Churches & Schools

The following article was published on February 23, 1868 in the (Lawrence) Kansas Daily Tribune. Its author, Joseph S. Boughton (1839-1906), a privileged white man, came to Lawrence in 1864 after serving as a corporal in the Sixth Michigan Volunteer regiment. He started Lawrence’s first circulating library in 1865 and worked as a traveling correspondent for the Tribune.¹

COLORED PEOPLE OF LAWRENCE

HOW THEY LIVE

THEIR LITERARY TASTES

THEIR SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES

AN INTERESTING EXHIBIT

That “one-half of the world knows not how the other half lives,” is a saying no less true of a city than of the habitable globe; and we might say with equal truthfulness that one-half of the people of a city know not who the other half are. This ignorance of who our neighbors are and how they live, is certainly not to be censured; in fact, [it] may be considered the legitimate result of the strict observance of that maxim which in plain terms means, “Mind your own business.”

When, however, we are brought in contact with neighbors (so far as streets and blocks are concerned) of a different color and race, who have but recently been released from a servitude the tendency of which was to place them on a par with the brute creation, it is not an idle curiosity which leads us to observe how they are working out the great problems of life. It is of some consequence to us to know whether the freedmen in our midst are that shiftless, lazy, thieving class of vagabonds which some represent them to be.

Condition of the Colored People

The descendants of Ham in this city now number about six hundred souls, being embraced in about one hundred families, as ascertained from our own personal observation and actual inquiry. At least seven-eighths of these families are provided with food, clothing and shelter sufficient for their comfort, by the husbands, who pursue some legitimate branch of business, the larger portion receiving regular salaries, monthly wages, or have set up business for themselves. The remaining eighth are in some instances well provided for by the persevering industry of the wife or widow, while a few are willing or are compelled to be assisted by the town. Several are the owners of houses they occupy and are rapidly making themselves attractive and valuable homes. The larger portion of their domiciles are as yet but poorly furnished, many of them boasting of nothing better than boxes and old trunks for chairs, a pine board for a table, and a very dilapidated stone fireplace for a stove. We found a few houses, however, comfortably and even tastefully furnished, presenting not only indications of pecuniary prosperity, but of intelligence and refinement.

Newspapers

At least six families of this “ignorant class” take and regularly pay for THE KANSAS DAILY TRIBUNE, while the number within the city limits who the Weekly is some fifteen or twenty. A number of families take religious papers of the denominations to which they belong, while there is scarcely a house that has not one or more Sunday school papers; and at least one in the family who can read them.

Schools

We found very few children who did not attend both the weekday and the Sunday Schools, and a visit to these schools assured us that the sin of ignorance could not long be laid at the door of the colored people of Lawrence. The City Board of Education has made provision for the education of the colored children in separate schools, hiring for them competent and experienced [white] teachers, and giving them equal advantages with the white children.

The Primary Colored school occupies the colored brick [Second Congregational] church, on Kentucky street, and is taught by Miss Lottie Warren [a white woman]. The children are here taught the alphabet and are taken in reading through the Second Reader. They are also taught to make and read figures [numbers], to add, subtract, and to do various other things which juveniles are supposed to be able to perform. The intermediate department of the colored school occupies the stone (colored) [St. Luke AME] church, on the corner of New York and Warren [9th] streets, and is taught by Miss [Julia A.] Morgan [a white woman]. We found scholars here reading with readiness, and with an evident understanding of what they read, in Hillard’s Fifth Reader. There were four classes in geography, two in written arithmetic, one class having reached compound interest, and four classes in mental arithmetic. Grammar and composition [are] also attended to, but without textbooks. The exercises in both of these schools were of a highly interesting character and reflected credit on both teachers and scholars. The number enrolled in these schools is one hundred and seventy-five, with an average attendance of about one hundred and twenty-five.

Besides the public schools, an evening school of adults is taught by Rev. J. H. Payne [a white man], four evenings each week, in the brick church. About thirty men and women avail themselves of its advantages.

Churches and Sunday Schools

It is in religious exercises, however, that the colored people manifest special zeal, and seem to be most at home. The prayer meeting is their “heaven.” There their feelings find vent in words and gestures—strange and oft times ludicrous.

There are three organized African Churches in the city. The Congregational is the oldest, having been organized on March 16th, 1862, with eight members. A Sabbath School was commenced in 1861, by S. N. Simpson [a white man], which was the beginning of the religious work among the freedmen of Lawrence. The school was first held in Plymouth Church, was afterwards moved to a room on Massachusetts street, and lastly to the colored brick church, on Kentucky street, which was dedicated September 28th, 1862, the Plymouth Church furnishing the larger part of the means for building. This building was burned in Quantrill’s raid, and the leading man, Deacon [Anthony] Oldham, was killed. The Congregational Union furnished the means to rebuild immediately, and service has been held regularly since, most of the time under the direction of Rev. J. H. Payne, of the American Missionary Association. The Sabbath School is still continued by its founder, Mr. Simpson. The attendance is from seventy-five to a hundred.

In 1862, the colored Baptists and Methodists also perfected organizations, the former commencing with nine members and now numbers three hundred and fifty. They have a church and parsonage, on the corner of Warren [9th] and Ohio streets; have a regular pastor, Rev. Dudley Lee (colored), paying him a salary of four hundred dollars a year. Many of the members live in the country, ten and even fifteen miles from town. Besides their Sunday service they have prayer meetings on Wednesday and Friday evenings, and church meetings every month. The Lord’s Supper is administered quarterly; while the banks of the Kaw [River] are frequently visited for the purpose of baptism. This church belongs to an association of colored churches, under the name of “The Kansas and Missouri Border Baptist Association,” which holds annual meetings, and is under similar rules and regulations as the associations of white Baptist churches. A copy of the minutes of their last meeting, held at Atchison, is before us, and presents a creditable appearance, considering that all of their preachers and officers are colored, and most of them recently released from bondage. Their next meeting will be held on the 13th of September, at Independence, Mo.

The African M. E. Church has a house of worship, built primarily by its own members, on the corner of Warren [9th] and New York streets. It numbers one hundred and forty members and has a congregation on the Sabbath of about three hundred and fifty. Rev. J. N. Triplett (colored) is their pastor and receives a salary of about eight hundred dollars. This church belongs to the Missouri Annual Conference of the African M. E. Church, which is similar in its organization, although entirely unconnected with the conference of the white M. E. Church. From the minutes of the conference of last year, held at Nashville, Tenn., we learn that this conference comprises fourteen stations, nine circuits, sixteen missions, and forty-two Sunday Schools. The entire membership of the African M. E. Church in the United States is over four hundred thousand. The rules and usages of this church seem to be most congenial with the nature and inclinations of the African race.

In Lawrence, then, as well as throughout the country, the colored people are making rapid advancement in educational and religious matters, and the time cannot be far distant when they will command that respect which all of us are by nature compelled to give to knowledge and moral worth, wherever it may be found, of whatever race or color. J. S. B.