Vicksburg And The Morning Star

How eagerly Ellen White had read all that Edson had written her about his ship while she was in Australia! Now she was actually to stay on it for a few nights. As she stepped aboard, she remembered how she had followed the boat with her prayers. She said, “Some most interesting scenes have been presented to me in connection with it. This boat has been a floating Bethel. At the gospel meetings held on it many have had the privilege of eating of the bread of life” (Manuscript 29, 1902).WV 378.7

She was pleased with what she found, from the boiler room on the lower deck to the printing offices where two steam presses had printed the Gospel Herald for many months, to the two staterooms, the dining room, the galley, and finally the engine room.WV 379.1

Immediately behind the smokestacks, at the front of the upper deck, was a business office. Just behind this were the main cabin and Edson and Emma's stateroom. In the rear portion of the upper deck was a 16’ x 40’ (5 meter x 12 meter) chapel, where services were conducted. Even larger meetings could be held on the third, or hurricane deck, where 200 could be seated. The third deck also had a small pilothouse, with the steering apparatus and a bunk for the pilot.WV 379.2

Ellen White's eager glance missed nothing. She reported, “I was pleased with the arrangement of the boat and with the efforts made to make life on it as agreeable as possible. I found that everything about the rooms fitted up as a home for my son and his wife, and their helpers, was of the simplest order. I saw nothing expensive or unnecessary” (Ibid.). Then she commented: “Perhaps some would have been unwilling to live in such narrow quarters” (Ibid.).WV 379.3

The Morning Star had been built well to fulfill the many purposes for which it was intended. It provided a home for Edson and Emma; a place to print the gospel message; a place on board to hold meetings; a place to meet people. It was the means of spreading the good news to a broader field than any stationary chapel. And it pioneered the way for others who would meet the tough problem of race prejudice in the South. The small staff who heroically ran the boat were definitely pioneers in the fullest meaning of the word.WV 379.4

These early workers and believers faced two kinds of prejudice—racial and religious. The Black ministers opposed them because they were teaching Sabbath observance and tithe paying; the White people opposed them because they were educating the Blacks and introducing new and better agricultural methods, which threatened to break the stranglehold of poverty in the delta.WV 379.5

Edson had begun his Vicksburg work with Sunday schools and night classes in the Mount Zion Baptist Church on Fort Hill. When he was excluded from the church for his belief in the Sabbath, he built a little chapel at the corner of Walnut and First East streets. But this was only after 10 days of fervent prayer that had resulted in permission from adamant city council members to grant a permit for building a church for the Blacks. Once the work had been established in Vicksburg, they had ventured into the heart of the delta, using the Yazoo River as their main highway. Halfway up the river to Yazoo City he had tried to establish a school for the hundreds of Black children in the area who had no facilities for education. He was soon informed by the county superintendent of education that his work must stop, and later learned that in the mob that accompanied the superintendent was one man who had volunteered to “hold a Winchester on ol’ White while you-all fetch the rope.”WV 379.6

A little later the Morning Star had been of great service to the plantation owners of the area, rescuing many of their animals during a flood. The next winter Edson brought in tons of food and clothing to relieve the suffering among the Black tenant farmers who were facing starvation from crop failures and severely cold weather. Then with some measure of confidence among both the Whites and the Blacks, they built a little chapel and schoolhouse at Calmar.WV 380.1

Later the work there was stopped also. On the boat Edson had edited and published a monthly journal, the Gospel Herald. One issue carried a mildly critical editorial of the sharecropper system, and this, along with the fact that so many of the Blacks were becoming Adventists and refusing to work on Saturdays, spurred the plantation owners to action. A mob of 25 men on horseback called at the school, sent the White teacher, one of Edson's men, out of town “on a rail,” nailed the doors and windows shut, and burned books, maps, and charts in the schoolyard.WV 380.2

Then they found one of the leading Black believers in the area, N. W. Olvin, and thrashed him with a buggy whip. They stopped only when commanded to do so by a White man who brandished a revolver.WV 380.3

While the work was broken up at Calmar, it continued to thrive at Yazoo City and Vicksburg, and in the years shortly after Edson left for Nashville there were encouraging developments in a large number of other Mississippi towns.WV 380.4

One hair-raising episode occurred when the Morning Star escaped being dynamited in Yazoo City, having left town only hours earlier with the General Conference president and secretary on board. F. R. Rogers, who taught the Yazoo City school, was ordered by a mob to close his school, and was shot at in the streets.WV 380.5

Edson had informed his mother of these developments during her years in Australia, and her instruction was of caution and prudence as the only course available to the church if they wished to continue to witness and work in the South. This was as true for the work among the Whites as among the Blacks. Even though in his contacts Edson said nothing about political matters, even though he did not mention inequalities or the need for social justice, the mere fact that he was educating Blacks and trying to improve their economic condition nearly cost him his life and the lives of his wife, fellow workers, and believers. ^{*For the account of James Edson White and the Morning Star, see Ron Graybill, Mission to Black America.}WV 380.6