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 15
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 15
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UNCLE STEPHEN, THE SLAVE PREACHER.
you, man, ef de Lord calls you, you'd better pull up stakes an' go. Wherever he takes you to, I'm willin' to go wid you."
This message and assurance from his wife broke the chains of the world's influence; took the burden of anxiety off his heart, and started him out with joy upon his career as a Methodist itinerant. Though beginning late in life, and without even the rudiments of literary culture, Stephen made good use of his opportunities ; and, in his present conversation little of the Negro dialect of his former bondage can now be detected. Full of interest indeed has that career been ; and great is the temptation to still further pursue the interesting annals of this humble life ; but having started with the simple design to chronicle the struggles of an enslaved unfortunate for freedom, and the reward that finally, after great dis- couragements, crowned his efforts, I must go to glean in other inviting fields of Peninsular history.
As the old soldier oft gathers his grandchildren about him, and tells the thrilling story of his exploits in the Indian or Mexican battles of long ago ; so Uncle Ste- phen, leaning on his well-worn staff, and looking back over the eventful field in which he has demonstrated his heroic manhood, loves to recall and relate in detail the incidents of his humble but victorious life. But his toilsome journey is nearly ended, and the wayworn traveller expects, ere long, to lay him down to peaceful rest. May his eventide be as serene and blessed as his morning and midday were stormy and sorrowful.
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CHAPTER IX.
OLD TIME SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS.
H OW time flies ! A single flash of memory illumines all the intervening chasm. One single step of thought, and I stand again on the strand of child- hood's orient, looking forward with inquiring vision into the gorgeously tinted and promising, yet mysterious and wonderful future. Forty-eight years ago, leaving my little four-year-old, playmate sister, Sadie, in the old farm homestead with mother, I, the only brother, trudged bravely by the side of my two older sisters, to the newly opened country school, in the new neighborhood, in Caroline County, Maryland, where my honored father had recently settled. How big I felt! I was no longer a baby ; I was a boy-a big boy! Long time ago-a whole year before-I had graduated from frocks to panta- loons! I wore a brand new pair of red-topped, long boots, with my pantaloons legs tucked into them, so that the fancy tops would be visible, and impart to the wearer an aristocratic air. And now I was big enough to start to school ! "Bully for me !" thought I.
The school was but a quarter of a mile distant from home; but to our childish fancies it was so far, that mother-dear, sweet mother-gratified us by putting up
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our dinners in a little basket. There was some nicely fried chicken on a little plate; then eight or ten large Maryland biscuit; then, nestling at one side carefully, a cup of nice, clear, strained honey, with paper tied over it to prevent spilling in case of accident; and a knife and spoon, topped off with three large gingercakes; and over all was tucked a snowy napkin. Only big sister Retta could be entrusted with that precious basket; and Emma and I cast many interested glances towards it, as, hand in hand, and bearing the books, slates and inkstand, with goose quills to make pens, we proudly marched along the winding highway, under the leafless branches of the great white oaks which bordered the farther side.
At last, with a gathering group of expectant children and youth of from five to twenty-one years of age, we stood before the open door of the new school-house. Not that the word new describes the house: very far from it; but the school was new; the school-master was a new arrival in the neighborhood; and the house was newly and for the first time used for so noble a purpose. Will the reader believe it? The house was really a deserted negro cabin, that stood by the highway-side near Townsend's Cross Roads, three miles from Denton, the county town. For an area of twenty-five square miles between that town and the Delaware line, this was the only school; and this was started by a private sub- scription managed by my father. The Maryland law, at that time, liberally provided that if the people of a neighborhood would subscribe for the tuition of twelve
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scholars at five dollars each, then the State would fur- nish a like amount for the education of the same number of "charity scholars." There were no public provisions for school houses; and whether there was house or school, depended altogether upon the character of the population that, amid rural mutations, might happen to gather in any given neighborhood.
This new school and every school in that region for several years, was in a rented house. This particular house was built of logs, the interstices being filled with clay to keep out wind and rain. It was eighteen or twenty feet square, and about eight feet to the eaves; with a door front and back, each opening outwards. Midway between the doors and the north end where stood the chimney, at a convenient height, part of a log was sawed out, the aperture being filled with a three-light hanging window, which, as occasion required, could be propped up for ventilation.
Where the chimney stood, was an aperture six feet wide and four feet high, into which the stone and mud walls of the fire-place were built, to a height above where the blaze of the great log fire would usually reach ; and, above that point, the flue was made of logs and sticks, liberally daubed within of clay. Though not one of the wonders of the world like the "Tower of Pisa," this chimney had yielded to northerly attrac- tions, until its centre of gravity had become endan- gered; and its former sable proprietor had prudently interposed the safeguard of a stout prop, thus holding
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the discouraged chimney to the performance of its duty. At the south end of the house, in order to adapt it to its use as a literary institution, almost an entire log had been removed. This aperture was covered by a wide board, fastened by hinges to the log above, and secured to that below by staple and hook. Like the sash before mentioned, this board was propped up to admit needed light and fresh air. Just below this aperture was the writing desk, extending across the room against the wall. Here, alternately, the girls and boys made "pot-hooks and hangers" with their goose- quill pens, after the pattern set by the teacher; and . finally graduated to the distinguished accomplishment
of being able to draw a note of hand or receipt for "ten dollars, good and lawful money of the United States of America," and to affix thereto their own, real, written signatures. The teacher "set the copies" during the noon hour ; but made and mended pens at all hours, when they happened to be presented for that purpose. Hence the name still so commonly applied to the pocket knife. It was not unusual to see the teacher dividing his time and attention between a page of Comly's Spell- ing-book, where some sweating pupil was painfully struggling with the problems of orthography, and the quill he was slitting and whittling; meanwhile, stealing an occasional moment for a furtive glance about the school-room, to see that there was no pinching, or pin- sticking, or snickering behind books or slates, going on among the unruly urchins.
11
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In addition to the so-called writing-desk, the furniture of this school-room consisted of a desk and chair for the teacher, and three or four slab benches across the end of the room, next the writing-desk. In cold weather, a bench was set near the great fireplace, and was occupied by alternate platoons of the shivering scholars to thaw themselves out. Three formidable hickory rods, of varying size and length, adapted to the sex and size of the culprits ; and a pretty, little, red maple switch, suited to the æsthetic tastes and tender sensibilities of the smaller urchins, completed the outfit. In addition to this, however, in this particular school, were the few personal effects of the teacher and family-a table, a few broken chairs ; a pot, kettle, oven and frying-pan ; and last of all, but first in importance, his worthy but grunt- ing spouse and equally grunting pig. The good dame tried hard, but in vain, to impress upon the mind of his swineship, that his proper sphere, during school hours, was outside, making nasal investigations in the swamp near by the back door. But, contrary to the usual pro- clivities of his species, his preferences were decidedly for association with the literati; and, when excluded, his persistent song of reproachful complaint, rendered feel- ingly in O sharp and Y minor, quite often necessitated his readmission; when he would stretch himself before the fire and grunt his satisfied assent to all his master's edicts. Tom, the teacher's son, was enrolled among the advanced pupils. He could spell most of Comley's hard words " by heart," and was equally well versed in the
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classic vocabulary of the denizens of the thickets and swamps, who gathered at John Jones' at the Cross Roads every Saturday afternoon, to hold shooting-matches and drink hard cider. He could work problems in com- pound multiplication, either in the Arithmetic, or in trouble and embarrassment in his mother's domestic arrangements. In a word, Tom played the leading part in the school exercises and recreations, and played-the mischief generally.
Well; in this one-roomed kingdom, our enthroned master lived and wielded the rod; gave his orders ; heard the reading and spelling lessons, and looked over the examples worked or attempted by the advanced scholars ; and, at the same time, his good wife baked the "johnnie-cake" and fried the bacon for dinner, or washed up the dishes and did her darning and patching. She was an antiquated and demure matron, who wore a white cap and spectacles, gliding almost noiselessly about the school-room kitchen, except when, occasionally, she came into collision with the pig, or with Tom, when detailed by her for some temporary domestic service; such as fetching wood or water, or, perchance, paring potatoes and turnips.
Mr. Marshall, the schoolmaster, was the fitting coun- terpart of such a spouse. He bore his distinguished honors meekly, yet with becoming dignity. He was evidently impressed with the importance of his office to the neighborhood and to himself; and to see him, as, at 9 A. M., he assumed the throne and issued his peremp-
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tory command to cease the games and resume studies in the emphatic pronunciamento - " Books !" and then supplemented it with an explosive "Silence !" that fairly made the cabin tremble, would have impressed the beholder that our teacher was consciously one of the main pillars of the American Republic. And so he was-in that corner.
Mr. Marshall's clean shaven face-for only rowdies wore beards in those good old times-was furrowed over with many wrinkles of benevolence and care; and the friction of many anxious years had polished his bald head until it had become a favorite skating rink for the festive house fly. One little patch of iron grey hair remained in front above his pug nose, which was combed up and carefully trained into a sort of drake-tail orna- ment; and the little remaining on either side above his ears, was twisted into little tufts, sticking out at right angles, and giving him somewhat of the appear- ance of a nondescript animal of the baboon persuasion with three horns. The grotesque effect was heightened by the presence of an immense pair of brass-bowed spectacles which alternately bestrid his nose, and adorned his bald and glistening pate-all fit index to the vast library of knowledge entombed within that venerable skull.
The entire curriculum of our school was covered by the three cabalistic letters, R. R. R., understood to repre- sent the three great sciences, "Readin', Ritin' and Rithmetic." The three G's-Grammar, G'ography and
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G'ometry, had then scarcely been dreamed of as ever possible to be taught in a country school. It was not until several years after-not indeed until the renowned "Chinquepin " school-house had been built, over a mile away on the road to "Punch Hall"-that we ever heard of such a study as English Grammar, or Geography.
The Primer or rather a primer-for it mattered not what it was, so there were A, B, Cs in it-was the text book most in demand in Mr. Marshall's log-cabin school. Mine had a red cover, and grotesque wood cuts, that, in my juvenile eyes were wonderful. As there were no two primers alike, the large class in first principles was heard one at a time, occupying nearly one-half of the master's time. His method of teaching A, B, Cs, was to point, with a little stick he kept for the purpose, to each letter in regular order, call its name, and require us to pronounce the name after him. As his time was divided between pointing to the letters and watching Billy Wadman, Dick Sorden, Bill Dan'l Roe, Sally Price, et al., it not infrequently happened that the urchin reciting was looking anywhere else than at the alphabetical forms pointed out, and called in turn, by the master himself. It required most of the winter for many of us to learn to distinguish these dif- ferent signs of sound. My great trouble was with the first letter; but I soon became such a scholar, that when Mr. Marshall, out of all patience with the ever-recurring hitch at the beginning of my recitation, would stamp his foot and yell " A!", I would repeat the provoking
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name, and then go right on, with the precision of clock- work, to the close at Z.
Finally, at the end of three weeks, he concluded I was sufficiently well drilled in first principles to proceed to "my a, b-abs." But, lo! when he pointed to A, on the new page, there was the same old hitch. Again he yelled " A!" Again I repeated A, and followed it with B, from force of habit; when my patient teacher arrested me with the inquiry : "What's A B spell ?" " C," answered I, supposing the next letter in the old routine was the proper thing in the new regime. Then, to my disgust, Mr. Marshall turned me back to the old page, and began pointing at the letters promiscuously ; when he at last discovered his promising pupil had wasted his time learning the names of the letters in rotation, whose forms he was utterly unable to distin- guish. Having thus at last discovered his own faulty method, my teacher continued the promiscuous exercise, until, in a few days thereafter, he had the satisfaction of graduating his pupil to the next page; he having mas- tered all the alphabetical forms and names, even to that of letter A.
The following dialogue, literally correct to the best of my memory, will illustrate our schoolmaster's method of teaching spelling :
"Come here, John Linsey Breeding. Where's your lesson, sir?"
"Them's 'em."
"Well, go on, sir."
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"A, B."
"That's not B, you numskull-D !"
" A, D, Izzard."
"Izzard, the dog's foot! Where were you born? Some fool must have been your teacher-who was it?"
"Daddy teached me my A, B, C's; and Mammy-"
"Yes-ah-well, that's not Izzard. Call that letter Zedd or Zee. Now, go on, sir."
"A, D, Zedd or Zee-"
"Haint you got no sense, John Linsey? I didn't tell you to call that letter two names; but one or the other- Zedd or Zee. Call it Zee, dunce; and hurry up with it."
"A, D, Zee, dunce."
"Well-well! Don't you beat the-the Injins?"
"Don' no-spect so."
" Call that letter Zee! Now, go on."
"A, D, Z, E-A, D, Z, E-"
" Well ?"
" A, D, Z, E, well."
"It isn't well at all, you goose ! I meant to ask you what A, D, Z, E, spells."
"I don' know ; d'you ?"
" What does your daddy dig out his pig trough with ? Now spell it."
" A, D, Z, E, grubbin-hoe !"
In the roar of laughter that ensued, kind-hearted Master Marshall was compelled to join.
As a general rule, scholars were not permitted to attempt reading until they had mastered the spelling-
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book, even to the long words, like "concatenation, hiero- glyphically," etc. ; and our next teacher invented a test word, it was necessary for the pupil to master, before he could take up the initial reading lessons about the Wren, the Robin Redbreast and the Lion. This test word was -Honorifticabilitudeanditatibusque ! When the pupil could repeat and spell this huge medley of nonsense, going back, at each syllable, and pronouncing up to and including the last syllable spelled in regular order, without a hitch or blunder until he reached the tower- ing conclusion, he was graduated to reading.
After mastering the few reading lessons in the Speller, the next book in order was the "Introduction to the English Reader," and after that the "English Reader," provided the pupil could conveniently secure them. In Mr. Marshall's school, however, and for years after- wards in that neighborhood, the pupil brought what- ever book he could secure from the meagre library of his humble home-not infrequently the New Testament. It was absolutely impossible for the teacher to arrange his pupils in classes ; and consequently each one must needs be heard separately. The time being limited and the books generally of a grade too difficult for beginners, to facilitate matters Master Marshall usually read along ahead of the scholar, sentence by sentence, or a few words at a time; the pupil repeating after him, in draw- ling style, as correctly as a parrot. Of course, learning to read, or learning anything else, under circumstances like these, was incidental, if not accidental. In like
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manner, the beginner in mathematics was plunged head- long into the profundities of Pike's Arithmetic ; two- thirds of whose examples, involving money values, were stated in pounds, shillings and pence. I have never ceased to have a most painful recollection of how, after I had mastered a few examples in the four cardinal rules in simple numbers, I was left to struggle bewildered amid the mazes of compound problems in English money, until I utterly lost faith in the utility of the science. Mr. Marshall, it was said, could "do all the sums in the 'Rithmetic." He was reputed to be a verit- able Pythagoras at "figgerin'." He was, withal, very obliging to show his scholars how by " doing the sum," but he never explained it. It is doubtful indeed whether he could, having learned arithmetic as he taught it- simply by rote.
When Master Marshall's time expired he moved away; and, alas! I never saw him more. A colored woman moved into the classic hall; and father hired another deserted hut, a few hundred yards farther from our home, which was a little more sightly and comfort- able than that above described. As to capacity, our new teacher, Mr. Nathan Wilson, was likewise a link in the ascending series. He was a Quaker, a quiet bachelor of about fifty years of age. Consequently he was peculiar -very peculiar, so people said. I only remember that he stipulated for but two meals a day at Samuel Dun- ning's where he boarded, to save a discount of one-fourth on the cost; and also that he did his own washing, 11*
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ironing, patching and darning on Saturdays, and at other odd hours, from the same economical motives. He had had but one suit of clothes within the memory of his acquaintances. This suit was of grey Cassinette. When any portion of a garment belonging to this suit became threadbare, forthwith Master Wilson purchased a new piece of goods as nearly as possible of the same quality and shade; and removing the underneath side of the sleeve, the fronts of the pants, or the-any other part, he neatly inserted the new material. I remember well that the collar and lapels of his coat were thus renewed; and that when a rent, from a tussel hereafter described, occurred in one side of the skirt of his swal- low-tailed coat, it was taken off and a piece much darker in shade substituted; and, as some part was continually giving way and being replaced, there came to be finally every imaginable shade of grey and every possible texture of Cassinette in that unique suit.
While Master Marshall's hickory rods were generally innocent ornaments, except as to poor mischievous Tom, and a few kindred spirits; Mr. Wilson's furniture, in that interesting line, was brought into constant requisi- tion, and needed to be almost daily replenished. Neither nationality, age, sex or "previous condition of servitude" exempted any scholar, who was thought to have forgotten or disobeyed some rule; but I really believe his liberal use of the rod was inspired by conscientious convictions of duty. When the old Dutchman flogged his boy, Hans, he said, "Now, vot you dinks?" Hans replied,
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"I don't gone dinks notin', sir." "Yaw, you do- you dinks cuss words, and I whips you agin." Per- haps, like Hans' devoted parent, our new teacher set himself to discover the ratiocinations of the average young American, in certain apparent states of abstrac- tion or provocation; and thrashed him for the naughty thoughts he imagined would naturally come into his mind in any such given condition. Be that as it may, I solemnly aver, that for many of the floggings I received from this devoted friend and teacher-aver- aging nearly one per diem for a year-I found it impos- sible to discover any cause; and he was too quiet and dignified to explain. Again and again, as I sat unconscious of violating any of Master Wilson's rules; the hickory, pitched with the unerring aim of an abori- gine, would roll from my person rattling down upon the floor. That performance meant a notification that it was now my interesting duty to take that switch back to the teacher's desk, and stand to receive the chastise- ment supposed to be needed for my intellectual develop- ment. Sometimes my next neighbor on the slab, being involved in the misdemeanor, real or imaginary; we were both required for the service of returning the projectile to the battery-one at each end; but, on arrival, the handle end was relinquished to Master Wilson, and we twain became active partners at the other end. Many solemn vows were made to have a settlement with Mr. Nathan Wilson, should we live to manhood's estate; but when that time arrived, we unani-
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mously reconsidered and rescinded the resolution, esteem- ing it dishonorable to thrash a "non-combatant !"
Our teacher generally had it all his own way, and quietly enjoyed his favorite pastime; but I remember one exception, in which a regular set-to was the result of his attempt to inflict the penalty for breaking one of his rules upon the seventeen year old son of the old Quaker who boarded him; and who, so far forgot his pacific training as to resist the teacher's onslaught. The battle lasted fully five minutes.
All the slab benches, with the master's desk and chair, were overturned. Books, slates, ink-stands, hats and dinner-baskets were promiscuously scattered in beautiful confusion. The screaming girls and small boys mounted the writing desks for safety. When, finally, hostilities ceased, the rod had drawn blood from the Quaker boy's face and hands; and his teeth had drawn blood from the calf of our Quaker teacher's leg. The final scene in the tragedy exhibited George Fox Dunning lying discouraged under a bench; Nathan Wilson sunk down exhausted and panting into his chair, with trowsers nearly torn from his person, and minus one swallow-tail; and, alas ! both teacher and pupil utterly back-slidden from the " testimony" of the Hicksite fathers. This battle took place in the morn- ing, and so demoralized both belligerents and spectators, that during the entire day the school failed to recover its normal "status quo ante bellum."
Master Wilson's curriculum was the same as that of
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my first teacher; but his methods were better, and there could be no skulking. The pupil must know his lesson or take the consequences; and as, of the two evils, lessons gotten were preferable to consequences taken, we all learned "right smart" during the year we were subjected to his regimen. But, being deemed a little too warlike in his methods of preserving the peace in his domain, the trustees, at the end of one year, excused him from further service, and employed in his stead Mr. Elisha M --. This gentleman was not a Quaker. In fact he was, ecclesiastically, not anything in particular. But he was very kindly disposed towards his scholars. In avoiding the mistake of his predeces- sor, he swung to the other extreme, and thus saved himself, as well as his pupils, a world of worriment. Many a good, jolly time did he have, joking with the larger pupils and romping with the small boy, in the little log hut a mile from my father's house, on the road to " Punch Hall."
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