Sign up to receive email notices of recent acquisitions.

Tyler, Susan Wright.

[Autograph letter, signed, discussing missionary life and temperance work in South Africa.]

Umsunduzi, Natal Province, South Africa, 19 March 1885. 6 pp. in ink on two bifolia, 9” x 6”. CONDITION: Very good.

[with]

Forty Years Among the Zulus.

Boston and Chicago: Congregational Sunday School and Publishing Society, 1891. 8vo (7.85” x 5.5”), original brown cloth with gilt title at spine and front cover. Frontis. portrait, frontis. map of Natal Colony (6.75” x 4”), 300 pp., illus. CONDITION: Very good, some wear to extremities and light wear to covers; contents bright and clean.

 

A detailed letter by an American woman describing her missionary work among the Zulus, which she undertook with her husband, Reverend Josiah Tyler, and her two adult daughters.

Fifty-seven year-old Susan Wright Tyler (née Clark, 1818–1887) writes this letter to one “Mrs. Davis,” evidently a friend still living in America. Tyler was the wife of Rev. Josiah Tyler (1823–1895), whose father Rev. Bennet D. Tyler (1783–1858) served as President of Dartmouth College from 1822 to 1828. Susan and Josiah went to Africa as Protestant missionaries in the 1850s. Their mission was located inland from Durban, about half-way to present-day Lesotho. 

In this letter, Mrs. Tyler describes the task of training the “natives,” both Christian and “heathen,” which she shared not only with her husband but also two of her adult daughters (all six of the Tyler children—four sons and two daughters—were born in South Africa). Tyler taught the women to sew, ride horses, and perform various “household tasks,” but struggled when it came to temperance: wives “feared” to “refuse” their husbands’ demand for liquor, and although temperance meetings were held regularly for the “clad people,” Tyler admits that “the truth was working in their hearts” very slowly, and even those who “took the pledge” to “drink no more” found “excuses and reasonings” to “follow the traditions of their father” in the sociable consumption of locally-produced corn beer. She writes:

We are obliged to have two pledges—one says “I will not drink, grind the corn for it, or touch it in any way.” That means that they are not to draw water from the river or to make it or get wood for the boiling or wash the dishes from which it has been drunk. And when working for white people, if sent to the canteen to buy for their master, they are to tell him respectfully that they cannot do it. They are also to use all their influence with others to prevent its use. Some are not convinced that they have any duty to others in regard to it, but promise not to drink themselves. If a young wife is told by her husband’s father to make him some beer, she would not dare to refuse, or if her husband insists upon making it for him, or his guests, she would fear to refuse as tho not drinking herself, so we take them as far as they will go & tell them we shall expect them to consent to the whole thing soon.

Nevertheless, she notes, “We are thankful for all that has been done & hope for much more.” However, in 1887, just a year after writing this letter, Tyler contracted pneumonia and died. Following her death, her husband returned to the U.S. and chronicled the couple’s four decades of missionary work in South Africa in his memoir, Forty Years Among the Zulus (1891), which describes his family’s life and activities, including their homes and dress, as well as many aspects of Zulu culture. We have been unable to locate letters by either of the Tylers in any American institution.

REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES

“In our last Congregationalist [The Congregationalist Magazine] we noticed that Mr. Davis was to have a vacation of travel. We all said how nice it would have been if he would come to Natal [Province, South Africa]. How we would welcome him! We are glad for him, indeed. He has worked so long & faithfully that this relaxation must have been needed & I hope he will return to you refreshed in mind & body. You will enjoy his letters, and see the sights of the people he meets, through his eyes without the bodily fatigue attendant upon all the good times. After the little sightseeing we had in London, I shall never forget my weary aching back & feet, and do not think I could do half as much of it now. I was willing Mr. Tyler should go to the Continent without me, partly for this reason, though when thoroughly rested, the thought of going with him would have been a great pleasure. We have recently heard from Mr. Spear at Darmstadt [Germany] & invited him to make us a visit, but do not know whether he will. So[uth]. Africa seems very near to Europe & America now that we have the telegraph, & steamers running regularly, so that we hear from all parts of the world within a short time. Our last papers from America were dated Feb. 5th. A catalogue was sent to us from Amherst College and I soon discovered the names of your two ‘little boys,’ as they are remembered by us, but in reality I suppose they are as large as most young collegiates now.” 

“It is a wonderful reminder of the flight of time when we see our children growing up beyond recognition, after a few years separation. I do not suppose I should know my Will now, nor will he know his sister Nellie if she should go to America, as we think she will in a few months. We have long been wishing she could be in the civilized and religious atmosphere of our own country, but for many reasons, have kept her till now, but it seems best that she should embrace one of these good opportunities of going with our missionary associates. Mr. & Mrs. Bridge are intending to leave next month by steamer, & Mr. & Mrs. Kilborn are thinking of waiting a little & taking a sailing vessel, so as not to have two summers in succession. We shall send Nellie with them, if they decide to go that way. Of course, we cannot think of such parting with any pleasure except that it seems the best thing for our dear child, and we cannot bear to deprive her of the benefits to be derived from it. We do not yet know where she will go to remain, but are trying to trust that she will be provided for in every respect for her best good. Mary and Susie will be at home, and their work among the natives is worth a great deal to me, for there are so many young people coming in for special instruction, and it is so long since we were young, that it seems a great favor to have them take up this work. I still cling to the women & have seven little girls to train in household duties & sewing, so that my time is fully occupied. Mary looks after two kraal schools & has a boys’ class in Bible study & does much general work.” 

“Besides writing for us, dressmaking, etc. besides hearing Nellie’s lessons & instructing her for all the A.M. she is never idle. Susie has left Umzumbi [for] home, having been rather worn by teaching, & they having fortunately secured a teacher in place of Miss Pinkerton as Principal. She assists in the daily school here, and has a weekly class of girls for special instruction, and rides on horseback to teach some of the young married women, who cannot leave their homes very well to come here for reading. She also helps me in the care of the girls & housekeeping. We have an evening school of boys who work for us in the daytime, and for those who wish to supplement the instruction given by our native teacher. We will assist in this, and have much satisfaction in the interest which some of them manifest. On Monday our native school teacher conducts a temperance meeting, composed of the clad people, and gradually we find the truth working in their hearts until they are constrained to leave off all connection to native beer, but it is very gradual. There have many excuses & reasonings to be pondered & talked of showing how hard it is to leave off following the customs of their fathers.” 

“They say it is very bad to have beer parties or to sanction the irregularities of these occasions, but quietly to take a dish of beer, as they would porridge or any other food in their own homes & to suffer a small dish of it to one who is passing & calls in, or to have it in readiness for a Sunday luncheon before they have time to work their regular meal, what harm can there be in it? And so they have been arguing for several years, until it has become a hard thing to give it up. Sometimes the wife is the first to say she will drink no more, sometimes the husband. Where both consent, it makes a happy house. They are astonished at the peace & quiet & restful influence which follows in most cases, having once decided to abandon it, they have no desire for it. I think the Lord helps them in a marked way by removing the very desire for it.” 

“We have been interested in what we have read of Mrs. Hunt’s work in the Temperance cause. I have not seen that she has published any books, but have read notices of her speaking at different places in a very clear manner. We want to get all the simple books that we can to make our continuous meetings effective as well as interesting.”

A vivid letter relating to the work of this noted missionary couple whose time in South Africa has been extensively documented, including in the book offered with this letter.

Item #7963

Price: $850.00

Add to Wish List