Cornelius Winst Blyd
The First Negro Presbyter in Surinam
Paramaribo, Feb. 5, 1923.
Dear Sir:
Likewise as in 1861 the Freedman Association sprang up for aid for the enlightenment of the freed blacks on American soil, so in the epoch from 1738 to 1818 did the missionaries of the Evangelical Brother's Union take upon their shoulders the burden of the enslaved blacks on Surinam. Then, too, their way was not always paved with roses. No they had to face the same mockery, the same martyrdom. They were jailed, despised because for the slaves to remain in their ignorance was favorable to the filling of their "masters" purses.
Let us go back to the year 1850 to see what had been happening on one of the plantations situated on the beach of the Matapica. On these plantations, there we found the administrator, Mr. Rouse, in charge of the plantation administration, busy in making arrangements for transportation of the properties of the plantation, nicknamed by the slaves, "Domiri," to upper Surinam, to the plantation St. Barbara. Among the properties over which Mr. Rouse's superintendenceship extended, we found among living stock a slave family, Father Dami, his wife bearing the name of Ma Jetty, but better known by the name of Ma Jetty of Domiri, so called because her birth-place is Domiri. Father Dami and Jetty had two daughters, the one called Christina and the other, known in slave registration by name of Wilhelmina. So it was on a windy morning of the dry season, that we found this little family. They, too, were occupied with the removal of the plantation properties. It was a busy day. The rays of the sun pierced the backs of the slaves. Their bodies glimmered in their going to and fro as rubbed black-ebony wood furniture.
When the work was over, we left Domiri with its slave caravan for St. Barbara. St. Barbara as aforesaid situated on the upper Surinam the main-stream of the colony Surinam. Entering Mr. Rouse's new dominion from the rear we found the slaves uncommonly active, so different from that they had displayed for a time ago at Domiri.—They were jolly about the coming emancipation days. As we were wandering along the slaves' cabin-rows, it was then July 19, 1860, we heard a baby cry. Turning our heads toward where the voice had been coming from, we detected that it came from the cabin inhabited by the family headed by Father Dami. We walked into, found that Wilhelmina, Dami's daughter, had added to her family a male member. There he lay down sprawling on the floor in pieces of rag clothes used for his bed and pillow. But this child will grow up to become a distinguished man among his people, a shepherd to watch over his flock. Winst, or Profit, the administrator, Mr. Rouse, called him. One would try to solve that puzzle of nomenclature in those days. But we know and understand it now better. It was the time when the administrator was expecting to get for every slave three hundred guilders on the emancipation day. So we may suppose that this was done, as a profit upon his debit on the government account. Let us now see what became of that slave child Winst.
Cornelis Winst Blyd was born of slave parents, as stated above, on the plantation St. Barbara July 19, 1860. He was the son of Wilhelmina, a daughter of Father Dami. Besides Winst, his mother had two other sons. It came to pass that when Winst's mother Wilhelmina died, survived by her three sons, they were put under care of their Aunt Christina. Blyd, his brothers and Aunt afterward moved into town. His aunt placed Blyd in one of the Moravian mission boarding schools for boys, formerly known as "Amtri" School. It was desired that after he should finish his literary training he should be instructed in the handicraft of carpentry. So he was brought in to Mr. Ammon, the carpenter well renowned in the colony for furniture.
But this was not the way traced for him by our Lord. So they took him from Mr. Ammon to the "Central School" a former preparatory boarding school for teachers. Blyd, with his pious, gentle and sincere character, had won in no time the friendship of everyone who inhabited the institution. His educational instruction in the Bible was received from Rev. E. A. Renkemir. For song he was trained by Mr. Batenburg. In the classroom of the normal school for teachers, he was one of the beloved pupils of Dr. H. D. Benjamin, then the Inspector of the Board of Education in Surinam. Blyd had in competition among his fellow classmates held by his teachers, distinguished himself as a remarkable student in solving Bible questions. So we see he showed more inclination to the clergy and to become a minister than a school teacher. But in that time no natives were exalted to the order of preacher. So Blyd became a teacher.
Blyd followed his occupation as a teacher in several districts of the colony. His first field of operation was on the plantation, Berger Dal, one of the largest Negro settlements in Surinam. We may mention here an uproar that took place during his stay there. These will make us a little acquainted with his sincere and pious character. It came to pass, one day after school hours, two school boys got to quarreling about a pocket-knife. The quarrel became so noisy that the family of both the boys were coming up with hatchet, walking-stick and some more murderous weapons. So much feeling had then developed that the uproar would not have been prevented had not Mr. Blyd undertaken this difficult task and by his unusual moral power brought both parties to reflection. After a reprimand in well chosen words the quarrel was suppressed.
When Mr. Blyd later moved to plantation Wederzorg, situated on the Commewyne river, he then got permission from the Director of the Mission in Surinam, to lead now and then the church service. But these all were for Blyd merely as forerunner to reach his mile-stone. At the plantation Alkmaar, he came into touch with the Rev. Mr. Kersten, and it was not long before this man detected in Mr. Blyd a preacher of power. Blyd's impression made upon Rev. Mr. Kersten was so favorable that soon in 1899, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to appoint him as sub-preacher. And once the words spoken by the old Rev. Mr. Haller (white) became truth. He had said to Mr. Blyd "You should try to train yourself for the uplift of your fellow race-men, and to teach them the words of our living God." In the year 1902 Mr. Blyd was ordained to the order of deacon, and from that time, his name as a preacher was established.
Rev. Mr. Blyd had to wrestle with many storms that touched his social life. There came upon him the bad deportment of his two sons. He who knows the battle which he had to fight, brought upon him by his sons' evil deeds, will find in him, the preacher of God, a true and sincere knight of our Lord. Rev. Mr. Blyd sought in his hours of these temptations his refuge on his Savior knees and he always was consoled. Many had wondered at his patience and long suffering amid these storms of life. But this man, the preacher by the grace of God, the sincere Christian in the full sense of the word, had as his encouragement, that had been giving him consolation and confidence: "The Lord shall provide, be still my soul."
Rev. Mr. Blyd's sermons were of an uncommon sort. Never would one part from his service not being touched in the depths of his inner life. His sermons were delivered in Dutch and Negro-English. They were a splendor of oratory. In spite of all of these, however, Rev. Mr. Blyd still retained his humility, without overrating himself. His words won many hearts, even many a stranger. Among them we may count Bishop Hamilton, High Commissioner of the Moravian Board of Missions in England. In 1913, the year of the celebration of the Fifty Emancipation Anniversary, the Mission Director in Surinam decided to send Rev. Mr. Blyd to Europe, to the Netherlands, our mother country, to represent the black race. Rev. Mr. Blyd traveled also throughout Germany and Denmark. There in Europe, he came into touch with several notables.
He won many friends by his sermon preached at the celebration of the mission feast at Utrecht in the Netherlands as attested by H. M. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Many ministers with the degree of Doctor of Divinity had addressed the audience on that occasion. After them Rev. Mr. Blyd rose from his seat to walk to the pulpit for he was being given a turn. When he was on the way to the pulpit, a white minister hastened to offer to him a minister's gown, but the man Blyd kept his simplicity and refused to accept it.[1] After the service everyone longed to cheer and greet the black minister. By hundreds and thousands they crowded themselves to see him pass. Photographers were busy taking his photo. To and fro they went to ask for a picture of the black minister. Rev. Mr. Blyd had made a deep impression upon H. M. Queen Wilhelmina, and under the emotion that Rev. Mr. Blyd had caused H. M. the Queen, he was invited by Her Majesty to deliver a sermon at the court, attended by all H. M. court representatives. Rev. Mr. Blyd was later invited to dinner at H. M. residence at Hagen, and he sat at the same table near by H. M. the Queen. This extraordinary event took place after his traveling from North Europe.
His love for his native land will be illustrated by the following event. It was at H. M. Queen Wilhelmina's residence that this took place. When the Queen put before him this question: "Reverend Mr. Blyd," H. M. turning to him, "which of the two places do you prefer? The Netherlands or Denmark?" And without hesitation he answered the Queen's question in his simple words: "Your Majesty, East, West, home is best!"
Rev. Mr. Blyd surrounded by all these courtesies has never forgot his race. He took the opportunity to bring before the Queen the needs of his people. He had made also his entrance at the courts of Germany and Denmark. In Denmark he was received with great enthusiasm and great homage. He had so impressed the clergy of Denmark that they made efforts to retain him for the order in that country. But the man with his humble character chose above all to serve among his own people. In Germany he had held several street meetings. A white eye-witness, now in the colony, told about the impression Rev. Mr. Blyd made upon his hearers. He said that the longer he lived the more he learned from Rev. Mr. Blyd.
During Rev. Mr. Blyd's sojourn in Europe the mission authorities were offered a better opportunity to study his character. And so this led to the conclusion to exalt him to the order of presbyter. This event took place before a large audience when he was returning to the Colony.
Alas! the poor slave boy, Cornelis Winst Blyd, with his unlimited energy traced his way from the slave cabin to kings and queens' palaces. From body bondage to liberty of spirit and body—raised to the highest order of Protestant dignity, the order which no man of his color in the Colony has since attained.
Of the literature which Rev. Mr. Blyd has left, we may mention here his well-styled booklet: "Superstition in Surinam." Therein he has showed a great capacity as a writer. In this booklet he warned his people of the devil's sacrifice—the fetishism and the belief in witchcraft, an African religion transplanted here in the colony by their ancestors from Africa. His effort in doing so was only as he has said, to release his people from the chains of such an empty religion.
It was on April 12, 1921, that the Colony was shocked from its foundation. People stood in groups, heads sadly bent. Black clouds now and then saluted in snow-white rainy cloud, to regain after a few moments their original ash-grey color. Rev. Mr. Blyd, nursed in the Military Hospital, had passed away. The sickness that had ended his life so suddenly had returned. It was known that physically his body was overpowered by a disease. But none had expected his end so suddenly. On Sunday he had delivered his last sermon. In the week when his sickness had become more serious they decided to take him to the Military Hospital at Paramaribo for a careful nursing. But his end was at hand.
The day of his burial, a funeral-service was conducted by the Rev. Dr. Muller. It would require too much space in this Journal to note here all that he spoke on that occasion. But I shall note here some passages. Dr. Muller said: "He was one of the most popular and loveliest personalities among our society. He was the first among his co-workers. Everyone respected his name with deep respect, the young as well as the aged. He stood for better days above all parties; above all difference of color, sect and confession. He was the man that won the general confidence of the Colony.
"Yea! he was a man loved by all, respected by his own people the black, as well as by white. His name will live forever in the hearts of his people, friends and all. His name is holy for young and old. His wandering upon this earth was a guide to and for many in this Colony. He was simplicity itself and his life ended the same."
A. P. Vrede,
Paramaribo, Surinam
