self-help and self-support, many, if not all, can be removed if all the churches put their shoulders to the wheel, and both teach and practice this, and do all they can for their own support, rather than seek to have everything done for them.
