on tiptoe to
make his protest the more emphatic--split and frizzled them--the
immersion of the tips in water would prevent this, and add to the
severity of the castigation, while diminishing the expense. A policy
wiser and less drastic has taken the place of corporal punishment in
schools. But Mr. Kennedy was competent, faithful and impartial. I was
not destined to remain long at school. At eight years of age two events
occurred which gave direction to my after life. On a Sunday in April,
1831, my father desired that the family attend his church; we did so and
heard him preach, taking as his text the 16th verse of Chapter 37 in
Genesis: "I seek my brethren; tell me, I pray thee, where they feed
their flocks."

On the following Sunday he lay before the pulpit from whence he had
preached, cold in death, leaving my mother, who had poor health, with
four small children, and little laid by "for a rainy day." Unable to
remain long at school, I was "put out" to hold and drive a doctor's
horse at three dollars a month, and was engaged in similar employment
until I reached sixteen years of age. Of the loving devotion and
self-sacrifice of an invalid mother I have not words to express, but
certain it is, that should it ever appear that I have done anything to
revere, or aught to emulate, it should be laid on the altar of her
Christian character, her ardent love of liberty and intense aspiration
for the upbuilding of the race. For her voice and example was an
educator along all the lines of racial progress.

Needing our assistance in her enfeebled condition, she nevertheless
insisted that my brother and myself should learn the carpenter trade. At
this period in the career of youth, the financial condition of whose
parents or sponsors is unequal to their further pursuit of scholastic
studies, it is not without an anxious solicitude they depart from the
parental roof. For the correct example and prudent advice may not be
invulnerable to the temptation for illicit pleasures or ruinous conduct.
Happy will he be who listens to the admonitions of age. Unfortunately by
the action of response, sad in its humor, too often is: I like the
advice but prefer the experience.

The foundation of the mechanical knowledge possessed by the Negro was
laid in the Southern States. During slavery the master selecting those
with natural ability, the most apt, with white foremen, had them taught
carpentering, blacksmithing, painting, boot and shoe maki