Women in European Turkey

The huts in which Noyes stayed were “as

clean and as neatly arranged inside as they can be made by the indefatigable

baba-Noyes agreed with Robert that Bulgarian women were “gentle, compassionate,

and laborious.

They are next to the Greeks, the handsomest

women in

European Turkey, and are especially remarkable for the length

and luxuriance of their hair, with which they could literally cover themselves

as with a garment: it often sweeps the ground below their feet.” Noyes believed

that the Bulgarians between the Danube and the Balkan mountains numbered four

and a half millions. These “cultivators of the soil” even though less civilized

than the Greeks, were “more consistent in their political views.” 

Though the Bulgarians were “wedded to

peace, they have not forgotten that their ancestors established an ancient

kingdom along the Danube; that their armies have more than once carried terror

to the rulers of Byzantium. To them belongs the northern slope of the Balkans;

but they have also penetrated Thrace, Epirus and Macedonia.” However, the

Bulgarians were “too weak to avail themselves of their numerical superiority,

too timid to fly to independence, they show a disposition to fraternize with

the Greeks and the Servians.”

Their observation prompted the American to

state that in the maritime character of the Greeks, the pastoral disposition of

the Serbs and the agricultural tendency of the Bulgarians can be found “the

elements of a great people, for the establishment of whose power nothing but

union is necessary.” If these three peoples become “amalgamated” then Ottoman

authority in Europe would come to an end.

Bulgarians better than any other American

Noyes, who came to know the Bulgarians

better than any other American until the arrival of the

missionaries, sympathized with their struggle for independence, recognized

their right as well as the right of all oppressed peoples to free themselves.

The American wrote in his travel account: “Every stroke of the axe, every stroke

upon the anvil is, from the mysterious connection of things, a blow upon the

brazen shield of tyranny.

When the last despot shall have passed

away, and men learn the art of war no more, the nations can beat their swords

into ploughshares: but before the dawn of that auspicious day the down-trodden

millions of Europe must beat ploughshares into swords and reach freedom through

the red waves and fiery surges of revolution.”

Travelling and living in Bulgaria during

the Crimean War, Noyes could not but make observation on the Eastern Question

and the role the great powers played in Southeastern Europe. England and France

as the allies of Turkey were attempting to prevent Russia from gaining a

decisive position in Southeastern Europe. Noyes recognized Russia’s role in the

Balkans.