Mary S. Peake
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Lewis C. Lockwood >> Mary S. Peake
In these multiplied labors, she exhibited a martyr spirit, of the true
type. Often when she was confined to her bed, her pupils would be
found around her, drawing knowledge as it were from her very life.
Again and again did Dr. Browne, brigade surgeon, who concerned himself
for her like a brother, advise her to consider her weakness, and
intermit her exhausting duties. The scene of these labors was the
Brown Cottage, near the seminary, fronting on Hampton Roads. The
school room was the front room, first story. Her own family apartment
was the front room, second story. It will ever be a place about which
precious memories will linger.
It was proposed that, on Christmas day, the children of the school
should have a festival. All the week previous, they were busy, with
their teacher, in preparations and rehearsals. A large room on the
first floor of the seminary was decorated with evergreens for the
occasion, and at one end a platform was constructed. At an early hour
in the evening, the room was crowded with colored children and
adults, and soldiers and officers. The programme opened with the
singing of "My country, 'tis of thee." Chaplain Fuller read the
account of the nativity of Christ. Dr. Linson prayed. Then the
children discoursed very sweet music in solo, semi-chorus, and chorus,
and at intervals spoke pieces in a very commendable manner,
considering that it was probably the first attempt of colored children
in the South.
Little Daisy, (Mrs. Peake's only child,) about five years old, was the
acknowledged star of the evening. She sang very prettily in solo, and
also in connection with the chorus. She sang alone the whole of the
hymn, "I want to be an angel."
[Illustration: LITTLE DAISY.]
I spoke of the contrast between the present and the past. A year ago,
_white_ children in Hampton could enjoy a scene of this kind, but
_colored_ children were excluded. But now times have changed. The
white man's child is away, and the colored man's child is on the
stage, and swells the choral song. And this is but a miniature picture
of what will be. The present is prophetic of the future. The few
hundred children about Fortress Monroe, now gathered into schools,
after the pattern of this first school, are types of one million of
children throughout the sunny South, on whom the sunlight of knowledge
is yet to shine.
After the concert exercises, the members of the school and others
repaired to the Brown Cottage. Here we were conducted into the school
room, which, like the concert room, was tastefully decorated with
evergreens; and we filed around a long table laden with refreshments,
and surrounded with Christmas trees, loaded with good things, all
gotten up spontaneously by, and at the expense of, the colored people
in the neighborhood. The viands were partaken of with a relish, and
by unanimous consent it was declared a merry Christmas of the right
type; the children sang, "Merry Christmas to all! Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to all!"
CHAPTER IV.
Failing of Health.--Religious Joy.--Farewell
Messages.--Death.--Funeral.--Conclusion.
After the exciting scenes of the Christmas festival, Mrs. Peake's
health sensibly declined, and in a week or two she was obliged to
suspend, and soon to give up entirely, the charge to which she had
clung with such tenacity. I visited her frequently, and was the bearer
of clothing and other tokens from friends at the North. Every thing in
our power was done to cheer her, and never were ministerings more
cordially bestowed, or more gratefully received and richly repaid. To
visit her had always been a privilege, but the privilege was doubly
precious during her last illness. To see how a frail woman, with an
exquisitely nervous temperament, could deliberately and calmly bid
farewell to family, pupils, and friends, and yield herself into her
Father's hands, to pass through the ordeal of sickness and death, was
a privilege and a blessing.
In her presence I was a learner, and, under the inspiration of her
words and example, obtained new strength for fresh endeavors in the
cause of God and humanity. In one of my visits, she told me that I
must give her love to the committee in New York, and all the friends
of the mission; that she had had a bright vision of her Saviour, and
he had assured her that the cause would triumph; that we were sowing
seed which would spring up and become a tree, to overspread the whole
earth; that we should be a great blessing to this down-trodden people,
and they would fulfill a glorious destiny. "Oh, yes," said she,
"brother Lockwood, you will succeed, for Jesus has told me so this
morning."
For two weeks previous to her death, she seemed to be in the "land of
Beulah," on the "mountains of the shepherds," where, like Bunyan's
pilgrim, she could clearly descry the promised land. She had a strong
desire to depart and be with Christ, which was far better than even
his most intimate earthly visits. Again and again, as I called to see
her, she assured me that she had had a fresh visit from her Saviour,
and he had told her that where he was she should be, and she would be
like him when she should see him as he is. She knew not where in the
universe heaven might be, but where her Saviour was, there would be
her heaven, for she would be with him.
Her constantly increasing cough and expectoration, though not attended
with much pain, were, as usual, accompanied with uneasiness, want of
sleep, and great weakness, which made her frequently request prayer
that she might have patience to bear all without a murmur, and await
her Father's will. She wanted to say, with the feelings of Job, "All
the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. I know
that my Redeemer liveth."
At one time, her symptoms seemed more favorable, and I expressed a
hope of her recovery. "No," said she; "I have taken leave of my
family, and of every thing on earth, and I would rather go, if it be
God's will; only I want to wait patiently till he comes to call me."
Her husband and mother told me that, during the previous night, she
had bidden them all farewell, and left farewell messages for her
school, and the church, and all her friends. She had thus set her
house in order, to die, or, rather, to live a diviner life, and she
was waiting the summons home. She said that she felt like a little
child in her Father's arms; and if, by lifting a pebble, she could
hold back her spirit, she would not do it.
Several days before her death, she requested me to sing "The
Christian's Home in Glory," or "Rest for the Weary"--a hymn, with its
tune, dear to her for itself and for its associations. As I repeated
the chorus, she exclaimed, again and again, with great tenderness and
emphasis, "Rest, rest, rest! Oh, brother Lockwood, there I shall rest,
rest, rest! This weary head shall rest on my Saviour's bosom."
When I had sung the last stanza,--
"Sing, oh, sing, ye heirs of glory,
Shout your triumph as you go,"--
she burst out in an ecstasy that seemed as if the spirit would break
away from the body, "Oh, brother, I shall sing! I shall shout! Won't
we sing? Won't we shout? Yes, we shall--we shall sing and shout!"
On Saturday morning, February 22, she was in a very happy frame of
mind, and said that she had had precious visits from her Saviour; he
had told her that he was coming soon, and would fulfill her heart's
desire in taking her to him. Her mother said, that during the previous
night she had been constantly reaching up, and sometimes she would cry
out, with great earnestness, "Do not leave me, dear Jesus."
She requested me to sing for her, and I sung, "The Shining Shore," and
"Homeward Bound." During the singing of the last stanza of the latter
song, she was filled with joy.
"Into the harbor of heaven now we glide,
We're home at last!
Softly we drift o'er its bright silver tide,
We're home at last!
Glory to God! All our dangers are o'er;
We stand secure on the glorified shore;
Glory to God! we will shout evermore,
We're home at last!"
"Yes," she exclaimed, "home at last! Glory to God! Home at last! Oh,
I shall soon be home--home--home at last!"
On the night of that day, about twelve o'clock, her waiting, longing
spirit went home. Washington's birthday was her birthday to a higher
life. After many a sleepless night, this last evening she was
permitted to rest quietly, till the midnight cry struck upon her ear,
"Behold, the bridegroom cometh!" It found her ready, with her lamp
trimmed and burning. Calling for her mother, she threw herself into
her embrace, as her spirit did into the embrace of her Saviour.
Just at midnight, on all the ships in Hampton Roads,--and which are so
near us that the cry on shipboard is distinctly heard on shore,--the
watchman cried aloud, as usual, "Twelve o'clock, and all's well!" The
sound penetrated the sick chamber, and the dying invalid apparently
heard it. She smiled sweetly, and then breathed her last sigh, and
entered upon that rest which remains for the people of God.
The next morning, which was the Sabbath, I called, and found her
husband and mother bearing up under their bereavement with Christian
fortitude. They could smile through their tears; though they wept, it
was not as those who have no hope. In the services of the day, the
bereaved were remembered in fervent, sympathizing prayer. We all felt
sorely afflicted, and would have grieved, but for the thought that our
temporary loss was her eternal gain. In the evening, a prayer meeting
was held till midnight in the room where her body lay; but all felt
like saying, She is not here; her spirit is with her Father and our
Father, her God and our God.
On Monday, at eleven o'clock, a large concourse assembled at her
funeral. We met in her school room, at the Brown Cottage, a place
sweetened and hallowed by associations with her crowning labors, and
thus a fit place for these leave-taking services. The occasion was one
of mingled sorrow and joy. The services were begun by singing,
according to her request, the familiar hymn,--
"I would not live alway,"--
to the tune of "Sweet Home," in which it is generally sung by the
people here, with the chorus,--
"Home! Home! Sweet, sweet home!
There's no place like heaven, there's no place like home!"
The impression was very thrilling. Chaplain Fuller, of the sixteenth
Massachusetts regiment, offered prayer--praying fervently for the
bereaved mother and husband, and for little Daisy, who would one day
realize more than now a mother's worth by her loss. We then sung,
according to her request, her favorite hymn, "The Christian's Home in
Glory," or "Rest for the Weary." I selected for my text Hebrews
4:9--"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God." At the
conclusion of the sermon the children sang,--
"Here we suffer grief and pain;
Here we meet to part again;
In heaven we part no more.
Oh, that will be joyful,
Joyful, joyful, joyful,
Oh, that will be joyful,
When we meet to part no more.
"_Little children_ will be there,
Who have sought the Lord by prayer,
From every Sabbath school.
Oh, that will be joyful, &c.
"_Teachers_, too, shall meet above,
And our _pastors_, whom we love,
Shall meet to part no more.
Oh, that will be joyful," &c.
The coffin was then opened, and we took the last, lingering look at a
face whose heavenly lineaments I can never forget.
In long procession, in which her recent charge bore a prominent part,
we accompanied her to her resting place. The place of her sepulture is
about a hundred yards north of the seminary, on the bank of the inlet.
A live-oak tree stands at her head, projecting its emblematic
evergreen foliage over the sod-roofed tenement.
The departed selected, as a remembrance of her immortality, the 17th
verse of the 118th Psalm, "I shall not die, but live." The thirty-nine
years of her earthly existence were but the prelude to a life beyond
the sky; and while her spirit survives the ravages of death, her name
shall live in memory.
* * * * *
In this unpretending memoir may its subject live again, and not in
vain. May teachers gather from her example fresh inspiration, and the
benevolent Christian fresh impulses in doing good. May they who enjoy
advantages superior to those of her proscribed race, take heed lest
the latter, by the better improvement of the little light enjoyed,
rise up in the judgment and condemn them.
Let Sabbath scholars, and children of pious parentage and Christian
education, who from earliest years have not only been taught to lisp
the Saviour's name, but to read it, pity the slave child, shut out
from such advantages, and give heed to instruction, lest, having more
given and unimproved, they be beaten with many stripes. Let all who
have an interest at the throne of grace remember little Daisy, and
pray that she may walk in her mother's footsteps, as far as she
followed Christ, only following more closely, attaining still greater
excellence, achieving still greater usefulness, and winning a still
brighter crown of glory.
As the enlarging harvest field whitens into ripeness, may the Lord of
the harvest send forth an increasing number of laborers. Oh, who will
give ear to the echoing cry, "Come over and help us"? Come to the
harvest work, and you too, with arms full of golden sheaves, shall
shout the harvest home. Who will pay the hire of the laborers? Who
will lend to the Lord the capital needful to secure the harvest in
season and well? For such there shall be untold riches laid up in
heaven. And who will sustain those who bear the burden and heat of the
day, by the buoyancy of prayer? This is a work thrice blessed to all
concerned.
APPENDIX.
MISSION TO THE FREEDMEN.
On the 8th of August, 1861, a letter was addressed to Major-General
Butler, then in command at Fortress Monroe, Virginia, by the treasurer
of the American Missionary Association, respecting the people whom he
had denominated "contrabands." In this letter, the writer communicated
to General Butler the wishes of some persons in the free states, that,
as considerable embarrassment was felt by the public authorities with
regard to the increasing numbers of colored persons who had fled and
were fleeing for protection to the forts and camps of the United
States, they should be sent into the free states to obtain employment.
A prompt and courteous reply was received, and, in reference to the
desire expressed, General Butler stated that the "contrabands" would
be protected; that many of them would be employed in government
service; that there was land enough to cultivate in Virginia; and as
the freedmen would never be suffered to return into bondage, there was
no necessity for sending any of them to the Northern States.
The executive committee of the association, feeling highly encouraged
by these assurances, at once determined to commence a mission at
Fortress Monroe. Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood was commissioned as their
first missionary to the freedmen. He repaired to Washington, where he
received encouragement from the government, and recommendation to the
commanding general, Wool, who had succeeded General Butler. General
Wool received him cordially, heartily approved the plan, and afforded
him all needful facilities.
Mr. Lockwood conferred with the leading persons among the freedmen,
investigated the condition and wants of the people, made arrangements
for week-day and Sabbath meetings, organized week-day and evening
schools, employed several of the most intelligent and gifted colored
people as assistants, and through the committee in New York made
urgent appeals for clothing, &c., for the destitute, and also for
additional missionaries and teachers.
The late lamented Mrs. Mary S. Peake was the first teacher employed.
She continued to teach as long as her health permitted, and near to
the time of her decease. Other teachers have been employed; chaplains
in the army and pious soldiers have proffered their occasional
services, and the religious meetings, Sabbath schools, and week-day
schools, have been well attended. Mr. Lockwood labored there thirteen
months, and then removed to another field. In his final report, he
states that he had ministered to a congregation at Hampton, where the
average attendance was four hundred; and to a congregation at Fortress
Monroe, where the average attendance was about the same.
A day school was kept in a house, near Hampton, formerly the residence
of Ex-President Tyler, which was wholly given up for the use of the
freedmen. This school was subsequently removed to the old Court House
at Hampton, which had been fitted up for the purpose, government
furnishing a portion of the lumber. This school became the largest
under the care of the freedmen's teachers, and numbered at one time
five hundred scholars. Among the ruins of Hampton, which had, at an
early period of the rebellion, been burned by the rebels, the colored
people erected rude cottages, the materials being gathered from the
vacated camps, the deserted dwellings of fugitive slaveholders, &c.
Such of the freedmen as were not employed by government have obtained
a living by fishing, oystering, huckstering, carting, washing, &c.
INTERESTING FACTS.
Many highly interesting facts have been communicated with regard to
the freedmen--their natural endowments, their facility in acquiring
knowledge in letters and arms, their industrial habits, their
shrewdness in business transactions, their gratitude, their courage,
their acquaintance with passing events, their confidence that the
result of the rebellion will be the liberation of their people, and
their piety. Some of these facts have been extensively published, and
have been read with high gratification. It is thought that a few of
these facts may add to the value of this little publication.
[Illustration: A "CONTRABAND" SCHOOL.]
SCHOOLS FOR THE CHILDREN.
A young teacher at Hampton, Virginia, writes as follows: "When I first
commenced the school here, I found the children such as slavery
makes--quarrelsome, thievish, uncleanly in their persons and attire,
and seemingly inclined to almost every species of wickedness; and it
appeared to me that they were too far gone to be ever raised to any
thing like intelligent children at the North. But I found that I had
reckoned without my host in the persons of these children.
"At the end of the first week there was a decided improvement
manifested, and in four weeks you hardly ever saw one hundred and
fifty children more cleanly in their persons and apparel. Their
lessons were, in most cases, quickly and correctly learned, and their
behavior was kind and affectionate toward each other, while in singing
the sweet little Sabbath school songs, I should not hesitate to put
them side by side with the best of our Sabbath-school scholars at the
North. And they so fully appreciate my humble efforts in their behalf,
that my table in the school room is loaded, morning and noon, with
oranges, lemons, apples, figs, candies, and other sweet things too
numerous to mention, all testifying their love to me, although I can
do so little for them."
Another teacher, at Beaufort, South Carolina, writes: "My school
numbered about forty of the children. Most of them were very dirty and
poorly dressed, all very black in color. A happier group of children I
never expect to witness than those who composed my school: bright
eyes, happy looks, kind and patient dispositions, made them look
attractive to my eyes, though they were 'horribly black,' as some have
called them, and very dirty at first. But they were so innocent, so
despised by others, and withal so anxious to learn, that I felt a true
sympathy for them.
"Their masters have kept them in darkness and degradation. This is
only the result of slavery.
"They are very eager to learn. Every one wishes to be taught first;
yet, unlike some white children, they are patient and willing to wait.
They do not easily tire of study, but are very diligent in getting
their lessons. I have known them to teach each other, or sit alone and
drill over a lesson for two hours at a time.
"Let me relate to you a little incident that will illustrate what I
have just said. One day, at Beaufort, soon after we landed, while
walking through the upper portion of the town, I heard a little voice
saying the alphabet, while another wee voice, scarcely audible, was
repeating it after the first. I looked quickly around to discover from
whence the voice came; and what do you think I saw? Why, seated on the
piazza of a large empty house were two of the blackest little negro
children, one about seven, the other not more than three years old.
The elder had his arm thrown lovingly around the almost naked form of
the other, and with an open primer in the lap of one, they were at
their study. An hour after, I returned by the same spot, and was both
pleased and surprised to find them still at it. God bless the little
ones!
"This desire, or rather eagerness, to learn to read, is manifested by
all. I have stopped by the wayside many a time, and have immediately
collected a group of old and young about me, and have made them repeat
the alphabet after me slowly, letter by letter. They esteem it the
greatest kindness I can show them, and as I turn to depart, the
fervent 'God bless you, massa,' 'Tank de Lord, massa,' reach my ears."
MORALS OF THE FREEDMEN.
After the mission had been established, one of the officers' wives
remarked to another, "I do not miss my things nowadays."
Nearly all the church members had taken the temperance pledge.
"They have their vices," writes a northern physician on one of the
plantations on Port Royal Island; "deception and petty thieving
prevail. They are careless, indolent, and improvident. They have a
miserable habit of scolding and using authoritative language to one
another. All these vices are clearly the result of _slave education_,
and will gradually disappear under improved conditions.... If one is
honest with them, and gets their confidence, the rest is easily
accomplished."
MARRIAGE.
A very large portion, probably, at least, more than half of the
"married" freed people, had been married only in slave fashion, by
"taking up together," or living together by mutual agreement, without
any marriage ceremony. The missionary proposed to such that they
should be married agreeably to the usages in the free states. The
leaders of the colored people were conversed with, and they, without
exception, agreed as to the propriety of the measure. One, now
advanced in life, said, that when he proposed to his companion to go
to a minister and be lawfully married, she replied, "Oh, what use will
it be? Master can separate us to-morrow." But he coincided fully in
the propriety of the proposed course.
Mr. Lockwood, after preaching on the sanctity of the marriage
relation, proceeded to unite in wedlock several couples, among whom
were some who had lived together for years. He gave each of the
parties a certificate, in handsome form, which they seemed to prize
very highly. It appeared to have a most beneficial effect upon the
parties themselves, and the whole population.
NATIVE ELOQUENCE.
Not a few of the freedmen, though illiterate, exhibit remarkable
powers of eloquence. The missionary, in describing the address of one
of them, after a discourse by the former, says, "The address was a
masterpiece. It melted every heart. He appealed to the soldiers
present who were in rebellion against God, striving to put down
rebellion in this land, and asked them how they, who had been taught
to read the Bible, and had learned the Lord's Prayer in infancy from a
mother's lips, could stand in judgment, when a poor, despised, and
inferior race, who, though denied the Bible, had been taught of God,
and found their way to Christ, should rise up and condemn them. He
then turned to his fellow 'contrabands,' and entreated them to embrace
thankfully, and improve, the boon already given. He considered the
present a pledge of the future--the virtual emancipation of fifteen or
eighteen hundred the promise of the emancipation of four millions. The
Lord works from little to great."
CHURCH MEETING.
The missionary wrote: "Last Thursday I had an opportunity to observe
the intellectual state of a considerable number of the brethren at a
church meeting. I was surprised at their understanding and wisdom in
regard to church order and propriety, and tone of discipline. As the
church records had been burned up in the church edifice at Hampton, I
inquired how far any of them could recall their contents. One or two
replied that they could almost repeat the church regulations from
memory.
"In the discussion, high ground was taken in regard to the Sabbath,
the temperance cause, and other matters of Christian morality. In
discipline, stress was laid on the propriety and duty of private
admonition, in its successive scriptural steps, before public censure.
On this point one brother said he had privately admonished a neighbor
of the impropriety of taking articles to the camp on the Sabbath, and
he had acknowledged his fault, and promised amendment. The duty of
forgiving offenders, and undoing wrongs, was also insisted on. Several
had been improperly excluded from church privileges through the
influence of white power. It was, therefore, decided to-day that those
who had the confidence of the church should be restored to
church-fellowship unconditionally."