CHAPTER XIII.
MATILDA AND LESLIE CALL.
At the close of one of the first meetings of the farmer’s conference in Schofield chapel at which was discussed more than anything else the growing friction between the white and colored people, there called at the Schofield school a young woman, accompanied by a man about her age, and each appeared to be exhausted from travel and greatly excited from some cause or other, no one knew just what.
It was Matilda Deas and Leslie Duncan, the two young lovers who had escaped from Millard Dodson a few days before and left him and his horse tied securely in the woods.
The story of how the young man had been given a race for his life at the hands of a mob and how the young woman had escaped the lust and power of the beastly Dodson only after her life had been despoiled by him and of the circumstances attending the stabbing of the young Dodson boy, greatly affected Miss Schofield, and with all her heart she sympathized with the poor helpless Negroes. Yet she knew that the concealment and protection of the boy meant the lighting of the bomb manufactured by the Dodsons to produce the explosion of race prejudice that the ignorant white people so much desired. She did not light it, but instead drove to the scene of the disturbance and ascertained personally the truth about the whole matter, as well as the seriousness of the situation to the whole Negro population. On returning she informed young Duncan that it would be very unwise, and exceedingly unjust to the thousands of others of his race, for her to conceal him on the school premises as the inflammatory conditions worked up among the people by the Dodsons demanded nothing less than his life if his whereabouts became known and, perhaps, by her intercession in his behalf would mean the extension of it to include others of his people and so cause the death of many instead of only one. But she promised him absolute protection, even at the cost of her school and all its property until communication with the organized authorities of the County and State could be had, and substantial guarantees were given by these that his life would be safe and he be given a fair trial on the charges laid against him.
In due time the contingencies for the trial were arranged and Leslie was delivered up to the Sheriff of the County, who took him to jail to await the action of the Court, which would be determined largely by the result of the injuries suffered by the Dodson child. Under direction of the Governor of the State a sufficient guard had been placed around the jail for the protection of the prisoner at all hazards. This was done at the insistance of Miss Schofield whose influence with the head of the Democratic Party in power was great only because of her influence at the North in the passage of measures of a conciliatory nature in reconstructing the States of the South. It was of little or no consequence to the ruling element whether Duncan was lynched or not, except in so far as his murder might retard the progress the whites were making in gaining favor with the reactionaries in Congress.
While abundant evidence was introduced at the trial to justify the actions of Leslie in stabbing Willie Dodson, no weight or consideration whatever was given it by the perjured members of the jury, all having formed an opinion before the trial that the “nigger” would get off light if he escaped with his life. After being in the jury room but three minutes the talesman returned with the results of their brief deliberations summed up in one word, “Guilty.”
That, of course, was the verdict. No recommendation to mercy out of consideration of the age of the youthful prisoner or the acknowledged great provocation under which the act was committed.
When replying “No, sir” to the question as to whether he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him the Court promptly replied that it certainly had and proceeded to say it in these words, “I wish you were of age, Leslie, that I might give you the full benefit of the law on this charge, one of a most serious nature, murder with intent to kill. But on account of your youth, out of mercy of the Court, I will make the sentence as light as possible. You are sentenced to five years imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor.”
At the same moment the Clerk of the Court was ordered to record another charge against the prisoner, that of violating a contract for the performance of labor and directed that a warrant be served on the boy at the expiration of his term.
Miss Schofield returned to her school and consoled Matilda with the story of the old servant who was hanged for the loss of a costly necklace of beads from the household in which she had been intrusted with the property of her mistress. “Some years after the execution of the faithful maid,” said Miss Schofield, “a bolt of lightning from the sky struck one of the monuments on the public square near the home and burst it into fragments and there in the center, in a magpie’s nest lay the necklace, in all its parts, just as it was on the day the bird, instead of the old servant had stolen it away. The lady who prosecuted the maid for the theft stated to the judges who heard the case that she would be satisfied with nothing but the death of the prisoner unless she divulged the hiding place of the jewels, committed suicide by swallowing poison on learning of the fatal mistake in the execution of poor Jeannie Junne, for that was her name.
“So you see my friends,” concluded the brilliant story teller, for such Miss Schofield was when she had occasion to be, “God never permits the infliction of great injustices, such as this which has happened to Leslie and you, without exposing them and compelling those responsible for them to repent of their sins.”
Miss Schofield knew the heart of the Negroes better than they themselves knew them and this knowledge served her well in all her dealings with them. In the control of them she knew just when to use harshness and to what extent and equally well she knew when other means would prove more availing. The simple, child-like, trusting faith common to all colored people, she realized this faith would cause her story to find a lasting lodgment and would prove a source of genuine consolation to Matilda in her hour of despair, and so it proved to be, not only for the moment, but throughout the whole long period of Leslie’s confinement. Whenever reference to him was made she would in her simple way show that she understood clearly that God never allowed people to suffer without compensating them for it; that He also punished those responsible for the misery of others. The latter contingency, Miss Schofield had taught her was a necessary condition in nature fixed there by God for the protection of men in all their human relations, and was as inevitable as fate itself.
What an immensely valuable doctrine for the control of the passions of men, especially those of a lowly race, steeped in ignorance and allowed a free reign in the exercise of the more vicious instincts.
Make them afraid to do wrong; not indeed afraid of man’s law but an eternal law which is irrevocable even by God himself. It was the doctrine, believed in to the depths of his soul, that inspired the immortal Georgian, Alex H. Stephens, to exclaim that he was afraid of nothing above earth or below it except to do wrong.
When one reaches this stage of belief it is not a difficult matter to induce him to begin doing right for righteousness sake only. He has already conceived firmly the fact that only virtue is any just reward for being virtuous. The bribes offered men for being good in the shape of escape from earthly punishment and the hope of earthly blessings are wholly inadequate to restrain them from evil as is proven by the many artifices resorted to in concealing crimes; but when they are made to see that only righteous living can produce real happiness and that there is absolutely no way of concealing the evidences of evil doing, substantial progress has been made in their reformation. They will not do wrong, wilfully, because, as Miss Schofield always taught, the wrong done will show eternally in their faces every time they look in the glass.
Miss Schofield never permitted opportunities to impress and teach great moral truths to pass by unimproved. Living on them herself she depended upon them entirely to support her work which was her life in itself. The great Normal and Industrial school at Aiken is Martha Schofield reincarnated out and out. The lifeless body has been taken and carried away but the spirit which is of God, still lingers on and around all the place, crying out aloud as of yore for the perfection of those means of justice and freedom of action in both body and mind that alone can make life ideal and our work eternal.
On the occasion of her visit to the home of Allen Dodson for the purpose of securing his endorsement to the petition for the pardon of Leslie Duncan, she was received with scant courtesy by Mrs. Dodson, who strange to say, bore the reputation of being one of the most zealous and faithful followers of Christ in Lick Skillet neighborhood. Indeed she was president of the local Mary Magdalene Missionary Society of the First Baptist Church, and besides had been honored by the national president of her society with appointment to the position of treasurer in the national association of Mary Magdaleners. Throughout the community and in church and benevolent circles all over the State and country she was well and favorably known. At home she was regarded as the pillar of the Baptist church and an unselfish and philanthropic soul in whose leadership the community could rely with perfect confidence that the work of salvation was abreast of that in any other community of like population in the whole moral vineyard of Christ.
Seating Miss Schofield in the parlor while she waited on the return of Mr. Dodson, other duties and responsibilities of the house engaged the attention of Mrs. Dodson. She left her visitor to entertain herself as best she might, placing within her reach a few religious periodicals and a library of perhaps a dozen or more books, mostly of Baptist denominational interest, especially devoted to the work of that church in the foreign missionary field.
Mr. Dodson’s refusal to sign the petition on his return, did not shock Miss Schofield’s sensibilities of the injustices of race hatred nearly so much as the ignorance with which Mrs. Dodson maintained her position of missionary worker in an enlightened church supported by an intelligent and supposedly cultured membership.
After Mr. Dodson had given his reasons, which were like hunting mustard seeds in a hay stack and if found was never worth the search, for his refusal to lend his assistance to the righting of the wrongs done Leslie Duncan, Mrs. Dodson interposed herself into the conversation to inquire of Miss Schofield why she was so interested in the Negroes as to live and work wholly among them as if she were one of them herself.
“I am very much obliged to thee for the opportunity to answer that question,” said Miss Schofield in reply.
“Thou must see that the condition of the Negro is such that none, or few of them at this time, is able to lead the race as it should be led. Only a small percentage can either read or write; the most primitive methods of making a livelihood prevail among them and as a result their lives, their morals and their hopes for the future are in jeopardy. I most desire to do a little part in improving the conditions among them, in making their lives better and happier by my having lived. I firmly believe if I succeed in doing so, thee and all thy people will be equally blessed.”
“To the mischief with such doctrine,” retorted Mrs. Dodson. “It is such as you that are putting foolish notions in the heads of these darkies, creating in them a hope for an equality and a social relation repugnant to the sense of all decent people entitled to the benefits of a superior civilization, and I want to tell you that if another war comes it will come as a result of your work.
“You had better stop it and go back to your home and let the Negroes teach themselves. If they have been too lazy and stupid to enlighten themselves in the past it is quite likely such will not be the case in future in this free country along by the side of a superior race from whom they can, if they will, gain all the instruction they need for self improvement by observation.”
Miss Schofield assured her that the question of social equality with the whites was never considered by her in her work except to disparage it; that while she had no regard herself for the color of a person’s skin she taught her students that a deep racial prejudice existed among all races everywhere, especially in the United States, but that it should not be allowed to interfere with their Christianity, that they should show a Christian spirit to all mankind—Jew or Greek, male or female, friend or foe, Negro or white.
“Does not the Bible command thee,” questioned Miss Schofield, “to go into all the world and teach all nations? Does thee, then, not feel that the Negro is one of those to whom thou art commanded to extend thy instruction?”
“Feeling and knowing absolutely that He is I came to the South many years ago to fill one of the commandments of my Lord. As a Christian woman, which I know thee to be, else the literature of thy home belies the character of this house, I ask thee to answer me before God if thee still considers that my work is productive of harmful results and if it should be given up and I go back home in my prime and live a life of indolence, ease and nothingness.”
Mrs. Dodson was greatly perplexed. Miss Schofield convicted her of her neglect of duty in her own country, where as well as in far off China and Japan, it was admittedly very necessary to do missionary work; but she hid as best she could the influence of the speaker’s rebuke and called attention to the thousands of dollars being spent by her society in the cause of home missions. When pressed for a single school being maintained by that association in the interest of the Negro children or the expenditure of as much as a penny for the relief of the material needs of the race, she expressed considerable anger and stated that the taxes paid by the whites were adequate for the education of the colored people and for the support of the indigent among them.
Among the most versatile as well as resourceful women who ever came South to teach Miss Schofield was well fortified with facts to meet Mrs. Dodson’s excuse for the indifference of her society to the need of the Negro. She showed her that not only was the common school fund wholly inadequate for the education of the white children but that there was absolutely no justice in its distribution—that the whites gave the Negroes just as little of it as possible and dignified it as “hush-mouth” money. She cited instances calling names, dates and places which proved conclusively that the system of the Southern white people for the education of the Negro was a farce pure and simple, in that there was not only no pretence at all at an equitable distribution of the school funds, but no regard whatever was had as to the proper qualification of Negro teachers. She intimated that favor was shown by the whites to the less capable and least deserving of the Negroes as teachers, and sought to close the argument by impressing the fact, that where conditions obtain like those in the South, there is where the Master’s work calls loudest, according to the teachings of her own church.
Stung to the quick by the truth of these statements Mrs. Dodson was willing enough to terminate the conversation, and apparently with middling right good cheer bade her visitor “good day” and set about the work of her household.
But Martha Schofield had made an impression on her. She had been made to feel the hypocracy of her position for the first time in the new relations between the two races, a position wholly incompatible with the teachings of Christ. It started her to reasoning, that if from a selfish point of view if not from a Christian standpoint, it were not better to encourage the work of Miss Schofield. She was not an ignorant woman, but on the contrary highly intellectual, and although but superficially educated was well enough informed to know that the Negro was here and here, perhaps, to stay. “Then why,” she silently asked herself, “would not one’s greatest defense and security be more certainly attained in the development of the intellectual and moral powers of the race?” She had been teaching all her life that to give was more blessed than to receive; then why not give to the needy Negro right at her door? Why not stimulate and encourage every effort being made to convert him into a useful and intelligent citizen? His labor she knew, even though his hands and face were black, would be worth a thousand per cent. more if it were skilled. Besides, that thought of blessings being twice blest—“blessing him that gives and him that takes”—continually haunted her.
Such a marked change was apparent in her attitude toward foreign missions at the next meeting of her society after Miss Schofield’s visit that her fidelity to the cause was severely questioned by others of the faithful, from whom she concealed well the cause of her new devotion to the home missionary field. She told them that they should seek to do all they could for the heathen in foreign lands but that their ability to extend their usefulness in that direction was now limited by the newly enforced political and social conditions at home. She suggested that the society consider the matter of expending as much of its funds at home as abroad, elaborating upon the great necessity for the industrial training of the Negro, and the education of the thousands of white children in this country, whose school term at the time was not in excess of three months out of twelve, for want of funds.
This met the approval of all members, as all of Mrs. Dodson’s propositions usually did, and a resolution setting forth the fact that the sentiment of the Mary Magdalene Society of the First Baptist Church of Lick Skillet was in favor of the equal division of the funds between the Foreign and Home Mission Boards of the National Missionary Association was unanimously passed.
A few days later Allen Dodson accompanied by Millard, his son, called at the Schofield school and expressed a desire to sign the petition for the pardon of Leslie Duncan who had now begun serving the third of a five year sentence given him for stabbing Mr. Dodson’s little son, Willie.
This completed the requirements of the pardoning board, and as soon as their signatures were affixed the document was sent by Miss Schofield to the governor who immediately ordered the prisoner released.
Hundreds of instances might be mentioned where this great woman took the burdens of others on herself at times when she was already over burdened with her own work, and rendered them a service which could not possibly have been accomplished without her aid.
When Leslie appeared at the Schofield school after his release from prison to thank Miss Schofield for her kindness to him and to claim Matilda for his wife, Miss Schofield ordered him arrested on the charge docketed by the Judge at the time of his former conviction, that of a breach of contract.
When the trial was called the Dodson family failed to appear against the prisoner and the prosecution was abandoned.
Thus through the power and magnetism of Miss Schofield, was the influence and good-will of a large and influential white family secured for the benefit of the Negro population of Lick Skillet neighborhood, at least.