New-York tribune., 1873-09-05
RORO.


patton, little reason as we may have, upon the
whole, to regret it, has necessarily brought
with it evils of which the best we can say Is
that they are temporary and corriglble. Inc
new order of things released the religious
meetings of the slaves from police supervision
and the surveillance of the plantation. The
freedman rejoiced in his new liberty with the
abandonment and with something OF the
ignorance of a child; and we are compelled
to add that he fell too often into the tolls OF
many an adventurer, at the same time
self-constituted missionary =. and sharp
witted trader, who advanced Upon him
with Bible in one hand and
carpet bag in the other, and, all the time
taking excellent care of himself, Oscillated
between the service of the Lord in the South
aud of the Administration in Washington
An Apostle of this stamp was hardly likely to
wean the lower class of freedmen from idol
atrous, superstitious, and semi Christian pro-
pensities, or to keep the watch-meeting and
the camp-meeting within the boundaries OF
wise and orderly moderation. The consequence
has been the perfectly natural one OF mar
yelous and mischievous increase in the num-
her of religious sects and the prevalence IN
certain sections OF a wild enthusiasm quite
inconsistent with genuine religious advance
ment.
There can be, Of course, no new heterOdoxy
without a leader, for in every religious aber-
ration which is also popular we inevitably dis
cover the relation of the leader and the led.
As specimen of the former we produce Bobo,
perhaps we should say the Rev. Mr.. Bobo.
- vbn hos
Black Israelites from the Egypt of South Caro-
lima to the Canaan of Tennessee. He began
business in Spartanburg, S. c., where, 1t is need
less to say, he had a large congregation. He
is rough, uncOuth, very ignorant; but
he is also fluent of speech. Of course he pro-
claimed himself prophet commanded OF the
Lord to conduct the sacred emigration. The
children of Zion were to sell all and follow
him. A considerable number did so, and
were quite ready for the pilgrimage, when a
new revelation was v0uChsafed to B0b0. one
more thing remained to be done-the sacrifice
of the oldest person in the congregation. This
happened to be a woman, who was inconti-
nently locked up "until a stick of peculiar
growth" with which it was necessary that
she should be killed could be found. Before
tne discovery VI tulo iHuiopchoauio
the poor old creature was rescued by the white
neighbors, and the Rev. BobO with his dupes
started for the Promised Land.
There is not, at least there should not be,
anything astonishing or incredible in story
like this. Only few days ago an old negro
woman shouted herself to cataleptic or cpl
leptic death in North Carolina camp-meet-
ing. Not great while has elapsed since the
story came to us Of frightful rites of Fetish
ism still secretly practiced in New-Orleans.
All these narratives merely prove that we
have to deal with an excitable, superstitiOus,
and wonder-loving race, transferred, without
any preparation worth the name, from position
of the strictest pupilage to one of almost
unlimited liberty. Inexorable necessity has
raised this people from serfdom to citizen
ship-a perilous trial from which the con-
ditions of the situation refuse to release us.
We have done great deal for the Freed
man as he is a voter, but we seem to have done
but little for hun as he is innately religious
creature. Whoever has ventured to speak of
his faults of character, and of the perils to
which these faults equally exposed both
Whites and Blacks has been denounced by
the noisier and shallower members of the Re-
publican party as traitor and tyrant. For
tunately or unfortunately, primary meetings
and office holders conventions cannot gabble
down fixed and indisputable facts.