USA > Delaware > Methodism of the peninsula, or, Sketches of notable characters and events in the history of Methodism in the Maryland and Delaware peninsula > Part 12
USA > Maryland > Methodism of the peninsula, or, Sketches of notable characters and events in the history of Methodism in the Maryland and Delaware peninsula > Part 12
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This unexpected apology for the Leper was so just, and at the same time in its circumstances so ludicrous, that it upset the gravity of ministers and people all around, and effectually vanquished the unfortunate speaker, who was thrown into an embarrassment most painful to endure or even to behold. Uncle Jeems, seeing that something was wrong, without the least suspicion of his own responsibility, capped the climax by the ejaculation : "De good Lor' help de brudder ! He am po'ly, too, I 'spec's !" An able exhorter came to the rescue; but his unfortunate attempt to tack on his address to the broken off sermon and the name of the "po'ly" man in the chariot, provoked a feeling of amusement that was fatal to his success. In the prayer meeting which followed among the colored
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people, very appropriately indeed, and quite as inno- cently as in the apology for Naaman, Uncle Jeems struck up the doleful chorus: "What's de matter in Zion?"
Among the most notable of the colored Methodist Episcopal ministers of the Peninsula, was Rev. Frost Pollet. He was one of the original members of the Delaware Conference, and served a term therein as Pre- siding Elder. Frost was nearly six feet in height, of bony and angular build; more erect than Bishop Simpson ; but, except in color, not unlike him in general form and appearance. There was an admix- ture of about one-eighth of white blood in his veins. This seems to have given form and expression to his features which were more Anglican than African. In him, however, the negro voice and dialect were per- fectly developed. His manner was marked by great simplicity, and humility was the distinguishing feature of his Christian character. He was intensely earnest and enthusiastic in his religious experience and efforts. Whenever it was known among the white residents of Princess Anne, and other Peninsular towns where he labored, that Frost Pollet was to preach, the best and most cultured of all religious persuasions flocked to hear him; and his congregations at bush meetings were oft- times real ovations. No pen and ink portraiture can do justice to either the man or his preaching.
It was the good fortune of Rev. T. E. Martindale to hear Frost preach, on a certain occasion, in Pocomoke City, Maryland. To him I am indebted for the data
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out of which, in a measure, to reconstruct that discourse, and thus preserve to the world a unique specimen of African eloquence.
The text was, "Go and shew John agin de things which ye do heah and see. De blind receive der sight, an' de lame walk; de lipers are cleansed, an' de deaf heah, de dead is raised up, an' de poor has de Gospel preached to them."
On top of Frost's bald head was a large wen, which it was his wont frequently to rub during the delivery of his sermons-especially in the passages where he was most interested or embarrassed. On this occasion, run- ning his hand over his head as if in thoughtful mood, he said, "Frens; what you'll heah to-night, I didn't git out'n no books; but I got it right out'n my own head." He then, by way of introduction, proceeded to give a most accur- ate, particular and remarkably vivid description of the circumstances, preceding and attending the utterance of these words by the Master. When this was ended, he entered upon the discussion of the old question-whether man would have reached a greater development and blessedness, had he not fallen, than that to which he might aspire under the remedial scheme of Christ's atonement and mediation. Scarcely had he propounded the problem, however, until he stopped short and called sharply to himself: "Ole Frost, you'd better come back from dar. Dem's deep waters. Don't look out, Frost, you'll git drownded !" And that was the last of that streak of speculative divinity.
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Frost then took up, in order, the various characters mentioned in the text-the blind, the lame, etc. ; and proceeded to discuss these physical conditions, and by them to illustrate the unhappy state and fearful exposure of "de po' sinnah." When Frost came to the discus- sion of the case of " de lipers," he cited the case of Naa- man the Syrian. He gave the history in accurate detail, and with a strange, nervous force-a magnetism of voice and manner - indescribably beautiful. Among other things, he said : "Naaman was taken po'ly ; he got wus and wus, an' nothin' done him no good. An' one day his wife couldn't help cryin' 'bout it. An' dar was a little slave gal 'bout de house. I specs dey stole her away an' tuck her down dar wrongishly. She seed her missus a cryin' an' downhearted like ; an' sez she : Missus, dere's a prophet down yander in Isr'el, wher I comed from, dat can pray for Mars Naaman, an' 'buke de 'sease an' kore him. An' so his wife told Naaman, an' Naaman told de king; an' de king sent Naaman right off in a char'ot, wid a troop of hoss soldiers to 'scort him down to S'maria or sommers to find de Pro- phet. But he made de 'stake of goin' to de king ob Isr'el. Jest like po' sinners now-a-days. Dey goes eberywhere but to de right place fo' salvation. But as luck-by dat I means Providence-would have it, po' Naaman got to de right place at last. Sinners allers can find Jesus somehow, if dey're in right down yearnest."
Frost then described the interview with the Prophet, told about the prescription ; and finally got Naaman
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down to the banks of Jordan, drawing on his vivid imagination for most of the interesting colloquy repre- sented as having taken place between "Gineral Naaman and his sarvant." After getting Naaman into the water for his first bath, he represented him as saying: "I don't b'lieve in dis heah nonsense, an' I'se a gwine ter come out'n dis ole ditch." He then represented Naaman's slave standing on the shore and saying: "Master, you knows what de Prophet said. Better stay in dar an' gib de Lord a fair chance at you." As Frost repre- sented, in most dramatic language and manner, Naa- man's successive baths, the spiritual temperature in his congregation grew more and more torrid, and there were unmistakable indications of phenomenal disturbances and convulsions in that part of the religious kosmos. Then, changing his whole demeanor, and emphasizing his words with a measured and most impressive delibe- ration, he said : 'And-he-went-down-the-seventh -time!" At this juncture, clasping his hands over his head, and squatting low, as if about to spring well-nigh to the ceiling, he exclaimed: "Mighty Lord ! Help ole Frost to preach de Gospel dis one time mo' !" After this invocation, he added, with effect that was irresistible: " An' he come up out'n de water, an' his flesh was jest like a sweet, little baby's!" This climax took the audience by storm; and such was the excitement, that it became necessary for the eloquent preacher to pause, while the more excitable elements cooled off sufficiently to allow him to proceed.
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Under the head of raising the dead, the speaker cited the cases of Lazarus and the nobleman's daughter. The picture he drew of the sweet, Christian home at Bethany and its loving and lovely occupants, and how that home was shadowed and made desolate by the death of the beloved brother, brought tears to many eyes. At the conclusion of this description, he remarked incidentally : "Now, when de blessed Jesus was a travellin' his cir- cuit, he used to have his puttin' up places, jest like we preachers does. An' he was allers glad to put up wid Mr. Lazarus an' Miss Mary an' Martha, 'cause dey was sich nice housekeepers, an' speshly 'cause dey all loved each other so deahly." Having completed a most graphic description of the resurrection of Lazarus, after a slight pause, in the most natural manner possible, looking over his shoulder as if to summon some person at a distance, but within hearing, he issued the impera- tive command : "Miss Tabitha: You come in heah, now, an' gib your testimony. We wants to know what's your 'spe'rence 'bout de resarection." And by the time he had finished his colloquy with this young lady, he again had his audience stirred by a mighty whirlwind of power.
The following specimen of his eloquence is in a dif- ferent vein-not so dramatic, but perhaps even more impressive. Having selected as his text, "And, without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness," he remarked: "Bretherin' an' sisterin', dis am a great 'casion, an' I am got a great tex'. If a po' preachah
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take a little tex' on a big 'casion, an' den done gone preach a po' sermont, de sembly don't git nothin'; but dis arternoon, yer shore o' de tex' anyway.
"De Possel say 'widout contivarsy great am de myst'ry of godliness;' an' if 'ligion-fo' dat's what he means-am a great myst'ry widout contivarsy, what a mighty big myst'ry it must be wid contivarsy. When ole Nick Demus went to de Mars to ax him 'bout de kingdom, he told him, 'Nick, you can't squeeze in no how widout you come like a po' little baby-got to be born agin, Nick.' Den Demus he say, 'Mars, how kin dat ar be? Dat's a great myst'ry.' Den Jesus he say, 'Nick, don't you heah dat wind? Don't you know it's a blowin'? Kin you 'splain it?' Den Nick Demus he see de pint; an' he an' de Mars war 'widout contivarsy,' and godliness war a great myst'ry.
"Fren's : I've hearn of some cullud pussuns round dese parts that go to meetin' an' shout all ober de house ; an' den a goin' home dat night, dey takes a hen off'n some- body's apple-tree. Dat am a great myst'ry. But s'pose dat cullud man gits 'ligion right eend fo'most ; den he leaves all de hens,-an' de Debil too-behind him. Dat am de great myst'ry ob godliness.
" Den dar am de myst'ry ob de Lord's keer fo' us. De Book say he count de hairs an' watch de sparrers, an' 'tend to de little baby ravens. It say also two sparrers oney fetch a fardin in de market. (I reckon a fardin am 'bout a cent.) If dat's so, one sparrer's oney wo'th a half a cent. Now den ; ef de good Lord take keer ob
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de little sparrer what's oney wo'th one half a cent ; does you think he won't take keer o' you fifteen hundred dol- lah niggers ? No wondah de Possel say 'great am de myst'ry ob godliness.' "
The Slave code did not allow free negroes of one state to go into another. About the year 1856, Frost Pollet was so indiscreet as to cross the line and preach a ser- mon to the colored saints and sinners in Accomac. He was promptly arrested and thrown into prison. When the day for a hearing of the case arrived, the Court, rightly adjudging that there was no sinister purpose in his visit, released him, allowing him so many hours to leave the state of Virginia. Taking off his hat and making a polite bow, he said :
"Thank you, gentlemens ; you may see frost down heah agin some time dis winter; but, shore es you're born, you's neber gwine to see Pollet in dese diggin's no mo'."
But "the former things have passed away." During the dark days of the war, in 1864, a State Constitutional Convention assembled in the State Capitol at Annapolis, where the subject of slavery, the question of states rights, and other great living issues of those stormy times were elaborately discussed. In that honorable body the writer, with other Unionists, pleaded the cause of the slave and of the union, on a motion that finally pre- vailed, to adopt into the " Bill of Rights" the following item :
" Article 23. Hereafter, in this State, there shall be
9
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neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons held to service or labor, as slaves, are hereby declared free."
In that discussion, the writer took the ground that, in its aggregated existence and influence, slavery was a great moral, social and political evil, and ought to be extirpated for the following reasons: Because, it was an invasion of natural rights; could only exist in violation of the dearest and most sacred social and domestic ties; and because it ministered to the demoralization of all classes within the sphere of its influence. He held further, that slavery undermined and enervated the principles of general and individual enterprise and self-reliance forming the basis of an honorable manhood, and of all true political and ma- terial prosperity; that the legislation demanded for the protection of slavery and slaveholders, was arbitrary, unjust and oppressive to the people; and, finally, that for the above and for other reasons, the system and the code of slavery were in contravention of the principles and teachings of the Christian religion-the purest law of right and morality that had ever blessed the world; and that therefore, slavery had no right to existence and protection under the government of a professedly Chris- tian people.
Having completed its work, that Convention adjourned in September. On the 12th and 13th days of October, 1864, an election was held for the acceptance or rejection
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of the Constitution framed by the Convention, and it was adopted by a majority of 375 votes. After an exciting legal contest in the State Courts, on technical points involving the validity of the vote, on the 29th day of the same month, Governor Bradford issued his procla- mation declaring the new Constitution ratified by the people, to take effect on the first day of November fol- lowing; and, with the midnight advent of that beautiful, frosty November morning, the shackles fell from the hands of all Maryland's bondsmen ; and one hundred thousand new-made freemen walked forth into the blessings and responsibilities of personal and civil liberty.
As a rule, these bondmen came forth from their dark, sad Egypt as did Israel, recognizing the Divine Goodness that opened up a way through the bloody, red sea of war, and the madness of their unreasoning and rebellious masters. Few, indeed, were the thoughtless revelries in which even the more trifling and vicious among these unchained souls indulged. On the contrary, everywhere throughout the State on the night of the 31st of October, the freedmen assembled in their humble places of wor- ship, or in their "quarters" and cabins; and signalled the coming of their glorious year of jubilee with appropriate, grateful, glowing watch-night services. Sermons and addresses were delivered, prayers offered, and holy songs were wafted forth on the still midnight air, until the incense of glad thanksgiving filled Heaven, and a tem- pest of praise swept the new, free State of Maryland. One picture will serve as an illustration; but the reader
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must remember it was duplicated in a thousand places that joyous night.
The scene was a newly dedicated chapel on the East- ern Shore. About 9 o'clock, on the night above indi- cated, the last slave having finished his last task, the colored people of the neighborhood began to assemble at the place of worship; and by 10 o'clock, almost the entire negro population of all that region was crowded into the chapel, and gathered at the door and windows in eager, expectant squads. "Uncle Jack," a patriarchal local preacher, of snowy head and most reverend mien, arose and announced from memory the hymn, beginning :
" Blow ye the trumpet, blow The gladly, solemn sound," etc.
which was sung as only three hundred pairs of African lungs could sing it under the inspiration of " de year ob Jubilee" so soon to dawn. Then Uncle Jack prayed and praised and shouted by turns, until his voice was lost amid the hurricane of responsive exclamations that shook the temple. At the conclusion of his glowing invocation, the old preacher said : "Now den, chil'n, let's all dat loves de Lord, an' thanks him fo' de comin' freedom, 'main on der knees, an' be still; an' let de heart say its thanksgivin', jest in a little whisper, so nobody but de blessed Jesus kin hear."
For a little while the dropping of a pin might have been heard ; then there followed a faint whisper, grad- ually increasing, and, at length, broken by sobs and
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smothered exclamations ; until, finally, a " great and ex- ceeding weight of glory " settled down like Pentecost upon the assembly. Being present with a few sympa- thizing white spectators, the writer was invited to ad- dress the audience. He congratulated the freedmen upon the prospect before them; and reminded them that liberty, to them, did not represent immunity from care and toil, or imply the right to live by the labor and thrift of their neighbors; but that, to be of any value, it meant liberty to work and enjoy the fruits thereof; liberty to learn to read the Bible and to have their children taught ; liberty to purchase land and build houses, gathering the scattered family about the home altar; liberty to have wives and daughters defended against the bestial lust of libertines, and the unity of the family preserved against the caprice of profligate masters and the dubious exigen- cies of the auction block. He advised sobriety, indus- try, honesty and respect for manhood, whether covered by white or black skins. He told them, in a word, that the colored man who most hated the bondage of sin and the Devil, was best fitted for the new freedom now vouchsafed him by his country and his God.
Uncle Jack then added a few words of hearty appro- val of the above sentiments, concluding as follows: "I tells ye folkses, dis am a great day. I neber 'spected to know how a free nigger felt till I got de kingdom an' de crown up yander. But, gullory, halleluyer! In a few mo' minits, dis ole slave'll be a free man. I feels it in my bones, an' chil'n, I's a gwine ter shout !" Saying
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which, he suited the action to the word, and leaped for very gladness. Then, as the watch indicated the hour of midnight, all heads were bowed in the solemn consecra- tion of their new life of freedom to the service of Him who had so strangely broken their fetters.
"Now, chil'n, you kin sing ef ye wants to," said Uncle Jack. "You 'longs to nobody but de Lord now. Sing !" And sing they did! It was like the voice of the winds through field and forest, mingling with the chime of falling waters. Soothing cadences, swelling harmonies, gusts of praise and cyclones of " Hosanna in the highest " went rolling out from the little chapel, and floated off to hill and dale on the still, sweet breath of that November morning. It was, indeed, a jubilee anthem,-a medley of all their most joyful melodies, interluded with the voices of fervent ejaculation, and shouts of victorious praise !
Some there were who failed to live up to the glowing promises and prophecies of that thrilling hour ; but, as a class, the freedmen of Maryland have made steady and rapid progress. It is absurd to judge the negro by the highest standard of Caucasian civilization, attained through centuries of development and culture .. It took Jehovah forty years to educate and develop the liberated Israelites to a point where they could be trusted with the responsibilities of citizenship and self-government. In half that period, despite the disabilities arising from old prejudices and unfair proscriptions, the late slave population of Maryland are rapidly advancing to that
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point of civilization, where their liberation will be uni- versally recognized as a blessing both to themselves and to the State.
The same Constitution that freed the slaves of Mary- land, provided for a uniform system of public education ; for a state school-tax to support the system; and required that the proceeds of said tax should be distributed pro rata, according to population of all races. It was the purpose of the party then in power, that, in the division of this fund, there should be no discrimination against the colored population. But, three years afterward, the opposite party came into power ; and, by unfair legisla- tion, that kindly purpose has been modified to the negro's injury. Nevertheless, some advance has been made in the direction of fair and honorable concession ; and now there are indications of a growing sense of jus- tice, that we may hope, in the near future, will insure the impartial treatment a Christian state owes to all its citizens. It ill befits a Democracy, claiming the princi- ples symbolized in its name, to heap contempt on a class of its wards because of an assumed intellectual and moral inferiority ; and yet, at the same time, deny that class an equal chance in the race of life. Surely if the proud Caucasian's claims to superiority be well founded, he has nought to fear from a removal of the legal obstructions from the path of his dark-skinned competitor and brother. The chivalry of the dominant knights of our grand old Maryland will be recognized and applauded in Heaven and on Earth, when they shall have obliterated the last
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vestige of the former civilization. That glorious 4th of July cannot be far distant, when Marylanders, in their jubilant celebrations, shall read the Declaration of Independence without a single mental reservation.
Poor, hide-bound little Delaware does not adequately provide for the education of even her white children. Some advance has been constrained and some concessions extorted, by the righteous clamors of the Pulpit and the Press; but, manifestly, the governing politicians of that State are more afraid of education for the masses than they are of the direful ravages of a wide-spread intem- perance and the onerous burdens of an alarming pau- perism. The Legislature has, at last, conceded to the proscribed, disfranchised and politically helpless negro race, a pittance for education proportioned to the rela- tive amount of their taxes for general public purposes. This small amount would be considerably increased if the "cunningly devised" "Act for the Collection of Revenue," so called, were not purposely designed to obstruct and prevent the collection of the poll tax from negroes; the payment of which is a prerequisite to the exercise of the rights of the elective franchise. But, although "The mills of the gods grind slowly," they do keep on grinding, and they "grind exceeding fine;" and, little by little, Christianity and education will so accomplish their work, even in Delaware, as to constrain fairness and justice at the hands of an honest, Democratic manhood; and will make such disgraceful and humiliating statutes thenceforth an impossibility.
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In the light of the future, the children of Delaware politi- cians of to-day will stand and look back at the legis- lation of their fathers, as we now look at the revolting wrongs of the old slave-code; and wonder how such legal abominations and monstrosities could ever exist in free America and in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 9*
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CHAPTER VIII.
UNCLE STEPHEN, THE SLAVE PREACHER.
A WAY down in Somerset County, Maryland, not far from where the waters of the Great Anna- messex mingle with those of the Tangier Sound, dwelt Mrs. Priscilla W-, an aristocratic widow of olden times, with her sons and daughters, together with their numerous slaves. The widow and her children lived in elegant ease and luxury ; while the negroes tilled the generous soil, and gathered the abundant harvests. In addition to these resources, there was a shipyard on the plantation, where workmen were continually busy building or repairing bay and river craft for purposes of travel and traffic, between that part of the Eastern Shore and the great city of Baltimore. Such of the slaves as were not needed on the plantation, were either hired out to other farmers in the surrounding regions, or, if they gave evidence of any mechanical turn, were put to the trade of ship-building.
"Uncle" Stephen, the subject of this sketch, first opened his infantile eyes to the light on this plantation, on the 2d day of March, 1814. He was born in a little cabin on the banks of the river, the murmur of whose rippling waves upon the pebbly strand oft served as his
REV. STEPHEN P. WHITTINGTON.
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lullaby, when his mother was too busy cooking for the shipbuilders to sing him to sleep. Here, amid the caroling of birds and the dancing of the sunlight on grassy sward and rolling wave, little "Steve," with all the swarming nest-full of brother and sister picaninnies, romped, yelled and gamboled.
It is customary in biography to consult the tables of genealogy, in order to account for the career of the hero by the extraction or achievements of his ancestry. Ste- phen, his father, was an American Indian, descended, for many generations, of wild but noble freemen; whose great boast was their tall, straight, graceful stature, and their agility, endurance and bravery. His mother's name was Sarah. Her father was a native African war- rior, who suffered the misfortune to become a prisoner of war, and finally a Maryland slave. He had been torn from a young bride in his native jungles, whose loss he had mourned with aching and sometimes almost breaking heart.
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