The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-15 00:00:00

A NEGRO FESTIVAL.

Eirtract from a private letter from Rev. W. H.
Charming, dated Washington, Nov. 27: —" My
thanksgiving has been passed amid the freedmen
chiefly, and I shall send you a printed report of the
contrabands' thanksgiving dinner. It was certainly,
a novel festivity, and I know not when I have en-
joyed anything more, some sad drawbacks on my
cheerful feelings excepted. For, alas ! there were
sick and dying, yes, and dead around ua, in near
houses, while the feast was going on. By agree-
ment I met Mrs. H. B. Stowe at the quarters, out-
side the city, and escorted her into the crowded
square, already filled with a merry company. The
superintendent (who has often read aloud to groups
of the freedmen passages from ' Uncle Tom's
Cabin') had prepared them for the coming of their
favourite writer. So the moment she appeared they
greeted her with 'three times three and a tiger,' and
then pressed forward to shake her by the hand and
to bless her. We found the large room (built for
the church originally, but since used as a hospital),
newly cleaned and whitewashed, festooned with
evergreens, banners, mottoes, and hung with pic-
tures ; while a long table, sufficiently large to give
room for 150 to 200 persons, spread with white
cloths, was actually groaning beneath the load of
turkeys, ducks, geese, fowls, hams, beef, mutton,
pies, puddings, cake, &c., from end to end. On the
dais or platform, Mrs. Stowe, Senater Pomeroy,
Rev. John Pierpoint, and other distinguished gaests,
with the most influential of the coloured people of
the district (prominent among whom was Bishop
Payne, of the Methodist church), were gathered,
and a large company of well-dressed people, black
and white freely intermingle lined the walls and
filled up the corners. At the tables stood a com-
mittee of coloured men and women from the various
churches who had contributed to give this feast to
their poorer brethren and sisters, and as soon as all
was arranged, word was given for the procession of
the freedmen to enter. In they came, men, women,
and children, in motley attire, yet all looking neat
and in perfect order, without jostling or confusion,
until the large room was densely packed. Then, at
a sign from the superintendent, a venerable grey
haired, blind negro, whom the freedmen call John
the Baptist,' said, ' Let us pray,' and falling on his
knees at the table, the crowd kneeled with him,
while his plaintive, touching, heartbroken, earnest
prayer of mingled thanks and petitions was poured
forth with the simple fervour of a little child. All
then stood erect, and the choir of freedmen began
the famous hymn of Go down, Moses,' with all its
stirring refrain of ' Let my people go.' Words would
give but faint impression of the strange excitement
that spread through the dense mass as, swaying
their heads and bodies to and fro, from side to side,
while with a dancing movement they stamped on
the floor to the time cf the mournful yet spirited
tune, they joined in the chorus of Let my people
go. oh ! let my people go,' scores of voices swelling
the strain, till the very roof and rafters trembled.
Then Bishop Payne spoke a brief and impressive
benediction, and the feast began. The whole affair
was admirably managed by the coloured waiters,
long accustomed to cater for large numbers. First
one company surrounded the table, helping them-
selves freely to all the luxuries spfead out before
them, and as soon as they were satisfied they
passed out at a side door and gave way to a second
company, and so on and so on for an hour or
more, plates being constantly removed my:, clean
ones given, and new supplies of provisi.bns supplied
with unstinted liberality until all were fed. There
could not have been less tiv"n a thousand to twelve
hundred thus feasted. And meanwhile a choir of
coloured men, with deep mellow voices, sang appro-
priate airs. From first to last all went off charm-
ingly, and on this occasion I was deeply impressed,
as often before, by the native courtesy, gentleness,
patience, tact, genial sympathies, and hearty cheer-
fulness of temper so characteristic of the coloured
race. I doubt much whether such a festival could
have been given to an equally large number of
whites of similar class and condition in this or any
other land where quietness, good manners, and
mutual deference would have so universally pre-
vailed. The feast over, the multitude gathered in
the court-yard, around a platform prepared for the
speakers,-to listen to the address of Senator Pome-
roy, and to various speakers. The venerable John
Pierpoint, of Massachusetts (together with our
great-hearted bard John U. Whittier poet pioneers
of the anti-slavery movement) was by my intro-
duction seated as chairman, his fine benevolent face
and head with flowing silver hair and beard glis-
tening in the afternoon sunshine with a radiance
of good will. Then after a most excellent intro-
ductory speech from Bishop Payne, in which he
sought to raise the souls of his hearers in devout
gratitude to the Divine Providence that is so
wonderfully working out the redemption of the
oppressed in this country, Senator Pomeroy began
his address. The senator from Kansas is a bluff,
vigorous, full-faced, bald-headed, well-bearded man
of about 50, with ample chest, broad shoulders,
and portly person, and having a clear ringing voice
and energetic manner, he commended in quite a
powerful way his pet project of emigration and
colonisation. I could not but observe, however,
that his exhortations fell very dead and cold on
the ears of his susceptible audience ; and it
would have been very easy to have tureed the cur-
rent and swept away all the sympathies of the mul-
titude in afl od, by saying, Brethren and sisters,
you are welcome to find your true place as freed
men in this ample home, which the one Father, who
made of one blood all nations, has given to all of us
to enjoy and to cultivate together.' But knowing
the solemn responsibilities and the grave difficulties
which President Lincoln and the administration feel
burdened with in this tremendous crisis, when three
or four mi,lions of slaves are so soon to be set free,
I felt that it was the part of wisdom and loyal
patriotism to refrain from saying a word to excite
discussion. Senator Pomeroy, who early settled
in Kansas, and who did his fair share to secure
the fleedom of that State, where the first grand
victory over the slave oligarchy was won, is
as good a man as any other to serve as Odin or
Inca for this new Exodus to Southern or Central
America. But to my mind it is very clear that this
colonisation scheme of President Lincoln can serve
no other end than that of escape-valve for present
excitement. The black race are to find their future
home in the Southern United States ; and the sooner
all our statesmen devote their energies practically
to solve this tremendous problem of transforming
slaves into freemen, here and now, the better for all
parties. Tnis is the work set before this nation
by Providence. There can be no delay,and we mute,
do the grand duty of humenity promptly, wisely,
or God will not grant us peace. This Thanksgiving
Festival may serve as a harbinger of a better day to
come—God grant it !"