Brief Sketch of the Life and Labors of Rev. Alexander Bettis

p. 6In ante bellum flays, during slavery, there lived not far from Trenton, in Edgefield coun ty, South Carolina, an aristocratic, cultured and very wealthy family of white people whose name was Bettis. They owned a negro man of unadulterated African extraction, who by permission of his owners, became the father of a child by a negro woman who belonged to and lived on the plantation of Colonel John Fair. The child was named Jack, and al though he was the property of Col. Fair, he ultimately chose for his paternal inheritance the name of Bettis. During slavery, as well as in the after years of freedom, he was known as Jack Bettis.

Now the Widow Jones, whose plantation was near Trenton, had among her negro slaves a beautiful mulatto girl whose father was not a negro. The girl was 'known as Annis Jones. By the consent of the owners concerned, Annis Jones became the wife of Jack Bettis. Of this union there was born, August 4, 1836, a lit tle negro boy, the frequency and volume of whose lusty yells gave ample evidence of the p. 7fact that he did not then have, and likely would never have, the consumption/ To this their first offspring, the fond, admiring parents gave the name Alexander. And though it was the custom for the negroes to have the name of their owner, and though this diminutive Alexander was the property of the Widow Jones, yet his indulgent owner allowed him to be known as Alexander Bettis.

It is worthy of record that when the kindhearted Widow Jones saw, for the first time, her newly acquired property, the diminutive Alexander, the child gave abundant evidence of the soundness of his lungs and thereby caused his mistress £ to remark, facetiously, "He shall be a Baptist preacher, and shall lead many negroes to serve the Lord." How pro phetic! Little did she dream that the diminu tive bundle of flesh she then tenderly handled, was destined in his day and time to be a gospel power in the land; a moral, religious, educa tional and civic leader of his people; a man well meriting, and to whom would be unre servedly given, the confidence, esteem and praise of even the wealthy, cultured white peo ple. But that such an unpromising, though desirable, condition would obtain, the followp. 8ing narrative is intended to, and will unques tionably show.

p. 8As soon as he could walk well, little Alex, would make frequent visits from his mother's humble cabin to the "big house," where his mistress lived and, in which, as a housegirl his mother was regularly employed.

It is not out of place to state here and now that during the days of slavery there were an innumerable host of wealthy, cul tured white women who gave their slaves a love and care that were well nigh paternal. To this class of humane women, the owner of young Alex, belonged, and in the matter of kindness to her slaves she had few equals and absolutely no superior. In fact, so marked were the kindness and indulgence shown by her to her slaves, they were often referred to as "the Widow Jones' fr/ee niggers." And the whole truth will not have been told were the fact not stated that at no time was her authority ever questioned, or her commands responded to with disobedience or even in difference. And when freedom had come — even until the angels had borne her spirit to its eternal, heavenly home, the relation of Widow Jones and her former slaves remained p. 9practically unchanged. They remained the loving dependents, and she the generous, in dulgent benefactor.

It was to the loving concern and care of such a mistress, rather than to the teachings of his mother, that the excellent training of young Alexander was due. And here is reason to be lieve that his aptitude, his ready responsive ness and his well nigh worshipful obedience increased and sustained his owner's interest in him. For, it is a fact that while the lad had early learned how to teach a sleepy-eyed Geor gia mule the geometrical fact that a straight line is the shortest distance between two given points, and while his manipulation of an ordi nary hoe was truly scientific yet, for the most part, his service, during his boyhood was ren dered in and around "the big house" in which his mistress lived. And because of certain traits which the lad manifested his mistress gave him the name of "honest Aleck," which name clung to him throughout his long and eventful life.

p. 9Though it was, at the time, against the laws of the State of South Carolina for a slave to be taught to read, yet young Aleck, while still a mere child, had actually learned to read and, p. 10incredible as it may seem, it was his kindhearted mistress who taught him to do so. Al though the lad was never able to write, yet it was the fact that he was able to read that con tributed so largely to his recognition as a lead er for and among the people immediately after Emancipation. Little did that kind-hearted white woman have occasion to think that the training she was giving her insignificant slave was preparing him to be a veritable leader for his people, when, because the restraints of slavery had been removed, leadership would be sadly needed by them. Truly "God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform." But such was the case. …