Farm Schools for the Colored People
By E. A. Sutherland
ONE of the great problems facing the people giving the last message is the race problem of the Southern States; and the only solution to this problem is the truth of the third angel's message. The people who are giving this message are in a measure responsible for the present situation in the Southern States. Immediately after the war our people should have established all through the South many industrial schools for the education of the freed men; but instead of this, schools of another character were started at that time, and the education given was largely of a literary nature. After a period of forty years, many honest people in the South have concluded that book education for the negro is a failure. They believe that it has neither developed the character that was in the old slave-trained negro, nor has it made more practical and skilled workmen. Instead of inculcating these virtues, it is felt by many that an overestimation of his own ability and position is the result to the negro of a purely literary training. Theoretical education created a desire in the minds of many colored people to be placed on an equality with the whites in matters social and political. This desire of the colored people is bitterly opposed by the whites, and a new problem known as the social problem is largely the result. The negro race in a special sense is adapted to the land. They need teachers who are farmers and builders, who are skilful in treating the sick, in cooking, and who understand the things that should be taught in order to develop Christian characters and perfect Christian homes. It is a great work to teach these people to read, so that they can read the instruction from the Bible, that by the sweat of their faces they should earn their bread and till the ground; but it is a greater work to show them by a personal example how to perform this feat. A great many of them are anxious to learn practical every-day lessons. To illustrate, I will give a few experiences that I have had with them. Several years ago, while setting out some fruit-trees, I was visited by a colored man. He seemed deeply interested in what I was doing. I knew he had a little land of his own, and I asked him some questions about his fruit-trees. He told me that he had neither fruit-trees nor berries upon his land; that he did not know how to plant them. I gave him a few simple lessons on the necessity of making a hole of the proper size for the trees, showed him how to place the roots so that they would not be cramped, and how to press the dirt around about them. That evening he came to me, stating that he had talked the matter over with his wife, and that they both wished to put out some trees. He asked me if I would sell him some of our trees. I sold him about a dozen fruit-trees, and also showed him how to plant some strawberries.17I passed by this man's place a few days ago, and was much pleased to see that he had continued his interest in planting trees since that time. The array of peach- and other fruit-trees blooming in this colored man's little field was a pretty sight. They were growing where the thorn-tree had previously reigned. In this case the desert had been made to blossom as the rose. An old colored man nearly seventy years of age wanted a little home. He was encouraged to save his money, with which he purchased one acre. I visited his little farm a short time ago. He had been removing the rock from his land for a year. He had sold many cords of rock to the county to be crushed for roads. Yet he had so much left that he built on his little place nearly one hundred rods of rock fence, cutting the place into four lots. Everything about his premises was very neat, even though his little hut was made of scraps of lumber that he had been able to secure by working for white people at cracking rock for two cents a bushel. The daily fare for the average Alabama negro is found, in the United States Bulletin of the Agricultural Department, No. 38, to be corn-meal baked on the flat surface of a hoe, and salt pork sliced thin and fried until very brown and much of the grease fried out. Molasses from cane or sorghum is added to this fat, making what is known as “sap,” which is eaten with the corn-bread. Hot water sweetened with molasses is used as a beverage. This bill of fare is the kind of food that is eaten three times a day during the entire year, varied at times with collards and with turnips, with which fat bacon has been boiled to add richness to the dish. One characteristic of the cooking is that all foods are fried whenever possible, causing a very large per cent of the people to suffer from indigestion in some form. There are many obstacles standing in the way of negroes owning their own homes and land. There is much prejudice on the part of white people against their possessing property, as it gives less opportunity to the employer to oppress. There is also a prejudice against selling land to colored people, because it lowers the value of real estate around the negroes' homes. It is generally necessary for the negro to pay from four to five times as much for a piece of land as a white man. I have known of many instances where negroes have paid one hundred dollars for an acre of stony land that was not worth ten dollars; but some are so anxious to have homes—some spot which they may call their own—that they are willing to purchase even at this unreasonable price. How thankful we should be that the Lord has given us light on this great question. He has told us plainly that training-schools should be established to train teachers to go into neighborhoods and establish little schools upon the land to do this very work. The Oakwood Industrial school at Huntsville, Ala., with its fine farm, is doing a splendid work in this line. Just at this time this school is endeavoring to strengthen its teaching facilities by adding a sanitarium to its equipment. This will enable them not only to relieve the sick, but to do a most important work of training students in medical missionary lines. For a number of years the Southern Missionary Society has been establishing many schools among these people. It is said that wherever a school has been established, a company of believers has been raised up who are intelligently practising the truth. Hillcrest School Farm is a new institution about five miles out of Nashville, Tenn., established to train colored teachers to go among their people to open up farm mission schools. Hillcrest is rapidly getting into a position where it may be a strong factor in this great work. The Nashville (Tenn.) Sanitarium for colored people has recently been established in a very favorable portion of the city of Nashville. This institution is not fully equipped, because money has not come in for the purpose. It will be an agent in our educational scheme for training competent workers. The sanitarium is affiliated with these other schools, and we trust will soon be in a position to do an advanced work in training medical missionaries. If our brethren and sisters in the North could only understand the sacrifice that is being made by those who devote themselves to this work, they certainly would feel it a great privilege to provide the little money necessary to equip these institutions in a simple way that they may be prepared to speedily do the work which Christ will do before he comes in glory. We believe that the words the Lord has spoken concerning this work, will be fulfilled, for the word of God will not return to him void, but will accomplish that thing whereto he sends it.