The Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
May 16, 1927
"Pinky" Thanks Plymouth
For Freedom; Daughter Lost
Ring Beecher Gave Her
Former Slave Girl, Greeted by Thousands at Church,
Regrets Did Not "Make More" of Her Life.
By Alice Cogan.
A trembling, elderly mulatto Woman publicly paid back her debt of freedom to Plymouth Church.
Sixty Seven years after Henry Ward Beecher had auctioned the child from his pulpit as a glaring protest against slavery, she returned yesterday in the person of Mrs. James Hunt, wife of a retired negro lawyer of Washington, D.C. It was her first visit to the church that bought her freedom in 1860.
Lines of Automobiles
Lines of Automobiles were formed for three blocks surrounding the church, even as carriages were parked in the days of Mr. Beecher according to Charles F. Halsey, sexton, who was present that day in February when "Pinky" was sold.
Three persons, two men and a woman, in that crowded church las night had been there 67 years ago at the original sale. They were Philip M. Knight, Mr. Halsey, the sexton, and Miss Grierson, who sat in the Lincoln pew with Miss Hunt and Miss Beecher.
The crowd was both old and young. Gray-haired men and women who have been attending Plymouth Church for years and years sat side by side with strange and new faces to the historic church. There was a generous sprinkling of colored people in the congregation.
It had been expected that the Rev. Newall Dwight Hillis pastor emeritus of Plymouth, would attend the anniversary services. A letter from Dr. Hillis, who is at Bronxville, was read, expressing his sorrow that illness prevented him from being present.
When the Rev. Dr. J. Stanley Durkee, new pastor of Plymouth, introduced Mrs. Hunt, a stout little woman arose from her chair and smiled over the bower of flowers that covered the pulpit.
Suddenly, there was a burst of applause and the old church rocked to its rafters in a spontaneous demonstration for the gentle old woman on the platform. Someone started to sing "Onward Christian Soldiers." The hymn was not in the regular order of the program – but somehow it relieved the tenseness.
Eyes Dimmed with Tears
Mrs. Hunt stood nervously by. She is a small person inclined to be stout, quietly dressed in black and white. Her skin is fair and almost unwrinkled. There is a look of contentment on her smooth face. He gray eyes were dimmed with tears. Earlier in the day when she had posed for photographs and taken off her black straw hat, her hair was seen to be curly and well streaked with gray, plainly parted in the middle and drawn from her face.
When the last note of the organ peeled away, Mrs. Hunt had regained her composure. In the soft accents of here native South, she began to read a paper. It was her declaration of thanks to Plymouth Church. Her voice was so subdued, at first the people in the back of the church did not hear her. But the room was tensely quiet, and as she went on she was more encouraged and it was less difficult to hear her.
Wore Comb in Her Hair
A simple little incident recalls the auction to this woman. She as wearing a round rubber comb in her hair to keep her curls out of her eyes. Those combs were the rage in those days before the Civil War, and the little mulatto child felt very proud of hers because a "pretty white lady" had given it to her.
Mr. Beecher put his hand on the child's head during his auctioneering sermon. He felt the comb and took it out.
"My child, never wear anything in your hair that God did not put there."
That is the only vivid impression Mrs. Hunt has of her public sale for freedom. All the other incidents, she says, have been repeated to her so much since that she feels they are other persons' memories, not her own.
Wins by Simplicity
By her very simplicity Mrs. Hunt quite won the big Plymouth Church crowd. There is nothing presuming about her. She looks and acts just what she is – a quiet little home-body who has never appeared in public since she stopped school teaching when she married her husband in 1879.
At the conclusion of the church services Mrs. Hunt held an impromptu reception at Plymouth Institute. The crowds were out in the street for an hour waiting to get in. Dr. Durkee found it necessary to warn people not to insist on shaking her hand.
Sit in Lincoln Pew.
Mrs. Hunt had attended yesterday morning's services with her daughter, Miss Eva Hunt, who accompanied her from Washington, The mother and daughter sat in the Lincoln pew at the morning service. This was the pew President Lincoln occupied when he came to Brooklyn to hear Beecher preach.
After the morning service Mrs. Hunt posed for photographs with Dr. Durkee in front of Beecher's slave statue on Plymouth Church grounds. She later met reporters in Dr. Durkee's study for an interview.
Humble and Gentle
Modernists would say Mrs. Hunt has an inferiority complex. She is so humble and gentle. The reason she has never returned to Brooklyn in all these years, she confessed to reporters, is because she is ashamed of not having been a greater success.
"I often wish I had not left Brooklyn when I was a little girl," she said. "You see, my grandmother did not like the North. She went back to Washington and brought me with her. My grandmother –God rest her soul—was a wonderful woman. But she had no advantages and did not realize the South was not the place to bring up colored children at that time."
The fact that Mrs. Hunt attended Howard University and taught school for her own people for some years before her marriage does not compensate her for what she considers he lack of doing something in the world.
Ashamed to Return
"I feel I should have made something more of my life when I was given such a good start," she said. "That is why I haven't returned in all these years. I was ashamed."
Just once in the 67 years has Mrs. Hunt visited Brooklyn. That was about 40 years ago, she thinks, when she called on Mr. and Mrs. Beecher. She remembers being impressed at that time with the bright lights across the water and the electric bell in the Beecher home.
"I tried to pull the bell out," she smiled, "It was the first of its kind I had ever seen and I thought it was a pulling kind we had down home. I'm afraid I must have broken it."
While she is in Brooklyn Mrs. Hunt wants to take her daughter to see Rev. Bishop Falkner, rector emeritus of Christ Church, who at 93 remembers the slave sale in Beecher's church. Little Pinky lived at the Falkner home on Pacific st. during her stay in Brooklyn before and after the sale.
Remembers Dr. Faulkner
Mrs. Hunt inquired if Bay Ridge were very far away and told Dr. Durkee she would like to call on Mr. Falkner.
"I can remember his being very kind to me," she said. "I remember all the pretty white ladies who called to see me at his house. It was his sister who gave me the comb."
Mr. Falkner, recalling the sale last week referred to the fact that Pinky had whooping cough at the time. She was asked if she remembered that.
"Indeed I do," she smiled. "I was not sick enough to go to bed, but Miss Falkner used to send me out in the back yard to get the air when I had coughing spells."
Met Husband in University
Mrs. Hunt met her husband in Howard University when they were both students there. They were married in Annapolis, Md., where they were teaching school. He later became a lawyer but has been retired for a few years. Miss Eva, their only living child, is in the patent office in Washington.
Mrs. Hunt was persuaded to come to Brooklyn for the 80th anniversary of Plymouth Church at the "urgent persuasion" of Dr. Durkee. She met Dr. Durkee about a year ago, just before he left Howard University, where he was president, to assume the pastorate of Plymouth Church. He happened to run across here by accident –so quietly and unobtrusively has Mrs. Hunt lived all these years— and when planning this celebration wrote and asked her to attend.
Official Records
Dr. Durkee is convinced that Mrs. Hunt is the original slave child because of her memory of incidents. He is backed up in his conviction by the official records of Howard University which she attended many years ago as Miss Rose Ward.
That was the name given her by Henry Ward Beecher after the auction. The Rose was after Rose Terry, authoress, who had thrown her ring into the collection plate, and which Beecher had placed on Pinky's finger saying "With this ring I thee wed to Freedom." The Ward was after Beecher.
Mrs. Hunt was asked if she still has the ring. She looked rather shame-faced and explained:
"I gave that ring to my oldest daughter, whom I named Rose Terry. She took it out one day and lost it. I feel bad about it."
Miss Beatrice Beecher, a granddaughter of Henry Ward Beecher, was with Mrs. Hunt during the morning and evening service. Miss Beecher is the daughter of the late Herbert C. Beecher. Col. William C. Beecher and Mrs. Beecher, son and daughter-in-law of Mrs. Beecher were not in church. Miss Beecher said: "Uncle Will was not well enough to attend."
Reminded of Auction
Mr. Halsey who remembers the original auction said last night's service reminded him of it very keenly.
"The church was crowded as it is now," he said. "Everyone seemed tense and full of emotion. The streets were lined with carriages. Now there are automobiles. I remember most distinctly the collection baskets. They were piled with jewelry that people had thrown in after Mr. Beecher's stirring talk."
Dr. Durkee preached on "The Fundamental Unities" in which he endorsed laws enforcement and the League of Nations. He pointed out that only four nations are not members of the League.
"What are they?" he asked. "There is Turkey, formerly the sick man of the East; Russia, playing her experiences so the rest of the world will never have to bother with such dreamy fantasies; Mexico with all the heritage of prejudices left over for 100 years and America."
Endorses Chinese Nationalism
The pastor endorsed the Nationalist movement in China when he linked up the Chinese situation with the conditions that brought about the Civil War in America.
"China last week abolished child slavery he said.
The picture shows "Pinky," the slave girl, now Mrs. Rose Ward Hunt, posed by the Beecher statue at Plymouth Church beside the figure that represents her at the time she was "sold" at the church.
"I say God bless the Nationalists movement that ends child slavery. We know what human slavery means. Look at this little girl grown old in the 67 years since her freedom was purchased from this pulpit."
When Henry Ward Beecher sold the slave child, he "assumed the posture of a Kentucky auctioneer and in a mean raucous voice called for the highest bidder," Dr. Durkee said in reviewing Pinky's history.
Prince of Pulpit.
At the morning service, Dr. Durkee explained that Beecher's first sermon had been dedicated to anti-slavery. He called Beecher "the prince of the pulpit opposed to man selling man for greed."
The Gloria Trumpeters played at the morning service, Miss Florence Mulholland, contralto, and Walter Green, baritone, were soloists at the evening service.Mrs. Hunt's speech in full follows:
Own Recollection Meager
"It is with deep emotion that I greet you and congratulate you upon this, your 80th anniversary. I feel it a great privilege to be with you today, to join you in your celebration and especially to extol the memory of one whose name always seems to me to be the complement of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. There can be but a few of us present who will be able to recall Mr. Beecher as he stood upon this rostrum 67 years ago. My own recollection of this time is very meager, only one incident standing out in my childish mind. My hair was combed back from my face and held in place with a long, curved rubber comb, such as children wore at that time. Evidently Mr. Beecher had not noticed this before I was put upon the platform, but when he did see it he came quietly to me, removed the comb and said, ‘Never wear anything in your hair except what got put there.'
"The other memorable events seemed not to have impressed me very much, and I am sure that the picture which I now hold of them is the result of repeatedly being told the story.
Redeeming Their Bodies
"As the years went by, however, I came to a full realization of the Christ-like work of Mr. Beecher and his associates, Harriet Beecher Stow, the Faulkner brothers and others. What great love, what great compassion for their unfortunate fellow men, redeeming their bodies as Another had long before redeemed their souls! And in this they followed the great example, inasmuch as they did not defy the law. Such an attitude toward this insidious foe of the nation was the leaven which led to the manumission of thousands, black and white.
Service Expression of Love
"I am glad of this opportunity to publicly acknowledge that I have always had a feeling of deep love and gratitude toward this church, whose congregation did so much for me. These Agents of the Almighty snatched me from a fate which can only be imagined, never known, as my dear mother and brothers have never been heard of by any of our family since that separation 67 years ago. These Christians did not stop there, but saw to that I was given a start on the road to good citizenship. I was sent to school through their willing assistance. I have looked upon all this as a trust reposed in me and have ever endeavored to shape my life in keeping with such confidence. My lot has been an humble one, but I have tried to help in the lowly places. As a teacher, a wife and mother I have tried to exemplify and to inculcate the principles of Christian life. I have found, that service is the highest of love.
Optimistic for Future
"I have been asked for an opinion concerning the future. I am optimistic, for I perceive in each new generation an increasing thirst for knowledge which they are gaining by means of hard work and self-development. They are learning gradually and consistently, self-reliance, so necessary to perfect development. I see remarkable successes in individuals in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and these thins make me believe that they are but the vanguard of a vast host who will not be left behind in the forward march of civilization.
"It is not likely that I shall ever come back again to Plymouth Church. My first visit here was 67 years ago, and 25 years later I was again here in Brooklyn and visited Mr. and Mrs. Beecher but was not in the church at that time. Now, after a lapse of 42 years, I am here again most probably for the last time. You can see by this that a trip to New York is a remarkable occurrence in my quiet career. I shall carry a vivid memory of this occasion throughout the rest of my life and shall always love this church for what it has been in the past and what it is today. I shall remember with great joy in these times of many changes that there has been no change in the goodness of these descendants and successors of the congregation of several decades ago. I shall remember with joy that you are pastored by one who is worthy to carry on the work of his distinguished predecessors.
"Thanking you for making it possible for me to be with you today, I wish you Godspeed forever and ever in Plymouth Church.