PAW.' 
 
 N. amer; , « 
 
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 In the 
 
 liray Moss Country 
 
 HARRIET E. EMERSON 
 
 WOMAN'S HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 150 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YORK CITY 
 Price, with Lesson Helps for three months' study, 25c. Conquest Series — II 
 
In the Gray Moss Country 
 
 What the Story Means 
 
 IN the " sunny South," where the long gray moss hangs from the 
 trees, and flowers blossom all the year round. Home Mission 
 work has been carried on so long that we can now see definite 
 results. 
 
 In the old days the land was tilled by Negro slaves. Wealthy 
 white families lived on large plantations and shipped cotton all over 
 the world. Besides the cotton great crops of rice were raised in the 
 Gulf states, but it was such unhealthy work that the field hands every- 
 where dreaded being sold to go to the " rice fields." In that section 
 one may still ride for miles without coming to a village, or even to a 
 house. Forest, swamp and hammock land separate the settlements, 
 and make it difficult to carry on much of the usual school and church 
 work. Long journeys are required to get from place to place, and it 
 is almost impossible to hold conventions of church societies as in more 
 favored sections. 
 
 It is not easy for the young people reared in comfortable homes, 
 provided with the best of school privileges and surrounded by Christian 
 privileges, to realize what their lives would be without these blessings. 
 When the Civil War ended, thousands of children and young people, 
 freed from slavery and scattered through the South, were without such 
 opportunities. What could they do ? The country over which the 
 war had swept was left desolate. The plantation homes were in ruins, 
 and fathers and sons had been killed in battle. Those who were left 
 were without homes, land or money — and even without food and 
 clothing save what was given by kind hands from day to day. 
 
 This is the story of what has been done to help such boys and 
 girls and of the way in which they have profited by the help given — 
 better still, it is also the story of what they have done for themselves. 
 
1865 
 
 SUPPOSE we take 18 65 as a landmark. It will surely help us 
 to a better understanding of the progress that has been made in 
 the upward path. It marks the beginning of the long journey of 
 the colored people of the South from poverty and ignorance to the 
 better conditions of comfort and intelligence which so many of them 
 enjoy to-day. 
 
 In October, 1865, a New England party landed at the dock of 
 a small Southern town. White tents could be plainly seen from the 
 deck of the river boat as they came near the land, for although peace 
 had been declared the soldiers had not all been sent back to their 
 riomes. When the armies marched through the land the music of the 
 fife and drum drew after them another army — a ragged, hungry crowd 
 of refugees, that passed from place to place and stopped wherever night 
 found them. To relieve the distress of these people the Government of 
 the United States established a Freedman's Bureau, not only to provide 
 supplies of food and clothing but to protect the helpless and to give 
 advice and counsel when needed. General O. O. Howard was at 
 the head of the department, and after his death it was said of him 
 that he left a "million dollar record," because he expended that 
 amount " without a cent of graft." (We used to call it cheating. What 
 do you think it should be called?) It is worth while to remember 
 that about General Howard, besides his work in establishing schools 
 for white and for colored children. 
 
 On the dock as the boat came to the landing, was a crowd of 
 black people, men, women and children, clad in every kind of garment 
 that would serve for covering. The strange medley of lace gowns, 
 plush coats, linen dusters and velvet hats was amusing as well as pitiful. 
 One small boy of three or four years was buttoned from chin to ankles 
 in a black cloth jacket that had been made for a slim lady ; the sleeves 
 had been cut off at the elbows, and the whole effect of the costume 
 was very funny. 
 
 Up in the North barrels and boxes of clothing had been made up 
 and forwarded for the refugees, and these had provided most of the 
 queer outfits. But just think of sending lace dresses and plush coats ! 
 Yet people nowadays sometimes do just such absurd things when 
 packing boxes for frontier ministers or for our Homes or schools. 
 Garments unsuitable for the climate or for the conditions of those who 
 
are to wear them, or too old to be serviceable, should never be put 
 into missionary boxes. 
 
 Homes could not come in banels, and some provision had to be 
 made for the shelter of this company of refugees. "The Hive," a large 
 three-story house without doors or windows, and with wide piazzas on 
 each floor, was filled to "standing room only" with the little black 
 waifs. Army blankets had been given out for bedding and hominy 
 and bacon provided for food. Cooking was done outdoors, over chip 
 fires. The streets were grass-grown and pigs and turkey buzzards 
 were the geirbage gatherers. The mail-boat came once a week. 
 
 An old building once used as a cotton warehouse had been fitted 
 up with rude benches for a general meeting-place. On Sundays it 
 was used as a church, and all day long it rang with the sound of 
 prayer and praise. One thing must be remembered to the credit of 
 the colored race — they believe in God, and in all the hard years of 
 their history they have trusted in Him for help. At the first Sunday- 
 school service held in the warehouse only eleven out of the six hundred 
 present could read. But how they could sing ! 
 
 When General Howard and a company of teachers from 
 " up No'th " came, everybody who could walk joined the crowd that 
 gathered at the warehouse. The place could not begin to hold the 
 eager throng, and they climbed the near-by trees and perched on 
 posts, singing lustily, 
 
 " Good news, brethren ! Good news ! 
 Good news came to-day." 
 
 The good General gave a kind and friendly talk to the people, 
 telling them about the teachers who had come to help them, and of 
 what he should expect of them as pupils. Then, after an earnest 
 prayer for God's guidance in the affairs of the people and the nation, 
 he went back to the boat; the drums kept time for the marching 
 feet of the soldiers for whom other boats were waiting to take them 
 back home — and for once the refugee army staid behind. The going 
 of the soldiers and the coming of the teachers marked the beginning 
 of another sort of march. The ministry of the Christian teachers who 
 went from some of the best homes and schools in the land to live 
 among the poor and lowly and to help lift them up, makes 1865 a 
 landmark worth noting. 
 
 4 
 
How the Schools Began 
 
 THE story of this one special company of teachers and pupils is 
 that of many schools that were started at this time. A church 
 or any building that could be obtained was used as the 
 schoolhouse. Webster's blue-backed spelling-book, copies of the New 
 Testament, slates, a blackboard and reading chart made up the school 
 outfit. The names of the children caused a good deal of confusion at 
 first, for many of them had been separated from their parents, and did 
 not know where they were, or even who they were, for the fortunes 
 of war had broken up all family life. So the children had taken any 
 names that suited their fancy, and the changes were perplexing. A 
 boy who had been known as " Pe'simmons Dozier " informed the 
 teacher one morning that his name was George Washington Grant, and 
 stoutly stuck to it thereafter, so the change was made on the record. 
 
 As new people came and old residents retumed to the homes 
 they had left during the war, business gradually revived. The colored 
 people had better opportunities to earn money, and soon they began 
 to build cabin homes. Many of these were very rude, but they were 
 the first free homes. Often they were made of slabs, with roofs 
 thatched with palmetto bark, and banels for chimneys. Life was hard 
 under such conditions — too hard for many of the brightest boys and 
 girls, who sickened and died. There was no efficient protection for 
 life and property, and for a long time people were afraid to live out of 
 the towns. The old order of things was changed for both white and 
 colored people, and both had hardships to endure, but the heavier 
 burden, by far, fell to the lot of the Negroes. 
 
 Christian people soon saw that help must be given to the millions 
 of freedmen in the way of educating and training them to be intelligent 
 citizens. Schools must be provided, that would, in time, furnish 
 teachers for more schools. Thousands of dollars were given to 
 establish schools of various grades, some of which, later, became 
 colleges, and scholarships were provided for those unable to pay even 
 the low rates charged for tuition. 
 
 Business men talk of " good returns " from investments of money. 
 But no business man ever received larger interest on his money than 
 has been paid on the money thus invested in boys and girls. As a rule 
 
 5 
 
the pupils in these schools have, in their turn, helped many others, 
 feeling in honor bound to pay back, in this way, what has been done 
 for them. Money invested in souls as well as bodies always " pays." 
 
 But thoughtful people soon saw that more than the study of books 
 Was necessary. The hands needed training as well as the head, and 
 Bo industrial work came into the plan of education. This has been a 
 wonderful blessing to the South, as to other sections of the country- 
 In many schools of the South to-day you may visit handsome brick 
 buildings, with fine finishings and furnishings of wood, all the work 
 having been done by students. Over thirty trades and industries have 
 been introduced into the schools for boys. There are not so many 
 for the girls, but enough to make them self-supporting. 
 
 Evening schools have helped many a working boy and girl to get 
 an education. Among the first of these were those in the saw-mill 
 camps. Fifty or more men and boys would gather in some old build- 
 ing and, by the light of a 
 few candles, receive their first 
 lessons in reading. Often a 
 boy, his father and his grand- 
 father would sit side by side 
 and study from the same 
 book. Some learned quick- 
 ly — for others it was hard, 
 painstaking work. They had 
 no kindergarten plays and 
 attractive " busy work " to 
 help them over the hard 
 places in books. 
 
 " Will you take me as 
 fast as I kin go in dis yere 
 book ? " asked a school boy 
 of his teacher. A soldier 
 had given him a copy of 
 Greenleaf's arithmetic, and 
 helped him to begin its study. Of course the teacher gladly promised 
 all the help she could give. At the end of the school year the boy 
 had mastered the arithmetic. In after years he became a college 
 president, and whenever he visited his native place he always called 
 to thank anew the teacher who had " awakened " him. 
 
 Few people ask in these days, "Can the colored children learn?" 
 But should you hear such a question you may be very sure that the 
 one asking does not read the church papers or belong to a Home 
 Missionary Society. 
 
 It "Pays "to Help Them 
 
 6 
 
Some Special Schools and Homes 
 
 HAMPTON INSTITUTE, in Virginia, was among the first 
 schools to provide industrial and trade instruction. It was 
 founded by General Armstrong, in 1 868, for Negro and Indian 
 students. Hundreds of its graduates have carried the " Hampton idea " 
 of self-helping industry all through the south and southwest. Perhaps 
 the brightest star in its crown is Booker T. Washington, who came to 
 its door footsore and hungry to find there his place among the world's 
 noted workers. His lifework is Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, where 
 he reaches from twelve to fourteen hundred students every year. In 
 the farming districts of the " Black Belt " he helps and encourages the 
 boys and girls and the men and women to improve their home 
 surroundings and to make the most of every chance to help others. 
 
 The American Missionary Society was one of the first to enter this 
 great field, and its schools have made a splendid showing. Atlanta 
 University has a notable group of instructors, men and women stand- 
 ing for the best and highest interests of their race. 
 
 Spellman Semineiry, in Atlanta, under the direction of the Baptist 
 church, is one of the finest schools for Negro girls to be found in the 
 South. To see a group of its graduates is to learn a new lesson of 
 what Negro girls may be and do under favorable surroundings. 
 
 A visit to the school of Miss Lucy Laney, in Augusta, Georgia, 
 will teach another lesson of how the right kind of help keeps growing. 
 One summer in speaking to a Chautauqua audience, she introduced 
 herself as " the product of a mission school." The people of Augusta 
 had such confidence in her ability that they gave her the use of a 
 hospital building with much of the needful furnishings, for the work of her 
 class in nurse training. This school is under the Home Mission Board 
 of the Presbyterian church. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church South and other Southern 
 churches, did much religious work among the Negroes before the war, 
 but little was done to educate them even in elementary book knowl- 
 edge until after they became free. 
 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church, which always ranks with the 
 pioneers in good work, was promptly in this new field. The Freed- 
 men's Aid Society was organized in 1 866, having for one of its 
 mottoes, "Christian education is the great need of the times." It is 
 true for every lime, and it is the kind of education that never "spoils" 
 those receiving it. The thousands of Christian ministers and teachers 
 
 7 
 
who have been prepared in these schools to lead and help their people 
 bear no resemblance to that other army that followed the soldiers but 
 a few years ago. The helping hand of the churches has largely made 
 possible a supply of teachers for the public schools for Negro children. 
 But these are still unable to provide for anywhere near the total 
 number of children of school age, so that there is yet need of the church 
 schools if the children are to be saved from lives of ignorance and sin. 
 
 At Nashville, Tennessee, one of the great educational centers, 
 where many young people gather year after year, are professional 
 schools, out of whose doors pass doctors, dentists and druggists to join 
 the great army of workers. 
 
 Atlanta and New Orleans each have theological schools of note 
 for the training of the ministry. It is said that the beginning of this 
 school in New Orleans was carried in Dr. Hartzell's pocket for many 
 months — that is, that he paid its first expenses himself. 
 
 This is by no means a complete list of the schools that have won 
 distinction in the South, but one gleaned from here and there may 
 serve to show how much all have accomplished in the years since the 
 coming of freedom. 
 
 Mr. David Irwin Martin (said to be the leading Negro violinist and teacher in New 
 York City) and his little son. Mr. Martin was an Allen Industrial School boy. 
 
 8 
 
Woman's Home Missionary Society 
 
 THE special needs of the women and girls of the Negro race seem 
 for a time to have been overlooked. The home idea had never 
 entered their lives in the days of slavery, and in the hard early 
 days of freedom they had lived in gangs, or crow^ds, afraid to leave 
 what small degree of protection they could thus find. Cabins were 
 crowded with men, women and children often herded together more 
 like animals than like human beings. 
 
 When Dr. and Mrs. Hcirtzell (since our Bishop in Africa) went to 
 live in New Orleans, in connection with the missionary work of our 
 church there, they saw the wretched homes and how impossible it 
 was to make better ones until the mothers were taught to do the 
 many helpful things that a good home needs. Mrs. Hartzell and others 
 went among the Negro women and won their love by their interest in 
 them and their problems. Classes were formed for them in different parts 
 of the city, and women in the North were told of the needed work. 
 The result was the organization of the Woman's Home Missionary 
 Society, in Cincinnati, Ohio, in July, 1 880. This is a date to be 
 remembered, and it is good to know that our great society, which has 
 helped so many girls and women of all races that live in this dear land 
 of ours, began its work by helping those in the little cabin homes of 
 the South, the Negro women who did not know what the word home 
 ought to mean, and the Negro children who had had no chance. 
 Those who started the work did not dream how it would grow. It 
 was just seed-sowing then. But God had plans for wonderful growth — 
 He knew that not only the Negroes, but the Indians, the Alaskans, the 
 Porto Ricans, the Japanese and Chinese, as well as white children 
 of many nationalities, would, later, have " a chance " through the loving 
 mother-care of the society thus steirted. 
 
 One of the first plans of the new society was to give the girls in 
 the Freedmen's Aid or other schools a year of training in a Model 
 Home. Contrast what they found there and learned there with the 
 conditions in the cabin homes from which they came, and you can 
 understand a little of what a wonder it was to those first girls, and how 
 it transformed their lives. When they learned that cabin homes could 
 be kept clean and neat and sweet, that clothing, even if of coarse 
 material, could be neatly made, and that food, however rude the 
 outfit, could be cooked well and served well— when they learned 
 
 9 
 
these things the next step was to take the knowledge back to their 
 homes and make changes for the better, to make homes of their 
 own (for many of them soon married, of course), model homes, and to 
 show the mothers and children of the schools in which they went to 
 teach, better ways of living. 
 
 Thayer Home, in South Atlanta, Georgia, was the first Model 
 Home of the Woman's Home Missionary Society. It was dedicated 
 in 1883. 
 
 The story of what has been done through even one of these 
 Industrial Homes is quite too long to tell here. Training of head, of 
 
 Thayer Home 
 
 hands and of heart has been the watchword in all of them. Some of 
 the girls come, like Ella C, from work in the field. She and her mother 
 walked fifteen miles one morning, reaching one of our Homes as the 
 family sat down to breakfast. The mother asked to see the " head lady " 
 soon, as she had to hurry back to work. When the superintendent 
 came, the mother said : 
 
 " I brung yer this girl for she gave me no peace." Then she added, 
 holding out a silver dollar, " It's all I got in de world but I'll send yer 
 another soon as I gets it." 
 
 10 
 
There was no room for the girl — so it seemed — and no money 
 with which to provide food and other needs ; but the superintendent 
 had faith, and like many another girl since, she stayed ; soon the Lord 
 put it into the hearts of some young people to send to that Home 
 fifteen dollars for " some girl." Don't you see that He meant to have 
 her stay ? 
 
 Ella proved very apt in learning the ways of the school, but was 
 not strong. At the close of the term, three months later, she went home, 
 not to return. But she often wrote for " pieces to sew " and " pieces 
 to speak," for she was teaching the children around her home all that 
 she knew. Near the close of the school year a letter came from a 
 white lady saying that she had taken Ella into her own home and 
 cared for her, but that now she had gone to the heavenly home. She 
 added, " I am a Southern woman, and do not believe in most of the 
 school work for these black folks, but what this one girl has done for 
 her people has taught me a lesson. The school she had here has 
 done more good than all the preachers they ever had, and some of us 
 are going to see it carried on now. I must respect a place that can put 
 so much good into a girl's life in a few short months." 
 
 Girls who spent long hours doing housework in other people's 
 homes, attended evening classes and finally succeeded in becoming 
 trained nurses, and thus being able to do more for themselves and their 
 people. Frequently mothers and grandmothers, in the early days, came 
 to school with the children in the primary class. One of these said : 
 
 " My children are all married, and my old man works for me, and 
 he says, ' Now, ole lady, you go to school an' learn to read the paper 
 to me.' " This she learned to do, to her great satisfaction, when fifty- 
 five years old. 
 
 At one Home where the little folks learned housework by the use 
 of small furniture and dishes, the mothers often came to hear and see 
 the lessons. One of them said, " I don't know how to set the table 
 like you all do, so I want to learn and get better wages for work." 
 
 The story of the sacrifices made by many of these parents to send 
 their children to school would fill many pages. What the girls have 
 done to make the world better would fill many more. 
 
 11 
 
A Kindergarten Circle in One of Our SchooU 
 
After Many Years 
 
 A GIRL graduate of Meharry Medical School at NashvilUe, Tenn., 
 wrote to a friend, " To-day I shall receive my diploma, and I 
 am glad. When I leave here to-morrow^ I shall go with less 
 than three dollars over my car-fare to make my way in the world, but 
 I am not discouraged." 
 
 Some of the children who stood on the dock in clothes of many 
 colors and kinds, and who lodged in the " Hive," may be found in 
 comfortable homes of their own to-day ; their children attend a graded 
 school that stands on the site of the old warehouse. A good brick 
 church has taken the place of the old building. 
 
 One girl who was helped over hard places by her teacher — as so 
 many have been helped — finally completed her studies and became a 
 successful nurse. She had to care for herself and for other members 
 of her family, but after two years she sent back to the one who had 
 helped her the full amount of the money lent, with interest, and wrote, 
 "More than the money, it seems to me now, was the help and 
 encouragement you gave me, and that I never can repay except as I 
 pass it on to others." 
 
 Each of the many Homes maintained for Negro girls by the 
 Woman's Home Missionary Society has been called into existence by 
 some special need. In them hundreds of girls have felt the influence 
 of the home life, the school privileges and the Christian instruction. 
 The missionary spirit has marked all the work, and from these Homes 
 several girls have already gone as missionaries to Africa, while others, 
 as organizers, deaconesses and teachers of our society, carry on the 
 message " for the love of Christ and in His name." If you could see the 
 long line of helpful workers who have gone out from these Homes, 
 you would say that it told a wonderful story. 
 
 But there are still hundreds of girls waiting and praying for the 
 door of such opportunities to open for them. It never will if we forget 
 to be helpful. One of our teachers wrote on a recent opening day, 
 "There has been a continuous line of girls in the office to-day apply- 
 ing for help to come in, and we lack the money to take them. It 
 takes the heart out of me to say ' No.* " So while much has been 
 done and many a conquest made, there remains still much for our 
 young folks to do in making other victories possible. A letter lies 
 
 13 
 
before me from the mother of eight girls, and her message is a good 
 one for the close of this story: "I pray for the Home Mission 
 people every day, and thank God that He sent them to help me with 
 my crowd of girls. I used to worry and wonder what I could do to 
 save them from evil, but, thanks to the Home and school, none of them 
 has given me an hour's trouble. They are all doing well and all in 
 the church." 
 
 Our church hymnal has a Conquest hymn in which are these 
 lines for us : 
 
 "For not with swords loud clashing. 
 
 Nor roll of stirring drums; 
 With deeds of love and mercy 
 The heavenly kingdom comes. 
 
 Thy cross is lifted o'er us; 
 
 We journey in its light: 
 The crown awaits the conquest; 
 Lead on, O God of might." 
 
 Almost Ready for the Kindergarten 
 
 14