The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-01-01

letter shows the status of female
teachers in North Carolina from early
Colonial days almost to the Civil War:
"Durant's Neck, Perquimans Co, n. c.,
january 3, 1882.
"Messrs. Thos. Benton & Sons,
Commission Merchants,
New York City.
.Gentlemen:-PIea send me, at
your earliest convenience, by sloop or
schooner, the following articles, for
my fishery and plantation:
a. bushels of salt.
20 hogsheads of molasses.
80 barrels Of Jamaica rum.
"12 kegs of nails. 20 penny.
$50 pairs OF stout brogan shoes.
sizes to IL.
10 bolts coarse strong wooden cloth,
for outside clothing fer slaves
Yours truly.
JAMES DURANT. Planter
"p. s. | forgot TO include
80 sacks best Rio coffee.
so barrels sugar.
Il case French wine.
81 woman school teacher, to teach
my children and those of two
neighbors.
IN. B.Not too young and good look
ing.
'"rhe last one married the oldest son
of Honorable William Campbell. Esq,
running away to Virginia, to the much
vexation OF neighbor Campbell.
Truly pathetic and instructive pic
ture. A very mixed invoice of coffee,
wine, sugar, and woman-teacher. with
resultant of happy dinings by the old
folks and happy wooings by the
young folks, amid savage negroes,
fresh from Africa, cultivating cotton
and tobacco, and more sewage over
seers, fresh from Connecticut, WELD
ing bdll-whips and profanity, with
balls and tournaments, duels and
horsewhippings, fox hunting and deer
stalking, aud the imported school
am, central figure in the romance.
running away from the arduous and
heroic task of school-building 10 the
still more arduous but sweeter work
of home. building. But others came
to succeed her, and patiently went TO
work in the little academy, selecting
the seed corn OF each generation for
better culture ana higher develop
ment. While she, now, as mother
teacher, by gentleness and inexhaust-
ible love, was conquering the violent
forces about her even as the silent and
peaceful sunlight and the gentle dew
of Heaven are always conquering the
violent and destructive hurricane.
The chief education of man has
come, and will ever come. from Wom-
an Each generation OF children must
learn from her; from her lips, Lam
guage: at her knees. reverence and
religion: ty her example, good habits;
from her teaching and inspiration,
ideals of life and character Since the
time, millions Of years ago, in the dim
morning. dawn of life, when woman,
struggling upward from savage TO
Civilized life. took by the hand her
brute husband, and led him by love
and gentleaess along the path that
rises 10 the skies, woman has been the
chief teacher of humanity. We often
hear 1t asked, What contribution mas
woman made 10 civilization? What
books has she written? What pictures
painted? statues carved? music COM
posed? orations spoken? sciences in
vented? discoveries made? knowledge
increased? buildings constructed?
bridges built? Kingdoms founded
battles fought?" The answer is easy.
In the beginning man possessed none
of these things; but stood. like other
animals, hungry and naked, among
the beasts of the field, a wild savage
thing. 4 free child of nature, un-
taught, unframed, and unrestrained.
Without woman he would have re-
manned so forever. 1t was for woman
to make the beginning of civilized
life; not only by furnishing the moral
and spiritual force essential TO that
beginning, but also by discovering and
practicing the material arts that made
civilization possible, the arts of cook
ing, of spinning and weaving, of tan
ming skins, Of painting and dyeing and
decorating, of tanning and domesticat-
ing young birds and animals, of filling
the soil, planting seed. harvesting
crops, curing meats, making and using
pottery and cooking utensils, the art of
medicine and nursing, of caring for the
sick and aged; and, above ALL of rear
ing and instructing the young of each
for preservation and improvement, all
the knowledge and virtues of that
humble civilization and inspiring
them with aspirations for still higher
and nobler lives. Such was woman's
work in the early days, while man was
hunting, fishing, fighting drinking,
gambling. and carousing; a work with
out which, in the dawn of life, civil
iZation would never have begun, and
without which today civilization would
cease. What bridge building, or house
constructing, or statue carving, or
poem making, or science inventing, or
was ever compare bic
10 this. Civilization began with the
home; with the home it will end. Civ
iliZation is maintained, not by the cul-
tured music of the prima dona, amid
plaudits resounding from pit to gal
lery. but by the tender lullaby OF the
mother, as she bends low at midnight
over the weeping infant, wetting its
face with tears of love: not by the
fierce shouts of thousands rushing to