Father Augustine Tolton, From Slave to Catholic Priest

Today we will study and reflect on Father Augustine Tolton’s biography,
From Slave to Priest.
Although Augustine was born an illiterate slave, after the Civil War he
overcame daunting obstacles to attend seminary in Rome and be
ordained as the first black Catholic priest in America, becoming literate
in four languages, English, German, Latin, and Koenine Greek,
shepherding a parish first in his adopted city, Quincy, Illinois, then in
Chicago.

You may ask, what can we learn by pondering his biography, From Slave
to Priest?
Augustine Tolton’s tragic life provides us two lessons. The first lesson is
we can accomplish much with hard work, patience, and persistence
even when you face incredible hardship and discouragement.
Although many people encourage him and assisted him in achieving
what he did, he was just not able to overcome all the obstacles and
barriers he faced, and among them were health problems that cut
short his life and his accomplishments.
So our second lesson is sometimes we just cannot do everything on our
own, sometimes even the strongest of us sometimes need a little bit of
help and encouragement.

But his life was great success in what matters most, up to the very end
he did his best to minister to the many in his parish who were destitute
and in great need, and that matters more than worldly success.
And his story is a story of a different time and place that is just plainly
an interesting history and glimpse into the past.
We always like to select quotes from the author. At the end of our talk,
we will discuss our source for this video, and my blogs that also cover
this topic. Please, we welcome interesting questions in the comments,
sometimes these will generate short videos of their own. Let us learn
together!

YouTube Video:
Father Augustine Tolton, From Slave to Priest
https://youtu.be/dZbzWJkAf5k
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This story on how Augustine Tolton grew from an illiterate slave to an
educated priest who studied in Rome and was literate in four languages
differs from the slave autobiographies of Booker T Washington and
Frederick Douglass, both of which we have already recorded YouTube
videos.
The first difference is Augustine Tolton labored in relative obscurity,
never achieving national fame as a civil rights activist, he instead
preferred to quietly minister to the spiritual needs of his parishioners,
mostly black, some white.
Also missing are the biting autobiographical memories of what it is like
for slaves to be treated like talking livestock, although the biographer
does relate his childhood in impressive detail, and does not hesitate to
tell us the dark side of slavery.

This biography, or hagiography, was written by Sister Caroline Hemesath
in 1973. She had learned of his remarkable ministry as a priest in
Chicago in 1933, and she interviewed many who knew Father Tolton
when he was alive, using as a primary source caches of correspondence
that many of that era left behind.
What is most remarkable about the biography of Father Augustine
Tolton, “From Slave to Priest,” is how many Catholic clergy, including
priests, nuns, and bishops, both American and Roman, both in those
years after the Civil War and during Reconstruction, were eager to help
this barely literate former black slave gain a clerical education and
encourage and enable him to study for the priesthood. And the progress
towards his sainthood is well under way.

https://tolton.archchicago.org/

What is also remarkable is how many of these missionary priests
from Germany and Ireland were willing, in homily after homily,
month after month, year after year, to persistently and without
much success to encourage their white parishioners to treat
their fellow black freedmen with the dignity and respect that is
due to all of God’s children.
Many of these Catholic clergy, after Father Tolton attended
seminary and was admitted into the priesthood in Rome,
encouraged him in his ministry to his black parishioners, and
how they came to respect him and even admire his life of faith
and dedication, so much so that he is now being considered for
canonization.

What were Augustine Tolton’s experiences growing up as a slave?
The biographer tells us that the Catholic families in the border state of Kentucky
that owned the Tolton family members respected, somewhat, though not
completely, the human dignity of their slave families. Not only were their slaves
well-fed with decent clothes, the Catholic owners were concerned about the state
of the souls of their slaves. They ensured that their slaves received religious
instruction and permitted them to partake of the Catholic Sacraments. That
included the sacrament of marriage, the owners permitted the slave parents of
Augustine Tolton to be formally married by a Catholic Priest in the Catholic Church.
The Tolton family was permitted to live together in one house although the parents
were owned by different masters. Amazingly, the slave children were recorded in
the parish registry when they were born, including his mother, Martha Jane. Unlike
many slaves in the Deep South, Tolton was not the last name of their master, but
was a real last name. His owners were small farmers with only a few dozen slaves,
as in this picture, slavery was a little less brutal on small farms than on the huge
plantations that were worked by hundreds of slaves.

James Hopkinson's Plantation. Group
going to field, Edisto Island, SC

But they were still slaves, and they were still treated like slaves,
and their masters saw nothing wrong with treating them as
slaves. Literate slaves were seen as dangerous slaves, quick to
run away, so slaves were never taught how to read and write.
Like all slaves, they could be whipped and beaten by their
masters and overseers at will for any reason, or no reason, and
both the parents and their children were brutally whipped, with
lashes, many times by the overseer trying to whip more work out
of them. Dawn to dusk, every day, except maybe Sunday, they
toiled in the fields.

A cotton plantation on the Mississippi, 1884

The biographer notes, “Under slavery
there was great estrangement, a total
lack of communication, a latent hostility
which would, and at times did, break
through the varnished surface, with
violence and murder. Slavery rested upon
the ability to use unmeasured force, and
every slave and master knew it.”
Whipping Old Barney
Frederick Douglass Autobiography

On at least one occasion, one or more slave families were broken
up. The biographer tells us that when Augustine Tolton’s mother
was a child the owner’s daughter was married. On the day of
the wedding the owner went through his slave quarters and
brushed paint on the forearms of some of his slaves, including
the young slave girl who was Augustine’s future mother,
seemingly at random. The slaves were terrified, what would
become to the slaves who were painted? Were they being
marked for sale? Would their families be separated?

Husbands, wives, and
families sold
indiscriminately to
different purchasers, are
violently separated ;
probably never to meet
again. 1853

Sometime later the slaves with paint were locked in the meeting
hall, including Martha Jane. During the wedding festivities the
father of the bride brought the radiant couple to the meeting
hall, unlocked the door, and exclaimed to the newlyweds,
Behold, your dowry!
After the cart carrying the slaves of the newlywed was hitched,
Martha Jane’s younger brother Charley ran over and bear
hugged his precious sister, as if somehow he could prevent her
from being taken away. The overseer brutally whipped him until
he let go.

In the beginning of the war, Kentucky was not far from the Union lines.
Encouraged by his wife, Augustine Tolton’s father joined the thousands of
slaves who fled to the Union army lines where he wanted to sign up as a
soldier, promising to send for his family when they were free. They never
heard from him again. After the war they found his name on a Union
Army casualty list. His last testament was that his children “must not be
slaves; they must learn to read and write; they must have a better life
than we had.”
Conditions worsened as war progressed. The remaining slaves had to
work ever harder to make up for the slaves who ran away. Martha Jane
feared for the safety of her children, slave traders were prowling for slave
children to kidnap. The lashings increased, civil order was disintegrating.

Regiment of colored troops, Union Army

One night Martha Jane with her toddler and two young children
with a little bit of food made their way to the Mississippi River.
Freedom was many days journey away. During the day they
mingled with friendly neighborhood plantation slaves.
Confederate officials actually caught them, but by chance some
Union soldiers encountered them, kept the handcuffs off them,
claiming jurisdiction, and letting the family go.
Finally, they were in a dilapidated rowboat, with Martha Jane
rowing to freedom to the free states of Illinois.

The Underground Railroad, Charles Webber, painted 1893

The biographer writes, “In later years Augustine Tolton often recalled the
passage across the wide Mississippi. His mother, wholly inexperienced at
rowing, struggled frantically with the oars and caused the small craft to
veer crazily from side to side.” Then they “heard the angry voices of
Confederate men shouting threats and curses. One of them raised his
musket, firing repeatedly. Undaunted by the whistling bullets, Martha
Jane ordered her children to lie flat in the bottom of the boat. The baby
screamed from sheer bewilderment and fright. The boys did what they
could to calm her, although they also cried all the way. Relying entirely on
the protection of divine power, the determined mother clung to the oars
and succeeded in placing a safe distance between the boat and the
chagrined slave hunters.”
“Although Martha Jane had been without food for days, she had the
strength to bring her children to safety.” “Kneeling upon the ground, the
valiant woman gathered the weeping children into her arms. Tears
streamed down her dark cheeks as she said, ‘Now you are free. Never,
never forget the goodness of the Lord.’”
Rev Leonard Grimes,
abolitionist, conductor on
the Underground
Railroad, 12th Baptist
Church, 1860

They were found by a mixed black and white work crew at an Illinois wharf, feeding
them from their lunch boxes. When they gave the mother directions to Quincy,
twenty miles down the road, “for the first time in her life Martha Jane heard herself
called Mrs. Tolton, and despite her weariness that gave her new courage and a
sense of dignity.” They had to travel quietly, Confederate spies were known to
kidnap any blacks they could find to sell into slavery.
Quincy, a river town with a population of 25,000, including 300 blacks, with many
schools, churches, and factories, was known as a haven for fugitive slaves. During
their time at Quincy, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, and then after
a few years the Civil War ended after the surrender of Robert E Lee at Appomattox
Courthouse. Both mother and her sons worked as stemmers in the tobacco factory
for ten hours a day, six days a week, which was a great improvement over working
in the fields under the overseer’s whip.

.”
Quincy during Lincoln-Douglas debates, 1858

.”
Emancipation Proclamation, AA Lamb, painted 1864

Many of the black Catholics attended St Boniface Church, where Father Schaffermeyer preached
the Gospel and sermon in both German and English. Augustine was the first black to attend the
Catholic School, and he learned to read and write in both languages. The white boys were
particularly cruel with their racial slurs.
His mother switched to St Peter’s Church, where the German priest Father McGirr befriended the
blacks, and where Augustine had fewer problems. Many of the white parishioners threatened to
leave the church if they were too friendly with the blacks, but Father McGirr pushed back,
preaching sermons on how Jesus came to save all Christians of all colors.
Father McGirr took a special interest in Augustine, and one day asked him if he thought about
becoming a priest, and if that came to pass, Augustine would be the first black priest in America,
though the Church had many black priests in Africa. But there was no enthusiasm in the
hierarchy for a black priest. Since it would be impossible for Augustine to be admitted to college,
let alone pay the tuition, he decided to give him lessons in Greek, Latin, and theology, which
meant that in a few years he could read and write four languages, while he was working both at
the tobacco factory and as a church janitor. After a few years he started studying under Father
Richardt at St Francis College, which at this time was really a preparatory school

Year after year Augustine studied his Aquinas and Latin and Greek. Year after year
his German priest wrote letters trying to get him admitted to a seminary, always
with the response that people were just not ready for a black priest. Year after
year they had to counter hostility towards their black parishioners. As our
biographer tells us, “this dwindling black attendance saddened the priests; they
expended every effort to prevent further loss of membership.” They preached the
Gospel messages of “fraternal love: ‘As long as you did it to the least of my
brethren, you did it to me; he who says he loves God and hates his neighbor is a
liar;” and if your brother feels you wronged him, “leave thy gift at the altar and first
be reconciled to your brother.’ Despite the pastoral exhortations, both parishes
suffered an almost complete alienation of black members.”
The priests tried again, they started an apostolate for blacks, starting with a black St
Francis Parish School. Augustine taught some of the classes, and he and his mother
recruited many ghetto black children for the school.

.”Also, our biographer tells us that “Augustine
frequented the city’s saloons, where whites and
blacks intermingled in daily and nightly bouts and
brawls. He listened patiently, often far into the night,
to a tangled woe drawled out by a bleary-eyed
drunk.” Although many of his “converts” were
temporary, he tried to convince many of these
drunks to attend the Temperance Society meetings.
“The silent, inobtrusive activity of Augustine Tolton
was largely responsible for the success of the
apostolate to the blacks of Quincy. Both he and his
mother were tireless in their efforts to reinstate
members of their race in the Church and to
encourage others to study the Catholic religion.”

Finally, some encouragement. “The year 1879 was a crucial year for
Augustine Tolton. He was 25 years old. The regular tutoring by dedicated
priests and nuns, his habitual self-discipline, his faithful observance of
religious duties, and his 12 years of honest service as a wage earner had
formed a character distinguished by determination, integrity, and
leadership.”
Father McGirr told him why the Franciscan seminary was so reluctant to
admit him. “These (foreign) priests were not accustomed to the
American attitude towards the blacks. They deplored the fearful race
hatreds and antagonism. Whites threatened them with fines and even
violence when, in some areas, they befriended Negroes. This, as well as
the many legal restrictions which controlled racial relations, are among
the reasons why their superiors refuse black applicants,” “and the period
of Reconstruction in the South has intensified popular resentment
against blacks. Some Franciscans think that their work in the cause of
Christ would be hindered, that their membership would decrease, and
their influence diminish if blacks were seen in their ranks.”

The priests asked Augustine if he would like to be a missionary priest in
Africa, and he responded that he would go anywhere the church asked
him to go. His priests wrote lengthy, glowing records of
recommendation, with the results of his education, and wrote to the
head of the Franciscan Order in Rome. Finally, Augustine was accepted
to attend the pontifical college in Rome in 1880, so he could train to be a
missionary priest. A crowd of people bade him well at the train station,
“family and friends, old and young, black and white, priests, college
students, and school children.

In Rome, Augustine felt welcome. Our biographer tells us, “in
a flood of relief and new happiness, Augustine discovered
that the seventy or more fellow seminarians represented
many races and nationalities, all of whom accepted him
unconditionally and sincerely.” “The discrimination and
prejudice that he had so often suffered in America all his life
were unknown in the pontifical college.” “He experienced the
security of equality and justice, a sense of dignity and worth,
the comfort and companionship of friends, the joy of mutual
charity and benevolence. He profited by the ready
helpfulness of classmates with whom he could study and
discuss, give, accept, and share. He never felt lonely,
unwanted, or out of place. He was treated as a person, as a
member of the Church, as a child of God

For six blissful years Augustine studied in Rome before he was
ordained to be a priest, with the special red sash of the
pontifical college of Rome. His ministry would not have been
filled with frustration if he had been sent to Africa as a
missionary priest, but the Cardinal told him, “America needs
black priests. America has been called the most enlightened
nation. We will see whether it deserves that honor. If the
America has never seen a black priest, it must see one now.”
“Augustine bowed his head and covered his face with his
hands. “Back to America? Back to the country where I was a
slave, an outcast, a hated black? Must I go back to America,
where I was not wanted as a priest? Where seminaries and
religious orders were not ready for someone like me? Lord, I
can conquer ignorance, weakness, and heathenism. But Lord, I
cannot conquer the racial hatred in America.”

In July 1886, Father Augustine Tolton was installed as the first black priest in America serving the
negro St Joseph’s parish in Quincy, which also had a school attached. In the first few years he had
a measure of success, membership increased somewhat, and he had both black and white
parishioners. Since the blacks were either poor or downright destitute, they really could not
support the parish, the financial support of the white Catholics was critical for the success of St
Josephs. Our biographer tells us, “Father Tolton won the hearts of old and young alike. The
secret of his success lay in his innate simplicity and genuine love for all with whom he came into
contact. He never tired of telling his people that God cared for each one of them and that he had
a deep concern for the welfare of every one of his children.”
But the white priest of St Boniface parish was facing a mountain of debt, and he was jealous of
the white support Father Tolton was able to attract. After several years of obstruction, he
forbade the white Catholics from supporting or even attending the black parish of Father Tolton,
proclaiming that he was there only to minister to the black Catholics. Other pressures from
Protestants and the unending misery of living in poverty also contributed to a drastic drop in
membership by the black parishioners as well. The death knell came when the bishop ordered
him to refrain from ministering to whites.

Father Tolton was granted permission to minister to the first black Catholic parish in
Chicago, St Monica’s Church. The church was started in a storefront in the ghetto
of Chicago. Construction began on a permanent church, and although it was
finished to the point where services could be held, construction was not completed
in his lifetime. Archbishop Feehan of Chicago permitted Father Tolton to solicit
funds to support St Monica’s, as his black parishioners were employed mostly as
servants and were mostly destitute. His mother was able to move to Chicago to
assist him, but he started having health problems and did not have the energy he
had in his youth.
The pictures include some from the Chicago Race Riots of 1919. Many US cities in
the first few decades of the 20th century experienced race riots where white mobs
vandalized and burned down houses and businesses, and sometimes murdered
and raped black citizens in the colored neighborhoods, rarely were whites
prosecuted for these crimes.

Chicago Tenement House
Pictures after
Chicago Race
Riot of 1919

Our biographer tells us, “In spite of his fatigue, Father
Tolton made the daily rounds of his parish, stepping over
the uneven brick pavements and cobbled sidewalks or
climbing steep rickety stairs. All too often he was horrified
by the squalor, the ravages of poverty and disease, the
prevalence of dissipation and vice. Many of his people
were ex-slaves and totally illiterate; others suffered just as
severely from moral deprivation.”
“Day after day Father Tolton was seen coming in or out of
the shacks, the rat-infested hovels and tenement houses.
He listened compassionately to complaints of
unemployment, desertion, injustice, depravity. Father
Tolton knew how to bring hope and comfort to the sick and
dying; he knew how to mitigate human suffering and
sorrow because eh himself had experienced the lash of the
slave driver as well as the lash of the white man’s tongue.”

In July 1897, when walking home
from the train station as the
temperature hit 105 degrees,
Father Tolton fainted, and soon
died. Thousands paid their respect
at the funeral of this beloved priest
who worked alone for so many
years. He was only forty-three
years old.

That was sudden, he died so young, and with so much promise.
One day we are here, the next we are gone.
How can we make sense of this precious soul taken away from us so
suddenly? We can pray the prayer we found honoring Father Tolton:
O God, we give you thanks for your servant and priest, Father Augustus
Tolton, who labored among us in times of contradiction, times that were
both beautiful and paradoxical. His ministry helped lay the foundation for a
truly Catholic gathering in faith in our time. We stand in the shadow of his
ministry. May his life continue to inspire us and imbue us with that
confidence and hope that will forge a new evangelization for the Church
we love.
Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our
sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death.

.
https://tolton.archchicago.org/prayer

PLEASE click on the link in the description for our blog on Father
Tolton.
And please click on the links for our other YouTube videos on the
Iliad, and other interesting videos that will broaden your knowledge
and improve your soul.

Father Augustine Tolton, From Slave to Catholic Priest

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