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GLEANINGS LN BEE Cl'LTUKE. 



May 



often exemplified in Gleanings, that very many of 

 our most prominent and successful bee-keepers are 

 deeply interested in all Christian work, encourages 

 me to tell a little about our work of " spreading the 

 knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus." As broth- 

 er Hasty says, it is trw great business; and with us 

 only leisure hours can be spent among our little 

 golden workers, much as I love them. 



For many years 1 have been deeply impressed 

 with the terrible destitution of our country dis- 

 tricts in the South— especially in the seventeen 

 counties of what is called the "Black Belt of Ala- 

 bama." This is a belt of rich agricultural lands, 

 mostly black in color, containing magnificent bee 

 pasturage, by the way, and running from southeast 

 to northwest across the State into Mississippi. 

 Here were the great slave-plantations before the 

 war, and here the freedmen and their descendants 

 have remained and increased until they outnumber 

 the whites five to one. As the vast majority of the 

 whites are in the cities and larger villages, the 

 country population is almost wholly black. There 

 are perhaps 3J,000 colored people in the cities and 

 villages of this Black Belt, where they have good 

 schools and churches, and are improving rapidly; 

 but at least 450,000 are on the plantations, where no 

 missionary work is being done to any extent, and 

 the public-school fund is so deplorably inadequate, 

 and so poorly administered, that the statistics show 

 that there are actually many more illiterates now 

 than there were 30 years ago; i. e., the State has 

 not nearly begun to educate the increase. The 

 dense ignorance, superstition, immorality, and pov- 

 erty of these thickly populated country districts can 

 scarcely be imagined until seen. The country 

 preachers, who wield great influence among these 

 people, are in many instances worse than the peo- 

 ple themselves. I have had five preachers at work 

 for me at one time, who could not read a word of 

 the Scriptures. They pretend to expound or write 

 their names, and one has just been convicted of 

 hog-stealing in an aggravated form. 1 have heard 

 two preachers maintain in public that they were 

 better preachers because they could not read a 

 word, and therefore had to be taught by direct in- 

 spiration of the Holy Ghost. Another, a woman, 

 claimed to be a great prophet. She had killed a wo- 

 man b}- order of the Almighty, and raised her to 

 life again, she said, and the people swallowed it all 

 without a protest. 



Some years ago, in our Selma ministers' meeting, 

 the question of the evangelization of these country 

 districts was raised. Brother Woodsmall, a Bap- 

 tist missionary who had spent many years in the 

 South, travelling extensively among the colored 

 churches, said that it was his opinion, that, in the 

 thickly settled cotton districts, the people were 

 growing worse instead of better. A presiding elder 

 of the A. M. B. Church (colored) followed in a sim- 

 ilar strain with some terrible illustrations from his 

 observation. I then proposed a plan for a self- 

 supporting missionary and educational work, 

 which, after much thought and prayer, and years 

 of careful observation and experiment, is now be- 

 ing successfully carried out by the Industrial Mis- 

 sionary Association of Alabama. This is a stock 

 company, organized under the laws of Alabama, 

 with the purpose of buying plantations, renting 

 them out to the colored people, and using the rents 

 and income to supplement the public-school fund, 

 and aid the people in supporting a more enlighten- 



ed ministry. Many of these plantations can be 

 bought at such low prices, on account of the rapid- 

 ly increasing numerical preponderance of the col- 

 ored people making it unpleasant for the whites to 

 remain, that the rents will pay from 15 to 41) per 

 cent on the purchase money, making quite an in- 

 come for missionary work. 



The negroes have been made and kept poor in 

 very many instances, not so much by excessive 

 rents, which are cheaper here than in the North, as 

 by the excessive and often fraudulent " advances," 

 which eat up the crop before it is made, and the ig- 

 norance and unskillful management of the tenant 

 himself. Justice, fair dealing, advice, and instruc- 

 tion in improved methods of agriculture, and in 

 household economies, together with improved 

 schools and churches, will do wonders toward help- 

 ing the colored man to help himself; and as soon as 

 possible we mean to sell to each renter his home- 

 stead, invest the money in other plantations, and 

 thus turn it over and over, and keep it working for 

 the Lord and his people. This is not a new experi- 

 ment. For four years we have been trying it, with 

 very limited means, to be sure; yet we have two 

 churches and schools under our auspices, and feel 

 more than ever confident that this is the most ef- 

 ficient method and practical plan of reaching 

 these, the most destitute regions in all our land. If 

 we could command the means we could do more in 

 this way to help solve the vexed " negro problem," 

 which is attracting so much attention and discus- 

 sion of late, than by any other plan that has been 

 proposed. We have now decided to appeal to the 

 public for help to extend our work, hence the in- 

 corporation of our association, in which we cordial- 

 ly invite all our friends and all who desire to sec 

 this "open sore " of our land healed, to take stock. 

 Rev. J. W. Dill, of Selma, is the treasurer of the as- 

 sociation, to whom all contributions and subscrip- 

 tions for stock should be sent; and 1 shall be only 

 too happy to give any further information, or 

 answer any question, either through Gleanings or 

 privately, as may be desired. It seems to me that 

 we owe this people whom we enfranchised without 

 educating, and who, on account of their ignorance, 

 are in far greater danger and distress now, both 

 from the white people and themselves, than if they 

 had never had the right of citizenship, something 

 more than an occasional thought or prayer. We 

 owe them our best help, and what better way to help 

 than this? I feel sure our bee-keeping fraternity 

 will not be behind in this matter. C. B. Curtis. 



Selma, Ala., Feb. 8, 1889. 



Why, old friend, you have gone and taken 

 hold of and grappled with one of the great- 

 est problems that stand before the people of 

 the United States of America. One is re- 

 minded of David and his pebbles from the 

 brook, when he went out to meet Goliah. 

 Never mind, brother. The Lord God is 

 with you, even if you are contending with 

 fearful odds. 



Since the above was written, Bro. Curtis 

 has been with us, and we learn that he has 

 been for ten years connected with the work 

 of the American Missionary Association in 

 the Southern States. Right here our stenog- 

 rapher suggests that, even if a great many 

 of us do not know much about these things, 

 the probability is that we shall have to 

 know, whether we want to or not, very soon. 



