St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1873-03-14
The Southern Freedmen.

Mr.. Stearns. IN his recent book on the
South. says that the great need of the
freedman is the ownership of land. He
is severe in,describing their defects and
vices but. he asks, "fIow can YOU cX-
pect intelligence and virtue to spring
up from the soil of slavery p Their
emancipation leaves them, to a great
extent, i'll the intellectual and moral
condition i'll which they We're bred. As
far rs the authors experience goes.
they are. as hired labmcrS, careless.
wasteful, deficient i'll punctuality and
perseverance. much addicted to living
and stealing. with AN imperfect perccp-
ton of the >anctity of marriage. ami,
though commonly religious. disconnect-
ing religion from morality. The strange
notions some of them have regarding
the Christian religion is illustrated 10y
many anecdotes.
On one occasion, Il comparatively ill
telligent black woman came to him, at
ter one of his sermons, with the desire
Ito find out something of this Jesus
YOU tell of.
My ole maSss,." she said. told me
that Jesus Christ once got drunk. and
he was drunk. but the other was good
to him. After he came to his senses,
he found out what had been done to
him and he cursed his bad son. and
said his children should always he
slaves to his brother. He said we all
came from the bad son. and they all
from the good one. and that was the
reason why we were their slaves. Now,
Mr.. Steal1IS. Won know whedder this is
true or not please tell me.
The planters theology was quickly
refuted by Mr.. Stearns. and his convert
was delighted to learn that Jesus was
no such man as ole masSa said he was.
Ignorance commonly gives us that
brisk shock of surprise which is akin to
humor.
One little boy, in Mr.. Stearns congre-
CATION, said he had heam tell of Je-
sus, but he did not know who or what
he was" Others, with great conf
dence, affirmed him to be 1.-The brother
of Washington" One lad, in the negro
Sunday school. Oh being asked who Je
sus Christ was, scratched his head with
perplexcd look and replied dunno,
massa neber heard of him" \ girl.
the daughter of IA religious cXhorter
among the negroes replied: Il never
hern tell on him afore. Did he live in
Gorgy 2
We have vague remembrance of Il
similar question i'll the experience OF
Whiteteld. While trying to evange-
lie some Cornish miners. and describ-
ing to them the death of Christ. he was
asked if Christ had worked i'll mine
No. or No. =.
The well-to-do inhabitants of cities
who subscribe literally for the CONVEX
sion of the heather of Asia, have little
perception of the heathenism of Europe
and the United States
Mr.. Stearns tells us of Negro
preacher called jim who had been ar.
rested and confined i'll Jail.
Ale i'll Jail what can that be for 7"
"Oh, nothing. said his negro inform.
ant "he only just stole Il few turkey
and den he sell EN-. and got cotched
| went to see him de other day, and he
tells me. You jus tell dem darkies a.
blongs to my church not to he down
hearted, for de Lord will bring me ON,
day to be wild um again. and dev mus
not forget to pray for me-
When Mr.. Stearns denounced TN,
sins of which many of his colored con
up and said:
Now. Mr.. =, if you must talk abou
stealing, why not call lis together o.
Monday and tell us about it, and let IL
have good heavenly time on Sun
day in worshipping the God we all low
50 much p