The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-11
W. H. COUNCILL SPEAKS
NEGRO EDUCATOR OF NORMAL IS
 IN MONTGOMERY.
appeals for Religious Training cf Hts Race and Discusses the Sunday
 School Work Before the

o'oNS ot ANoTHdl, WnO IS SptHuliS oN' eral days in Montgomery. delivered an esrnes. address at Old Ship Church on Hoicombe Street Sunday to the negro delegates to the international Sunday Scbool Convention, which has just ad- journed., q
 The negro educator spoke on The Ante bellum Sunday School Work in the South" the key to the address be ing that the hope of the negro Hes in ing.
 Tn the few minutes which I shall occupy" said Councill, T can not do more than call your attention to pnase Of development of negro char acteri which seldom receives attention. Ante bellum Sunday school work, in many parts of the South. among tn" negroes. was of no mean character. In deed. 1t was carried to a considerable The Sunday school work like all other Christian work In the South. was car ried on by faithful men and women, who wished for the negro. along Chris tian lines. the best in the world. Of- ten the .Christianization of the negro was matter of Legislation. In some States the law required the master to provide for the slaves opportunities for instruction in the Bible. We are apt eo iooh upoH pToNleloH WIlh littit gratitude because 1t was, coupled with slavery. against which men everywhere hold prejudice.
 T have distinct recollection of my Sunday school life fifty years ago, when boy years old. attended the Sun day school maintained by negroes in the Presbyterian Church. Fayetteville, North Carolina. All of our instructors were white men and women. To say hot Hnlt fa, nd that the moral lessons they held up be- fore us. were of the highest order, does not express too much. I believe. if there were ever consecrated men and women. the men and women who taught us in that little Presbyterian church were God-fearing people. It is true. the system of slavery was regarded as kind of domestic institution, and the slaves were regarded as chattel. but such chattel as should receive humane treatment by the better classes of the South. I do not think that any one at that time had any idea of the end to be reached by slavery. But I think that nine tenths of the slave holders themselves desired to raise the negro to the highest Christian intelligence.
 T remember in that little Presbyte- rian school, there was kind of mod orator, who presided over the whole af
 
 ] bandana handkerchief. One end form ed such hard knot as to make the handkerchief an instrument of terror to all boys and girls who did not main tain a saintly expression. Uncle Jim. for that was his African Lordships cognomen, with that bandana hand kerchief. was terror to all of us boys and girls. who exhibited any signs Of levity. Standing many feet from us he would give that knot in that hand kerchief such a sling as to raise the skin on any part of the body, with which it came in contact. I can never forget that Presbyterian school and Uncle Jim Both have been instru- mental in forming whatever good hab- its have had In life.
 ''The work of the ante ebellum Sun day Schools did not only create throughout the South It's Uncle Toms but It's 'Evas' as well. Yet there was rough element in the South. That element was arrayed against the Sun day School and all other Christian work. But that element was held In check by Christian influences which generated the forces which would have finally swept away the institution of slavery itself when 1t ceased to be the instrument in the hands of God In the elevation of the slave.
 
 fear of successful contradiction that the superior classes among the whites of the South were at all times interest ed in the highest moral development of the negro. It Is true. that often the negroes went astray. but they were never left to their bestial passions. Every where in the slave-holding class the highest Christian sentiments were advanced and the noblest Christian character sought to be developed. History does not give us anything like it; a people brought from savage life to civilization and introduced to the highest Christian manhood in that civilization. All through the instru- mentality of slavery. As I have said, the South Is the True Miracle Land of the universe. All of It's Christian workings. in regard to the development of the African character, seem too won derful to be true. The true history in the case. appears more fictitious than real but 1t Is an actuality. ncverthe- less.
 Starting with a few thousand of simple Africans, with very meagrely defined principles of Christianity, it gave such an impetus of religious thought. until today, one of the lead ing denominations among the negroes reports 14oO0 Sunday Schools, more than 50.000 teachers and 750>000 pupils, forming a host which will ultimately redeem and lift up to God the negro race. and help to lift up the world.
 Whatever good there Is In the ne- gro race is derived from this character of institution. It is said that earliest impressions are most lasting also some one has said: dive me the first seven years of the boys life and you may have the man. This early in- struction In the young of the negro race. and of the race itself, in the youth of its racial development. has been its salvation and will yet give it power to ovebcome opposition and grow into the respectable recognition of the civilized world.
 ''The negro Is an important and per manent part of the 150000 Sunday Schools, l.500,O00 officers and teachers and 12,O00,000 sch olars who today march beneath the Sunday School ban ner on the American continent. while the old earth tremhles under their vic torious tread and the weIkin rinS\ and rings again, to their songs of victory"
 The Sunday School Association be- fore adjournng elected the following delegates from Alabama to the Inter national Convention to be held In To- ronto, Canada. during June of next year: w. T. Breeding, ]. R. Brooks. J. w. Beverly, w. E. Johnson c. M Wells of Montgomery and w. H. Mix on of Selma.
 COULDN'T CONVICT GAMSTERs.