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by Carter Godwin Woodson

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Title: The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861
       A History of the Education of the Colored People of the
         United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War

Author: Carter Godwin Woodson

Release Date: February 15, 2004 [EBook #11089]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861

A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States
from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War


By

C.G. Woodson.

1919




PREFACE


About two years ago the author decided to set forth in a small volume
the leading facts of the development of Negro education, thinking that
he would have to deal largely with the movement since the Civil War.
In looking over documents for material to furnish a background for
recent achievements in this field, he discovered that he would write
a much more interesting book should he confine himself to the
ante-bellum period. In fact, the accounts of the successful strivings
of Negroes for enlightenment under most adverse circumstances read
like beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age.

Interesting as is this phase of the history of the American Negro, it
has as a field of profitable research attracted only M.B. Goodwin, who
published in the Special Report of the United States Commissioner
of Education of 1871 an exhaustive _History of the Schools for the
Colored Population in the District of Columbia_. In that same document
was included a survey of the _Legal Status of the Colored Population
in Respect to Schools and Education in the Different States_. But
although the author of the latter collected a mass of valuable
material, his report is neither comprehensive nor thorough. Other
publications touching this subject have dealt either with certain
localities or special phases.

Yet evident as may be the failure of scholars to treat this neglected
aspect of our history, the author of this dissertation is far from
presuming that he has exhausted the subject. With the hope of vitally
interesting some young master mind in this large task, the undersigned
has endeavored to narrate in brief how benevolent teachers of both
races strove to give the ante-bellum Negroes the education through
which many of them gained freedom in its highest and best sense.

The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. J.E.
Moorland, International Secretary of the Young Men's Christian
Association, for valuable information concerning the Negroes of Ohio.

C.G. Woodson.

Washington, D.C. _June 11, 1919._




CONTENTS


CHAPTER

     I.--Introduction

    II.--Religion with Letters

   III.--Education as a Right of Man

    IV.--Actual Education

     V.--Better Beginnings

    VI.--Educating the Urban Negro

   VII.--The Reaction

  VIII.--Religion without Letters

    IX.--Learning in Spite of Opposition

     X.--Educating Negroes Transplanted to Free Soil

    XI.--Higher Education

   XII.--Vocational Training

  XIII.--Education at Public Expense

  Appendix: Documents

  Bibliography

  Index




The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION


Brought from the African wilds to constitute the laboring class of
a pioneering society in the new world, the heathen slaves had to be
trained to meet the needs of their environment. It required little
argument to convince intelligent masters that slaves who had some
conception of modern civilization and understood the language of their
owners would be more valuable than rude men with whom one could not
communicate. The questions, however, as to exactly what kind of
training these Negroes should have, and how far it should go, were to
the white race then as much a matter of perplexity as they are now.
Yet, believing that slaves could not be enlightened without developing
in them a longing for liberty, not a few masters maintained that the
more brutish the bondmen the more pliant they become for purposes of
exploitation. It was this class of slaveholders that finally won the
majority of southerners to their way of thinking and determined that
Negroes should not be educated.

The history of the education of the ante-bellum Negroes, therefore,
falls into two periods. The first extends from the time of the
introduction of slavery to the climax of the insurrectionary movement
about 1835, when the majority of the people in this country answered
in the affirmative the question whether or not it was prudent to
educate their slaves. Then followed the second period, when the
industrial revolution changed slavery from a patriarchal to an
economic institution, and when intelligent Negroes, encouraged by
abolitionists, made so many attempts to organize servile insurrections
that the pendulum began to swing the other way. By this time most
southern white people reached the conclusion that it was impossible
to cultivate the minds of Negroes without arousing overmuch
self-assertion.

The early advocates of the education of Negroes were of three classes:
first, masters who desired to increase the economic efficiency of
their labor supply; second, sympathetic persons who wished to help the
oppressed; and third, zealous missionaries who, believing that the
message of divine love came equally to all, taught slaves the English
language that they might learn the principles of the Christian
religion. Through the kindness of the first class, slaves had their
best chance for mental improvement. Each slaveholder dealt with the
situation to suit himself, regardless of public opinion. Later,
when measures were passed to prohibit the education of slaves, some
masters, always a law unto themselves, continued to teach their
Negroes in defiance of the hostile legislation. Sympathetic persons
were not able to accomplish much because they were usually reformers,
who not only did not own slaves, but dwelt in practically free
settlements far from the plantations on which the bondmen lived.

The Spanish and French missionaries, the first to face this problem,
set an example which influenced the education of the Negroes
throughout America. Some of these early heralds of Catholicism
manifested more interest in the Indians than in the Negroes, and
advocated the enslavement of the Africans rather than that of the Red
Men. But being anxious to see the Negroes enlightened and brought into
the Church, they courageously directed their attention to the teaching
of their slaves, provided for the instruction of the numerous
mixed-breed offspring, and granted freedmen the educational privileges
of the highest classes. Put to shame by this noble example of the
Catholics, the English colonists had to find a way to overcome the
objections of those who, granting that the enlightenment of the slaves
might not lead to servile insurrection, nevertheless feared that their
conversion might work manumission. To meet this exigency the
colonists secured, through legislation by their assemblies and formal
declarations of the Bishop of London, the abrogation of the law that
a Christian could not be held as a slave. Then allowed access to the
bondmen, the missionaries of the Church of England, sent out by the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Heathen in Foreign
Parts, undertook to educate the slaves for the purpose of extensive
proselyting.

Contemporaneous with these early workers of the Established Church of
England were the liberal Puritans, who directed their attention to the
conversion of the slaves long before this sect advocated abolition.
Many of this connection justified slavery as established by the
precedent of the Hebrews, but they felt that persons held to service
should be instructed as were the servants of the household of Abraham.
The progress of the cause was impeded, however, by the bigoted class
of Puritans, who did not think well of the policy of incorporating
undesirable persons into the Church so closely connected then with the
state. The first settlers of the American colonies to offer Negroes
the same educational and religious privileges they provided for
persons of their own race, were the Quakers. Believing in the
brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, they taught the colored
people to read their own "instruction in the book of the law that they
might be wise unto salvation."

Encouraging as was the aspect of things after these early efforts, the
contemporary complaints about the neglect to instruct the slaves show
that the cause lacked something to make the movement general. Then
came the days when the struggle for the rights of man was arousing the
civilized world. After 1760 the nascent social doctrine found response
among the American colonists. They looked with opened eyes at the
Negroes. A new day then dawned for the dark-skinned race. Men like
Patrick Henry and James Otis, who demanded liberty for themselves,
could not but concede that slaves were entitled at least to freedom of
body. The frequent acts of manumission and emancipation which followed
upon this change in attitude toward persons of color, turned loose
upon society a large number of men whose chief needs were education
and training in the duties of citizenship. To enlighten these freedmen
schools, missions, and churches were established by benevolent and
religious workers. These colaborers included at this time the Baptists
and Methodists who, thanks to the spirit of toleration incident to the
Revolution, were allowed access to Negroes bond and free.

With all of these new opportunities Negroes exhibited a rapid
mental development. Intelligent colored men proved to be useful and
trustworthy servants; they became much better laborers and artisans,
and many of them showed administrative ability adequate to the
management of business establishments and large plantations. Moreover,
better rudimentary education served many ambitious persons of color as
a stepping-stone to higher attainments. Negroes learned to appreciate
and write poetry and contributed something to mathematics, science,
and philosophy. Furthermore, having disproved the theories of
their mental inferiority, some of the race, in conformity with the
suggestion of Cotton Mather, were employed to teach white children.

Observing these evidences of a general uplift of the Negroes, certain
educators advocated the establishment of special colored schools. The
founding of these institutions, however, must not be understood as a
movement to separate the children of the races on account of caste
prejudice. The dual system resulted from an effort to meet the needs
peculiar to a people just emerging from bondage. It was easily seen
that their education should no longer be dominated by religion.
Keeping the past of the Negroes in mind, their friends tried to unite
the benefits of practical and cultural education. The teachers of
colored schools offered courses in the industries along with advanced
work in literature, mathematics, and science. Girls who specialized in
sewing took lessons in French.

So startling were the rapid strides made by the colored people in
their mental development after the revolutionary era that certain
southerners who had not seriously objected to the enlightenment of the
Negroes began to favor the half reactionary policy of educating them
only on the condition that they should be colonized. The colonization
movement, however, was supported also by some white men who, seeing
the educational progress of the colored people during the period of
better beginnings, felt that they should be given an opportunity to
be transplanted to a free country where they might develop without
restriction.

Timorous southerners, however, soon had other reasons for their
uncharitable attitude. During the first quarter of the nineteenth
century two effective forces were rapidly increasing the number of
reactionaries who by public opinion gradually prohibited the education
of the colored people in all places except certain urban communities
where progressive Negroes had been sufficiently enlightened to provide
their own school facilities. The first of these forces was the
worldwide industrial movement. It so revolutionized spinning and
weaving that the resulting increased demand for cotton fiber gave rise
to the plantation system of the South, which required a larger number
of slaves. Becoming too numerous to be considered as included in the
body politic as conceived by Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone,
the slaves were generally doomed to live without any enlightenment
whatever. Thereafter rich planters not only thought it unwise to
educate men thus destined to live on a plane with beasts, but
considered it more profitable to work a slave to death during seven
years and buy another in his stead than to teach and humanize him with
a view to increasing his efficiency.

The other force conducive to reaction was the circulation through
intelligent Negroes of antislavery accounts of the wrongs to colored
people and the well portrayed exploits of Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Furthermore, refugees from Haiti settled in Baltimore, Norfolk,
Charleston, and New Orleans, where they gave Negroes a first-hand
story of how black men of the West Indies had righted their wrongs. At
the same time certain abolitionists and not a few slaveholders were
praising, in the presence of slaves, the bloody methods of the
French Revolution. When this enlightenment became productive of
such disorders that slaveholders lived in eternal dread of servile
insurrection, Southern States adopted the thoroughly reactionary
policy of making the education of Negroes impossible.

The prohibitive legislation extended over a period of more than a
century, beginning with the act of South Carolina in 1740. But with
the exception of the action of this State and that of Georgia the
important measures which actually proscribed the teaching of Negroes
were enacted during the first four decades of the nineteenth century.
The States attacked the problem in various ways. Colored people beyond
a certain number were not allowed to assemble for social or religious
purposes, unless in the presence of certain "discreet" white men;
slaves were deprived of the helpful contact of free persons of color
by driving them out of some Southern States; masters who had employed
their favorite blacks in positions which required a knowledge of
bookkeeping, printing, and the like, were commanded by law to
discontinue that custom; and private and public teachers were
prohibited from assisting Negroes to acquire knowledge in any manner
whatever.

The majority of the people of the South had by this time come to the
conclusion that, as intellectual elevation unfits men for servitude
and renders it impossible to retain them in this condition, it should
be interdicted. In other words, the more you cultivate the minds of
slaves, the more unserviceable you make them; you give them a higher
relish for those privileges which they cannot attain and turn what you
intend for a blessing into a curse. If they are to remain in slavery
they should be kept in the lowest state of ignorance and degradation,
and the nearer you bring them to the condition of brutes the better
chance they have to retain their apathy. It had thus been brought to
pass that the measures enacted to prevent the education of Negroes had
not only forbidden association with their fellows for mutual help and
closed up most colored schools in the South, but had in several States
made it a crime for a Negro to teach his own children.

The contrast of conditions at the close of this period with those
of former days is striking. Most slaves who were once counted as
valuable, on account of their ability to read and write the English
language, were thereafter considered unfit for service in the
South and branded as objects of suspicion. Moreover, when within a
generation or so the Negroes began to retrograde because they had been
deprived of every elevating influence, the white people of the South
resorted to their old habit of answering their critics with the bold
assertion that the effort to enlighten the blacks would prove futile
on account of their mental inferiority. The apathy which these
bondmen, inured to hardships, consequently developed was referred to
as adequate evidence that they were content with their lot, and
that any effort to teach them to know their real condition would be
productive of mischief both to the slaves and their masters.

The reactionary movement, however, was not confined to the South. The
increased migration of fugitives and free Negroes to the asylum of
Northern States, caused certain communities of that section to feel
that they were about to be overrun by undesirable persons who could
not be easily assimilated. The subsequent anti-abolition riots in the
North made it difficult for friends of the Negroes to raise funds to
educate them. Free persons of color were not allowed to open schools
in some places, teachers of Negroes were driven from their stations,
and colored schoolhouses were burned.

Ashamed to play the role of a Christian clergy guarding silence on the
indispensable duty of saving the souls of the colored people, certain
of the most influential southern ministers hit upon the scheme of
teaching illiterate Negroes the principles of Christianity by memory
training or the teaching of religion without letters. This the clergy
were wont to call religious instruction. The word instruction,
however, as used in various documents, is rather confusing. Before the
reactionary period all instruction of the colored people included the
teaching of the rudiments of education as a means to convey Christian
thought. But with the exception of a few Christians the southerners
thereafter used the word instruction to signify the mere memorizing of
principles from the most simplified books. The sections of the South
in which the word instruction was not used in this restricted sense
were mainly the settlements of Quakers and Catholics who, in defiance
of the law, persisted in teaching Negroes to read and write. Yet it
was not uncommon to find others who, after having unsuccessfully used
their influence against the enactment of these reactionary laws,
boldly defied them by instructing the Negroes of their communities.
Often opponents to this custom winked at it as an indulgence to the
clerical profession. Many Scotch-Irish of the Appalachian Mountains
and liberal Methodists and Baptists of the Western slave States did
not materially change their attitude toward the enlightenment of the
colored people during the reactionary period. The Negroes among
these people continued to study books and hear religious instruction
conveyed to maturing minds.

Yet little as seemed this enlightenment by means of verbal
instruction, some slaveholders became sufficiently inhuman to object
to it on the grounds that the teaching of religion would lead to the
teaching of letters. In fact, by 1835 certain parts of the South
reached the third stage in the development of the education of the
Negroes. At first they were taught the common branches to enable them
to understand the principles of Christianity; next the colored people
as an enlightened class became such a menace to southern institutions
that it was deemed unwise to allow them any instruction beyond that
of memory training; and finally, when it was discovered that many
ambitious blacks were still learning to stir up their fellows, it was
decreed that they should not receive any instruction at all. Reduced
thus to the plane of beasts, where they remained for generations,
Negroes developed bad traits which since their emancipation have been
removed only with great difficulty.

Dark as the future of the Negro students seemed, all hope was not yet
gone. Certain white men in every southern community made it possible
for many of them to learn in spite of opposition. Slaveholders were
not long in discovering that a thorough execution of the law was
impossible when Negroes were following practically all the higher
pursuits of labor in the South. Masters who had children known to be
teaching slaves protected their benevolent sons and daughters from the
rigors of the law. Preachers, on finding out that the effort at verbal
education could not convey Christian truths to an undeveloped mind,
overcame the opposition in their localities and taught the colored
people as before. Negroes themselves, regarding learning as forbidden
fruit, stole away to secret places at night to study under the
direction of friends. Some learned by intuition without having had the
guidance of an instructor. The fact is that these drastic laws were
not passed to restrain "discreet" southerners from doing whatever they
desired for the betterment of their Negroes. The aim was to cut off
their communication with northern teachers and abolitionists, whose
activity had caused the South to believe that if such precaution were
not taken these agents would teach their slaves principles subversive
of southern institutions. Thereafter the documents which mention the
teaching of Negroes to read and write seldom even state that the
southern white teacher was so much as censured for his benevolence.
In the rare cases of arrest of such instructors they were usually
acquitted after receiving a reprimand.

With this winking at the teaching of Negroes in defiance of the law a
better day for their education brightened certain parts of the
South about the middle of the nineteenth century. Believing that an
enlightened laboring class might stop the decline of that section,
some slaveholders changed their attitude toward the elevation of
the colored people. Certain others came to think that the policy of
keeping Negroes in ignorance to prevent servile insurrections was
unwise. It was observed that the most loyal and subordinate slaves
were those who could read the Bible and learn the truth for
themselves. Private teachers of colored persons, therefore, were often
left undisturbed, little effort was made to break up the Negroes'
secret schools in different parts, and many influential white men took
it upon themselves to instruct the blacks who were anxious to learn.

Other Negroes who had no such opportunities were then finding a way of
escape through the philanthropy of those abolitionists who colonized
some freedmen and fugitives in the Northwest Territory and promoted
the migration of others to the East. These Negroes were often
fortunate. Many of them settled where they could take up land and had
access to schools and churches conducted by the best white people
of the country. This migration, however, made matters worse for the
Negroes who were left in the South. As only the most enlightened
blacks left the slave States, the bondmen and the indigent free
persons of color were thereby deprived of helpful contact. The
preponderance of intelligent Negroes, therefore, was by 1840 on the
side of the North. Thereafter the actual education of the colored
people was largely confined to eastern cities and northern communities
of transplanted freedmen. The pioneers of these groups organized
churches and established and maintained a number of successful
elementary schools.

In addition to providing for rudimentary instruction, the free Negroes
of the North helped their friends to make possible what we now call
higher education. During the second quarter of the nineteenth century
the advanced training of the colored people was almost prohibited by
the refusals of academies and colleges to admit persons of African
blood. In consequence of these conditions, the long-put-forth efforts
to found Negro colleges began to be crowned with success before the
Civil War. Institutions of the North admitted Negroes later for
various reasons. Some colleges endeavored to prepare them for service
in Liberia, while others, proclaiming their conversion to the doctrine
of democratic education, opened their doors to all.

The advocates of higher education, however, met with no little
opposition. The concentration in northern communities of the crude
fugitives driven from the South necessitated a readjustment of things.
The training of Negroes in any manner whatever was then very unpopular
in many parts of the North. When prejudice, however, lost some of its
sting, the friends of the colored people did more than ever for
their education. But in view of the changed conditions most of these
philanthropists concluded that the Negroes were very much in need
of practical education. Educators first attempted to provide such
training by offering classical and vocational courses in what they
called the "manual labor schools." When these failed to meet the
emergency they advocated actual vocational training. To make this new
system extensive the Negroes freely cooeperated with their benefactors,
sharing no small part of the real burden. They were at the same time
paying taxes to support public schools which they could not attend.

This very condition was what enabled the abolitionists to see that
they had erred in advocating the establishment of separate schools for
Negroes. At first the segregation of pupils of African blood was, as
stated above, intended as a special provision to bring the colored
youth into contact with sympathetic teachers, who knew the needs of
their students. When the public schools, however, developed at the
expense of the state into a desirable system better equipped than
private institutions, the antislavery organizations in many Northern
States began to demand that the Negroes be admitted to the public
schools. After extensive discussion certain States of New England
finally decided the question in the affirmative, experiencing no great
inconvenience from the change. In most other States of the North,
however, separate schools for Negroes did not cease to exist until
after the Civil War. It was the liberated Negroes themselves who,
during the Reconstruction, gave the Southern States their first
effective system of free public schools.




CHAPTER II

RELIGION WITH LETTERS


The first real educators to take up the work of enlightening American
Negroes were clergymen interested in the propagation of the gospel
among the heathen of the new world. Addressing themselves to this
task, the missionaries easily discovered that their first duty was to
educate these crude elements to enable them not only to read the truth
for themselves, but to appreciate the supremacy of the Christian
religion. After some opposition slaves were given the opportunity to
take over the Christian civilization largely because of the adverse
criticism[1] which the apostles to the lowly heaped upon the planters
who neglected the improvement of their Negroes. Made then a device for
bringing the blacks into the Church, their education was at first too
much dominated by the teaching of religion.

[Footnote 1: Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 241; and _The Penn. Mag.
of History_, xii., 265.]

Many early advocates of slavery favored the enlightenment of the
Africans. That it was an advantage to the Negroes to be brought within
the light of the gospel was a common argument in favor of the slave
trade.[1] When the German Protestants from Salsburg had scruples about
enslaving men, they were assured by a message from home stating that
if they took slaves in faith and with the intention of conducting
them to Christ, the action would not be a sin, but might prove a
benediction.[2] This was about the attitude of Spain. The missionary
movement seemed so important to the king of that country that he at
first allowed only Christian slaves to be brought to America, hoping
that such persons might serve as apostles to the Indians.[3] The
Spaniards adopted a different policy, however, when they ceased their
wild search for an "El Dorado" and became permanently attached to the
community. They soon made settlements and opened mines which
they thought required the introduction of slavery. Thus becoming
commercialized, these colonists experienced a greed which,
disregarding the consequences of the future, urged the importation
of all classes of slaves to meet the demand for cheap labor.[4] This
request was granted by the King of Spain, but the masters of such
bondmen were expressly ordered to have them indoctrinated in the
principles of Christianity. It was the failure of certain Spaniards to
live up to these regulations that caused the liberal-minded Jesuit,
Alphonso Sandoval, to register the first protest against slavery in
America.[5] In later years the change in the attitude of the Spaniards
toward this problem was noted. In Mexico the ayuntamientos were under
the most rigid responsibility to see that free children born of slaves
received the best education that could be given them. They had to
place them "for that purpose at the public schools and other places of
instruction wherein they" might "become useful to society."[6]

[Footnote 1: Proslavery Argument; and Lecky, _History of England_,
vol. ii., p. 17.]

[Footnote 2: Faust, _German Element in United States_, vol. i., pp.
242-43.]

[Footnote 3: Bancroft, _History of United States_, vol. i., p. 124.]

[Footnote 4: Herrera, _Historia General_, dec. iv., libro ii.; dec.
v., libro ii.; dec. vii., libro iv.]

[Footnote 5: Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 241.]

[Footnote 6: _Special Report U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 389.]

In the French settlements of America the instruction of the Negroes
did not early become a difficult problem. There were not many Negroes
among the French. Their methods of colonization did not require many
slaves. Nevertheless, whenever the French missionary came into contact
with Negroes he considered it his duty to enlighten the unfortunates
and lead them to God. As early as 1634 Paul Le Jeune, a Jesuit
missionary in Canada, rejoiced that he had again become a real
preceptor in that he was teaching a little Negro the alphabet. Le
Jeune hoped to baptize his pupil as soon as he learned sufficient to
understand the Christian doctrine.[1] Moreover, evidence of a general
interest in the improvement of Negroes appeared in the Code Noir which
made it incumbent upon masters to enlighten their slaves that they
might grasp the principles of the Christian religion.[2] To carry
out this mandate slaves were sometimes called together with white
settlers. The meeting was usually opened with prayer and the reading
of some pious book, after which the French children were turned over
to one catechist, and the slaves and Indians to another. If a large
number of slaves were found in the community their special instruction
was provided for in meetings of their own.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Jesuit Relations_, vol. v., p. 63.]

[Footnote 2: Code Noir, p. 107.]

[Footnote 3: _Jesuit Relations_, vol. v., p. 62.]


After 1716, when Jesuits were taking over slaves in larger numbers,
and especially after 1726, when Law's Company was importing many to
meet the demand for laborers in Louisiana, we read of more instances
of the instruction of Negroes by French Catholics.[1] Writing about
this task in 1730, Le Petit spoke of being "settled to the instruction
of the boarders, the girls who live without, and the Negro women."[2]
In 1738 he said, "I instruct in Christian morals the slaves of our
residence, who are Negroes, and as many others as I can get from their
masters."[3] Years later Francois Philibert Watrum, seeing that some
Jesuits had on their estates one hundred and thirty slaves, inquired
why the instruction of the Indian and Negro serfs of the French did
not give these missionaries sufficient to do.[4] Hoping to enable
the slaves to elevate themselves, certain inhabitants of the French
colonies requested of their king a decree protecting their title to
property in such bondmen as they might send to France to be confirmed
in their instruction and in the exercise of their religion, and to
have them learn some art or trade from which the colonies might
receive some benefit by their return from the mother country.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., vol. lxvii., pp. 259 and 343.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. lxviii., p. 201.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., vol. lxix., p. 31.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., vol. lxx., p. 245.]

The education of Negroes was facilitated among the French and Spanish
by their liberal attitude toward their slaves. Many of them were
respected for their worth and given some of the privileges of
freemen. Estevanecito, an enlightened slave sent by Niza, the Spanish
adventurer, to explore Arizona, was a favored servant of this
class.[1] The Latin custom of miscegenation proved to be a still more
important factor in the education of Negroes in the colonies. As the
French and Spanish came to America for the purpose of exploitation,
leaving their wives behind, many of them, by cohabiting with and
marrying colored women, gave rise to an element of mixed breeds. This
was especially true of the Spanish settlements. They had more persons
of this class than any other colonies in America. The Latins, in
contradistinction to the English, generally liberated their mulatto
offspring and sometimes recognized them as their equals. Such Negroes
constituted a class of persons who, although they could not aspire to
the best in the colony, had a decided advantage over other inhabitants
of color. They often lived in luxury, and, of course, had a few
social privileges. The Code Noir granted freedmen the same rights,
privileges, and immunities as those enjoyed by persons born free, with
the view that the accomplishment of acquired liberty should have on
the former the same effect that the happiness of natural liberty
caused in other subjects.[2] As these mixed breeds were later lost, so
to speak, among the Latins, it is almost impossible to determine what
their circumstances were, and what advantages of education they had.

[Footnote 1: Bancroft, _Arizona and New Mexico_, pp. 27-32.]

[Footnote 2: The Code Noir obliged every planter to have his Negroes
instructed and baptized. It allowed the slave for instruction,
worship, and rest not only every Sunday, but every festival usually
observed by the Roman Catholic Church. It did not permit any market to
be held on Sundays or holidays. It prohibited, under severe penalties,
all masters and managers from corrupting their female slaves. It did
not allow the Negro husband, wife, or infant children to be sold
separately. It forbade them the use of torture, or immoderate and
inhuman punishments. It obliged the owners to maintain their old and
decrepit slaves. If the Negroes were not fed and clothed as the law
prescribed, or if they were in any way cruelly treated, they might
apply to the Procureur, who was obliged by his office to protect them.
See Code Noir, pp. 99-100.]


The Spanish and French were doing so much more than the English to
enlighten their slaves that certain teachers and missionaries in the
British colonies endeavored more than ever to arouse their countrymen
to discharge their duty to those they held in bondage. These reformers
hoped to do this by holding up to the members of the Anglican Church
the praiseworthy example of the Catholics whom the British had for
years denounced as enemies of Christ. The criticism had its effect.
But to prosecute this work extensively the English had to overcome
the difficulty found in the observance of the unwritten law that
no Christian could be held a slave. Now, if the teaching of slaves
enabled them to be converted and their Christianization led to
manumission, the colonists had either to let the institution gradually
pass away or close all avenues of information to the minds of their
Negroes. The necessity of choosing either of these alternatives
was obviated by the enactment of provincial statutes and formal
declarations by the Bishop of London to the effect that conversion did
not work manumission.[1] After the solution of this problem English
missionaries urged more vigorously upon the colonies the duty of
instructing the slaves. Among the active churchmen working for this
cause were Rev. Morgan Goodwyn and Bishops Fleetwood, Lowth, and
Sanderson.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 352.]

[Footnote 2: On observing that laws had been passed in Virginia to
prevent slaves from attending the meetings of Quakers for purposes of
being instructed, Morgan Goodwyn registered a most earnest protest. He
felt that prompt attention should be given to the instruction of the
slaves to prevent the Church from falling into discredit, and to
obviate the causes for blasphemy on the part of the enemies of the
Church who would not fail to point out that ministers sent to the
remotest parts had failed to convert the heathen. Therefore, he
preached in Westminster Abbey in 1685 a sermon "to stir up and
provoke" his "Majesty's subjects abroad, and even at home, to use
endeavors for the propagation of Christianity among their domestic
slaves and vassals." He referred to the spreading of mammonism and
irreligion by which efforts to instruct and Christianize the heathen
were paralyzed. He deplored the fact that the slaves who were the
subjects of such instruction became the victims of still greater
cruelty, while the missionaries who endeavored to enlighten them were
neglected and even persecuted by the masters. They considered the
instruction of the Negroes an impracticable and needless work of
popish superstition, and a policy subversive of the interests of
slaveholders. Bishop Sanderson found it necessary to oppose this
policy of Virginia which had met the denunciation of Goodwyn. In
strongly emphasizing this duty of masters, Bishop Fleetwood moved the
hearts of many planters of North Carolina to allow missionaries access
to their slaves. Many of them were thereafter instructed and baptized.
See Goodwyn, _The Negroes and Indians' Advocate_; Hart, _History Told
by Contemporaries_, vol. i., No. 86; _Special Rep. U.S. Com. of Ed._,
1871, p. 363; _An Account of the Endeavors of the Soc._, etc., p. 14.]

Complaints from men of this type led to systematic efforts to
enlighten the blacks. The first successful scheme for this purpose
came from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts. It was organized by the members of the Established Church in
London in 1701[1] to do missionary work among Indians and Negroes.
To convert the heathen they sent out not only ministers but
schoolmasters. They were required to instruct the children, to teach
them to read the Scriptures and other poems and useful books, to
ground them thoroughly in the Church catechism, and to repeat "morning
and evening prayers and graces composed for their use at home."[2]

[Footnote 1: Pascoe, _Classified Digest of the Records of the Society
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, p. 24.]

[Footnote 2: Dalcho, _An Historical Account of the Protestant
Episcopal Church in South Carolina_, p. 39; _Special Rep. U.S. Com. of
Ed._, 1871, p. 362.]

The first active schoolmaster of this class was Rev. Samuel Thomas of
Goose Creek Parish in South Carolina. He took up this work there in
1695, and in 1705 could count among his communicants twenty Negroes,
who with several others "well understanding the English tongue" could
read and write.[1] Rev. Mr. Thomas said: "I have here presumed to give
an account of one thousand slaves so far as they know of it and are
desirous of Christian knowledge and seem willing to prepare themselves
for it, in learning to read, for which they redeem the time from their
labor. Many of them can read the Bible distinctly, and great numbers
of them were learning when I left the province."[2] But not only had
this worker enlightened many Negroes in his parish, but had enlisted
in the work several ladies, among whom was Mrs. Haig Edwards. The Rev.
Mr. Taylor, already interested in the cause, hoped that other masters
and mistresses would follow the example of Mrs. Edwards.[3]

[Footnote 1: Meriwether, _Education in South Carolina_, p. 123].

[Footnote 2: _Special Rep. U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 362.]

[Footnote 3: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, pp. 13-14.]

Through the efforts of the same society another school was opened in
New York City in 1704 under Elias Neau.[1] This benefactor is commonly
known as the first to begin such an institution for the education of
Negroes; but the school in Goose Creek Parish, South Carolina, was
in operation at least nine years earlier. At first Neau called the
Negroes together after their daily toil was over and taught them at
his house. By 1708 he was instructing thus as many as two hundred.
Neau's school owes its importance to the fact that not long after its
beginning certain Negroes who organized themselves to kill off their
masters were accredited as students of this institution. For this
reason it was immediately closed.[2] When upon investigating the
causes of the insurrection, however, it was discovered that only one
person connected with the institution had taken part in the struggle,
the officials of the colony permitted Neau to continue his work and
extended him their protection. After having been of invaluable service
to the Negroes of New York this school was closed in 1722 by the
death of its founder. The work of Neau, however, was taken up by Mr.
Huddlestone. Rev. Mr. Wetmore entered the field in 1726. Later there
appeared Rev. Mr. Colgan and Noxon, both of whom did much to promote
the cause. In 1732 came Rev. Mr. Charlton who toiled in this field
until 1747 when he was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Auchmutty. He had the
cooeperation of Mr. Hildreth, the assistant of his predecessor. Much
help was obtained from Rev. Mr. Barclay who, at the death of Mr. Vesey
in 1764, became the rector of the parish supporting the school.[3]

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, pp. 6-12.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 9.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 362.]

The results obtained in the English colonies during the early period
show that the agitation for the enlightenment of the Negroes spread
not only wherever these unfortunates were found, but claimed the
attention of the benevolent far away. Bishop Wilson of Sodor and Man,
active in the cause during the first half of the eighteenth century,
availed himself of the opportunity to aid those missionaries who
were laboring in the colonies for the instruction of the Indians
and Negroes. In 1740 he published a pamphlet written in 1699 on the
_Principles and Duties of Christianity in their Direct Bearing on the
Uplift of the Heathen_. To teach by example he further aided this
movement by giving fifty pounds for the education of colored children
in Talbot County, Maryland.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, 1871, p. 364.]

After some opposition this work began to progress somewhat in
Virginia.[1] The first school established in that colony was for
Indians and Negroes.[2] In the course of time the custom of teaching
the latter had legal sanction there. On binding out a "bastard or
pauper child black or white," churchwardens specifically required
that he should be taught "to read, write, and calculate as well as to
follow some profitable form of labor."[3] Other Negroes also had an
opportunity to learn. Reports of an increase in the number of colored
communicants came from Accomac County where four or five hundred
families were instructing their slaves at home, and had their children
catechized on Sunday. Unusual interest in the cause at Lambeth, in the
same colony, is attested by an interesting document, setting forth
in 1724 a proposition for "_Encouraging the Christian Education of
Indian, Negro, and Mulatto Children_." The author declares it to be
the duty of masters and mistresses of America to endeavor to educate
and instruct their heathen slaves in the Christian faith, and
mentioned the fact that this work had been "earnestly recommended by
his Majesty's instructions." To encourage the movement it was proposed
that "every Indian, Negro and Mulatto child that should be baptized
and afterward brought into the Church and publicly catechized by the
minister, and should before the fourteenth year of his or her age
give a distinct account of the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten
Commandments," should receive from the minister a certificate which
would entitle such children to exemption from paying all levies until
the age of eighteen.[4] The neighboring colony of North Carolina
also was moved by these efforts despite some difficulties which the
missionaries there encountered.[5]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Old Families and Churches in Virginia_, p. 264;
Plumer, _Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes_, pp.
11-12.]

[Footnote 2: Monroe, _Cyclopaedia of Education_, vol. iv., p. 406.]

[Footnote 3: Russell, _The Free Negro in Virginia_, in J.H.U. Studies,
Series xxxi., No. 3, p. 107.]

[Footnote 4: Meade, _Old Families and Churches in Virginia_, pp.
264-65.]

[Footnote 5: Ashe, _History of North Carolina_, pp. 389-90.]

This favorable attitude toward the people of color, and the successful
work among them, caused the opponents of this policy to speak out
boldly against their enlightenment. Some asserted that the Negroes
were such stubborn creatures that there could be no such close dealing
with them, and that even when converted they became saucier than
pious. Others maintained that these bondmen were so ignorant and
indocile, so far gone in their wickedness, so confirmed in their
habit of evil ways, that it was vain to undertake to teach them such
knowledge. Less cruel slaveholders had thought of getting out of the
difficulty by the excuse that the instruction of Negroes required more
time and labor than masters could well spare from their business. Then
there were others who frankly confessed that, being an ignorant and
unlearned people themselves, they could not teach others.[1]

[Footnote 1: For a summary of this argument see Meade, _Four Sermons
of Reverend Bacon_, pp. 81-97; also, _A Letter to an American Planter
from his Friend in London_, p. 5.]

Seeing that many leading planters had been influenced by those opposed
to the enlightenment of Negroes, Bishop Gibson of London issued an
appeal in behalf of the bondmen, addressing the clergy and laymen in
two letters[1] published in London in 1727. In one he exhorted masters
and mistresses of families to encourage and promote the instruction of
their Negroes in the Christian faith. In the other epistle he directed
the missionaries of the colonies to give to this work whatever
assistance they could. Writing to the slaveholders, he took the
position that considering the greatness of the profit from the labor
of the slaves it might be hoped that all masters, those especially who
were possessed of considerable numbers, should be at some expense in
providing for the instruction of those poor creatures. He thought
that others who did not own so many should share in the expense of
maintaining for them a common teacher.

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, pp. 16, 21, and 32; and
Dalcho, _An Historical Account_, etc., pp. 104 et seq.]

Equally censorious of these neglectful masters was Reverend Thomas
Bacon, the rector of the Parish Church in Talbot County, Maryland.
In 1749 he set forth his protest in four sermons on "the great and
indispensable duty of all Christian masters to bring up their slaves
in the knowledge and fear of God."[1] Contending that slaves
should enjoy rights like those of servants in the household of the
patriarchs, Bacon insisted that next to one's children and brethren
by blood, one's servants, and especially one's slaves, stood in the
nearest relation to him, and that in return for their drudgery the
master owed it to his bondmen to have them enlightened. He believed
that the reading and explaining of the Holy Scriptures should be made
a stated duty. In the course of time the place of catechist in each
family might be supplied out of the intelligent slaves by choosing
such among them as were best taught to instruct the rest.[2] He was of
the opinion, too, that were some of the slaves taught to read, were
they sent to school for that purpose when young, were they given
the New Testament and other good books to be read at night to their
fellow-servants, such a course would vastly increase their knowledge
of God and direct their minds to a serious thought of futurity.[3]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, pp. 31 et seq.]

[Footnote 2: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, pp. 116 _et seq._]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 118.]

With almost equal zeal did Bishops Williams and Butler plead the same
cause.[1] They deplored the fact that because of their dark skins
Negro slaves were treated as a species different from the rest of
mankind. Denouncing the more cruel treatment of slaves as cattle,
unfit for mental and moral improvement, these churchmen asserted that
the highest property possible to be acquired in servants could not
cancel the obligation to take care of the religious instruction of
those who "despicable as they are in the eyes of man are nevertheless
the creatures of God."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 363.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 363.]

On account of these appeals made during the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries a larger number of slaves of the English colonies were
thereafter treated as human beings capable of mental, moral, and
spiritual development. Some masters began to provide for the
improvement of these unfortunates, not because they loved them, but
because instruction would make them more useful to the community. A
much more effective policy of Negro education was brought forward in
1741 by Bishop Secker.[1] He suggested the employment of young Negroes
prudently chosen to teach their countrymen. To carry out such a plan
he had already sent a missionary to Africa. Besides instructing
Negroes at his post of duty, this apostle sent three African natives
to England where they were educated for the work.[2] It was doubtless
the sentiment of these leaders that caused Dr. Brearcroft to allude to
this project in a discourse before the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1741.[3]

[Footnote 1: Secker, _Works_, vol. v., p. 88.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. vi., p. 467.]

[Footnote 3: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, p.6.]

This organization hit upon the plan of purchasing two Negroes named
Harry and Andrew, and of qualifying them by thorough instruction in
the principles of Christianity and the fundamentals of education, to
serve as schoolmasters to their people. Under the direction of Rev.
Mr. Garden, the missionary who had directed the training of these
young men, a building costing about three hundred and eight pounds was
erected in Charleston, South Carolina. In the school which opened in
this building in 1744 Harry and Andrew served as teachers.[1] In the
beginning the school had about sixty young students, and had a very
good daily attendance for a number of years. The directors of the
institution planned to send out annually between thirty and forty
youths "well instructed in religion and capable of reading their
Bibles to carry home and diffuse the same knowledge to their fellow
slaves."[2] It is highly probable that after 1740 this school was
attended only by free persons of color. Because the progress of Negro
education had been rather rapid, South Carolina enacted that year a
law prohibiting any person from teaching or causing a slave to be
taught, or from employing or using a slave as a scribe in any manner
of writing.

[Footnote 1: Meriwether, _Education in South Carolina_, p. 123;
McCrady, _South Carolina_, etc., p. 246; Dalcho, _An Historical
Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina_, pp.
156, 157, 164.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., pp. 157 and 164.]

In 1764 the Charleston school was closed for reasons which it is
difficult to determine. From one source we learn that one of the
teachers died, and the other having turned out profligate, no
instructors could be found to continue the work. It does not seem that
the sentiment against the education of free Negroes had by that time
become sufficiently strong to cause the school to be discontinued.[1]
It is evident, however, that with the assistance of influential
persons of different communities the instruction of slaves continued
in that colony. Writing about the middle of the eighteenth century,
Eliza Lucas, a lady of South Carolina, who afterward married Justice
Pinckney, mentions a parcel of little Negroes whom she had undertaken
to teach to read.[2]

[Footnote 1: _An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, p. 15.]

[Footnote 2: Bourne, _Spain in America_, p. 241.]

The work of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts was also effective in communities of the North in which the
established Church of England had some standing. In 1751 Reverend Hugh
Neill, once a Presbyterian minister of New Jersey, became a missionary
of this organization to the Negroes of Pennsylvania. He worked among
them fifteen years. Dr. Smith, Provost of the College of Philadelphia,
devoted a part of his time to the work, and at the death of Neill in
1766 enlisted as a regular missionary of the Society.[1] It seems,
however, that prior to the eighteenth century not much had been done
to enlighten the slaves of that colony, although free persons of
color had been instructed. Rev. Mr. Wayman, another missionary to
Pennsylvania about the middle of the eighteenth century, asserted that
"neither" was "there anywhere care taken for the instruction of Negro
slaves," the duty to whom he had "pressed upon masters with little
effect."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 362.]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pennsylvania_, p.
248.]

To meet this need the Society set the example of maintaining
catechetical lectures for Negroes in St. Peter's and Christ Church of
Philadelphia, during the incumbency of Dr. Jennings from 1742 to 1762.
William Sturgeon, a student of Yale, selected to do this work, was
sent to London for ordination and placed in charge in 1747.[1] In this
position Rev. Mr. Sturgeon remained nineteen years, rendering such
satisfactory services in the teaching of Negroes that he deserves to
be recorded as one of the first benefactors of the Negro race.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 241.]

Antedating this movement in Pennsylvania were the efforts of Reverend
Dr. Thomas Bray. In 1696 he was sent to Maryland by the Bishop of
London on an ecclesiastical mission to do what he could toward the
conversion of adult Negroes and the education of their children.[1]
Bray's most influential supporter was M. D'Alone, the private
secretary of King William. D'Alone gave for the maintenance of the
cause a fund, the proceeds of which were first used for the employment
of colored catechists, and later for the support of the Thomas Bray
Mission after the catechists had failed to give satisfaction. At the
death of this missionary the task was taken up by certain followers
of the good man, known as the "Associates of Doctor Bray."[2] They
extended their work beyond the confines of Maryland. In 1760 two
schools for the education of Negroes were maintained in Philadelphia
by these benefactors. It was the aid obtained from the Dr. Bray fund
that enabled the abolitionists to establish in that city a permanent
school which continued for almost a hundred years.[3] About the close
of the French and Indian War, Rev. Mr. Stewart, a missionary in North
Carolina, found there a school for the education of Indians and free
Negroes, conducted by Dr. Bray's Associates. The example of these men
appealing to him as a wise policy, he directed to it the attention of
the clergy at home.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 252; Smyth, _Works of Franklin_, vol. iv., p.
23; and vol. v., p. 431.]

[Footnote 2: Smyth, _Works of Franklin_, vol. v., p. 431.]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pennsylvania_, p.
249.]

[Footnote 4: Bassett, _Slavery and Servitude in North Carolina_, Johns
Hopkins University Studies, vol. xv., p. 226.]

Not many slaves were found among the Puritans, but the number sufficed
to bring the question of their instruction before these colonists
almost as prominently as we have observed it was brought in the case
of the members of the Established Church of England. Despite the fact
that the Puritans developed from the Calvinists, believers in the
doctrine of election which swept away all class distinction, this sect
did not, like the Quakers, attack slavery as an institution. Yet if
the Quakers were the first of the Protestants to protest against the
buying and selling of souls, New England divines were among the first
to devote attention to the mental, moral, and spiritual development of
Negroes.[1] In 1675 John Eliot objected to the Indian slave trade, not
because of the social degradation, but for the reason that he desired
that his countrymen "should follow Christ his Designe in this matter
to promote the free passage of Religion" among them. He further
said: "For to sell Souls for Money seemeth to me to be dangerous
Merchandise, to sell away from all Means of Grace whom Christ hath
provided Means of Grace for you is the Way for us to be active in
destroying their Souls when they are highly obliged to seek their
Conversion and Salvation." Eliot bore it grievously that the souls of
the slaves were "exposed by their Masters to a destroying Ignorance
meerly for the Fear of thereby losing the Benefit of their
Vassalage."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Pennsylvania Magazine of History_, vol. xiii., p. 265.]

[Footnote 2: Locke, _Anti-slavery Before 1808_, p. 15; Mather, _Life
of John Eliot_, p. 14; _New Plymouth Colony Records_, vol. x., p.
452.]

Further interest in the work was manifested by Cotton Mather. He
showed his liberality in his professions published in 1693 in a set of
_Rules for the Society of Negroes_, intended to present the claims of
the despised race to the benefits of religious instruction.[1] Mather
believed that servants were in a sense like one's children, and that
their masters should train and furnish them with Bibles and other
religious books for which they should be given time to read. He
maintained that servants should be admitted to the religious exercises
of the family and was willing to employ such of them as were competent
to teach his children lessons of piety. Coming directly to the issue
of the day, Mather deplored the fact that the several plantations
which lived upon the labor of their Negroes were guilty of the
"prodigious Wickedness of deriding, neglecting, and opposing all
due Means of bringing the poor Negroes unto God." He hoped that
the masters, of whom God would one day require the souls of slaves
committed to their care, would see to it that like Abraham they have
catechised servants. They were not to imagine that the "Almighty God
made so many thousands reasonable Creatures for nothing but only to
serve the Lusts of Epicures, or the Gains of Mammonists."[2]

[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 15.]

[Footnote 2: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, p. 137 _et seq_.]

The sentiment of the clergy of this epoch was more directly expressed
by Richard Baxter, the noted Nonconformist, in his "Directions to
Masters in Foreign Plantations," incorporated as rules into the
_Christian Directory_.[1] Baxter believed in natural liberty and
the equality of man, and justified slavery only on the ground of
"necessitated consent" or captivity in lawful war. For these reasons
he felt that they that buy slaves and "use them as Beasts for their
meer Commodity, and betray, or destroy or neglect their Souls are
fitter to be called incarnate Devils than Christians, though they be
no Christians whom they so abuse."[2] His aim here, however, is not to
abolish the institution of slavery but to enlighten the Africans and
bring them into the Church.[3] Exactly what effect Baxter had on this
movement cannot be accurately figured out. The fact, however, that his
creed was extensively adhered to by the Protestant colonists among
whom his works were widely read, leads us to think that he influenced
some masters to change their attitude toward their slaves.

[Footnote 1: Baxter, _Practical Works_, vol. i., p. 438.]

[Footnote 2: Baxter, _Practical Works_, vol. i., p. 438-40.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 440.]

The next Puritan of prominence who enlisted among the helpers of the
African slaves was Chief Justice Sewall, of Massachusetts. In 1701
he stirred his section by publishing his _Selling of Joseph_, a
distinctly anti-slavery pamphlet, based on the natural and inalienable
right of every man to be free.[1] The appearance of this publication
marked an epoch in the history of the Negroes. It was the first direct
attack on slavery in New England. The Puritan clergy had formerly
winked at the continuation of the institution, provided the masters
were willing to give the slaves religious instruction. In the _Selling
of Joseph_ Sewall had little to say about their mental and moral
improvement, but in the _Athenian Oracle_, which expressed his
sentiments so well that he had it republished in 1705,[2] he met more
directly the problem of elevating the Negro race. Taking up this
question, Sewall said: "There's yet less doubt that those who are of
Age to answer for themselves would soon learn the Principles of our
Faith, and might be taught the Obligation of the Vow they made in
Baptism, and there's little Doubt but Abraham instructed his Heathen
Servants who were of Age to learn, the Nature of Circumcision before
he circumcised them; nor can we conclude much less from God's own
noble Testimony of him, 'I know him that he will command his Children
and his Household, and they shall keep the Way of the Lord.'"[3]
Sewall believed that the emancipation of the slaves should be promoted
to encourage Negroes to become Christians. He could not understand
how any Christian could hinder or discourage them from learning the
principles of the Christian religion and embracing the faith.

[Footnote 1: Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts_, p. 91.]

[Footnote 2: Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts_, p. 92; Locke,
_Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 31.]

[Footnote 3: Moore, _Notes on Slavery_, etc., p. 91; _The Athenian
Oracle_, vol. ii., pp. 460 _et seq_.]

This interest shown in the Negro race was in no sense general among
the Puritans of that day. Many of their sect could not favor such
proselyting,[1] which, according to their system of government,
would have meant the extension to the slaves of social and political
privileges. It was not until the French provided that masters should
take their slaves to church and have them indoctrinated in the
Catholic faith, that the proposition was seriously considered by many
of the Puritans. They, like the Anglicans, felt sufficient compunction
of conscience to take steps to Christianize the slaves, lest the
Catholics, whom they had derided as undesirable churchmen, should put
the Protestants to shame.[2] The publication of the Code Noir probably
influenced the instructions sent out from England to his Majesty's
governors requiring them "with the assistance of our council to find
out the best means to facilitate and encourage the conversion of
Negroes and Indians to the Christian Religion." Everly subsequently
mentions in his diary the passing of a resolution by the Council Board
at Windsor or Whitehall, recommending that the blacks in plantations
be baptized, and meting out severe censure to those who opposed this
policy.[3]

[Footnote 1: Moore, _Notes on Slavery_, etc., p. 79.]

[Footnote 2: This good example of the Catholics was in later years
often referred to by Bishop Porteus. _Works of Bishop Porteus_, vol.
vi, pp. 168, 173, 177, 178, 401; Moore, _Notes on Slavery_, etc., p.
96.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 96.]

More effective than the efforts of other sects in the enlightenment of
the Negroes was the work of the Quakers, despite the fact that they
were not free to extend their operations throughout the colonies. Just
as the colored people are indebted to the Quakers for registering in
1688 the first protest against slavery in Protestant America, so are
they indebted to this denomination for the earliest permanent and
well-developed schools devoted to the education of their race. As the
Quakers believed in the freedom of the will, human brotherhood,
and equality before God, they did not, like the Puritans, find
difficulties in solving the problem of enlightening the Negroes.
While certain Puritans were afraid that conversion might lead to the
destruction of caste and the incorporation of undesirable persons into
the "Body Politick," the Quakers proceeded on the principle that all
men are brethren and, being equal before God, should be considered
equal before the law. On account of unduly emphasizing the relation of
man to God the Puritans "atrophied their social humanitarian instinct"
and developed into a race of self-conscious saints. Believing in human
nature and laying stress upon the relation between man and man the
Quakers became the friends of all humanity.

Far from the idea of getting rid of an undesirable element by merely
destroying the institution which supplied it, the Quakers endeavored
to teach the Negro to be a man capable of discharging the duties of
citizenship. As early as 1672 their attention was directed to this
important matter by George Fox.[1] In 1679 he spoke out more boldly,
entreating his sect to instruct and teach their Indians and Negroes
"how that Christ, by the Grace of God, tasted death for every man."[2]
Other Quakers of prominence did not fail to drive home this thought.
In 1693 George Keith, a leading Quaker of his day, came forward as a
promoter of the religious training of the slaves as a preparation for
emancipation.[3] William Penn advocated the emancipation of slaves,[4]
that they might have every opportunity for improvement. In 1696 the
Quakers, while protesting against the slave trade, denounced also the
policy of neglecting their moral and spiritual welfare.[5] The
growing interest of this sect in the Negroes was shown later by the
development in 1713 of a definite scheme for freeing and returning
them to Africa after having been educated and trained to serve as
missionaries on that continent.[6]

[Footnote 1: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 8; Moore, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p.
79.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 79.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, p. 376.]

[Footnote 4: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, vol. i., p. 6;
Bancroft, _History of the United States_, vol. ii., p. 401.]

[Footnote 5: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, p. 30.]

The inevitable result of this liberal attitude toward the Negroes
was that the Quakers of those colonies where other settlers were
so neglectful of the enlightenment of the colored race, soon found
themselves at war with the leaders of the time. In slaveholding
communities the Quakers were persecuted, not necessarily because they
adhered to a peculiar faith, not primarily because they had manners
and customs unacceptable to the colonists, but because in answering
the call of duty to help all men they incurred the ill will of the
masters who denounced them as undesirable persons, bringing into
America spurious doctrines subversive of the institutions of the
aristocratic settlements.

Their experience in the colony of Virginia is a good example of how
this worked out. Seeing the unchristian attitude of the preachers in
most parts of that colony, the Quakers inquired of them, "Who made you
ministers of the Gospel to white people only, and not to the tawny and
blacks also?"[1] To show the nakedness of the neglectful clergy there
some of this faith manifested such zeal in teaching and preaching to
the Negroes that their enemies demanded legislation to prevent them
from gaining ascendancy over the minds of the slaves. Accordingly, to
make the colored people of that colony inaccessible to these workers
it was deemed wise in 1672 to enact a law prohibiting members of that
sect from taking Negroes to their meetings. In 1678 the colony enacted
another measure excluding Quakers from the teaching profession by
providing that no person should be allowed to keep a school in
Virginia unless he had taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy.[2]
Of course, it was inconsistent with the spirit and creed of the
Quakers to take this oath.

[Footnote 1: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2: Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vol. i., 532; ii., 48, 165,
166, 180, 198, and 204. _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_.,
1871, p. 391.]

The settlers of North Carolina followed the same procedure to check
the influence of Quakers, who spoke there in behalf of the man of
color as fearlessly as they had in Virginia. The apprehension of the
dominating element was such that Governor Tryon had to be instructed
to prohibit from teaching in that colony any person who had not
a license from the Bishop of London.[1] Although this order was
seemingly intended to protect the faith and doctrine of the Anglican
Church, rather than to prevent the education of Negroes, it operated
to lessen their chances for enlightenment, since missionaries from
the Established Church did not reach all parts of the colony.[2] The
Quakers of North Carolina, however, had local schools and actually
taught slaves. Some of these could read and write as early as 1731.
Thereafter, household servants were generally given the rudiments of
an English education.

[Footnote 1: Ashe, _History of North Carolina_, vol. i., p. 389. The
same instructions were given to Governor Francis Nicholson.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., pp. 389, 390.]

It was in the settlements of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York
that the Quakers encountered less opposition in carrying out their
policy of cultivating the minds of colored people. Among these Friends
the education of Negroes became the handmaiden of the emancipation
movement. While John Hepburn, William Burling, Elihu Coleman, and
Ralph Sandiford largely confined their attacks to the injustice of
keeping slaves, Benjamin Lay was working for their improvement as a
prerequisite of emancipation.[1] Lay entreated the Friends to "bring
up the Negroes to some Learning, Reading and Writing and" to "endeavor
to the utmost of their Power in the sweet love of Truth to instruct
and teach 'em the Principles of Truth and Religiousness, and learn
some Honest Trade or Imployment and then set them free. And," says he,
"all the time Friends are teaching of them let them know that they
intend to let them go free in a very reasonable Time; and that our
Religious Principles will not allow of such Severity, as to keep them
in everlasting Bondage and Slavery."[2]

[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 31.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 32.]


The struggle of the Northern Quakers to enlighten the colored people
had important local results. A strong moral force operated in the
minds of most of this sect to impel them to follow the example of
certain leaders who emancipated their slaves.[1] Efforts in this
direction were redoubled about the middle of the eighteenth century
when Anthony Benezet,[2] addressing himself with unwonted zeal to the
uplift of these unfortunates, obtained the assistance of Clarkson and
others, who solidified the antislavery sentiment of the Quakers and
influenced them to give their time and means to the more effective
education of the blacks. After this period the Quakers were also
concerned with the improvement of the colored people's condition in
other settlements.[3]

[Footnote 1: Dr. DuBois gives a good account of these efforts in his
_Suppression of the African Slave Trade_.]

[Footnote 2: Benezet was a French Protestant. Persecuted on account of
their religion, his parents moved from France to England and later to
Philadelphia. He became a teacher in that city in 1742. Thirteen years
later he was teaching a school established for the education of the
daughters of the most distinguished families in Philadelphia. He was
then using his own spelling-book, primer, and grammar, some of the
first text-books published in America. Known to persecution himself,
Benezet always sympathized with the oppressed. Accordingly, he
connected himself with the Quakers, who at that time had before
them the double task of fighting for religious equality and the
amelioration of the condition of the Negroes. Becoming interested in
the welfare of the colored race, Benezet first attacked the slave
trade, so exposing it in his speeches and writings that Clarkson
entered the field as an earnest advocate of the suppression of the
iniquitous traffic. See Benezet, _Observations_, p. 30, and the
_African Repository_, vol. iv., p. 61.]

[Footnote 3: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 31.]

What the other sects did for the enlightenment of Negroes during this
period, was not of much importance. As the Presbyterians, Methodists,
and Baptists did not proselyte extensively in this country prior to
the middle of the eighteenth century, these denominations had little
to do with Negro education before the liberalism and spirit of
toleration, developed during the revolutionary era, made it possible
for these sects to reach the people. The Methodists, however, confined
at first largely to the South, where most of the slaves were found,
had to take up this problem earlier. Something looking like an attempt
to elevate the Negroes came from Wesley's contemporary, George
Whitefield,[1] who, strange to say, was regarded by the Negro race
as its enemy for having favored the introduction of slavery. He was
primarily interested in the conversion of the colored people. Without
denying that "liberty is sweet to those who are born free," he
advocated the importation of slaves into Georgia "to bring them within
the reach of those means of grace which would make them partake of a
liberty far more precious than the freedom of body."[2] While on a
visit to this country in 1740 he purchased a large tract of land at
Nazareth, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of founding a school for the
education of Negroes.[3] Deciding later to go south, he sold the site
to the Moravian brethren who had undertaken to establish a mission
for Negroes at Bethlehem in 1738.[4] Some writers have accepted the
statement that Whitefield commenced the erection of a schoolhouse at
Nazareth; others maintain that he failed to accomplish anything.[5] Be
that as it may, accessible facts are sufficient to show that, unwise
as was his policy of importing slaves, his intention was to improve
their condition. It was because of this sentiment in Georgia in 1747,
when slavery was finally introduced there, that the people through
their representatives in convention recommended that masters should
educate their young slaves, and do whatever they could to make
religious impressions upon the minds of the aged. This favorable
attitude of early Methodists toward Negroes caused them to consider
the new churchmen their friends and made it easy for this sect to
proselyte the race.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 374.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 374.]

[Footnote 3: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 128.]

[Footnote 4: Equally interested in the Negroes were the Moravians who
settled in the uplands of Pennsylvania and roamed over the hills of
the Appalachian region as far south as Carolina. A painting of a
group of their converts prior to 1747 shows among others two Negroes,
Johannes of South Carolina and Jupiter of New York. See Hamilton,
_History of the Church known as the Moravian_, p. 80; Plumer,
_Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes_, p. 3; Reichel,
_The Moravians in North Carolina_, p. 139.]

[Footnote 5: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1869, p. 374.]




CHAPTER III

EDUCATION AS A RIGHT OF MAN


In addition to the mere diffusion of knowledge as a means to teach
religion there was a need of another factor to make the education of
the Negroes thorough. This required force was supplied by the response
of the colonists to the nascent social doctrine of the eighteenth
century. During the French and Indian War there were set to work
certain forces which hastened the social and political upheaval called
the American Revolution. "Bigoted saints" of the more highly favored
sects condescended to grant the rising denominations toleration,
the aristocratic elements of colonial society deigned to look more
favorably upon those of lower estate, and a large number of leaders
began to think that the Negro should be educated and freed. To
acquaint themselves with the claims of the underman Americans
thereafter prosecuted more seriously the study of Coke, Milton, Locke,
and Blackstone. The last of these was then read more extensively in
the colonies than in Great Britain. Getting from these writers strange
ideas of individual liberty and the social compact theory of man's
making in a state of nature government deriving its power from the
consent of the governed, the colonists contended more boldly than ever
for religious freedom, industrial liberty, and political equality.
Given impetus by the diffusion of these ideas, the revolutionary
movement became productive of the spirit of universal benevolence.
Hearing the contention for natural and inalienable rights, Nathaniel
Appleton[1] and John Woolman,[2] were emboldened to carry these
theories to their logical conclusion. They attacked not only the
oppressors of the colonists but censured also those who denied the
Negro race freedom of body and freedom of mind. When John Adams heard
James Otis basing his argument against the writs of assistance on the
British constitution "founded in the laws of nature," he "shuddered at
the doctrine taught and the consequences that might be derived from
such premises."[3]

[Footnote 1: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 19, 20, 23.]

[Footnote 2: _Works of John Woolman_ in two parts, pp. 58 and 73;
Moore, _Notes on Slavery in Mass._, p. 71.]

[Footnote 3: Adams, _Works of John Adams_, vol. x., p. 315; Moore,
_Notes on Slavery in Mass._, p. 71.]

So effective was the attack on the institution of slavery and its
attendant evils that interest in the question leaped the boundaries
of religious organizations and became the concern of fair-minded men
throughout the country. Not only did Northern men of the type of John
Adams and James Otis express their opposition to this tyranny of men's
bodies and minds, but Laurens, Henry, Wythe, Mason, and Washington
pointed out the injustice of such a policy. Accordingly we find
arrayed against the aristocratic masters almost all the leaders of the
American Revolution.[1] They favored the policy, first, of suppressing
the slave trade, next of emancipating the Negroes in bondage, and
finally of educating them for a life of freedom.[2] While students of
government were exposing the inconsistency of slaveholding among a
people contending for political liberty, and men like Samuel Webster,
James Swan, and Samuel Hopkins attacked the institution on economic
grounds;[3] Jonathan Boucher,[4] Dr. Rush,[5] and Benjamin Franklin[6]
were devising plans to educate slaves for freedom; and Isaac Tatem[7]
and Anthony Benezet[8] were actually in the schoolroom endeavoring to
enlighten their black brethren.

[Footnote 1: Cobb, _Slavery_, etc., p. 82.]

[Footnote 2: Madison, _Works of_, vol. iii., p. 496; Smyth, _Works of
Franklin_, vol. v., p. 431; Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol.
ix., p. 163; Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol. i., p. 227;
Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies, 1794,
1795, 1797.]

[Footnote 3: Webster, _A Sermon Preached before the Honorable
Council_, etc.; Webster, _Earnest Address to My Country on Slavery_;
Swan, _A Dissuasion to Great Britain and the Colonies_; Hopkins,
_Dialogue Concerning Slavery_.]

[Footnote 4: Boucher, _A View of the Causes and Consequences of the
American Revolution_, p. 39.]

[Footnote 5: Rush, _An Address to the Inhabitants of_, etc., p. 16.]

[Footnote 6: Smyth, _Works of Franklin_, vol. iv., p. 23; vol. v., p.
431.]

[Footnote 7: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa_., p. 249.]

[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., p. 250; _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of
Ed_., 1869, p. 375; _African Repository_, vol. iv., p. 61; Benezet,
_Observations_; Benezet, _A Serious Address to the Rulers of
America_.]

The aim of these workers was not merely to enable the Negroes to take
over sufficient of Western civilization to become nominal Christians,
not primarily to increase their economic efficiency, but to enlighten
them because they are men. To strengthen their position these
defendants of the education of the blacks cited the customs of the
Greeks and Romans, who enslaved not the minds and wills, but only the
bodies of men. Nor did these benefactors fail to mention the cases of
ancient slaves, who, having the advantages of education, became poets,
teachers, and philosophers, instrumental in the diffusion of knowledge
among the higher classes. There was still the idea of Cotton Mather,
who was willing to treat his servants as part of the family, and to
employ such of them as were competent to teach his children lessons of
piety.[1]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, appendix.]

The chief objection of these reformers to slavery was that its victims
had no opportunity for mental improvement. "Othello," a free person
of color, contributing to the _American Museum_ in 1788, made the
institution responsible for the intellectual rudeness of the Negroes
who, though "naturally possessed of strong sagacity and lively parts,"
were by law and custom prohibited from being instructed in any kind
of learning.[1] He styled this policy an effort to bolster up an
institution that extinguished the "divine spark of the slave, crushed
the bud of his genius, and kept him unacquainted with the world." Dr.
McLeod denounced slavery because it "debases a part of the human race"
and tends "to destroy their intellectual powers."[2] "The slave from
his infancy," continued he, "is obliged implicitly to obey the will of
another. There is no circumstance which can stimulate him to exercise
his intellectual powers." In his arraignment of this system Rev. David
Rice complained that it was in the power of the master to deprive
the slaves of all education, that they had not the opportunity for
instructing conversation, that it was put out of their power to
learn to read, and that their masters kept them from other means of
information.[3] Slavery, therefore, must be abolished because it
infringes upon the natural right of men to be enlightened.

[Footnote 1: _The American Museum_, vol. iv., pp. 415 and 511.]


[Footnote 2: McLeod, _Negro Slavery_, p. 16.]

[Footnote 3: Rice, Speech in the Constitutional Convention of
Kentucky, p. 5.]

During this period religion as a factor in the educational progress of
the Negroes was not eliminated. In fact, representative churchmen of
the various sects still took the lead in advocating the enlightenment
of the colored people. These protagonists, however, ceased to claim
this boon merely as a divine right and demanded it as a social
privilege. Some of the clergy then interested had not at first
seriously objected to the enslavement of the African race, believing
that the lot of these people would not be worse in this country where
they might have an opportunity for enlightenment. But when this result
failed to follow, and when the slavery of the Africans' bodies turned
out to be the slavery of their minds, the philanthropic and religious
proclaimed also the doctrine of enlightenment as a right of man.
Desiring to see Negroes enjoy this privilege, Jonathan Boucher,[1] one
of the most influential of the colonial clergymen, urged his hearers
at the celebration of the Peace of 1763 to improve and emancipate
their slaves that they might "participate in the general joy."
With the hope of inducing men to discharge the same duty, Bishop
Warburton[2] boldly asserted a few years later that slaves are
"rational creatures endowed with all our qualities except that of
color, and our brethren both by nature and grace." John Woolman,[3] a
Quaker minister, influenced by the philosophy of John Locke, began to
preach that liberty is the right of all men, and that slaves, being
the fellow-creatures of their masters, had a natural right to be
elevated.

[Footnote 1: Jonathan Boucher was a rector of the Established Church
in Maryland. Though not a promoter of the movement for the political
rights of the colonists, Boucher was, however, so moved by the spirit
of uplift of the downtrodden that he takes front rank among those who,
in emphasizing the rights of servants, caused a decided change in the
attitude of white men toward the improvement of Negroes. Boucher was
not an immediate abolitionist. He abhorred slavery, however, to the
extent that he asserted that if ever the colonies would be improved to
their utmost capacity, an essential part of that amelioration had
to be the abolition of slavery. His chief concern then was the
cultivation of the minds in order to make amends for the drudgery to
their bodies. See Boucher, _Causes_, etc., p. 39.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 363.]

[Footnote 3: An influential minister of the Society of Friends and an
extensive traveler through the colonies, Woolman had an opportunity to
do much good in attacking the policy of those who kept their Negroes
in deplorable ignorance, and in commending the good example of those
who instructed their slaves in reading. In his _Considerations on the
Keeping of Slaves_ he took occasion to praise the Friends of North
Carolina for the unusual interest they manifested in the cause at
their meetings during his travels in that colony about the year 1760.
With such workers as Woolman in the field it is little wonder that
Quakers thereafter treated slaves as brethren, alleviated their
burdens, enlightened their minds, emancipated and cared for them until
they could provide for themselves. See _Works of John Woolman_ in two
parts, pp. 58 and 73.]

Thus following the theories of the revolutionary leaders these
liberal-minded men promulgated along with the doctrine of individual
liberty that of the freedom of the mind. The best expression of this
advanced idea came from the Methodist Episcopal Church, which reached
the acme of antislavery sentiment in 1784. This sect then boldly
declared: "We view it as contrary to the golden law of God and the
prophets, and the inalienable rights of mankind as well as every
principle of the Revolution to hold in deepest abasement, in a more
abject slavery than is perhaps to be found in any part of the world,
except America, so many souls that are capable of the image of
God."[1]

[Footnote 1: Matlack, _History of American Slavery and Methodism_, pp.
29 _et seq_.; McTyeire, _History of Methodism_, p. 28.]

Frequently in contact with men who were advocating the right of the
Negroes to be educated, statesmen as well as churchmen could not
easily evade the question. Washington did not have much to say about
it and did little more than to provide for the ultimate liberation of
his slaves and the teaching of their children to read.[1] Less aid to
this movement came from John Adams, although he detested slavery to
the extent that he never owned a bondman, preferring to hire freemen
at extra cost to do his work.[2] Adams made it clear that he favored
gradual emancipation. But he neither delivered any inflammatory
speeches against slaveholders neglectful of the instruction of their
slaves, nor devised any scheme for their enjoyment of freedom. So was
it with Hamilton who, as an advocate of the natural rights of man,
opposed the institution of slavery, but, with the exception of what
assistance he gave the New York African Free Schools[3] said and did
little to promote the actual education of the colored people.

[Footnote 1: Lossing, _Life of George Washington_, vol. iii., p. 537.]

[Footnote 2: Adams, _Works of John Adams_, vol. viii., p. 379; vol.
ix., p. 92; vol. x., p. 380.]

[Footnote 3: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 57.]

Madison in stating his position on this question was a little more
definite than some of his contemporaries. Speaking of the necessary
preparation of the colored people for emancipation he thought it was
possible to determine the proper course of instruction. He believed,
however, that, since the Negroes were to continue in a state
of bondage during the preparatory period and to be within the
jurisdiction of commonwealths recognizing ample authority over them,
"a competent discipline" could not be impracticable. He said further
that the "degree in which this discipline" would "enforce the needed
labor and in which a voluntary industry" would "supply the defect of
compulsory labor, were vital points on which it" might "not be safe
to be very positive without some light from actual experiment."[1]
Evidently he was of the opinion that the training of slaves to
discharge later the duties of freemen was a difficult task but, if
well planned and directed, could be made a success.

[Footnote 1: Madison, _Works of_, vol. iii., p. 496.]

No one of the great statesmen of this time was more interested in the
enlightenment of the Negro than Benjamin Franklin.[1] He was for a
long time associated with the friends of the colored people and turned
out from his press such fiery anti-slavery pamphlets as those of Lay
and Sandiford. Franklin also became one of the "Associates of Dr.
Bray." Always interested in the colored schools of Philadelphia,
the philosopher was, while in London, connected with the English
"gentlemen concerned with the pious design,"[2] serving as chairman of
the organization for the year 1760. He was a firm supporter of Anthony
Benezet,[3] and was made president of the Abolition Society of
Philadelphia which in 1774 founded a successful colored school.[4]
This school was so well planned and maintained that it continued about
a hundred years.

[Footnote 1: Smyth, _Works of Benjamin Franklin_, vol. v., p. 431.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. iv., p. 23.]

[Footnote 3: Smyth, _Works of Benjamin Franklin_, vol. v., p. 431.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., vol. x., p. 127; and Wickersham, _History of
Education in Pennsylvania_, p. 253.]

John Jay kept up his interest in the Negro race.[1] In the Convention
of 1787 he cooeperated with Gouverneur Morris, advocating the abolition
of the slave trade and the rejection of the Federal ratio. His efforts
in behalf of the colored people were actuated by his early conviction
that the national character of this country could be retrieved only
by abolishing the iniquitous traffic in human souls and improving
the Negroes.[2] Showing his pity for the downtrodden people of color
around him, Jay helped to promote the cause of the abolitionists of
New York who established and supported several colored schools in
that city. Such care was exercised in providing for the attendance,
maintenance, and supervision of these schools that they soon took rank
among the best in the United States.

[Footnote 1: Jay, _Works of John Jay_, vol. i., p. 136; vol. iii, p.
331.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. iii., p. 343.]

More interesting than the views of any other man of this epoch on the
subject of Negro education were those of Thomas Jefferson. Born of
pioneer parentage in the mountains of Virginia, Jefferson never
lost his frontier democratic ideals which made him an advocate of
simplicity, equality, and universal freedom. Having in mind when he
wrote the Declaration of Independence the rights of the blacks as well
as those of whites, this disciple of John Locke, could not but feel
that the slaves of his day had a natural right to education and
freedom. Jefferson said so much more on these important questions than
his contemporaries that he would have been considered an abolitionist,
had he lived in 1840.

Giving his views on the enlightenment of the Negroes he asserted
that the minds of the masters should be "apprized by reflection and
strengthened by the energies of conscience against the obstacles of
self-interest to an acquiescence in the rights of others." The owners
would then permit their slaves to be "prepared by instruction and
habit" for self-government, the honest pursuit of industry, and social
duty.[1] In his scheme for a modern system of public schools Jefferson
included the training of the slaves in industrial and agricultural
branches to equip them for a higher station in life, else he thought
they should be removed from the country when liberated.[2] Capable of
mental development, as he had found certain men of color to be, the
Sage of Monticello doubted at times that they could be made the
intellectual equals of white men,[3] and did not actually advocate
their incorporation into the body politic.

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. vi., p. 456.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., vol. viii., p. 380; and Mayo, _Educational
Movement in the South_, p. 37.]

[Footnote 3: As to what Jefferson thought of the Negro intellect
we are still in doubt. Writing in 1791 to Banneker, the Negro
mathematician and astronomer, he said that nobody wished to see more
than he such proofs as Banneker exhibited that nature has given to our
black brethren talents equal to those of men of other colors, and that
the appearance of a lack of such native ability was owing only to
their degraded condition in Africa and America. Jefferson expressed
himself as being ardently desirous of seeing a good system commenced
for raising the condition both of the body and the mind of the slaves
to what it ought to be as fast as the "imbecility" of their then
existence and other circumstances, which could not be neglected, would
admit. Replying to Gregoire of Paris, who wrote an interesting essay
on the _Literature of Negroes_, showing the power of their intellect,
Jefferson assured him that no person living wished more sincerely
than he to see a complete refutation of the doubts he himself had
entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to
them by nature and to find that in this respect they are on a par
with white men. These doubts, he said, were the result of personal
observations in the limited sphere of his own State where "the
opportunities for the development of their genius were not favorable,
and those of exercising it still less so." He said that he had
expressed them with great hesitation; but "whatever be the degree of
their talent, it is no measure of their rights. Because Sir Isaac
Newton was superior to others in understanding, he was not therefore
lord of the person or property of others." In this respect he believed
they were gaining daily in the opinions of nations, and hopeful
advances were being made toward their reestablishment on an equal
footing with other colors of the human family. He prayed, therefore,
that God might accept his thanks for enabling him to observe the "many
instances of respectable intelligence in that race of men, which could
not fail to have effect in hastening the day of their relief." Yet
a few days later when writing to Joel Barlow, Jefferson referred to
Bishop Gregoire's essay and expressed his doubt that this pamphlet was
weighty evidence of the intellect of the Negro. He said that the whole
did not amount in point of evidence to what they themselves knew of
Banneker. He conceded that Banneker had spherical knowledge enough to
make almanacs, but not without the suspicion of aid from Ellicott
who was his neighbor and friend, and never missed an opportunity of
puffing him. Referring to the letter he received from Banneker, he
said it showed the writer to have a mind of very common stature
indeed. See Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. v., pp. 429 and
503.]

So much progress in the improvement of slaves was effected with all of
these workers in the field that conservative southerners in the midst
of the antislavery agitation contented themselves with the thought
that radical action was not necessary, as the institution would
of itself soon pass away. Legislatures passed laws facilitating
manumission,[1] many southerners emancipated their slaves to give them
a better chance to improve their condition, regulations unfavorable to
the assembly of Negroes for the dissemination of information almost
fell into desuetude, a larger number of masters began to instruct
their bondmen, and persons especially interested in these unfortunates
found the objects of their piety more accessible.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Locke, Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 14.]

[Footnote 2: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol. i., p. 220;
Johann Schoepf, _Travels in the Confederation_, p. 149.]

Not all slaveholders, however, were thus induced to respect this new
right claimed for the colored people. Georgia and South Carolina
were exceptional in that they were not sufficiently stirred by the
revolutionary movement to have much compassion for this degraded
class. The attitude of the people of Georgia, however, was then more
favorable than that of the South Carolinians.[1] Nevertheless, the
Georgia planters near the frontier were not long in learning that the
general enlightenment of the Negroes would endanger the institution of
slavery. Accordingly, in 1770, at the very time when radical reformers
were clamoring for the rights of man, Georgia, following in the wake
of South Carolina, reenacted its act of 1740 which imposed a penalty
on any one who should teach or cause slaves to be taught or employ
them "in any manner of writing whatever."[2] The penalty, however,
was less than that imposed in South Carolina.[3] The same measure
terminated the helpful mingling of slaves by providing for their
dispersion when assembled for the old-time "love feast" emphasized so
much among the rising Methodists of the South.

[Footnote 1: The laws of Georgia were not so harsh as those of South
Carolina. A larger number of intelligent persons of color were
found in the rural districts of Georgia. Charleston, however, was
exceptional in that its Negroes had unusual educational advantages.]

[Footnote 2: Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of the State of
Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 3: Brevard, _Digest of the Public Statutes of South
Carolina_, vol. ii., p. 243.]

Those advocating the imposition of restraints upon Negroes acquiring
knowledge were not, however, confined to South Carolina and Georgia
where the malevolent happened to be in the majority. The other States
had not seen the last of the generation of those who doubted that
education would fit the slaves for the exalted position of citizens.
The retrogressives made much of the assertion that adult slaves lately
imported, were, on account of their attachment to heathen practices
and idolatrous rites, loath to take over the Teutonic civilization,
and would at best learn to speak the English language imperfectly
only.[1] The reformers, who at times admitted this, maintained that
the alleged difficulties encountered in teaching the crudest element
of the slaves could not be adduced as an argument against the
religious instruction of free Negroes and the education of the
American born colored children.[2] This problem, however, was not a
serious one in most Northern States, for the reason that the small
number of slaves in that section obviated the necessity for much
apprehension as to what kind of education the blacks should have,
and whether they should be enlightened before or after emancipation.
Although the Northern people believed that the education of the race
should be definitely planned, and had much to say about industrial
education, most of them were of the opinion that ordinary training
in the fundamentals of useful knowledge and in the principles of
Christian religion, was sufficient to meet the needs of those
designated for freedom.

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Thomas Bacon_, pp. 81-87.]

[Footnote 2: Porteus, _Works of_, vol. vi., p. 177; Warburton, _A
Sermon_, etc., pp. 25 and 27.]

On the other hand, most southerners who conceded the right of the
Negro to be educated did not openly aid the movement except with the
understanding that the enlightened ones should be taken from their
fellows and colonized in some remote part of the United States or
in their native land.[1] The idea of colonization, however, was not
confined to the southern slaveholders, for Thornton, Fothergill, and
Granville Sharp had long looked to Africa as the proper place for
enlightened people of color.[2] Feeling that it would be wrong to
expatriate them, Benezet and Branagan[3] advocated the colonization of
such Negroes on the public lands west of the Alleghanies. There was
some talk of giving slaves training in the elements of agriculture
and then dividing plantations among them to develop a small class of
tenants. Jefferson, a member of a committee appointed in 1779 by the
General Assembly of that commonwealth to revise its laws, reported a
plan providing for the instruction of its slaves in agriculture and
the handicrafts to prepare them for liberation and colonization under
the supervision of the home government until they could take care of
themselves.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Writings of James Monroe_, vol. iii., pp. 261, 266, 292,
295, 321, 322, 336, 338, 349, 351, 352, 353, 378.]

[Footnote 2: Brissot de Warville, _Travels_, vol. i., p. 262.]

[Footnote 3: _Tyrannical Libertymen_, pp. 10-11; Locke,
_Anti-slavery_, etc., pp. 31-32; Branagan, _Serious Remonstrance_, p.
18.]

[Footnote 4: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. iii., p. 296; vol.
iv., p. 291 and vol. viii., p. 380.]

Without resorting to the subterfuge of colonization, not a few
slaveholders were still wise enough to show why the improvement of the
Negroes should be neglected altogether. Vanquished by the logic of
Daniel Davis[1] and Benjamin Rush,[2] those who had theretofore
justified slavery on the ground that it gave the bondmen a chance to
be enlightened, fell back on the theory of African racial inferiority.
This they said was so well exhibited by the Negroes' lack of
wisdom and of goodness that continued heathenism of the race was
justifiable.[3] Answering these inconsistent persons, John Wesley
inquired: "Allowing them to be as stupid as you say, to whom is that
stupidity owing? Without doubt it lies altogether at the door of the
inhuman masters who give them no opportunity for improving their
understanding and indeed leave them no motive, either from hope or
fear to attempt any such thing." Wesley asserted, too, that the
Africans were in no way remarkable for their stupidity while they
remained in their own country, and that where they had equal motives
and equal means of improvement, the Negroes were not only not inferior
to the better inhabitants of Europe, but superior to some of them.[4]

[Footnote 1: Davis was a logical antislavery agitator. He believed
that if the slaves had had the means of education, if they had been
treated with humanity, making slaves of them had been no more than
doing evil that good might come. He thought that Christianity and
humanity would have rather dictated the sending of books and teachers
into Africa and endeavors for their salvation.]

[Footnote 2: Benjamin Rush was a Philadelphia physician of Quaker
parentage. He was educated at the College of New Jersey and at the
Medical School of Edinburgh, where he came into contact with some of
the most enlightened men of his time. Holding to the ideals of his
youth, Dr. Rush was soon associated with the friends of the Negroes on
his return to Philadelphia. He not only worked for the abolition of
the slave trade but fearlessly advocated the right of the Negroes
to be educated. He pointed out that an inquiry into the methods of
converting Negroes to Christianity would show that the means were
ill suited to the end proposed. "In many cases," said he, "Sunday
is appropriated to work for themselves. Reading and writing are
discouraged among them. A belief is inculcated among some that they
have no souls. In a word, every attempt to instruct or convert them
has been constantly opposed by their masters." See Rush, _An Address
to the Inhabitants_, etc., p. 16.]

[Footnote 3: Meade, _Sermons of Rev. Thomas Bacon_, pp. 81-97.]

[Footnote 4: Wesley, _Thoughts upon Slavery_, p. 92.]

William Pinkney, the antislavery leader of Maryland, believed also
that Negroes are no worse than white people under similar conditions,
and that all the colored people needed to disprove their so-called
inferiority was an equal chance with the more favored race.[1] Others
like George Buchanan referred to the Negroes' talent for the fine arts
and to their achievements in literature, mathematics, and philosophy.
Buchanan informed these merciless aristocrats "that the Africans
whom you despise, whom you inhumanly treat as brutes and whom you
unlawfully subject to slavery with tyrannizing hands of despots are
equally capable of improvement with yourselves."[2]

[Footnote 1: Pinkney, _Speech in Maryland House of Delegates_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 2: Buchanan, _An Oration on the Moral and Political Evil of
Slavery_, p. 10.]

Franklin considered the idea of the natural inferiority of the
Negro as a silly excuse. He conceded that most of the blacks were
improvident and poor, but believed that their condition was not due to
deficient understanding but to their lack of education. He was very
much impressed with their achievements in music.[1] So disgusting was
this notion of inferiority to Abbe Gregoire of Paris that he wrote an
interesting essay on "Negro Literature" to prove that people of color
have unusual intellectual power.[2] He sent copies of this pamphlet
to leading men where slavery existed. Another writer discussing
Jefferson's equivocal position on this question said that one would
have thought that "modern philosophy himself" would not have the face
to expect that the wretch, who is driven out to labor at the dawn of
day, and who toils until evening with a whip over his head, ought to
be a poet. Benezet, who had actually taught Negroes, declared "with
truth and sincerity" that he had found among them as great variety of
talents as among a like number of white persons. He boldly asserted
that the notion entertained by some that the blacks were inferior
in their capacities was a vulgar prejudice founded on the pride or
ignorance of their lordly masters who had kept their slaves at such a
distance as to be unable to form a right judgment of them.[3]

[Footnote 1: Smyth, _Works of Franklin_, vol. vi., p. 222.]

[Footnote 2: Gregoire, _La Litterature des Negres_.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 375.]




CHAPTER IV

ACTUAL EDUCATION


Would these professions of interest in the mental development of the
blacks be translated into action? What these reformers would do to
raise the standard of Negro education above the plane of rudimentary
training incidental to religious instruction, was yet to be seen.
Would they secure to Negroes the educational privileges guaranteed
other elements of society? The answer, if not affirmative, was
decidedly encouraging. The idea uppermost in the minds of these
workers was that the people of color could and should be educated as
other races of men.

In the lead of this movement were the antislavery agitators.
Recognizing the Negroes' need of preparation for citizenship, the
abolitionists proclaimed as a common purpose of their organizations
the education of the colored people with a view to developing in them
self-respect, self-support, and usefulness in the community.[1]

[Footnote 1: Smyth, _Works of Benjamin Franklin_, vol. x., p. 127;
Torrey, _Portraiture of Slavery_, p. 21. See also constitution of
almost any antislavery society organized during this period.]

The proposition to cultivate the minds of the slaves came as a happy
solution of what had been a perplexing problem. Many Americans who
considered slavery an evil had found no way out of the difficulty when
the alternative was to turn loose upon society so many uncivilized men
without the ability to discharge the duties of citizenship.[1] Assured
then that the efforts at emancipation would be tested by experience,
a larger number of men advocated abolition. These leaders recommended
gradual emancipation for States having a large slave population, that
those designated for freedom might first be instructed in the value
and meaning of liberty to render them comfortable in the use of it.[2]
The number of slaves in the States adopting the policy of immediate
emancipation was not considered a menace to society, for the schools
already open to colored people could exert a restraining influence
on those lately given the boon of freedom. For these reasons the
antislavery societies had in their constitutions a provision for
a committee of education to influence Negroes to attend school,
superintend their instruction, and emphasize the cultivation of the
mind as the necessary preparation for "that state in society upon
which depends our political happiness."[3] Much stress was laid upon
this point by the American Convention of Abolition Societies in 1794
and 1795 when the organization expressed the hope that freedmen might
participate in civil rights as fast as they qualified by education.[4]

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. vi., p. 456;
vol. viii., p. 379; Madison, _Works of_, vol. iii., p. 496; Monroe,
_Writings of_, vol. iii., pp. 321, 336, 349, 378; Adams, _Works of
John Adams_, vol. ix., p. 92 and vol. x., p. 380.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1797,
address.]

[Footnote 3: The constitution of almost any antislavery society of
that time provided for this work. See _Proc. of Am. Conv._, etc.,
1795, address.]

[Footnote 4: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1794, p. 21; and 1795, p. 17; and _Rise and Progress of
the Testimony of Friends_, etc., p. 27.]

This work was organized by the abolitionists but was generally
maintained by members of the various sects which did more for
the enlightenment of the people of color through the antislavery
organizations than through their own.[1] The support of the clergy,
however, did not mean that the education of the Negroes would continue
incidental to the teaching of religion. The blacks were to be accepted
as brethren and trained to be useful citizens. For better education
the colored people could then look to the more liberal sects, the
Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, who prior to
the Revolution had been restrained by intolerance from extensive
proselyting. Upon the attainment of religious liberty they were free
to win over the slaveholders who came into the Methodist and Baptist
churches in large numbers, bringing their slaves with them.[2] The
freedom of these "regenerated" churches made possible the rise of
Negro exhorters and preachers, who to exercise their gifts managed in
some way to learn to read and write. Schools for the training of such
leaders were not to be found, but to encourage ambitious blacks to
qualify themselves white ministers often employed such candidates
as attendants, allowing them time to observe, to study, and even to
address their audiences.[3]

[Footnote 1: The antislavery societies were at first the uniting
influence among all persons interested in the uplift of the Negroes.
The agitation had not then become violent, for men considered the
institution not a sin but merely an evil.]

[Footnote 2: Coke, _Journal_, etc., p. 114; Lambert, _Travels_,
p. 175; Baird, _A Collection_, etc., pp. 381, 387 and 816; James,
_Documentary_, etc., p. 35; Foote, _Sketches of Virginia_, p. 31;
Matlack, _History of American Slavery and Methodism_, p. 31; Semple,
_History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia_, p.
222.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, and Coke, _Journal_, etc., pp. 16-18.]

It must be observed, however, that the interest of these benevolent
men was no longer manifested in the mere traditional teaching of
individual slaves. The movement ceased to be the concern of separate
philanthropists. Men really interested in the uplift of the colored
people organized to raise funds, open schools, and supervise their
education.[1] In the course of time their efforts became more
systematic and consequently more successful. These educators adopted
the threefold policy of instructing Negroes in the principles of
the Christian religion, giving them the fundamentals of the common
branches, and teaching them the most useful handicrafts.[2] The
indoctrination of the colored people, to be sure, was still an
important concern to their teachers, but the accession to their ranks
of a militant secular element caused the emphasis to shift to other
phases of education. Seeing the Negroes' need of mental development,
the Presbyterian Synod of New York and Pennsylvania urged the members
of that denomination in 1787 to give their slaves "such good education
as to prepare them for a better enjoyment of freedom."[3] In reply to
the inquiry as to what could be done to teach the poor black and white
children to read, the Methodist Conference of 1790 recommended the
establishment of Sunday schools and the appointment of persons to
teach gratis "all that will attend and have a capacity to learn."[4]
The Conference recommended that the Church publish a special text-book
to teach these children learning as well as piety.[5] Men in the
political world were also active. In 1788 the State of New Jersey
passed an act preliminary to emancipation, making the teaching of
slaves to read compulsory under a penalty of five pounds.[6]

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1797.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1797.]

[Footnote 3: Locke, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 44.]

[Footnote 4: Washington, _Story of the Negro_, vol. ii, p. 121.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, p. 121.]

[Footnote 6: Laws of New Jersey, 1788.]

With such influence brought to bear on persons in the various walks of
life, the movement for the effective education of the colored people
became more extensive. Voicing the sentiment of the different local
organizations, the American Convention of Abolition Societies of 1794
urged the branches to have the children of free Negroes and slaves
instructed in "common literature."[1] Two years later the Abolition
Society of the State of Maryland proposed to establish an academy to
offer this kind of instruction. To execute this scheme the American
Convention thought that it was expedient to employ regular tutors,
to form private associations of their members or other well-disposed
persons for the purpose of instructing the people of color in the most
simple branches of education.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1796, p. 18.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1797, p. 41.]

The regular tutors referred to above were largely indentured servants
who then constituted probably the majority of the teachers of the
colonies.[1] In 1773 Jonathan Boucher said that two thirds of the
teachers of Maryland belonged to this class.[2] The contact of Negroes
with these servants is significant. In the absence of rigid caste
distinctions they associated with the slaves and the barrier between
them was so inconsiderable that laws had to be passed to prevent the
miscegenation of the races. The blacks acquired much useful knowledge
from servant teachers and sometimes assisted them.

[Footnote 1: See the descriptions of indentured servants in the
advertisements of colonial newspapers referred to on pages 82-84; and
Boucher, _A View of the Causes_, etc., p. 39.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, pp. 39 and 40.]

Attention was directed also to the fact that neither literary nor
religious education prepared the Negroes for a life of usefulness.
Heeding the advice of Kosciuszko, Madison and Jefferson, the advocates
of the education of the Negroes endeavored to give them such practical
training as their peculiar needs demanded. In the agricultural
sections the first duty of the teacher of the blacks was to show them
how to get their living from the soil. This was the final test of
their preparation for emancipation. Accordingly, on large plantations
where much supervision was necessary, trustworthy Negroes were trained
as managers. Many of those who showed aptitude were liberated and
encouraged to produce for themselves. Slaves designated for freedom
were often given small parcels of land for the cultivation of which
they were allowed some of their time. An important result of this
agricultural training was that many of the slaves thus favored amassed
considerable wealth by using their spare time in cultivating crops of
their own.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 196.]


The advocates of useful education for the degraded race had more to
say about training in the mechanic arts. Such instruction, however,
was not then a new thing to the blacks of the South, for they had from
time immemorial been the trustworthy artisans of that section. The aim
then was to give them such education as would make them intelligent
workmen and develop in them the power to plan for themselves. In the
North, where the Negroes had been largely menial servants, adequate
industrial education was deemed necessary for those who were to be
liberated.[1] Almost every Northern colored school of any consequence
then offered courses in the handicrafts. In 1784 the Quakers of
Philadelphia employed Sarah Dwight to teach the colored girls
sewing.[2] Anthony Benezet provided in his will that in the school
to be established by his benefaction the girls should be taught
needlework.[3] The teachers who took upon themselves the improvement
of the free people of color of New York City regarded industrial
training as one of their important tasks.[4]

[Footnote 1: See the _Address of the Am. Conv. of Abolition
Societies_, 1794; _ibid._, 1795; _ibid._, 1797 _et passim._]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa._, p. 249.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1869, p. 375.]

[Footnote 4: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 20.]

None urged this duty upon the directors of these schools more
persistently than the antislavery organizations. In 1794 the American
Convention of Abolition Societies recommended that Negroes be
instructed in "those mechanic arts which will keep them most
constantly employed and, of course, which will less subject them to
idleness and debauchery, and thus prepare them for becoming good
citizens of the United States."[1] Speaking repeatedly on this wise
the Convention requested the colored people to let it be their special
care to have their children not only to work at useful trades but also
to till the soil.[2] The early abolitionists believed that this was
the only way the freedmen could learn to support themselves.[3]
In connection with their schools the antislavery leaders had an
Indenturing Committee to find positions for colored students who had
the advantages of industrial education.[4] In some communities slaves
were prepared for emancipation by binding them out as apprentices to
machinists and artisans until they learned a trade.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, 1794, p. 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1795, p. 29; _ibid._, 1797, pp. 12, 13, and 31.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1797, p. 31.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, 1818, p. 9.]

Two early efforts to carry out this policy are worthy of notice here.
These were the endeavors of Anthony Benezet and Thaddeus Kosciuszko.
Benezet was typical of those men, who, having the courage of their
conviction, not only taught colored people, but gladly appropriated
property to their education. Benezet died in 1784, leaving
considerable wealth to be devoted to the purpose of educating Indians
and Negroes. His will provided that as the estate on the death of
his wife would not be sufficient entirely to support a school, the
Overseers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia should join with a
committee appointed by the Society of Friends, and other benevolent
persons, in the care and maintenance of an institution such as he
had planned. Finally in 1787 the efforts of Benezet reached their
culmination in the construction of a schoolhouse, with additional
funds obtained from David Barclay of London and Thomas Sidney, a
colored man of Philadelphia. The pupils of this school were to study
reading, writing, arithmetic, plain accounts, and sewing.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 375.]

With respect to conceding the Negroes' claim to a better education,
Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish general, was not unlike Benezet. None
of the revolutionary leaders were more moved with compassion for the
colored people than this warrior. He saw in education the powerful
leverage which would place them in position to enjoy the newly won
rights of man. While assisting us in gaining our independence,
Kosciuszko acquired here valuable property which he endeavored to
devote to the enlightenment of the slaves. He authorized Thomas
Jefferson, his executor, to employ the whole thereof in purchasing
Negroes and liberating them in the name of Kosciuszko, "in giving them
an education in trades or otherwise, and in having them instructed for
their new condition in the duties of morality." The instructors were
to provide for them such training as would make them "good neighbors,
good mothers or fathers, good husbands or wives, teaching them the
duties of citizenship, teaching them to be defenders of their liberty
and country, and of the good order of society, and whatsoever might
make them useful and happy."[1] Clearly as this was set forth the
executor failed to discharge this duty enjoined upon him. The heirs of
the donor instituted proceedings to obtain possession of the estate,
which, so far as the author knows, was never used for the purpose for
which it was intended.

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. xi., pp. 294-295.]

In view of these numerous strivings we are compelled to inquire
exactly what these educators accomplished. Although it is impossible
to measure the results of their early efforts, various records of the
eighteenth century prove that there was lessening objection to the
instruction of slaves and practically none to the enlightenment of
freedmen. Negroes in considerable numbers were becoming well grounded
in the rudiments of education. They had reached the point of
constituting the majority of the mechanics in slaveholding
communities; they were qualified to be tradesmen, trustworthy helpers,
and attendants of distinguished men, and a few were serving as clerks,
overseers, and managers.[1] Many who were favorably circumstanced
learned more than mere reading and writing. In exceptional cases, some
were employed not only as teachers and preachers to their people, but
as instructors of the white race.[2]

[Footnote 1: Georgia and South Carolina had to pass laws to prevent
Negroes from following these occupations for fear that they might
thereby become too well informed. See Brevard, _Digest of Public
Statute Laws of S.C._, vol. ii., p. 243; and Marbury and Crawford,
_Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p. 74; manuscripts
relating to the condition of the colored people of North Carolina,
Ohio, and Tennessee now in the hands of Dr. J.E. Moorland.]

A more accurate estimate of how far the enlightenment of the Negroes
had progressed before the close of the eighteenth century, is better
obtained from the reports of teachers and missionaries who were
working among them. Appealing to the Negroes of Virginia about 1755,
Benjamin Fawcett addressed them as intelligent people, commanding
them to read and study the Bible for themselves and consider "how
the Papists do all they can to hide it from their fellowmen." "Be
particularly thankful," said he, "for the Ministers of Christ around
you, who are faithfully laboring to teach the truth as it is in
Jesus."[1] Rev. Mr. Davies, then a member of the Society for Promoting
the Gospel among the Poor, reported that there were multitudes of
Negroes in different parts of Virginia who were "willingly, eagerly
desirous to be instructed and embraced every opportunity of
acquainting themselves with the Doctrine of the Gospel," and though
they had generally very little help to learn to read, yet to his
surprise many of them by dint of application had made such progress
that they could "intelligently read a plain author and especially
their Bible." Pity it was, he thought, that any of them should be
without necessary books. Negroes were wont to come to him with such
moving accounts of their needs in this respect that he could not help
supplying them.[2] On Saturday evenings and Sundays his home was
crowded with numbers of those "whose very Countenances still carry the
air of importunate Petitioners" for the same favors with those who
came before them. Complaining that his stock was exhausted, and that
he had to turn away many disappointed, he urged his friends to send
him other suitable books, for nothing else, thought he, could be a
greater inducement to their industry to learn to read.

[Footnote 1: Fawcett, _Compassionate Address_, etc., p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Fawcett, _Compassionate Address_, etc., p. 33.]

Still more reliable testimony may be obtained, not from persons
particularly interested in the uplift of the blacks, but from
slaveholders. Their advertisements in the colonial newspapers furnish
unconscious evidence of the intellectual progress of the Negroes
during the eighteenth century. "He's an 'artful,'"[1] "plausible,"[2]
"smart,"[3] or "sensible fellow,"[4] "delights much in traffic,"[5]
and "plays on the fife extremely well,"[6] are some of the statements
found in the descriptions of fugitive slaves. Other fugitives were
speaking "plainly,"[7] "talking indifferent English,"[8] "remarkably
good English,"[9] and "exceedingly good English."[10] In some
advertisements we observe such expressions as "he speaks a little
French,"[11] "Creole French,"[12] "a few words of High-Dutch,"[13] and
"tolerable German."[14] Writing about a fugitive a master would often
state that "he can read print,"[15] "can read writing,"[16] "can read
and also write a little,"[17] "can read and write,"[18] "can write
a pretty hand and has probably forged a pass."[19] These conditions
obtained especially in Charleston, South Carolina, where were
advertised various fugitives, one of whom spoke French and English
fluently, and passed for a doctor among his people,[20] another who
spoke Spanish and French intelligibly,[21] and a third who could read,
write, and speak both French and Spanish very well.[22]

[Footnote 1: _Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800; _The
Maryland Gazette_, Feb. 27, 1755; _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and
Baltimore Advertiser_, July 23, 1776; _The State Gazette of South
Carolina_, May 18, 1786; _The State Gazette of North Carolina_, July
2, 1789.]

[Footnote 2: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston,
S.C.), Sept. 26, 1797, and _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802.]

[Footnote 3: _The Charleston Courier_, June 1, 1804; _The State
Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20, and 27, 1786; and _The Maryland
Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb. 19, 1793.]

[Footnote 4: _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Feb. 19 and April 2,
1783; _State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20 and May 18, 1786.]

[Footnote 5: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advocate_, Oct. 17,
1780.]

[Footnote 6: _The Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800;
and _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle_, April 24, 1790.]

[Footnote 7: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Jan. 20 and
March 1, 1800; and _The South Carolina Weekly Gazette_, Oct. 24 to 31,
1759.]

[Footnote 8: _The City Gaz. and Daily Adv._, Jan. 20 and March 1,
1800; and _S.C. Weekly Gaz._, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759.]

[Footnote 9: _The Newbern Gazette_, May 23 and Aug. 15, 1800; _The
Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb. 19, 1793; _The City
Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, S.C.), Sept. 26, 1797; Oct.
5, 1798; Aug. 23 and Sept. 9, 1799; Aug. 18 and Oct. 3, 1800; and
March 7, 1801; and _Maryland Gazette_, Dec. 30, 1746; and April 4,
1754; _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759; and
Feb. 19, 1783; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Sept. 13
and Nov. 1, 1784; and _The Carolina Gazette_, Aug. 12, 1802.]

[Footnote 10: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Sept. 26, 1797;
May 15, 1799; and Oct. 3, 1800; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_,
Aug. 21, 1786; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug. 26,
1784; _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug. 1, 1754; Oct. 28, 1773; and Aug.
19, 1784; and _The Columbian Herald_, April 30, 1789.]

[Footnote 11: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct. 5, 1798;
Aug. 18 and Sept. 18, 1800; _The Gazette of the State of South
Carolina_, Aug. 16, 1784.]

[Footnote 12: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct. 5, 1798.]

[Footnote 13: _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug. 19, 1784.]

[Footnote 14: _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20 and 27,
1780.]

[Footnote 15: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct.
17, 1780. _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser_, July
23, 1776.]

[Footnote 16: _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21, 1795.]

[Footnote 17: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct.
17, 1780; and Sept. 20, 1785; and _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21,
1795; and January 4, 1798; _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802; and
_The Charleston Courier_, June 29, 1803. _The Norfolk and Portsmouth
Chronicle_, March 19, 1791.]

[Footnote 18: _The Maryland Gazette_, Feb. 27, 1755; and Oct. 27,
1768; _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct. 1, 1793;
_The Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800.]

[Footnote 19: _The Maryland Gazette_, Feb. 1, 1755 and Feb. 1, 1798;
_The State Gazette of North Carolina_, April 30, 1789; _The Norfolk
and Portsmouth Chronicle_, April 24, 1790; _The City Gazette and Daily
Advertiser_ (Charleston, South Carolina), Jan. 5, 1799; and March 7,
1801; _The Carolina Gazette_, Feb. 4, 1802; and _The Virginia Herald_
(Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800.]

[Footnote 20: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Jan. 5, 1799;
and March 5, 1800; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug.
16, 1784; and _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Sept.
20, 1793.]

[Footnote 21: _The City Gazette of South Carolina_, Jan. 5, 1799.]

[Footnote 22: The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser (Charleston, South
Carolina), June 22 and Aug. 8, 1797; April 1 and May 15, 1799.]

Equally convincing as to the educational progress of the colored race
were the high attainments of those Negroes who, despite the fact that
they had little opportunity, surpassed in intellect a large number of
white men of their time. Negroes were serving as salesmen, keeping
accounts, managing plantations, teaching and preaching, and had
intellectually advanced to the extent that fifteen or twenty per cent.
of their adults could then at least read. Most of this talented class
became preachers, as this was the only calling even conditionally
open to persons of African blood. Among these clergymen was George
Leile,[1] who won distinction as a preacher in Georgia in 1782, and
then went to Jamaica where he founded the first Baptist church of that
colony. The competent and indefatigable Andrew Bryan[2] proved to be a
worthy successor of George Leile in Georgia. From 1770 to 1790 Negro
preachers were in charge of congregations in Charles City, Petersburg,
and Allen's Creek in Lunenburg County, Virginia.[3] In 1801 Gowan
Pamphlet of that State was the pastor of a progressive Baptist church,
some members of which could read, write, and keep accounts.[4] Lemuel
Haynes was then widely known as a well-educated minister of the
Protestant Episcopal Church. John Gloucester, who had been trained
under Gideon Blackburn of Tennessee, distinguished himself in
Philadelphia where he founded the African Presbyterian Church.[5] One
of the most interesting of these preachers was Josiah Bishop. By 1791
he had made such a record in his profession that he was called to
the pastorate of the First Baptist Church (white) of Portsmouth,
Virginia.[6] After serving his white brethren a number of years he
preached some time in Baltimore and then went to New York to take
charge of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.[7] This favorable condition
of affairs could not long exist after the aristocratic element in the
country began to recover some of the ground it had lost during the
social upheaval of the revolutionary era. It was the objection to
treating Negroes as members on a plane of equality with all, that led
to the establishment of colored Baptist churches and to the secession
of the Negro Methodists under the leadership of Richard Allen in 1794.
The importance of this movement to the student of education lies in
the fact that a larger number of Negroes had to be educated to carry
on the work of the new churches.

[Footnote 1: He was sometimes called George Sharp. See Benedict,
_History of the Baptists_, etc., p. 189.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 189.]

[Footnote 3: Semple, _History of the Baptists_, etc., p. 112.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 114.]

[Footnote 5: Baird, _A Collection_, etc., p. 817.]

[Footnote 6: Semple, _History of the Baptists_, etc., p. 355.]

[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 356.]

The intellectual progress of the colored people of that day, however,
was not restricted to their clergymen. Other Negroes were learning to
excel in various walks of life. Two such persons were found in North
Carolina. One of these was known as Caesar, the author of a collection
of poems, which, when published in that State, attained a popularity
equal to that of Bloomfield's.[1] Those who had the pleasure of
reading the poems stated that they were characterized by "simplicity,
purity, and natural grace."[2] The other noted Negro of North Carolina
was mentioned in 1799 by Buchan in his _Domestic Medicine_ as the
discoverer of a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake. Buchan learned
from Dr. Brooks that, in view of the benefits resulting from the
discovery of this slave, the General Assembly of North Carolina
purchased his freedom and settled upon him a hundred pounds per
annum.[3]

[Footnote 1: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 21.]

[Footnote 3: Smyth, _A Tour in the U.S._, p. 109; and Baldwin,
_Observations_, p. 20.]

To this class of bright Negroes belonged Thomas Fuller, a native
African, who resided near Alexandria, Virginia, where he startled
the students of his time by his unusual attainments in mathematics,
despite the fact that he could neither read nor write. Once acquainted
with the power of numbers, he commenced his education by counting the
hairs of the tail of the horse with which he worked the fields. He
soon devised processes for shortening his modes of calculation,
attaining such skill and accuracy as to solve the most difficult
problems. Depending upon his own system of mental arithmetic he
learned to obtain accurate results just as quickly as Mr. Zerah
Colburn, a noted calculator of that day, who tested the Negro
mathematician.[1] The most abstruse questions in relation to time,
distance, and space were no task for his miraculous memory, which,
when the mathematician was interrupted in the midst of a long and
tedious calculation, enabled him to take up some other work and later
resume his calculation where he left off.[2] One of the questions
propounded him, was how many seconds of time had elapsed since the
birth of an individual who had lived seventy years, seven months, and
as many days. Fuller was able to answer the question in a minute and a
half.

[Footnote 1: Baldwin, _Observations_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 2: Needles, _An Historical Memoir_, etc., p. 32.]

Another Negro of this type was James Durham, a native slave of the
city of Philadelphia. Durham was purchased by Dr. Dove, a physician
in New Orleans, who, seeing the divine spark in the slave, gave him
a chance for mental development. It was fortunate that he was thrown
upon his own resources in this environment, where the miscegenation
of the races since the early French settlement, had given rise to a
thrifty and progressive class of mixed breeds, many of whom at that
time had the privileges and immunities of freemen. Durham was not long
in acquiring a rudimentary education, and soon learned several modern
languages, speaking English, French, and Spanish fluently. Beginning
his medical education early in his career, he finished his course,
and by the time he was twenty-one years of age became one of the most
distinguished physicians[1] of New Orleans. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the
noted physician of Philadelphia, who was educated at the Edinburgh
Medical College, once deigned to converse professionally with Dr.
Durham. "I learned more from him than he could expect from me," was
the comment of the Philadelphian upon a conversation in which he had
thought to appear as instructor of the younger physician.[2]

[Footnote 1: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol. i., p. 223.]

[Footnote 2: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 17.]

Most prominent among these brainy persons of color were Phyllis
Wheatley and Benjamin Banneker. The former was a slave girl brought
from Africa in 1761 and put to service in the household of John
Wheatley of Boston. There, without any training but that which she
obtained from her master's family, she learned in sixteen months to
speak the English language fluently, and to read the most difficult
parts of sacred writings. She had a great inclination for Latin and
made some progress in the study of that language. Led to writing by
curiosity, she was by 1765 possessed of a style which enabled her to
count among her correspondents some of the most influential men of her
time. Phyllis Wheatley's title to fame, however, rested not on her
general attainments as a scholar but rather on her ability to write
poetry. Her poems seemed to have such rare merit that men marveled
that a slave could possess such a productive imagination, enlightened
mind, and poetical genius. The publishers were so much surprised that
they sought reassurance as to the authenticity of the poems from such
persons as James Bowdoin, Harrison Gray, and John Hancock.[1] Glancing
at her works, the modern critic would readily say that she was not a
poetess, just as the student of political economy would dub Adam Smith
a failure as an economist. A bright college freshman who has studied
introductory economics can write a treatise as scientific as the
_Wealth of Nations_. The student of history, however, must not
"despise the day of small things." Judged according to the standards
of her time, Phyllis Wheatley was an exceptionally intellectual
person.

[Footnote 1: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 18; Wright, _Poems of
Phyllis Wheatley_, Introduction.]

The other distinguished Negro, Benjamin Banneker, was born in
Baltimore County, Maryland, November 9, 1731, near the village of
Ellicott Mills. Banneker was sent to school in the neighborhood, where
he learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. Determined to acquire
knowledge while toiling, he applied his mind to things intellectual,
cultivated the power of observation, and developed a retentive memory.
These acquirements finally made him tower above all other American
scientists of his time with the possible exception of Benjamin
Franklin. In conformity with his desire to do and create, his tendency
was toward mathematics. Although he had never seen a clock, watches
being the only timepieces in the vicinity, he made in 1770 the first
clock manufactured in the United States,[1] thereby attracting the
attention of the scientific world. Learning these things, the owner of
Ellicott Mills became very much interested in this man of inventive
genius, lent him books, and encouraged him in his chosen field.
Among these volumes were treatises on astronomy, which Banneker soon
mastered without any instruction.[2] Soon he could calculate eclipses
of sun and moon and the rising of each star with an accuracy almost
unknown to Americans. Despite his limited means, he secured through
Goddard and Angell of Baltimore the publication of the first almanac
produced in this country. Jefferson received from Banneker a copy,
for which he wrote the author a letter of thanks. It appears that
Jefferson had some doubts about the man's genius, but the fact that
the philosopher invited Banneker to visit him at Monticello in 1803,
indicates that the increasing reputation of the Negro must have
caused Jefferson to change his opinion as to the extent of Banneker's
attainments and the value of his contributions to mathematics and
science.[3]

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Jefferson's Works_, vol. v., p. 429.]

[Footnote 2: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 16.]

[Footnote 3: Washington, _Jefferson's Works_, vol. v., p. 429.]

So favorable did the aspect of things become as a result of this
movement to elevate the Negroes, that persons observing the conditions
then obtaining in this country thought that the victory for the
despised race had been won. Traveling in 1783 in the colony of
Virginia, where the slave trade had been abolished and schools for
the education of freedmen established, Johann Schoepf felt that the
institution was doomed.[1] After touring Pennsylvania five years
later, Brissot de Warville reported that there existed then a country
where the blacks were allowed to have souls, and to be endowed with an
understanding capable of being formed to virtue and useful knowledge,
and where they were not regarded as beasts of burden in order that
their masters might have the privilege of treating them as such. He
was pleased that the colored people by their virtue and understanding
belied the calumnies which their tyrants elsewhere lavished against
them, and that in that community one perceived no difference between
"the memory of a black head whose hair is craped by nature, and that
of the white one craped by art."[2]

[Footnote 1: Schoepf, _Travels in the Confederation_, p. 149.]

[Footnote 2: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol. I., p. 220.]




CHAPTER V

BETTER BEGINNINGS


Sketching the second half of the eighteenth century, we have observed
how the struggle for the rights of man in directing attention to those
of low estate, and sweeping away the impediments to religious
freedom, made the free blacks more accessible to helpful sects and
organizations. We have also learned that this upheaval left the slaves
the objects of piety for the sympathetic, the concern of workers in
behalf of social uplift, a class offered instruction as a prerequisite
to emancipation. The private teaching of Negroes became tolerable,
benevolent persons volunteered to instruct them, and some schools
maintained for the education of white students were thrown open to
those of African blood. It was the day of better beginnings. In fact,
it was the heyday of victory for the ante-bellum Negro. Never had his
position been so advantageous; never was it thus again until the whole
race was emancipated. Now the question which naturally arises here
is, to what extent were such efforts general? Were these beginnings
sufficiently extensive to secure adequate enlightenment to a large
number of colored people? Was interest in the education of this class
so widely manifested thereafter as to cause the movement to endure? A
brief account of these efforts in the various States will answer these
questions.

In the Northern and Middle States an increasing number of educational
advantages for the white race made germane the question as to what
consideration should be shown to the colored people.[1] A general
admission of Negroes to the schools of these progressive communities
was undesirable, not because of the prejudice against the race, but on
account of the feeling that the past of the colored people having been
different from that of the white race, their training should be in
keeping with their situation. To meet their peculiar needs many
communities thought it best to provide for them "special,"
"individual," or "unclassified" schools adapted to their condition.[2]
In most cases, however, the movement for separate schools originated
not with the white race, but with the people of color themselves.

[Footnote 1: _Niles's Register_, vol. xvi., pp. 241-243 and vol.
xxiii., p. 23.]

[Footnote 2: See _The Proceedings of the Am. Conv. of Abolition
Societies_.]

In New England, Negroes had almost from the beginning of their
enslavement some chance for mental, moral, and spiritual improvement,
but the revolutionary movement was followed in that section by a
general effort to elevate the people of color through the influence
of the school and church. In 1770 the Rhode Island Quakers were
endeavoring to give young Negroes such an education as becomes
Christians. In 1773 Newport had a colored school, maintained by a
society of benevolent clergymen of the Church of England, with a
handsome fund for a mistress to teach thirty children reading and
writing. Providence did not exhibit such activity until the nineteenth
century. Having a larger black population than any other city in New
England, Boston was the center of these endeavors. In 1798 a separate
school for colored children, under the charge of Elisha Sylvester, a
white man, was established in that city in the house of Primus Hall, a
Negro of very good standing.[1] Two years later sixty-six free blacks
of that city petitioned the school committee for a separate school,
but the citizens in a special town meeting called to consider the
question refused to grant this request.[2] Undaunted by this refusal,
the patrons of the special school established in the house of Primus
Hall, employed Brown and Hall of Harvard College as instructors, until
1806.[3] The school was then moved to the African Meeting House
in Belknap Street where it remained until 1835 when, with funds
contributed by Abiel Smith, a building was erected. An epoch in the
history of Negro education in New England was marked in 1820, when the
city of Boston opened its first primary school for the education of
colored children.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 357.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 357.]

[Footnote 3: Next to be instructor of this institution was Prince
Saunders, who was brought to Boston by Dr. Channing and Caleb Bingham
in 1809. Brought up in the family of a Vermont lawyer, and experienced
as a diplomatic official of Emperor Christopher of Hayti, Prince
Saunders was able to do much for the advancement of this work. Among
others who taught in this school was John B. Russworm, a graduate of
Bowdoin College, and, later, Governor of the Colony of Cape Palmas in
Southern Liberia. See _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871,
p. 357; and _African Repository_, vol. ii., p. 271.]

[Footnote 4: _Special Rep. of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 357.]

Generally speaking, we can say that while the movement for special
colored schools met with some opposition in certain portions of New
England, in other parts of the Northeastern States the religious
organizations and abolition societies, which were espousing the cause
of the Negro, yielded to this demand. These schools were sometimes
found in churches of the North, as in the cases of the schools in
the African Church of Boston, and the Sunday-school in the African
Improved Church of New Haven. In 1828 there was in that city another
such school supported by public-school money; three in Boston; one in
Salem; and one in Portland, Maine.[1]

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, p. 142.]

Outside of the city of New York, not so much interest was shown in
the education of Negroes as in the States which had a larger colored
population.[1] Those who were scattered through the State were allowed
to attend white schools, which did not "meet their special needs."[2]
In the metropolis, where the blacks constituted one-tenth of the
inhabitants in 1800, however, the mental improvement of the dark race
could not be neglected. The liberalism of the revolutionary era led
to the organization in New York of the "Society for Promoting the
Manumission of Slaves and Protecting such of them as have been or may
be liberated." This Society ushered in a new day for the free persons
of color of that city in organizing in 1787 the New York African
Free School.[3] Among those interested in this organization and its
enterprises were Melancthon Smith, John Bleecker, James Cogswell,
Jacob Seaman, White Matlock, Matthew Clarkson, Nathaniel Lawrence, and
John Murray, Jr.[4] The school opened in 1790 with Cornelius Davis as
a teacher of forty pupils. In 1791 a lady was employed to instruct the
girls in needle-work.[5] The expected advantage of this industrial
training was soon realized.

[Footnote 1: La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, _Travels_, etc., p. 233.]

[Footnote 2: _Am. Conv._, 1798, p. 7.]

[Footnote 3: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 14.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, pp. 14 and 15.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, p. 16.]

Despite the support of certain distinguished members of the community,
the larger portion of the population was so prejudiced against the
school that often the means available for its maintenance were
inadequate. The struggle was continued for about fifteen years with an
attendance of from forty to sixty pupils.[1] About 1801 the community
began to take more interest in the institution, and the Negroes
"became more generally impressed with a sense of the advantages and
importance of education, and more disposed to avail themselves of
the privileges offered them."[2] At this time one hundred and thirty
pupils of both sexes attended this school, paying their instructor,
a "discreet man of color," according to their ability and
inclination.[3] Many more colored children were then able to attend
as there had been a considerable increase in the number of colored
freeholders. As a result of the introduction of the Lancastrian and
monitorial systems of instruction the enrollment was further increased
and the general tone of the school was improved. Another impetus was
given the work in 1810.[4] Having in mind the preparation of slaves
for freedom, the legislature of the State of New York, made it
compulsory for masters to teach all minors born of slaves to read the
Scriptures.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1801, p. 6.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1801, Report from New York.]

[Footnote 4: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 20.]

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1812, p. 7.]

Decided improvement was noted after 1814. The directors then purchased
a lot on which they constructed a building the following year.[1] The
nucleus then took the name of the New York "African Free Schools."
These schools grew so rapidly that it was soon necessary to rent
additional quarters to accommodate the department of sewing. This work
had been made popular by the efforts of Misses Turpen, Eliza J. Cox,
Ann Cox, and Caroline Roe.[2] The subsequent growth of the classes
was such that in 1820 the Manumission Society had to erect a building
large enough to accommodate five hundred pupils.[3] The instructors
were then not only teaching the elementary branches of reading,
writing, arithmetic, and geography, but also astronomy, navigation,
advanced composition, plain sewing, knitting, and marking.[4] Knowing
the importance of industrial training, the Manumission Society then
had an Indenturing Committee find employment in trades for colored
children, and had recommended for some of them the pursuit of
agriculture.[5] The comptrollers desired no better way of measuring
the success of the system in shaping the character of its students
than to be able to boast that no pupils educated there had ever been
convicted of crime.[6] Lafayette, a promoter of the emancipation
and improvement of the colored people, and a member of the New York
Manumission Society, visited these schools in 1824 on his return to
the United States. He was bidden welcome by an eleven-year-old pupil
in well-chosen and significant words. After spending the afternoon
inspecting the schools the General pronounced them the "best
disciplined and the most interesting schools of children" he had ever
seen.[7]

[Footnote 1: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 18.]

[Footnote 2: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 17.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 18.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 19.]

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the Am. Convention of Abolition Soc._,
1818, P. 9; Adams, _Anti-slavery_, p. 142.]

[Footnote 6: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1820.]

[Footnote 7: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_,
p. 20.]

The outlook for the education of Negroes in New Jersey was unusually
bright. Carrying out the recommendations of the Haddonfield Quarterly
Meeting in 1777, the Quakers of Salem raised funds for the education
of the blacks, secured books, and placed the colored children of
the community at school. The delegates sent from that State, to the
Convention of the Abolition Societies in 1801, reported that there had
been schools in Burlington, Salem, and Trenton for the education of
the Negro race, but that they had been closed.[1] It seemed that
not much attention had been given to this work there, but that the
interest was increasing. These delegates stated that they did not then
know of any schools among them exclusively for Negroes. In most parts
of the State, and most commonly in the northern division, however,
they were incorporated with the white children in the various small
schools scattered over the State.[2] There was then in the city of
Burlington a free school for the education of poor children supported
by the profits of an estate left for that particular purpose, and made
equally accessible to the children of both races. Conditions were just
as favorable in Gloucester. An account from its antislavery society
shows that the local friends of the indigent had funds of about one
thousand pounds established for schooling poor children, white and
black, without distinction. Many of the black children, who were
placed by their masters under the care of white instructors, received
as good moral and school education as the lower class of whites.[3]
Later reports from this State show the same tendency toward democratic
education.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1801, p.
12.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 12, and Quaker Pamphlet, p. 40.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Conv._, etc., 1801, p. 12.]

The efforts made in this direction in Delaware, were encouraging. The
Abolition Society of Wilmington had not greatly promoted the special
education of "the Blacks and the people of color." In 1801, however, a
school was kept the first day of the week by one of the members of
the Society, who instructed them gratis in reading, writing, and
arithmetic. About twenty pupils generally attended and by their
assiduity and progress showed themselves as "capable as white persons
laboring under similar disadvantages."[1] In 1802 plans for the
extension of this system were laid and bore good fruit the following
year.[2] Seven years later, however, after personal and pecuniary aid
had for some time been extended, the workers had still to lament that
beneficial effects had not been more generally experienced, and
that there was little disposition to aid them in their friendly
endeavors.[3] In 1816 more important results had been obtained.
Through a society formed a few years prior to this date for the
express purpose of educating colored children, a school had been
established under a Negro teacher. He had a fair attendance of bright
children, who "by the facility with which they took in instruction
were silently but certainly undermining the prejudice"[4] against
their education. A library of religious and moral publications had
been secured for this institution. In addition to the school in
Wilmington there was a large academy for young colored women,
gratuitously taught by a society of young ladies. The course of
instruction covered reading, writing, and sewing. The work in sewing
proved to be a great advantage to the colored girls, many of whom
through the instrumentality of that society were provided with good
positions.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1802, p. 17.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1809, p.
20.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., 1816, p. 20.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., 1821, p. 18.]

In Pennsylvania the interest of the large Quaker element caused the
question of educating Negroes to be a matter of more concern to that
colony than it was to the others. Thanks to the arduous labors of
the antislavery movement, emancipation was provided for in 1780.
The Quakers were then especially anxious to see masters give their
"weighty and solid attention" to qualifying slaves for the liberty
intended. By the favorable legislation of the State the poor were
by 1780 allowed the chance to secure the rudiments of education.[1]
Despite this favorable appearance of things, however, friends of the
despised race had to keep up the agitation for such a construction of
the law as would secure to the Negroes of the State the educational
benefits extended to the indigent. The colored youth of Pennsylvania
thereafter had the right to attend the schools provided for white
children, and exercised it when persons interested in the blacks
directed their attention to the importance of mental improvement.[2]
But as neither they nor their defenders were numerous outside of
Philadelphia and Columbia, not many pupils of color in other parts of
the State attended school during this period. Whatever special effort
was made to arouse them to embrace their opportunities came chiefly
from the Quakers.

[Footnote 1: _A.M.E. Church Review_, vol. xv., p. 625.]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa_., p. 253.]

Not content with the schools which were already opened to Negroes, the
friends of the race continued to agitate and raise funds to extend
their philanthropic operations. With the donation of Anthony Benezet
the Quakers were able to enlarge their building and increase the scope
of the work. They added a female department in which Sarah Dwight[1]
was teaching the girls spelling, reading, and sewing in 1784. The
work done in Philadelphia was so successful that the place became the
rallying center for the Quakers throughout the country,[2] and was of
so much concern to certain members of this sect in London that in
1787 they contributed five hundred pounds toward the support of this
school.[3] In 1789 the Quakers organized "The Society for the Free
Instruction of the Orderly Blacks and People of Color." Taking into
consideration the "many disadvantages which many well-disposed blacks
and people of color labored under from not being able to read, write,
or cast accounts, which would qualify them to act for themselves or
provide for their families," this society in connection with other
organizations established evening schools for the education of adults
of African blood.[4] It is evident then that with the exception of the
school of the Abolition Society organized in 1774, and the efforts
of a few other persons generally cooeperating like the anti-slavery
leaders with the Quakers, practically all of the useful education of
the colored people of this State was accomplished in their schools.
Philadelphia had seven colored schools in 1797.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 251.]

[Footnote 2: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 42.]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa_., p. 252.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 251.]

[Footnote 5: Turner, _The Negro in Pa_., p. 128.]

The next decade was of larger undertakings.[1] The report of the
Pennsylvania Abolition Society of 1801 shows that there had been an
increasing interest in Negro education. For this purpose the society
had raised funds to the amount of $530.50 per annum for three
years.[2] In 1803 certain other friends of the cause left for this
purpose two liberal benefactions, one amounting to one thousand
dollars, and the other to one thousand pounds.[3] With these
contributions the Quakers and Abolitionists erected in 1809 a handsome
building valued at four thousand dollars. They named it Clarkson Hall
in honor of the great friend of the Negro race.[4] In 1807 the Quakers
met the needs of the increasing population of the city by founding an
additional institution of learning known as the Adelphi School.[5]

[Footnote 1: Parish, _Remarks on the Slavery_, etc., p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Conv_., 1802, p. 18.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., 1803, p. 13.]

[Footnote 4: _Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the Colored
People of Philadelphia_, p. 19.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., p. 20.]

After the first decade of the nineteenth century the movement for the
uplift of the Negroes around Philadelphia was checked a little by the
migration to that city of many freedmen who had been lately liberated.
The majority of them did not "exhibit that industry, economy, and
temperance" which were "expected by many and wished by all."[1] Not
deterred, however, by this seemingly discouraging development, the
friends of the race toiled on as before. In 1810 certain Quaker women
who had attempted to establish a school for colored girls in 1795
apparently succeeded.[2] The institution, however, did not last many
years. But the Clarkson Hall schools maintained by the Abolition
Society were then making such progress that the management was
satisfied that they furnished a decided refutation of the charge that
the "mental endowments of the descendants of the African race are
inferior to those possessed by their white brethren."[3] They asserted
without fear of contradiction that the pupils of that seminary would
sustain a fair comparison with those of any other institution in which
the same elementary branches were taught. In 1815 these schools were
offering free instruction to three hundred boys and girls, and to a
number of adults attending evening schools. These victories had been
achieved despite the fact that in regard to some of the objects of the
Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade "a tide of prejudice,
popular and legislative, set strongly against them."[4] After 1818,
however, help was obtained from the State to educate the colored
children of Columbia and Philadelphia.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Conv_., 1809, p. 16, and
1812, p. 16.]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa_., p. 252.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1812,
Report from Philadelphia.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., 1815, Report from Phila.]

The assistance obtained from the State, however, was not taken as a
pretext for the cessation of the labors on the part of those who had
borne the burden for more than a century. The faithful friends of the
colored race remained as active as ever. In 1822 the Quakers in the
Northern Liberties organized the Female Association which maintained
one or more schools.[1] That same year the Union Society founded in
1810 for the support of schools and domestic manufactures for the
benefit of the "African race and people of color" was conducting three
schools for adults.[2] The Infant School Society of Philadelphia was
also doing good work in looking after the education of small colored
children.[3] In the course of time crowded conditions in the colored
schools necessitated the opening of additional evening classes and the
erection of larger buildings.

[Footnote 1: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa._, p. 252.]

[Footnote 2: One of these was at the Sessions House of the Third
Presbyterian Church; one at Clarkston Schoolhouse, Cherry Street; one
in the Academy on Locust Street. See _Statistical Inquiry into
the Condition of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, p. 19; and
Wickersham, _Education in Pa._, p. 253.]

[Footnote 3: _Statistical Inquiry_, etc., p. 19.]

At this time Maryland was not raising any serious objection to the
instruction of slaves, and public sentiment there did not seem to
interfere with the education of free persons of color. Maryland was
long noted for her favorable attitude toward her Negroes. We have
already observed how Banneker, though living in a small place, was
permitted to attend school, and how Ellicott became interested in this
man of genius and furnished him with books. Other Negroes of that
State were enjoying the same privilege. The abolition delegates from
Maryland reported in 1797 that several children of the Africans and
other people of color were under a course of instruction, and that an
academy and qualified teachers for them would be provided.[1] These
Negroes were then getting light from another source. Having more
freedom in this State than in some others, the Quakers were allowed to
teach colored people.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1797, p.
16.]

Most interest in the cause in Maryland was manifested near the cities
of Georgetown and Baltimore.[1] Long active in the cause of elevating
the colored people, the influence of the revolutionary movement was
hardly necessary to arouse the Catholics to discharge their duty of
enlightening the blacks. Wherever they had the opportunity to give
slaves religious instruction, they generally taught the unfortunates
everything that would broaden their horizon and help them to
understand life. The abolitionists and Protestant churches were also
in the field, but the work of the early fathers in these cities was
more effective. These forces at work in Georgetown made it, by the
time of its incorporation into the District of Columbia, a center
sending out teachers to carry on the instruction of Negroes. So
liberal were the white people of this town that colored children were
sent to school there with white boys and girls who seemed to raise
no objection.[2] Later in the nineteenth century the efforts made to
educate the Negroes of the rural districts of Maryland were eclipsed
by the better work accomplished by the free blacks in Baltimore and
the District of Columbia.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., pp. 195 _et
seq_., and pp. 352-353.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 353.]

Having a number of antislavery men among the various sects buoyant
with religious freedom, Virginia easily continued to look with favor
upon the uplift of the colored people. The records of the Quakers of
that day show special effort in this direction there about 1764, 1773,
and 1785. In 1797 the abolitionists of Alexandria, some of whom were
Quakers, had been doing effective work among the Negroes of that
section. They had established a school with one Benjamin Davis as a
teacher. He reported an attendance of one hundred and eight pupils,
four of whom "could write a very legible hand," "read the Scriptures
with tolerable facility," and had commenced arithmetic. Eight others
had learned to read, but had made very little progress in writing.
Among his less progressive pupils fifteen could spell words of three
or four syllables and read easy lessons, some had begun to write,
while the others were chiefly engaged in learning the alphabet and
spelling monosyllables.[1] It is significant that colored children
of Alexandria, just as in the case of Georgetown, attended schools
established for the whites.[2] Their coeducation extended not only
to Sabbath schools but to other institutions of learning, which some
Negroes attended during the week.[3] Mrs. Maria Hall, one of the early
teachers of the District of Columbia, obtained her education in a
mixed school of Alexandria.[4] Controlled then by aristocratic people
who did not neglect the people of color, Alexandria also became a sort
of center for the uplift of the blacks in Northern Virginia.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the Am. Conv_., etc., 1797, p. 35.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 1797, p. 36.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the Am. Conv._, p. 17; _ibid._, 1827, p.
53.]

[Footnote 4: _Special Report of U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 198.]

Schools for the education of Negroes were established in Richmond,
Petersburg, and Norfolk. An extensive miscegenation of the races in
these cities had given rise to a very intelligent class of slaves and
a considerable number of thrifty free persons of color, in whom the
best people early learned to show much interest.[1] Of the schools
organized for them in the central part of the commonwealth, those
about Richmond seemed to be less prosperous. The abolitionists of
Virginia, reporting for that city in 1798, said that considerable
progress had been made in the education of the blacks, and that they
contemplated the establishment of a school for the instruction of
Negroes and other persons. They were apprehensive, however, that their
funds would be scarcely sufficient for this purpose.[2] In 1801, one
year after Gabriel's Insurrection, the abolitionists of Richmond
reported that the cause had been hindered by the "rapacious
disposition which emboldened many tyrants" among them "to trample upon
the rights of colored people even in the violation of the laws of the
State." For this reason the complainants felt that, although they
could not but unite in the opinion with the American Convention of
Abolition Societies as to the importance of educating the slaves for
living as freedmen, they were compelled on account of a "domineering
spirit of power and usurpation"[3] to direct attention to the Negroes'
bodily comfort.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 393.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the Am. Conv._, etc., 1798, p. 16.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the Am. Conv_., 1801, p. 15.]

This situation, however, was not sufficiently alarming to deter all
the promoters of Negro education in Virginia. It is remarkable how
Robert Pleasants, a Quaker of that State who emancipated his slaves
at his death in 1801, had united with other members of his sect to
establish a school for colored people. In 1782 they circulated a
pamphlet entitled "Proposals for Establishing a Free School for the
Instruction of Children of Blacks and People of Color."[1] They
recommended to the humane and benevolent of all denominations
cheerfully to contribute to an institution "calculated to promote
the spiritual and temporal interests of that unfortunate part of our
fellow creatures in forming their minds in the principles of virtue
and religion, and in common or useful literature, writing, ciphering,
and mechanic arts, as the most likely means to render so numerous a
people fit for freedom, and to become useful citizens." Pleasants
proposed to establish a school on a three-hundred-and-fifty-acre
tract of his own land at Gravelly Hills near Four-Mile Creek, Henrico
County. The whole revenue of the land was to go toward the support of
the institution, or, in the event the school should be established
elsewhere, he would give it one hundred pounds. Ebenezer Maule,
another friend, subscribed fifty pounds for the same purpose.[2]
Exactly what the outcome was, no one knows; but the memorial on
the life of Pleasants shows that he appropriated the rent of the
three-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract and ten pounds per annum to the
establishment of a free school for Negroes, and that a few years after
his death such an institution was in operation under a Friend at
Gravelly Run.[3]

[Footnote 1: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 215.]

[Footnote 2: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 216.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 216.]

Such philanthropy, however, did not become general in Virginia. The
progress of Negro education there was decidedly checked by the rapid
development of discontent among Negroes ambitious to emulate the
example of Toussaint L'Ouverture. During the first quarter of the
nineteenth century that commonwealth tolerated much less enlightenment
of the colored people than the benevolent element allowed them in the
other border States. The custom of teaching colored pauper children
apprenticed by church-wardens was prohibited by statute immediately
after Gabriel's Insurrection in 1800.[1] Negroes eager to learn were
thereafter largely restricted to private tutoring and instruction
offered in Sabbath-schools. Furthermore, as Virginia developed few
urban communities there were not sufficient persons of color in any
one place to cooeperate in enlightening themselves even as much as
public sentiment allowed. After 1838 Virginia Negroes had practically
no chance to educate themselves.

[Footnote 1: Hening, _Statutes at Large_, vol. xvi., p. 124.]

North Carolina, not unlike the border States in their good treatment
of free persons of color, placed such little restriction on the
improvement of the colored people that they early attained rank among
the most enlightened ante-bellum Negroes. This interest, largely
on account of the zeal of the antislavery leaders and Quakers,[1]
continued unabated from 1780, the time of their greatest activity,
to the period of the intense abolition agitation and the servile
insurrections. In 1815 the Quakers were still exhorting their members
to establish schools for the literary and religious instruction of
Negroes.[2] The following year a school for Negroes was opened for
two days in a week.[3] So successful was the work done by the Quakers
during this period that they could report in 1817 that most colored
minors in the Western Quarter had been "put in a way to get a portion
of school learning."[4] In 1819 some of them could spell and a few
could write. The plan of these workers was to extend the instruction
until males could "read, write, and cipher," and until the females
could "read and write."[5]

[Footnote 1: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 231; Levi Coffin,
_Reminiscences_, pp. 69-71; Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p.
66.]

[Footnote 2: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 232.]

[Footnote 3: Thwaites, _Early Travels_, vol. ii., p. 66.]

[Footnote 4: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 232.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., 232.]

In the course of time, however, these philanthropists met with some
discouragement. In 1821 certain masters were sending their slaves to
a Sunday-school opened by Levi Coffin and his son Vestal. Before the
slaves had learned more than to spell words of two or three syllables
other masters became unduly alarmed, thinking that such instruction
would make the slaves discontented.[1] The timorous element threatened
the teachers with the terrors of the law, induced the benevolent
slaveholders to prohibit the attendance of their Negroes, and had the
school closed.[2] Moreover, it became more difficult to obtain aid
for this cause. Between 1815 and 1825 the North Carolina Manumission
Societies were redoubling their efforts to raise funds for this
purpose. By 1819 they had collected $47.00 but had not increased this
amount more than $2.62 two years later.[3]

[Footnote 1: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 69.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 70.]

[Footnote 3: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 241.]

The work done by the various workers in North Carolina did not affect
the general improvement of the slaves, but thanks to the humanitarian
movement, they were not entirely neglected. In 1830 the General
Association of the Manumission Societies of that commonwealth
complained that the laws made no provision for the moral improvement
of the slaves.[1] Though learning was in a very small degree diffused
among the colored people of a few sections, it was almost unknown to
the slaves. They pointed out, too, that the little instruction some of
the slaves had received, and by which a few had been taught to
spell, or perhaps to read in "easy places," was not due to any legal
provision, but solely to the charity "which endureth all things" and
is willing to suffer reproach for the sake of being instrumental in
"delivering the poor that cry" and "directing the wanderer in the
right way."[2] To ameliorate these conditions the association
recommended among other things the enactment of a law providing for
the instruction of slaves in the elementary principles of language at
least so far as to enable them to read the Holy Scriptures.[3] The
reaction culminated, however, before this plan could be properly
presented to the people of that commonwealth.

[Footnote 1: An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils
of Slavery by the Friends of Liberty and Equality, _passim_.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._]

During these years an exceptionally bright Negro was serving as a
teacher not of his own race but of the most aristocratic white people
of North Carolina. This educator was a freeman named John Chavis. He
was born probably near Oxford, Granville County, about 1763. Chavis
was a full-blooded Negro of dark brown color. Early attracting the
attention of his white neighbors, he was sent to Princeton "to see
if a Negro would take a collegiate education." His rapid advancement
under Dr. Witherspoon "soon convinced his friends that the experiment
would issue favorable."[1] There he took rank as a good Latin and a
fair Greek scholar.

[Footnote 1: Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p. 73.]

From Princeton he went to Virginia to preach to his own people. In
1801 he served at the Hanover Presbytery as a "riding missionary under
the direction of the General Assembly."[1] He was then reported also
as a regularly commissioned preacher to his people in Lexington. In
1805 he returned to North Carolina where he often preached to various
congregations.[2] His career as a clergyman was brought to a close
in 1831 by the law enacted to prevent Negroes from preaching.[3]
Thereafter he confined himself to teaching, which was by far his
most important work. He opened a classical school for white persons,
"teaching in Granville, Wake, and Chatham Counties."[4] The best
people of the community patronized this school. Chavis counted among
his students W.P. Mangum, afterwards United States Senator, P.H.
Mangum, his brother, Archibald and John Henderson, sons of Chief
Justice Henderson, Charles Manly, afterwards Governor of that
commonwealth, and Dr. James L. Wortham of Oxford, North Carolina.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 74; and Baird, _A Collection_, etc., pp.
816-817.]

[Footnote 2: Paul C. Cameron, a son of Judge Duncan of North Carolina,
said: "In my boyhood life at my father's home I often saw John Chavis,
a venerable old negro man, recognized as a freeman and as a preacher
or clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. As such he was received by my
father and treated with kindness and consideration, and respected as a
man of education, good sense and most estimable character." Mr. George
Wortham, a lawyer of Granville County, said: "I have heard him read
and explain the Scriptures to my father's family repeatedly. His
English was remarkably pure, containing no 'negroisms'; his manner was
impressive, his explanations clear and concise, and his views, as I
then thought and still think, entirely orthodox. He was said to have
been an acceptable preacher, his sermons abounding in strong common
sense views and happy illustrations, without any effort at oratory
or sensational appeals to the passions of his hearers." See Bassett,
_Slavery in N.C_., pp. 74-75.]

[Footnote 3: See Chapter VII.]

[Footnote 4: Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p. 74.]

[Footnote 5: John S. Bassett, Professor of History at Trinity College,
North Carolina, learned from a source of great respectability that
Chavis not only taught the children of these distinguished families,
but "was received as an equal socially and asked to table by the most
respectable people of the neighborhood." See Bassett, _Slavery in
North Carolina_, p. 75.]

We have no evidence of any such favorable conditions in South
Carolina. There was not much public education of the Negroes of that
State even during the revolutionary epoch. Regarding education as a
matter of concern to persons immediately interested South Carolinians
had long since learned to depend on private instruction for the
training of their youth. Colored schools were not thought of outside
of Charleston. Yet although South Carolina prohibited the education of
the slaves in 1740[1] and seemingly that of other Negroes in 1800,[2]
these measures were not considered a direct attack on the instruction
of free persons of color. Furthermore, the law in regard to the
teaching of the blacks was ignored by sympathetic masters. Colored
persons serving in families and attending traveling men shared with
white children the advantage of being taught at home. Free persons of
color remaining accessible to teachers and missionaries interested in
the propagation of the gospel among the poor still had the opportunity
to make intellectual advancement.[3]

[Footnote 1: Brevard, _Digest of the Public Statute Law of South
Carolina_, vol. ii., p. 243.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 243.]

[Footnote 3: Laws of 1740 and 1800, and Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p.
1078.]

Although not as reactionary as South Carolina, little could be
expected of Georgia where slavery had such a firm hold. Unfavorable as
conditions in that State were, however, they were not intolerable. It
was still lawful for a slave to learn to read, and free persons of
color had the privilege of acquiring any knowledge whatsoever.[1] The
chief incentive to the education of Negroes in that State came from
the rising Methodists and Baptists who, bringing a simple message to
plain people, instilled into their minds as never before the idea that
the Bible being the revelation of God, all men should be taught to
read that book.[2]

[Footnote 1: Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of the State of
Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 2: Orr, _Education in the South_.]

In the territory known as Louisiana the good treatment of the mixed
breeds and the slaves by the French assured for years the privilege
to attend school. Rev. James Flint, of Salem, Massachusetts, received
letters from a friend in Louisiana, who, in pointing out conditions
around him, said: "In the regions where I live masters allow entire
liberty to the slaves to attend public worship, and as far as my
knowledge extends, it is generally the case in Louisiana. We have,"
said he, "regular meetings of the blacks in the building where I
attend public worship. I have in the past years devoted myself
assiduously, every Sabbath morning, to the labor of learning them to
read. I found them quick of apprehension, and capable of grasping the
rudiments of learning more rapidly than the whites."[1]

[Footnote 1: Flint, _Recollections of the Last Ten Years_, p. 345.]

Later the problem of educating Negroes in this section became more
difficult. The trouble was that contrary to the stipulation in the
treaty of purchase that the inhabitants of the territory of Louisiana
should be admitted to all the rights and immunities of citizens of the
United States, the State legislation, subsequent to the transfer of
jurisdiction, denied the right of education to a large class of mixed
breeds.[1] Many of these, thanks to the liberality of the French, had
been freed, and constituted an important element of society. Not a few
of them had educated themselves, accumulated wealth, and ranked with
white men of refinement and culture.[2]

[Footnote 1: Laws of Louisiana.]

[Footnote 2: Alliot, _Collections Historiques_, p. 85; and Thwaites,
_Early Western Travels_, vol. iv., pp. 320 and 321; vol. xii., p. 69;
and vol. xix., p. 126.]

Considering the few Negroes found in the West, the interest shown
there in their mental uplift was considerable. Because of the scarcity
of slaves in that section they came into helpful contact with their
masters. Besides, the Kentucky and Tennessee abolitionists, being much
longer active than those in most slave States, continued to emphasize
the education of the blacks as a correlative to emancipation.
Furthermore, the Western Baptists, Methodists, and Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians early took a stand against slavery, and urged the
masters to give their servants all the proper advantages for acquiring
the knowledge of their duty both to man and God. In the large towns
of Tennessee Negroes were permitted to attend private schools, and in
Louisville and Lexington there were several well-regulated colored
schools.

Two institutions for the education of slaves in the West are mentioned
during these years. In October, 1825, there appeared an advertisement
for eight or ten Negro slaves with their families to form a community
of this kind under the direction of an "Emancipating Labor Society"
of the State of Kentucky. In the same year Frances Wright suggested a
school on a similar basis. She advertised in the "Genius of Universal
Emancipation" an establishment to educate freed blacks and mulattoes
in West Tennessee. This was supported by a goodly number of persons,
including George Fowler and, it was said, Lafayette. A letter from a
Presbyterian clergyman in South Carolina says that the first slave
for this institution went from York District of that State. The
enterprise, however, was not well supported, and little was heard of
it in later years. Some asserted it was a money-making scheme for the
proprietor, and that the Negroes taught there were in reality slaves;
others went to the press to defend it as a benevolent effort. Both
sides so muddled the affair that it is difficult to determine exactly
what the intentions of the founders were.[1]

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, p. 152.]




CHAPTER VI

EDUCATING THE URBAN NEGRO


Such an impetus was given Negro education during the period of better
beginnings that some of the colored city schools then established have
existed even until to-day. Negroes learned from their white friends to
educate themselves. In the Middle and Southern States, however, much
of the sentiment in favor of developing the intellect of the Negro
passed away during the early part of the nineteenth century. This
reform, like many others of that day, suffered when Americans forgot
the struggle for the rights of man. Recovering from the social
upheaval of the Revolution, caste soon began to claim its own. To
discourage the education of the lowest class was natural to the
aristocrats who on coming to power established governments based on
the representation of interests, restriction of suffrage, and the
ineligibility of the poor to office. After this period the work of
enlightening the blacks in the southern and border States was largely
confined to a few towns and cities where the concentration of the
colored population continued.

The rise of the American city made possible the contact of the colored
people with the world, affording them a chance to observe what the
white man was doing, and to develop the power to care for themselves.
The Negroes who had this opportunity to take over the western
civilization were servants belonging to the families for which they
worked; slaves hired out by their owners to wait upon persons; and
watermen, embracing fishermen, boatmen, and sailors. Not a few slaves
in cities were mechanics, clerks, and overseers. In most of these
employments the rudiments of an education were necessary, and what the
master did not seem disposed to teach the slaves so situated, they
usually learned by contact with their fellowmen who were better
informed. Such persons were the mulattoes resulting from
miscegenation, and therefore protected from the rigors of the slave
code; house servants, rewarded with unusual privileges for fidelity
and for manifesting considerable interest in things contributing to
the economic good of their masters; and slaves who were purchasing
their freedom.[1] Before the close of the first quarter of the
nineteenth century not much was said about what these classes learned
or taught. It was then the difference in circumstances, employment,
and opportunities for improvement that made the urban Negro more
intelligent than those who had to toil in the fields. Yet, the
proportion did not differ very much from that of the previous
period, as the first Negroes were not chiefly field hands but to a
considerable extent house servants, whom masters often taught to read
and write.

[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 117.]

Urban Negroes had another important advantage in their opportunity to
attend well-regulated Sunday-schools. These were extensively organized
in the towns and cities of this country during the first decades of
the last century. The "Sabbath-school" constituted an important factor
in Negro education. Although cloaked with the purpose of bringing the
blacks to God by giving them religious instruction the institution
permitted its workers to teach them reading and writing when they were
not allowed to study such in other institutions.[1] Even the radical
slaveholder was slow to object to a policy which was intended to
facilitate the conversion of men's souls. All friends especially
interested in the mental and spiritual uplift of the race hailed this
movement as marking an epoch in the elevation of the colored people.

[Footnote 1: See the reports of almost any abolition society of the
first quarter of the nineteenth century. _Special Report of the U.S.
Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 200; and Plumer, _Thoughts on the Religious
Instruction of Negroes_.]

In the course of time racial difficulties caused the development of
the colored "Sabbath-school" to be very much like that of the American
Negro Church. It began as an establishment in the white churches,
then moved to the colored chapels, where white persons assisted as
teachers, and finally became an organization composed entirely of
Negroes. But the separation here, as in the case of the church,
was productive of some good. The "Sabbath-schools," which at first
depended on white teachers to direct their work, were thereafter
carried on by Negroes, who studied and prepared themselves to perform
the task given up by their former friends. This change was easily made
in certain towns and cities where Negroes already had churches of
their own. Before 1815 there was a Methodist church in Charleston,
South Carolina, with a membership of eighteen hundred, more than one
thousand of whom were persons of color. About this time, Williamsburg
and Augusta had one each, and Savannah three colored Baptist churches.
By 1822 the Negroes of Petersburg had in addition to two churches of
this denomination, a flourishing African Missionary Society.[1] In
Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston the free
blacks had experienced such a rapid religious development that colored
churches in these cities were no longer considered unusual.

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, etc., pp. 73 and 74.]

The increase in the population of cities brought a larger number of
these unfortunates into helpful contact with the urban element of
white people who, having few Negroes, often opposed the institution of
slavery. But thrown among colored people brought in their crude state
into sections of culture, the antislavery men of towns and cities
developed from theorists, discussing a problem of concern to persons
far away, into actual workers striving by means of education to pave
the way for universal freedom.[1] Large as the number of abolitionists
became and bright as the future of their cause seemed, the more the
antislavery men saw of the freedmen in congested districts, the more
inclined the reformers were to think that instant abolition was an
event which they "could not reasonably expect, and perhaps could not
desire." Being in a state of deplorable ignorance, the slaves did not
possess sufficient information "to render their immediate emancipation
a blessing either to themselves or to society."[2]

[Footnote 1: As some masters regarded the ignorance of the slaves as
an argument against their emancipation, the antislavery men's problem
became the education of the master as well as that of the slave.
Believing that intellectual and moral improvement is a "safe and
permanent basis on which the arch of freedom could be erected," Jesse
Torrey, harking back to Jefferson's proposition, recommended that
it begin by instructing the slaveholders, overseers, their sons and
daughters, hitherto deprived of the blessing of education. Then he
thought that such enlightened masters should see to it that every
slave less than thirty years of age should be taught the art of
reading sufficiently for receiving moral and religious instruction
from books in the English language. In presenting this scheme Torrey
had the idea of most of the antislavery men of that day, who advocated
the education of slaves because they believed that, whenever the
slaves should become qualified by intelligence and moral cultivation
for the rational enjoyment of liberty and the performance of the
various social duties, enlightened legislators would listen to the
voice of reason and justice and the spirit of the social organization,
and permit the release of the slave without banishing him as a traitor
from his native land. See Torrey's _Portraiture of Domestic Slavery_,
p. 21.]

[Footnote 2: Sidney, _An Oration Commemorative of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade in the United States_, p. 5; and Adams, _Anti-slavery_,
etc., pp. 40, 43, 65, and 66.]

Yet in the same proportion that antislavery men convinced masters of
the wisdom of the policy of gradual emancipation, they increased their
own burden of providing extra facilities of education, for liberated
Negroes generally made their way from the South to urban communities
of the Northern and Middle States. The friends of the colored people,
however, met this exigency by establishing additional schools and
repeatedly entreating these migrating freedmen to avail themselves
of their opportunities. The address of the American Convention of
Abolition Societies in 1819 is typical of these appeals.[1] They
requested free persons of color to endeavor as much as possible to use
economy in their expenses, to save something from their earnings
for the education of their children ... and "let all those who by
attending to this admonition have acquired means, send their children
to school as soon as they are old enough, where their morals will
be an object of attention as well as their improvement in school
learning." Then followed some advice which would now seem strange.
They said, "Encourage, also, those among you who are qualified as
teachers of schools, and when you are able to pay, never send your
children to free schools; for this may be considered as robbing the
poor of their opportunities which are intended for them alone."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1819, p.
21.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1819, p.
22.]

The concentration of the colored population in cities and towns where
they had better educational advantages tended to make colored city
schools self-supporting. There developed a class of self-educating
Negroes who were able to provide for their own enlightenment. This
condition, however, did not obtain throughout the South. Being a
proslavery farming section of few large towns and cities, that part of
the country did not see much development of the self-sufficient class.
What enlightenment most urban blacks of the South experienced resulted
mainly from private teaching and religious instruction. There were
some notable exceptions, however. A colored "Santo Dominican" named
Julian Troumontaine taught openly in Savannah up to 1829 when such
an act was prohibited by law. He taught clandestinely thereafter,
however, until 1844.[1] In New Orleans, where the Creoles and freedmen
counted early in the nineteenth century as a substantial element in
society, persons of color had secured to themselves better facilities
of education. The people of this city did not then regard it as a
crime for Negroes to acquire an education, their white instructors
felt that they were not condescending in teaching them, and children
of Caucasian blood raised no objection to attending special and
parochial schools accessible to both races. The educational privileges
which the colored people there enjoyed, however, were largely paid for
by the progressive freedmen themselves.[2] Some of them educated their
children in France.

[Footnote 1: Wright, _Negro Education in Georgia_, p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: Many of the mixed breeds of New Orleans were leading
business men.]

Charleston, South Carolina, furnished a good example of a center of
unusual activity and rapid strides of self-educating urban Negroes.
Driven to the point of doing for themselves, the free people of color
of this city organized in 1810 the "Minor Society" to secure to their
orphan children the benefits of education.[1] Bishop Payne, who
studied later under Thomas Bonneau, attended the school founded by
this organization. Other colored schools were doing successful work.
Enjoying these unusual advantages the Negroes of Charleston were
early in the nineteenth century ranked by some as economically and
intellectually superior to any other such persons in the United
States. A large portion of the leading mechanics, fashionable tailors,
shoe manufacturers, and mantua-makers were free blacks, who enjoyed "a
consideration in the community far more than that enjoyed by any of
the colored population in the Northern cities."[2] As such positions
required considerable skill and intelligence, these laborers had of
necessity acquired a large share of useful knowledge. The favorable
circumstances of the Negroes in certain liberal southern cities like
Charleston were the cause of their return from the North to the South,
where they often had a better opportunity for mental as well
as economic improvement.[3] The return of certain Negroes from
Philadelphia to Petersburg, Virginia, during the first decade of the
nineteenth century, is a case in evidence.[4]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 1078.]

[Footnote 2: _Niles Register_, vol. xlix., p. 40.]

[Footnote 3: _Notions of the Americans_, p. 26.]

[Footnote 4: Wright, _Views of Society and Manners in America_, p.
73.]

The successful strivings of the race in the District of Columbia
furnish us with striking examples of Negroes making educational
progress. When two white teachers, Henry Potter and Mrs. Haley,
invited black children to study with their white pupils, the colored
people gladly availed themselves of this opportunity.[1] Mrs. Maria
Billings, the first to establish a real school for Negroes in
Georgetown, soon discovered that she had their hearty support. She had
pupils from all parts of the District of Columbia, and from as far as
Bladensburg, Maryland. The tuition fee in some of these schools was
a little high, but many free blacks of the District of Columbia
were sufficiently well established to meet these demands. The rapid
progress made by the Bell and Browning families during this period
was of much encouragement to the ambitious colored people, who were
laboring to educate their children.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, pp. 195
_et seq._]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 195.]

The city Negroes, however, were learning to do more than merely attend
accessible elementary schools. In 1807 George Bell, Nicholas
Franklin, and Moses Liverpool, former slaves, built the first colored
schoolhouse in the District of Columbia. Just emerging from bondage,
these men could not teach themselves, but employed a white man to
take charge of the school.[1] It was not a success. Pupils of color
thereafter attended the school of Anne Maria Hall, a teacher from
Prince George County, Maryland, and those of teachers who instructed
white children.[2] The ambitious Negroes of the District of Columbia,
however, were not discouraged by the first failure to provide their
own educational facilities. The Bell School which had been closed and
used as a dwelling, opened again in 1818 under the auspices of an
association of free people of color of the city of Washington called
the "Resolute Beneficial Society." The school was declared open then
"for the reception of free people of color and others that ladies
and gentlemen may think proper to send to be instructed in reading,
writing, arithmetic, English grammar, or other branches of education
apposite to their capacities, by steady, active and experienced
teachers, whose attention is wholly devoted to the purpose described."
The founders presumed that free colored families would embrace the
advantages thus presented to them either by subscription to the funds
of the Society or by sending their children to the school. Since the
improvement of the intellect and the morals of the colored youth were
the objects of the institution, the patronage of benevolent ladies
and gentlemen was solicited. They declared, too, that "to avoid
disagreeable occurrences no writing was to be done by the teacher for
a slave, neither directly nor indirectly to serve the purpose of a
slave on any account whatever."[3] This school was continued until
1822 under Mr. Pierpont, of Massachusetts, a relative of the poet.
He was succeeded two years later by John Adams, a shoemaker, who was
known as the first Negro to teach in the District of Columbia.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, 196.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 197.]

[Footnote 3: _Daily National Intelligencer_, August 29, 1818.]

[Footnote 4: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 198.]

Of equal importance was the colored seminary established by Henry
Smothers, a pupil of Mrs. Billings. Like her, he taught first in
Georgetown. He began his advanced work near the Treasury building,
having an attendance of probably one hundred and fifty pupils,
generally paying tuition. The fee, however, was not compulsory.
Smothers taught for about two years, and then was succeeded by John
Prout, a colored man of rare talents, who later did much in opposition
to the scheme of transporting Negroes to Africa before they had the
benefits of education.[1] The school was then called the "Columbian
Institute." Prout was later assisted by Mrs. Anne Maria Hall.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, 1871, p. 199.]

[Footnote 2: Other schools of importance were springing up from year
to year. As early as 1824 Mrs. Mary Wall, a member of the Society
of Friends, had opened a school for Negroes and received so many
applications that many had to be refused. From this school came many
well-prepared colored men, among whom were James Wormley and John
Thomas Johnson. Another school was established by Thomas Tabbs, who
received "a polished education from the distinguished Maryland family
to which he belonged." Mr. Tabbs came to Washington before the War
of 1812 and began teaching those who came to him when he had a
schoolhouse, and when he had none he went from house to house,
stopping even under the trees to teach wherever he found pupils who
were interested. See _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871,
pp. 212, 213, and 214.]

Of this self-educative work of Negroes some of the best was
accomplished by colored women. With the assistance of Father Vanlomen,
the benevolent priest then in charge of the Holy Trinity Church, Maria
Becraft, the most capable colored woman in the District of Columbia at
that time, established there the first seminary for the education of
colored girls. She had begun to teach in a less desirable section, but
impressed with the unusual beauty and strong character of this girl,
Father Vanlomen had her school transferred to a larger building on
Fayette Street where she taught until 1831. She then turned over her
seminary to girls she had trained, and became a teacher in a convent
at Baltimore as a Sister of Providence.[1] Other good results were
obtained by Louisa Parke Costin, a member of one of the oldest
colored families in the District of Columbia. Desiring to diffuse the
knowledge she acquired from white teachers in the early mixed schools
of the District, she decided to teach. She opened her school just
about the time that Henry Smothers was making his reputation as an
educator. She died in 1831, after years of successful work had crowned
her efforts. Her task was then taken up by her sister, Martha, who had
been trained in the Convent Seminary of Baltimore.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 204.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 203.]

Equally helpful was the work of Arabella Jones. Educated at the St.
Frances Academy at Baltimore, she was well grounded in the English
branches and fluent in French. She taught on the "Island," calling her
school "The St. Agnes Academy."[1] Another worker of this class
was Mary Wormley, once a student in the Colored Female Seminary of
Philadelphia under Sarah Douglass. This lady began teaching about
1830, getting some assistance from Mr. Calvert, an Englishman.[2] The
institution passed later into the hands of Thomas Lee, during the
incumbency of whom the school was closed by the "Snow Riot." This
was an attempt on the part of the white people to get rid of the
progressive Negroes of the District of Columbia. Their excuse for
such drastic action was that Benjamin Snow, a colored man running a
restaurant in the city, had made unbecoming remarks about the wives
of the white mechanics.[3] John F. Cook, one of the most influential
educators produced in the District of Columbia, was driven out of the
city by this mob. He then taught at Lancaster, Pa.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 211.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 211.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, p. 201.]

While the colored schools of the District of Columbia suffered as a
result of this disturbance, the Negroes then in charge of them were
too ambitious, too well-educated to discontinue their work. The
situation, however, was in no sense encouraging. With the exception of
the churches of the Catholics and Quakers who vied with each other in
maintaining a benevolent attitude toward the education of the colored
people,[1] the churches of the District of Columbia, in the Sabbath
schools of which Negroes once sat in the same seats with white
persons, were on account of this riot closed to the darker race.[2]
This expulsion however, was not an unmixed evil, for the colored
people themselves thereafter established and directed a larger number
of institutions of learning.[3]

[Footnote 1: The Catholics admitted the colored people to their
churches on equal footing with others when they were driven to the
galleries of the Protestant churches. Furthermore, they continued
to admit them to their parochial schools. The Sisters of Georgetown
trained colored girls, and the parochial school of the Aloysius Church
at one time had as many as two hundred and fifty pupils of color. Many
of the first colored teachers of the District of Columbia obtained
their education in these schools. See _Special Report of U.S. Com. of
Ed._, 1871, p. 218 _et. seq._]

[Footnote 2: _Sp. Report_, etc. 187, pp. 217, 218, 219, 220, 221.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, pp. 220-222.]

The colored schools of the District of Columbia soon resumed their
growth recovering most of the ground they had lost and exhibiting
evidences of more systematic work. These schools ceased to be
elementary classes, offering merely courses in reading and writing,
but developed into institutions of higher grade supplied with
competent teachers. Among other useful schools then flourishing in
this vicinity were those of Alfred H. Parry, Nancy Grant, Benjamin
McCoy, John Thomas Johnson, James Enoch Ambush, and Dr. John H.
Fleet.[1] John F. Cook returned from Pennsylvania and reopened his
seminary.[2] About this time there flourished a school established by
Fannie Hampton. After her death the work was carried on by Margaret
Thompson until 1846. She then married Charles Middleton and became
his assistant teacher. He was a free Negro who had been educated in
Savannah, Georgia, while attending school with white and colored
children. He founded a successful school about the time that Fleet and
Johnson[3] retired. Middleton's school,
however, owes its importance to the fact that it was connected with
the movement for free colored public schools started by Jesse E. Dow,
an official of the city, and supported by Rev. Doctor Wayman, then
pastor of the Bethel Church.[4] Other colaborers with these teachers
were Alexander Cornish, Richard Stokes, and Margaret Hill.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, pp. 212,
213, and 283.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 200.]

[Footnote 3: Compelled to leave Washington in 1838 because of the
persecution of free persons of color, Johnson stopped in Pittsburg
where he entered a competitive teacher examination with two white
aspirants and won the coveted position. He taught in Pittsburg
several years, worked on the Mississippi a while, returned later to
Washington, and in 1843 constructed a building in which he opened
another school. It was attended by from 150 to 200 students, most of
whom belonged to the most prominent colored families of the District
of Columbia. See _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p.
214.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 215.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, pp. 214-215.]

Then came another effort on a large scale. This was the school of
Alexander Hays, an emancipated slave of the Fowler family of Maryland.
Hays succeeded his wife as a teacher. He soon had the support of such
prominent men as Rev. Doctor Sampson, William Winston Seaton and R.S.
Coxe. Joseph T. and Thomas H. Mason and Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher were
Hays's contemporaries. The last two were teachers from England.
On account of the feeling then developing against white persons
instructing Negroes, these philanthropists saw their schoolhouses
burned, themselves expelled from the white churches, and finally
driven from the city in 1858.[1] Other white men and women were
teaching colored children during these years. The most prominent of
these were Thomas Tabbs, an erratic philanthropist, Mr. Nutall, an
Englishman; Mr. Talbot, a successful tutor stationed near the present
site of the Franklin School; and Mrs. George Ford, a Virginian,
conducting a school on New Jersey Avenue between K and L Streets.[2]
The efforts of Miss Myrtilla Miner, their contemporary, will be
mentioned elsewhere.[3]

[Footnote 1: Besides the classes taught by these workers there was
the Eliza Ann Cook private school; Miss Washington's school; a select
primary school; a free Catholic school maintained by the St. Vincent
de Paul Society, an association of colored Catholics in connection
with St. Matthew's Church. This institution was organized by the
benevolent Father Walter at the Smothers School. Then there were
teachers like Elizabeth Smith, Isabella Briscoe, Charlotte Beams,
James Shorter, Charlotte Gordon, and David Brown. Furthermore, various
churches, parochial, and Sunday-schools were then sharing the burden
of educating the Negro population of the District of Columbia. See
_Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, pp. 214, 215, 216,
217, 218 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 214.]

[Footnote 3: O'Connor, Myrtilla Miner, p. 80.]

The Negroes of Baltimore were almost as self-educating as those of the
District of Columbia. The coming of the refugees and French Fathers
from Santo Domingo to Baltimore to escape the revolution[1] marked an
epoch in the intellectual progress of the colored people of that city.
Thereafter their intellectual class had access to an increasing black
population, anxious to be enlightened. Given this better working
basis, they secured from the ranks of the Catholics additional
catechists and teachers to give a larger number of illiterates the
fundamentals of education. Their untiring co-worker in furnishing
these facilities, was the Most Reverend Ambrose Marechal, Archbishop
of Baltimore from 1817 to 1828.[2] These schools were such an
improvement over those formerly opened to Negroes that colored youths
of other towns and cities thereafter came to Baltimore for higher
training.[3]

[Footnote 1: Drewery, _Slave Insurrections in Virginia_, p. 121.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 205.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 205.]

The coming of these refugees to Baltimore had a direct bearing on the
education of colored girls. Their condition excited the sympathy of
the immigrating colored women. These ladies had been educated both in
the Island of Santo Domingo and in Paris. At once interested in the
uplift of this sex, they soon constituted the nucleus of the society
that finally formed the St. Frances Academy for girls in connection
with the Oblate Sisters of Providence Convent in Baltimore, June 5,
1829.[1] This step was sanctioned by the Reverend James Whitefield,
the successor of Archbishop Marechal, and was later approved by the
Holy See. The institution was located on Richmond Street in a building
which on account of the rapid growth of the school soon gave way to
larger quarters. The aim of the institution was to train girls, all
of whom "would become mothers or household servants, in such solid
virtues and religious and moral principles as modesty, honesty, and
integrity."[2] To reach this end they endeavored to supply the school
with cultivated and capable teachers. Students were offered courses in
all the branches of "refined and useful education, including all that
is regularly taught in well regulated female seminaries."[3] This
school was so well maintained that it survived all reactionary attacks
and became a center of enlightenment for colored women.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 205.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 206.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, p. 206.]

At the same time there were other persons and organizations in the
field. Prominent among the first of these workers was Daniel Coker,
known to fame as a colored Methodist missionary, who was sent to
Liberia. Prior to 1812 he had in Baltimore an academy which certain
students from Washington attended when they had no good schools of
their own, and when white persons began to object to the co-education
of the races. Because of these conditions two daughters of George
Bell, the builder of the first colored schoolhouse in the District of
Columbia, went to Baltimore to study under Coker.[1] An adult Negro
school in this city had 180 pupils in 1820. There were then in the
Baltimore Sunday-schools about 600 Negroes. They had formed themselves
into a Bible association which had been received into the connection
of the Baltimore Bible Society.[2] In 1825 the Negroes there had a day
and a night school, giving courses in Latin and French. Four years
later there appeared an "African Free School" with an attendance of
from 150 to 175 every Sunday.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 196.]

[Footnote 2: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 14.]

[Footnote 3: Adams, _Anti-Slavery_, etc., pp. 14 and 15.]

By 1830 the Negroes of Baltimore had several special schools of their
own.[1] In 1835 there was behind the African Methodist Church in Sharp
Street a school of seventy pupils in charge of William Watkins.[2] W.
Livingston, an ordained clergyman of the Episcopal Church, had then a
colored school of eighty pupils in the African Church at the corner of
Saratoga and Ninth Streets.[3] A third school of this kind was kept by
John Fortie at the Methodist Bethel Church in Fish Street. Five or six
other schools of some consequence were maintained by free women of
color, who owed their education to the Convent of the Oblate Sisters
of Providence.[4] Observing these conditions, an interested person
thought that much more would have been accomplished in that community,
if the friends of the colored people had been able to find workers
acceptable to the masters and at the same time competent to teach the
slaves.[5] Yet another observer felt that the Negroes of Baltimore had
more opportunities than they embraced.[6]

[Footnote 1: Buckingham, _America, Historical_, etc., vol. i., p.
438.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 438; Andrews, _Slavery and the Domestic Slave
Trade_, pp. 54, 55, and 56; and Varle, _A Complete View of Baltimore_,
p. 33.]

[Footnote 3: Varle, _A Complete View of Baltimore_, p. 33; and
Andrews, _Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade_, pp. 85 and 92.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 33.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, p. 54.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, p. 37.]

These conditions, however, were so favorable in 1835 that when
Professor E.A. Andrews came to Baltimore to introduce the work of
the American Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored
People,[1] he was informed that the education of the Negroes of that
city was fairly well provided for. Evidently the need was that the
"systematic and sustained exertions" of the workers should spring
from a more nearly perfect organization "to give efficiency to their
philanthropic labors."[2] He was informed that as his society was of
New England, it would on account of its origin in the wrong quarter,
be productive of mischief.[3] The leading people of Baltimore
thought that it would be better to accomplish this task through the
Colonization Society, a southern organization carrying out the very
policy which the American Union proposed to pursue.[4]

[Footnote 1: On January 14, 1835, a convention of more than one
hundred gentlemen from ten different States assembled in Boston and
organized the "American Union for the Relief and Improvement of the
Colored Race." Among these workers were William Reed, Daniel Noyes,
J.W. Chickering, J.W. Putnam, Baron Stow, B.B. Edwards, E.A. Andrews,
Charles Scudder, Joseph Tracy, Samuel Worcester, and Charles Tappan.
The gentlemen were neither antagonistic to the antislavery nor to the
colonization societies. They aimed to do that which had been neglected
in giving the Negroes proper preparation for freedom. Knowing that
the actual emancipation of an oppressed race cannot be effected by
legislation, they hoped to provide religious and literary instruction
for all colored children that they might "ameliorate their economic
condition" and prepare themselves for higher usefulness. See the
_Exposition of the Object and Plans of the American Union_, pp.
11-14.]

[Footnote 2: Andrews, _Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade_, p. 57.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 188.]

[Footnote 4: Andrews, _Slavery_, etc., p. 56.]

The instruction of ambitious blacks in this city was not confined to
mere rudimentary training. The opportunity for advanced study was
offered colored girls in the Convent of the Oblate Sisters of
Providence. These Negroes, however, early learned to help themselves.
In 1835 considerable assistance came from Nelson Wells, one of their
own color. He left to properly appointed trustees the sum of $10,000,
the income of which was to be appropriated to the education of free
colored children.[1] With this benefaction the trustees concerned
established in 1835 what they called the Wells School. It offered
Negroes free instruction long after the Civil War.

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 353.]

In seeking to show how these good results were obtained by the
Negroes' cooeperative power and ability to supply their own needs, we
are not unmindful of the assistance which they received. To say that
the colored people of Baltimore, themselves, provided all these
facilities of education would do injustice to the benevolent element
of that city. Among its white people were found so much toleration
of opinion on slavery and so much sympathy with the efforts for its
removal, that they not only permitted the establishment of Negro
churches, but opened successful colored schools in which white men
and women assisted personally in teaching. Great praise is due
philanthropists of the type of John Breckenridge and Daniel Raymond,
who contributed their time and means to the cause and enlisted the
efforts of others. Still greater credit should be given to William
Crane, who for forty years was known as an "ardent, liberal, and wise
friend of the black man." At the cost of $20,000 he erected in the
central part of the city an edifice exclusively for the benefit of
the colored people. In this building was an auditorium, several
large schoolrooms, and a hall for entertainments and lectures. The
institution employed a pastor and two teachers[1] and it was often
mentioned as a high school.

[Footnote 1: A contributor to the _Christian Chronicle_ found in this
institution a pastor, a principal of the school, and an assistant,
all of superior qualifications. The classes which this reporter heard
recite grammar and geography convinced him of the thoroughness of the
work and the unusual readiness of the colored people to learn. See
_The African Repository_, vol. xxxii., p. 91.]

In northern cities like Philadelphia and New York, where benevolent
organizations provided an adequate number of colored schools, the free
blacks did not develop so much of the power to educate themselves. The
Negroes of these cities, however, cannot be considered exceptions to
the rule. Many of those of Philadelphia were of the most ambitious
kind, men who had purchased their freedom or had developed sufficient
intelligence to delude their would-be captors and conquer the
institution of slavery. Settled in this community, the thrifty class
accumulated wealth which they often used, not only to defray the
expenses of educating their own children, but to provide educational
facilities for the poor children of color.

Gradually developing the power to help themselves, the free people
of color organized a society which in 1804 opened a school with John
Trumbull as teacher.[1] About the same time the African Episcopalians
founded a colored school at their church.[2] A colored man gave three
hundred pounds of the required funds to build the first colored
schoolhouse in Philadelphia.[3] In 1830 one fourth of the twelve
hundred colored children in the schools of that city paid for their
instruction, whereas only two hundred and fifty were attending the
public schools in 1825.[4] The fact that some of the Negroes were able
and willing to share the responsibility of enlightening their people
caused a larger number of philanthropists to come to the rescue
of those who had to depend on charity. Furthermore, of the many
achievements claimed for the colored schools of Philadelphia none were
considered more significant than that they produced teachers qualified
to carry on this work. Eleven of the sixteen colored schools in
Philadelphia in 1822 were taught by teachers of African descent. In
1830 the system was practically in the hands of Negroes.[5]

[Footnote 1: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p. 129.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 130.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 377.]

[Footnote 4: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1825, p.
13.]

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the Am. Convention_, etc., 1830, p.8; and
Wickersham, _History of Education in Pennsylvania_, p. 253.]

The statistics of later years show how successful these early efforts
had been. By 1849 the colored schools of Philadelphia had developed
to the extent that they seemed like a system. According to the
_Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of Colored People in and about
Philadelphia_, published that year, there were 1643 children of color
attending well-regulated schools. The larger institutions were mainly
supported by State and charitable organizations of which the Society
of Friends and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society were the most
important. Besides supporting these institutions, however, the
intelligent colored men of Philadelphia had maintained smaller schools
and organized a system of lyceums and debating clubs, one of which had
a library of 1400 volumes. Moreover, there were then teaching in the
colored families and industrial schools of Philadelphia many men and
women of both races.[1] Although these instructors restricted their
work to the teaching of the rudiments of education, they did much to
help the more advanced schools to enlighten the Negroes who came to
that city in large numbers when conditions became intolerable for
the free people of color in the slave States. The statistics of the
following decade show unusual progress. In the year 1859 there were
in the colored public schools of Philadelphia, 1031 pupils; in the
charity schools, 748; in the benevolent schools, 211; in private
schools, 331; in all, 2321, whereas in 1849 there were only 1643.[2]

[Footnote 1: About the middle of the nineteenth century colored
schools of various kinds arose in Philadelphia. With a view to giving
Negroes industrial training their friends opened "The School for the
Destitute" at the House of Industry in 1848. Three years later Sarah
Luciana was teaching a school of seventy youths at this House of
Industry, and the Sheppard School, another industrial institution,
was in operation in 1850 in a building bearing the same name. In 1849
arose the "Corn Street Unclassified School" of forty-seven children
in charge of Sarah L. Peltz. "The Holmesburg Unclassified School" was
organized in 1854. Other institutions of various purposes were "The
House of Refuge," "The Orphans' Shelter," and "The Home for
Colored Children." See Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of
Philadelphia_, 1859.

Among those then teaching in private schools of Philadelphia were
Solomon Clarkson, Robert George, John Marshall, John Ross, Jonathan
Tudas, and David Ware. Ann Bishop, Virginia Blake, Amelia Bogle, Anne
E. Carey, Sarah Ann Douglass, Rebecca Hailstock, Emma Hall, Emmeline
Higgins, Margaret Johnson, Martha Richards, Dinah Smith, Mary Still,
and one Peterson were teaching in families. See _Statistical Inquiry_,
etc., 1849, p. 19; and Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of
Philadelphia_, 1859.]

[Footnote 2: _Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the Colored
People of Philadelphia_, in 1859.]

Situated like those of Philadelphia, the free blacks of New York City
did not have to maintain their own schools. This was especially true
after 1832 when the colored people had qualified themselves to take
over the schools of the New York Manumission Society. They then got
rid of all the white teachers, even Andrews, the principal, who had
for years directed this system. Besides, the economic progress of
certain Negroes there made possible the employment of the increasing
number of colored teachers, who had availed themselves of the
opportunities afforded by the benevolent schools. The stigma then
attached to one receiving seeming charity through free schools
stimulated thrifty Negroes to have their children instructed either in
private institutions kept by friendly white teachers or by teachers of
their own color.[1] In 1812 a society of the free people of color was
organized to raise a fund, the interest of which was to sustain a
free school for orphan children.[2] This society succeeded later in
establishing and maintaining two schools. At this time there were
in New York City three other colored schools, the teachers of which
received their compensation from those who patronized them.[3]

[Footnote 1: See the Address of the American Convention, 1819.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the Am. Convention_, etc., 1812, p. 7.

Certain colored women were then organized to procure and make for
destitute persons of color. See Andrews, _History of the New York
African Free Schools_, p. 58.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 58.]

Whether from lack of interest in their welfare on the part of the
public, or from the desire of the Negroes to share their own burdens,
the colored people of Rhode Island were endeavoring to provide for
the education of their children during the first decades of the last
century. _The Newport Mercury_ of March 26, 1808, announced that the
African Benevolent Society had opened there a school kept by Newport
Gardner, who was to instruct all colored people "inclined to attend."
The records of the place show that this school was in operation eight
years later.[1]

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, _History of Ed. in R.I._, p. 30.]

In Boston, where were found more Negroes than in most New England
communities, the colored people themselves maintained a separate
school after the revolutionary era. In the towns of Salem, Nantucket,
New Bedford, and Lowell the colored schools failed to make much
progress after the first quarter of the nineteenth century on account
of the more liberal construction of the laws which provided for
democratic education. This the free blacks were forced to advocate for
the reason that the seeming onerous task of supporting a dual system
often caused the neglect, and sometimes the extinction of the separate
schools. Furthermore, either the Negroes of some of these towns were
too scarce or the movement to furnish them special facilities of
education started too late to escape the attacks of the abolitionists.
Seeing their mistake of first establishing separate schools, they
began to attack caste in public education.

In the eastern cities where colored school systems thereafter
continued, the work was not always successful. The influx of fugitives
in the rough sometimes jeopardized their chances for education by
menacing liberal communities with the trouble of caring for an
undesirable class. The friends of the Negroes, however, received more
encouragement during the two decades immediately preceding the Civil
War. There was a change in the attitude of northern cities toward
the uplift of the colored refugees. Catholics, Protestants, and
abolitionists often united their means to make provision for the
education of accessible Negroes, although these friends of the
oppressed could not always agree on other important schemes. Even the
colonizationists, the object of attack from the ardent antislavery
element, considerably aided the cause. They educated for work in
Liberia a number of youths, who, given the opportunity to attend
good schools, demonstrated the capacity of the colored people. More
important factors than the colonizationists were the free people of
color. Brought into the rapidly growing urban communities, these
Negroes began to accumulate sufficient wealth to provide permanent
schools of their own. Many of these were later assimilated by
the systems of northern cities when their separate schools were
disestablished.




CHAPTER VII

THE REACTION


Encouraging as had been the movement to enlighten the Negroes, there
had always been at work certain reactionary forces which impeded the
intellectual progress of the colored people. The effort to enlighten
them that they might be emancipated to enjoy the political rights
given white men, failed to meet with success in those sections where
slaves were found in large numbers. Feeling that the body politic, as
conceived by Locke and Montesquieu, did not include the slaves, many
citizens opposed their education on the ground that their mental
improvement was inconsistent with their position as persons held to
service. For this reason there was never put forward any systematic
effort to elevate the slaves. Every master believed that he had a
divine right to deal with the situation as he chose. Moreover, even
before the policy of mental and moral improvement of the slaves could
be given a trial, some colonists, anticipating the "evils of the
scheme," sought to obviate them by legislation. Such we have observed
was the case in Virginia,[1] South Carolina,[2] and Georgia.[3] To
control the assemblies of slaves, North Carolina,[4] Delaware,[5] and
Maryland[6] early passed strict regulations for their inspection.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 391.]

[Footnote 2: Brevard, _Digest of the Public Statute Law of S.C._, vol.
ii., p.243.]

[Footnote 3: Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of Laws of the State of
Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 4: _Laws of North Carolina_, vol. i., pp. 126, 563, and
741.]

[Footnote 5: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 335.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, p. 352.]

The actual opposition of the masters to the mental improvement of
Negroes, however, did not assume sufficiently large proportions to
prevent the intellectual progress of that race, until two forces then
at work had had time to become effective in arousing southern planters
to the realization of what a danger enlightened colored men would
be to the institution of slavery. These forces were the industrial
revolution and the development of an insurrectionary spirit among
slaves, accelerated by the rapid spreading of the abolition agitation.
The industrial revolution was effected by the multiplication of
mechanical appliances for spinning and weaving which so influenced the
institution of slavery as seemingly to doom the Negroes to heathenism.
These inventions were the spinning jenny, the steam engine, the power
loom, the wool-combing machine, and the cotton gin. They augmented
the output of spinning mills, and in cheapening cloth, increased the
demand by bringing it within the reach of the poor. The result was
that a revolution was brought about not only in Europe, but also in
the United States to which the world looked for this larger supply of
cotton fiber.[1] This demand led to the extension of the plantation
system on a larger scale. It was unfortunate, however, that many of
the planters thus enriched, believed that the slightest amount of
education, merely teaching slaves to read, impaired their value
because it instantly destroyed their contentedness. Since they did not
contemplate changing their condition, it was surely doing them an ill
service to destroy their acquiescence in it. This revolution then had
brought it to pass that slaves who were, during the eighteenth century
advertised as valuable on account of having been enlightened, were in
the nineteenth century considered more dangerous than useful.

[Footnote 1: Turner, _The Rise of the New West_, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48,
and 49; and Hammond, _Cotton Industry_, chaps. i. and ii.]

With the rise of this system, and the attendant increased importation
of slaves, came the end of the helpful contact of servants with their
masters. Slavery was thereby changed from a patriarchal to an economic
institution. Thereafter most owners of extensive estates abandoned the
idea that the mental improvement of slaves made them better servants.
Doomed then to be half-fed, poorly clad, and driven to death in this
cotton kingdom, what need had the slaves for education? Some planters
hit upon the seemingly more profitable scheme of working newly
imported slaves to death during seven years and buying another supply
rather than attempt to humanize them.[1] Deprived thus of helpful
advice and instruction, the slaves became the object of pity not only
to abolitionists of the North but also to some southerners. Not a
few of these reformers, therefore, favored the extermination of the
institution. Others advocated the expansion of slavery not to extend
the influence of the South, but to disperse the slaves with a view to
bringing about a closer contact between them and their masters.[2]
This policy was duly emphasized during the debate on the admission of
the State of Missouri.

[Footnote 1: Rhodes, _History of the United States_, vol. i., p. 32;
Kemble, Journal, p. 28; Martineau, _Society in America_, vol. i., p.
308; Weld, _Slavery_, etc., p. 41.]

[Footnote 2: Annals of Congress, First Session, vol. i., pp. 996 _et
seq._ and 1296 _et seq._]

Seeking to direct the attention of the world to the slavery of men's
bodies and minds the abolitionists spread broadcast through the South
newspapers, tracts, and pamphlets which, whether or not they had much
effect in inducing masters to improve the condition of their slaves,
certainly moved Negroes themselves. It hardly required enlightenment
to convince slaves that they would be better off as freemen than as
dependents whose very wills were subject to those of their masters.
Accordingly even in the seventeenth century there developed in the
minds of bondmen the spirit of resistance. The white settlers of the
colonies held out successfully in putting down the early riots of
Negroes. When the increasing intelligent Negroes of the South,
however, observed in the abolition literature how the condition of the
American slaves differed from that of the ancient servants and even
from what it once had been in the United States; when they fully
realized their intolerable condition compared with that of white men,
who were clamoring for liberty and equality, there rankled in the
bosom of slaves that insurrectionary passion productive of the daring
uprisings which made the chances for the enlightenment of colored
people poorer than they had ever been in the history of this country.

The more alarming insurrections of the first quarter of the nineteenth
century were the immediate cause of the most reactionary measures.
It was easily observed that these movements were due to the mental
improvement of the colored people during the struggle for the rights
of man. Not only had Negroes heard from the lips of their masters
warm words of praise for the leaders of the French Revolution but had
developed sufficient intelligence themselves to read the story of the
heroes of the world, who were then emboldened to refresh the tree
of liberty "with the blood of patriots and tyrants."[1] The
insurrectionary passion among the colored people was kindled, too,
around Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and New Orleans by certain
Negroes who to escape the horrors of the political upheaval in Santo
Domingo,[2] immigrated into this country in 1793. The education of the
colored race had paved the way for the dissemination of their ideas of
liberty and equality. Enlightened bondmen persistently made trouble
for the white people in these vicinities. Negroes who could not read,
learned from others the story of Toussaint L'Ouverture, whose example
colored men were then ambitious to emulate.

[Footnote 1: Washington, _Works of Jefferson_, vol. iv., p. 467.]

[Footnote 2: Drewery, _Insurrections in Virginia_, p. 121.]

The insurrection of Gabriel in Virginia and that of South Carolina in
the year 1800 are cases in evidence. Unwilling to concede that slaves
could have so well planned such a daring attack, the press of the
time insisted that two Frenchmen were the promoters of the affair in
Virginia.[1] James Monroe said there was no evidence that any white
man was connected with it.[2] It was believed that the general
tendency of the Negroes toward an uprising had resulted from French
ideas which had come to the slaves through intelligent colored men.[3]
Observing that many Negroes were sufficiently enlightened to see
things as other men, the editor of the _Aurora_ asserted that in
negotiating with the "Black Republic" the United States and Great
Britain had set the seal of approval upon servile insurrection.[4]
Others referred to inflammatory handbills which Negroes extensively
read.[5] Discussing the Gabriel plot in 1800, Judge St. George Tucker
said: "Our sole security then consists in their ignorance of this
power (doing us mischief) and their means of using it--a security
which we have lately found is not to be relied on, and which, small as
it is, every day diminishes. Every year adds to the number of those
who can read and write; and the increase in knowledge is the principal
agent in evolving the spirit we have to fear."[6]

[Footnote 1: _The New York Daily Advertiser_, Sept. 22, 1800; and _The
Richmond Enquirer_, Oct. 21, 1831.]

[Footnote 2: _Writings of James Monroe_, vol. iii., p. 217.]

[Footnote 3: Educated Negroes then constituted an alarming element in
Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. See _The New York Daily
Advertiser_, Sept. 22, 1800.]

[Footnote 4: See _The New York Daily Advertiser_, Sept. 22, 1800.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, Oct. 7, 1800.]

[Footnote 6: Letter of St. George Tucker in Joshua Coffin's _Slave
Insurrections._]

Camden was disturbed by an insurrection in 1816 and Charleston in
1822 by a formidable plot which the officials believed was due to the
"sinister" influences of enlightened Negroes.[1] The moving spirit of
this organization was Denmark Vesey. He had learned to read and write,
had accumulated an estate worth $8000, and had purchased his freedom
in 1800[2] Jack Purcell, an accomplice of Vesey, weakened in the
crisis and confessed. He said that Vesey was in the habit of reading
to him all the passages in the newspapers, that related to Santo
Domingo and apparently every accessible pamphlet that had any
connection with slavery.[3] One day he read to Purcell the speeches of
Mr. King on the subject of slavery and told Purcell how this friend of
the Negro race declared he would continue to speak, write, and publish
pamphlets against slavery "the longest day he lived," until the
Southern States consented to emancipate their slaves.[4]

[Footnote 1: _The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser_
(Charleston, South Carolina), August 21, 1822.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, August 21, 1822.]

[Footnote 3: _The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser_,
August 21, 1822.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., August 21, 1822.]

The statement of the Governor of South Carolina also shows the
influence of the educated Negro. This official felt that Monday, the
slave of Mr. Gill, was the most daring conspirator. Being able to read
and write he "attained an extraordinary and dangerous influence over
his fellows." "Permitted by his owner to occupy a house in the central
part of this city, he was afforded hourly opportunities for the
exercise of his skill on those who were attracted to his shop by
business or favor." "Materials were abundantly furnished in the
seditious pamphlets brought into the State by equally culpable
incendiaries, while the speeches of the oppositionists in Congress to
the admission of Missouri gave a serious and imposing effect to his
machinations."[1] It was thus brought home to the South that the
enlightened Negro was having his heart fired with the spirit of
liberty by his perusal of the accounts of servile insurrections and
the congressional debate on slavery.

[Footnote 1: _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald_, Aug. 30, 1822.]

Southerners of all types thereafter attacked the policy of educating
Negroes.[1] Men who had expressed themselves neither one way nor the
other changed their attitude when it became evident that abolition
literature in the hands of slaves would not only make them
dissatisfied, but cause them to take drastic measures to secure
liberty. Those who had emphasized the education of the Negroes to
increase their economic efficiency were largely converted. The
clergy who had insisted that the bondmen were entitled to, at least,
sufficient training to enable them to understand the principles of the
Christian religion, were thereafter willing to forego the benefits
of their salvation rather than see them destroy the institution of
slavery.

[Footnote 1: Hodgson, _Whitney's Remarks during a Journey through
North America_, p. 184.]

In consequence of this tendency, State after State enacted more
stringent laws to control the situation. Missouri passed in 1817 an
act so to regulate the traveling and assembly of slaves as to make
them ineffective in making headway against the white people by
insurrection. Of course, in so doing the reactionaries deprived
them of the opportunities of helpful associations and of attending
schools.[1] By 1819 much dissatisfaction had arisen from the seeming
danger of the various colored schools in Virginia. The General
Assembly, therefore, passed a law providing that there should be no
more assemblages of slaves, or free Negroes, or mulattoes, mixing or
associating with such slaves for teaching them reading and writing.[2]
The opposition here seemed to be for the reasons that Negroes were
being generally enlightened in the towns of the State and that white
persons as teachers in these institutions were largely instrumental in
accomplishing this result. Mississippi even as a Territory had tried
to meet the problem of unlawful assemblies. In the year 1823 it was
declared unlawful for Negroes above the number of five to meet for
educational purposes.[3] Only with the permission of their masters
could slaves attend religious worship conducted by a recognized white
minister or attended by "two discreet and reputable persons."[4]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of Missouri Territory_, etc., p. 498.]

[Footnote 2: Tate, _Digest of the Laws of Virginia_, pp. 849-850.]

[Footnote 3: Poindexter, _Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi_, p.
390.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 390.]

The problem in Louisiana was first to keep out intelligent persons who
might so inform the slaves as to cause them to rise. Accordingly in
1814[1] the State passed a law prohibiting the immigration of free
persons of color into that commonwealth. This precaution, however, was
not deemed sufficient after the insurrectionary Negroes of New Berne,
Tarborough, and Hillsborough, North Carolina,[2] had risen, and David
Walker of Massachusetts had published to the slaves his fiery appeal
to arms.[3] In 1830, therefore, Louisiana enacted another measure,
providing that whoever should write, print, publish, or distribute
anything having the tendency to produce discontent among the slaves,
should on conviction thereof be imprisoned at hard labor for life or
suffer death at the discretion of the court. It was provided, too,
that whoever used any language or became instrumental in bringing into
the State any paper, book, or pamphlet inducing this discontent should
suffer practically the same penalty. All persons who should teach, or
permit or cause to be taught, any slave to read or write, should be
imprisoned not less than one month nor more than twelve.[4]

[Footnote 1: Bullard and Curry, _A New Digest of the Statute Laws of
the State of Louisiana_, p. 161.]

[Footnote 2: Coffin, _Slave Insurrections_, p. 22.]

[Footnote 3: Walker mentioned "our wretchedness in consequence
of slavery, our wretchedness in consequence of ignorance, our
wretchedness in consequence of the preachers of the religion of Jesus
Christ, and our wretchedness in consequence of the colonization plan."
See _Walker's Appeal_.]

[Footnote 4: Acts passed at the Ninth Session of the Legislature of
Louisiana, p. 96.]

Yielding to the demand of slaveholders, Georgia passed a year later a
law providing that any Negro who should teach another to read or write
should be punished by fine and whipping. If a white person should so
offend, he should be punished with a fine not exceeding $500 and with
imprisonment in the common jail at the discretion of the committing
magistrate.[1]

[Footnote 1] Dawson, _A Compilation of the Laws of the State of
Georgia_, etc., p. 413.

In Virginia where the prohibition did not then extend to freedmen,
there was enacted in 1831 a law providing that any meeting of free
Negroes or mulattoes for teaching them reading or writing should be
considered an unlawful assembly. To break up assemblies for this
purpose any judge or justice of the peace could issue a warrant to
apprehend such persons and inflict corporal punishment not exceeding
twenty lashes. White persons convicted of teaching Negroes to read
or write were to be fined fifty dollars and might be imprisoned two
months. For imparting such information to a slave the offender was
subject to a fine of not less than ten nor more than one hundred
dollars.[1]

[Footnote 1]_Laws of Virginia_, 1830-1831, p. 108, Sections 5 and 6.

The whole country was again disturbed by the insurrection in
Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. The slave States then had a
striking example of what the intelligent Negroes of the South might
eventually do. The leader of this uprising was Nat Turner. Precocious
as a youth he had learned to read so easily that he did not remember
when he first had that attainment.[1] Given unusual social and
intellectual advantages, he developed into a man of considerable
"mental ability and wide information." His education was chiefly
acquired in the Sunday-schools in which "the text-books for the small
children were the ordinary speller and reader, and that for the older
Negroes the Bible."[2] He had received instruction also from his
parents and his indulgent young master, J.C. Turner.

[Footnote 1] Drewery, _Insurrections in Virginia_, p. 27.

[Footnote 2: Drewery, _Insurrections in Virginia_, p. 28.]

When Nat Turner appeared, the education of the Negro had made the way
somewhat easier for him than it was for his predecessors. Negroes who
could read and write had before them the revolutionary ideas of the
French, the daring deeds of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the bold attempt of
General Gabriel, and the far-reaching plans of Denmark Vesey. These
were sometimes written up in the abolition literature, the circulation
of which was so extensive among the slaves that it became a national
question.[1]

[Footnote 1: These organs were _The Albany Evening Journal, The New
York Free Press, The Genius of Universal Emancipation_, and _The
Boston Liberator_. See _The Richmond Enquirer_, Oct. 21, 1831.]

Trying to account for this insurrection the Governor of the State lays
it to the charge of the Negro preachers who were in position to foment
much disorder on account of having acquired "great ascendancy over the
minds" of discontented slaves. He believed that these ministers were
in direct contact with the agents of abolition, who were using colored
leaders as a means to destroy the institutions of the South. The
Governor was cognizant of the fact that not only was the sentiment of
the incendiary pamphlets read but often the words.[1] To prevent the
"enemies" in other States from communicating with the slaves of that
section he requested that the laws regulating the assembly of Negroes
be more rigidly enforced and that colored preachers be silenced. The
General Assembly complied with this request.[2]

[Footnote 1: _The Richmond Enquirer_, Oct. 21, 1831.]

[Footnote 2: _The Laws of Virginia_, 1831-1832, p. 20.]

The aim of the subsequent reactionary legislation of the South was to
complete the work of preventing the dissemination of information
among Negroes and their reading of abolition literature. This they
endeavored to do by prohibiting the communication of the slaves with
one another, with the better informed free persons of color, and with
the liberal white people; and by closing all the schools theretofore
opened to Negroes. The States passed laws providing for a more
stringent regulation of passes, defining unlawful assemblies, and
fixing penalties for the same. Other statutes prohibited religious
worship, or brought it under direct supervision of the owners of the
slaves concerned, and proscribed the private teaching of slaves in any
manner whatever.

Mississippi, which already had a law to prevent the mental improvement
of the slaves, enacted in 1831 another measure to remove from them the
more enlightened members of their race. All free colored persons were
to leave the State in ninety days. The same law provided, too, that
no Negro should preach in that State unless to the slaves of his
plantation and with the permission of the owner.[1] Delaware saw fit
to take a bold step in this direction. The act of 1831 provided that
no congregation or meeting of free Negroes or mulattoes of more than
twelve persons should be held later than twelve o'clock at night,
except under the direction of three respectable white persons who were
to attend the meeting. It further provided that no free Negro should
attempt to call a meeting for religious worship, to exhort or preach,
unless he was authorized to do so by a judge or justice of the peace,
upon the recommendation of five "respectable and judicious citizens."
[2] This measure tended only to prevent the dissemination of
information among Negroes by making it impossible for them to
assemble. It was not until 1863 that the State of Delaware finally
passed a positive measure to prevent the assemblages of colored
persons for instruction and all other meetings except for religious
worship and the burial of the dead.[3] Following the example of
Delaware in 1832, Florida passed a law prohibiting all meetings of
Negroes except those for divine worship at a church or place attended
by white persons.[4] Florida made the same regulations more stringent
in 1846 when she enjoyed the freedom of a State.[5]

[Footnote 1] Hutchinson, _Code of Mississippi_, p. 533.

[Footnote 2] _Laws of Delaware_, 1832, pp. 181-182.

[Footnote 3] _Ibid._, 1863, p. 330 _et seq._

[Footnote 4: _Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of
Florida, 1832_, p. 145.]

[Footnote 5: _Acts of Florida, 1846_, ch. 87, sec. 9.]

Alabama had some difficulty in getting a satisfactory law. In 1832
this commonwealth enacted a law imposing a fine of from $250 to $500
on persons who should attempt to educate any Negro whatsoever. The act
also prohibited the usual unlawful assemblies and the preaching or
exhorting of Negroes except in the presence of five "respectable
slaveholders" or unless the officiating minister was licensed by some
regular church of which the persons thus exhorted were members.[1] It
soon developed that the State had gone too far. It had infringed upon
the rights and privileges of certain creoles, who, being residents
of the Louisiana Territory when it was purchased in 1803, had been
guaranteed the rights of citizens of the United States. Accordingly in
1833 the Mayor and the Aldermen of Mobile were authorized by law to
grant licenses to such persons as they might deem suitable to instruct
for limited periods, in that city and the counties of Mobile and
Baldwin, the free colored children, who were descendants of colored
creoles residing in the district in 1803.[2]

[Footnote 1: Clay, _Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama_, p.
543.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 323.]

Another difficulty of certain commonwealths had to be overcome.
Apparently Georgia had already incorporated into its laws provisions
adequate to the prevention of the mental improvement of Negroes. But
it was discovered that employed as they had been in various positions
either requiring knowledge, or affording its acquirement, Negroes
would pick up the rudiments of education, despite the fact that they
had no access to schools. The State then passed a law imposing a
penalty not exceeding one hundred dollars for the employment of any
slave or free person of color "in setting up type or other labor about
a printing office requiring a knowledge of reading and writing."[1]
In 1834 South Carolina saw the same danger. In addition to enacting a
more stringent law for the prevention of the teaching of Negroes by
white or colored friends, and for the destruction of their schools,
it provided that persons of African blood should not be employed as
clerks or salesmen in or about any shop or store or house used for
trading.[2]

[Footnote 1: Cobb, _Digest of the Laws of Georgia_, p. 555; and
Prince, _Digest of the Laws of Georgia_, p. 658.]

[Footnote 2: Laws of South Carolina, 1834.]

North Carolina was among the last States to take such drastic measures
for the protection of the white race. In this commonwealth the whites
and blacks had lived on liberal terms. Negroes had up to this time
enjoyed the right of suffrage there. Some attended schools open to
both races. A few even taught white children.[1]

[Footnote 1: Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p. 74; and
testimonies of various ex-slaves.]

The intense feeling against Negroes engendered by the frequency
of insurrections, however, sufficed to swing the State into the
reactionary column by 1835. An act passed by the Legislature that year
prohibited the public instruction of Negroes, making it impossible
for youth of African descent to get any more education than what
they could in their own family circle.[1] The public school system
established thereafter specifically provided that its benefits should
not extend to any descendant from Negro ancestors to the fourth
generation inclusive.[2] Bearing so grievously this loss of their
social status after they had toiled up from poverty, many ambitious
free persons of color, left the State for more congenial communities.

[Footnote 1: _Revised Statutes of North Carolina_, 578.]

[Footnote 2: _Laws of North Carolina, 1835_, C.6, S.2.]

The States of the West did not have to deal so severely with their
slaves as was deemed necessary in Southern States. Missouri found it
advisable in 1833 to amend the law of 1817[1] so as to regulate more
rigorously the traveling and the assembling of slaves. It was not
until 1847, however, that this commonwealth specifically provided
that no one should keep or teach any school for the education of
Negroes.[2] Tennessee had as early as 1803 a law governing the
movement of slaves but exhibited a little more reactionary spirit in
1836 in providing that there should be no circulation of seditious
books or pamphlets which might lead to insurrection or rebellion
among Negroes.[3] Tennessee, however, did not positively forbid the
education of colored people. Kentucky had a system of regulating the
egress and regress of slaves but never passed any law prohibiting
their instruction. Yet statistics show that although the education of
Negroes was not penalized, it was in many places made impossible by
public sentiment. So was it in the State of Maryland, which did not
expressly forbid the instruction of anyone.

[Footnote 1: _Laws of the Territory of Missouri_, p. 498.]

[Footnote 2: _Laws of the State of Missouri_, 1847, pp. 103 and 104.]

[Footnote 3: _Public Acts passed at the First Session of the General
Assembly of the State of Tennessee_, p. 145, chap. 44.]

These reactionary results were not obtained without some opposition.
The governing element of some States divided on the question. The
opinions of this class were well expressed in the discussion between
Chancellor Harper and J.B. O'Neal of the South Carolina bar. The
former said that of the many Negroes whom he had known to be capable
of reading, he had never seen one read anything but the Bible. He
thought that they imposed this task upon themselves as a matter
of duty. Because of the Negroes' "defective comprehension and the
laborious nature of this employment to them"[1] he considered such
reading an inefficient method of religious instruction. He, therefore,
supported the oppressive measures of the South. The other member
of the bar maintained that men could not reflect as Christians and
justify the position that slaves should not be permitted to read the
Bible. "It is in vain," added he, "to say there is danger in it. The
best slaves of the State are those who can and do read the Scriptures.
Again, who is it that teaches your slaves to read? It is generally
done by the children of the owners. Who would tolerate an indictment
against his son or daughter for teaching a slave to read? Such laws
look to me as rather cowardly."[2] This attorney was almost of
the opinion of many others who believed that the argument that to
Christianize and educate the colored people of a slave commonwealth
had a tendency to elevate them above their masters and to destroy the
"legitimate distinctions" of the community, could be admitted only
where the people themselves were degraded.

[Footnote 1: DeBow, _The Industrial Resources of the Southern and
Western States_, vol. ii., p. 269.]

[Footnote 2: DeBow, _The Industrial Resources of the Southern and
Western States_, vol. ii., p. 279.]

After these laws had been passed, American slavery extended not
as that of the ancients, only to the body, but also to the mind.
Education was thereafter regarded as positively inconsistent with the
institution. The precaution taken to prevent the dissemination of
information was declared indispensable to the system. The situation in
many parts of the South was just as Berry portrayed it in the Virginia
House of Delegates in 1832. He said: "We have as far as possible
closed every avenue by which light may enter their [the slaves']
minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work
would be completed; they would then be on a level with the beasts of
the field and we should be safe! I am not certain that we would not
do it, if we could find out the process, and that on the plea of
necessity."[1]

[Footnote 1: Coffin, _Slave Insurrections_, p. 23; and Goodell, _Slave
Code_, p. 323.]

It had then come to pass that in the South, where once were found
a considerable number of intelligent Negroes, they had become
exceedingly scarce or disappeared from certain sections altogether. On
plantations of hundreds of slaves it was common to discover that
not one of them had the mere rudiments of education. In some large
districts it was considered almost a phenomenon to find a Negro who
could read the Bible or sign his name.[1]

[Footnote 1:_Ibid._, pp. 323-324.]

The reactionary tendency was in no sense confined to the Southern
States. Laws were passed in the North to prevent the migration of
Negroes to that section. Their education at certain places was
discouraged. In fact, in the proportion that the conditions in the
South made it necessary for free blacks to flee from oppression, the
people of the North grew less tolerant on account of the large number
of those who crowded the towns and cities of the free States near the
border. The antislavery societies at one time found it necessary to
devote their time to the amelioration of the economic condition of the
refugees to make them acceptable to the white people rather than to
direct their attention to mere education.[1] Not a few northerners,
dreading an influx of free Negroes, drove them even from communities
to which they had learned to, repair for education.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_.]

The best example of this intolerance was the opposition encountered
by Prudence Crandall, a well-educated young Quaker lady, who had
established a boarding-school at Canterbury, Connecticut. Trouble
arose when Sarah Harris, a colored girl, asked admission to this
institution.[1] For many reasons Miss Crandall hesitated to admit her
but finally yielded. Only a few days thereafter the parents of the
white girls called on Miss Crandall to offer their objections to
sending their children to school with a "nigger."[2] Miss Crandall
stood firm, the white girls withdrew, and the teacher advertised for
young women of color. The determination to continue the school on this
basis incited the townsmen to hold an indignation meeting. They passed
resolutions to protest through a committee of local officials against
the establishment of a school of this kind in that community. At this
meeting Andrew T. Judson denounced the policy of Miss Crandall, while
the Rev. Samuel J. May ably defended it. Judson was not only opposed
to the establishment of such a school in Canterbury but in any part of
the State. He believed that colored people, who could never rise
from their menial condition in the United States, should not to
be encouraged to expect to elevate themselves in Connecticut. He
considered them inferior servants who should not be treated as equals
of the Caucasians, but should be sent back to Africa to improve
themselves and Christianize the natives.[3] On the contrary, Mr. May
thought that there would never be fewer colored people in this country
than were found here then and that it would be unjust to exile them.
He asserted that white people should grant Negroes their rights or
lose their own and that since education is the primal, fundamental
right of all men, Connecticut was the last place where this should be
denied.[4]

[Footnote 1: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc., p. 30.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., pp. 32 _et seq_.]

[Footnote 3: Jay, _An Inquiry, etc._, p. 33; and _Special Report of
the U.S. Com. of Ed._, pp. 328 _et seq._]

[Footnote 4: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc., p. 33.]

Miss Crandall and her pupils were threatened with violence.
Accommodation at the local stores was denied her. The pupils were
insulted. The house was besmeared and damaged. An effort was made to
invoke the law by which the selectmen might warn any person not an
inhabitant of the State to depart under penalty of paying $1.67 for
every week he remained after receiving such notice.[1] This failed,
but Judson and his followers were still determined that the "nigger
school" should never be allowed in Canterbury nor any town of the
State. They appealed to the legislature. Setting forth in its preamble
that the evil to be obviated was the increase of the black population
of the commonwealth, that body passed a law providing that no person
should establish a school for the instruction of colored people who
were not inhabitants of the State of Connecticut, nor should any one
harbor or board students brought to the State for this purpose without
first obtaining, in writing, the consent of a majority of the civil
authority and of the selectmen of the town.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 331;
and May, _Letters to A.T. Judson, Esq., and Others_, p. 5.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 5.]

The enactment of this law caused Canterbury to go wild with joy. Miss
Crandall was arrested on the 27th of June, and committed to await her
trial at the next session of the Supreme Court. She and her friends
refused to give bond that the officials might go the limit in
imprisoning her. Miss Crandall was placed in a murderer's cell. Mr.
May, who had stood by her, said when he saw the door locked and the
key taken out, "The deed is done, completely done. It cannot be
recalled. It has passed into the history of our nation and age." Miss
Crandall was tried the 23d of August, 1833, at Brooklyn, the county
seat of the county of Windham. The jury failed to agree upon a
verdict, doubtless because Joseph Eaton, who presided, had given it as
his opinion that the law was probably unconstitutional. At the second
trial before Judge Dagget of the Supreme Court, who was an advocate of
the law, Miss Crandall was convicted. Her counsel, however, filed a
bill of exceptions and took an appeal to the Court of Errors. The
case came up on the 22d of July, 1834. The nature of the law was ably
discussed by W.W. Ellsworth and Calvin Goddard, who maintained that
it was unconstitutional, and by A.T. Judson and C.F. Cleveland, who
undertook to prove its constitutionality. The court reserved its
decision, which was never given. Finding that there were defects in
the information prepared by the attorney for the State, the indictment
was quashed. Because of subsequent attempts to destroy the building,
Mr. May and Miss Crandall decided to abandon the school.[1]

[Footnote 1: Jay, _An Inquiry, etc._, p. 26.]


It resulted then that even in those States to which free blacks had
long looked for sympathy, the fear excited by fugitives from the more
reactionary commonwealths had caused northerners so to yield to the
prejudices of the South that they opposed insuperable obstacles to the
education of Negroes for service in the United States. The colored
people, as we shall see elsewhere, were not allowed to locate their
manual labor college at New Haven[1] and the principal of the Noyes
Academy at Canaan, New Hampshire, saw his institution destroyed
because he decided to admit colored students.[2] These fastidious
persons, however, raised no objection to the establishment of schools
to prepare Negroes to expatriate themselves under the direction of the
American Colonization Society.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery
Society_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 3: Alexander, _A History of Colonization on the Western
Continent_, p. 348.]

Observing these conditions the friends of the colored people could
not be silent. The abolitionists led by Caruthers, May, and Garrison
hurled their weapons at the reactionaries, branding them as
inconsistent schemers. After having advanced the argument of the
mental inferiority of the colored race they had adopted the policy
of educating Negroes on the condition that they be removed from the
country.[1] Considering education one of the rights of man, the
abolitionists persistently rebuked the North and South for their
inhuman policy. On every opportune occasion they appealed to the world
in behalf of the oppressed race, which the hostile laws had removed
from humanizing influences, reduced to the plane of beasts, and made
to die in heathenism.

[Footnote 1: Jay,_An Inquiry_, etc., p. 26; Johns Hopkins University
Studies, Series xvi., p. 319; and _Proceedings of the New York State
Colonization Society_, 1831, p. 6.]

In reply to the abolitionists the protagonists of the reactionaries
said that but for the "intrusive and intriguing interference of
pragmatical fanatics"[1] such precautionary enactments would never
have been necessary. There was some truth in this statement; for
in certain districts these measures operated not to prevent the
aristocratic people of the South from enlightening the Negroes, but to
keep away from them what they considered undesirable instructors.
The southerners regarded the abolitionists as foes in the field,
industriously scattering the seeds of insurrection which could then
be prevented only by blocking every avenue through which they could
operate upon the minds of the slaves. A writer of this period
expressed it thus: "It became necessary to check or turn aside the
stream which instead of flowing healthfully upon the Negro is
polluted and poisoned by the abolitionists and rendered the source
of discontent and excitement."[2] He believed that education thus
perverted would become equally dangerous to the master and the slave,
and that while fanaticism continued its war upon the South the
measures of necessary precaution and defense had to be continued. He
asserted, however, that education would not only unfit the Negro for
his station in life and prepare him for insurrection, but would prove
wholly impracticable in the performance of the duties of a laborer.[3]
The South has not yet learned that an educated man is a better laborer
than an ignorant one.

[Footnote 1: Hodgkin, _An Inquiry into the Merits of the Am. Col.
Soc_., p. 31; and _The South Vindicated from the Treason and
Fanaticism of the Abolitionists_, p. 68.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 69.]

[Footnote 3: _The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of
the Abolitionists_, p. 69.]




CHAPTER VIII

RELIGION WITHOUT LETTERS


Stung by the effective charge of the abolitionists that the
reactionary legislation of the South consigned the Negroes to
heathenism, slaveholders considering themselves Christians, felt that
some semblance of the religious instruction of these degraded people
should be devised. It was difficult, however, to figure out exactly
how the teaching of religion to slaves could be made successful and at
the same time square with the prohibitory measures of the South. For
this reason many masters made no effort to find a way out of the
predicament. Others with a higher sense of duty brought forward a
scheme of oral instruction in Christian truth or of religion without
letters. The word instruction thereafter signified among the
southerners a procedure quite different from what the term meant in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when Negroes were taught to
read and write that they might learn the truth for themselves.

Being aristocratic in its bearing, the Episcopal Church in the South
early receded from the position of cultivating the minds of the
colored people. As the richest slaveholders were Episcopalians, the
clergy of that denomination could hardly carry out a policy which
might prove prejudicial to the interests of their parishioners.
Moreover, in their propaganda there was then nothing which required
the training of Negroes to instruct themselves. As the qualifications
of Episcopal ministers were rather high even for the education of the
whites of that time, the blacks could not hope to be active churchmen.
This Church, therefore, soon limited its work among the Negroes of
the South to the mere verbal instruction of those who belonged to the
local parishes. Furthermore, because this Church was not exceedingly
militant, and certainly not missionary, it failed to grow rapidly. In
most parts it suffered from the rise of the more popular Methodists
and Baptists into the folds of which slaves followed their masters
during the eighteenth century.

The adjustment of the Methodist and Baptist churches in the South to
the new work among the darker people, however, was after the first
quarter of the nineteenth century practically easy. Each of these
denominations had once strenuously opposed slavery, the Methodists
holding out longer than the Baptists. But the particularizing force
of the institution soon became such that southern churches of these
connections withdrew most of their objections to the system and, of
course, did not find it difficult to abandon the idea of teaching
Negroes to read.[1] Moreover, only so far as it was necessary to
prepare men to preach and exhort was there an urgent need for literary
education among these plain and unassuming missionaries. They came,
not emphasizing the observance of forms which required so much
development of the intellect, but laying stress upon the quickening
of man's conscience and the regeneration of his soul. In the States,
however, where the prohibitory laws were not so rigidly enforced,
the instruction received in various ways from workers of these
denominations often turned out to be more than religion without
letters.[2]

[Footnote 1: Matlack, _History of Methodism_, etc., p. 132; Benedict,
_History of the Baptists_, p. 212.]

[Footnote 2: Adams, _South-side View_, p. 59.]

The Presbyterians found it more difficult to yield on this point. For
decades they had been interested in the Negro race and had in 1818
reached the acme of antislavery sentiment.[1] Synod after synod
denounced the attitude of cruel masters toward their slaves and took
steps to do legally all they could to provide religious instruction
for the colored people.[2] When public sentiment and reactionary
legislation made the instruction of the Negroes of the South
impracticable the Presbyterians of New York and New Jersey were active
in devising schemes for the education of the colored people at points
in the North.[3] Then came the crisis of the prolonged abolition
agitation which kept the Presbyterian Church in an excited state from
1818 to 1830 and resulted in the recession of that denomination from
the position it had formerly taken against slavery.[4] Yielding to the
reactionaries in 1835, this noble sect which had established schools
for Negroes, trained ambitious colored men for usefulness, and
endeavored to fit them for the best civil and religious emoluments,
thereafter became divided. The southern connection lost much of its
interest in the dark race, and fell back on the policy of the verbal
instruction and memory training of the blacks that they might never
become thoroughly enlightened as to their condition.

[Footnote 1: Baird, _Collections_, etc., pp. 814-817.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 815.]

[Footnote 3: _Enormity of the Slave Trade_, etc. p. 67.]

[Footnote 4: Baird, _Collections_, etc., pp. 816, 817.]

Despite the fact that southern Methodists and Presbyterians generally
ceased to have much anti-slavery ardor, there continued still in
the western slave States and in the mountains of Virginia and North
Carolina, a goodly number of these churchmen, who suffered no
diminution of interest in the enlightenment of Negroes. In the States
of Kentucky and Tennessee friends of the race were often left free to
instruct them as they wished. Many of the people who settled those
States came from the Scotch-Irish stock of the Appalachian Mountains,
where early in the nineteenth century the blacks were in some cases
treated as equals of the whites.[1]

[Footnote 2: _Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery
Society_, New York, 1837, P. 31; _The New England Antislavery
Almanac_, 1841, p. 31; and _The African Repository_, vol. xxxii., p.
16.]

The Quakers, and many Catholics, however, were as effective as the
mountaineers in elevating Negroes. They had for centuries labored
to promote religion and education among their colored brethren. So
earnest were these sects in working for the uplift of the Negro race
that the reactionary movement failed to swerve them from their course.
When the other churches adopted the policy of mere verbal training,
the Quakers and Catholics adhered to their idea that the Negroes
should be educated to grasp the meaning of the Christian religion just
as they had been during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.[1]
This favorable situation did not mean so much, however, since with the
exception of the Catholics in Maryland and Louisiana and the Quakers
in Pennsylvania, not many members of these sects lived in communities
of a large colored population. Furthermore, they were denied access to
the Negroes in most southern communities, even when they volunteered
to work as missionaries among the colored people.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, pp.
217-221.]

[Footnote 2: In several Southern States special laws were enacted to
prevent the influx of such Christian workers.]

How difficult it was for these churchmen to carry out their policy
of religion without letters may be best observed by viewing the
conditions then obtaining. In most Southern States in which Negro
preachers could not be deterred from their mission by public
sentiment, they were prohibited by law from exhorting their fellows.
The ground for such action was usually said to be incompetency and
liability to abuse their office and influence to the injury of the
laws and peace of the country. The elimination of the Christian
teachers of the Negro race, and the prevention of the immigration of
workers from the Northern States rendered the blacks helpless
and dependent upon a few benevolent white ministers of the slave
communities. During this period of unusual proselyting among the
whites, these preachers could not minister to the needs of their own
race.[1] Besides, even when there was found a white clergyman who was
willing to labor among these lowly people, he often knew little about
the inner workings of their minds, and failing to enlighten their
understanding, left them the victims of sinful habits, incident to the
institution of slavery.

[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 175.]

To a civilized man the result was alarming. The Church as an
institution had ceased to be the means by which the Negroes of the
South could be enlightened. The Sabbath-schools in which so many
colored people there had learned to read and write had by 1834
restricted their work to oral instruction.[1] In places where the
blacks once had the privilege of getting an elementary education, only
an inconceivable fraction of them could rise above illiteracy. Most of
these were freedmen found in towns and cities. With the exception of
a few slaves who were allowed the benefits of religious instruction,
these despised beings were generally neglected and left to die
like heathen. In 1840 there were in the South only fifteen colored
Sabbath-schools, with an attendance of about 1459.

[Footnote 1: Goodell, _Slave Code_, p. 324.]

There had never been any regular daily instruction in Christian
truths, but after this period only a few masters allowed field hands
to attend family prayers. Some sections went beyond this point,
prohibiting by public sentiment any and all kinds of religious
instruction.[1] In South Carolina a formal remonstrance signed by over
300 planters and citizens was presented to a Methodist preacher chosen
by a conference of that State as a "cautious and discreet person"[2]
especially qualified to preach to slaves, and pledged to confine
himself to verbal instruction. In Falmouth, Virginia, several white
ladies began to meet on Sunday afternoons to teach Negro children the
principles of the Christian religion. They were unable to continue
their work a month before the local officials stopped them, although
these women openly avowed that they did not intend to teach reading
and writing.[3] Thus the development of the religious education of
the Negroes in certain parts of the South had been from literary
instruction as a means of imparting Christian truth to the policy
of oral indoctrination, and from this purely memory teaching to no
education at all.

[Footnote 1: The cause of this drastic policy was not so much race
hatred as the fear that any kind of instruction might cause the
Negroes to assert themselves.]

[Footnote 2: Olmsted, _Back Country_, pp. 105, 108.]

[Footnote 3: Conway, _Testimonies Concerning Slavery_, p. 5.]

Thereafter the chief privilege allowed the slaves was to congregate
for evening prayers conducted by themselves under the surveillance
of a number of "discreet persons." The leader chosen to conduct the
services, would in some cases read a passage from the Scriptures and
"line a hymn," which the slaves took up in their turn and sang in a
tune of their own suitable to the meter. In case they had present no
one who could read, or the law forbade such an exercise, some exhorter
among the slaves would be given an opportunity to address the people,
basing his remarks as far as his intelligence allowed him on some
memorized portion of the Bible. The rest of the evening would be
devoted to individual prayers and the singing of favorite hymns,
developed largely from the experience of slaves, who while bearing
their burdens in the heat of the day had learned to sing away their
troubles.

For this untenable position the slave States were so severely
criticized by southern and northern friends of the colored people that
the ministers of that section had to construct a more progressive
policy. Yet whatever might be the arguments of the critics of the
South to prove that the enlightenment of Negroes was not a danger, it
was clear after the Southampton insurrection in 1831 that two factors
in Negro education would for some time continue generally eliminated.
These were reading matter and colored preachers.

Prominent among the southerners who endeavored to readjust their
policy of enlightening the black population, were Bishop William
Meade,[1] Bishop William Capers,[2] and Rev. C.C. Jones.[3] Bishop
Meade was a native of Virginia, long noted for its large element of
benevolent slaveholders who never lost interest in their Negroes. He
was fortunate in finishing his education at Princeton, so productive
then of leaders who fought the institution of slavery.[4] Immediately
after his ordination in the Protestant Episcopal Church, Bishop Meade
assumed the role of a reformer. He took up the cause of the colored
people, devoting no little of his time to them when he was in
Alexandria and Frederick in 1813 and 1814.[5] He began by preaching to
the Negroes on fifteen plantations, meeting them twice a day, and in
one year reported the baptism of forty-eight colored children.[6]
Early a champion of the colonization of the Negroes, he was sent on a
successful mission to Georgia in 1818 to secure the release of certain
recaptured Africans who were about to be sold. Going and returning
from the South he was active in establishing auxiliaries of the
American Colonization Society. He helped to extend its sphere also
into the Middle States and New-England.[7]

[Footnote 1: Goodloe, _Southern Platform_, pp. 64-65.]

[Footnote 2: Wightman, _Life of Bishop William Capers_, p. 294.]

[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, Introductory Chapter.]

[Footnote 4: Goodloe, _Southern Platform_, p. 64.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., p. 65.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid_., p. 66.]

[Footnote 7: _Niles Register_, vol. xvi., pp. 165-166.]

Bishop Meade was a representative of certain of his fellow-churchmen
who were passing through the transitory stage from the position of
advocating the thorough education of Negroes to that of recommending
mere verbal instruction. Agreeing at first with Rev. Thomas Bacon,
Bishop Meade favored the literary training of Negroes, and advocated
the extermination of slavery.[1] Later in life he failed to urge
his followers to emancipate their slaves, and did not entreat his
congregation to teach them to read. He was then committed to the
policy of only lessening their burden as much as possible without
doing anything to destroy the institution. Thereafter he advocated the
education and emancipation of the slaves only in connection with the
scheme of colonization, to which he looked for a solution of these
problems.[2]

[Footnote 1: Meade,_Sermons of Rev. Thos. Bacon_, p. 2; and Goodell,
_The Southern Platform_, pp. 64, 65.]

[Footnote 2:_Ibid_., p. 65.]

Wishing to give his views on the religious instruction of Negroes, the
Bishop found in Rev. Thomas Bacon's sermons that "every argument which
was likely to convince and persuade was so forcibly exerted, and that
every objection that could possibly be made, so fully answered, and
in fine everything that ought to be said so well said, and the same
things so happily confirmed ..." that it was deemed "best to refer
the reader for the true nature and object of the book to the book
itself."[1] Bishop Meade had uppermost in his mind Bacon's logical
arraignment of those who neglected to teach their Negroes the
Christian religion. Looking beyond the narrow circle of his own sect,
the bishop invited the attention of all denominations to this subject
in which they were "equally concerned." He especially besought "the
ministers of the gospel to take it into serious consideration as a
matter for which they also will have to give an account. Did not
Christ," said he, "die for these poor creatures as well as for any
other, and is it not given in charge of the minister to gather his
sheep into the fold?"[2]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Rev. Thos. Bacon_, pp. 31,32, 81, 90,
93, 95, 104, and 105.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 104.]

Another worker in this field was Bishop William Capers of the
Methodist Episcopal Church of South Carolina. A southerner to the
manner born, he did not share the zeal of the antislavery men who
would educate Negroes as a preparation for manumission.[1] Regarding
the subject of abolition as one belonging to the State and entirely
inappropriate to the Church, he denounced the principles of the
religious abolitionists as originating in false philosophy. Capers
endeavored to prove that the relation of slave and master is
authorized by the Holy Scriptures. He was of the opinion, however,
that certain abuses which might ensue, were immoralities to be
prevented or punished by all proper means, both by the Church
discipline and the civil law.[2] Believing that the neglect of the
spiritual needs of the slaves was a reflection on the slaveholders, he
set out early in the thirties to stir up South Carolina to the duty of
removing this stigma.

[Footnote 1: Wightman, _Life of William Capers_, p. 295.]

[Footnote 2: Wightman, _Life of William Capers_, p. 296.]

His plan of enlightening the blacks did not include literary
instruction. His aim was to adapt the teaching of Christian truth to
the condition of persons having a "humble intellect and a limited
range of knowledge by means of constant and patient reiteration."[1]
The old Negroes were to look to preachers for the exposition of these
principles while the children were to be turned over to catechists
who would avail themselves of the opportunity of imparting these
fundamentals to the young at the time their minds were in the plastic
state. Yet all instructors and preachers to Negroes had to be careful
to inculcate the performance of the duty of obedience to their masters
as southerners found them stated in the Holy Scriptures. Any one who
would hesitate to teach these principles of southern religion should
not be employed to instruct slaves. The bishop was certain that such
a one could not then be found among the preachers of the Methodist
Episcopal Church of South Carolina.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 298.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 296.]

Bishop Capers was the leading spirit in the movement instituted in
that commonwealth about 1829 to establish missions to the slaves. So
generally did he arouse the people to the performance of this duty
that they not only allowed preachers access to their Negroes but
requested that missionaries be sent to their plantations. Such
petitions came from C.C. Pinckney, Charles Boring, and Lewis
Morris.[1] Two stations were established in 1829 and two additional
ones in 1833. Thereafter the Church founded one or two others every
year until 1847 when there were seventeen missions conducted by
twenty-five preachers. At the death of Bishop Capers in 1855 the
Methodists of South Carolina had twenty-six such establishments, which
employed thirty-two preachers, ministering to 11,546 communicants
of color. The missionary revenue raised by the local conference had
increased from $300 to $25,000 a year.[2]

[Footnote 1: Wightman, _Life of William Capers_, p. 296.]

[Footnote 2; _African Repository_, vol. xxiv., p. 157.]

The most striking example of this class of workers was the Rev. C.C.
Jones, a minister of the Presbyterian Church. Educated at Princeton
with men actually interested in the cause of the Negroes, and located
in Georgia where he could study the situation as it was, Jones became
not a theorist but a worker. He did not share the discussion of the
question as to how to get rid of slavery. Accepting the institution as
a fact, he endeavored to alleviate the sufferings of the unfortunates
by the spiritual cultivation of their minds. He aimed, too, not to
take into his scheme the solution of the whole problem but to appeal
to a special class of slaves, those of the plantations who were left
in the depths of ignorance as to the benefits of right living. In this
respect he was like two of his contemporaries, Rev. Josiah Law[1] of
Georgia and Bishop Polk of Louisiana.[2] Denouncing the policy of
getting all one could out of the slaves and of giving back as little
as possible, Jones undertook to show how their spiritual improvement
would exterminate their ignorance, vulgarity, idleness, improvidence,
and irreligion; Jones thought that if the circumstances of the Negroes
were changed, they would equal, if not excel, the rest of the human
family "in majesty of intellect, elegance of manners, purity of
morals, and ardor of piety."[3] He feared that white men might cherish
a contempt for Negroes that would cause them to sink lower in the
scale of intelligence, morality, and religion. Emphasizing the fact
that as one class of society rises so will the other, Jones advocated
the mingling of the classes together in churches, to create kindlier
feelings among them, increase the tendency of the blacks to
subordination, and promote in a higher degree their mental and
religious improvement. He was sure that these benefits could never
result from independent church organization.[4]

[Footnote 1: Rev. Josiah Law was almost as successful as Jones in
carrying the gospel to the neglected Negroes. His life is a large
chapter in the history of Christianity among the slaves of that
commonwealth. See Wright, _Negro Education in Georgia_, p. 19.]

[Footnote 2: Rhodes, _History of the U.S_., vol. i., p. 331.]

[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 103.]

[Footnote 4: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, pp. 106, 217.]

Meeting the argument of those who feared the insubordination of
Negroes, Jones thought that the gospel would do more for the obedience
of slaves and the peace of the community than weapons of war. He
asserted that the very effort of the masters to instruct their slaves
created a strong bond of union between them and their masters.[1]
History, he believed, showed that the direct way of exposing the
slaves to acts of insubordination was to leave them in ignorance and
superstition to the care of their own religion.[2] To disprove the
falsity of the charge that literary instruction given in Neau's school
in New York was the cause of a rising of slaves in 1709, he produced
evidence that it was due to their opposition to becoming Christians.
The rebellions in South Carolina from 1730 to 1739, he maintained,
were fomented by the Spaniards in St. Augustine. The upheaval in New
York in 1741 was not due to any plot resulting from the instruction
of Negroes in religion, but rather to a delusion on the part of the
whites. The rebellions in Camden in 1816 and in Charleston in 1822
were not exceptions to the rule. He conceded that the Southampton
Insurrection in Virginia in 1831 originated under the color of
religion. It was pointed out, however, that this very act itself was
a proof that Negroes left to work out their own salvation, had fallen
victims to "ignorant and misguided teachers" like Nat Turner. Such
undesirable leaders, thought he, would never have had the opportunity
to do mischief, if the masters had taken it upon themselves to
instruct their slaves.[3] He asserted that no large number of slaves
well instructed in the Christian religion and taken into the churches
directed by white men had ever been found guilty of taking part in
servile insurrections.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., pp. 212, 274.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 215.]

[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, etc., p. 212.]

[Footnote 4: Plumer, _Thoughts_, etc., p. 4.]

To meet the arguments of these reformers the slaveholders found among
laymen and preachers able champions to defend the reactionary policy.
Southerners who had not gone to the extreme in the prohibition of the
instruction of Negroes felt more inclined to answer the critics of
their radical neighbors. One of these defenders thought that the
slaves should have some enlightenment but believed that the domestic
element of the system of slavery in the Southern States afforded
"adequate means" for the improvement, adapted to their condition and
the circumstances of the country; and furnished "the natural, safe,
and effectual means"[1] of the intellectual and moral elevation of the
Negro race. Another speaking more explicitly, said that the fact
that the Negro is such per se carried with it the "inference or the
necessity that his education--the cultivation of his faculties, or the
development of his intelligence, must be in harmony with itself." In
other words, "his instruction must be an entirely different thing from
the training of the Caucasian," in regard to whom "the term education
had widely different significations." For this reason these defenders
believed that instead of giving the Negro systematic instruction he
should be placed in the best position possible for the development of
his imitative powers--"to call into action that peculiar capacity for
copying the habits, mental and moral, of the superior race."[2] They
referred to the facts that slaves still had plantation prayers and
preaching by numerous members of their own race, some of whom could
read and write, that they were frequently favored by their masters
with services expressly for their instruction, that Sabbath-schools
had been established for the benefit of the young, and finally that
slaves were received into the churches which permitted them to hear
the same gospel and praise the same God.[3]

[Footnote 1: Smith, _Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of
Slavery_, pp. 228 _et seq_.]

[Footnote 2: Van Evrie, _Negroes and Negro Slavery_, p. 215.]

[Footnote 3: Smith, _Lectures on the Philosophy of Slavery_, p. 228.]

Seeing even in the policy of religious instruction nothing but danger
to the position of the slave States, certain southerners opposed it
under all circumstances. Some masters feared that verbal instruction
would increase the desire of slaves to learn. Such teaching might
develop into a progressive system of improvement, which, without any
special effort in that direction, would follow in the natural order of
things.[1] Timorous persons believed that slaves thus favored would
neglect their duties and embrace seasons of religious worship for
originating and executing plans for insubordination and villainy. They
thought, too, that missionaries from the free States would thereby
be afforded an opportunity to come South and inculcate doctrines
subversive of the interests and safety of that section.[2] It would
then be only a matter of time before the movement would receive such
an impetus that it would dissolve the relations of society as then
constituted and revolutionize the civil institutions of the South.

[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, p. 192; Olmsted, _Back
Country_, pp. 106-108.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 106.]

The black population of certain sections, however, was not reduced
to heathenism. Although often threatening to execute the reactionary
laws, many of which were never intended to be rigidly enforced,
the southerners did not at once eliminate the Negro as a religious
instructor.[1] It was fortunate that a few Negroes who had learned the
importance of early Christian training, organized among themselves
local associations. These often appointed an old woman of the
plantation to teach children too young to work in the fields, to say
prayers, repeat a little catechism, and memorize a few hymns.[2] But
this looked too much like systematic instruction. In some States it
was regarded as productive of evils destructive to southern
society and was, therefore, discouraged or prohibited.[3] To local
associations organized by kindly slaveholders there was less
opposition because the chief aim always was to restrain strangers and
undesirable persons from coming South to incite the Negroes to servile
insurrection. Two good examples of these local organizations were
the ones found in Liberty and McIntosh counties, Georgia. The
constitutions of these bodies provided that the instruction should be
altogether oral, embracing the general principles of the Christian
religion as understood by orthodox Christians.[4]

[Footnote 1: This statement is based on the testimonies of ex-slaves.]

[Footnote 2: Jones, _Religious Instruction_, pp. 114, 117.]

[Footnote 3: While the laws in certain places were not so drastic as
to prohibit religious assemblies, the same was effected by patrols and
mobs.]

[Footnote 4: The Constitution of the Liberty County Association for
the Religious Instruction of Negroes, Article IV.]

Directing their efforts thereafter toward mere verbal teaching,
religious workers depended upon the memory of the slave to retain
sufficient of the truths and principles expounded to effect his
conversion. Pamphlets, hymn books, and catechisms especially adapted
to the work were written by churchmen, and placed in the hands of
discreet missionaries acceptable to the slaveholders. Among other
publications of this kind were Dr. Capers's Short Catechism for the
Use of Colored Members on _Trial in the Methodist Episcopal Church in
South Carolina; A Catechism to be Used by Teachers in the Religious
Instruction of Persons of Color in the Episcopal Church of South
Carolina_; Dr. Palmer's _Cathechism_; Rev. John Mine's _Catechism_;
and C.C. Jones's _Catechism of Scripture, Doctrine and Practice
Designed for the Original Instruction of Colored People._ Bishop Meade
was once engaged in collecting such literature addressed particularly
to slaves in their stations. These extracts were to be read to them
on proper occasions by any member of the family.[1]

[Footnote 1: Meade, _Sermons of Rev. Thomas Bacon_, p. 2.]

Yet on the whole it can be safely stated that there were few
societies formed in the South to give the Negroes religious and moral
instruction. Only a few missionaries were exclusively devoted to work
among them. In fact, after the reactionary period no propaganda of
any southern church included anything which could be designated as
systematic instruction of the Negroes.[1] Even owners, who took
care to feed, clothe, and lodge their slaves well and treated
them humanely, often neglected to do anything to enlighten their
understanding as to their responsibility to God. [Footnote 1:
Madison's Works, vol. in., p. 314; Olmsted, _Back Country_, p. 107;
Birney, _The American Churches_, etc., p. 6; and Jones, _Religious
Instruction_, etc., p. 100.]

Observing closely these conditions one would wonder little that many
Negroes became low and degraded. The very institution of slavery
itself produced shiftless, undependable beings, seeking relief
whenever possible by giving the least and getting the most from their
masters. When the slaves were cut off from the light of the gospel by
the large plantation system, they began to exhibit such undesirable
traits as insensibility of heart, lasciviousness, stealing, and lying.
The cruelty of the "Christian" master to the slaves made the latter
feel that such a practice was not altogether inhuman. Just as the
white slave drivers developed into hopeless brutes by having human
beings to abuse, so it turned out with certain Negroes in their
treatment of animals and their fellow-creatures in bondage. If some
Negroes were commanded not to commit adultery, such a prohibition did
not extend to the slave women forced to have illicit relations with
masters who sold their mulatto offspring as goods and chattels. If the
bondmen were taught not to steal the aim was to protect the supplies
of the local plantation. Few masters raised any serious objection to
the act of their half-starved slaves who at night crossed over to some
neighboring plantation to secure food. Many white men made it their
business to dispose of property stolen by Negroes.

In the strait in which most slaves were, they had to lie for
protection. Living in an environment where the actions of almost any
colored man were suspected as insurrectionary, Negroes were frequently
called upon to tell what they knew and were sometimes forced to say
what they did not know. Furthermore, to prevent the slaves from
cooeperating to rise against their masters, they were often taught to
mistreat and malign each other to keep alive a feeling of hatred. The
bad traits of the American Negroes resulted then not from an instinct
common to the natives of Africa, but from the institutions of the
South and from the actual teaching of the slaves to be low and
depraved that they might never develop sufficient strength to become a
powerful element in society.

As this system operated to make the Negroes either nominal Christians
or heathen, the anti-slavery men could not be silent.[1] James G.
Birney said that the slaveholding churches like indifferent observers,
had watched the abasement of the Negroes to a plane of beasts without
remonstrating with legislatures against the iniquitous measures.[2]
Moreover, because there was neither literary nor systematic oral
instruction of the colored members of southern congregations, uniting
with the Church made no change in the condition of the slaves. They
were thrown back just as before among their old associates, subjected
to corrupting influences, allowed to forego attendance at public
worship on Sundays, and rarely encouraged to attend family prayers.[3]
In view of this state of affairs Birney was not surprised that it
was only here and there that one could find a few slaves who had an
intelligent view of Christianity or of a future life.

[Footnote 1: Tower, _Slavery Unmasked_, p. 394.]

[Footnote 2: Birney, _American Churches_, p. 6.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 7.]

William E. Charming expressed his deep regret that the whole lot of
the slave was fitted to keep his mind in childhood and bondage. To
Channing it seemed shameful that, although the slave lived in a land
of light, few beams found their way to his benighted understanding. He
was given no books to excite his curiosity. His master provided for
him no teacher but the driver who broke him almost in childhood to the
servile tasks which were to fill up his life. Channing complained that
when benevolence would approach the slave with instruction it was
repelled. Not being allowed to be taught, the "voice which would speak
to him as a man was put to silence." For the lack of the privilege
to learn the truth "his immortal spirit was systematically crushed
despite the mandate of God to bring all men unto Him."[1]

[Footnote 1: Channing, _Slavery_, p. 77.]

Discussing the report that slaves were taught religion, Channing
rejoiced that any portion of them heard of that truth "which gives
inward freedom."[1] He thought, however, that this number was very
small. Channing was certain that most slaves were still buried in
heathen ignorance. But extensive as was this so-called religious
instruction, he did not see how the teaching of the slave to be
obedient to his master could exert much power in raising one to the
divinity of man. How slavery which tends to debase the mind of
the bondman could prepare it for spiritual truth, or how he could
comprehend the essential principles of love on hearing it from the
lips of his selfish and unjust owner, were questions which no defender
of the system ever answered satisfactorily for Channing. Seeing then
no hope for the elevation of the Negro as a slave, he became a more
determined abolitionist.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 78.]

William Jay, a son of the first Chief Justice of the United States,
and an abolition preacher of the ardent type, later directed his
attention to these conditions. The keeping of human beings in heathen
ignorance by a people professing to reverence the obligation of
Christianity seemed to him an unpardonable sin. He believed that the
natural result of this "compromise of principle, this suppression
of truth, this sacrifice to unanimity," had been the adoption of
expediency as a standard of right and wrong in the place of the
revealed will of God.[1] "Thus," continued he, "good men and
good Christians have been tempted by their zeal for the American
Colonization Society to countenance opinions and practices
inconsistent with justice and humanity."[2] Jay charged to this
disastrous policy of neglect the result that in 1835 only 245,000 of
the 2,245,144 slaves had a saving knowledge of the religion of
Christ. He deplored the fact that unhappily the evil influence of the
reactionaries had not been confined to their own circles but had to a
lamentable extent "vitiated the moral sense" of other communities.
The proslavery leaders, he said, had reconciled public opinion to the
continuance of slavery, and had aggravated those sinful prejudices
which subjected the free blacks to insult and persecution and denied
them the blessings of education and religious instruction.[3]

[Footnote 1: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc., p. 24.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 25.]

[Footnote 3: Jay, _An Inquiry_, etc., p. 26.]

Among the most daring of those who censured the South for its
reactionary policy was Rev. John G. Fee, an abolition minister of
the gospel of Kentucky. Seeing the inevitable result in States where
public opinion and positive laws had made the education of Negroes
impossible, Fee asserted that in preventing them from reading God's
Word and at the same time incorporating them into the Church as
nominal Christians, the South had weakened the institution. Without
the means to learn the principles of religion it was impossible for
such an ignorant class to become efficient and useful members.[1]
Excoriating those who had kept their servants in ignorance to secure
the perpetuity of the institution of slavery, Fee maintained that
sealing up the mind of the slave, lest he should see his wrongs, was
tantamount to cutting off the hand or foot in order to prevent his
escape from forced and unwilling servitude.[2] "If by our practice,
our silence, or our sloth," said he, "we perpetuate a system which
paralyzes our hands when we attempt to convey to them the bread of
life, and which inevitably consigns the great mass of them to unending
perdition, can we be guiltless in the sight of Him who hath made us
stewards of His grace? This is sinful. Said the Saviour: 'Woe unto you
lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not
in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered."'[3]

[Footnote 1: Fee, _Antislavery Manual_, p. 147.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 148.]

[Footnote 3: Fee, _Antislavery Manual_, p. 149.]




CHAPTER IX

LEARNING IN SPITE OF OPPOSITION


Discouraging as these conditions seemed, the situation was not
entirely hopeless. The education of the colored people as a public
effort had been prohibited south of the border States, but there was
still some chance for Negroes of that section to acquire knowledge.
Furthermore, the liberal white people of that section considered these
enactments, as we have stated above, not applicable to southerners
interested in the improvement of their slaves but to mischievous
abolitionists. The truth is that thereafter some citizens disregarded
the laws of their States and taught worthy slaves whom they desired to
reward or use in business requiring an elementary education. As these
prohibitions in slave States were not equally stringent, white and
colored teachers of free blacks were not always disturbed. In fact,
just before the middle of the nineteenth century there was so much
winking at the violation of the reactionary laws that it looked as if
some Southern States might recede from their radical position and let
Negroes be educated as they had been in the eighteenth century.

The ways in which slaves thereafter acquired knowledge are
significant. Many picked it up here and there, some followed
occupations which were in themselves enlightening, and others learned
from slaves whose attainments were unknown to their masters. Often
influential white men taught Negroes not only the rudiments of
education but almost anything they wanted to learn. Not a few slaves
were instructed by the white children whom they accompanied to school.
While attending ministers and officials whose work often lay open to
their servants, many of the race learned by contact and observation.
Shrewd Negroes sometimes slipped stealthily into back streets, where
they studied under a private teacher, or attended a school hidden from
the zealous execution of the law.

The instances of Negroes struggling to obtain an education read like
the beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age. Sometimes Negroes
of the type of Lott Carey[1] educated themselves. James Redpath
discovered in Savannah that in spite of the law great numbers
of slaves had learned to read well. Many of them had acquired a
rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic. "But," said he, "blazon it to the
shame of the South, the knowledge thus acquired has been snatched from
the spare records of leisure in spite of their owners' wishes and
watchfulness."[2] C.G. Parsons was informed that although poor masters
did not venture to teach their slaves, occasionally one with a thirst
for knowledge secretly learned the rudiments of education without any
instruction.[3] While on a tour through parts of Georgia, E.P. Burke
observed that, notwithstanding the great precaution which was taken
to prevent the mental improvement of the slaves, many of them "stole
knowledge enough to enable them to read and write with ease."[4]
Robert Smalls[5] of South Carolina and Alfred T. Jones[6] of Kentucky
began their education in this manner.

[Footnote 1: Mott, _Biographical Sketches_, p. 87.]

[Footnote 2: Redpath, _Roving Editor_, etc., p. 161.]

[Footnote 3: Parsons, _Inside View_, etc., p. 248.]

[Footnote 4: Burke, _Reminiscences of Georgia_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 5: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 126.]

[Footnote 6: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 152.]

Probably the best example of this class was Harrison Ellis of Alabama.
At the age of thirty-five he had acquired a liberal education by his
own exertions. Upon examination he proved himself a good Latin and
Hebrew scholar and showed still greater proficiency in Greek. His
attainments in theology were highly satisfactory. _The Eufaula
Shield_, a newspaper of that State, praised him as a man courteous in
manners, polite in conversation, and manly in demeanor. Knowing how
useful Ellis would be in a free country, the Presbyterian Synod of
Alabama purchased him and his family in 1847 at a cost of $2500 that
he might use his talents in elevating his own people in Liberia.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Niles Register_, vol. lxxi., p. 296.]

Intelligent Negroes secretly communicated to their fellow men what
they knew. Henry Banks of Stafford County, Virginia, was taught by
his brother-in-law to read, but not write.[1] The father of Benedict
Duncan, a slave in Maryland, taught his son the alphabet.[2] M.W.
Taylor of Kentucky received his first instruction from his mother.
H.O. Wagoner learned from his parents the first principles of the
common branches.[3] A mulatto of Richmond taught John H. Smythe when
he was between the ages of five and seven.[4] The mother of Dr. C.H.
Payne of West Virginia taught him to read at such an early age that
he does not remember when he first developed that power.[5] Dr. E.C.
Morris, President of the National Baptist Convention, belonged to a
Georgia family, all of whom were well instructed by his father.[6]

[Footnote 1: Drew, _Refugee_, etc., p. 72.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 110.]

[Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 679.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., p. 873.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 368.]

[Footnote 6: This is his own statement.]

The white parents of Negroes often secured to them the educational
facilities then afforded the superior race. The indulgent teacher of
J. Morris of North Carolina was his white father, his master.[1]
W.J. White acquired his education from his mother, who was a white
woman.[2] Martha Martin, a daughter of her master, a Scotch-Irishman
of Georgia, was permitted to go to Cincinnati to be educated, while
her sister was sent to a southern town to learn the milliner's
trade.[3] Then there were cases like that of Josiah Settle's white
father. After the passage of the law forbidding free Negroes to remain
in the State of Tennessee, he took his children to Hamilton, Ohio,
to be educated and there married his actual wife, their colored
mother.[4]

[Footnote 1: This is based on an account given by his son.]

[Footnote 2: _The Crisis_, vol. v., p. 119.]

[Footnote 3: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 143.]

[Footnote 4: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 539.]

The very employment of slaves in business establishments accelerated
their mental development. Negroes working in stores often acquired
a fair education by assisting clerks. Some slaves were clerks
themselves. Under the observation of E.P. Burke came the notable case
of a young man belonging to one of the best families of Savannah. He
could read, write, cipher, and transact business so intelligently
that his master often committed important trusts to his care.[1] B.K.
Bruce, while still a slave, educated himself when he was working at
the printer's trade in Brunswick, Missouri. Even farther south where
slavery assumed its worst form, we find that this condition obtained.
Addressing to the New Orleans _Commercial Bulletin_ a letter on
African colonization, John McDonogh stated that the work imposed on
his slaves required some education for which he willingly provided. In
1842 he had had no white man over his slaves for twenty years. He had
assigned this task to his intelligent colored manager who did his work
so well that the master did not go in person once in six months to see
what his slaves were doing. He says, "They were, besides, my men of
business, enjoyed my confidence, were my clerks, transacted all my
affairs, made purchases of materials, collected my rents, leased my
houses, took care of my property and effects of every kind, and
that with an honesty and fidelity which was proof against every
temptation."[2] Traveling in Mississippi in 1852, Olmsted found
another such group of slaves all of whom could read, whereas the
master himself was entirely illiterate. He took much pride, however,
in praising his loyal, capable, and intelligent Negroes.[3]

[Footnote 1: Burke, _Reminiscences of Georgia_, p. 86.

Frances Anne Kemble gives in her journal an interesting account of her
observations in Georgia. She says: "I must tell you that I have been
delighted, surprised, and the very least perplexed, by the sudden
petition on the part of our young waiter, Aleck, that I will teach him
to read. He is a very intelligent lad of about sixteen, and preferred
his request with urgent humility that was very touching. I will do it;
and yet, it is simply breaking the laws of the government under which
I am living. Unrighteous laws are made to be broken--perhaps--but
then you see, I am a woman, and Mr.---- stands between me and the
penalty--. I certainly intend to teach Aleck to read; and I'll teach
every other creature that wants to learn." See Kemble, _Journal_, p.
34.]

[Footnote 2: McDonogh, "Letter on African Colonization."]

[Footnote 3: Olmsted, _Cotton Kingdom_, vol. ii., p. 70.]

White persons deeply interested in Negroes taught them regardless
of public opinion and the law. Dr. Alexander T. Augusta of Virginia
learned to read while serving white men as a barber.[1] A prominent
white man of Memphis taught Mrs. Mary Church Terrell's mother French
and English. The father of Judge R.H. Terrell was well-grounded
in reading by his overseer during the absence of his master from
Virginia.[2] A fugitive slave from Essex County of the same State was
not allowed to go to school publicly, but had an opportunity to learn
from white persons privately.[3] The master of Charles Henry Green, a
slave of Delaware, denied him all instruction, but he was permitted
to study among the people to whom he was hired.[4] M.W. Taylor of
Kentucky studied under attorneys J.B. Kinkaid and John W. Barr, whom
he served as messenger.[5] Ignoring his master's orders against
frequenting a night school, Henry Morehead of Louisville learned to
spell and read sufficiently well to cause his owner to have the school
unceremoniously closed.[6]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 258.]

[Footnote 2: This is based on the statements of Judge and Mrs.
Terrell.]

[Footnote 3: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 335.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., p. 96.]

[Footnote 5: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 933.]

[Footnote 6: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 180.]

The educational experiences of President Scarborough and of Bishop
Turner show that some white persons were willing to make unusual
sacrifices to enlighten Negroes. President Scarborough began to attend
school in his native home in Bibb County, Georgia, at the age of six
years. He went out ostensibly to play, keeping his books concealed
under his arm, but spent six or eight hours each day in school until
he could read well and had mastered the first principles of geography,
grammar, and arithmetic. At the age of ten he took regular lessons in
writing under an old South Carolinian, J.C. Thomas, a rebel of the
bitterest type. Like Frederick Douglass, President Scarborough
received much instruction from his white playmates.[1]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 410.]

Bishop Turner of Newberry Court House, in South Carolina, purchased
a spelling book and secured the services of an old white lady and a
white boy, who in violation of the State law taught him to spell as
far as two syllables.[1] The white boy's brother stopped him from
teaching this lad of color, pointing out that such an instructor was
liable to arrest. For some time he obtained help from an old colored
gentleman, a prodigy in sounds. At the age of thirteen his mother
employed a white lady to teach him on Sundays, but she was soon
stopped by indignant white persons of the community. When he attained
the age of fifteen he was employed by a number of lawyers in whose
favor he ingratiated himself by his unusual power to please people.
Thereafter these men in defiance of the law taught him to read and
write and explained anything he wanted to know about arithmetic,
geography, and astronomy.[2]

[Footnote 1: Bishop Turner says that when he started to learn there
were among his acquaintances three colored men who had learned to read
the Bible in Charleston. See Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 806.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 806.]

Often favorite slaves were taught by white children. By hiding books
in a hayloft and getting the white children to teach him, James W.
Sumler of Norfolk, Virginia, obtained an elementary education.[1]
While serving as overseer for his Scotch-Irish master, Daniel
J. Lockhart of the same commonwealth learned to read under the
instruction of his owner's boys. They were not interrupted in their
benevolent work.[2] In the same manner John Warren, a slave of
Tennessee, acquired a knowledge of the common branches.[3] John
Baptist Snowden of Maryland was secretly instructed by his owner's
children.[4] Uncle Cephas, a slave of Parson Winslow of Tennessee,
reported that the white children taught him on the sly when they came
to see Dinah, who was a very good cook. He was never without books
during his stay with his master.[5] One of the Grimke Sisters taught
her little maid to read while brushing her young mistress's locks.[6]
Robert Harlan, who was brought up in the family of Honorable J.M.
Harlan, acquired the fundamentals of the common branches from Harlan's
older sons.[7] The young mistress of Mrs. Ann Woodson of Virginia
instructed her until she could read in the first reader.[8] Abdy
observed in 1834 that slaves of Kentucky had been thus taught to read.
He believed that they were about as well off as they would have
been, had they been free.[9] Giving her experiences on a Mississippi
plantation, Susan Dabney Smedes stated that the white children
delighted in teaching the house servants. One night she was formally
invited with the master, mistress, governess, and guests by a
twelve-year-old school mistress to hear her dozen pupils recite
poetry. One of the guests was quite astonished to see his servant
recite a piece of poetry which he had learned for this occasion.[10]
Confining his operations to the kitchen, another such teacher of this
plantation was unusually successful in instructing the adult male
slaves. Five of these Negroes experienced such enlightenment that they
became preachers.[11]

[Footnote 1: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 97.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 45.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., p. 185.]

[Footnote 4: Snowden, _Autobiography_, p. 23.]

[Footnote 5: Albert, _The House of Bondage_, p. 125.]

[Footnote 6: Birney, _The Grimke Sisters_, p. 11.]

[Footnote 7: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 613.]

[Footnote 8: This fact is stated in one of her letters.]

[Footnote 9: Abdy, _Journal of a Residence and Tour in U.S.A._,
1833-1834. P. 346.]

[Footnote 10: Smedes, _A Southern Planter_, pp. 79-80.]

[Footnote 11: Ibid., p. 80.]

Planters themselves sometimes saw to the education of their slaves.
Ephraim Waterford was bound out in Virginia until he was twenty-one on
the condition that the man to whom he was hired should teach him to
read.[1] Mrs. Isaac Riley and Henry Williamson, of Maryland, did not
attend school but were taught by their master to spell and read but
not to write.[2] The master and mistress of Williamson Pease, of
Hardman County, Tennessee, were his teachers.[3] Francis Fredric began
his studies under his master in Virginia. Frederick Douglass was
indebted to his kind mistress for his first instruction.[4] Mrs.
Thomas Payne, a slave in what is now West Virginia, was fortunate
in having a master who was equally benevolent.[5] Honorable I.T.
Montgomery, now the Mayor of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, was, while a
slave of Jefferson Davis's brother, instructed in the common branches
and trained to be the confidential accountant of his master's
plantation.[6] While on a tour among the planters of East Georgia,
C.G. Parsons discovered that about 5000 of the 400,000 slaves there
had been taught to read and write. He remarked, too, that such slaves
were generally owned by the wealthy slaveholders, who had them
schooled when the enlightenment of the bondmen served the purposes of
their masters.[7]

[Footnote 1: Drew, _A North-Side View of Slavery_, p. 373.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 133.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., p. 123.]

[Footnote 4: Lee, _Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky_, p. x.]

[Footnote 5: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 368.]

[Footnote 6: This is his own statement.]

[Footnote 7: Parsons, _Inside View_, etc., p. 248.]

The enlightenment of the Negroes, however, was not limited to what
could be accomplished by individual efforts. In many southern
communities colored schools were maintained in defiance of public
opinion or in violation of the law. Patrick Snead of Savannah was sent
to a private institution until he could spell quite well and then to
a Sunday-school for colored children.[1] Richard M. Hancock wrote of
studying in a private school in Newbern, North Carolina;[2] John S.
Leary went to one in Fayetteville eight years;[3] and W.A. Pettiford
of this State enjoyed similar advantages in Granville County during
the fifties. He then moved with his parents to Preston County where he
again had the opportunity to attend a special school.[4] About 1840,
J.F. Boulder was a student in a mixed school of white and colored
pupils in Delaware.[5] Bishop J.M. Brown, a native of the same
commonwealth, attended a private school taught by a friendly woman of
the Quaker sect.[6] John A. Hunter, of Maryland, was sent to a school
for white children kept by the sister of his mistress, but his second
master said that Hunter should not have been allowed to study and
stopped his attendance.[7] Francis L. Cardozo of Charleston, South
Carolina, entered school there in 1842 and continued his studies until
he was twelve years of age.[8] During the fifties J.W. Morris of the
same city attended a school conducted by the then distinguished Simeon
Beard.[9] In the same way T. McCants Stewart[10] and the Grimke
brothers [11] were able to begin their education there prior to
emancipation.

[Footnote 1: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 99.]

[Footnote 2: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 406.]

[Footnote 3: Ibid., p. 432.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., p. 469]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 708.]

[Footnote 6: Ibid., 930.]

[Footnote 7: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 114.]

[Footnote 8: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, 428]

[Footnote 9: Ibid., p. 162]

[Footnote 10: Ibid., p. 1052]

[Footnote 11: This is their own statement.]

More schools for slaves existed than white men knew of, for it was
difficult to find them. Fredrika Bremer heard of secret schools for
slaves during her visit to Charleston, but she had extreme difficulty
in finding such an institution. When she finally located one and
gained admission into its quiet chamber, she noticed in a wretched
dark hole a "half-dozen poor children, some of whom had an aspect that
testified great stupidity and mere animal life."[1] She was informed,
too, that there were in Georgia and Florida planters who had
established schools for the education of the children of their slaves
with the intention of preparing them for living as "good free human
beings."[2] Frances Anne Kemble noted such instances in her diary.[3]
The most interesting of these cases was discovered by the Union Army
on its march through Georgia. Unsuspected by the slave power and
undeterred by the terrors of the law, a colored woman by the name of
Deveaux had for thirty years conducted a Negro school in the city of
Savannah.[4]

[Footnote 1: Bremer, _The Homes of the New World_, vol. ii., p. 499.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 491; Burke, _Reminiscences of Georgia_, p.
85.]

[Footnote 3: Kemble, _Journal_, etc., p. 34.]

[Footnote 4: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 340.]

The city Negroes of Virginia continued to maintain schools despite
the fact that the fear of servile insurrection caused the State to
exercise due vigilance in the execution of the laws. The father of
Richard De Baptiste of Fredericksburg made his own residence a school
with his children and a few of those of his relatives as pupils.
The work was begun by a Negro and continued by an educated
Scotch-Irishman, who had followed the profession of teaching in his
native land. Becoming suspicious that a school of this kind was
maintained at the home of De Baptiste, the police watched the place
but failed to find sufficient evidence to close the institution before
it had done its work.[1]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 352.]

In 1854 there was found in Norfolk, Virginia, what the radically
proslavery people considered a dangerous white woman. It was
discovered that one Mrs. Douglass and her daughter had for three years
been teaching a school maintained for the education of Negroes.[1] It
was evident that this institution had not been run so clandestinely
but that the opposition to the education of Negroes in that city had
probably been too weak to bring about the close of the school at an
earlier date. Mrs. Douglass and her pupils were arrested and brought
before the court, where she was charged with violating the laws of the
State. The defendant acknowledged her guilt, but, pleading ignorance
of the law, was discharged on the condition that she would not commit
the same "crime" again. Censuring the court for this liberal decision
the _Richmond Examiner_ referred to it as offering "a very convenient
way of getting out of the scrape." The editor emphasized the fact
that the law of Virginia imposed on such offenders the penalty of one
hundred dollars fine and imprisonment for six months, and that its
positive terms "allowed no discretion in the community magistrate."[2]

[Footnote 1: Parsons, _Inside View of Slavery_, p. 251; and Lyman,
_Leaven for Doughfaces_, p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _13th Annual Report of the American and Foreign
Antislavery Societies_, 1853, p. 143.]

All such schools, however, were not secretly kept. Writing from
Charleston in 1851 Fredrika Bremer made mention of two colored
schools. One of these was a school for free Negroes kept with open
doors by a white master. Their books which she examined were the same
as those used in American schools for white children.[1] The Negroes
of Lexington, Kentucky, had in 1830 a school in which thirty colored
children were taught by a white man from Tennessee.[2] This gentleman
had pledged himself to devote the rest of his life to the uplift of
his "black brethren."[3] Travelers noted that colored schools were
found also in Richmond, Maysville, Danville, and Louisville decades
before the Civil War.[4] William H. Gibson, a native of Baltimore, was
after 1847 teaching at Louisville in a day and night school with
an enrollment of one hundred pupils, many of whom were slaves with
written permits from their masters to attend.[5] Some years later W.H.
Stewart of that city attended the schools of Henry Adams, W.H. Gibson,
and R.T.W. James. Robert Taylor began his studies there in Robert
Lane's school and took writing from Henry Adams.[6] Negroes had
schools in Tennessee also. R.L. Perry was during these years attending
a school at Nashville.[7] An uncle of Dr. J.E. Moorland spent some
time studying medicine in that city.

[Footnote 1: Bremer, _The Homes of the New World_, vol. ii., p. 499.]

[Footnote 2: Abdy, _Journal of a Residence and Tour in U.S.A_.,
1833-34, p. 346.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., pp. 346-348.]

[Footnote 4: Tower, _Slavery Unmasked_; Dabney, _Journal of a Tour
through the U.S. and Canada_, p. 185; _Niles Register_, vol. lxxii.,
p. 322; and Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 631.]

[Footnote 5: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 603.]

[Footnote 6: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 629.]

[Footnote 7: _Ibid._, p. 620.]

Many of these opportunities were made possible by the desire to
teach slaves religion. In fact the instruction of Negroes after the
enactment of prohibitory laws resembled somewhat the teaching of
religion with letters during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Thousands of Negroes like Edward Patterson and Nat Turner learned
to read and write in Sabbath-schools. White men who diffused such
information ran the gauntlet of mobs, but like a Baptist preacher of
South Carolina who was threatened with expulsion from his church, if
he did not desist, they worked on and overcame the local prejudice.
When preachers themselves dared not undertake this task it was often
done by their children, whose benevolent work was winked at as an
indulgence to the clerical profession. This charity, however, was
not restricted to the narrow circle of the clergy. Believing with
churchmen that the Bible is the revelation of God, many laymen
contended that no man should be restrained from knowing his Maker
directly.[1] Negroes, therefore, almost worshiped the Bible, and
their anxiety to read it was their greatest incentive to learn. Many
southerners braved the terrors of public opinion and taught their
Negroes to read the Scriptures. To this extent General Coxe of
Fluvanna County, Virginia, taught about one hundred of his adult
slaves.[2] While serving as a professor of the Military Institute
at Lexington, Stonewall Jackson taught a class of Negroes in a
Sunday-school.[3]

[Footnote 1: Orr, "An Address on the Need of Education in the South,
1879."]

[Footnote 2: This statement is made by several of General Coxe's
slaves who are still living.]

[Footnote 3: _School Journal_, vol. lxxx., p. 332.]

Further interest in the cause was shown by the Evangelical Society
of the Synods of North Carolina and Virginia in 1834.[1] Later
Presbyterians of Alabama and Georgia urged masters to enlighten their
slaves.[2] The attitude of many mountaineers of Kentucky was well set
forth in the address of the Synod of 1836, proposing a plan for the
instruction and emancipation of the slaves.[3] They complained that
throughout the land, so far as they could learn, there was but one
school in which slaves could be taught during the week. The light
of three or four Sabbath-schools was seen "glittering through the
darkness" of the black population of the whole State. Here and there
one found a family where humanity impelled the master, mistress, or
children, to the laborious task of private instruction. In consequence
of these undesirable conditions the Synod recommended that "slaves be
instructed in the common elementary branches of education."[4]

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. x., pp. 174, 205, and 245.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, vol. xi., pp. 140 and 268.]

[Footnote 3: Goodell, _Slave Code_, pp. 323-324.]

[Footnote 4: _The Enormity of the Slave Trade, etc_., p. 74.]

Some of the objects of such charity turned out to be interesting
characters. Samuel Lowry of Tennessee worked and studied privately
under Rev. Mr. Talbot of Franklin College, and at the age of sixteen
was sufficiently advanced to teach with success. He united with the
Church of the Disciples and preached in that connection until 1859.[1]
In some cases colored preachers were judged sufficiently informed,
not only to minister to the needs of their own congregations, but to
preach to white churches. There was a Negro thus engaged in the State
of Florida.[2] Another colored man of unusual intelligence and much
prominence worked his way to the front in Giles County, Tennessee. In
1859 he was the pastor of a Hard-shell Baptist Church, the membership
of which was composed of the best white people in the community. He
was so well prepared for his work that out of a four days' argument
on baptism with a white minister he emerged victor. From this
appreciative congregation he received a salary of from six to seven
hundred dollars a year.[3]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 144.]

[Footnote 2: Bremer, _Homes of the New World_, vol. ii., pp. 488-491.]

[Footnote 3: _The Richmond Enquirer_, July, 1859; and _Afr.
Repository_, vol. xxxv., p. 255.]

Statistics of this period show that the proportionately largest number
of Negroes who learned in spite of opposition were found among the
Scotch-Irish of Kentucky and Tennessee. Possessing few slaves, and
having no permanent attachment to the institution, those mountaineers
did not yield to the reactionaries who were determined to keep the
Negroes in heathendom. Kentucky and Tennessee did not expressly forbid
the education of the colored people.[1] Conditions were probably
better in Kentucky than in Tennessee. Traveling in Kentucky about this
time, Abdy was favorably impressed with that class of Negroes who
though originally slaves saved sufficient from their earnings to
purchase their freedom and provide for the education of their
children.[2]

[Footnote 1: In 1830 one-twelfth of the population of Lexington
consisted of free persons of color, who since 1822 had had a Baptist
church served by a member of their own race and a school in which
thirty-two of their children were taught by a white man from
Tennessee. He had pledged himself to devote the rest of his life to
the uplift of his colored brethren. One of these free Negroes in
Lexington had accumulated wealth to the amount of $20,000. In
Louisville, also a center of free colored population, efforts were
being made to educate ambitious Negroes. Travelers noted that colored
schools were found there generations before the Civil War and
mentioned the intelligent and properly speaking colored preachers,
who were bought and supported by their congregations. Charles Dabney,
another traveler through this State in 1837, observed that the slaves
of this commonwealth were taught to read and believed that they were
about as well off as they would have been had they been free. See
Dabney, _Journal of a Tour through the U.S. and Canada_, p. 185.]

[Footnote 2: Abdy, _Journal of a Tour_, etc., 1833-1834, pp. 346-348.]

It was the desire to train up white men to carry on the work of their
liberal fathers that led John G. Fee and his colaborers to establish
Berea College in Kentucky. In the charter of this institution was
incorporated the declaration that "God has made of one blood all
nations that dwell upon the face of the earth." No Negroes were
admitted to this institution before the Civil War, but they came in
soon thereafter, some being accepted while returning home wearing
their uniforms.[1] The State has since prohibited the co-education of
the two races.

[Footnote 1: Catalogue of Berea College, 1896-1897.]

The centers of this interest in the mountains of Tennessee were
Maryville and Knoxville. Around these towns were found a goodly number
of white persons interested in the elevation of the colored people.
There developed such an antislavery sentiment in the former town that
half of the students of the Maryville Theological Seminary became
abolitionists by 1841.[1] They were then advocating the social uplift
of Negroes through the local organ, the _Maryville Intelligencer_.
From this nucleus of antislavery men developed a community with ideals
not unlike those of Berea.[2]

[Footnote 1: Some of the liberal-mindedness of the people of Kentucky
and Tennessee was found in the State of Missouri. The question of
slavery there, however, was so ardently discussed and prominently kept
before the people that while little was done to help the Negroes, much
was done to reduce them to the plane of beasts. There was not so much
of the tendency to wink at the violation of the law on the part of
masters in teaching their slaves. But little could be accomplished by
private teachers in the dissemination of information among Negroes
after the free persons of color had been excluded from the State.]

[Footnote 2: _Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery
Society_, New York, 1837, p. 48; and the _New England Antislavery
Almanac_ for 1841, p. 31.]

The Knoxville people who advocated the enlightenment of the Negroes
expressed their sentiment through the _Presbyterian Witness_. The
editor felt that there was not a solitary argument that might be urged
in favor of teaching a white man that might not as properly be urged
in favor of enlightening a man of color. "If one has a soul that will
never die," said he, "so has the other. Has one susceptibilities of
improvement, mentally, socially, and morally? So has the other. Is one
bound by the laws of God to improve the talents he has received from
the Creator's hands? So is the other. Is one embraced in the command
'Search the Scriptures'? So is the other."[1] He maintained that
unless masters could lawfully degrade their slaves to the condition of
beasts, they were just as much bound to teach them to read the Bible
as to teach any other class of their population.

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. xxxii., p. 16.]

But great as was the interest of the religious element, the movement
for the education of the Negroes of the South did not again become a
scheme merely for bringing them into the church. Masters had more
than one reason for favoring the enlightenment of the slaves. Georgia
slaveholders of the more liberal class came forward about the middle
of the nineteenth century, advocating the education of Negroes as a
means to increase their economic value, and to attach them to their
masters. This subject was taken up in the Agricultural Convention
at Macon in 1850, and was discussed again in a similar assembly
the following year. After some opposition the Convention passed a
resolution calling on the legislature to enact a law authorizing the
education of slaves. The petition was presented by Mr. Harlston, who
introduced the bill embodying this idea, piloted it through the lower
house, but failed by two or three votes to secure the sanction of the
senate.[1] In 1855 certain influential citizens of North Carolina[2]
memorialized their legislature asking among other things that the
slaves be taught to read. This petition provoked some discussion, but
did not receive as much attention as that of Georgia.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, p. 339]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. xxxi., pp. 117-118.]

In view of this renewed interest in the education of the Negroes
of the South we are anxious to know exactly what proportion of
the colored population had risen above the plane of illiteracy.
Unfortunately this cannot be accurately determined. In the first
place, it was difficult to find out whether or not a slave could read
or write when such a disclosure would often cause him to be dreadfully
punished or sold to some cruel master of the lower South. Moreover,
statistics of this kind are scarce and travelers who undertook to
answer this question made conflicting statements. Some persons of that
day left records which indicate that only a few slaves succeeded in
acquiring an imperfect knowledge of the common branches, whereas
others noted a larger number of intelligent servants. Arfwedson
remarked that the slaves seldom learned to read; yet elsewhere
he stated that he sometimes found some who had that ability.[1]
Abolitionists like May, Jay, and Garrison would make it seem that the
conditions in the South were such that it was almost impossible for a
slave to develop intellectual power.[2] Rev. C.C. Jones[3] believed
that only an inconsiderable fraction of the slaves could read.
Witnesses to the contrary, however, are numerous. Abdy, Smedes,
Andrews, Bremer, and Olmsted found during their stay in the South
many slaves who had experienced unusual spiritual and mental
development.[4] Nehemiah Adams, giving the southern view of slavery
in 1854, said that large numbers of the slaves could read and
were furnished with the Scriptures.[5] Amos Dresser, who traveled
extensively in the Southwest, believed that one out of every fifty
could read and write.[6] C.G. Parsons thought that five thousand
out of the four hundred thousand slaves of Georgia had these
attainments.[7] These figures, of course, would run much higher were
the free people of color included in the estimates. Combining the two
it is safe to say that ten per cent. of the adult Negroes had the
rudiments of education in 1860, but the proportion was much less than
it was near the close of the era of better beginnings about 1825.

[Footnote 1: Arfwedson, _The United States and Canada_, p. 331.]

[Footnote 2: See their pamphlets, addresses, and books referred to
elsewhere.]

[Footnote 3: Jones, _Religious Instruction of Negroes_, p. 115.]

[Footnote 4: Redpath, _The Roving Editor_, p. 161.]

[Footnote 5: Adams, _South-Side View of Slavery_, pp. 52 and 59.]

[Footnote 6: Dresser, _The Narrative of Amos Dresser_, p. 27; Dabney,
_Journal of a Tour through the United States and Canada_, p. 185.]

[Footnote 7: Parsons, _Inside View of Slavery_, p. 248.]




CHAPTER X

EDUCATING NEGROES TRANSPLANTED TO FREE SOIL


While the Negroes of the South were struggling against odds to acquire
knowledge, the more ambitious ones were for various reasons making
their way to centers of light in the North. Many fugitive slaves
dreaded being sold to planters of the lower South, the free blacks of
some of the commonwealths were forced out by hostile legislation,
and not a few others migrated to ameliorate their condition. The
transplanting of these people to the Northwest took place largely
between 1815 and 1850. They were directed mainly to Columbia and
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Greenwich, New Jersey; and Boston,
Massachusetts, in the East; and to favorable towns and colored
communities in the Northwest.[1] The fugitives found ready helpers
in Elmira, Rochester, Buffalo, New York; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania;
Gallipolis, Portsmouth, Akron, and Cincinnati, Ohio; and Detroit,
Michigan.[2] Colored settlements which proved attractive to these
wanderers had been established in Ohio, Indiana, and Canada. That most
of the bondmen in quest of freedom and opportunity should seek the
Northwest had long been the opinion of those actually interested in
their enlightenment. The attention of the colored people had been
early directed to this section as a more suitable place for their
elevation than the jungles of Africa selected by the American
Colonization Society. The advocates of Western colonization believed
that a race thus degraded could be elevated only in a salubrious
climate under the influences of institutions developed by Western
nations.

[Footnote 1: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, pp. 32 and 37.]

The role played by the Negroes in this migration exhibited the
development of sufficient mental ability to appreciate this truth.
It was chiefly through their intelligent fellows that prior to the
reaction ambitious slaves learned to consider the Northwest Territory
the land of opportunity. Furthermore, restless freedmen, denied
political privileges and prohibited from teaching their children, did
not always choose to go to Africa. Many of them went north of the Ohio
River and took up land on the public domain. Observing this longing
for opportunity, benevolent southerners, who saw themselves hindered
in carrying out their plan for educating the blacks for citizenship,
disposed of their holdings and formed free colonies of their slaves in
the same section. White men of this type thus made possible a new era
of uplift for the colored race by coming north in time to aid the
abolitionists, who had for years constituted a small minority
advocating a seemingly hopeless cause.

A detailed description of these settlements has no place in this
dissertation save as it has a bearing on the development of education
among the colored people. These settlements, however, are important
here in that they furnish the key to the location of many of the early
colored churches and schools of the North and West. Philanthropists
established a number of Negroes near Sandy Lake in Northwestern
Pennsylvania.[1] There was a colored settlement near Berlin
Crossroads, Ohio.[2] Another group of pioneering Negroes emigrating
to this State found homes in the Van Buren township of Shelby County.
Edward Coles, a Virginian, who in 1818 emigrated to Illinois, of which
he later became Governor, made a settlement on a larger scale. He
brought his slaves to Edwardsville, where they constituted a community
known as "Coles' Negroes."[3] The settlement made by Samuel Gist, an
Englishman possessing extensive plantations in Hanover, Amherst, and
Henrico Counties, Virginia, was still more significant. He provided in
his will that his slaves should be freed and sent to the North. It was
further directed "that the revenue from his plantation the last year
of his life be applied in building schoolhouses and churches for their
accommodation," and "that all money coming to him in Virginia be
set aside for the employment of ministers and teachers to instruct
them."[4] In 1818, Wickham, the executor of this estate, purchased
land and established these Negroes in what was called the Upper and
Lower Camps of Brown County, Ohio.

[Footnote 1: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 249.]

[Footnote 2: Langston,_From the Virginia Plantation to the National
Capitol_, p. 35.]

[Footnote 3: Davidson and Stuve,_A Complete History of Illinois_, pp.
321-322; and Washburne, _Sketch of Edward Cole, Second Governor of
Illinois_, pp. 44 and 53.]

[Footnote 4: _History of Brown County_, pp. 313 _et seq._; and Lane,
_Fifty Years and over of Akron and Summit County, Ohio_, pp. 579-580.]

Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, made a settlement of
Negroes in Mercer County early in the nineteenth century.[1] About the
year 1834 many of the freedmen, then concentrating at Cincinnati, were
induced to take up 30,000 acres of land in the same vicinity.[2] John
Harper of North Carolina manumitted his slaves in 1850 and had them
sent to this community.[3] John Randolph of Roanoke freed his slaves
at his death, and provided for the purchase of farms for them in
Mercer County.[4] The Germans, however, would not allow them to take
possession of these lands. Driven later from Shelby County[5] also,
these freedmen finally found homes in Miami County.[7] Then there was
one Saunders, a slaveholder of Cabell County, now West Virginia, who
liberated his slaves and furnished them homes in free territory. They
finally made their way to Cass County, Michigan, where philanthropists
had established a prosperous colored settlement and supplied it
with missionaries and teachers. The slaves of Theodoric H. Gregg
of Dinwiddie County, Virginia, were liberated in 1854 and sent to
Ohio,[7] where some of them were educated.

[Footnote 1: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p. 356.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 356.]

[Footnote 3: Manuscript in the hands of Dr. J.E. Moreland.]

[Footnote 4: _The African Repository_, vol. xxii., pp. 322-323.]

[Footnote 5: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p. 465.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, p. 466.]

[Footnote 7: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 723.]

Many free persons of color of Virginia and Kentucky went north about
the middle of the nineteenth century. The immediate cause in Virginia
was the enactment in 1838 of a law prohibiting the return of such
colored students as had been accustomed to go north to attend school
after they were denied this privilege in that State.[1] Prominent
among these seekers of better opportunities were the parents
of Richard De Baptiste. His father was a popular mechanic of
Fredericksburg, where he for years maintained a secret school.[2] A
public opinion proscribing the teaching of Negroes was then rendering
the effort to enlighten them as unpopular in Kentucky as it was in
Virginia. Thanks to a benevolent Kentuckian, however, an important
colored settlement near Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, was then taking
shape. The nucleus of this group was furnished about 1856 by Noah
Spears, who secured small farms there for sixteen of his former
bondmen.[3] The settlement was not only sought by fugitive slaves
and free Negroes, but was selected as the site for Wilberforce
University.[4]

[Footnote 1: Russell, _The Free Negro in Virginia_, Johns Hopkins
University Studies, Series xxxi., No. 3, p. 492; and _Acts of the
General Assembly of Virginia_, 1848, p. 117.]

[Footnote 2: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 352.]

[Footnote 3: Wright, "Negro Rural Communities" (_Southern Workman_,
vol. xxxvii., p. 158).]

[Footnote 4: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, p. 373; and
_Non-Slaveholder_, vol. ii., p. 113.]

During the same period, and especially from 1820 to 1835, a more
continuous and effective migration of southern Negroes was being
promoted by the Quakers of Virginia and North Carolina.[1] One of
their purposes was educational. Convinced that the "buying, selling,
and holding of men in slavery" is a sin, these Quakers with a view to
future manumission had been "careful of the moral and intellectual
training of such as they held in servitude."[2] To elevate their
slaves to the plane of men, southern Quakers early hit upon the scheme
of establishing in the Northwest such Negroes as they had by education
been able to equip for living as citizens. When the reaction in the
South made it impossible for the Quakers to continue their policy of
enlightening the colored people, these philanthropists promoted the
migration of the blacks to the Northwest Territory with still greater
zeal. Most of these settlements were made in Hamilton, Howard, Wayne,
Randolph, Vigo, Gibson, Grant, Rush, and Tipton Counties, Indiana, and
in Darke County, Ohio.[3] Prominent among these promoters was Levi
Coffin, the Quaker Abolitionist of North Carolina, and reputed
President of the Underground Railroad. He left his State and settled
among Negroes at Newport, Indiana.[4] Associated with these leaders
also were Benjamin Lundy of Tennessee and James G. Birney, once a
slaveholder of Huntsville, Alabama. The latter manumitted his slaves
and apprenticed and educated some of them in Ohio.[5]

[Footnote 1: Wright, "Negro Rural Communities" (_Southern Workman_,
vol. xxxvii., p. 158); and Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p.
68.]

[Footnote 2: A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the
Testimony, etc.]

[Footnote 3: Wright, "Rural Negro Communities in Indiana" (_Southern
Workman_, vol. xxxvii., pp. 162-166); and Bassett, _Slavery in North
Carolina_, pp. 67 and 68.]

[Footnote 4: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 106.]

[Footnote 5: Birney, _James G. Birney and His Times_, p. 139.]

The importance of this movement to the student of education lies in
the fact that it effected an unequal distribution of intelligent
Negroes. The most ambitious and enlightened ones were fleeing to free
territory. As late as 1840 there were more intelligent blacks in the
South than in the North.[1] The number of southern colored people who
could read was then decidedly larger than that of such persons found
in the free States. The continued migration of Negroes to the North,
despite the operation of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, made this
distribution more unequal. While the free colored population of the
slave States increased only 23,736 from 1850 to 1860, that of the
free States increased 29,839. In the South only Delaware, Georgia,
Maryland, and North Carolina showed a noticeable increase in the
number of free persons of color during the decade immediately
preceding the Civil War. This element of the population had only
slightly increased in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee,
Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. The
number of free Negroes of Florida remained practically constant. Those
of Arkansas, Mississippi, and Texas diminished. In the North, of
course, the tendency was in the other direction. With the exception of
Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York, which had about the same
free colored population in 1860 as they had in 1850, there was a
general increase in the number of Negroes in the free States. Ohio
led in this respect having had during this period an increase of
11,394.[2]

[Footnote 1: Jones, _Religious Instruction of the Negroes_, p. 115.]

[Footnote 2: See statistics on pages 237-240.]

On comparing the educational statistics of these sections this truth
becomes more apparent. In 1850 there were 4,354 colored children
attending school in the South, but by 1860 this number had dropped
to 3,651. Slight increases were noted only in Alabama, Missouri,
Delaware, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia. Georgia
and Mississippi had then practically deprived all Negroes of this
privilege. The former, which reported one colored child as attending
school in 1850, had just seven in 1860; the latter had none in 1850
and only two in 1860. In all other slave States the number of pupils
of African blood had materially decreased.[1] In the free States there
were 22,107 colored children in school in 1850, and 28,978 in 1860.
Most of these were in New Jersey, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania,
which in 1860 had 2,741; 5,671; 5,694; and 7,573, respectively.[2]

[Footnote 1: STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE
  UNITED STATES IN 1850

                             ATTENDING         ADULTS UNABLE
                               SCHOOL             TO READ
  STATE      Population Males Females Total Males Females  Total

  Alabama         2,265    33      35    68    108      127     235
  Arkansas          608     6       5    11     61       55     116
  California        962     1       0     1     88       29     117
  Connecticut     7,693   689     575  1,264   292      273     567
  Delaware       18,073    92      95    187 2,724    2,921   5,645
  Florida           932    29      37     66   116      154     270
  Georgia         2,931     1       0      1   208      259     467
  Illinois        5,436   162     161    323   605      624   1,229
  Indiana        11,262   484     443    927 1,024    1,146   2,170
  Iowa              333    12       5     17    15       18      33
  Kentucky       10,011   128     160    288 1,431    1,588   3,029
  Louisiana      17,462   629     590  1,219 1,038    2,351   3,389
  Maine           1,356   144     137    281    77       58     135
  Maryland       74,723   886     730  1,616 9,422   11,640  21,062
  Massachusetts   9,064   726     713  1,439   375      431     806
  Michigan        2,583   106     101    207   201      168     369
  Mississippi       930     0       0      0    75       48     123
  Missouri        2,618    23      17     40   271      226     497
  New Hampshire     520    41      32     73    26       26      52
  New Jersey     23,810 1,243   1,083  2,326 2,167    2,250   4,417
  New York       49,069 2,840   2,607  5,447 3,387    4,042   7,429
  North Carolina 27,463   113     104    217 3,099    3,758   6,857
  Ohio           25,279 1,321   1,210  2,531 2,366    2,624   4,990
  Pennsylvania   53,626 3,385   3,114  6,499  4,115   5,229   9,344**
                                         [** was 6,344 in error.**]
  Rhode Island    3,670   304     247    551    130     137     267
  South Carolina  8,960    54      26     80    421     459     880
  Tennessee       6,422    40      30     70    506     591   1,097
  Texas             397    11       9     20     34      24      58
  Vermont           718    58      32     90     32      19      51
  Virginia       54,333    37      27     64  5,141   6,374  11,515
  Wisconsin         635    32      35     67     55      37      92
  District of
  Columbia       10,059    232    235    467  1,106   2,108   3,214
  Minnesota          30      0      2      2      0       0       0
  New Mexico        207      0      0      0      0       0       0
  Oregon             24      2      0      2      3       2       5
  Utah               22      0      0      0      1       0       1

  Total         434,495 13,864 12,597 26,461 40,722  49,800  90,522

  See Sixth Census of the United States, 1850.]

[Footnote 2: See statistics on pages 237-240.]

The report on illiteracy shows further the differences resulting from
the divergent educational policies of the two sections. In 1850 there
were in the slave States 58,444 adult free Negroes who could not read,
and in 1860 this number had reached 59,832. In all such commonwealths
except Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi there was an
increase in illiteracy among the free blacks. These States, however,
were hardly exceptional, because Arkansas and Mississippi had suffered
a decrease in their free colored population, that of Florida had
remained the same, and the difference in the case of Louisiana was
very slight. The statistics of the Northern States indicate just the
opposite trend. Notwithstanding the increase of persons of color
resulting from the influx of the migrating element, there was in all
free States exclusive of California, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan,
Ohio, and Pennsylvania a decrease in the illiteracy of Negroes. But
these States hardly constitute exceptions; for California, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota had very few colored inhabitants in 1850, and the others
had during this decade received so many fugitives in the rough that
race prejudice and its concomitant drastic legislation impeded the
educational progress of their transplanted freedmen.[1] In the
Northern States where this condition did not obtain, the benevolent
whites had, in cooeperation with the Negroes, done much to reduce
illiteracy among them during these years.

[Footnote 1: STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED
STATES IN 1860

  STATE          Population| ATTENDING SCHOOL   | ADULTS UNABLE TO READ
                           +----- +----- +------ +-------- +------- +----
  --
                            Males               | Males
                                 Females        |       Females
                                          Total |                 Total
  ---------------- +-------- +----- +------- +------- +------- +-------
  +------
  Alabama            2,690    48      65    114     192     263     455
  Arkansas             144     3       2      5      10      13      23
  California         4,086    69      84    153     497     207     704
  Connecticut        8,627   737     641  1,378     181     164     345
  Delaware          19,829   122     128    250   3,056   3,452   6,508
  Florida              932     3       6      9      48      72     120
  Georgia            3,500     3       4      7     255     318     573
  Illinois           7,628   264     347    611     632     695   1,327
  Indiana           11,428   570     552  1,122     869     904   1,773
  Iowa               1,069    77      61    138      92      77     169
  Kansas               625     8       6     14      25      38      63
  Kentucky          10,684   102     107    209   1,113   1,350   2,463
  Louisiana         18,647   153     122    275     485     717   1,202
  Maine              1,327   148     144    292      25      21      46
  Maryland          83,942    687    668  1,355   9,904  11,795  21,699
  Massachusetts      9,602    800    815  1,615     291     368     659
  Michigan           6,797    555    550  1,105     558     486   1,044
  Minnesota            259      8     10     18       6       6      12
  Mississippi          773      0      2      2      50      60     110
  Missouri           3,572     76     79    155     371     514     885
  New Hampshire        494     49     31     80      15      19      34
  New Jersey        25,318  1,413  1,328  2,741   1,720   2,085   3,805
  New York          49,005  2,955  2,739  5,694   2,653   3,260   5,913
  North Carolina    30,463     75     58    133   3,067   3,782   6,849
  Ohio              36,673  2,857  2,814  5,671   2,995   3,191   6,186
  Oregon               128      0      0      2       7       5      12
  Pennsylvania      56,949  3,882  3,691  7,573   3,893   5,466   9,359
  Rhode Island       3,952    276    256    532     119     141     260
  South Carolina     9,914    158    207    365     633     783   1,416
  Tennessee          7,300     28     24     52     743     952   1,695
  Texas                355      4      7     11      25      37      62
  Vermont              709     65     50    115      27      20      47
  Virginia          58,042     21     20     41   5,489   6,008  12,397
  Wisconsin          1,171     62     50    112      53      45      98

  TERRITORIES

  Colorado              46              No returns
  Dakota                 0      0      0      0       0       0       0
  District Columbia 11,131    315    363    678   1,131   2,224   3,375
  Nebraska              67      1      1      2       6       7      13
  Nevada                45      0      0      0       6       1       7
  New Mexico            85      0      0      0      12      15      27
  Utah                  30      0      0      0       0       0       0
  Washington            30      0      0      0       1       0       1

  Total            488,070 16,594 16,035 32,629  41,275  50,461  91,736

  See Seventh Census of the United States, vol. 1.]

How the problem of educating these people on free soil was solved can
be understood only by keeping in mind the factors of the migration.
Some of these Negroes had unusual capabilities. Many of them had
in slavery either acquired the rudiments of education or developed
sufficient skill to outwit the most determined pursuers. Owing so
much to mental power, no man was more effective than the successful
fugitive in instilling into the minds of his people the value of
education. Not a few of this type readily added to their attainments
to equip themselves for the best service. Some of them, like Reverend
Josiah Henson, William Wells Brown, and Frederick Douglass, became
leaders, devoting their time not only to the cause of abolition, but
also to the enlightenment of the colored people. Moreover, the free
Negroes migrating to the North were even more effective than the
fugitive slaves in advancing the cause of education.[1] A larger
number of the former had picked up useful knowledge. In fact, the
prohibition of the education of the free people of color in the South
was one of the reasons they could so readily leave their native
homes.[2] The free blacks then going to the Northwest Territory proved
to be decidedly helpful to their benefactors in providing colored
churches and schools with educated workers, who otherwise would have
been brought from the East at much expense.

[Footnote 1: Howe, _The Refugee from Slavery_, p. 77.]

[Footnote 2: Russell, _The Free Negro in Virginia_ (Johns Hopkins
University Studies, series xxxi., No. 3, p. 107).]

On perusing this sketch the educator naturally wonders exactly what
intellectual progress was made by these groups on free soil. This
question cannot be fully answered for the reason that extant records
give no detailed account of many colored settlements which underwent
upheaval or failed to endure. In some cases we learn simply that a
social center flourished and was then destroyed. On "Black Friday,"
January 1, 1830, eighty Negroes were driven out of Portsmouth, Ohio,
at the request of one or two hundred white citizens, set forth in an
urgent memorial.[1] After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law of
1850 the colored population of Columbia, Pennsylvania, dropped from
nine hundred and forty-three to four hundred and eighty-seven.[2] The
Negro community in the northwestern part of that State was broken up
entirely.[3] The African Methodist and Baptist churches of Buffalo
lost many communicants. Out of a membership of one hundred and
fourteen, the colored Baptist church of Rochester lost one hundred and
twelve, including its pastor. About the same time eighty-four members
of the African Baptist church of Detroit crossed into Canada.[4] The
break-up of these churches meant the end of the day and Sunday-schools
which were maintained in them. Moreover, the migration of these
Negroes aroused such bitter feeling against them that their
schoolhouses were frequently burned. It often seemed that it was just
as unpopular to educate the blacks in the North as in the South. Ohio,
Illinois, and Oregon enacted laws to prevent them from coming into
those commonwealths.

[Footnote 1: Evans, _A History of Scioto County, Ohio_, p. 613.]

[Footnote 2: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 249.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 249.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 250.]

We have, however, sufficient evidence of large undertakings to educate
the colored people then finding homes in less turbulent parts beyond
the Ohio. In the first place, almost every settlement made by the
Quakers was a center to which Negroes repaired for enlightenment.
In other groups where there was no such opportunity, they had the
cooeperation of certain philanthropists in providing facilities for
their mental and moral development. As a result, the free blacks had
access to schools and churches in Hamilton, Howard, Randolph, Vigo,
Gibson, Rush, Tipton, Grant, and Wayne counties, Indiana,[1] and
Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair counties, Illinois. There were colored
schools and churches in Logan, Clark, Columbiana, Guernsey, Jefferson,
Highland, Brown, Darke, Shelby, Green, Miami, Warren, Scioto, Gallia,
Ross, and Muskingum counties, Ohio.[2] Augustus Wattles said that with
the assistance of abolitionists he organized twenty-five such schools
in Ohio counties after 1833.[3] Brown County alone had six. Not many
years later a Negro settlement in Gallia County, Ohio, was paying a
teacher fifty dollars a quarter.[4]

[Footnote 1: Wright, "Negro Rural Communities in Indiana," _Southern
Workman_, vol. xxxvii., p. 165; Boone, _The History of Education in
Indiana_, p. 237; and Simmons, _Men of Mark_, pp. 590 and 948.]

[Footnote 2: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 948; and Hickok, _The Negro in
Ohio_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 3: Howe, _Historical Collections of Ohio_, p. 355.]

[Footnote 4: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 89.]

Still better colored schools were established in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, and in Springfield, Columbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio.
While the enlightenment of the few Negroes in Pittsburgh did not
require the systematic efforts put forth to elevate the race
elsewhere, much was done to provide them educational facilities in
that city. Children of color first attended the white schools there
just as they did throughout the State of Pennsylvania.[1] But when
larger numbers of them collected in this gateway to the Northwest,
either race feeling or the pressing needs of the migrating freedmen
brought about the establishment of schools especially adapted to their
instruction. Such efforts were frequent after 1830.[2] John Thomas
Johnson, a teacher of the District of Columbia, moved to Pittsburgh
in 1838 and became an instructor in a colored school of that city.[3]
Cleveland had an "African School" as early as 1832. John Malvin, the
moving spirit of the enterprise in that city, organized about that
time "The School Fund Society" which established other colored schools
in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Springfield.[4]

[Footnote 1: Wickersham, _Education in Pennsylvania_, p. 248.]

[Footnote 2: _Life of Martin R. Delaney_, p. 33.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 214.]

[Footnote 4: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 88.]

The concentration of the freedmen and fugitives at Cincinnati was
followed by efforts to train them for higher service. The Negroes
themselves endeavored to provide their own educational facilities in
opening in 1820 the first colored school in that city. This school
did not continue long, but another was established the same year.
Thereafter one Mr. Wing, who kept a private institution, admitted
persons of color to his evening classes. On account of a lack of
means, however, the Negroes of Cincinnati did not receive any
systematic instruction before 1834. After that year the tide turned in
favor of the free blacks of that section, bringing to their assistance
a number of daring abolitionists, who helped them to educate
themselves. Friends of the race, consisting largely of the students of
Lane Seminary, had then organized colored Sunday and evening schools,
and provided for them scientific and literary lectures twice a week.
There was a permanent colored school in Cincinnati in 1834. In 1835
the Negroes of that city contributed $150 of the $1000 expended for
their education. Four years later, however, they raised $889.03 for
this purpose, and thanks to their economic progress, this sacrifice
was less taxing than that of 1835.[1] In 1844 Rev. Hiram Gilmore
opened there a high school which among other students attracted P.B.S.
Pinchback, later Governor of Louisiana. Mary E. Miles, a graduate
of the Normal School at Albany, New York, served as an assistant of
Gilmore after having worked among her people in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 83.]

[Footnote 1: Delany, _The Condition of the Colored People_, etc.,
132.]

The educational advantages given these people were in no sense
despised. Although the Negroes of the Northwest did not always keep
pace with their neighbors in things industrial they did not permit
the white people to outstrip them much in education. The freedmen
so earnestly seized their opportunity to acquire knowledge and
accomplished so much in a short period that their educational progress
served to disabuse the minds of indifferent whites of the idea that
the blacks were not capable of high mental development.[1] The
educational work of these centers, too, tended not only to produce men
capable of ministering to the needs of their environment, but to serve
as a training center for those who would later be leaders of their
people. Lewis Woodson owed it to friends in Pittsburgh that he became
an influential teacher. Jeremiah H. Brown, T. Morris Chester, James T.
Bradford, M.R. Delany, and Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner obtained much
of their elementary education in the early colored schools of that
city.[2] J.C. Corbin, a prominent educator before and after the Civil
War, acquired sufficient knowledge at Chillicothe, Ohio, to qualify in
1848 as an assistant in Rev. Henry Adams's school in Louisville.[3]
John M. Langston was for a while one of Corbin's fellow-students at
Chillicothe before the former entered Oberlin. United States Senator
Hiram Revels of Mississippi spent some time in a Quaker seminary in
Union County, Indiana.[4] Rev. J.T. White, one of the leading spirits
of Arkansas during the Reconstruction, was born and educated in Clark
County in that State.[5] Fannie Richards, still a teacher at Detroit,
Michigan, is another example of the professional Negro equipped
for service in the Northwest before the Rebellion.[6] From other
communities of that section came such useful men as Rev. J.W. Malone,
an influential minister of Iowa; Rev. D.R. Roberts, a very successful
pastor of Chicago; Bishop C.T. Shaffer of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church; Rev. John G. Mitchell, for many years the Dean of
the Theological Department of Wilberforce University; and President
S.T. Mitchell, once the head of the same institution.[7]

[Footnote 1: This statement is based on the accounts of various
western freedmen.]

[Footnote 2: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 113.]

[Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 829.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 948.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, p. 590.]

[Footnote 6: _Ibid._, p. 1023.]

[Footnote 7: Wright, "Negro Rural Communities in Indiana," _Southern
Workman_, vol. xxxvii., p. 169.]

In the colored settlements of Canada the outlook for Negro education
was still brighter. This better opportunity was due to the high
character of the colonists, to the mutual aid resulting from the
proximity of the communities, and to the cooeperation of the Canadians.
The previous experience of most of these adventurers as sojourners in
the free States developed in them such noble traits that they did not
have to be induced to ameliorate their condition. They had already
come under educative influences which prepared them for a larger task
in Canada. Fifteen thousand of sixty thousand Negroes in Canada in
1860 were free born.[1] Many of those, who had always been free, fled
to Canada[2] when the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 made it possible
for even a dark-complexioned Caucasian to be reduced to a state of
bondage. Fortunately, too, these people settled in the same section.
The colored settlements at Dawn, Colchester, Elgin, Dresden, Windsor,
Sandwich, Queens, Bush, Wilberforce, Hamilton, St. Catherines,
Chatham, Riley, Anderton, Maiden, Gonfield, were all in Southern
Ontario. In the course of time the growth of these groups produced a
population sufficiently dense to facilitate cooeperation in matters
pertaining to social betterment. The uplift of the refugees was made
less difficult also by the self-denying white persons who were their
first teachers and missionaries. While the hardships incident to this
pioneer effort all but baffled the ardent apostle to the lowly, he
found among the Canadian whites so much more sympathy than among the
northerners that his work was more agreeable and more successful than
it would have been in the free States. Ignoring the request that the
refugees be turned from Canada as undesirables, the white people of
that country protected and assisted them.[3] Canadians later underwent
some change in their attitude toward their newcomers, but these
British-Americans never exhibited such militant opposition to the
Negroes as sometimes developed in the Northern States.[4]

[Footnote 1: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 222.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, pp. 247-250.]

[Footnote 3: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, pp. 201 and 233.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, 233.]

The educational privileges which the refugees hoped to enjoy in
Canada, however, were not easily exercised. Under the Canadian law
they could send their children to the common schools, or use their
proportionate share of the school funds in providing other educational
facilities.[1] But conditions there did not at first redound to the
education of the colored children.[2] Some were too destitute to
avail themselves of these opportunities; others, unaccustomed to this
equality of fortune, were timid about having their children mingle
with those of the whites, and not a few clad their youths so poorly
that they became too unhealthy to attend regularly[3]. Besides, race
prejudice was not long in making itself the most disturbing factor.
In 1852 Benjamin Drew found the minds of the people of Sandwich much
exercised over the question of admitting Negroes into the public
schools. The same feeling was then almost as strong in Chatham,
Hamilton, and London[4]. Consequently, "partly owing to this
prejudice, and partly to their own preference, the colored people,
acting under the provision of the law that allowed them to have
separate schools, set up their own schools in Sandwich and in many
other parts of Ontario"[5]. There were separate schools at Colchester,
Amherstburg, Sandwich, Dawn, and Buxton[6]. It was doubtless because
of the rude behavior of white pupils toward the children of the blacks
that their private schools flourished at London, Windsor, and other
places[7]. The Negroes, themselves, however, did not object to the
coeducation of the races. Where there were a few white children
in colored settlements they were admitted to schools maintained
especially for pupils of African descent.[8] In Toronto no distinction
in educational privileges was made, but in later years there
flourished an evening school for adults of color.[9]

[Footnote 1: Howe, _The Refugees from Slavery_, p. 77.]

[Footnote 2: Drew said: "The prejudice against the African race is
here [Canada] strongly marked. It had not been customary to levy
school taxes on the colored people. Some three or four years since a
trustee assessed a school tax on some of the wealthy citizens of that
class. They sent their children at once into the public school. As
these sat down the white children near them deserted the benches: and
in a day or two the white children were wholly withdrawn, leaving the
schoolhouse to the teacher and his colored pupils. The matter was
at last 'compromised': a notice 'Select School' was put on the
schoolhouse: the white children were selected _in_ and the black were
selected _out_." See Drew's. _A North-side View of Slavery_, etc., p.
341.]


[Footnote 3: Mitchell, _The Underground Railroad_, pp. 140, 164, and
165.]

[Footnote 4: Drew, _A North-side View of Slavery_, pp. 118, 147, 235,
and 342.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., p. 341.]

[Footnote 6: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 229.]

[Footnote 7: _Ibid_., p. 229.]

[Footnote 8: _First Annual Report of the Anti-slavery Society of
Canada_, 1852, Appendix, p. 22.]

[Footnote 9: _Ibid_., p. 15.]

The most helpful schools, however, were not those maintained by the
state. Travelers in Canada found the colored mission schools with
a larger attendance and doing better work than those maintained at
public expense.[1] The rise of the mission schools was due to the
effort to "furnish the conditions under which whatever appreciation
of education there was native in a community of Negroes, or whatever
taste for it could be awakened there," might be "free to assert itself
unhindered by real or imagined opposition."[2] There were no such
schools in 1830, but by 1838 philanthropists had established the first
mission among the Canadian refugees.[3] The English Colonial Church
and School Society organized schools at London, Amherstburg, and
Colchester. Certain religious organizations of the United States sent
ten or more teachers to these settlements.[4] In 1839 these workers
were conducting four schools while Rev. Hiram Wilson, their inspector,
probably had several other institutions under his supervision.[5] In
1844 Levi Coffin found a large school at Isaac Rice's mission at Fort
Maiden or Amherstburg.[6] Rice had toiled among these people six
years, receiving very little financial aid, and suffering unusual
hardships.[7] Mr. E. Child, a graduate of Oneida Institute, was later
added to the corps of mission teachers.[8] In 1852 Mrs. Laura S.
Haviland was secured to teach the school of the colony of "Refugees'
Home," where the colored people had built a structure "for school and
meeting purposes."[9] On Sundays the schoolhouses and churches were
crowded by eager seekers, many of whom lived miles away. Among these
earnest students a traveler saw an aged couple more than eighty
years old.[10] These elementary schools broke the way for a higher
institution at Dawn, known as the Manual Labor Institute.

[Footnote 1: Drew, _A North-side View of Slavery_, pp. 118, 147, 235,
341, and 342.]

[Footnote 2: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 229.]

[Footnote 3: _Father Henson's Story of His Own Life_, p. 209.]

[Footnote 4: _First Annual Report of the Anti-slavery Society of
Canada_, 1852, p. 22.]

[Footnote 5: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 199.]

[Footnote 6: "While at this place we made our headquarters at Isaac J.
Rice's missionary buildings, where he had a large school for colored
children. He had labored here among the colored people, mostly
fugitives, for six years. He was a devoted, self-denying worker, had
received very little pecuniary help, and had suffered many privations.
He was well situated in Ohio as pastor of a Presbyterian Church, and
had fine prospects before him, but believed that the Lord called him
to this field of missionary labor among the fugitive slaves, who
came here by hundreds and by thousands, poor, destitute, ignorant,
suffering from all the evil influences of slavery. We entered into
deep sympathy with him and his labors, realizing the great need there
was here for just such an institution as he had established. He had
sheltered at his missionary home many hundred of fugitives till other
homes for them could be found. This was the great landing point, the
principal terminus of the Underground Railroad of the West." See
Coffin's _Reminiscences_, p. 251.]

[Footnote 7: _Ibid_., pp. 249-251.]

[Footnote 8: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 9: Haviland, _A Woman's Work_, pp. 192, 196, 201.]

[Footnote 10: Haviland, _A Woman's Work_, pp. 192, 193.]

With these immigrants, however, this was not a mere passive
participation in the work of their amelioration. From the very
beginning the colored people partly supported their schools. Without
the cooeperation of the refugees the large private schools at London,
Chatham, and Windsor could not have succeeded. The school at Chatham
was conducted by Alfred Whipper,[1] a colored man, that at Windsor by
Mary E. Bibb, the wife of Henry Bibb,[2] the founder of the Refugees'
Home Settlement, and that at Sandwich by Mary Ann Shadd, of
Delaware.[3] Moreover, the majority of these colonists showed
increasing interest in this work of social uplift.[4] Foregoing their
economic opportunities many of the refugees congregated in towns of
educational facilities. A large number of them left their first abodes
to settle near Dresden and Dawn because of the advantages offered
by the Manual Labor Institute. Besides, the Negroes organized "True
Bands" which effected among other things the improvement of schools
and the increase of their attendance[5].

[Footnote 1: Drew, _A North-side View of Slavery_, p. 236.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 322.]

[Footnote 3: Delany, _The Condition of the Colored People_, etc.,
131.]

[Footnote 4: Howe, _The Refugees from Slavery_, pp. 70, 71, 108, and
110.]

[Footnote 5: According to Drew a True Band was composed of colored
persons of both sexes, associated for their own improvement. "Its
objects," says he, "are manifold: mainly these:--the members are to
take a general interest in each other's welfare; to pursue such plans
and objects as may be for their mutual advantage; to improve all
schools, and to induce their race to send their children into the
schools; to break down all prejudice; to bring all churches as far as
possible into one body, and not let minor differences divide them; to
prevent litigation by referring all disputes among themselves to a
committee; to stop the begging system entirely (that is, going to the
United States and thereby representing that the fugitives are starving
and suffering, raising large sums of money, of which the fugitives
never receive the benefit,--misrepresenting the character of the
fugitives for industry and underrating the advance of the country,
which supplies abundant work for all at fair wages); to raise such
funds among themselves as may be necessary for the poor, the sick,
and the destitute fugitive newly arrived; and prepare themselves
ultimately to bear their due weight of political power." See Drew, _A
North-side View of Slavery_, p. 236.]

The good results of these schools were apparent. In the same degree
that the denial to slaves of mental development tended to brutalize
them the teaching of science and religion elevated the fugitives in
Canada. In fact, the Negroes of these settlements soon had ideals
differing widely from those of their brethren less favorably
circumstanced. They believed in the establishment of homes, respected
the sanctity of marriage, and exhibited in their daily life a moral
sense of the highest order. Travelers found the majority of them
neat, orderly, and intelligent[1]. Availing themselves of their
opportunities, they quickly qualified as workers among their fellows.
An observer reported in 1855 that a few were engaged in shop keeping
or were employed as clerks, while a still smaller number devoted
themselves to teaching and preaching.[2] Before 1860 the culture of
these settlements was attracting the colored graduates of northern
institutions which had begun to give men of African blood an
opportunity to study in their professional schools.

[Footnote 1: According to the report of the Freedmen's Inquiry
Commission published by S.G. Howe, an unusually large proportion of
the colored population believed in education. He says: "Those from the
free States had very little schooling in youth; those from the slave
States, none at all. Considering these things it is rather remarkable
that so many can now read and write. Moreover, they show their esteem
for instruction by their desire to obtain it for their children. They
all wish to have their children go to school, and they send them all
the time that they can be spared.

"Canada West has adopted a good system of public instruction, which
is well administered. The common schools, though inferior to those of
several of the States of the United States, are good. Colored children
are admitted to them in most places; and where a separate school is
open for them, it is as well provided by the government with teachers
and apparatus as the other schools are. Notwithstanding the growing
prejudice against blacks, the authorities evidently mean to deal
justly by them in regard to instruction; and even those who advocate
separate schools, promise that they shall be equal to white schools.

"The colored children in the mixed schools do not differ in their
general appearance and behavior from their white comrades. They are
usually clean and decently clad. They look quite as the whites; and
are perhaps a little more mirthful and roguish. The association
is manifestly beneficial to the colored children." See Howe, _The
Refugees_, etc., p. 77.]

[Footnote 2: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 226.]




CHAPTER XI

HIGHER EDUCATION


The development of the schools and churches established for these
transplanted freedmen made more necessary than ever a higher education
to develop in them the power to work out their own salvation. It
was again the day of thorough training for the Negroes. Their
opportunities for better instruction were offered mainly by the
colonizationists and abolitionists.[1] Although these workers had
radically different views as to the manner of elevating the colored
people, they contributed much to their mental development. The more
liberal colonizationists endeavored to furnish free persons of
color the facilities for higher education with the hope that their
enlightenment would make them so discontented with this country
that they would emigrate to Liberia. Most southern colonizationists
accepted this plan but felt that those permanently attached to this
country should be kept in ignorance; for if they were enlightened,
they would either be freed or exterminated. During the period of
reaction, when the elevation of the race was discouraged in the North
and prohibited in most parts of the South, the colonizationists
continued to secure to Negroes, desiring to expatriate themselves,
opportunities for education which never would have been given those
expecting to remain in the United States.[2]

[Footnote 1: The views of the abolitionists at that time were well
expressed by Garrison in his address to the people of color in the
convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1830. He encouraged them to
get as much education as possible for themselves and their offspring,
to toil long and hard for it as for a pearl of great price. "An
ignorant people," said he, "can never occupy any other than a degraded
place in society; they can never be truly free until they are
intelligent. It is an old maxim that knowledge is power; and not only
is it power but rank, wealth, dignity, and protection. That capital
brings highest return to a city, state, or nation (as the case may
be) which is invested in schools, academies, and colleges. If I had
children, rather than that they should grow up in ignorance, I would
feed upon bread and water: I would sell my teeth, or extract the blood
from my veins." See _Minutes of the Proceedings of the Convention for
the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, 1830, pages 10, 11.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, pp.
213-214; and _The African Repository_, under the captions of
"Education in Liberia," and "African Education Societies," _passim_.]

The policy of promoters of African colonization, however, did not
immediately become unprogressive. Their plan of education differed
from previous efforts in that the objects of their philanthropy were
to be given every opportunity for mental growth. The colonizationists
had learned from experience in educating Negroes that it was necessary
to begin with the youth.[1] These workers observed, too, that the
exigencies of the time demanded more advanced and better endowed
institutions to prepare colored men to instruct others in science and
religion, and to fit them for "civil offices in Liberia and Hayti."[2]
To execute this scheme the leaders of the colonization movement
endeavored to educate Negroes in "mechanic arts, agriculture, science,
and Biblical literature."[3] Exceptionally bright youths were to
be given special training as catechists, teachers, preachers, and
physicians.[4] A southern planter offered a plantation for the
establishment of a suitable institution of learning,[5] a few masters
sent their slaves to eastern schools to be educated, and men organized
"education societies" in various parts to carry out this work at
shorter range. In 1817 colonizationists opened at Pasippany, New
Jersey, a school to give a four-year course to "African youth" who
showed "talent, discretion, and piety" and were able to read and
write.[6] Twelve years later another effort was made to establish a
school of this kind at Newark in that State,[7] while other promoters
of that faith were endeavoring to establish a similar institution at
Hartford, Connecticut,[8] all hoping to make use of the Kosciuszko
fund.[9]

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. i., p. 277.]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. ii., p. 223.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, vol. xxviii., pp. 271, 347; Child, _An Appeal_,
p. 144.]

[Footnote 4: _African Repository_, vol. i., p. 277.]

[Footnote 5: _Report of the Proceedings at the Organization of the
African Education Society_, p. 9.]

[Footnote 6: _African Repository_, vol. i., p. 276, and Griffin, _A
Plea for Africa_, p. 65.]

[Footnote 7: _African Repository_, vol. iv., pp. 186, 193, and 375;
and vol. vi., pp. 47, 48, 49, and _Report of the Proceedings of the
African Education Society_, p. 7.]

[Footnote 8: _Ibid_., pp. 7 and 8 and _African Repository_, vol. iv.,
p. 375.]

[Footnote 9: What would become of this plan depended upon the changing
fortunes of the men concerned. Kosciuszko died in 1817; and as Thomas
Jefferson refused to take out letters testamentary under this will,
Benjamin Lincoln Lear, a trustee of the African Education Society, who
intended to apply for the whole fund, was appointed administrator of
it. The fund amounted to about $16,000. Later Kosciuszko Armstrong
demanded of the administrator $3704 bequeathed to him by T. Kosciuszko
in a will alleged to have been executed in Paris in 1806. The bill was
dismissed by the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, and the
decision of the lower Court was confirmed by the United States Supreme
Court in 1827 on the grounds that the said will had not been admitted
to probate anywhere. To make things still darker just about the
time the trustees of the African Education Society were planning to
purchase a farm and select teachers and mechanics to instruct the
youth, the heirs of General Kosciuszko filed a bill against Mr.
Lear in the Supreme Court of the United States on the ground of the
invalidity of the will executed by Kosciuszko in 1798. The death of
Mr. Lear in 1832 and that of William Wirt, the Attorney-General of
the United States, soon thereafter, caused a delay in having the case
decided. The author does not know exactly what use was finally made of
this fund. See _African Repository_, vol. it., pp. 163, 233; also 7
Peters, 130, and 8 Peters, 52.]

The schemes failed, however, on account of the unyielding opposition
of the free Negroes and abolitionists. They could see no philanthropy
in educating persons to prepare for doom in a deadly climate. The
convention of the free people of color assembled in Philadelphia in
1830, denounced the colonization movement as an evil, and urged their
fellows not to support it. Pointing out the impracticability of such
schemes, the convention encouraged the race to take steps toward its
elevation in this country.[1] Should the colored people be properly
educated, the prejudice against them would not continue such as to
necessitate their expatriation. The delegates hoped to establish a
Manual Labor College at New Haven that Negroes might there acquire
that "classical knowledge which promotes genius and causes man to soar
up to those high intellectual enjoyments and acquirements which place
him in a situation to shed upon a country and people that scientific
grandeur which is imperishable by time, and drowns in oblivion's cup
their moral degradation."[2]

[Footnote 1: Williams, _History of the Negro Race_, p. 67.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 68; and _Minutes of the Proceedings of the
Third Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, pp.
9, 10, and 11.]

Influential abolitionists were also attacking this policy of the
colonizationists. William Jay, however, delivered against them such
diatribes and so wisely exposed their follies that the advocates
of colonization learned to consider him as the arch enemy of their
cause.[1] Jay advocated the education of the Negroes for living
where they were. He could not see how a Christian could prohibit or
condition the education of any individual. To do such a thing was
tantamount to preventing him from having a direct revelation of God.
How these "educators" could argue that on account of the hopelessness
of the endeavors to civilize the blacks they should be removed to a
foreign country, and at the same time undertake to provide for them
there the same facilities for higher education that white men enjoyed,
seemed to Jay to be facetiously inconsistent.[2] If the Africans could
be elevated in their native land and not in America, it was due to the
Caucasians' sinful condition, for which the colored people should not
be required to suffer the penalty of expatriation.[3] The desirable
thing to do was to influence churches and schools to admit students of
color on terms of equality with all other races.

[Footnote 1: Reese, _Letters to Honorable William Jay._]

[Footnote 2: Jay, _Inquiry_, p. 26; and _Letters_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 22.]

Encountering this opposition, the institutions projected by the
colonization society existed in name only. Exactly how and why the
organization failed to make good with its educational policy is well
brought out by the wailing cry of one of its promoters. He asserted
that "every endeavor to divert the attention of the community or even
a portion of the means which the present so imperatively calls for,
from the colonization society to measures calculated to bind the
colored population to this country and seeking to raise them to a
level with the whites, whether by founding colleges or in any other
way, tends directly in the proportion that it succeeds, to counteract
and thwart the whole plan of colonization."[1] The colonizationists,
therefore, desisted from their attempt to provide higher education for
any considerable number of the belated race. Seeing that they could
not count on the support of the free persons of color, they feared
that those thus educated would be induced by the abolitionists to
remain in the United States. This would put the colonizationists in
the position of increasing the intelligent element of the colored
population, which was then regarded as a menace to slavery.
Consequently these timorous "educators" did practically nothing
during the reactionary period to carry out their plan of establishing
colleges.

[Footnote 1: Hodgkin, _Inquiry into the Merits of the Am. Col. Soc._,
p. 31.]

Thereafter the colonizationists found it advisable to restrict their
efforts to individual cases. Not much was said about what they were
doing, but now and then appeared notices of Negroes who had been
privately prepared in the South or publicly in the North for
professional work in Liberia. Dr. William Taylor and Dr. Fleet were
thus educated in medicine in the District of Columbia.[1] In the
same way John V. DeGrasse, of New York, and Thomas J. White,[2] of
Brooklyn, were allowed to complete the Medical Course at Bowdoin in
1849. Garrison Draper, who had acquired his literary education at
Dartmouth, studied law in Baltimore under friends of the colonization
cause, and with a view to going to Liberia passed the examination of
the Maryland Bar in 1857.[3] In 1858 the Berkshire Medical School
graduated two colored doctors, who were gratuitously educated by the
American Colonization Society. The graduating class thinned out,
however, and one of the professors resigned because of their
attendance.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, and
_African Repository_, vol. x., p. 10.]

[Footnote 2: _Niles Register_, vol. lxxv., p. 384.]

[Footnote 3: _African Repository_, vol. xxxiv., pp. 26 and 27.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 30.]

Not all colonizationists, however, had submitted to this policy of
mere individual preparation of those emigrating to Liberia. Certain of
their organizations still believed that it was only through educating
the free people of color sufficiently to see their humiliation that a
large number of them could be induced to leave this country. As long
as they were unable to enjoy the finer things of life, they could not
be expected to appreciate the value and use of liberty. It was
argued that instead of remaining in this country to wage war on its
institutions, the highly enlightened Negroes would be glad to go to a
foreign land.[1] By this argument some colonizationists were induced
to do more for the general education of the free blacks than they
had considered it wise to do during the time of the bold attempts at
servile insurrection.[2] In fact, many of the colored schools of the
free States were supported by ardent colonizationists.

[Footnote 1: Boone, _The History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237; and
_African Repository_, vol. xxx., p. 195.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 195.]


The later plan of most colonizationists, however, was to educate the
emigrating Negroes after they settled in Liberia. Handsome sums
were given for the establishment of schools and colleges in which
professorships were endowed for men educated at the expense of
churches and colonization societies.[1] The first institution of
consequence in this field was the Alexander High School. To this
school many of the prominent men of Liberia owed the beginning of
their liberal education. The English High School at Monrovia, the
Baptist Boarding School at Bexley, and the Protestant Episcopal High
School at Cape Palmas also offered courses in higher branches.[2]
Still better opportunities were given by the College of West Africa
and Liberia College. The former was founded in 1839 as the head of a
system of schools established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in
every county of the Republic.[3] Liberia College was at the request
of its founders, the directors of the American Colonization Society,
incorporated by the legislature of the country in 1851. As it took
some time to secure adequate funds, the main building was not
completed, and students were not admitted before 1862.

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, under the caption of "Education in
Liberia" in various volumes; and Alexander, _A History of Col._, pp.
348, 391.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 348.]

[Footnote 3: Monroe, _Cyclopaedia of Education_, vol. iv., p. 6.]

Though the majority of the colored students scoffed at the idea of
preparing for work in Liberia their education for service in the
United States was not encouraged. No Negro had graduated from a
college before 1828, when John B. Russworm, a classmate of Hon. John
P. Hale, received his degree from Bowdoin.[1] During the thirties
and forties, colored persons, however well prepared, were generally
debarred from colleges despite the protests of prominent men. We have
no record that as many as fifteen Negroes were admitted to higher
institutions in this country before 1840. It was only after much
debate that Union College agreed to accept a colored student on
condition that he should swear that he had no Negro blood in his
veins.[2]

[Footnote 1: Dyer, Speech in Congress on the Progress of the Negro,
1914.]

[Footnote 2: Clarke, _The Condition of the Free People of Color_,
1859, p. 3, and the _Sixth Annual Report of the American Antislavery
Society_, p. 11.]

Having had such a little to encourage them to expect a general
admission into northern institutions, free blacks and abolitionists
concluded that separate colleges for colored people were necessary.
The institution demanded for them was thought to have an advantage
over the aristocratic college in that labor would be combined with
study, making the stay at school pleasant and enabling the poorest
youth to secure an education.[1] It was the kind of higher institution
which had already been established in several States to meet the needs
of the illiterate whites. Such higher training for the Negroes was
considered necessary, also, because their intermediate schools were
after the reaction in a languishing state. The children of color were
able to advance but little on account of having nothing to stimulate
them. The desired college was, therefore, boomed as an institution to
give the common schools vigor, "to kindle the flame of emulation,"
"to open to beginners discerning the mysteries of arithmetic other
mysteries beyond," and above all to serve them as Yale or Harvard did
as the capstone of the educational system of the other race.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the Third Convention of Free People of
Color held in Philadelphia in 1836_, pp. 7 and 8; _Ibid., Fourth
Annual Convention_, p. 26; _Proceedings of the New England Antislavery
Society_, 1836, p. 40.]

[Footnote 2: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention
of the Free People of Color_, 1836; Garrison's Address.]

In the course of time these workers succeeded in various communities.
The movement for the higher education of the Negroes of the District
of Columbia centered largely around the academy established by Miss
Myrtilla Miner, a worthy young woman of New York. After various
discouragements in seeking a special preparation for life's work, she
finally concluded that she should devote her time to the moral and
intellectual improvement of Negroes.[1] She entered upon her career in
Washington in 1851 assisted by Miss Anna Inman, a native of New York,
and a member of the Society of Friends. After teaching the girls
French one year Miss Inman returned to her home in Southfield, Rhode
Island.[2] Finding it difficult to get a permanent location, Miss
Miner had to move from place to place among colored people who were
generally persecuted and threatened with conflagration for having a
white woman working among them. Driven to the extremity of building
a schoolhouse for her purpose, she purchased a lot with money raised
largely by Quakers of New York, Philadelphia, and New England, and
by Harriet Beecher Stowe.[3] Miss Miner had also the support of Mrs.
Means, an aunt of the wife of President Franklin Pierce, and of United
States Senator W.H. Seward.[4] Effective opposition, however, was not
long in developing. Articles appeared in the newspapers protesting
against this policy of affording Negroes "a degree of instruction so
far above their social and political condition which must continue in
this and every other slaveholding community."[5] Girls were insulted,
teachers were abused along the streets, and for lack of police
surveillance the house was set afire in 1860. It was sighted, however,
in time to be saved.[6]

[Footnote 1: O'Connor, _Myrtilla Miner_, pp. 11, 12.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 207.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1871, p. 208.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, pp. 208, 209, and 210.]

[Footnote 5: _The National Intelligencer._]

[Footnote 6: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 209.]

Undisturbed by these efforts to destroy the institution, Miss Miner
persisted in carrying out her plan for the higher education of colored
girls of the District of Columbia. She worked during the winter, and
traveled during the summer to solicit friends and contributions to
keep the institution on that higher plane where she planned it should
be. She had the building well equipped with all kinds of apparatus,
utilized the ample ground for the teaching of horticulture, collected
a large library, and secured a number of paintings and engravings with
which she enlightened her pupils on the finer arts. In addition to the
conventional teaching of seminaries of that day, Miss Miner provided
lectures on scientific and literary subjects by the leading men of
that time, and trained her students to teach.[1] She hoped some day to
make the seminary a first-class teachers' college. During the Civil
War, however, it was difficult for her to find funds, and health
having failed her in 1858 she died in 1866 without realizing this
dream.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 210.]

[Footnote 2: Those who assisted her were Helen Moore, Margaret Clapp,
Anna H. Searing, Amanda Weaver, Anna Jones, Matilda Jones, and Lydia
Mann, the sister of Horace Mann, who helped Miss Miner considerably
in 1856 at the time of her failing health. Emily Holland was her firm
supporter when the institution was passing through the crisis, and
stood by her until she breathed her last. See _Special Report of the
U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 210.]


Earlier in the nineteenth century the philanthropists of Pennsylvania
had planned to establish for Negroes several higher institutions.
Chief among these was the Institute for Colored Youth. The founding
of an institution of this kind had been made possible by Richard
Humphreys, a Quaker, who, on his death in 1832, devised to a Board
of Trustees the sum of $10,000 to be used for the education of the
descendants of the African race.[1] As the instruction of Negroes was
then unpopular, no steps were taken to carry out this plan until 1839.
The Quakers then appointed a Board and undertook to execute this
provision of Humphreys's will. In conformity with the directions of
the donor, the Board of Trustees endeavored to give the colored
youth the opportunity to obtain a good education and acquire useful
knowledge of trades and commercial occupations. Humphreys desired that
"they might be enabled to obtain a comfortable livelihood by their
own industry, and fulfill the duties of domestic and social life
with reputation and fidelity as good citizens and pious men."[2]
Accordingly they purchased a tract of land in Philadelphia County and
taught a number of boys the principles of farming, shoemaking, and
other useful occupations.

[Footnote 1: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa._, p. 249.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 379.]


Another stage in the development of this institution was reached in
1842, the year of its incorporation. It then received several small
contributions and the handsome sum of $18,000 from another Quaker,
Jonathan Zane. As it seemed by 1846 that the attempt to combine the
literary with the industrial work had not been successful, it was
decided to dispose of the industrial equipment and devote the funds of
the institution to the maintenance of an evening school. An effort at
the establishment of a day school was made in 1850, but it was not
effected before 1852. A building was then erected in Lombard Street
and the school known thereafter as the Institute for Colored Youth was
opened with Charles L. Reason of New York in charge. Under him the
institution was at once a success in preparing advanced pupils of
both sexes for the higher vocations of teaching and preaching. The
attendance soon necessitated increased accommodations for which Joseph
Dawson and other Quakers liberally provided in later years.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed._, 1871,
p. 380.]

This favorable tendency in Pennsylvania led to the establishment of
Avery College at Alleghany City. The necessary fund was bequeathed by
Rev. Charles Avery, a rich man of that section, who left an estate of
about $300,000 to be applied to the education and Christianization of
the African race.[1] Some of this fund was devoted to missionary
work in Africa, large donations were made to colored institutions of
learning, and another portion was appropriated to the establishment
of Avery College. This institution was incorporated in 1849. Soon
thereafter it advertised for students, expressing willingness to make
every provision without regard to religious proclivities. The school
had a three-story brick building, up-to-date apparatus for teaching
various branches of natural science, a library of all kinds
of literature, and an endowment of $25,000 to provide for its
maintenance. Rev. Philotas Dean, the only white teacher connected with
this institution, was its first principal. He served until 1856 when
he was succeeded by his assistant, M.H. Freeman, who in 1863 was
succeeded by George B. Vashon. Miss Emma J. Woodson was an assistant
in the institution from 1856 to 1867. After the din of the Civil War
had ceased the institution took on new life, electing a new corps of
teachers, who placed the work on a higher plane. Among these were Rev.
H.H. Garnett, president, B.K. Sampson, Harriet C. Johnson, and Clara
G. Toop.[2]

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. xxxiv., p. 156.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 381.]

It was due also to the successful forces at work in Pennsylvania that
the Ashmun Institute, now Lincoln University, was established in that
State. The need of higher education having come to the attention of
the Presbytery of New Castle, that body decided to establish within
its limits an institution for the "scientific, classical, and
theological education of the colored youth of the male sex." In 1853
the Synod approved the plans of the founders and provided that the
institution should be under the supervision and control of the
Presbytery or Synod within whose bounds it might be located. A
committee to solicit funds, find a site, and secure a charter for the
school was appointed. They selected for the location Hensonville,
Chester County, Pennsylvania.[1] The legislature incorporated the
institution in 1854 with John M. Dickey, Alfred Hamilton, Robert P.
DuBois, James Latta, John B. Spottswood, James Crowell, Samuel J.
Dickey, Alfred Hamilton, John M. Kelton, and William Wilson as
trustees. Sufficient buildings and equipment having been provided by
1856, the doors of this institution were opened to young colored men
seeking preparation for work in this country and Liberia.[2]

[Footnote 1: Baird, _A Collection_, etc., p. 819.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed._, 1871,
p. 382.]

An equally successful plan of workers in the West resulted in the
founding of the first higher institution to be controlled by Negroes.
Having for some years believed that the colored people needed a
college for the preparation of teachers and preachers, the Cincinnati
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in session in 1855
appointed Rev. John F. Wright as general agent to execute this design.
Addressing themselves immediately to this task Rev. Mr. Wright and his
associates solicited from philanthropic persons by 1856 the amount of
$13,000. The agents then made the purchase payment on the beautiful
site of Tawawa Springs, long known as the healthy summer resort near
Xenia, Ohio.[1] That same year the institution was incorporated as
Wilberforce University. From 1856 to 1862 the school had a fair
student body, consisting of the mulatto children of southern
slaveholders.[2] When these were kept away, however, by the operations
of the Civil War, the institution declined so rapidly that it had to
be closed for a season. Thereafter the trustees appealed again to the
African Methodist Episcopal Church which in 1856 had declined the
invitation to cooeperate with the founders. The colored Methodists had
adhered to their decision to operate Union Seminary, a manual labor
school, which they had started near Columbus, Ohio.[3] The proposition
was accepted, however, in 1862. For the amount of the debt of $10,000
which the institution had incurred while passing through the crisis,
Rev. Daniel A. Payne and his associates secured the transfer of
the property to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. These new
directors hoped to develop a first-class university, offering courses
in law, medicine, literature, and theology. The debt being speedily
removed the school showed evidences of new vigor, but was checked in
its progress by an incendiary, who burned the main building while the
teachers and pupils were attending an emancipation celebration at
Xenia, April 14, 1865. With the amount of insurance received and
donations from friends, the trustees were able to construct a more
commodious building which still marks the site of these early
labors.[4]

[Footnote 1: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol. ii., p. 113.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, pp.
372-373.]

[Footnote 3: _History of Greene County, Ohio_, chapter on Wilberforce;
and _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 373.]

[Footnote 4: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol. ii., p. 113.]

A brighter day for the higher education of the colored people at home,
however, had begun to dawn during the forties. The abolitionists
were then aggressively demanding consideration for the Negroes. Men
"condescended" to reason together about slavery and the treatment of
the colored people. The northern people ceased to think that they had
nothing to do with these problems. When these questions were openly
discussed in the schools of the North, students and teachers gradually
became converted to the doctrine of equality in education. This
revolution was instituted by President C.B. Storrs, of Western Reserve
College, then at Hudson, Ohio. His doctrine in regard to the training
of the mind "was that men are able to be made only by putting youth
under the responsibilities of men." He, therefore, encouraged the free
discussion of all important subjects, among which was the appeal of
the Negroes for enlightenment. This policy gave rise to a spirit of
inquiry which permeated the whole school. The victory, however, was
not easy. After a long struggle the mind of the college was carried by
irresistible argument in favor of fair play for colored youth. This
institution had two colored students as early as 1834.[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery
Society_, p. 42.]

Northern institutions of learning were then reaching the third stage
in their participation in the solution of the Negro problem. At first
they had to be converted even to allow a free discussion of the
question; next the students on being convinced that slavery was a sin,
sought to elevate the blacks thus degraded; and finally these workers,
who had been accustomed to instructing the neighboring colored people,
reached the conclusion that they should be admitted to their schools
on equal footing with the whites. Geneva College, then at Northfield,
Ohio, now at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, was being moved in this
manner.[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-slavery
Society_, 1834. p. 43.]

Lane Seminary, however, is the best example of a school which passed
through the three stages of this revolution. This institution was
peculiar in that the idea of establishing it originated with a
southerner, a merchant of New Orleans. It was founded largely by funds
of southern Presbyterians, was located in Cincinnati about a mile from
slave territory, and was attended by students from that section.[1]
When the right of free discussion swept the country many of the
proslavery students were converted to abolition. To southerners it
seemed that the seminary had resolved itself into a society for the
elevation of the free blacks. Students established Sabbath-schools,
organized Bible classes, and provided lectures for Negroes ambitious
to do advanced work. Measures were taken to establish an academy for
colored girls, and a teacher was engaged. But these noble efforts put
forth so near the border States soon provoked firm opposition from
the proslavery element. Some of the students had gone so far in the
manifestation of their zeal that the institution was embarrassed by
the charge of promoting the social equality of the races.[2] Rather
than remain in Cincinnati under restrictions, the reform element of
the institution moved to the more congenial Western Reserve where a
nucleus of youth and their instructors had assumed the name of Oberlin
College. This school did so much for the education of Negroes before
the Civil War that it was often spoken of as an institution for the
education of the people of color.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery
Society_, p. 43.]

Interest in the higher education of the neglected race, however, was
not confined to a particular commonwealth. Institutions of other
States were directing their attention to this task. Among others were
a school in New York City founded by a clergyman to offer Negroes an
opportunity to study the classics,[1] New York Central College at
McGrawville, Oneida Institute conducted by Beriah Green at Whitesboro,
Thetford Academy of Vermont, and Union Literary Institute in the
center of the communities of freedmen transplanted to Indiana. Many
other of our best institutions were opening their doors to students of
African descent. By 1852 colored students had attended the Institute
at Easton, Pennsylvania; the Normal School of Albany, New York;
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Rutland College, Vermont; Jefferson
College, Pennsylvania; Athens College, Athens, Ohio; Franklin College,
New Athens, Ohio; and Hanover College near Madison, Indiana. Negroes
had taken courses at the Medical School of the University of New York;
the Castleton Medical School in Vermont; the Berkshire Medical School,
Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the Rush Medical School in Chicago; the
Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia; the Homeopathic College of
Cleveland; and the Medical School of Harvard University. Colored
preachers had been educated in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania; the Dartmouth Theological School; and the Theological
Seminary of Charleston, South Carolina.[2]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 530.]

[Footnote 2: These facts are taken from M.R. Delany's _The Condition,
Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United
States Practically Considered_, published in 1852; the _Reports of
the Antislavery and Colonization Societies_, and _The African
Repository_.]

Prominent among those who brought about this change in the attitude
toward the education of the free blacks was Gerrit Smith, one of
the greatest philanthropists of his time. He secured privileges for
Negroes in higher institutions by extending aid to such as would open
their doors to persons of color. In this way he became a patron of
Oneida Institute, giving it from $3,000 to $4,000 in cash and 3,000
acres of land in Vermont. Because of the hospitality of Oberlin to
colored students he gave the institution large sums of money and
20,000 acres of land in Virginia valued at $50,000. New York Central
College which opened its doors alike to both races obtained from him
several donations.[1] This gentleman proceeded on the presumption that
it is the duty of the white people to elevate the colored and that the
education of large numbers of them is indispensable to the uplift of
the degraded classes.[2] He wanted them to have the opportunity for
obtaining either a common or classical education; and hoped that they
would go out from our institutions well educated for any work to
which they might be called in this country or abroad.[3] He himself
established a colored school at Peterboro, New York. As this
institution offered both industrial and literary courses we shall
have occasion to mention it again. Both a cause and result of the
increasing interest in the higher education of Negroes was that these
unfortunates had made good with what little training they had. Many
had by their creative power shown what they could do in business,[4]
some had convinced the world of the inventive genius of the man of
color,[5] others had begun to rank as successful lawyers,[6] not a
few had become distinguished physicians,[7] and scores of intelligent
Negro preachers were ministering to the spiritual needs of their
people.[8] S.R. Ward, a scholar of some note, was for a few years the
pastor of a white church at Courtlandville, New York. Robert Morris
had been honored by the appointment as Magistrate by the Governor of
Massachusetts, and in New Hampshire another man of African blood had
been elected to the legislature.[9]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 367.]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. x., p. 312.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 312.]

[Footnote 4: Among these were John B. Smith, Coffin Pitts, Robert
Douglas, John P. Bell, Augustus Washington, Alexander S. Thomas, Henry
Boyd, P.H. Ray, and L.T. Wilcox.]

[Footnote 5: A North Carolina Negro had discovered a cure for
snakebite; Henry Blair, a slave of Maryland, had invented a
corn-planter; and Roberts of Philadelphia had made a machine for
lifting railway cars from the tracks.]

[Footnote 6: The most noted of these lawyers were Robert Morris,
Malcolm B. Allen, G.B. Vashon, and E.G. Walker.]

[Footnote 7: The leading Negroes of this class were T. Joiner White,
Peter Ray, John DeGrasse, David P. Jones, J. Gould Bias, James Ulett,
Martin Delany, and John R. Peck. James McCrummill, Joseph Wilson,
Thos. Kennard, and Wm. Nickless were noted colored dentists of
Philadelphia.]

[Footnote 8: The prominent colored preachers of that day were Titus
Basfield, B.F. Templeton, W.T. Catto, Benjamin Coker, John B. Vashon,
Robert Purvis, David Ruggles, Philip A. Bell, Charles L. Reason,
William Wells Brown, Samuel L. Ward, James McCune Smith, Highland
Garnett, Daniel A. Payne, James C. Pennington, M. Haines, and John F.
Cook.]

[Footnote 9: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc., p. 44.]

Thanks to the open doors of liberal schools, the race could boast of a
number of efficient educators.[1] There were Martin H. Freeman, John
Newton Templeton, Mary E. Miles, Lucy Stratton, Lewis Woodson, John
F. Cook, Mary Ann Shadd, W.H. Allen, and B.W. Arnett. Professor C.L.
Reason, a veteran teacher of New York City, was then so well educated
that in 1844 he was called to the professorship of Belles-Lettres and
the French Language in New York Central College. Many intelligent
Negroes who followed other occupations had teaching for their
avocation. In fact almost every colored person who could read and
write was a missionary teacher among his people.

[Footnote 1: James B. Russworm, an alumnus of Bowdoin, was the first
Negro to receive a degree from a college in this country.]

In music, literature, and journalism the Negroes were also doing well.
Eliza Greenfield, William Jackson, John G. Anderson, and William Appo
made their way in the musical world. Lemuel Haynes, a successful
preacher to a white congregation, took up theology about 1815. Paul
Cuffee wrote an interesting account of Sierra Leone. Rev. Daniel
Coker published a book on slavery in 1810. Seven years later came
the publication of the _Law and Doctrine of the African Methodist
Episcopal Church_ and the _Standard Hymnal_ written by Richard Allen.
In 1836 Rev. George Hogarth published an addition to this volume and
in 1841 brought forward the first magazine of the sect. Edward W.
Moore, a colored teacher of white children in Tennessee, wrote an
arithmetic. C.L. Remond of Massachusetts was then a successful
lecturer and controversialist. James M. Whitefield, George Horton,
and Frances E.W. Harper were publishing poems. H.H. Garnett and J.C.
Pennington, known to fame as preachers, attained success also as
pamphleteers. R.B. Lewis, M.R. Delany, William Nell, and Catto
embellished Negro history; William Wells Brown wrote his _Three Years
in Europe_; and Frederick Douglass, the orator, gave the world his
creditable autobiography. More effective still were the journalistic
efforts of the Negro intellect pleading its own cause. [1] Colored
newspapers varying from the type of weeklies like _The North Star_ to
that of the modern magazine like _The Anglo-African_ were published in
most large towns and cities of the North.

[Footnote 1: In 1827 John B. Russworm and Samuel B. Cornish began the
publication of _The Freedom's Journal_, appearing afterward as
_Rights to All_. Ten years later P.A. Bell was publishing _The Weekly
Advocate_. From 1837 to 1842 Bell and Cornish edited _The Colored
Man's Journal_, while Samuel Ruggles sent from his press _The Mirror
of Liberty_. In 1847, one year after the appearance of Thomas Van
Rensselaer's _Ram's Horn_, Frederick Douglass started _The North Star_
at Rochester, while G. Allen and Highland Garnett were appealing to
the country through _The National Watchman_ of Troy, New York. That
same year Martin R. Delany brought out _The Pittsburg Mystery_, and
others _The Elevator_ at Albany, New York. At Syracuse appeared The
_Impartial Citizen_ established by Samuel R. Ward in 1848, three years
after which L.H. Putnam came before the public in New York City with
_The Colored Man's Journal_. Then came _The Philadelphia Freeman_,
_The Philadelphia Citizen_, _The New York Phalanx_, _The Baltimore
Elevator_, and _The Cincinnati Central Star_. Of a higher order was
_he Anglo-African_, a magazine published in New York in 1859 by Thomas
Hamilton, who was succeeded in editorship by Robert Hamilton and
Highland Garnett. In 1852 there were in existence _The Colored
American_, _The Struggler_, _The Watchman_, _The Ram's Horn_, _The
Demosthenian Shield_, _The National Reformer_, _The Pittsburg
Mystery_, _The Palladium of Liberty_, _The Disfranchised American_,
_The Colored Citizen_, _The National Watchman_, _The Excelsior_,
_The Christian Herald_, _The Farmer_, _The Impartial Citizen_, _The
Northern Star_ of Albany, and The _North Star_ of Rochester.]




CHAPTER XII

VOCATIONAL TRAINING


Having before them striking examples of highly educated colored men
who could find no employment in the United States, the free Negroes
began to realize that their preparation was not going hand in hand
with their opportunities. Industrial education was then emphasized as
the proper method of equipping the race for usefulness. The advocacy
of such training, however, was in no sense new. The early anti-slavery
men regarded it as the prerequisite to emancipation, and the
abolitionists urged it as the only safe means of elevating the
freedmen. But when the blacks, converted to this doctrine, began to
enter the higher pursuits of labor during the forties and fifties,
there started a struggle which has been prolonged even into our day.
Most northern white men had ceased to oppose the enlightenment of the
free people of color but still objected to granting them economic
equality. The same investigators that discovered increased facilities
of conventional education for Negroes in 1834 reported also that there
existed among the white mechanics a formidable prejudice against
colored artisans.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 26.]

In opposing the encroachment of Negroes on their field of labor the
northerners took their cue from the white mechanics in the South. At
first laborers of both races worked together in the same room and at
the same machine.[1] But in the nineteenth century, when more white
men in the South were condescending to do skilled labor and trying to
develop manufactures, they found themselves handicapped by competition
with the slave mechanics. Before 1860 most southern mechanics,
machinists, local manufacturers, contractors, and railroad men with
the exception of conductors were Negroes.[2] Against this custom
of making colored men such an economic factor the white mechanics
frequently protested.[3] The riots against Negroes occurring in
Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York, and Washington during the thirties
and forties owed their origin mainly to an ill feeling between the
white and colored skilled laborers.[4] The white artisans prevailed
upon the legislatures of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia to enact
measures hostile to their rivals.[5] In 1845 the State of Georgia made
it a misdemeanor for a colored mechanic to make a contract for the
repair or the erection of buildings.[6] The people of Georgia,
however, were not unanimously in favor of keeping the Negro artisan
down. We have already observed that at the request of the Agricultural
Convention of that State in 1852 the legislature all but passed a bill
providing for the education of slaves to increase their efficiency and
attach them to their masters.[7]

[Footnote 1: Buckingham, _Slave States of America_, vol. ii., p. 112.]

[Footnote 2: Du Bois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 36.]

[Footnote 3: Du Bois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, pp. 31,
32, 33.]

[Footnote 4: Du Bois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 34,
and _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 365.]

[Footnote 5: Du Bois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, pp. 31,
32.]

[Footnote 6: Du Bois and Dill, _The Negro American Artisan_, p. 32.]

[Footnote 7: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 339.]

It was unfortunate that the free people of color in the North had
not taken up vocational training earlier in the century before the
laboring classes realized fraternal consciousness. Once pitted against
the capitalists during the Administration of Andrew Jackson the
working classes learned to think that their interests differed
materially from those of the rich, whose privileges had multiplied at
the expense of the poor. Efforts toward effecting organizations to
secure to labor adequate protection began to be successful during
Van Buren's Administration. At this time some reformers were boldly
demanding the recognition of Negroes by all helpful groups. One of the
tests of the strength of these protagonists was whether or not they
could induce the mechanics of the North to take colored workmen to
supply the skilled laborers required by the then rapid economic
development of our free States. Would the whites permit the blacks
to continue as their competitors after labor had been elevated above
drudgery? To do this meant the continuation of the custom of taking
youths of African blood as apprentices. This the white mechanics of
the North generally refused to do.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Minutes of the Third Annual Convention of the Free
People of Color_, p. 18.]

The friends of the colored race, however, were not easily discouraged
by that "vulgar race prejudice which reigns in the breasts of working
classes."[1] Arthur Tappan, Gerrit Smith, and William Lloyd Garrison
made the appeal in behalf of the untrained laborers.[2] Although they
knew the difficulties encountered by Negroes seeking to learn trades,
and could daily observe how unwilling master mechanics were to receive
colored boys as apprentices, the abolitionists persisted in saying
that by perseverance these youths could succeed in procuring
profitable situations.[3] Garrison believed that their failure to find
employment at trades was not due so much to racial differences as to
their lack of training. Speaking to the free people of color in their
convention in Philadelphia in 1831, he could give them no better
advice than that "wherever you can, put your children to trades. A
good trade is better than a fortune, because when once obtained it
cannot be taken away." Discussing the matter further, he said: "Now,
there can be no reason why your sons should fail to make as ingenious
and industrious mechanics, as any white apprentices; and when they
once get trades, they will be able to accumulate money; money begets
influence, and influence respectability. Influence, wealth, and
character will certainly destroy those prejudices which now separate
you from society."[4]

[Footnote 1: _Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 26.]

[Footnote 2: This statement is based on articles appearing in _The
Liberator_ from time to time.]

[Footnote 3: _Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, 1831, p. 10.]

[Footnote 4: _Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, 1831, p. II.]

To expect the cooeperation of the white working classes in thus
elevating the colored race turned out to be a delusion. They reached
the conclusion that in making their headway against capital they had a
better chance without Negroes than with them. White mechanics of the
North not only refused to accept colored boys as apprentices, but
would not even work for employers who persisted in hiring Negroes.
Generally refused by the master mechanics of Cincinnati, a colored
cabinet-maker finally found an Englishman who was willing to hire him,
but the employees of the shop objected, refusing to allow the newcomer
even to work in a room by himself.[1] A Negro who could preach in a
white church of the North would have had difficulty in securing the
contract to build a new edifice for that congregation. A colored man
could then more easily get his son into a lawyer's office to learn law
than he could "into a blacksmith shop to blow the bellows and wield
the sledge hammer."[2]

[Footnote 1: _The Liberator_, June 13, 1835.]

[Footnote 2: Douglass, _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass_,
p. 248.]

Left then in a quandary as to what they should do, northern Negroes
hoped to use the then popular "manual labor schools" to furnish the
facilities for both practical and classical education. These schools
as operated for the whites, however, were not primarily trade schools.
Those which admitted persons of African descent paid more attention to
actual industrial training for the reason that colored students could
not then hope to acquire such knowledge as apprentices. This tendency
was well shown by the action of the free Negroes through their
delegates in the convention assembled in Philadelphia in 1830.
Conversant with the policy of so reshaping the educational system of
the country as to carry knowledge even to the hovels, these leaders
were easily won to the scheme of reconstructing their schools "on the
manual labor system." In this they saw the redemption of the free
Negroes of the North. These gentlemen were afraid that the colored
people were not paying sufficient attention to the development of the
power to use their hands skillfully.[1] One of the first acts of the
convention was to inquire as to how fast colored men were becoming
attached to mechanical pursuits,[2] and whether or not there was any
prospect that a manual labor school for the instruction of the youth
would shortly be established. The report of the committee, to which
the question was referred, was so encouraging that the convention
itself decided to establish an institution of the kind at New Haven,
Connecticut. They appealed to their fellows for help, called
the attention of philanthropists to this need of the race, and
commissioned William Lloyd Garrison to solicit funds in Great
Britain.[3] Garrison found hearty supporters among the friends of
freedom in that country. Some, who had been induced to contribute
to the Colonization Society, found it more advisable to aid the new
movement. Charles Stewart of Liverpool wrote Garrison that he could
count on his British co-workers to raise $1000 for this purpose.[4] At
the same time Americans were equally active. Arthur Tappan subscribed
$1000 on the condition that each of nineteen other persons should
contribute the same amount.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 26; and _The Liberator_,
October 22, 1831; and _The Abolitionist_, November, 1833 (p. 191).]

[Footnote 2: _Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 27.]

[Footnote 3: _Minutes of the Third Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 34.]

[Footnote 4: _The Abolitionist_ (November 1833), p. 191.]

[Footnote 5: _The Liberator_, October 22, 1831.]

Before these well-laid plans could mature, however, unexpected
opposition developed in New Haven. Indignation meetings were held,
protests against this project were filed, and the free people of color
were notified that the institution was not desired in Connecticut.[1]
It was said that these memorialists feared that a colored college so
near to Yale might cause friction between the two student bodies, and
that the school might attract an unusually large number of undesirable
Negroes. At their meeting the citizens of New Haven resolved "That the
founding of colleges for educating colored people is an unwarrantable
and dangerous undertaking to the internal concerns of other states and
ought to be discouraged, and that the mayor, aldermen, common council,
and freemen will resist the movement by every lawful means."[2] In
view of such drastic action the promoters had to abandon their plan.
No such protests were made by the citizens of New Haven, however, when
the colonizationists were planning to establish there a mission school
to prepare Negroes to leave the country.

[Footnote 1: Monroe, _Cyclopaedia of Education_, vol. iv., p. 406.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, vol. iv., p. 406; and _The Liberator_, July 9,
1831.]

The movement, however, was not then stopped by this outburst of race
prejudice in New Haven. Directing attention to another community, the
New England Antislavery Society took up this scheme and collected
funds to establish a manual labor school. When the officials had on
hand about $1000 it was discovered that they could accomplish their
aim by subsidizing the Noyes Academy of Canaan, New Hampshire, and
making such changes as were necessary to subserve the purposes
intended.[1] The plan was not to convert this into a colored school.
The promoters hoped to maintain there a model academy for the
co-education of the races "on the manual labor system." The treasurer
of the Antislavery Society was to turn over certain moneys to this
academy to provide for the needs of the colored students, who then
numbered fourteen of the fifty-two enrolled. But although it had
been reported that the people of the town were in accord with the
principal's acceptance of this proposition, there were soon evidences
to the contrary. Fearing imaginary evils, these modern Canaanites
destroyed the academy, dragging the building to a swamp with a hundred
yoke of oxen.[2] The better element of the town registered against
this outrage only a slight protest. H.H. Garnett and Alexander
Crummell were among the colored students who sought education at this
academy.

[Footnote 1: _The Liberator_, July 4, 1835.]

[Footnote 2: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention
for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 34; and Monroe,
_Cyclopaedia of Education_, vol. iv., p. 406.]

This work was more successful in the State of New York. There,
too, the cause was championed by the abolitionists.[1] After the
emancipation of all Negroes in that commonwealth by 1827 the New York
Antislavery Society devoted more time to the elevation of the free
people of color. The rapid rise of the laboring classes in this
swiftly growing city made it evident to their benefactors that they
had to be speedily equipped for competition with white mechanics or be
doomed to follow menial employments. The only one of that section to
offer Negroes anything like the opportunity for industrial training,
however, was Gerrit Smith.[2] He was fortunate in having sufficient
wealth to carry out the plan. In 1834 he established in Madison
County, New York, an institution known as the Peterboro Manual Labor
School. The working at trades was provided not altogether to teach the
mechanic arts, but to enable the students to support themselves while
attending school. As a compensation for instruction, books, room,
fuel, light, and board furnished by the founder, the student was
expected to labor four hours daily at some agricultural or mechanical
employment "important to his education."[3] The faculty estimated the
four hours of labor as worth on an average of about 12-1/2 cents for
each student.

[Footnote 1: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention
for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 25.]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. x., p. 312.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, vol. x., p. 312.]

Efforts were then being made for the establishment of another
institution near Philadelphia. These endeavors culminated in the
above-mentioned benefaction of Richard Humphreys, by the will of
whom $10,000 was devised to establish a school for the purpose of
instructing "descendants of the African race in school learning in
the various branches of the mechanical arts and trades and
agriculture."[1] In 1839 members of the Society of Friends organized
an association to establish a school such as Humphreys had planned.
The founders believed that "the most successful method of elevating
the moral and intellectual character of the descendants of Africa, as
well as of improving their social condition, is to extend to them the
benefits of a good education, and to instruct them in the knowledge of
some useful trade or business, whereby they may be enabled to obtain a
comfortable livelihood by their own industry; and through these means
to prepare them for fulfilling the various duties of domestic and
social life with reputation and fidelity as good citizens and pious
men."[2] Directing their attention first to things practical the
association purchased in 1839 a piece of land in Bristol township,
Philadelphia County, where they offered boys instruction in farming,
shoemaking, and other useful trades. Their endeavors, so far as
training in the mechanic arts was concerned, proved to be a failure.
In 1846, therefore, the management decided to discontinue this
literary, agricultural, and manual labor experiment. The trustees then
sold the farm and stock, apprenticed the male students to mechanical
occupations, and opened an evening school. Thinking mainly of
classical education thereafter, the trustees of the fund finally
established the Institute for Colored Youth of which we have spoken
elsewhere.

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 379.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1871, p. 379.]

Some of the philanthropists who promoted the practical education
of the colored people were found in the Negro settlements of the
Northwest. Their first successful attempt in that section was the
establishment of the Emlen Institute in Mercer County, Ohio. The
founding of this institution was due manly to the efforts of Augustus
Wattles who was instrumental in getting a number of emigrating
freedmen to leave Cincinnati and settle in this county about 1835.[1]
Wattles traveled in almost every colored neighborhood of the State and
laid before them the benefits of permanent homes and the education for
their children. On his first journey he organized, with the assistance
of abolitionists, twenty-five schools for colored children. Interested
thereafter in providing a head for this system he purchased for
himself ninety acres of land in Mercer County to establish a manual
labor institution. He sustained a school on it at his own expense,
till the 11th of November, 1842. Wattles then visited Philadelphia
where he became acquainted with the trustees of the late Samuel Emlen,
a Friend of New Jersey. He had left by his will $20,000 "for the
support and education in school learning and mechanic arts and
agriculture of boys of African and Indian descent whose parents
would give such youths to the Institute."[2] The means of the two
philanthropists were united. The trustees purchased a farm and
appointed Wattles as superintendent of the establishment, calling it
Emlen Institute. Located in a section where the Negroes had sufficient
interest in education to support a number of elementary schools, this
institution once had considerable influence.[3] It was removed to
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1858 and then to Warminster in the same
county in 1873.

[Footnote 1: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p. 355.]

[Footnote 2: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p. 356.]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa._, p. 254.]

Another school of this type was founded in the Northwest. This was the
Union Literary Institute of Spartanburg, Indiana. The institution owes
its origin to a group of bold, antislavery men who "in the heat of
the abolition excitement"[1] stood firm for the Negro. They soon had
opposition from the proslavery leaders who impeded the progress of
the institution. But thanks to the indefatigable Ebenezer Tucker,
its first principal, the "Nigger School" weathered the storm. The
Institute, however, was founded to educate both races. Its charter
required that no distinction should be made on account of race, color,
rank, or religion. Accordingly, although the student body was from
the beginning of the school partly white, the board of trustees
represented denominations of both races. Accessible statistics do not
show that colored persons ever constituted more than one-third of
the students.[2] It was one of the most durable of the manual labor
schools, having continued after the Civil War, carrying out to some
extent the original designs of its founders. As the plan to continue
it as a private institution proved later to be impracticable the
establishment was changed into a public school.[3]

[Footnote 1: Boone, _The History of Education in Indiana_, p. 77.]

[Footnote 2: According to the _Report of the United States
Commissioner of Education_ in 1893 the colored students then
constituted about one-third of those then registered at this
institution. See p. 1944 of this report.]

[Footnote 3: Records of the United States Bureau of Education.]

Scarcely less popular was the British and American Manual Labor
Institute of the colored settlements in Upper Canada. This school was
projected by Rev. Hiram Wilson and Josiah Henson as early as 1838, but
its organization was not undertaken until 1842. The refugees were then
called together to decide upon the expenditure of $1500 collected in
England by James C. Fuller, a Quaker. They decided to establish at
Dawn "a manual labor school, where children could be taught those
elements of knowledge which are usually the occupations of a grammar
school, and where boys could be taught in addition the practice of
some mechanic art, and the girls could be instructed in those domestic
arts which are the proper occupation and ornament of their sex."[1] A
tract of three hundred acres of land was purchased, a few buildings
were constructed, and pupils were soon admitted. The managers
endeavored to make the school, "self-supporting by the employment of
the students for certain portions of the time on the land."[2] The
advantage of schooling of this kind attracted to Dresden and Dawn
sufficient refugees to make these prosperous settlements. Rev. Hiram
Wilson, the first principal of the institution, began with fourteen
"boarding scholars" when there were no more than fifty colored persons
in all the vicinity. In 1852 when the population of this community
had increased to five hundred there were sixty students attending
the school. Indian and white children were also admitted. Among the
students there were also adults varying later in number from
fifty-six to one hundred and sixteen.[3] This institution became very
influential among the Negroes of Canada. Travelers mentioned the
Institute in accounting for the prosperity and good morals of the
refugees.[4] Unfortunately, however, after the year 1855 when the
school reached its zenith, it began to decline on account of bad
feeling probably resulting from a divided management.

[Footnote 1: Henson, _Life of Josiah Henson_, pp. 73, 74.]

[Footnote 2: Henson, _Life of Josiah Henson_, p. 115.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 117.]

[Footnote 4: Drew, _A North-Side View of Slavery_, p. 309; and Coffin,
_Reminiscences_, pp. 249, 250.]

Studying these facts concerning the manual labor system of education,
the student of education sees that it was not generally successful.
This may be accounted for in various ways. One might say that colored
people were not desired in the higher pursuits of labor and that their
preparation for such vocations never received the support of the rank
and file of the Negroes of the North. They saw then, as they often
do now, the seeming impracticability of preparing themselves for
occupations which they apparently had no chance to follow. Moreover,
bright freedmen were not at first attracted to mechanical occupations.
Ambitious Negroes who triumphed over slavery and made their way to the
North for educational advantages hoped to enter the higher walks of
life. Only a few of the race had the foresight of the advocates of
industrial training. The majority of the enlightened class desired
that they be no longer considered as "persons occupying a menial
position, but as capable of the highest development of man."[1]
Furthermore, bitterly as some white men hated slavery, and deeply as
they seemingly sympathized with the oppressed, they were loath to
support a policy which they believed was fatal to their economic
interests.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention_,
etc., p. 25.]

[Footnote 2: _The Fifth Report of the American Antislavery Society_,
p. 115; Douglass, _The Life and Times of_, p. 248.]

The chief reason for the failure of the new educational policy was
that the managers of the manual labor schools made the mistakes often
committed by promoters of industrial education of our day. At first
they proceeded on the presumption that one could obtain a classical
education while learning a trade and at the same time earn sufficient
to support himself at school. Some of the managers of industrial
schools have not yet learned that students cannot produce articles for
market. The best we can expect from an industrial school to-day is a
good apprentice.

Another handicap was that at that time conditions were seldom
sufficiently favorable to enable the employer to derive profit enough
from students' work to compensate for the maintenance of the youth
at a manual labor school. Besides, such a school could not be
far-reaching in its results because it could not be so conducted as to
accommodate a large number of students. With a slight change in its
aims the manual labor schools might have been more successful in
the large urban communities, but the aim of their advocates was to
establish them in the country where sufficient land for agricultural
training could be had, and where students would not be corrupted by
the vices of the city.

It was equally unfortunate that the teachers who were chosen to carry
out this educational policy lacked the preparation adequate to
their task. They had any amount of spirit, but an evident lack of
understanding as to the meaning of this new education. They failed
to unite the qualifications for both the industrial and academic
instruction. It was the fault that we find to-day in our industrial
schools. Those who were responsible for the literary training knew
little of and cared still less for the work in mechanic arts, and
those who were employed to teach trades seldom had sufficient
education to impart what they knew. The students, too, in their
efforts to pursue these uncorrelated courses seldom succeeded in
making much advance in either. We have no evidence that many Negroes
were equipped for higher service in the manual labor schools.
Statistics of 1850 and 1860 show that there was an increase in the
number of colored mechanics, especially in Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
Columbus, the Western Reserve, and Canada.[1] But this was probably
due to the decreasing prejudice of the local white mechanics toward
the Negro artisans fleeing from the South rather than to formal
industrial training.[2]

[Footnote 1: Clarke, _Present Condition of the Free People of Color of
the United States_, 1859, pp. 9, 10, 11, 13, and 29.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, pp. 9, 10, and 23.]

Schools of this kind tended gradually to abandon the idea of combining
labor and learning, leaving such provisions mainly as catalogue
fictions. Many of the western colleges were founded as manual
labor schools, but the remains of these beginnings are few and
insignificant. Oberlin, which was once operated on this basis, still
retains the seal of "Learning and Labor," with a college building in
the foreground and a field of grain in the distance. A number of our
institutions have recitations now in the forenoon that students may
devote the afternoon to labor. In some schools Monday instead of
Saturday is the open day of the week because this was wash-day for the
manual labor colleges. Even after the Civil War some schools had their
long vacation in the winter instead of the summer because the latter
was the time for manual labor. The people of our day know little about
this unsuccessful system.

It is evident, therefore, that the leaders who had up to that time
dictated the policy of the social betterment of the colored people had
failed to find the key to the situation. This task fell to the lot
of Frederick Douglass, who, wiser in his generation than most of his
contemporaries, advocated actual vocational training as the greatest
leverage for the elevation of the colored people. Douglass was given
an opportunity to bring his ideas before the public on the occasion of
a visit to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. She was then preparing to go
to England in response to an invitation from her admirers, who were
anxious to see this famous author of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ and to give
her a testimonial. Thinking that she would receive large sums of money
in England she desired to get Mr. Douglass's views as to how it could
be most profitably spent for the advancement of the free people of
color. She was especially interested in those who had become free by
their own exertions. Mrs. Stowe informed her guest that several had
suggested the establishment of an educational institution pure and
simple, but that she had not been able to concur with them, thinking
that it would be better to open an industrial school. Douglass was
opposed both to the establishment of such a college as was suggested,
and to that of an ordinary industrial school where pupils should
merely "earn the means of obtaining an education in books." He desired
what we now call the vocational school, "a series of workshops where
colored men could learn some of the handicrafts, learn to work in
iron, wood, and leather, while incidentally acquiring a plain English
education."[1]

[Footnote 1: Douglass, _The Life and Times of_, p. 248.]

Under Douglass's leadership the movement had a new goal. The learning
of trades was no longer to be subsidiary to conventional education.
Just the reverse was true. Moreover, it was not to be entrusted to
individuals operating on a small scale; it was to be a public effort
of larger scope. The aim was to make the education of Negroes so
articulate with their needs as to improve their economic condition.
Seeing that despite the successful endeavors of many freedmen to
acquire higher education that the race was still kept in penury,
Douglass believed that by reconstructing their educational policy the
friends of the race could teach the colored people to help themselves.
Pecuniary embarrassment, he thought, was the cause of all evil to
the blacks, "for poverty kept them ignorant and their lack of
enlightenment kept them degraded." The deliverance from these evils,
he contended, could be effected not by such a fancied or artificial
elevation as the mere diffusion of information by institutions beyond
the immediate needs of the poor. The awful plight of the Negroes, as
he saw it, resulted directly from not having the opportunity to learn
trades, and from "narrowing their limits to earn a livelihood."
Douglass deplored the fact that even menial employments were rapidly
passing away from the colored people. Under the caption of "Learn
Trades or Starve," he tried to drive home the truth that if the
free people of color did not soon heed his advice, foreigners then
immigrating in large numbers would elbow them from all lucrative
positions. In his own words, "every day begins with the lesson and
ends with the lesson that colored men must find new employments, new
modes of usefulness to society, or that they must decay under the
pressing wants to which their condition is bringing them."[1]

[Footnote 1: Douglass, _The Life and Times of_, p. 248.]

Douglass believed in higher education and looked forward to that stage
in the development of the Negroes when high schools and colleges could
contribute to their progress. He knew, however, that it was foolish
to think that persons accustomed to the rougher and harder modes of
living could in a single leap from their low condition reach that of
professional men. The attainment of such positions, he thought, was
contingent upon laying a foundation in things material by passing
"through the intermediate gradations of agriculture and the mechanic
arts."[1] He was sure that the higher institutions then open to the
colored people would be adequate to the task of providing for them all
the professional men they then needed, and that the facilities for
higher education so far as the schools and colleges in the free States
were concerned would increase quite in proportion to the future needs
of the race.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 249.]

Douglass deplored the fact that education and emigration had gone
together. As soon as a colored man of genius like Russworm, Garnett,
Ward, or Crummell appeared, the so-called friends of the race reached
the conclusion that he could better serve his race elsewhere. Seeing
themselves pitted against odds, such bright men had had to seek
more congenial countries. The training of Negroes merely to aid the
colonization scheme would have little bearing on the situation at home
unless its promoters could transplant the majority of the free people
of color. The aim then should be not to transplant the race but to
adopt a policy such as he had proposed to elevate it in the United
States.[1]

[Footnote 1: Douglass, _The Life and Times_, p. 250.]

Vocational education, Douglass thought, would disprove the so-called
mental inferiority of the Negroes. He believed that the blacks should
show by action that they were equal to the whites rather than depend
on the defense of friends who based their arguments not on facts but
on certain admitted principles. Believing in the mechanical genius of
the Negroes he hoped that in the establishment of this institution
they would have an opportunity for development. In it he saw a benefit
not only to the free colored people of the North, but also to the
slaves. The strongest argument used by the slaveholder in defense of
his precious institution was the low condition of the free people of
color of the North. Remove this excuse by elevating them and you
will hasten the liberation of the slaves. The best refutation of
the proslavery argument is the "presentation of an industrious,
enterprising, thrifty, and intelligent free black population."[1] An
element of this kind, he believed, would rise under the fostering care
of vocational teachers.

[Footnote 1: Douglass, _The Life and Times of_, p. 251.]

With Douglass this proposition did not descend to the plane of mere
suggestion. Audiences which he addressed from time to time were
informed as to the necessity of providing for the colored people
facilities of practical education.[1] The columns of his paper
rendered the cause noble service. He entered upon the advocacy of it
with all the zeal of an educational reformer, endeavoring to show how
this policy would please all concerned. Anxious fathers whose minds
had been exercised by the inquiry as to what to do with their sons
would welcome the opportunity to have them taught trades. It would be
in line with the "eminently practical philanthropy of the Negroes'
trans-Atlantic friends." America would scarcely object to it as an
attempt to agitate the mind on slavery or to destroy the Union. "It
could not be tortured into a cause for hard words by the American
people," but the noble and good of all classes would see in the effort
"an excellent motive, a benevolent object, temperately, wisely, and
practically manifested."[2] The leading free people of color heeded
this message. Appealing to them through their delegates assembled in
Rochester in 1853, Douglass secured a warm endorsement of his plan in
eloquent speeches and resolutions passed by the convention.

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. xxix., p. 136.]

[Footnote 2: Douglass, _Life and Times of_, p. 252.]

This great enterprise, like all others, was soon to encounter
opposition. Mrs. Stowe was attacked as soliciting money abroad for her
own private use. So bitter were these proslavery diatribes that Henry
Ward Beecher and Frederick Douglass had some difficulty in convincing
the world that her maligners had no grounds for this vicious
accusation. Furthermore, on taking up the matter with Mrs. Stowe after
her return to the United States, Douglass was disappointed to learn
that she had abandoned her plan to found a vocational institution.
He was never able to see any force in the reasons for the change of
policy; but believed that Mrs. Stowe acted conscientiously, although
her action was decidedly embarrassing to him both at home and
abroad.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 252.]




CHAPTER XIII

EDUCATION AT PUBLIC EXPENSE


The persistent struggle of the colored people to have their children
educated at public expense shows how resolved they were to be
enlightened. In the beginning Negroes had no aspiration to secure such
assistance. Because the free public schools were first regarded as a
system to educate the poor, the friends of the free blacks turned
them away from these institutions lest men might reproach them with
becoming a public charge. Moreover, philanthropists deemed it wise to
provide separate schools for Negroes to bring them into contact with
sympathetic persons, who knew their peculiar needs. In the course of
time, however, when the stigma of charity was removed as a result
of the development of the free schools at public expense, Negroes
concluded that it was not dishonorable to share the benefits of
institutions which they were taxed to support.[1] Unable then to cope
with systems thus maintained for the education of the white youth, the
directors of colored schools requested that something be appropriated
for the education of Negroes. Complying with these petitions boards
of education provided for colored schools which were to be partly or
wholly supported at public expense. But it was not long before the
abolitionists saw that they had made a mistake in carrying out this
policy. The amount appropriated to the support of the special schools
was generally inadequate to supply them with the necessary equipment
and competent teachers, and in most communities the white people
had begun to regard the co-education of the races as undesirable.
Confronted then with this caste prejudice, one of the hardest
struggles of the Negroes and their sympathizers was that for
democratic education.

[Footnote 1: The Negroes of Baltimore were just prior to the Civil War
paying $500 in taxes annually to support public schools which their
children could not attend.]

The friends of the colored people in Pennsylvania were among the first
to direct the attention of the State to the duty of enlightening the
blacks as well as the whites. In 1802, 1804, and 1809, respectively,
the State passed, in the interest of the poor, acts which although
interpreted to exclude Negroes from the benefits therein provided,
were construed, nevertheless, by friends of the race as authorizing
their education at public expense. Convinced of the truth of this
contention, officials in different parts of the State began to yield
in the next decade. At Columbia, Pennsylvania, the names of such
colored children as were entitled to the benefits of the law for the
education of the poor were taken in 1818 to enable them to attend the
free public schools. Following the same policy, the Abolition Society
of Philadelphia, seeing that the city had established public schools
for white children in 1818, applied two years later for the share of
the fund to which the children of African descent were entitled by
law. The request was granted. The Comptroller opened in Lombard Street
in 1822 a school for children of color, maintained at the expense of
the State. This furnished a precedent for other such schools which
were established in 1833, and 1841.[1] Harrisburg had a colored school
early in the century, but upon the establishment of the Lancastrian
school in that city in the thirties, the colored as well as the
white children were required to attend it or pay for their education
themselves.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 379.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 379.]

In 1834 the legislature of Pennsylvania established a system of public
schools, but the claims of the Negroes to public education were
neither guaranteed nor denied.[1] The school law of 1854, however,
seems to imply that the benefits of the system had always been
understood to extend to colored children.[2] This measure provided
that the comptrollers and directors of the several school districts of
the State could establish within their respective districts separate
schools for Negro and mulatto children wherever they could be so
located as to accommodate twenty or more pupils. Another provision was
that wherever such schools should "be established and kept open four
months in the year" the directors and comptrollers should not be
compelled to admit colored pupils to any other schools of that
district. The law was interpreted to mean that wherever such
accommodations were not provided the children of Negroes could attend
the other schools. Such was the case in the rural districts where a
few colored children often found it pleasant and profitable to attend
school with their white friends.[3] The children of Robert B. Purvis,
however, were turned away from the public schools of Philadelphia
on the ground that special educational facilities for them had been
provided.[4] It was not until 1881 that Pennsylvania finally swept
away all the distinctions of caste from her public school system.

[Footnote 1: _Purdon's Digest of the Laws of Pa_., p. 291, sections
1-23.]

[Footnote 2: Stroud and Brightly, _Purdon's Digest_, p. 1064, section
23.]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa_., p. 253.]

[Footnote 4: Wigham, _The Antislavery Cause in America_, p. 103.]

As the colored population of New Jersey was never large, there was not
sufficient concentration of such persons in that State to give rise
to the problems which at times confronted the benevolent people of
Pennsylvania. Great as had been the reaction, the Negroes of New
Jersey never entirely lost the privilege of attending school with
white students. The New Jersey Constitution of 1844 provided that the
funds for the support of the public schools should be applied for the
equal benefit of all the people of that State.[1] Considered then
entitled to the benefits of this fund, colored pupils were early
admitted into the public schools without any social distinction.[2]
This does not mean that there were no colored schools in that
commonwealth. Negroes in a few settlements like that of Springtown had
their own schools.[3] Separate schools were declared illegal by an act
of the General Assembly in 1881.

[Footnote 1: Thorpe, _Federal and State Constitutions_, vol. v., p.
2604.]

[Footnote 2: _Southern Workman_, vol. xxxvii., p. 390.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 400.]

Certain communities of New York provided separate schools for colored
pupils rather than admit them to those open to white children. On
recommendation of the superintendent of schools in 1823 the State
adopted the policy of organizing schools exclusively for colored
people.[1] In places where they already existed, the State could aid
the establishment as did the New York Common Council in 1824, when it
appropriated a portion of its fund to the support of the African Free
Schools.[2] In 1841 the New York legislature authorized any district,
with the approbation of the school commissioners, to establish a
separate school for the colored children in their locality. The
superintendent's report for 1847 shows that schools for Negroes had
been established in fifteen counties in the State, reporting an
enrollment of 5000 pupils. For the maintenance of these schools
the sum of $17,000 had been annually expended. Colored pupils were
enumerated by the trustees in their annual reports, drew public money
for the district in which they resided, and were equally entitled
with white children to the benefit of the school fund. In the rural
districts colored children were generally admitted to the common
schools. Wherever race prejudice, however, was sufficiently violent to
exclude them from the village school, the trustees were empowered
to use the Negroes' share of the public money to provide for their
education elsewhere. At the same time indigent Negroes were to be
exempted from the payment of the "rate bill" which fell as a charge
upon the other citizens of the district.[3]

[Footnote 1: Randall, _Hist. of Common School System of New York_, p.
24.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 48.]

[Footnote 3: Randall, _Hist. of Common School System of New York_, p.
248.]

Some trouble had arisen from making special appropriations for
incorporated villages. Such appropriations, the superintendent had
observed, excited prejudice and parsimony; for the trustees of some
villages had learned to expend only the special appropriations for
the education of the colored pupils, and to use the public money
in establishing and maintaining schools for the white children. He
believed that it was wrong to argue that Negroes were any more a
burden to incorporated villages than to cities or rural districts, and
that they were, therefore, entitled to every allowance of money to
educate them.[1]

[Footnote 1: Randall, _Hist. of Common School System of New York_, p.
249.]

In New York City much had already been done to enlighten the Negroes
through the schools of the Manumission Society. But as the increasing
population of color necessitated additional facilities, the
Manumission Society obtained from the fund of the Public School
Society partial support of its system. The next step was to unite the
African Free Schools with those of the Public School Society to reduce
the number of organizations participating in the support of Negro
education. Despite the argument of some that the two systems should
be kept separate, the property and schools of the Manumission Society
were transferred to the New York Public School Society in 1834.[2]
Thereafter the schools did not do as well as they had done before. The
administrative part of the work almost ceased, the schools lost in
efficiency, and the former attendance of 1400 startlingly dropped. An
investigation made in 1835 showed that many Negroes, intimidated by
frequent race riots incident to the reactionary movement, had left the
city, while others kept their children at home for safety. It seemed,
too, that they looked upon the new system as an innovation, did not
like the action of the Public School Society in reducing their schools
of advanced grade to that of the primary, and bore it grievously that
so many of the old teachers in whom they had confidence, had been
dropped. To bring order out of chaos the investigating committee
advised the assimilation of the separate schools to the white.
Thereupon the society undertook to remake the colored schools,
organizing them into a system which offered instruction in primary,
intermediate, and grammar departments. The task of reconstruction,
however, was not completed until 1853, when the property of the
colored schools was transferred to the Board of Education of New
York.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 366.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 366.]

The second transfer marked an epoch in the development of Negro
education in New York. The Board of Education proceeded immediately
to perfect the system begun at the time of the first change. The new
directors reclassified the lower grades, opened other grammar schools,
and established a normal school according to the recommendation of
the investigating committee of 1835. Supervision being more rigid
thereafter, the schools made some progress, but failed to accomplish
what was expected of them. They were carelessly intrusted for
supervision to the care of ward officers, some of whom partly
neglected this duty, while others gave the work no attention whatever.
It was unfortunate, too, that some of these schools were situated in
parts of the city where the people were not interested in the uplift
of the despised race, and in a few cases in wards which were almost
proslavery. Better results followed after the colored schools were
brought under the direct supervision of the Board of Education.

Before the close of the Civil War the sentiment of the people of the
State of New York had changed sufficiently to permit colored children
to attend the regular public schools in several communities. This,
however, was not general. It was, therefore, provided in the revised
code of that State in 1864 that the board of education of any city or
incorporated village might establish separate schools for children and
youth of African descent provided such schools be supported in the
same manner as those maintained for white children. The last vestige
of caste in the public schools of New York was not exterminated until
1900, in the administration of Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of New
York. The legislature then passed an act providing that no one should
be denied admittance to any public school on account of race, color,
or previous condition of servitude.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of New York_, 1900, ch. 492.]

In Rhode Island, where the black population was proportionately larger
than in some other New England States, special schools for persons of
color continued. These efforts met with success at Newport. In the
year 1828 a separate school for colored children was established at
Providence and placed in charge of a teacher receiving a salary of
$400 per annum.[1] A decade later another such school was opened on
Pond Street in the same city. About this time the school law of Rhode
Island was modified so as to make it a little more favorable to the
people of color. The State temporarily adopted a rule by which the
school fund was thereafter not distributed, as formerly, according
to the number of inhabitants below the age of sixteen. It was to be
apportioned, thereafter, according to the number of white persons
under the age of ten years, "together with five-fourteenths of the
said [colored] population between the ages of ten and twenty-four
years." This law remained in force between the years 1832 and 1845.
Under the new system these schools seemingly made progress. In 1841
they were no longer giving the mere essentials of reading and writing,
but combined the instruction of both the grammar and the primary
grades.[2]

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, _Hist. of Education in R.I_., p. 169.]

[Footnote 2: Stockwell, _Hist. of Education in R.I_., p. 51.]

Thereafter Rhode Island had to pass through the intense antislavery
struggle which had for its ultimate aim both the freedom of the Negro
and the democratization of the public schools. Petitions were sent to
the legislature, and appeals were made to representatives asking for
a repeal of those laws which permitted the segregation of the colored
children in the public schools. But intense as this agitation became,
and urgently as it was put before the public, it failed to gain
sufficient momentum to break down the barriers prior to 1866 when the
legislature of Rhode Island passed an act abolishing separate schools
for Negroes.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island_, 1865-66, p.
49.]

Prior to the reactionary movement the schools of Connecticut were,
like most others in New England at that time, open alike to black and
white. It seems, too, that colored children were well received and
instructed as thoroughly as their white friends. But in 1830, whether
on account of the increasing race prejudice or the desire to do for
themselves, the colored people of Hartford presented to the School
Society of that city a petition that a separate school for persons of
color be established with a part of the public school fund which might
be apportioned to them according to their number. Finding this request
reasonable, the School Society decided to take the necessary steps to
comply with it. As such an agreement would have no standing at law
the matter was recommended to the legislature of the State, which
authorized the establishment in that commonwealth of several separate
schools for persons of color.[1] This arrangement, however, soon
proved unsatisfactory. Because of the small number of Negroes in
Connecticut towns, they found their pro rata inadequate to the
maintenance of separate schools. No buildings were provided for them,
such schools as they had were not properly supervised, the teachers
were poorly paid, and with the exception of a little help from a few
philanthropists, the white citizens failed to aid the cause. In 1846,
therefore, the pastor of the colored Congregational Church sent to the
School Society of Hartford a memorial calling attention to the fact
that for lack of means the colored schools had been unable to secure
suitable quarters and competent teachers. Consequently the education
of their children had been exceedingly irregular, deficient, and
onerous. The School Society had done nothing for these institutions
but to turn over to them every year their small share of the public
fund. These gentlemen then decided to raise by taxation an amount
adequate to the support of two better equipped schools and proceeded
at once to provide for its collection and expenditure.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]

The results gave general satisfaction for a while. But as it was a
time when much was being done to develop the public schools of New
England, the colored people of Hartford could not remain contented.
They saw the white pupils housed in comfortable buildings and
attending properly graded classes, while their own children continued
to be crowded into small insanitary rooms and taught as unclassified
students. The Negroes, therefore, petitioned for a more suitable
building and a better organization of their schools. As this request
came at the time when the abolitionists were working hard to
exterminate caste from the schools of New England, the School
Committee called a meeting of the memorialists to decide whether they
desired to send their children to the white or separate schools.[1]
They decided in favor of the latter, provided that the colored people
should have a building adequate to their needs and instruction of the
best kind.[2] Complying with this decision the School Society erected
the much-needed building in 1852. To provide for the maintenance of
the separate schools the property of the citizens was taxed at such a
rate as to secure to the colored pupils of the city benefits similar
to those enjoyed by the white pupils.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 21.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 22.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 334.]

Ardent antislavery men believed that this segregation in the schools
was undemocratic. They asserted that the colored people would never
have made such a request had the teachers of the public schools taken
the proper interest in them. The Negroes, too, had long since been
convinced that the white people would not maintain separate schools
with the same equipment which they gave their own. This arrangement,
however, continued until 1868. The legislature then passed an act
declaring that the schools of the State should be open to all persons
alike between the ages of four and sixteen, and that no person should
be denied instruction in any public school in his school district on
account of race or color.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Public Acts of the General Assembly of Conn_., 1868, p.
296.]

In the State of Massachusetts the contest was most ardent. Boston
opened its first primary school for colored children in 1820. In other
towns like Salem and Nantucket, New Bedford and Lowell, where the
colored population was also considerable, the same policy was carried
out.[1] Some years later, however, both the Negroes and their friends
saw the error of their early advocacy of the establishment of special
schools to escape the stigma of receiving charity. After the change
in the attitude toward the public free schools and the further
development of caste in American education, there arose in
Massachusetts a struggle between leaders determined to restrict the
Negroes' privileges to the use of poorly equipped separate schools and
those contending for equality in education.

[Footnote 1: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 35.]

Basing their action on the equality of men before the law, the
advocates of democratic education held meetings from which went
frequent and urgent petitions to school committees until Negroes were
accepted in the public schools in all towns in Massachusetts except
Boston.[1] Children of African blood were successfully admitted to the
New Bedford schools on equality with the white youth in 1838.[2] In
1846 the school committee of that town reported that the colored
pupils were regular in their attendance, and as successful in their
work as the whites. There were then ninety in all in that system; four
in the high school, forty in grammar schools, and the remainder in the
primary department, all being scattered in such a way as to have one
to four in twenty-one to twenty-eight schools. At Lowell the children
of a colored family were not only among the best in the schools but
the greatest favorites in the system.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 20, and _Niles Register_, vol. lxvi., p.
320.]

[Footnote 2: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 23.]

[Footnote 3: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 25.]

The consolidation of the colored school of Salem with the others of
that city led to no disturbance. Speaking of the democracy of these
schools in 1846 Mr. Richard Fletcher said: "The principle of perfect
equality is the vital principle of the system. Here all classes of
the community mingle together. The rich and the poor meet on terms of
equality and are prepared by the same instruction to discharge the
duties of life. It is the principle of equality cherished in the free
schools on which our government and free institutions rest. Destroy
this principle in the schools and the people would soon cease to be
free." At Nantucket, however, some trouble was experienced because of
the admission of pupils of color in 1843. Certain patrons criticized
the action adversely and withdrew fourteen of their children from the
South Grammar School. The system, however, prospered thereafter rather
than declined.[1] Many had no trouble in making the change.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 6.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 23.]

These victories having been won in other towns of the State by 1846,
it soon became evident that Boston would have to yield. Not only were
abolitionists pointing to the ease with which this gain had been made
in other towns, but were directing attention to the fact that in these
smaller communities Negroes were both learning the fundamentals and
advancing through the lower grades into the high school. Boston, which
had a larger black population than all other towns in Massachusetts
combined, had never seen a colored pupil prepared for a secondary
institution in one of its public schools. It was, therefore, evident
to fair-minded persons that in cities of separate systems Negroes
would derive practically no benefit from the school tax which they
paid.

This agitation for the abolition of caste in the public schools
assumed its most violent form in Boston during the forties. The
abolitionists then organized a more strenuous opposition to the caste
system. Why Sarah Redmond and the other children of a family paying
tax to support the schools of Boston should be turned away from a
public school simply because they were persons of color was a problem
too difficult for a fair-minded man.[1] The war of words came,
however, when in response to a petition of Edmund Jackson, H.J.
Bowditch, and other citizens for the admission of colored people to
the public schools in 1844, the majority of the school committee
refused the request. Following the opinion of Chandler, their
solicitor, they based their action of making distinction in the
public schools on the natural distinction of the races, which "no
legislature, no social customs, can efface," and which "renders a
promiscuous intermingling in the public schools disadvantageous both
to them and to the whites."[2] Questioned as to any positive law
providing for such discrimination, Chandler gave his opinion that the
School Committee of Boston, under the authority perhaps of the City
Council, had a legal right to establish and maintain special primary
schools for the blacks. He believed, too, that in the exercise of
their lawful discretionary power they could exclude white pupils from
certain schools and colored pupils from certain other schools when,
in their judgment, the best interests of all would thereby be
promoted.[3]

[Footnote 1: Wigham, _The Antislavery Cause in America_, p. 103.]

[Footnote 2: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 31.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 30.]

Encouraged by the fact that colored children were indiscriminately
admitted to the schools of Salem, Nantucket, New Bedford, and Lowell,
in fact, of every city in Massachusetts but Boston, the friends of
the colored people fearlessly attacked the false legal theories of
Solicitor Chandler. The minority of the School Committee argued that
schools are the common property of all, and that each and all are
legally entitled without "let or hindrance" to the equal benefits of
all advantages they might confer.[1] Any action, therefore, which
tended to restrict to any individual or class the advantages and
benefits designed for all, was an illegal use of authority, and an
arbitrary act used for pernicious purposes.[2] Their republican
system, the minority believed, conferred civil equality and legal
rights upon every citizen, knew neither privileged nor degraded
classes, made no distinctions, and created no differences between rich
and poor, learned and ignorant, or white and black, but extended to
all alike its protection and benefits.[3] The minority considered it a
merit of the school system that it produced the fusion of all classes,
promoted the feeling of brotherhood, and the habits of equality. The
power of the School Committee, therefore, was limited and constrained
by the general spirit of the civil policy and by the letter and spirit
of the laws which regulated the system.[4] It was further maintained
that to debar the colored youth from these advantages, even if they
were assured the same external results, would be a sore injustice and
would serve as the surest means of perpetuating a prejudice which
should be deprecated and discountenanced by all intelligent and
Christian men.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 3.]

[Footnote 2: _Minority Report_, etc. pp. 4 and 5.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., pp. 3 _et. seq_.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 4.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., p. 5.]

To the sophistry of Chandler, Wendell Phillips also made a logical
reply. He asserted that as members of a legal body, the School
Committee should have eyes only for such distinctions among their
fellow-citizens as the law recognized and pointed out. Phillips
believed that they had precedents for the difference of age and sex,
for regulation of health, etc., but that when they opened their eyes
to the varied complexion, to difference of race, to diversity of
creed, to distinctions of caste, they would seek in vain through the
laws and institutions of Massachusetts for any recognition of their
prejudice. He deplored the fact that they had attempted to foist into
the legal arrangements of the land a principle utterly repugnant
to the State constitution, and that what the sovereignty of the
constitution dared not attempt a school committee accomplished. To
Phillips it seemed crassly inconsistent to say that races permitted to
intermarry should be debarred by Mr. Chandler's "sapient committee"
from educational contact.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Minority Report_, etc., p. 27.]

This agitation continued until 1855 when the opposition had grown too
strong to be longer resisted. The legislature of Massachusetts then
enacted a law providing that in determining the qualifications of a
scholar to be admitted to any public school no distinction should
be made on account of the race, color, or religious opinion of the
applicant. It was further provided that a child excluded from school
for any of these reasons might bring suit for damages against the
offending town.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Acts and Resolves of the General Court of Mass_., 1855,
ch. 256.]

In other towns of New England, where the black population was
considerable, separate schools were established. There was one even in
Portland, Maine.[1] Efforts in this direction were made in Vermont and
New Hampshire, but because of the scarcity of the colored people these
States did not have to resort to such segregation. The Constitution of
Vermont was interpreted as extending to Negroes the benefits of the
Bill of Rights, making all men free and equal. Persons of color,
therefore, were regarded as men entitled to all the privileges of
freemen, among which was that of education at the expense of the
State.[2] The framers of the Constitution of New Hampshire were
equally liberal in securing this right to the dark race.[3] But when
the principal of an academy at Canaan admitted some Negroes to his
private institution, a mob, as we have observed above, broke up the
institution by moving the building to a swamp, while the officials of
the town offered no resistance. Such a spirit as this accounts for the
rise of separate schools in places where the free blacks had the right
to attend any institution of learning supported by the State.

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, etc., p. 142.]

[Footnote 2: Thorpe, _Federal and State Constitutions_, vol. vi., p.
3762.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., vol. iv., p. 2471.]


The problem of educating the Negroes at public expense was perplexing
also to the minds of the people of the West. The question became
more and more important in Ohio as the black population in that
commonwealth increased. The law of 1825 provided that moneys raised
from taxation of half a mill on the dollar should be appropriated to
the support of common schools in the respective counties and that
these schools should be "open to the youth of every class and grade
without distinction."[1] Some interpreted this law to include Negroes.
To overcome the objection to the partiality shown by school officials
the State passed another law in 1829. It excluded colored people from
the benefits of the new system, and returned them the amount accruing
from the school tax on their property.[2] Thereafter benevolent
societies and private associations maintained colored schools in
Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and the southern counties of Ohio.[3]
But no help came from the cities and the State before 1849 when the
legislature passed a law authorizing the establishment of schools for
children of color at public expense.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of Ohio_, vol. xxiii., pp. 37 _et seq_.]

[Footnote 2: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 374.]

[Footnote 4: _Laws of Ohio_, vol. liii., pp. 117-118.]

The Negroes of Cincinnati soon discovered that they had not won a
great victory. They proceeded at once to elect trustees, organized a
system, and employed teachers, relying on the money allotted them
by the law on the basis of a per capita division of the school fund
received by the Board of Education of Cincinnati. So great was the
prejudice that the school officials refused to turn over the required
funds on the grounds that the colored trustees were not electors,
and therefore could not be office holders qualified to receive and
disburse public funds.[1] Under the leadership of John I. Gaines the
trustees called indignation meetings, and raised sufficient money to
employ Flamen Ball, an attorney, to secure a writ of mandamus. The
case was contested by the city officials even in the Supreme Court of
the State which decided against the officious whites.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, pp. 371,
372.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., 1871, p. 372.]

Unfortunately it turned out that this decision did not mean very much
to the Negroes. There were not many of them in certain settlements and
the per capita division of the fund did not secure to them sufficient
means to support schools. Even if the funds had been adequate to pay
teachers, they had no schoolhouses. Lawyers of that day contended that
the Act of 1849 had nothing to do with the construction of buildings.
After a short period of accomplishing practically nothing material,
the law was amended so as to transfer the control of such colored
schools to the managers of the white system.[1] This was taken as a
reflection on the standing of the blacks of the city and tended to
make them refuse to cooeperate with the white board. On account of the
failure of this body to act effectively prior to 1856, the people of
color were again given power to elect their own trustees.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Laws of the State of Ohio_, vol. liii., p. 118.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 118.]

During the contest for the control of the colored schools certain
Negroes of Cincinnati were endeavoring to make good their claim that
their children had a right to attend any school maintained by the
city. Acting upon this contention a colored patron sent his son to a
public school, which on account of his presence became the center of
unusual excitement.[1] Miss Isabella Newhall, the teacher to whom he
went, immediately complained to the Board of Education, requesting
that he be expelled on account of his race. After "due deliberation"
the Board of Education decided by a vote of fifteen to ten that he
would have to withdraw from that school. Thereupon two members of that
body, residing in the district of the timorous teacher, resigned.[2]

[Footnote 1: New York _Tribune_, Feb. 19, 1855.]

[Footnote 2: New York _Tribune_, Feb. 19, 1855; and Carlier,
_L'Esclavage_, etc., p. 339.]

Thereafter some progress in the development of separate schools in
Cincinnati was noted. By 1855 the Board of Education of that city had
established four public schools for the instruction of Negro youths.
The colored pupils were showing their appreciation by regular
attendance, manly deportment, and rapid progress in the acquisition of
knowledge. Speaking of these Negroes in 1855, John P. Foote said that
they shared with the white citizens that respect for education,
and the diffusion of knowledge, which has ever been one of their
"characteristics," and that they had, therefore, been more generally
intelligent than free persons of color not only in other States but in
all other parts of the world.[1] It was in appreciation of the worth
of this class of progressive Negroes that in 1858 Nicholas Longworth
built a comfortable school-house for them in Cincinnati, leasing it
with the privilege of purchasing it in fourteen years.[2] They met
these requirements within the stipulated time, and in 1859 secured
through other agencies the construction of another building in the
western portion of the city.[3]

[Footnote 1: Foote, _The Schools of Cincinnati_, p. 92.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 372.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 372.]

The agitation for the admission of colored children to the public
schools was not confined to Cincinnati alone, but came up throughout
the section north of the Ohio River.[1] Where the black population was
large enough to form a social center of its own, Negroes and their
friends could more easily provide for the education of colored
children. In settlements, however, in which just a few of them were
found, some liberal-minded man usually asked the question why persons
taxed to support a system of free schools should not share its
benefits. To strengthen their position these benevolent men referred
to the rapid progress of the belated people, many of whom within
less than a generation from their emergence from slavery had become
intelligent, virtuous, and respectable persons, and in not a few
cases had accumulated considerable wealth.[2] Those who insisted that
children of African blood should be debarred from the regular public
schools had for their defense the so-called inequality of the races.
Some went so far as to concede the claims made for the progressive
blacks, and even to praise those of their respective communities.[3]
But great as their progress had been, the advocates of the restriction
of their educational privileges considered it wrong to claim for them
equality with the Caucasian race. They believed that society would
suffer from an intermingling of the children of the two races.

[Footnote 1: Hickok, _The Negro in Ohio_, ch. iii.; and Boone,
_History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 2: Foote, _The Schools of Cincinnati_, p. 93.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 92.]

In Indiana the problem of educating Negroes was more difficult. R.G.
Boone says that, "nominally for the first few years of the educational
experience of the State, black and white children had equal privileges
in the few schools that existed."[1] But this could not continue long.
Abolitionists were moving the country, and freedmen soon found enemies
as well as friends in the Ohio valley. Indiana, which was in 1824 so
very "solicitous for a system of education which would guard against
caste distinction," provided in 1837 that the white inhabitants alone
of each congressional township should constitute the local school
corporation.[2] In 1841 a petition was sent to the legislature
requesting that a reasonable share of the school fund be appropriated
to the education of Negroes, but the committee to which it was
referred reported that legislation on that subject was inexpedient.[3]
With the exception of prohibiting the immigration of such persons into
that State not much account of them was taken until 1853. Then the
legislature amended the law authorizing the establishment of schools
in townships so as to provide that in all enumerations the children
of color should not be taken, that the property of the blacks and
mulattoes should not be taxed for school purposes, and that their
children should not derive any benefit from the common schools of that
State.[4] This provision had really been incorporated into the former
law, but was omitted by oversight on the part of the engrossing
clerk.[5]

[Footnote 1: Boone, _History of Ed. in Indiana_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 2: _Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana_, 1837,
p. 15.]

[Footnote 3: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 4: _Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana_, 1855,
p. 161.]

[Footnote 5: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

A resolution of the House instructing the educational committee to
report a bill for the establishment of schools for the education of
the colored children of the State was overwhelmingly defeated in 1853.
Explaining their position the opponents said that it was held "to be
better for the weaker party that no privilege be extended to them,"
as the tendency to such "might be to induce the vain belief that the
prejudice of the dominant race could ever be so mollified as to break
down the rugged barriers that must forever exist between their social
relations." The friends of the blacks believed that by elevating them
the sense of their degradation would be keener, and so the greater
would be their anxiety to seek another country, where with the spirit
of men they "might breathe fresh air of social as well as political
liberty."[1] This argument, however, availed little. Before the Civil
War the Negroes of Indiana received help in acquiring knowledge from
no source but private and mission schools.

[Footnote 1: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

In Illinois the situation was better than in Indiana, but far from
encouraging. The constitution of 1847 restricted the benefits of the
school law to white children, stipulating the word white throughout
the act so as to make clear the intention of the legislators.[1] It
seemed to some that, in excluding the colored children from the public
schools, the law contemplated the establishment of separate schools
in that it provided that the amount of school taxes collected from
Negroes should be returned. Exactly what should be done with such
money, however, was not stated in the act. But even if that were the
object in view, the provision was of little help to the people of
color for the reason that the clause providing for the return of
school taxes was seldom executed. In the few cases in which it was
carried out the fund thus raised was not adequate to the support of
a special school, and generally there were not sufficient colored
children in a community to justify such an outlay. In districts having
control of their local affairs, however, the children of Negroes were
often given a chance to attend school.

[Footnote 1: The Constitution of Illinois, in the _Journal of the
Constitution of the State of Illinois_, 1847, p. 344.]

As this scant consideration given Negroes of Illinois left one-half
of the six thousand of their children out of the pale of education,
earnest appeals were made that the restrictive word white be stricken
from the school law. The friends of the colored people sought to show
how inconsistent this system was with the spirit of the constitution
of the State, which, interpreted as they saw it, guaranteed all
persons equality.[1] They held meetings from which came renewed
petitions to their representatives, entreating them to repeal or amend
the old school law. It was not so much a question as to whether or not
there should be separate schools as it was whether or not the people
of color should be educated. The dispersed condition of their children
made it impossible for the State to provide for them in special
schools the same educational facilities as those furnished the youth
of Caucasian blood. Chicago tried the experiment in 1864, but failing
to get the desired result, incorporated the colored children into
the white schools the following year.[2] The State Legislature had
sufficient moral courage to do away with these caste distinctions in
1874.[3]

[Footnote 1: Thorpe, _Federal and State Constitutions_, Const. of
Illinois.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 343.]

[Footnote 3: Starr and Curtis, _Annotated Statutes of Illinois_, ch.
105, p. 2261.]

In other States of the West and the North where few colored people
were found, the solution of the problem was easier. After 1848 Negroes
were legal voters in the school meetings of Michigan. Colored
children were enumerated with others to determine the basis for the
apportionment of the school funds, and were allowed to attend the
public schools. Wisconsin granted Negroes equal school privileges.[1]
After the adoption of a free constitution in 1857, Iowa "determined no
man's rights by the color of his skin." Wherever the word white had
served to restrict the privileges of persons of color it was stricken
out to make it possible for them not only to bear arms and to vote but
to attend public schools.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 400.]

[Footnote 2: _Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the State of
Iowa_, 1857, p. 3 of the Constitution.]




APPENDIX

DOCUMENTS


The following resolutions on the subject treated in this part
(the instruction of Negroes) are from the works of Dr. Cotton
Mather.--Bishop William Meade.

1st. I would always remember, that my servants are in some sense my
children, and by taking care that they want nothing which may be good
for them, I would make them as my children; and so far as the methods
of instituting piety into the mind which I use with my children,
may be properly and prudently used with my servants, they shall be
partakers in them--Nor will I leave them ignorant of anything, wherein
I may instruct them to be useful to their generation.

2d. I will see that my servants be furnished with bibles and be able
and careful to read the lively oracles. I will put bibles and other
good and proper books into their hands; will allow them time to read
and assure myself that they do not misspend this time--If I can
discern any wicked books in their hands, I will take away those
pestilential instruments of wickedness.

3d. I will have my servants present at the religious exercises of my
family; and will drop, either in the exhortations, in the prayers or
daily sacrifices of the family such pages as may have a tendency to
quicken a sense of religion in them.

4th. The article of catechising, as far as the age or state of the
servants will permit it to be done with decency, shall extend to them
also,--And they shall be concerned in the conferences in which I may
be engaged with my family, in the repetition of the public sermons. If
any of them when they come to me shall not have learned the catechism,
I will take care that they do it, and will give them a reward when
they have accomplished it.

5th. I will be very inquisitive and solicitous about the company
chosen by my servants; and with all possible earnestness will rescue
them from the snares of evil company, and forbid their being the
companions of fools.

6th. Such of my servants as may be capable of the task, I will employ
to teach lessons of piety to my children, and will recompense them for
so doing. But I would, by a particular artifice, contrive them to be
such lessons, as may be for their own edification too.

7th. I will sometimes call my servants alone; talk to them about the
state of their souls; tell them to close with their only servant,
charge them to do well and "lay hold on eternal life," and show them
very particularly how they may render all they do for me a service to
the glorious Lord; how they may do all from a principle of obedience
to him, and become entitled to the "reward of the heavenly
inheritance."

To those resolutions did I add the following pages as an appendix:

Age is nearly sufficient, with some masters to obliterate every letter
and action in the history of a meritorious life, and old services are
generally buried under the ruins of an old carcase. It is a barbarous
inhumanity in men towards their servants, to account their small
failings as crimes, without allowing their past services to have been
virtues; gracious God, keep thy servants from such base ingratitude!

But then O servants, if you would obtain "the reward of inheritance,"
each of you should set yourself to enquire "how shall I approve myself
such a servant, that the Lord may bless the house of my master, the
more for my being in it?" Certainly there are many ways by which
servants may become blessings. Let your studies with your continual
prayers for the welfare of the family to which you belong: and the
example of your sober carriage render you such. If you will but
remember four words and attempt all that is comprised in them,
Obedience, Honesty, Industry, and Piety, you will be the blessings and
Josephs of the families in which you live. Let these four words be
distinctly and frequently recollected; and cheerfully perform all your
business from this consideration--that it is obedience to heaven, and
from thence will leave a recompense. It was the observation even of a
pagan, "That a master may receive a benefit from a servant"; and "what
is done with the affection of a friend, ceases to be the act of a mere
servant." Even the maid-servants of a house may render a great service
to it, by instructing the infants and instilling into their minds the
lessons of goodness.--In the Appendix of Rev. Thomas Bacon's _Sermons
Addressed to Masters and Servants_.


EDIT DU ROI

Concernant les Esclaves Negres des Colonies, qui seront amenes, ou
envoyes en France. Donne a Paris au mois d'Octobre 1716.

I. Nous avons connu la necessite qu'il y a d'y soutenir l'execution
de l'edit du mars 1685, qui en maintenant la discipline de l'Eglise
Catholique, Apostolique et Romaine, pourvoit a ce qui concerne l'etat
et la qualite des Esclaves Negres, qu'on entretient dans lesdites
colonies pour la culture des terres; et comme nous avons ete informes
que plusieurs habitans de nos Isles de l'Amerique desirent envoyer
en France quelques-uns de leur Esclaves pour les confirmer dans les
Instructions et dans les Exercices de notre Religion, et pour leur
faire apprendre en meme tems quelque Art et Metier dont les colonies
recevroient beaucoup d'utilite par le retour de ces Esclaves; mais que
les habitans craignaient que les Esclaves ne pretendent etre libres en
arrivant en France, ce qui pourroit causer auxdits habitans une perte
considerable, et les detourner d'un objet aussi pieux et aussi utile.

       *       *       *       *       *

II. Si quelques-uns des habitans de nos colonies, ou officiers
employes sur l'Etat desdites colonies, veulent amener en France avec
eux des Esclaves Negres, de l'un & de l'autre sexe, en qualite de
domestique ou autrement pour les fortifier davantage dans notre
Religion, tant par les instructions qu'ils recevront, que par
l'exemple de nos autre sujets, et pour leur faire apprendre en meme
tems quelque Art et Metier, dont les colonies puissent retirer de
l'utilite, par le retour de ces Esclaves, lesdits proprietaires
seront tenus d'en obtenir la permission des Gouverneurs Generaux, ou
Commandans dans chaque Isle, laquelle permission contiendra le nom du
proprietaire, celui des Esclaves, leur age & leur signalement.--Code
Noir ou Recueil d'edits, declarations, et arrets concernant des
Esclaves Negres Discipline el le commerce des Esclaves Negres des
isles francaises de l'Amerique (in Recueil de reglemens, edits,
declarations, et arrets concernant le commerce, l'administration de
la justice et la police des colonies francaises de l'Amerique et les
Engages avec le Code Noir et l'addition audit Code) (Jefferson's
copy). A Paris chez les Libraires Associes, 1745.


A PROPOSITION FOR ENCOURAGING THE CHRISTIAN EDUCATION OF INDIAN,
NEGRO, AND MULATTO CHILDREN AT LAMBETH, VIRGINIA, 1724

"It being a duty of Christianity very much neglected by masters and
mistresses of this country (America) to endeavor the good instruction
and education of their heathen slaves in the Christian faith,--the
said duty being likewise earnestly recommended by his Majesty's
instructions,--for the facilitating thereof among the young slaves
that are born among us; it is, therefore, humbly proposed that every
Indian, Negro, or mulatto child that shall be baptized and afterward
brought to church and publicly catechized by the minister in church,
and shall, before the fourteenth year of his or her age, give a
distinct account of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments,
and whose master or mistress shall receive a certificate from the
minister that he or she hath so done, such Indian, Negro or mulatto
child shall be exempted from paying all levies till the age of
eighteen years."--Bishop William Meade's _Old Churches, Ministers, and
Families of Virginia_, vol. i., p. 265.


PASTORAL LETTER OF BISHOP GIBSON OF LONDON

To the Masters and Mistresses of Families in the English Plantations
abroad; exhorting them to encourage and promote the instruction of
their Negroes in the Christian Faith. (About 1727.)

The care of the Plantations abroad being committed to the Bishop of
London as to Religious Affairs; I have thought it my duty to make
particular Inquiries into the State of Religion in those Parts, and to
learn among other Things, what numbers of slaves are employed within
the several Governments, and what Means are used for their Instruction
in the Christian Faith: I find the Numbers are prodigiously great; and
am not a little troubled to observe how small a Progress has been made
in a Christian country, towards the delivering those poor Creatures
from the Pagan Darkness and Superstition in which they were bred,
and the making them Partakers in the Light of the Gospel, and the
Blessings and Benefits belonging to it. And what is yet more to be
lamented, I find there has not only been very little Progress made
in the work but that all Attempts toward it have been by too many
industriously discouraged and hindered; partly by magnifying the
Difficulties of the Work beyond what they really are; and partly by
mistaken Suggestions of the Change which Baptism would make in the
Condition of the Negroes, to the Loss and Disadvantage of their
Masters.

As to the Difficulties; it may be pleaded, That the Negroes are grown
Persons when they come over, and that having been accustomed to the
Pagan Rites and Idolatries of their own Country, they are prejudiced
against all other Religions, and more particularly against the
Christian, as forbidding all that Licentiousness which is usually
practiced among the Heathens.... But a farther Difficulty is that they
are utter Strangers to our Language, and we to theirs; and the Gift of
Tongues being now ceased, there is no Means left of instructing them
in the Doctrines of the Christian Religion. And this, I own is a real
Difficulty, as long as it continues, and as far as it reaches. But, if
I am rightly informed, many of the Negroes, who are grown Persons when
they come over, do of themselves obtain so much of our Language, as
enables them to understand, and to be understood, in Things which
concern the ordinary Business of Life, and they who can go so far of
their own Accord, might doubtless be carried much farther, if proper
Methods and Endeavors were used to bring them to a competent Knowledge
of our Language, with a pious view to instructing them in the
Doctrines of our Religion. At least, some of them, who are more
capable and more serious than the rest, might be easily instructed
both in our Language and Religion, and then be made use of to convey
Instruction to the rest in their own Language. And this, one would
hope, may be done with great Ease, wherever there is a hearty and
sincere Zeal of the Work.

But what Difficulties there may be in instructing those who are
grown-up before they are brought over; there are not the like
Difficulties in the Case of their Children, who are born and bred in
our Plantations, who have never been accustomed to Pagan Rites and
Superstitions, and who may easily be trained up, like all other
Children, to any Language whatsoever, and particularly to our own; if
the making them good Christians be sincerely the Desire and
Intention of those, who have Property in them, and Government over
them.--Dalcho's _An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in South Carolina_, pp. 104-106.


ANOTHER PASTORAL LETTER OF BISHOP GIBSON OF LONDON

To the Missionaries in the English Plantations (about 1727).

DEAR BROTHER,

Having understood by many Letters from the Plantations, and by the
Accounts of Persons who have come from thence, that very little
progress hath hitherto been made in the conversion of the Negroes to
the Christian Faith; I have thought it proper for me to lay before
Masters and Mistresses the Obligations they are under, and to promote
and encourage that pious and necessary Work....

As to those Ministers who have Negroes of their own; I cannot but
esteem it their indispensable Duty to use their best Endeavors to
instruct them in the Christian Religion, in order to their being
baptised; both because such Negroes are their proper and immediate
Care, and because it is in vain to hope that other Masters and
Mistresses will exert themselves in this Work, if they see it wholly
neglected, or but coldly pursued, in the Families of the Clergy ...

I would also hope that the Schoolmasters in the several Parishes,
part of whose Business it is to instruct Youth in the Principles of
Christianity, might contribute somewhat towards the carrying on of
this Work; by being ready to bestow upon it some of their Leisure
Time, and especially on the Lord's Day, when both they and the Negroes
are most at liberty and the Clergy are taken up with the public Duties
of their Function.--Dalcho's _An Historical Account of the Protestant
Episcopal Account of the Protestant Episcopal Church in South
Carolina_, pages 112-114.


AN EXTRACT FROM A SERMON PREACHED BY BISHOP SECKER OF LONDON IN 1741

"The next Object of the Society's Concern, were the poor Negroes.
These unhappy Wretches learn in their Native Country, the grossest
Idolatry, and the most savage Dispositions: and then are sold to the
best Purchaser: sometimes by their Enemies, who would else put them
to Death; sometimes by the nearest Friends, who are either unable or
unwilling to maintain them. Their Condition in our Colonies, though it
cannot well be worse than it would have been at Home, is yet nearly as
hard as possible: their Servitude most laborious, their Punishments
most severe. And thus many thousands of them spend their whole
Days, one Generation after another, undergoing with reluctant Minds
continual Toil in this World, and comforted with no Hopes of Reward
in a better. For it is not to be expected that Masters, too commonly
negligent of Christianity themselves, will take much Pains to teach it
their slaves; whom even the better Part of them are in a great Measure
habituated to consider, as they do their Cattle, merely with a view
to the Profit arising from them. Not a few, therefore, have openly
opposed their Instruction, from an Imagination now indeed proved and
acknowledged to be groundless, that Baptism would entitle them to
Freedom. Others by obliging them to work on Sundays to provide
themselves Necessaries, leave them neither Time to learn Religion, nor
any Prospect of being able to subsist, if once the Duty of resting on
that Day become Part of their Belief. And some, it may be feared,
have been averse to their becoming Christians because after that,
no Pretence will remain for not treating them like Men. When these
Obstacles are added to the fondness they have for their old Heathenish
Rites, and the strong Prejudices they must have against Teachers from
among those, whom they serve so unwillingly; it cannot be wondered,
if the Progress made in their Conversion prove slow. After some
Experience of this kind, Catechists were appointed in two Places, by
Way of Trial for Their Instruction alone: whose Success, where it
was least, hath been considerable; and so great in the Plantation
belonging to the Society that out of two hundred and thirty, at
least seventy are now Believers in Christ. And there is lately an
Improvement to this Scheme begun to be executed, by qualifying and
employing young Negroes, prudently chosen, to teach their Countrymen:
from which in the Opinion of the best Judges, we may reasonably
promise ourselves, that this miserable People, the Generality of whom
have hitherto sat in Darkness, will see great Light."--Seeker's _A
Sermon Preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel in Foreign Parts_, 1741.


EXTRACTS FROM THE SERMONS OF REV. THOMAS BACON ADDRESSED TO MASTERS
AND SERVANTS ABOUT 1750

"Next to our children and brethren by blood, our servants, and
especially our slaves, are certainly in the nearest relation to us.
They are an immediate and necessary part of our households, by whose
labors and assistance we are enabled to enjoy the gifts of Providence
in ease and plenty; and surely we owe them a return of what is just
and equal for the drudgery and hardships they go through in our
service....

"It is objected, They are such stubborn creatures, there is no dealing
with them.

"_Answer_. Supposing this to be true of most of them (which I believe
will scarcely be insisted on:) may it not fairly be asked, whence doth
this stubbornness proceed?--Is it from nature?--That cannot be:--for I
think it is generally acknowledged that _new Negroes_, or those born
in and imported from the coast of _Guinea_, prove the best and most
tractable servants. Is it then from education?--for one or the other
it must proceed from.--But pray who had the care of bringing up those
that were born here?--Was it not ourselves?--And might not an early
care, of instilling good principles into them when young, have
prevented much of that stubbornness and untractableness you complain
of in country-born negroes?--These, you cry out, are wickeder than the
others:--and, pray, where did they learn that wickedness?--Was it
not among ourselves?--for those who come immediately from their own
country, you say, have more simplicity and honesty. A sad reproach
to a Christian people indeed! that such poor ignorant heathens shall
bring better morals and dispositions from home with them, that they
can learn or actually do contract amongst us!

       *       *       *       *       *

"It is objected,--they are so ignorant and unteachable, they cannot be
brought to any knowledge in these matters.

"_Answer_. This objection seems to have little or no truth in it, with
respect to the bulk of them.--Their ignorance, indeed, about matters
of religion, is not to be disputed;--they are sunk in it to a sad and
lamentable degree, which has been shown to be chiefly owing to
the negligence of their owners.--But that they are so stupid and
unteachable, as that they cannot be brought to any competent knowledge
in these matters, is false, and contrary to fact and experience. In
regard to their work, they learn it, and grow dexterous enough in a
short time. Many of them have learned trades and manufactures, which
they perform well, and with sufficient ingenuity:--whence it is
plain they are not unteachable; do not want natural parts and
capacities.--Most masters and mistresses will complain of their art
and cunning in contriving to deceive them.--Is it reasonable to deny
then they can learn what is good, when it is owned at the same time
they can be so artful in what is bad?--Their ignorance, therefore,
if born in the country, must absolutely be the fault of their
owners:--and such as are brought here from Africa may, surely, be
taught something of advantage to their own future state, as well as to
work for their masters' present gain.--The difference plainly consists
in this;--that a good deal of pains is taken to shew them how to
labour, and they are punished if they neglect it.--This sort of
instruction their owners take care to give them every day, and look
well to it that it be duly followed.--But no such pains are taken in
the other case.--They are generally left to themselves, whether they
will serve God, or worship Devils--whether they become christians, or
remain heathens as long as they live: as if either their souls were
not worth the saving, or as if we were under no obligation of giving
them any instruction:--which is the true reason why so many of them
who are grown up, and lived many years among us, are as entirely
ignorant of the principles of religion, as if they had never come into
a christian country:--at least, as to any good or practical purposes.

       *       *       *       *       *

"I have dwelt the longer upon this head, because it is of the utmost
importance, and seems to be but little considered among us.--For there
is too much reason to fear, that the many vices and immoralities so
common among white people;--the lewdness, drunkenness, quarrelling,
abusiveness, swearing, lying, pride, backbiting, overreaching,
idleness, and sabbath-breaking, everywhere to be seen among us, are a
great encouragement to our Negroes to do the like, and help strongly
to confirm them in the habits of wickedness and impiety.

"We ought not only to avoid giving them bad examples, and abstain from
all appearance of evil, but also strive to set a daily good example
before their eyes, that seeing us lead the way in our own person, they
may more readily be persuaded to follow us in the wholesome paths of
religion and virtue.

       *       *       *       *       *

"We ought to make this reading and studying the holy scriptures, and
the reading and explaining them to our children and slaves, and the
catechizing or instructing them in the principles of the Christian
religion, a stated duty.

       *       *       *       *       *

"We ought in a particular manner to take care of the children, and
instil early principles of piety and religion into their minds.

"If the grown up slaves, from confirmed habits of vice, are hard to be
reclaimed, the children surely are in our power, and may be trained up
in the way they should go, with rational hopes that when they are old,
they will not depart from it.--We ought, therefore, to take charge
of their education principally upon ourselves, and not leave them
entirely to the care of their wicked parents.--If the present
generation be bad, we may hope by this means that the succeeding ones
will be much better. One child well instructed, will take care when
grown up to instruct his children; and they again will teach their
posterity good things.--And I am fully of opinion, that the common
notion of _wickedness running in the blood_, is not so general in fact
as to be admitted for an axiom. And that the vices we see descending
from parents to their children are chiefly owing to the malignant
influence of bad example and conversation.--And though some persons
may be, and undoubtedly are, born with stronger passions and
appetites, or with a greater propensity to some particular
gratifications or pursuits than others, yet we do not want convincing
instances how effectually they may be restrained, or at least
corrected and turned to proper and laudable ends, by the force of an
early care, and a suitable education.

"To you of the female sex, (whom I have had occasion more than once to
take notice of with honor in this congregation) I would address a few
words on this head.--You, who by your stations are more confined at
home, and have the care of the younger sort more particularly under
your management, may do a great deal of good in this way.--I know not
when I have been more affected, or my heart touched with stronger and
more pleasing emotions, than at the sight and conversation of a little
negro boy, not above seven years old, who read to me in the new
testament, and perfectly repeated his catechism throughout, and all
from the instruction of his careful, pious mistress, now I hope with
God, enjoying the blessed fruits of her labours while on earth.--This
example I would recommend to your serious imitation, and to enforce it
shall only remark, that a shining part of the character of Solomon's
excellent daughter is, that she looketh well to the ways of her
household."--Rev. Thomas Bacon's _Sermons Addressed to Masters and
Servants_, pp. 4, 48, 49, 51, 64, 65, 69, 70, 73, 74.


PORTIONS OF BENJAMIN FAWCETT's ADDRESS TO THE CHRISTIAN NEGROES IN
VIRGINIA ABOUT 1755

"Rejoice and be exceeding glad, that you are delivered either from the
Frauds of Mohamet, or Pagan Darkness, and Worship of Daemons; and are
not now taught to place your Dependence upon those other dead Men,
whom the Papists impiously worship, to the Neglect and Dishonor of
Jesus Christ, the one only Mediator between God and Men. Christ, tho'
he was dead, is alive again, and liveth forever-more. It is Christ,
who is able also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Bless God,
with all your Heart, that the Holy Scriptures are put into your Hands,
which are able to make you wise unto Salvation, thro' Faith which is
in Christ Jesus. Read and study the Bible for yourselves; and consider
how Papists do all they can to hide it from their Followers, for Fear
such divine Light should discover the gross Darkness of their false
Doctrines and Worship. Be particularly thankful to the Ministers of
Christ around you, who are faithfully labouring to teach you the Truth
as it is in Jesus....

"Contrary to these evident Truths and precious Comforts of the Word
of God, you may perhaps be tempted very unjustly to renounce your
Fidelity and Obedience to your Old Masters, in Hope of finding new
ones, with whom you may live more happily. At one time or other it
will probably be suggested to you, that the French will make better
Masters than the English. But I beseech you to consider, that your
Happiness as Men and Christians exceedingly depends upon your doing
all in your Power to support the British Government, and that kind of
Christianity which is called the Protestant Religion; and likewise in
opposing, with all your Might, the Power of the French, the Delusions
of Popish Priests, and all the Rage and Malice of such Indians, as are
in the French Interest. If the Power of France was to prevail in the
Country where you now live, you have Nothing to expect but the most
terrible Increase of your Sufferings. Your Slavery would then, not
merely extend to Body, but also to the Soul; not merely run thro' your
Days of Labour, but even thro' your Lord's Days. Your Bibles would
then become like a sealed Book, and your Consciences would be fettered
with worse than Iron-Chains. Therefore be patient, be submissive and
obedient, be faithful and true, even when some of your Masters are
most unkind. This is the only way for you to have Consciences void
of Offense towards God and Man. This will really be taking the most
effectual Measures, to secure for yourselves a Share in the invaluable
Blessings and Privileges of the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God,
which you have already received thro' the Channel of the British
Government, and which no other Government upon the Face of the Earth
is so calculated to support and preserve.

"The Lord Jesus Christ is now saying to you, as he did to Peter, when
thou art converted strengthen thy Brethren....

"Therefore let me entreat you to look upon your Country-men around
you, and pity them, not so much for their being Fellow-Captives with
you in a strange Land; as for this, that they are not yet, like you,
delivered from the Power of Darkness....

"Invite them to learn to read, and direct them where they may apply
for Assistance, especially to those faithful Ministers, who have been
your Instructors and Fathers in Christ...."--Fawcett's _Address to the
Negroes in Virginia_, etc., pp. 8, 17, 18, 24, 25.


EXTRACT FROM THE APPENDIX OF BENJAMIN FAWCETT'S "ADDRESS TO THE
CHRISTIAN NEGROES IN VIRGINIA"

"The first Account, I ever met with, of any considerable Number of
Negroes embracing the Gospel, is in a letter written by Mr. Davies,
Minister at Hanover in Virginia, to Mr. Bellamy of Bethlehem in New
England, dated June 28, 1751. It appears that the Letter was designed
for Publication; and I suppose, was accordingly printed at Boston
in New England. It is to be seen in vol. ii., pages 330-338, of the
_Historical Collections_ relating to remarkable Periods of the Success
of the Gospel, and eminent Instruments employed in promoting it;
Compiled by Mr. John Gillies, one of the Ministers of Glasgow: Printed
by Foulis in 1754. Mr. Davies fills the greatest part of his Letter,
with an Account of the declining State of Religion in Virginia, and
the remarkable Means used by Providence to revive it, for a few Years
before his Settlement there, which was in 1747; not in the character
of a Missionary, but that of a dissenting Minister, invited by a
particular People, and fixed with them. Such, he observes, was the
scattered State of his Congregation, that he soon found it necessary
to license seven Meeting-Houses, the nearest of which are twelve or
fifteen Miles distant from each other, and the extremes about Forty;
yet some of his People live twenty, thirty, and a few forty Miles from
the nearest Meeting-House. He computes his Communicants at about three
Hundred. He then says, 'There is also a Number of Negroes. Some times
I see a Hundred and more among my Hearers. I have baptized about Forty
of them within the last three Years, upon such a Profession of Faith
as I then judged credible. Some of them, I fear, have apostatized; but
others, I trust, will persevere to the End. I have had as satisfying
Evidences of the sincere Piety of several of them, as ever I had from
any Person in my Life; and their artless Simplicity, their passionate
Aspirations after Christ, their incessant Endeavors to know and do
the Will of God, have charmed me. But, alas! while my Charge is
so extensive, I cannot take sufficient Pains with them for their
Instruction, which often oppresses my Heart....'"

At the Close of the above Letter, in the _Historical Collections_
(vol. ii., page 338), there is added the following Marginal
Note.--"May 22, 1754. Mr. G. Tennent and Mr. Davies being at
Edinburgh, as Agents for the Trustees of the College of New Jersey,
Mr. Davies informs,--that when he left Virginia in August last, there
was a hopeful Appearance of a greater Spread of a religious Concern
amongst the Negroes;--And a few weeks before he left Home, he baptized
in one Day fifteen Negroes, after they had been catechized for some
Months, and given credible Evidences of their sincerely embracing the
Gospel."

After these Gentlemen had finished the Business of their late Mission
in this part of the World, Mr. Davies gave the following Particulars
to his Correspondent in London, in a letter which he wrote in the
Spring of the previous Year, six Weeks after his safe return to his
Family and Friends.--"The Inhabitants of Virginia are computed to be
about 300,000 Men, the one-half of which Number are supposed to be
Negroes. The Number of those who attend my Ministry at particular
Times is uncertain, but generally about three Hundred who give a
stated Attendance. And never have I been so much struck with the
Appearance of an Assembly, as when I have glanced my Eye to that Part
of the Meeting-House, where they usually sit; adorned, for so it had
appeared to me, with so many black Countenances, eagerly attentive to
every Word they hear, and frequently bathed in Tears. A considerable
Number of them, about a Hundred, have been baptized, after the proper
Time for Instruction, and having given credible Evidences, not only
of their Acquaintance with the important Doctrines of the Christian
Religion, but also a deep Sense of them upon their Minds, attested
by a Life of the strictest Piety and Holiness. As they are not
sufficiently polished to dissemble with a good Grace, they express the
sentiments of their Souls so much in the Language of simple Nature,
and with such genuine Indications of Sincerity, that it is impossible
to suspect their Professions, especially when attended with a truly
Christian Life and exemplary Conduct.--My worthy Friend, Mr. Tod,
Minister of the next Congregation, has near the same Number under his
Instructions, who, he tells me, discover the same serious Turn of
Mind. In short, Sir, there are Multitudes of them in different Places,
who are willing, and eagerly desirous to be instructed, and embrace
every Opportunity of acquainting themselves with the Doctrines of the
Gospel; and tho' they have generally very little Help to learn to
read, yet, to my agreeable Surprise, many of them, by the Dint of
Application in their Leisure-Hours, have made such a Progress, that
they can intelligibly read a plain Author, and especially their
Bibles; and Pity it is that many of them should be without them.
Before I had the Pleasure of being admitted a Member of your Society
[Mr. Davies here means the Society for promoting religious Knowledge
among the Poor, which was first begun in London in August, 1750] the
Negroes were wont frequently to come to me, with such moving Accounts
of their Necessities in this Respect, that I could not help supplying
them with Books to the utmost of my small Ability; and when I
distributed those among them, which my Friends with you sent over, I
had Reason to think that I never did an Action in all my Life,
that met with so much Gratitude from the Receivers. I have already
distributed all the Books I brought over, which were proper for them.
Yet still, on Saturday Evenings, the only Time they can spare [they
are allowed some short Time, viz., Saturday afternoon, and Sunday,
says Dr. Douglass in his Summary. See the _Monthly Review_ for
October, 1755, page 274] my House is crowded with Numbers of them,
whose very Countenances still carry the air of importunate Petitioners
for the same Favors with those who came before them. But, alas!
my Stock is exhausted, and I must send them away grieved and
disappointed.--Permit me, Sir, to be an Advocate with you, and, by
your Means, with your generous Friends in their Behalf. The Books I
principally want for them are, Watts' Psalms and Hymns, and Bibles.
The two first they cannot be supplied with any other Way than by a
Collection, as they are not among the Books which your Society give
away. I am the rather importunate for a good Number of these, and I
cannot but observe, that the Negroes, above all the Human Species that
I ever knew, have an Ear for Musick, and a kind of extatic Delight in
Psalmody; and there are no Books they learn so soon, or take so much
Pleasure in as those used in that heavenly Part of divine Worship.
Some Gentlemen in London were pleased to make me a private Present of
these Books for their Use, and from the Reception they met with, and
their Eagerness for more, I can easily foresee, how acceptable and
useful a larger Number would be among them. Indeed, Nothing would be a
greater Inducement to their Industry to learn to read, than the Hope
of such a Present; which they would consider, both as a Help, and a
Reward for their Diligence"....--_Fawcett's Address to the Christian
Negroes in Virginia_, etc., pp. 33. 34. 35. 36, 37. 38.


EXTRACT FROM JONATHAN BOUCHER'S "A VIEW OF THE CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES
OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION"(1763)

"If ever these colonies, now filled with slaves, be improved to their
utmost capacity, an essential part of the improvement must be the
abolition of slavery. Such a change would be hardly more to the
advantage of the slaves than it would be to their owners....

"I do you no more than justice in bearing witness, that in no part of
the world were slaves better treated than, in general, they are in the
colonies.... In one essential point, I fear, we are all deficient;
they are nowhere sufficiently instructed. I am far from recommending
it to you, at once to set them free; because to do so would be an
heavy loss to you, and probably no gain to them; but I do entreat
you to make them some amends for the drudgery of their bodies by
cultivating their minds. By such means only can we hope to fulfil the
ends, which we may be permitted to believe, Providence had in view in
suffering them to be brought among us. You may unfetter them from the
chains of ignorance; you may emancipate them from the bondage of sin,
the worst slavery to which they can be subjected; and by thus setting
at liberty those that are bruised, though they still continue to be
your slaves, they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the Children of God."--Jonathan Boucher's
_A View of the Causes and Consequences_, etc., pp. 41, 42, 43.


BOUCHER ON AMERICAN EDUCATION IN 1773

"You pay far too little regard to parental education....

"What is still less credible is that at least two-thirds of the little
education we receive is derived from instructors who are either
indented servants or transported felons. Not a ship arrives either
with redemptioners or convicts, in which schoolmasters are not as
regularly advertised for sale as weavers, tailors, or any other trade;
with little other difference, that I can hear of, excepting perhaps
that the former do not usually fetch so good a price as the latter....

"I own, however, that I dislike slavery and among other reasons
because as it is here conducted it has pernicious effects on the
social state, by being unfavorable to education. It certainly is no
necessary circumstance, essential to the condition of a slave, that he
be uneducated; yet this is the general and almost universal lot of the
slaves. Such extreme, deliberate, and systematic inattention to all
mental improvement, in so large portion of our species, gives far too
much countenance and encouragement to those abject persons who are
contented to be rude and ignorant."--Jonathan Boucher's _A View of the
Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution_, pp. 183, 188,
189.


A PORTION OF AN ESSAY OF BISHOP PORTEUS TOWARD A PLAN FOR THE MORE
EFFECTUAL CIVILIZATION AND CONVERSION OF THE NEGRO SLAVES ON THE TRENT
ESTATE IN BARBADOES BELONGING TO THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF
THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS. (WRITTEN IN 1784)

"We are expressly commanded to preach the gospel to every creature;
and therefore every human creature must necessarily be capable of
receiving it. It may be true, perhaps, that the generality of
the Negro slaves are extremely dull of apprehension, and slow of
understanding; but it may be doubted whether they are more so than
some of the lowest classes of our own people; at least they are
certainly not inferior in capacity to the Greenlanders, many of whom
have made very sincere Christians. Several travellers of good credit
speak in very favorable terms, both of the understandings and
dispositions of the native Africans on the coast of Guinea; and it is
a well-known fact, that many even of the Negro slaves in our islands,
although laboring under disadvantages and discouragements, that might
well depress and stupefy even the best understandings, yet give
sufficient proofs of the great quickness of parts and facility in
learning. They have, in particular, a natural turn to the mechanical
arts, in which several of them show much ingenuity, and arrive at no
small degree of perfection. Some have discovered marks of genius for
music, poetry, and other liberal accomplishments; and there are not
wanting instances among them of a strength of understanding, and a
generosity, dignity, and heroism of mind, which would have done honour
to the most cultivated European. It is not, therefore, to any natural
or unconquerable disability in the subject we had to work upon, that
the little success of our efforts is to be ascribed. This would indeed
be an insuperable obstacle, and must put an effectual stop to all
future attempts of the same nature; but as this is far from being the
case, we must look for other causes of our disappointment; which may
perhaps appear to be, though of a serious, yet less formidable nature,
and such as it is in the power of human industry and perseverance,
with the blessing of Providence, to remove. The principal of them, it
is conceived, are these which here follow:

1. "Although several of our ministers and catechists in the college of
Barbadoes have been men of great worth and piety, and good intentions,
yet in general they do not appear (if we may judge from their letters
to the Board) to have possessed that peculiar sort of talents and
qualifications, that facility and address in conveying religious
truths, that unconquerable activity, patience, and perseverance, which
the instruction of dull and uncultivated minds requires, and which
we sometimes see so eminently and successfully displayed in the
missionaries of other churches.

"And indeed the task of instructing and converting near three hundred
Negro slaves, and of educating their children in the principles of
morality and religion, is too laborious for any one person to execute
well; especially when the stipend is too small to animate his
industry, and excite his zeal.

2. "There seems also to have been a want of other modes of
instruction, and of other books and tracts for that purpose, besides
those made use of hitherto by our catechists. And there is reason
moreover to believe, that the time allotted to the instruction of the
Negroes has not been sufficient.

3. "Another impediment to the progress of our slaves in Christian
knowledge has been their too frequent intercourse with the Negroes of
the neighboring plantations, and the accession of fresh slaves to our
own, either hired from other estates, or imported from Africa. These
are so many constant temptations in their way to revert to their
former heathenish principles and savage manners, to which they have
always a strong natural propensity; and when this propensity is
continually inflamed by the solicitations of their unconverted
brethren, or the arrival of new companions from the coast of Guinea,
it frequently becomes very difficult to be resisted, and counteracts,
in a great degree, all the influence and exhortations of their
religious teachers.

4. "Although this society has been always most honourably
distinguished by the gentleness with which the negroes belonging to
its trust estates have been generally treated, yet even these (by the
confession of our missionaries) are in too abject, and depressed, and
uncivilized a state to be proper subjects for the reception of the
divine truths of revelation. They stand in need of some further marks
of the society's regard and tenderness for them, to conciliate their
affections, to invigorate their minds, to encourage their hopes,
and to rouse them out of that state of languor and indolence and
insensibility, which renders them indifferent and careless both about
this world and the next.

5. "A still further obstacle to the effectual conversion of the
Negroes has been the almost unrestrained licentiousness of their
manner, the habits of vice and dissoluteness in which they are
permitted to live, and the sad examples they too frequently see in
their managers and overseers. It can never be expected that people
given up to such practices as these, can be much disposed to receive a
pure and undefiled religion: or that, if after their conversion they
are allowed, as they generally are, to retain their former habits,
their christianity can be anything more than a mere name.

"These probably the society will, on inquiry, find to have been the
principal causes of the little success they have hitherto had in their
pious endeavors to render their own slaves real christians. And it is
with a view principally to the removal of these obstacles that the
following regulations are, with all due deference to better judgments,
submitted to their consideration.

"The first and most essential step towards a real and effectual
conversion of our Negroes would be the appointment of a missionary
(in addition to the present catechist) properly qualified for that
important and difficult undertaking. He should be a clergyman sought
out for in this country, of approved ability, piety, humanity,
industry, and a fervent, yet prudent zeal for the interests of
religion, and the salvation of those committed to his care; and should
have a stipend not less than 200 f. sterling a year if he has an
apartment and is maintained in the College, or 300 f. a year if he is
not.

"This clergyman might be called (for a reason to be hereafter
assigned) 'The Guardian of the Negroes'; and his province should be
to superintend the moral and spiritual concern of the slaves, to take
upon himself the religious instruction of the adult Negroes, and to
take particular care that all the Negro children are taught to read
by the catechist and the two assistant women (now employed by the
society) and also that they are diligently instructed by the catechist
in the principles of the Christian religion, till they are fifteen
years of age, when they shall be instructed by himself with the adult
Negroes.

"This instruction of the Negro children from their earliest years is
one of the most important and essential parts of the whole plan; for
it is to the education of the young Negroes that we are principally
to look for the success of our spiritual labours. These may be easily
taught to understand and to speak the English language with fluency;
these may be brought up from their earliest youth in habits of virtue,
and restrained from all licentious indulgences: these may have the
principles and the precepts of religion impressed so early upon their
tender minds as to sink deep, and to take firm root, and bring forth
the fruits of a truly Christian life. To this great object, therefore,
must our chief attention be directed; and as almost everything must
depend on the ability, the integrity, the assiduity, the perseverance
of the person to whom we commit so important a charge, it is
impossible for us to be too careful and too circumspect in our choice
of a CATECHIST. He must consider it his province, not merely to teach
the Negroes the use of letters, but the elements of Christianity; not
only to improve their understandings, but to form their hearts. For
this purpose they must be put into his hands the moment they are
capable of articulating their words, and their instruction must be
pursued with unrelenting diligence. So long as they continue too young
to work, they may be kept constantly in the school; as they grow fit
to labour, their attendance on the CATECHIST must gradually lessen,
till at length they take their full share of work with the grown
Negroes.

"A school of this nature was formerly established by the society
of Charlestown in South Carolina, about the year 1745, under the
direction of Mr. Garden, the Bishop of London's commissary in that
province. This school flourished greatly, and seemed to answer their
utmost wishes. There were at one time sixty scholars in it, and twenty
young Negroes were annually sent out from it well instructed in the
English language, and the Christian faith. Mr. Garden, in his letters
to the society, speaks in the highest terms of the progress made
by his scholars, and says, that the Negroes themselves were highly
pleased with their own acquirements. But it is supposed that on a
parochial establishment being made in Charlestown by government, this
excellent institution was dropt; for after the year 1751, no further
mention is made of it in the minutes of the society. From what little
we know of it, however, we may justly conceive the most pleasing
hopes from a similar foundation at Barbadoes."--_The Works of Bishop
Porteus_, vi., pp., 171-179.


EXTRACT FROM "THE ACTS OF DR. BRAY'S VISITATION HELD AT ANNAPOLIS IN
MARYLAND, MAY 23, 24, 25, ANNO 1700"

_Words of Dr. Bray_

"I think, my REVEREND BRETHREN, that we are now gone through such
measures as may be necessary to be considered for the more universal
as well as successful Catechising, and Instruction of Youth. And I
heartily thank you for your so ready Concurrence in every thing that
I have offered to you: And which, I hope, will appear no less in the
Execution, than it has been to the Proposals.

"And that proper Books may not be wanting for the several Classes of
Catechumens, there is care taken for the several sorts, which may be
all had in this Town. And it may be necessary to acquaint you,
that for the poor Children and Servants, they shall be given
Gratis."--Hawks's _Ecclesiastical History of the United States_, vol.
ii., pp. 503-504.


EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE MEETINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF
FRIENDS....

FROM THE MINUTES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
AND NEW JERSEY, 1774

"And having grounds to conclude that there are some brethren who have
these poor captives under their care, and are desirous to be wisely
directed in the restoring them to liberty: Friends who may be
appointed by quarterly and monthly meetings on the service now
proposed, are earnestly desired to give their weighty and solid
attention for the assistance of such who are thus honestly and
religiously concerned for their own relief, and the essential benefit
of the negro. And in such families where there are young ones, or
others of suitable age, that they excite the masters, or those who
have them, to give them sufficient instruction and learning, in order
to qualify them for the enjoyment of liberty intended, and that they
may be instructed by themselves, or placed out to such masters and
mistresses who will be careful of their religious education, to serve
for such time, and no longer, as is prescribed by law and custom, for
white people."--_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the
Testimony of the Religious Society of Friends against Slavery and the
Slave Trade_. Published by direction of the Yearly Meeting, held in
Philadelphia, in the Fourth Month, 1843, p. 38.


FROM THE MINUTES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF PHILADELPHIA
AND NEW JERSEY, 1779

"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be awakened in the minds of
many who are not in religious profession with us, who have seriously
considered the oppressions and disadvantages under which those people
have long laboured; and whether a pious care extended to their
offspring is not justly due from us to them, is a consideration worthy
of our serious and deep attention; or if this obligation did not
weightily lay upon us, can benevolent minds be directed to any object
more worthy of their liberality and encouragement, than that of laving
a foundation in the rising generation for their becoming good and
useful men? remembering what was formerly enjoined, 'If thy brethren
be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve
him; yea, though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may live
with thee.'"--_Ibid_., p. 38.


FROM THE MINUTES OF THE QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF CHESTER

"The consideration of the temporal and spiritual welfare of the
Africans, and the necessary instruction of their offspring now being
resumed, and after some time spent thereon, it is closely recommended
to our several monthly meetings to pay due attention to the advice of
the Yearly Meeting on this subject, and proceed as strength may be
afforded, in looking after them in their several habitations by a
religious visit; giving them such counsel as their situation may
require."--_Ibid_., p. 39.


FROM THE MINUTES OF THE HADDONFIELD QUARTERLY MEETING

"In Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting, a committee was kept steadily under
appointment for several years to assist in manumissions, and in the
education of the negro children. Religious meetings were frequently
held for the people of color; and Haddonfield Monthly Meeting raised
on one occasion 131 pounds, for the education of negro children.

"In Salem Monthly Meeting, frequent meetings of worship for the people
of color were held by direction of the monthly meeting; funds were
raised for the education of their children, and committees appointed
in the different meetings to provide books, place the children
at school, to visit the schools, and inspect their conduct and
improvement.

"Meetings for Divine worship were regularly held for people of color,
at least once in three months, under the direction of the monthly
meetings of Friends in Philadelphia; and schools were also established
at which their children were gratuitously instructed in useful
learning. One of these, originally instituted by Anthony Benezet, is
now in operation in the city of Philadelphia, and has been continued
under the care of one of the monthly meetings of Friends of that city,
and supported by funds derived from voluntary contributions of the
members, and from legacies and bequests, yielding an income of about
$1000 per annum. The average number of pupils is about sixty-eight of
both sexes."--_Ibid_., pp. 40-41.


FROM THE MINUTES OF THE RHODE ISLAND QUARTERLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS,
1769

A committee reported "that having met, and entered into a solemn
consideration of the subject, they were of the mind that a useful
alteration might be made in the query referred to; yet apprehending
some further Christian endeavors in labouring with such who continue
in possession of slaves should be first promoted, by which means the
eyes of Friends may be more clearly opened to behold the iniquity
of the practice of detaining our fellow creatures in bondage, and a
disposition to set such free who are arrived to mature age; and when
the labour is performed and report made to the meeting, the meeting
may be better capable of determining what further step to take in this
affair, which hath given so much concern to faithful Friends, and that
in the meantime it should be enforced upon Friends that have them in
possession, to treat them with tenderness; impress God's fear on their
minds; promote their attending places of religious worship; and give
such as are young, so much learning, that they may be capable of
reading.

"Are Friends clear of importing, buying, or any ways disposing of
negroes or slaves; and do they use those well who are under their
care, and not in circumstances, through nonage or incapacity, to
be set at liberty? And do they give those that are young such an
education as becomes Christians; and are the others encouraged in a
religious and virtuous life? Are all set at liberty that are of age,
capacity, and ability suitable for freedom?"--_Ibid_., pp. 45,46.


FROM THE MINUTES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE FRIENDS OF VIRGINIA IN
1757 AND 1773

"Are Friends clear of importing or buying negroes to trade on; and
do they use those well which they are possessed of by inheritance
or otherwise, endeavoring to train them in the principles of the
Christian religion?"

The meeting of 1773 recommended to Friends, "seriously to consider the
circumstances of these poor people, and the obligation we are under to
discharge our religious duties to them, which being disinterestedly
pursued, will lead the professor to Truth, to advise and assist them
on all occasions, particularly in promoting their instruction in the
principles of the Christian religion, and the pious education of their
children; also to advise them in their worldly concerns, as occasions
offer; and it advised that Friends of judgment and experience may be
nominated for this necessary service, it being the solid sense of
this meeting, that we, of the present generation, are under strong
obligations to express our love and concern for the offspring of those
people, who, by their labours, have greatly contributed toward the
cultivation of these colonies, under the afflictive disadvantage of
enduring a hard bondage; and many amongst us are enjoying the benefit
of their toil."--_Ibid._, pp. 51, 52, and 54.


EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE METHODIST CONFERENCE, 1785

"Q. What directions shall we give for the promotion of the spiritual
welfare of the colored people?

"A. We conjure all our ministers and preachers, by the love of God and
the salvation of souls, and do require them, by all the authority that
is invested in us, to leave nothing undone for the spiritual benefit
and salvation of them, within their respective circuits or districts;
and for this purpose to embrace every opportunity of inquiring into
the state of their souls, and to unite in society those who appear to
have a real desire of fleeing from the wrath to come, to meet such a
class, and to exercise the whole Methodist Discipline among them."

"Q. What can be done in order to instruct poor children, white and
black to read?

"A. Let us labor, as the heart of one man, to establish Sunday
schools, in or near the place of public worship. Let persons be
appointed by the bishop, elders, deacons, or preachers, to teach
gratis all that will attend or have the capacity to learn, from six
o'clock in the morning till ten, and from two o'clock in the afternoon
till six, where it does not interfere with public worship. The
council shall compile a proper school book to teach them learning and
piety."--Rev. Charles Elliott's _History of the Great Secession front
the Methodist Episcopal Church_, etc., p. 35.


A PORTION OF AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN 1800.

The Assembly recommended:

"2. The instruction of Negroes, the poor and those who are destitute
of the means of grace in various parts of this extensive country;
whoever contemplates the situation of this numerous class of persons
in the United States, their gross ignorance of the plainest principles
of religion, their immorality and profaneness, their vices and
dissoluteness of manners, must be filled with anxiety for their
present welfare, and above all for their future and eternal happiness.

"3. The purchasing and disposing of Bibles and also of books and short
essays on the great principles of religion and morality, calculated
to impress the minds of those to whom they are given with a sense of
their duty both to God and man, and consequently of such a nature as
to arrest the attention, interest the curiosity and touch the feelings
of those to whom they are given."--_Act and Proceedings of the General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. in the Year 1800_,
Philadelphia.


AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN 1801

"The Assembly resumed the consideration of the communication from the
Trustees of the General Assembly and having gone through the same,
thereupon resolved,

"5. That there be made a purchase of so many cheap and pious books as
a due regard to the other objects of the Assembly's funds will admit,
with a view of distributing them not only among the frontiers of these
States, but also among the poorer classes of people, and the blacks,
or wherever it is thought useful; which books shall be given away, or
lent, at the discretion of the distributor; and that there be received
from Mr. Robert Aitken, toward the discharge of his debt, books to
such amount as shall appear proper to the Trustees of the Assembly,
who are hereby requested to take proper measures for the distribution
of same."--_Act and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A._


PLAN FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE FREE BLACKS

The business relative to free blacks shall be transacted by a
committee of twenty-four persons, annually elected by ballot at a
meeting of this Society, in the month called April, and in order to
perform the different services with expedition, regularity and energy
this committee shall resolve itself into the following sub-committees,
viz.:

I. A Committee of Inspection, who shall superintend the morals,
general conduct, and ordinary situation of the free negroes, and
afford them advice and instruction, protection from wrongs, and other
friendly offices.

II. A Committee of Guardians, who shall place out children and young
people with suitable persons, that they may (during a moderate time
of apprenticeship or servitude) learn some trade or other business
of subsistence. The committee may effect this partly by a persuasive
influence on parents and the persons concerned, and partly by
cooeperating with the laws, which are or may be enacted for this
and similar purposes. In forming contracts of these occasions, the
committee shall secure to the Society as far as may be practicable the
right of guardianship over the person so bound.

III. A Committee of Education, who shall superintend the school
instruction of the children and youth of the free blacks. They
may either influence them to attend regularly the schools already
established in this city, or form others with this view; they shall,
in either case, provide, that the pupils may receive such learning as
is necessary for their future situation in life, and especially a deep
impression of the most important and generally acknowledged moral and
religious principles. They shall also procure and preserve a regular
record of the marriages, births, and manumissions of all free blacks.

IV. The Committee of Employ, who shall endeavor to procure constant
employment for those free negroes who are able to work; as the want of
this would occasion poverty, idleness, and many vicious habits. This
committee will by sedulous inquiry be enabled to find common labor for
a great number; they will also provide that such as indicate proper
talents may learn various trades, which may be done by prevailing upon
them to bind themselves for such a term of years as shall compensate
their masters for the expense and trouble of instruction and
maintenance. The committee may attempt the institution of some simple
and useful manufactures which will require but little skill, and also
may assist, in commencing business, such as appear to be qualified for
it.

Whenever the Committee of Inspection shall find persons of any
particular description requiring attention, they shall immediately
direct them to the committee of whose care they are the proper
objects.

In matters of a mixed nature, the committee shall confer, and, if
necessary, act in concert. Affairs of great importance shall be
referred to the whole committee.

The expense incurred by the prosecution of this plan, shall be
defrayed by a fund, to be formed by donations or subscriptions for
these particular purposes, and to be kept separate from the other
funds of the Society.

The Committee shall make a report on their proceedings, and of the
state of their stock, to the Society, at their quarterly meetings, in
the months called April and October.--Smyth's _Writings of Benjamin
Franklin_, vol. x, p. 127.


EXTRACT FROM THE "ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION OF DELEGATES FROM
THE ABOLITION SOCIETIES, 1795"

"We cannot forbear expressing to you our earnest desire, that you will
continue, without ceasing, to endeavor, by every method in your power
which can promise any success, to procure, either an absolute repeal
of all the laws in your state, which countenance slavery, or such an
amelioration of them as will gradually produce an entire abolition.
Yet, even should that great end be happily attained, it cannot put
a period to the necessity of further labor. The education of the
emancipated, the noblest and most arduous task which we have to
perform, will require all our wisdom and virtue, and the constant
exercise of the greatest skill and discretion. When we have broken his
chains, and restored the African to the enjoyment of his rights, the
great work of justice and benevolence is not accomplished--The new
born citizen must receive that instruction, and those powerful
impressions of moral and religious truths, which will render him
capable and desirous of fulfilling the various duties he owes to
himself and to his country. By educating some in the higher branches
of science, and all the useful parts of learning, and in the precepts
of religion and morality, we shall not only do away with the reproach
and calumny so unjustly lavished upon us, but confound the enemies of
truth, by evincing that the unhappy sons of Africa, in spite of the
degrading influence of slavery, are in no wise inferior to the more
fortunate inhabitants of Europe and America.

"As a means of effectuating, in some degree, a design so virtuous and
laudable, we recommend to you to appoint a committee, annually, or
for any other more convenient period, to execute such plans, for the
improvement of the condition and moral character of the free blacks
in your state, as you may think best adapted to your particular
situation."--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Second Convention of
Delegates, 1795._


A PORTION OF THE "ADDRESS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION OF DELEGATES TO
THE FREE AFRICANS AND OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, 1796"

"In the first place, We earnestly recommend to you, a regular
attention to the duty of public worship; by which means you will
evince gratitude to your CREATOR, and, at the same time, promote
knowledge, union, friendship, and proper conduct among yourselves.

"Secondly, we advise such of you, as have not been taught reading,
writing, and the first principles of arithmetic, to acquire them
as early as possible. Carefully attend to the instruction of your
children in the same simple and useful branches of education. Cause
them, likewise, early and frequently to read the holy Scriptures. They
contain, among other great discoveries, the precious record of the
original equality of mankind, and of the obligations of universal
justice and benevolence, which are derived from the relation of the
human race to each other in a COMMON FATHER.

"Thirdly, Teach your children useful trades, or to labor with their
hands in cultivating the earth. These employments are favorable to
health and virtue. In the choice of masters, who are to instruct them
in the above branches of business, prefer those who will work with
them; by this means they will acquire habits of industry, and be
better preserved from vice, than if they worked alone, or under the
eye of persons less interested in their welfare. In forming contracts
for yourselves or children, with masters, it may be useful to consult
such persons as are capable of giving you the best advice, who are
known to be your friends, in order to prevent advantages being taken
of your ignorance of the laws and customs of your country."_--Minutes
of the Proceedings of the Third Convention of Delegates, 1796.
American Convention of Abolition Societies, Minutes, 1795-1804_


A PORTION OF THE ADDRESS TO THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR BY THE AMERICAN
CONVENTION FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, 1819

"The great work of emancipation is not to be accomplished in a
day;--it must be the result of time, of long and continued exertions:
it is for you to show by an orderly and worthy deportment that you are
deserving of the rank which you have attained. Endeavor as much as
possible to use economy in your expenses, so that you may be enabled
to save from your earnings, something for the education of your
children, and for your support in time of sickness and in old age: and
let all those who by attending to this admonition, have acquired the
means, send their children to school as soon as they are old enough,
where their morals will be the object of attention, as well as their
improvement in school learning; and when they arrive at a suitable
age, let it be your especial care to have them instructed in some
mechanical art suited to their capacities, or in agricultural
pursuits; by which they may afterwards be enabled to support
themselves and a family. Encourage also, those among you who are
qualified as teachers of schools, and when you are of ability to pay,
never send your children to free schools; this may be considered as
robbing the poor, of the opportunities which were intended for them
alone."


THE WILL OF KOSCIUSZKO

I, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, being just on my departure from America, do
hereby declare and direct, that, should I make no other testamentary
disposition of my property in the United States, I hereby authorize my
friend, Thomas Jefferson, to employ the whole thereof in purchasing
Negroes from his own or any others, and giving them liberty in my
name, in giving them an education in trade or otherwise, and in having
them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality,
which may make them good neighbors, good fathers or mothers, husbands
or wives in their duties as citizens, teaching them to be defenders of
their liberty and country, and of the good order of society, and in
whatsoever may make them happy and useful. And I make the said Thomas
Jefferson my executor of this.

(Signed) T. KOSCIUSZKO. May 5, 1798. [See _African Repository_, vol.
xi., p. 294.]


FROM WASHINGTON'S WILL

"Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the
slaves whom I now hold in my own right shall receive their freedom....
And whereas among those who will receive freedom according to this
devise, there may be some who, from old age or bodily infirmities,
and others who on account of their infancy will be unable to support
themselves, it is my will and desire that all who come under the first
and second description, shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my
heirs while they live; and that such of the latter description as have
no parents living, or if living are unable or unwilling to provide for
them, shall be bound by the court until they shall arrive at the age
of twenty-five years; and in cases where no record can be produced,
whereby their ages can be ascertained, the judgement of court upon its
own view of the subject shall be adequate and final. The negroes thus
bound are (by their masters or mistresses) to be taught to read and
write, and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeable to
the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of
orphan and other poor children."--Benson J. Lossing's _Life of George
Washington_, vol. iii., p. 537.


THIS INTERESTING DIALOGUE WAS WRITTEN BY AN AMERICAN ABOUT 1800

The following dialogue took place between Mr. Jackson the master of a
family, and the slave of one of his neighbors who lived adjoining the
town, on this occasion. Mr. Jackson was walking through the common and
came to a field of this person's farm. He there saw the slave leaning
against the fence with a book in his hand, which he seemed to be very
intent upon; after a little time he closed the book, and clasping it
in both his hands, looked upwards as if engaged in mental prayer;
after this, he put the book in his bosom, and walked along the fence
near where Mr. Jackson was standing. Surprised at seeing a person of
his color engaged with a book, and still more by the animation and
delight that he observed in his countenance; he determines to enquire
about it, and calls to him as he passes.

_Mr. J_. So I see you have been reading, my lad?

_Slave_. Yes, sir.

_Mr. J_. Well, I have a great curiosity to see what you were reading
so earnestly; will you show me the book?

_Slave_. To be sure, sir. (And he presented it to him very
respectfully.)

_Mr. J_. The Bible!--Pray when did you get this book? And who taught
you to read it?

_Slave_. I thank God, sir, for the book. I do not know the good
gentleman who gave it to me, but I am sure God sent it to me. I was
learning to read in town at nights, and one morning a gentleman met me
in the road as I had my spelling book open in my hand: he asked me if
I could read, I told him a little, and he gave me this book and told
me to make haste and learn to read it, and to ask God to help me, and
that it would make me as happy as any body in the world.

_Mr. J_. Well did you do so?

_Slave_. I thought about it for some time, and I wondered that any
body should give me a book or care about me; and I wondered what that
could be which could make a poor slave like me so happy; and so I
thought more and more of it, and I said I would try and do as the
gentleman bid me, and blessed be God! he told me nothing but the
truth.

_Mr. J_. Who is your master?

_Slave_. Mr. Wilkins, sir, who lives in that house.

_Mr. J_. I know him; he is a very good man; but what does he say to
your leaving his work to read your book in the field?

_Slave_. I was not leaving his work, sir. This book does not teach me
to neglect my master's work. I could not be happy if I did that.--I
have done my breakfast, sir, and am waiting till the horses are done
eating.

_Mr. J_. Well, what does that book teach you?

_Slave_. Oh, sir! every thing that I want to know--all I am to do,
this book tells me, and so plain. It shew me first that I was a
wretched, ruined sinner, and what would become of me if I died in that
state, and then when I was day and night in dread of God's calling me
to account for my wickedness, and did not know which way to look for
my deliverance, reading over and over again those dreadful words,
"depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire," then it revealed to
me how Jesus Christ had consented to come and suffer punishment for
us in our stead, and bought pardon for us by his blood, and how by
believing on him and serving him, I might become a child of God, so
that I need be no more terrified by the thoughts of God's anger but
sure of his forgiveness and love....

(Here Mr. J. pursued his walk; but soon reflecting on what he had
heard, he resolved to walk by Mr. Wilkins's house and enquire into
this affair from him. This he did, and finding him the following
conversation took place between them.)

_Mr. J_. Sir, I have been talking with a man of yours in that field,
who was engaged, while his horses were eating, in reading a book;
which I asked him to shew me and found it was the Bible; thereupon I
asked him some questions and his answers, and the account he gave of
himself, have surprised me greatly.

_Mr. W_. I presume it was Will--and though I do not know what he
may have told you, yet I will undertake to say that he has told you
nothing but the truth. I am always safe in believing him, and do
not believe he would tell me an untruth for any thing that could be
offered him....

_Mr. J_. Well, sir, you have seen I trust in your family, good fruits
from the beginning.

_Mr. W_. Yes indeed, sir, and that man was most instrumental in
reconciling and encouraging all my people in the change. From that
time I have regarded him as more a friend and assistant, than a slave.
He has taught the younger ones to read, and by his kindness and
example, has been a great benefit to all. I have told them that I
would do what I could to instruct and improve them; and that if I
found any so vicious, that they would not receive it and strive to
amend, I would not keep them; that I hoped to have a religious,
praying family, and that none would be obstinately bent on their own
ruin. And from time to time, I endeavored to convince them that I was
aiming at their own good. I cannot tell you all the happiness of the
change, that God has been pleased to make among us, all by these
means. And I have been benefited both temporally and spiritually by
it; for my work is better done, and my people are more faithful,
contented, and obedient than before; and I have the comfort of
thinking that when my Lord and master shall call me to account for
those committed to my charge, I shall not be ashamed to present
them.--Bishop William Meade's "Tracts and Dialogues," etc., in
the Appendix of Thomas Bacon's _Sermons Addressed to Masters and
Servants_.


A TRUE ACCOUNT OF A PIOUS NEGRO

(Written about 1800)

Some years ago an English gentleman had occasion to be in North
America, where, among other adventures, the following circumstances
occurred to him which are related in his own words.

"Every day's observation convinces me that the children of God, viz.
those who believe in him, and on such terms are accepted by him
through Jesus Christ, are made so by his own especial grace and power
inclining them to what is good, and, assisting them when they endeavor
to be and continue so.

"In one of my excursions, while I was in the province of New York, I
was walking by myself over a considerable plantation, amused with its
husbandry, and comparing it with that of my own country, till I came
within a little distance of a middle aged negro, who was tilling the
ground. I felt a strong inclination to converse with him. After asking
him some little questions about his work, which he answered very
sensibly, I wished him to tell me, whether his state of slavery was
not disagreeable to him, and whether he would not gladly exchange it
for his liberty?"

"Massah," said he, looking seriously upon me, "I have wife and
children; my massah takes care of them, and I have no care to provide
anything; I have a good massah, who teach me to read; and I read good
book, that makes me happy." "I am glad," replied I, "to hear you say
so; and pray what is the good book you read?" "The Bible, massah,
God's own good book." "Do you understand, friend, as well as read this
book? for many can read the words well, who cannot get hold of the
true and good sense." "O massah," says he, "I read the book much
before I understand; but at last I found things in the book which made
me very uneasy." "Aye," said I, "and what things were they?" "Why
massah, I found that I was a sinner, massah, a very great sinner,
I feared that God would destroy me, because I was wicked, and done
nothing as I should do. God was holy, and I was very vile and naughty;
so I could have nothing from him but fire and brimstone in hell, if I
continued in this state." In short, he fully convinced me that he was
thoroughly sensible of his errors, and he told me what scriptures came
to his mind, which he had read, that both probed him to the bottom of
his sinful heart, and were made the means of light and comfort to his
soul. I then inquired of him, what ministry or means he made use of
and found that his master was a Quaker, a plain sort of man who had
taught his slaves to read, and had thus afforded him some means of
obtaining religious knowledge, though he had not ever conversed with
this negro upon the state of his soul. I asked him likewise, how he
got comfort under all his trials? "O massah," said he, "it was God
gave me comfort by his word. He bade me come unto him, and he would
give me rest, for I was very weary and heavy laden." And here he went
through a line of the most striking texts in the Bible, showing me, by
his artless comment upon them as he went along, what great things God
had done in the course of some years for his soul....--Bishop William
Meade's "Tracts, Dialogues," etc., in the Appendix of Thomas Bacon's
_Sermons Addressed to Masters and Servants_.


LETTER TO ABBE GREGOIRE, OF PARIS, 1809

I have received the favor of your letter of August 19th, and with
it the volume you were so kind as to send me on the Literature of
Negroes. Be assured that no person living wishes more sincerely than
I do to see a complete refutation of the doubts I have myself
entertained and expressed on the grade of understanding allotted to
them by nature and to find that in this respect they are on par with
ourselves. My doubts were the result of personal observation in the
limited sphere of my own state, where the opportunities for the
development of their genius were not favorable, and those of
exercising it still less so. I expressed them therefore with great
hesitation; but whatever be their degree of talent it is no measure
of their rights. Because Sir Isaac Newton was superior to others in
understanding, he was not therefore lord of the person and property
of others. On this subject they are gaining daily in the opinions
of nations, and hopeful advances are making towards their
re-establishment on an equal footing with the other colors of the
human family. I pray you therefore to accept my thanks for the many
instances you have enabled me to observe of respectable intelligence
in that race of men, which cannot fail to have effect in hastening the
day of their relief; and to be sure of the sentiments of the high and
just esteem and consideration which I tender to yourself with all
sincerity.--_Writings of Thomas Jefferson_, Memorial Edition, 1904,
vol. xii., p. 252.


PORTION OF JEFFERSON'S LETTER TO M.A. JULIEN, JULY 23, 1818

Referring to Kosciuszko, Jefferson said:

"On his departure from the United States in 1798 he left in my hands
an instrument appropriating after his death all the property he had
in our public funds, the price of his military services here, to the
education and emancipation of as many of the children of bondage
in this country as this should be adequate to. I am now too old to
undertake a business _de si longue haleine_; but I am taking measures
to place it in such hands as will ensure a faithful discharge of the
philanthropic intentions of the donor. I learn with pleasure your
continued efforts for the instruction of the future generations of
men, and, believing it the only means of effectuating their rights, I
wish them all possible success, and to yourself the eternal gratitude
of those who will feel their benefits, and beg leave to add the
assurance of my high esteem and respect."--_Writings of Thomas
Jefferson_, Memorial Edition. 1904, vol. xv., pp. 173-174.


FROM MADISON'S LETTER TO MISS FRANCES WRIGHT, SEPTEMBER 1, 1825

"Supposing these conditions to be duly provided for, particularly the
removal of the emancipated blacks, the remaining questions relate to
the aptitude and adequacy of the process by which the slaves are at
the same time to earn funds, entire or supplemental, required for
their emancipation and removal; and to be sufficiently educated for a
life of freedom and of social order....

"With respect to the proper course of education, no serious
difficulties present themselves. As they are to continue in a state
of bondage during the preparatory period, and to be within the
jurisdiction of States recognizing ample authority over them, a
competent discipline cannot be impracticable. The degree in which this
discipline will enforce the needed labour, and in which a voluntary
industry will supply the defect of compulsory labour, are vital
points, on which it may not be safe to be very positive without some
light from actual experiment.

"Considering the probable composition of the labourers, and the known
fact that, where the labour is compulsory, the greater the number of
labourers brought together (unless, indeed, where co-operation of
many hands is rendered essential by a particular kind of work or of
machinery) the less are the proportional profits, it may be doubted
whether the surplus from that source merely, beyond the support of the
establishment, would sufficiently accumulate in five, or even more
years, for the objects in view. And candor obliges me to say that I am
not satisfied either that the prospect of emancipation at a future
day will sufficiently overcome the natural and habitual repugnance to
labour, or that there is such an advantage of united over individual
labour as is taken for granted.

"In cases where portions of time have been allotted to slaves, as
among the Spaniards, with a view to their working out their freedom,
it is believed that but few have availed themselves of the opportunity
by a voluntary industry; and such a result could be less relied on
in a case where each individual would feel that the fruits of his
exertions would be shared by others, whether equally or unequally
making them, and that the exertions of others would equally avail him,
notwithstanding a deficiency in his own. Skilful arrangements might
palliate this tendency, but it would be difficult to counteract it
effectually.

"The examples of the Moravians, the Harmonites, and the Shakers,
in which the united labours of many for a common object have been
successful, have, no doubt, an imposing character. But it must be
recollected that in all these establishments there is a religious
impulse in the members, and a religious authority in the head, for
which there will be no substitutes of equivalent efficacy in the
emancipating establishment. The code of rules by which Mr. Rapp
manages his conscientious and devoted flock, and enriches a common
treasury, must be little applicable to the dissimilar assemblage
in question. His experience may afford valuable aid in its general
organization, and in the distribution of details of the work to be
performed. But an efficient administration must, as is judiciously
proposed, be in hands practically acquainted with the propensities and
habits of the members of the new community."


FROM FREDERICK DOUGLASS'S PAPER, 1853: "LEARN TRADES OR STARVE"

These are the obvious alternatives sternly presented to the free
colored people of the United States. It is idle, yea even ruinous, to
disguise the matter for a single hour longer; every day begins and
ends with the impressive lesson that free negroes must learn trades,
or die.

The old avocations, by which colored men obtained a livelihood, are
rapidly, unceasingly and inevitably passing into other hands; every
hour sees the black man elbowed out of employment by some newly
arrived emigrant, whose hunger and whose color are thought to give him
a better title to the place; and so we believe it will continue to be
until the last prop is levelled beneath us.

As a black man, we say if we cannot stand up, let us fall down. We
desire to be a man among men while we do live; and when we cannot,
we wish to die. It is evident, painfully evident to every reflecting
mind, that the means of living, for colored men, are becoming more
and more precarious and limited. Employments and callings formerly
monopolized by us, are so no longer.

White men are becoming house-servants, cooks and stewards on
vessels--at hotels.--They are becoming porters, stevedores,
wood-sawers, hod-carriers, brick-makers, white-washers and barbers,
so that the blacks can scarcely find the means of subsistence--a few
years ago, a _white_ barber would have been a curiosity--now their
poles stand on every street. Formerly blacks were almost the exclusive
coachmen in wealthy families: this is so no longer; white men are now
employed, and for aught we see, they fill their servile station with
an obsequiousness as profound as that of the blacks. The readiness and
ease with which they adapt themselves to these conditions ought not to
be lost sight of by the colored people. The meaning is very important,
and we should learn it. We are taught our insecurity by it. Without
the means of living, life is a curse, and leaves us at the mercy of
the oppressor to become his debased slaves. Now, colored men, what do
you mean to do, for you must do something? The American Colonization
Society tells you to go to Liberia. Mr. Bibb tells you to go to
Canada. Others tell you to go to school. We tell you to go to work;
and to work you must go or die. Men are not valued in this country, or
in any country, for what they are; they are valued for what they can
_do_. It is in vain that we talk of being men, if we do not the work
of men. We must become valuable to society in other departments of
industry than those servile ones from which we are rapidly being
excluded. We must show that we can _do_ as well as be; and to this end
we must learn trades. When we can build as well as live in houses;
when we can _make_ as well as _wear_ shoes; when we can produce as
well as consume wheat, corn and rye--then we shall become valuable to
society. Society is a hard-hearted affair.--With it the helpless may
expect no higher dignity than that of paupers. The individual must lay
society under obligation to him, or society will honor him only as a
stranger and sojourner. _How_ shall this be done? In this manner; use
every means, strain every nerve to master some important mechanical
art. At present, the facilities for doing so are few--institutions of
learning are more readily opened to you than the work-shop; but the
Lord helps them who will help themselves, and we have no doubt that
new facilities will be presented as we press forward.

If the alternative were presented to us of learning a trade or of
getting an education, we would learn the trade, for the reason, that
with the trade we could get the education while with the education we
could not get the trade. What we, as a people, most need, is the means
for our own elevation.--An educated colored man, in the United States,
unless he has within him the heart of a hero, and is willing to engage
in a lifelong battle for his rights, as a man, finds few inducements
to remain in this country. He is isolated in the land of his
birth--debarred by his color from congenial association with whites;
he is equally cast out by the ignorance of the _blacks_. The remedy
for this must comprehend the elevation of the masses; and this can
only be done by putting the mechanic arts within the reach of colored
men.

We have now stated pretty strongly the case of our colored countrymen;
perhaps some will say, _too_ strongly, but we know whereof we affirm.

In view of this state of things, we appeal to the abolitionists.
What Boss anti-slavery mechanic will take a black boy into his
wheelwright's shop, his blacksmith's shop, his joiner's shop, his
cabinet shop? Here is something _practical_; where are the whites
and where are the blacks that will respond to it? Where are the
antislavery milliners and seamstresses that will take colored girls
and teach them trades, by which they can obtain an honorable living?
The fact that we have made good cooks, good waiters, good barbers, and
white-washers, induces the belief that we may excel in higher branches
of industry. _One thing is certain; we must find new methods of
obtaining a livelihood, for the old ones are failing us very fast_.

We, therefore, call upon the intelligent and thinking ones amongst
us, to urge upon the colored people within their reach, in all
seriousness, the duty and the necessity of giving their children
useful and lucrative trades, by which they may commence the battle
of life with weapons, commensurate with the exigencies of
conflict.--_African Repository_, vol. xxix., pp. 136, 137.


EDUCATION OF COLORED PEOPLE

(_Written by a highly respectable gentleman of the South in_ 1854)

Several years ago I saw in the _Repository_, copied from the
_Colonization Herald_, a proposal to establish a college for the
education of young colored men in this country. Since that time I have
neither seen nor heard anything more of it, and I should be glad to
hear whether the proposed plan was ever carried into execution.

Four years ago I conversed with one of the officers of the
Colonization Society on the subject of educating in this country
colored persons intending to emigrate to Liberia, and expressed my
firm conviction of the paramount importance of high moral and mental
training as a fit preparation for such emigrants.

To my great regret the gentleman stated that under existing
circumstances the project, all important as he confessed it to be, was
almost impracticable; so strong being the influence of the enemies of
colonization that they would dissuade any colored persons so educated
from leaving the United States.

I know that he was thoroughly acquainted with the subject in all its
bearings, and therefore felt that he must have good reasons for what
he said; still I hoped the case was not so bad as he thought, and,
at any rate, I looked forward with strong hope to the time when the
colored race would, as a body, open their eyes to the miserable,
unnatural position they occupy in America; when they would see who
were their true friends, those who offered them real and complete
freedom, social and political, in a land where there is no white race
to keep them in subjection, where they govern themselves by their own
laws; or those pretended friends who would keep the African where he
can never be aught but a serf and bondsman of a despised caste, and
who, by every act of their pretended philanthropy, make the colored
man's condition worse.

Most happily, since that time, the colored race has been aroused to a
degree never before known, and the conviction has become general among
them that they must go to Liberia if they would be free and happy.

Under these circumstances the better the education of the colored
man the more keenly will he feel his present situation and the more
clearly he will see the necessity of emigration.

Assuming such to be the feelings of the colored race, I think the
immense importance of a collegiate institution for the education of
their young must be felt and acknowledged by every friend of the
race. Some time since the legislature of Liberia passed an act to
incorporate a college in Liberia, but I fear the project has failed,
as I have heard nothing more of it since. Supposing however the funds
raised for such an institution, where are the professors to come from?
They _must_ be educated in this country; and how can that be done
without establishing an institution specially for young colored men?

There is not a college in the United States where a young man of color
could gain admission, or where, supposing him admitted, he could
escape insult and indignity. Into our Theological Seminaries a few are
admitted, and are, perhaps, treated well; but what difficulty they
find in obtaining a proper preparatory education. The cause of
religion then, no less than that of secular education, calls for such
a measure.

I think a strong and earnest appeal ought to be made to every friend
of colonization throughout the United States to support the scheme
with heart, hand and purse. Surely there are enough friends of the
cause to subscribe at least a moderate sum for such a noble object;
and in a cause like this, wealthy colored persons ought to, and
doubtless will, subscribe according to their means. In addition to the
general appeal through the _Repository_, let each individual friend
of colonization use all his influence with his personal friends and
acquaintances, especially with such as are wealthy. I know from my own
experience how much can be done by personal application, even in cases
where success appears nearly hopeless.--I will pledge myself to use my
humble endeavors to the utmost with my personal acquaintances. A large
sum would not be _absolutely necessary_ to found the college; and it
would certainly be better to commence in the humblest way than to give
up the scheme altogether.

Buildings for instance might be purchased in many places for a very
moderate sum that would answer every purpose, or they might be built
in the cheapest manner; in short, everything might be commenced on the
most economical scale and afterwards enlarged as funds increased.

Those who are themselves engaged in teaching, such as the faculties of
colleges, etc., would, of course, be most competent to prepare a
plan for the proposed institution, and the ablest of them should be
consulted; meantime almost anyone interested in the cause may offer
some useful hint. In that spirit, I would myself offer a few brief
suggestions, in case this appeal should be favorably received.

Probably few men of my time of life have studied the character and
condition of the African race more attentively than I have, with what
success I cannot presume to say, but the opinion of any one devoting
so much of his time to the subject ought to be of _some_ value.

My opinion of their capacity has been much raised during my attempts
at instructing them, but at the same time, I am convinced that they
require a _totally different mode of training from whites_, and that
any attempt to educate the two races together must prove a failure.
I now close these desultory remarks with the hope that some one more
competent than myself will take up the cause and urge it until some
definite plan is formed.--_African Repository_, vol. xxx., pp. 194,
195, 196.


FROM A MEMORIAL TO THE LEGISLATURE OF NORTH CAROLINA, CIRCULATED AMONG
THE CITIZENS OF THAT STATE IN 1855, TO SECURE THE MODIFICATION OF
CERTAIN LAWS REGULATING SLAVES AND FREE PERSONS OF COLOR.

ELEVATION OF THE COLORED RACE

The Memorial is thus introduced:

"Your memorialists are well aware of the delicate nature of the
subject to which the attention of the Legislature is called, and
of the necessity of proceeding with deliberation and caution. They
propose some radical changes in the law of slavery, demanded by our
common christianity, by public morality, and by the common weal of
the whole South. At the same time they have no wish or purpose
inconsistent with the best interests of the slaveholder, and suggest
no reform which may impair the efficiency of slave labor. On the
contrary, they believe that the much desired modifications of our
slave code will redound to the welfare of all classes, and to the
honor and character of the State throughout the civilized world."

The attention of the Legislature was then asked to the following
propositions: "1. That it behooves us as christian people to establish
the institution of matrimony among our slaves, with all its legal
obligations and guarantees as to its duration between the parties. 2.
That under no circumstances should masters be permitted to disregard
these natural and sacred ties of relationship among their slaves, or
between slaves belonging to different masters. 3. That the parental
relation to be acknowledged by law; and that the separation of parents
from their young children, say of twelve years and under, be strictly
forbidden, under heavy pains and penalties. 4. That the laws which
prohibit the instruction of slaves and free colored persons,
by teaching them to read the Bible and other good books, be
repealed."--_African Repository_, vol. xxxi., pp. 117, 118.


A LAWYER FOR LIBERIA

On the sailing of almost every expedition we have had occasion to
chronicle the departure of missionaries, teachers, or a physician, but
not until the present time, that of a lawyer. The souls and bodies of
the emigrants have been well cared for; now, it is no doubt supposed,
they require assistance in guarding their money, civil rights, etc.
Most professional emissaries have been educated at public expense,
either by Missionary or the Colonization Societies, but the first
lawyer goes out independent of any associated aid. Mr. Garrison
Draper, a colored man of high respectability, and long a resident of
Old Town, early determined on educating his only son for Africa. He
kept him at some good public school in Pennsylvania till fitted for
college, then sent him to Dartmouth where he remained four years and
graduated, maintaining always a very respectable standing, socially,
and in his class. After much consultation with friends, he determined
upon the study of law. Mr. Charles Gilman, a retired member of the
Baltimore Bar, very kindly consented to give young Draper professional
instruction, and for two years he remained under his tuition. Not
having any opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the routine of
professional practice, the rules, habits, and courtesy of the Bar,
in Baltimore, Mr. Draper spent some few months in the office of a
distinguished lawyer in Boston. On returning to the city to embark
for Liberia, he underwent an examination by Judge Lee of the Superior
Court, and obtained from him a certificate of his fitness to practice
the profession of law, a copy of which we append hereto.

We consider the settlement of Mr. Draper in the Republic as an event
of no little importance. It seemed necessary that there should be one
regularly educated lawyer in a community of several thousand people,
in a Republic of freemen. True, there are many very intelligent, well
informed men now in the practice of law in Liberia, but they have not
been educated to the profession, and we believe, no one makes that his
exclusive business. We doubt not that they will welcome Mr. Draper as
one of their fraternity. To our Liberia friends we commend him as a
well-educated, intelligent man, of good habits and principles; one in
whom they may place the fullest confidence, and we bespeak for him, at
their hands, kind considerations and patronage.


STATE OF MARYLAND,

CITY OF BALTIMORE,

October 29, 1857.

Upon the application of Charles Gilman, Esq., of the Baltimore Bar,
I have examined Edward G. Draper, a young man of color, who has been
reading law under the direction of Mr. Gilman, with the view of
pursuing its practice in Liberia, Africa. And I have found him
most intelligent and well informed in his answers to the questions
propounded by me, and qualified in all respects to be admitted to the
Bar in Maryland, if he was a free white citizen of this State. Mr.
Gilman, in whom I have the highest confidence, has also testified to
his good moral character.

This certificate is therefore furnished to him by me, with a view to
promote his establishment and success in Liberia at the Bar there.

Z. COLLINS LEE,

Judge of Superior Court, Balt., Md.

_African Repository_, vol. xxxiv., pp. 26 and 27.




BIBLIOGRAPHY


There is no helpful bibliography on the early education of the
American Negro. A few books treating the recent problems of education
in this country give facts about the enlightenment of the colored
people before their general emancipation, but the investigator has to
depend on promiscuous sources for adequate information of this kind.
With the exception of a survey of the _Legal Status of the Colored
Population in Respect to Schools and Education in the Different
States_, published in the Report of the United States Commissioner of
Education in 1871, there has been no attempt at a general treatment
of this phase of our history. This treatise, however, is too brief to
inculcate an appreciation of the extensive efforts to enlighten the
ante-bellum Negro.

Considered as a local problem this question has received more
attention. A few writers have undertaken to sketch the movement to
educate the colored people of certain communities before the Civil
War. Their objective point, however, has been rather to treat of later
periods. The books mentioned below give some information with respect
to the period treated in this monograph.


BOOKS ON EDUCATION

Andrews, C.C. _The history of the New York African Free Schools from
their Establishment in 1787 to the Present Time_. (New York, 1830.)
Embraces a period of more than forty years, also a brief account of
the successful labors of the New York Manumission Society, with an
appendix containing specimens of original composition, both in
prose and verse, by several of the pupils; pieces spoken at public
examinations; an interesting dialogue between Doctor Samuel L.
Mitchell, of New York, and a little boy of ten years old, and lines
illustrative of the Lancastrian system of instruction. Andrews was
a white man who was for a long time the head of this colored school
system.

Boese, Thomas. _Public Education in the City of New York, Its History,
Condition, and Statistics, an Official Report of the Board of
Education_. (New York, 1869.) While serving as clerk of the Board of
Education Boese had an opportunity to learn much about the New York
African Free Schools.

Boone, R.G. _A History of Education in Indiana._ (New York, 1892.)
Contains a brief account of the work of the Abolitionists in behalf of
the education of the Negroes of that commonwealth.

BUTLER, N.M. _Education in the United States_. A series of monographs.
(New York, 1910.)

FOOTE, J.P. _The Schools of Cincinnati and Its Vicinity_. (Cincinnati,
1855.) A few pages of this book are devoted to the establishment and
the development of colored schools in that city.

GOODWIN, M.B. "History of Schools for the Colored Population in the
District of Columbia." (Published in the Report of the United States
Commissioner of Education in 1871.) This is the most thorough research
hitherto made in this field. The same system has been briefly treated
by W.S. Montgomery in his _Historical Sketch of Education for the
Colored Race in the District of Columbia_, 1807-1907. (Washington,
D.C., 1907.) A less detailed account of the same is found in James
Storum's "_The Colored Public Schools of Washington,--Their Origin,
Growth, and Present Condition." (A.M.E. Church Review_, vol. v., p.
279.)

JONES, C.C. _The Religious Instruction of the Negroes in the United
States_. (Savannah, 1842.) In trying to depict the spiritual condition
of the colored people the writer tells also what he thought about
their intellectual status.

MERIWETHER, C. _History of Higher Education in South Carolina, with
a Sketch of the Free School System_. (Washington, 1889.) The author
accounts for the early education of the colored people in that
commonwealth but gives no details.

MILLER, KELLY. "_The Education of the Negro_." Constitutes Chapter
XVI. of the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education for
the year 1901. Contains a brief sketch of the early education of the
Negro race in this country.

ORR, GUSTAVUS. _The Need of Education in the South_. (Atlanta, 1880.)
An address delivered before the Department of Superintendence of the
National Educational Association in 1879. Mr. Orr referred to the
first efforts to educate the Negroes of the South.

PLUMER, W.S. _Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes_.
Reference is made here to the early work of the Moravians among the
colored people.

RANDALL, SAMUEL SIDWELL. _The Common School System of the State of New
York_. (New York, 1851.) Comprises the several laws relating to common
schools, together with full expositions, instructions, and forms, to
which is prefixed an historical sketch of the system. Prepared in
pursuance of an act of the legislature, under the direction of the
Honorable Christopher Morgan, Superintendent of Common Schools.

STOCKWELL, THOMAS B. _A History of Public Education in Rhode Island
from 1636 to 1876_. (Providence, 1876.) Compiled by authority of the
Board of Education of Providence. Takes into account the various
measures enacted to educate the Negroes of that commonwealth.

WICKERSHAM, J.P. _A History of Education in Pennsylvania, Private and
Public, Elementary and Higher, from the Time the Swedes Settled on the
Delaware to the Present Day_. (Lancaster, Pa., 1886.) Considerable
space is given to the education of the Negroes.

WRIGHT, R.R., SR. _A Brief Historical Sketch of Negro Education in
Georgia_. (Savannah, 1894.) The movement during the early period in
that State is here disposed of in a few pages.

_A Brief Sketch of the Schools for the Black People and their
Descendants, Established by the Society of Friends_, etc.
(Philadelphia, 1824.)


BOOKS OF TRAVEL BY FOREIGNERS

ABDY, E.S. _Journal of a Residence and Tour in the United States from
April, 1833, to October, 1834_. Three volumes. (London, 1835.) Abdy
was a fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

ALLIOT, PAUL. _Reflexions historiques et politigues sur la Louisiane_.
(Cleveland, 1911.) Good for economic conditions. Valuable for
information concerning New Orleans about the beginning of the
nineteenth century.

ARFWEDSON, C.D. _The United States and Canada in 1833 and 1834_. Two
volumes. (London, 1834.) Somewhat helpful.

BREMER, FREDERIKA. _The Homes of the New World; Impressions of
America_. Translated by M. Howitt. Two volumes. (London, 1853.) The
teaching of Negroes in the South is mentioned in several places.

BRISSOT DE WARVILLE, J.P. _New Travels in the United States of
America: including the Commerce of America with Europe, particularly
with Great Britain and France_. Two volumes. (London, 1794.) Gives
general impressions, few details.

BUCKINGHAM, J.S. _America, Historical, Statistical, and Descriptive_.
Two volumes. (New York, 1841.)

---- _Eastern and Western States of America_. Three volumes. (London
and Paris, 1842.) Contains useful information.

BULLOCK, W. _Sketch of a Journey through the Western States of North
America from New Orleans by the Mississippi, Ohio, City of Cincinnati,
and Falls of Niagara to New York_. (London, 1827.) The author makes
mention of the condition of the Negroes.

COKE, THOMAS. _Extracts from the Journals of the Rev. Dr. Coke's Three
Visits to America_. (London, 1790.) Contains general information.

---- _A Journal of the Reverend Doctor Coke's Fourth Tour on the
Continent of America_. (London, 1792.) Brings out the interest of this
churchman in the elevation of the Negroes.

CUMING, F. _Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country through the
States of Kentucky and Ohio; a Voyage down the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers and a Trip through the Mississippi Territory and Part of West
Florida, Commenced at Philadelphia in the Winter of 1807 and Concluded
in 1809_. (Pittsburg, 1810.) Gives a few facts.

FAUX, W. _Venerable Days in America_. (London, 1823.) A "journal of
a tour in the United States principally undertaken to ascertain by
positive evidence, the condition and probable prospects of British
emigrants, including accounts of Mr. Kirkbeck's settlement in Illinois
and intended to show men and things as they are in America." The
Negroes are casually mentioned.

HUMBOLDT, FRIEDRICH HEINRICH ALEXANDER, FREIHERR VON. _The Travels and
Researches of Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt._ (London,
1833.) The author gives a "condensed narrative of his journeys in
the equinoctial regions in America and in Asiatic Russia." The work
contains also analyses of his important investigations. He throws
a little light on the condition of the mixed breeds of the Western
Hemisphere.

KEMBLE, FRANCES ANNE. _Journal of a Residence on a Plantation in
1838-1839._ (New York, 1863.) This diary is quoted extensively as one
of the best sources for Southern conditions before the Civil War.

LAMBERT, JOHN. _Travels through Canada and the United States, in the
Years 1806, 1807, and 1808._ Two volumes. (London, 1813.) To this
journal are added notices and anecdotes of some of the leading
characters in the United States. This traveler saw the Negroes.

PONS, FRANCOIS RAYMOND DE. _Travels in Parts of South America, during
the Years 1801, 1802, 1803, and 1804._ (London, 1806.) Contains a
description of Caracas; an account of the laws, commerce, and natural
productions of that country; and a view of the customs and manners of
the Spaniards and native Indians. Negroes are mentioned.

PRIEST, WILLIAM. _Travels in the United States Commencing in the Year
1793 and ending in the Year 1797._ (London, 1802.) Priest made two
voyages across the Atlantic to appear at the theaters of Baltimore,
Boston, and Philadelphia. He had something to say about the condition
of the Negroes.

ROCHEFOUCAULD-LIANCOURT, DUC DE. _Travels through the United States of
America, the Country of the Iroquois, and Upper Canada in the Years
1795, 1796, and 1797._ (London, 1799.) The author discusses the
attitude of the people toward the uplift of the Negroes.

SCHOEPF, JOHANN DAVID. _Reise durch der Mittlern und Sudlichen
Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten nach Ost-Florida und den Bahama
Inseln unternommen in den Jahren 1783 und 1784._ (Cincinnati, 1812.)
A translation of this work was published by Alfred J. Morrison at
Philadelphia in 1911. Gives general impressions.

SMYTH, J.F.D. _A Tour in the United States_. (London, 1848.) This
writer incidentally mentions the people of color.

SUTCLIFF, ROBERT. _Travels in Some Parts of North America in the Years
1804, 1805, and 1806_. (Philadelphia, 1812.) While traveling in slave
territory Sutcliff studied the mental condition of the colored people.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL BY AMERICANS

BROWN, DAVID. _The Planter, or Thirteen Years in the South_.
(Philadelphia, 1853.) Here we get a Northern white man's view of the
heathenism of the Negroes.

BURKE, EMILY. _Reminiscences of Georgia_. (Oberlin, Ohio, 1850.)
Presents the views of a woman who was interested in the uplift of the
Negro race.

EVANS, ESTWICK. _A Pedestrious Tour of Four Thousand Miles through the
Western States and Territories during the Winter and Spring of 1818_.
(Concord, N.H., 1819.) Among the many topics treated is the
author's contention that the Negro is capable of the highest mental
development.

OLMSTED, FREDERICK LAW. _A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, with
Remarks on their Economy_. (New York, 1859.)

---- _A Journey in the Back Country_. (London, i860.)

---- _Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom_. (London,
1861.) Olmsted was a New York farmer. He recorded a few important
facts about the education of the Negroes immediately before the Civil
War.

PARSONS, E.G. _Inside View of Slavery, or a Tour among the Planters_.
(Boston, 1855.) The introduction was written by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
It was published to aid the antislavery cause, but in describing the
condition of Negroes the author gave some educational statistics.

REDPATH, JAMES. _The Roving Editor, or Talks with Slaves in Southern
States_. (New York 1859.) The slaves are here said to be telling their
own story.

SMEDES, MRS. SUSAN (DABNEY). _Memorials of a Southern Planter_.
(Baltimore, 1887.) The benevolence of those masters who had their
slaves taught in spite of public opinion and the law, is well brought
out in this volume.

TOWER, REVEREND PHILO. _Slavery Unmasked_. (Rochester, 1856.) Valuable
chiefly for the author's arraignment of the so-called religious
instruction of the Negroes after the reactionary period.

WOOLMAN, JOHN. _Journal of John Woolman, with an Introduction by John
G. Whittier_. (Boston, 1873.) Woolman traveled so extensively in the
colonies that he probably knew more about the mental state of the
Negroes than any other Quaker of his time.


LETTERS

JEFFERSON, THOMAS. Letters of Thomas Jefferson to Abbe Gregoire,
M.A. Julien, and Benjamin Banneker. In _Jefferson's Works_, Memorial
Edition, xii. and xv. He comments on Negroes' talents.

MADISON, JAMES. Letter to Prances Wright. _In Madison's Works_, vol.
iii., p. 396. The training of Negroes is discussed.

MAY, SAMUEL JOSEPH. _The Right of the Colored People to Education_.
(Brooklyn, 1883.) A collection of public letters addressed to Andrew
T. Judson, remonstrating on the unjust procedure relative to Miss
Prudence Crandall.

MCDONOGH, JOHN. "A Letter of John McDonogh on African Colonization
addressed to the Editor of _The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin_,"
McDonogh was interested in the betterment of the colored people and
did much to promote their mental development.

SHARPE, H. ED. _The Abolition of Negro Apprenticeship_. A letter to
Lord Brougham. (London, 1838.)

_A Southern Spy, or Curiosities of Negro Slavery in the South. Letters
from a Southern to a Northern Gentleman_. The comment of a passer-by.

_A Letter to an American Planter from his Friend in London in 1781_.
The writer discussed the instruction of Negroes.


BIOGRAPHIES

BIRNEY, CATHERINE H. _The Grimke Sisters; Sara and Angelina Grimke,
the First American Women Advocates of Abolition and Woman's Rights_.
(Boston, 1885.) Mentions the part these workers played in the secret
education of Negroes in the South.

BIRNEY, WILLIAM. _James G. Birney and His Times_. (New York, 1890.) A
sketch of an advocate of Negro education.

BOWEN, CLARENCE W. _Arthur and Lewis Tappan_. A paper read at the
fiftieth anniversary of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, at the
Broadway Tabernacle, New York City, October 2, 1883. An honorable
mention of two promoters of the colored manual labor schools.

CHILD, LYDIA MARIA. _Isaac T. Hopper: A True Life_. (Boston and
Cleveland, 1853.)

CONWAY, MONCURE DANIEL. _Benjamin Banneker, the Negro Astronomer_.
(London, 1864.)

(COOPER, JAMES F.) _Notions of the Americans Picked up by a Traveling
Bachelor_. (Philadelphia, 1828.) General.

DREW, BENJAMIN. _A North-side View of Slavery. The Refugee: or the
Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada_. Related by themselves, with
an Account of the History and Condition of the Colored Population of
Upper Canada. (New York and Boston, 1856.)

GARRISON, FRANCIS AND WENDELL P. _William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879.
The Story of his Life told by his Children_. Four volumes. (Boston
and New York, 1894.) Includes a brief account of what he did for the
education of the colored people.

HALLOWELL, A.D. _James and Lucretia Mott; Life and Letters_. (Boston,
1884.) These were ardent abolitionists who advocated the education of
the colored people.

JOHNSON, OLIVER. _William Lloyd Garrison and his Times_. (Boston,
1880. New edition, revised and enlarged, Boston, 1881.)

LOSSING, BENSON J. _Life of George Washington, a Biography, Military
and Political_. Three volumes. (New York, 1860.) Gives the will of
George Washington, who provided that at the stipulated time his slaves
should be freed and that their children should be taught to read.

MATHER, COTTON. _The Life and Death of the Reverend John Elliot who
was the First Preacher of the Gospel to the Indians in America_. The
third edition carefully corrected. (London, 1694.) Sets forth the
attitude of John Elliot toward the teaching of slaves.

MOTT, A. _Biographical Sketches and Interesting Anecdotes of Persons
of Color; with a Selection of Pieces of Poetry_. (New York, 1826.)
Some of these sketches show how ambitious Negroes learned to read and
write in spite of opposition.

SIMMONS, W.J. _Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive, and Rising, with
an Introductory Sketch of the Author by Reverend Henry M. Turner_.
(Cleveland, Ohio, 1891.) Accounts for the adverse circumstances under
which many ante-bellum Negroes acquired knowledge.

SNOWDEN, T.B. _The Autobiography of John B. Snowden_. (Huntington, W.
Va., 1900.)

WIGHTMAN, WILLIAM MAY. _Life of William Capers, one of the Bishops of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South; including an Autobiography_.
(Nashville, Tenn., 1858.) Shows what Capers did for the religious
instruction of the colored people.


AUTOBIOGRAPHIES

ASBURY, BISHOP FRANCIS. _The Journal of the Reverend Francis Asbury,
Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, from August 7, 1781, to
December 7, 1815_. Three volumes. (New York, 1821.)

COFFIN, LEVI. _Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, reputed President of the
Under Ground Railroad_. (Second edition, Cincinnati, 1880.) Mentions
the teaching of slaves.

DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. _Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as
an American Slave_. Written by himself. (Boston, 1845.) Gives several
cases of secret Negro schools.

---- _The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass from 1817 to 1882_.
Written by himself. Illustrated. With an Introduction by the Right
Honorable John Bright, M.P. Edited by John Loeb, F.R.G.S., of the
_Christian Age_, Editor of _Uncle Tom's Story of his Life_. (London,
1882.) Contains Douglass's appeal in behalf of vocational training.

FLINT, TIMOTHY. _Recollections of the last Ten Years_. A series of
letters to the Reverend James Flint of Salem, Massachusetts, by T.
Flint, Principal of the Seminary of Rapide, Louisiana. (Boston, 1826.)
Mentions the teaching of Negroes.


GENERAL HISTORIES

BANCROFT, GEORGE. _History of the United States_. Ten volumes.
(Boston, 1857-1864.)

HART, A.B., Editor. _American History told by Contemporaries_. Four
volumes. (New York, 1898.)

---- _The American Nation; A history, etc_. Twenty-seven volumes. (New
York, 1904-1908.) The volumes which have a bearing on the subject
treated in this monograph are Bourne's _Spain in America_, Edward
Channing's _Jeffersonian System_, F.J. Turner's _Rise of the New
West_, and Hart's _Slavery and Abolition_.

HERRERA Y TORDESILLAS, ANTONIO DE. _Historia General de los hechos de
los Castellanos en las islas i tierra firme del mar oceano. Escrito
por Antonio herrera coronista mayor de Sr. M. de las Indias y si
coronista de Castilla. En Quatro decadas desde el ano de 1492 hasta el
de 1554. Decada primera del rey Nuro Senor_. (En Madrid en la Imprenta
real de Nicolas Rodriguez Franco, ano 1726-1727.)

MCMASTER, JOHN B. _History of the United States_. Six volumes. (New
York, 1900.)

RHODES, J.F. _History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850
to the Final Restoration of Home Rule in the South_. (New York and
London, Macmillan & Company, 1892-1906.)


VON HOLST, HERMAN. _The Constitutional and Political History of the
United States of America_. (Seven volumes. Chicago, 1877.)


STATE HISTORIES

ASHE, S.A. _History of North Carolina_. (Greensboro, 1908.)

BANCROFT, HUBERT HOWE. _History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888_.
(San Francisco, 1890.)

BEARSE, AUSTIN. _Reminiscences of Fugitive Slave Days in Boston_.
(Boston, 1880.)

BETTLE, EDWARD. "Notices of Negro Slavery as Connected with
Pennsylvania." Read before the Historical Society of

Pennsylvania, 8th Mo., 7th, 1826. _Memoirs of Historical Society of
Pennsylvania_.

BRACKETT, JEFFREY R. _The Negro in Maryland_. Johns Hopkins University
Studies. (Baltimore, 1889.)

COLLINS, LEWIS. _Historical Sketches of Kentucky_. (Maysville, Ky.,
and Cincinnati, Ohio, 1847.)

JONES, CHARLES COLCOCK, JR. _History of Georgia_. (Boston, 1883.)

MCCRADY, EDWARD. _The History of South Carolina under the Royal
Government, 1719-1776_, by Edward McCrady, a Member of the Bar of
South Carolina and President of the Historical Society of South
Carolina, Author of _A History of South Carolina under the Proprietary
Government_. (New York and London, 1899.)

STEINER, B.C. _History of Slavery in Connecticut_. (Johns Hopkins
University Studies, 1893.)

STUVE, BERNARD, and Alexander Davidson. _A Complete History of
Illinois from 1673 to 1783_. (Springfield, 1874.)

TREMAIN, MARY M.A. _Slavery in the District of Columbia_. (University
of Nebraska Seminary Papers, April, 1892.)

_History of Brown County, Ohio_. (Chicago, 1883.)

"_Slavery in Illinois, 1818-1824." (Massachusetts Historical Society
Collections_, volume x.)


CHURCH HISTORIES

BANGS, NATHAN. _A History of the Methodist Episcopal Church_. Four
volumes. (New York, 1845.)

BENEDICT, DAVID. _A General History of the Baptist Denomination in
America and in Other Parts of the World_. (Boston, 1813.)

---- _Fifty Years among the Baptists_. (New York, 1860.)

DALCHO, FREDERICK. _An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in South Carolina, from the First Settlement of the Province to
the War of the Revolution_; with notices of the present State of the
Church in each Parish: and some Accounts of the early Civil History of
Carolina never before published. To which are added: the Laws relating
to Religious Worship, the Journal and Rules of the Convention of South
Carolina; the Constitution and Canons of the Protestant Episcopal
Church and the Course of Ecclesiastical Studies. (Charleston, 1820.)

DAVIDSON, REV. ROBERT. _History of the Presbyterian Church in the
State of Kentucky; with a Preliminary Sketch of the Churches in the
Valley of Virginia._ (New York, Pittsburgh, and Lexington, Kentucky,
1847.)

HAMILTON, JOHN T. _A History of the Church Known as the Moravian
Church, or the Unitas Fratrum, or the Unity of Brethren during the
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries._ (Bethlehem, Pa., 1900.)

HAWKS, FRANCIS L. _Ecclesiastical History of the United States._ (New
York, 1836.)

JAMES, CHARLES P. _Documentary History of the Struggle for Religious
Liberty in Virginia._ (Lynchburg, Va., 1900.)

MATLACK, LUCIUS. _The History of American Slavery and Methodism from
1780 to 1849: and History of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection of
America. In Two Parts with an Appendix._ (New York, 1849.)

MCTYEIRE, HOLLAND N. _A History of Methodism; comprising a View of the
Rise of the Revival of Spiritual Religion in the First Half of the
Eighteenth Century, and the Principal Agents by whom it was promoted
in Europe and America, with some Account of the Doctrine and Polity of
Episcopal Methodism in the United States and the Means and Manner of
its Extension down to 1884._ (Nashville, Tenn., 1884.) McTyeire was
one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

REICHEL, L.T. _The Early History of the Church of the United Brethren
(Unitas Fratrum) commonly Called Moravians in North America, from 1734
to 1748._ (Nazareth, Pa., 1888.)

RUSH, CHRISTOPHER. _A Short Account of the African Methodist Episcopal
Church in America._ Written by the aid of George Collins. Also a view
of the Church Order or Government from Scripture and from some of the
best Authors relative to Episcopacy. (New York, 1843.)

SEMPLE, R.B. _History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in
Virginia._ (Richmond, 1810.)


SERMONS, ORATIONS, ADDRESSES

BACON, THOMAS. _Sermons Addressed to Masters and Servants._ Published
in 1743. Republished with other tracts by Rev. William Meade.
(Winchester, Va., 1805.)

BOUCHER, JONATHAN. "American Education." This address is found in the
author's volume entitled _A View of the Causes and Consequences of
the American Revolution_; in thirteen discourses, preached in North
America between the years 1763 and 1775: with an historical preface.
(London, 1797.)

BUCHANAN, GEORGE. _An Oration upon the Moral and Political Evil of
Slavery_. Delivered at a Public Meeting of the Maryland Society for
Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and Relief of Free Negroes
and others unlawfully held in Bondage. Baltimore, July 4, 1791.
(Baltimore, 1793.)

CATTO, WILLIAM T. _A Semicentenary Discourse Delivered in the First
African Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, on the 4th Sabbath of May,
1857_: with a History of the Church from its first organization;
including a brief Notice of Reverend John Gloucester, its First
Pastor. Also an appendix containing sketches of all the Colored
Churches in Philadelphia. (Philadelphia, 1857.) The author was then
pastor of this church.

DANA, JAMES. _The African Slave Trade_. A Discourse delivered in the
City of New Haven, September 9, 1790, before the Connecticut Society
for the Promotion of Freedom. (New Haven, 1790.) Dr. Dana was at that
time the pastor of the First Congregational Church of New Haven.

FAWCETT, BENJAMIN. _A Compassionate Address to the Christian Negroes
in Virginia, and other British Colonies in North America_. With
an appendix containing some account of the rise and progress of
Christianity among that poor people. (The second edition, Salop,
printed by F. Edwards and F. Cotton.)

GARRISON, WILLIAM LLOYD. _An Address Delivered before the Free People
of Color in Philadelphia, New York, and other Cities during the Month
of June, 1831_. (Boston, 1831.)

GRIFFIN, EDWARD DORR. _A Plea for Africa_. A Sermon preached October
26, 1817, in the First Presbyterian Church in the City of New York
before the Synod of New York and New Jersey at the Request of the
Board of Directors of the African School established by the Synod.
(New York, 1817.) The aim was to arouse interest in this school.

JONES, CHARLES COLCOCK. _The Religious Instruction of Negroes_. A
Sermon delivered before the Association of the Planters in Liberty and
McIntosh Counties, Georgia. (Princeton, N.J., 1832.) Jones was then
engaged in the work which he was discussing.

MAYO, A.D. "Address on Negro Education." (_Springfield Republican_,
July 9, 1897; and the _New England Magazine_, October, 1898.)

RUSH, BENJAMIN. _An Address to the Inhabitants of the British
Settlements in America upon Slave Keeping_. The second edition with
observations on a pamphlet entitled _Slavery not Forbidden by
the Scripture or a Defense of the West Indian Planters by a
Pennsylvanian_. (Philadelphia, 1773.) The Negroes' need of education
is pointed out.

SECKER, THOMAS, Archbishop of Canterbury. _A Sermon Preached before
the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts_; at their Anniversary Meeting in the Parish Church of St.
Mary-le-Bow, on Friday, February 20, 1741. (London 1741.) In this
discourse Secker set forth his plan of teaching the Negroes to elevate
themselves.

SIDNEY, JOSEPH. _An Oration Commemorative of the Abolition of the
Slave Trade in the United States Delivered before the Wilberforce
Philanthropic Association in the City of New York on January 2, 1809_.
(New York, 1809.) The speaker did not forget the duty of all men to
uplift those unfortunates who had already been degraded.

SMITH, THOMAS P. _An Address before the Colored Citizens of Boston in
Opposition to the Abolition of Colored Schools, 1849_. (Boston, 1850.)

WARBURTON, WILLIAM, Bishop of Gloucester. _A Sermon Preached before
the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts_; at their Anniversary Meeting in the Parish Church of St.
Mary-le-Bow on Friday, February 21, 1766. (London, 1766.) The speaker
urged his hearers to enlighten the Indians and Negroes.


REPORTS ON THE EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE

_Report of the Proceedings at the Formation of the African Education
Society_; instituted at Washington, December 28, 1829. With an Address
to the Public by the Board of Managers. (Washington, 1830.)

_Report of the Minority of the Committee of the Primary School Board
on the Caste Schools of the City of Boston._ With some remarks on the
City Solicitor's Opinion, by Wendell Phillips. (Boston, 1846.)

_Report of a Special Committee of the Grammar School Board of Boston,
Massachusetts._ Abolition of the Smith Colored School. (Boston, 1849.)

_Report of the Primary School Committee, Boston, Massachusetts._
Abolition of the Colored Schools. (Boston, 1846.)

_Report of the Minority of the Committee upon the Petition of J.T.
Hilton and other Colored Citizens of Boston, Praying for the Abolition
of the Smith Colored School._ (Boston, 1849.)

_Opinion of Honorable Richard Fletcher as to whether Colored Children
can be Lawfully Excluded from Free Public Schools._ (Boston, 1846.)

_Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improvement
of the Public Schools in the District of Columbia_, containing M.B.
Goodwin's "History of Schools for the Colored Population in the
District of Columbia." (Washington, 1871.)

_Thirty-Seventh Annual Report of the New York Public School Society,
1842._ (New York, 1842.)


STATISTICS

CLARKE, J.F. _Present Condition of the Free Colored People of the
United States._ (New York and Boston, the American Antislavery
Society, 1859.) Published also in the March number of the _Christian
Examiner_.

_Condition of the Free People of Color in Ohio._ With interesting
anecdotes. (Boston, 1839.)

_Institute for Colored Youth._ (Philadelphia, 1860-1865.) Contains a
list of the officers and students.

_Report of the Condition of the Colored People of Cincinnati, 1835._
(Cincinnati, 1835.)

_Report of a Committee of the Pennsylvania Society of Abolition on
Present Condition of the Colored People, etc._, 1838. (Philadelphia,
1838.)

_Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the
City and Districts of Philadelphia._ (Philadelphia, 1849.) _Statistics
of the Colored People of Philadelphia in 1859_, compiled by Benj. C.
Bacon. (Philadelphia, 1859.)

_Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1898._ Prepared by the
Bureau of Statistics. (Washington, D.C., 1899.)

_Statistical View of the Population of the United States, A_,
1790-1830. (Published by the Department of State in 1835.)

_The Present State and Condition of the Free People of Color of the
city of Philadelphia and adjoining districts as exhibited by the
Report of a Committee of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting
the Abolition of Slavery._ Read First Month (January), 5th, 1838.
(Philadelphia, 1838.)

_Trades of the Colored People._ (Philadelphia, 1838.)

United States Censuses of 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840, 1850,
and 1860.

VARLE, CHARLES. _A Complete View of Baltimore_; with a Statistical
Sketch of all the Commercial, Mercantile, Manufacturing, Literary,
Scientific Institutions and Establishments in the same Vicinity ...
derived from personal Observation and Research. (Baltimore, 1833.)


CHURCH REPORTS

_A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony of
Friends against Slavery and the Slave Trade._ Published by direction
of the Yearly Meeting held in Philadelphia in the Fourth Month, 1843.
Shows the action taken by various Friends to educate the Negroes.

_A Collection of the Acts, Deliverances, and Testimonies of the
Supreme Judicatory of the Presbyterian Church, from its Origin in
America to the Present Time._ By Samuel J. Baird. (Philadelphia,
1856.)

_Acts and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian
Church in the United States of America in the Year 1800._
(Philadelphia, 1800.) The question of instructing the Negroes came up
in this meeting.

PASCOE, C.F. _Classified Digest of the Records of the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, 1701-1892, with much
Supplementary Information._ (London, 1893.) A good source for the
accounts of the efforts of this organization among Negroes.

"Minutes of the Methodist Conference, 1785." Found in Rev. Charles
Elliott's _History of the Great Secession from the Methodist Episcopal
Church_, etc. This conference discussed the education of the colored
people.


REPORTS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION, 1794-1831

American Convention of Abolition Societies. _Minutes of the
Proceedings of a Convention of Delegates from the Abolition Societies
established in different Parts of the United States, assembled at
Philadelphia on the first Day of January, one thousand seven hundred
and ninety-four, and continued by Adjournments, until the seventh Day
of the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia, 1794.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Second Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different Parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia on the seventh Day of
January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, and continued by
Adjournments until the fourteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1795.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Third Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different Parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia on the first Day of January,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, and continued, by
Adjournments, until the seventh Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1796.)

--_Address to Free Africans and other Free People of Colour in the
United States._ (1796.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Fourth Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different Parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia on the third Day of May,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, and continued by
Adjournments, until the ninth Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1797.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Fifth Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different Parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia on the first Day of June,
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight, and continued, by
Adjournments, until the sixth Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1798.)

American Convention of Abolition Societies. _Minutes of the
Proceedings of the Sixth Convention of Delegates from the Abolition
Societies established in different parts of the United States,
assembled at Philadelphia, on the fourth Day of June, one thousand
eight hundred, and continued by Adjournments, until the sixth Day of
the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia, 1800.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Seventh Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia on the third Day of June, one
thousand eight hundred and one, and continued by Adjournments until
the sixth Day of the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia, 1801.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Eighth Convention of Delegates
from the Abolition Societies established in different parts of the
United States, assembled at Philadelphia, on the tenth Day of January,
one thousand eight hundred and three, and continued by Adjournments
until the fourteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia,
1803.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Ninth American Convention for
promoting the Abolition of Slavery and improving the Condition of the
African Race; assembled at Philadelphia on the ninth Day of January,
one thousand eight hundred and four, and continued by Adjournments
until the thirteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia,
1804.)

--_Address of the American Convention for promoting the Abolition of
Slavery and improving the Condition of the African Race, assembled at
Philadelphia, in January, 1804, to the People of the United States._
(Philadelphia, 1804.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Tenth American Convention for
promoting the Abolition of Slavery and improving the Condition of
the African Race; assembled at Philadelphia on the fourteenth Day
of January, one thousand eight hundred and five, and continued by
Adjournments until the seventeenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1805.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of the Eleventh American Convention for
promoting the Abolition of Slavery and improving the Condition of the
African Race; assembled at Philadelphia, on the thirteenth Day
of January, one thousand eight hundred and six, and continued by
Adjournments until the fifteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._
(Philadelphia, 1806.)

--_Minutes of the Proceedings of a Special Meeting of the Fifteenth
American Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery and
improving the Condition of the African Race; assembled at Philadelphia
on the tenth Day of December, 1818, and continued by Adjournments
until the fifteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive._ (Philadelphia,
1818.)

--_Constitution of the American Convention for promoting the Abolition
of Slavery, and improving the Condition of the African Race. Adopted
on the eleventh Day of December, 1818, to take effect on the fifth Day
of October, 1819._ (Philadelphia, 1819.)

--_Minutes of the Eighteenth Session of the American Convention for
promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and improving the Condition of the
African Race. Convened at Philadelphia, on the seventh Day of October,
1823._ (Philadelphia, 1823.)

--_To the Clergy and Pastors throughout the United States._ (Dated
Philadelphia, September 18, 1826.)

--_Minutes of the Adjourned Session of the Twentieth Biennial American
Convention for promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Held at Baltimore,
November 28._ (Philadelphia, 1828.)


REPORTS OF ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETIES

_The Annual Report of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery
Societies, presented at New York, May 6, 1847, with the Addresses and
Resolutions._ (New York, 1847.)

_The Annual Report of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Societies,
with the Addresses and Resolutions._ (New York, 1851.)

_The First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with
the Speeches Delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held in Chatham
Street Chapel in the City of New York, on the sixth Day of May by
Adjournment on the eighth, in the Rev. Dr. Lansing's Church, and the
Minutes of the Society for Business._ (New York, 1834.)

_The Second Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, held
in the City of New York, on the twelfth of May, 1835, and the Minutes
and Proceedings of the Society for Business._ (New York, 1835.)

_The Third Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with
the Speeches delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held in the City of
New York on May the tenth, 1836, and Minutes of the Meetings of the
Society for Business._ (New York, 1836.)

_The Fourth Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with
the Speeches delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held in the City of
New York on the ninth of May, 1837._ (New York, 1837.)

_The Fifth Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with
the Speeches delivered at the Anniversary Meeting and the Minutes and
Proceedings of the Society for Business._ (New York, 1838.)

_The Sixth Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society, with
the Speeches delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held in the City
of New York, on the seventh Day of May, 1839, and the Minutes of the
Meetings of the Society for Business, held on the evenings of the
three following days._ (New York, 1839.)

_The Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society by the
Executive Committee for the year ending May 1, 1859._ (New York,
1860.)

_The Third Annual Report of the Managers of the New England
Anti-Slavery Society presented June 2, 1835_. (Boston, 1835.)

_Annual Reports of the Massachusetts (or New England) Anti-Slavery
Society, 1831-end_.

_Reports of the National Anti-Slavery Convention, 1833-end_.


REPORTS OF COLONIZATION SOCIETIES

_Reports of the American Colonization Society, 1818-1832_.

_Report of the New York Colonization Society, October 1, 1823_. (New
York, 1823.)

_The Seventh Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the City of
New York_. (New York, 1839.)

_Proceedings of the New York State Colonization Society, 1831_.
(Albany, 1831.)

_The Eighteenth Annual Report of the Colonization Society of the State
of New York_. (New York, 1850.)

REPORTS OF CONVENTIONS OF FREE NEGROES

_Minutes and Proceedings of the First Annual Convention of the People
of Color. Held by Adjournment in the City of Philadelphia, from the
sixth to the eleventh of June, inclusive_, 1831.

(Philadelphia, 1831.)

_Minutes and Proceedings of the Second Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held
by Adjournments in the City of Philadelphia, from the 4th to the 13th
of June, inclusive, 1832_,(Philadelphia, 1832.)

_Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color in these United States. Held
by Adjournments in the city of Philadelphia, in 1833. (New York,
1833.)_ These proceedings were published also in the New York
Commercial Advertiser, April 27, 1833.

_Minutes and Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Convention for the
Improvement of the Free People of Color in the United States. held by
Adjournments in the Asbury Church, New York, from the 2d to the 12th
of June, 1834._ (New York, 1834.)

_Proceedings of the Convention of the Colored Freedmen of Ohio at
Cincinnati, January 14, 1852._ (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1852.)


MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS

ADAMS, ALICE DANA. _The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in America._
Radcliffe College Monographs No. 14. (Boston and London, 1908.)
Contains some valuable facts about the education of the Negroes during
the first three decades of the nineteenth century.

ADAMS, JOHN. _The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United
States_; with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations by his
Grandson, Charles Francis Adams. Ten volumes. Volume x., shows the
attitude of James Otis toward the Negroes.

ADAMS, NEHEMIAH. _A South-Side View of Slavery; or Three Months at
the South in 1854._ (Boston, 1854.) The position of the South on the
education of the colored people is well set forth.

AGRICOLA (pseudonym). _An Impartial View of the Real State of the
Black Population in the United States._ (Philadelphia, 1824.)

ALBERT, O.V. _The House of Bondage_; or Charlotte Brooks and other
Slaves Original and Life-like as they appeared in their Plantation
and City Slave Life; together with pen Pictures of the peculiar
Institution, with Sights and Insights into their new Relations as
Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens, with an Introduction by Reverend
Bishop Willard Mallalieu. (New York and Cincinnati, 1890.)

ALEXANDER, A. _A History of Colonization on the Western Continent of
Africa._ (Philadelphia, 1846.) Treats of education in "An Account of
the Endeavors used by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in
Foreign Parts, to instruct Negroes in the City of New York, together
with two of Bishop Gibson's Letters on that subject, being an Extract
from Dr. Humphrey's Historical Account of the Incorporated Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts from its Foundation in
the Year 1728." (London, 1730.)

_An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of Slavery,
by the Friends of Liberty and Equality, 1830._ (Greensborough, 1830.)

_An Address to the Presbyterians of Kentucky proposing a Plan for the
Instruction and Emancipation of their Slaves by a Committee of the
Synod of Kentucky._ (Newburyport, 1836.)

ANDERSON, MATTHEW._Presbylerianism--Its Relation to the Negro._
(Philadelphia, 1897.)

ANDREWS, E.E. _Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade in the United
States._ In a series of letters addressed to the Executive Committee
of the American Union for the Relief and Improvement of the Colored
Race. (Boston, 1836.)

BALDWIN, EBENEZER. _Observations on the Physical and Moral Qualities
of our Colored Population with Remarks on the Subject of Emancipation
and Colonization._ (New Haven, 1834.)

BASSETT, J.S. _Slavery and Servitude in the Colony of North Carolina._
(Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science.
Fourteenth Series, iv.-v. Baltimore, 1896.)

---- _Slavery in the State of North Carolina._ (Johns Hopkins
University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVII.,
Nos. 7-8. Baltimore, 1899.)

---- _Anti-Slavery Leaders of North Carolina._ (Johns Hopkins
University Studies in Historical and Political Science. Series XVI.,
No. 6. Baltimore, 1898.)

BAXTER, RICHARD. _Practical Works._ Twenty-three volumes. (London,
1830.)

BENEZET, ANTHONY. _A Caution to Great Britain and Her Colonies in a
Short Representation of the calamitous state of the enslaved Negro in
the British Dominions._ (Philadelphia, 1784.)

---- _The Case of our Fellow-Creatures, the Oppressed Africans,
respectfully recommended to the serious Consideration of the
Legislature of Great Britain, by the People called Quakers._ (London,
1783.)

---- _Observations on the enslaving, importing, and purchasing of
Negroes; with some advice thereon, extracted from the Epistle of the
Yearly-Meeting of the People called Quakers, held at London in the
Year 1748._ (Germantown, 1760.)

---- _The Potent Enemies of America laid open: being some Account of
the baneful Effects attending the Use of distilled spirituous Liquors,
and the Slavery of the Negroes._ (Philadelphia.)

---- _A Short Account of that Part of Africa, inhabited by the
Negroes. With respect to the Fertility of the Country; the good
Disposition of many of the Natives, and the Manner by which the Slave
Trade is carried on._ (Philadelphia, 1792.)

---- _Short Observations on Slavery, Introductory to Some Extracts
from the Writings of the Abbe Raynal, on the Important Subject._

---- _Some Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce, and
the General Disposition of its Inhabitants. With an Inquiry into
the Rise and Progress of the Slave Trade, its Nature and Lamentable
Effects._ (London, 1788.)

BIRNEY, JAMES G. _The American Churches, the Bulwarks of American
Slavery, by an American._ (Newburyport, 1842.)

BIRNEY, WILLIAM. _James G. Birney and his Times. The Genesis of the
Republican Party, with Some Account of the Abolition Movements in the
South before 1828._ (New York, 1890.)

BOURNE, WILLIAM O. _History of the Public School Society of the City
of New York, with Portraits of the Presidents of the Society._ (New
York, 1870.)

BRACKETT, JEFFERY R._The Negro in Maryland. A Study of the Institution
of Slavery._ (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University, 1889).

BRANAGAN, THOMAS. _A Preliminary Essay on the Oppression of the Exiled
Sons of Africa, Consisting of Animadversions on the Impolicy and
Barbarity of the Deleterious Commerce and Subsequent Slavery of the
Human Species_. (Philadelphia: Printed for the Author by John W.
Scott, 1804.)

BRANAGAN, T. _Serious Remonstrances Addressed to the Citizens of the
Northern States and their Representatives, being an Appeal to their
Natural Feelings and Common Sense; Consisting of Speculations and
Animadversions, on the Recent Revival of the Slave Trade in the
American Republic_. (Philadelphia, 1805.)

BROWN, W.W. _My Southern Home_. (Boston, 1882.)

CHILD, LYDIA MARIA. _An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans
Called Africans_. (Boston: Allen & Ticknor, 1833, and New York: J.S.
Taylor, 1836.)

CHANNING, WILLIAM E. _Slavery_. (Boston: J. Munroe & Co., 1835.)

---- _Remarks on the Slavery Question_. (Boston: J. Munroe & Co.,
1839.)

COBB, T.R.R. _An Historical Sketch of Slavery_. (Philadelphia: T. &
J.W. Johnson, 1858.)

---- _An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States
of America. To which is Prefixed an Historical Sketch of Slavery by
Thomas R.R. Cobb of Georgia_. (Philadelphia and Savannah, 1858.)

COFFIN, JOSHUA. _An Account of Some of the Principal Slave
Insurrections and Others which have Occurred or been attempted in
the United States and Elsewhere during the Last Two Centuries. With
Various Remarks. Collected from Various Sources_. (New York, 1860.)

CONWAY, MONCURE DANIEL. _Testimonies Concerning Slavery_. (London:
Chapman & Hall, 1865.) The author was a native of Virginia.

CULP, D.W. _Twentieth Century Negro Literature, or a Cyclopedia of
Thought, Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro by One Hundred of
America's Greatest Negroes_. (Toronto, Naperville, Ill., and Atlanta,
Ga., 1902.)

DE BOW, J.D.B. _Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western
States_. (New Orleans, 1852-1853.)

DELANY, M.R. _The Condition of the Colored People in United States_.
(Boston, 1852.)

DRESSER, AMOS. _The Narrative of Amos Dresser with Stone's Letters
from Natchez--an Obituary Notice of the Writer and Two Letters from
Tallahassee Relating to the Treatment of Slaves_. (New York, 1836.)

DREWERY, WILLIAM SIDNEY. _Slave Insurrections in Virginia, 1830-1865._
(Washington, 1900.)

DUBOIS, W.E.B. _The Philadelphia Negro._ (Philadelphia, 1896.)

---- _The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the United States
of America, 1638-1870._ Harvard Historical Studies, Vol. i. (New York,
London, and Bombay, 1896.)

---- Atlanta University Publications, _The Negro Common School._
(Atlanta, 1901.)

---- _The College-Bred Negro._ (Atlanta, 1900.)

---- _The Negro Church._ (Atlanta, 1903.)

---- and Dill, A.G. _The College-Bred Negro American._ (Atlanta,
1910.)

---- _The Common School and the Negro American._ (Atlanta, 1911.)

---- _The Negro American Artisan._ (Atlanta, 1912.)

ELLIOTT, REV. CHARLES. _History of the Great Secession from the
Methodist Episcopal Church, etc._

_Exposition of the Object and Plan of the American Union for the
Relief and Improvement of the Colored Race._ (Boston, 1835.)

FEE, JOHN G. _Anti-Slavery Manual._ (Maysville, 1848.)

FISH, C.R. _Guide to the Materials for American History in Roman and
Other Italian Archives._ (Washington, D.C., Carnegie Institution,
1911.)

FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN. _The Writings of Benjamin Franklin Collected and
Edited with a Life and Introduction by Albert Henry Smyth._ (New York,
1905-1907.)

FROST, W.G. "Appalachian America." In vol. i. of _The Americana_ (New
York, 1912.)

GARNETT, H.H. _The Past and Present Condition and the Destiny of the
Colored Race._ (Troy, 1848.)

GOODLOE, D.R. _The Southern Platform._ (Boston, 1858.)

GREGOIRE, BISHOP. _De la Litterature des Negres._ (Paris, 1808.)
Translated and published by D.B. Warden at Brooklyn, in 1810.

HARRISON, SAMUEL ALEXANDER. _Wenlock Christison, and the Early
Friends in Talbot County, Maryland._ A Paper read before the Maryland
Historical Society, March 9, 1874. (Baltimore, 1878.)

HENSON, JOSIAH. _The Life of Josiah Henson._ (Boston, 1849.)

HICKOK, CHARLES THOMAS. _The Negro in Ohio_, 1802-1870. (Cleveland,
1896.)

HODGKIN, THOMAS A. _Inquiry into the Merits of the American
Colonization Society and Reply to the Charges Brought against it, with
an Account of the British African Colonization Society_. (London,
1833.)

HOLLAND, EDWIN C. _Refutation of Calumnies Circulated against the
Southern and Western States_. (Charleston, 1822.)

HOWE, SAMUEL G. _The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West. Report to
the Freedmen's Inquiry Committee_. (Boston, 1864.)

INGLE, EDWARD. _The Negro in the District of Columbia_. (Johns Hopkins
Studies in Historical and Political Sciences, vol. xi., Baltimore,
1893.)

JAY, JOHN. _The Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay, First
Chief Justice of the United States and President of the Continental
Congress, Member of the Commission to Negotiate the Treaty of
Independence, Envoy to Great Britain, Governor of New York, etc_.,
1782-1793. (New York and London, 1891.) Edited by Henry P. Johnson,
Professor of History in the College of the City of New York.

JAY, WILLIAM. _An Inquiry into the Character and Tendencies of the
American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies_. Second
edition. (New York, 1835.)

JEFFERSON, THOMAS. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Memorial Edition.
Autobiography, Notes on Virginia, Parliamentary Manual, Official
Papers, Messages and Addresses, and Other Writings Official and
Private, etc. (Washington, 1903.)

Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science.
H.B. Adams, Editor. (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press.)

JONES, C.C. _A Catechism of Scripture, Doctrine, and Practice_.
(Philadelphia, 1852.)

KIRK, EDWARD E. _Educated Labor, etc_. (New York, 1868.)

LANGSTON, JOHN M. _From the Virginia Plantation to the National
Capital; or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from
the Old Dominion_. (Hartford, 1894.)

_L'Esclavage dans les Etats Confederes par un missionaire_. Deuxieme
edition. (Paris, 1865.)

LOCKE, M.S. _Anti-Slavery in America, from the Introduction of African
Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade_, 1619-1808. Radcliffe
College Monographs, No. 11. (Boston, 1901.)

LONG, J.D. _Pictures of Slavery in Church and State, Including
Personal Reminiscences, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, etc., with
Appendix Containing the Views of John Wesley and Richard Watson on
Slavery_. (Philadelphia, 1857.)

LOWERY, WOODBURY. _The Spanish Settlements within the Present Limits
of the United States. Florida_, 1562-1574. (New York and London,
1905.)

MADISON, JAMES. _Letters and Other Writings of James Madison Published
by Order of Congress_. Four volumes. (Philadelphia, 1865.)

MALLARY, R.O. _Maybank: Some Memoirs of a Southern Christian
Household; Family Life of C.C. Jones_.

MAY, S.J. _Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict_.

MCLEOD, ALEXANDER. _Negro Slavery Unjustifiable. A Discourse by the
Late Alexander McLeod, 1802, with an Appendix_. (New York, 1863.)

MEADE, BISHOP WILLIAM. _Old Churches, Ministers, and Families, of
Virginia_. (Philadelphia, 1897.)

MONROE, JAMES. _The Writings of James Monroe, Including a Collection
of his Public and Private Papers and Correspondence now for the First
Time Printed, Edited by S.M. Hamilton_. (Boston, 1900.)

MOORE, GEORGE H. _Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts
by George H. Moore, Librarian of the New York Historical Society and
Corresponding Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society_. (New
York, 1866.)

MORGAN, THOMAS J. _The Negro in America_. (Philadelphia, 1898.)

NEEDLES, EDWARD. _Ten Years' Progress, or a Comparison of the State
and Condition of the Colored People in the City and County of
Philadelphia from 1837 to 1847_. (Philadelphia, 1849.)

OTHELLO (PSEUDONYM). "Essays on Negro Slavery." Published in _The
American Museum_ in 1788. Othello was a free Negro.

OVINGTON, M.W. _Half-a-Man_. (New York, 1911.) Treats of the Negro in
the State of New York. A few pages are devoted to the education of the
colored people.

PARRISH, JOHN. _Remarks on the Slavery of the Black People; Addressed
to the Citizens of the United States, Particularly to those who are in
Legislative or Executive Stations in the General or State Governments;
and also to Such Individuals as Hold them in Bondage_. (Philadelphia,
1806.)

PLUMER, W.S. _Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of the Negroes of
this Country_. (Savannah, 1848.)

Plymouth Colony, New. _Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New
England_. Printed by Order of the Legislature of the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts. Edited by Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Member of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, and Fellow of the Antiquarians of
London. (Boston, 1855.)

PORTEUS, BISHOP BEILBY. _The Works of the Rev. Beilby Porteus, D.D.,
Late Bishop of London, with his Life by the Rev. Robert Hodgson,
A.M., F.R.S., Rector of St. George's, Hanover Square, and One of the
Chaplains in ordinary to His Majesty_. A new edition in six volumes.
(London, 1816.)

POWER, REV. JOHN H. _Review of the Lectures of William A. Smith,
D.D., on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery as Exhibited in the
Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States, with the Duties
of Masters to Slaves in a Series of Letters addressed to the Author_.
(Cincinnati, 1859.)

Quaker Pamphlet.

RICE, DAVID. _Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy:
Proved by a Speech Delivered in the Convention Held at Danville,
Kentucky_. (Philadelphia, 1792, and London, 1793.)

SCOBER, J. _Negro Apprenticeship in the Colonies_. (London, 1837.)

SECKER, THOMAS. _The Works of the Right Reverend Thomas Seeker,
Archbishop of Canterbury with a Review of his Life and Character by B.
Porteus_. (New edition in six volumes, London, 1811.)

SIEBERT, WILBUR H. _The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Freedom,
by W.H. Siebert, Associate Professor of History in the Ohio State
University, with an Introduction by A.B. Hart_. (New York, 1898.)

SMITH, WILLIAM A. _Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery
as Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United
States, with the Duties of Masters to Slaves_. (Nashville, Tenn.,
1856.) Doctor Smith was the President and Professor of Moral and
Intellectual Philosophy of Randolph-Macon College.

_Slavery and the Internal Slave Trade in the United States of America,
being Inquiries to Questions Transmitted by the Committee of the
British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society for the Abolition of Slavery
and the Slave Trade throughout the World. Presented to the General
Anti-Slavery Convention Held in London, June, 1840, by the Executive
Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society._ (London, 1841.)

_The Enormity of the Slave Trade and the Duty of Seeking the Moral
and Spiritual Elevation of the Colored Race._ (New York.) This work
includes speeches of Wilberforce and other documents.

_The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, Travels, and Explorations
of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791. The Original
French, Latin, and Italian Texts with English Translations and Notes;
Illustrated by Portraits, Maps, and Facsimiles. Edited by Reuben Gold
Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin._
(Cleveland, 1896.)

_The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the Northern
Abolitionists._ (Philadelphia, 1836.)

THOMPSON, GEORGE. _Speech at the Meeting for the Extinction of Negro
Apprenticeship._ (London, 1838.)

---- _The Free Church Alliance with Manstealers. Send Back the Money.
Great Anti-Slavery Meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow, Containing the
Speeches Delivered by Messrs. Wright, Douglass, and Buffum, from
America, and by George Thompson of London, with a Summary Account of
a Series of Meetings Held in Edinburgh by the Abovenamed Gentlemen._
(Glasgow, 1846.)

TORREY, JESSE, JR. _A Portraiture of Domestic Slavery in the United
States, with Reflections on the Practicability of Restoring the Moral
Rights of the Slave, without Impairing the Legal Privileges of the
Possessor, and a Project of a Colonial Asylum for Free Persons of
Color, Including Memoirs of Facts on the Interior Traffic in Slaves,
and on Kidnapping, Illustrated with Engravings by Jesse Torrey, Jr.,
Physician, Author of a Series of Essays on Morals and the Diffusion of
Knowledge._ (Philadelphia, 1817.)

---- _American Infernal Slave Trade; with Reflections on the Project
for forming a Colony of Blacks in Africa_. (London, 1822.)

TOWER, PHILO. _Slavery Unmasked: Being a Truthful Narrative of Three
Years' Residence and Journeying in Eleven Southern States; to which
is Added "The Invasion of Kansas," Including the Last Chapter of her
Wrongs_. (Rochester, 1856.)

TURNER, E.R. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Washington, 1911.)

_Tyrannical Libertymen: a Discourse upon Negro Slavery in the United
States; Composed at---- in New Hampshire; on the Late Federal
Thanksgiving Day_. (Hanover, N.H., 1795.)

VAN EVRIE, JOHN H. _Negroes and Negro Slavery_, by J.H. Van Evrie,
M.D. _Introductory Chapter: Causes of Popular Delusion on the
Subject_. (Washington, 1853.)

---- _White Supremacy and Negro Subordination; or, Negroes a
Subordinate Race, and So-called Slavery its Normal Condition. With an
Appendix Showing the Past and Present Condition of the Countries South
of us_. (New York, 1868.)

WALKER, DAVID. _Walker's Appeal in Four Articles, together with a
Preamble, to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular and
very Expressly to those of the United States of America. Written in
Boston, State of Massachusetts, September_ 28, 1820. Second edition.
(Boston, 1830.) Walker was a Negro who hoped to arouse his race to
self-assertion.

WASHINGTON, B.T. _The Story of the Negro_. Two volumes (New York,
1909.)

WASHINGTON, GEORGE. _The Writings of George Washington, being his
Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and other Papers, Official and
Private, Selected and Published from the Original Manuscripts with
the Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by Jared Sparks_.
(Boston, 1835.)

WEEKS, STEPHEN B. _Southern Quakers and Slavery. A Study in
Institutional History_. (Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1896.)

---- _The Anti-Slavery Sentiment in the South; with Unpublished
Letters from John Stuart Mill and Mrs. Stowe_. (Southern History
Association Publications. Volume ii., No. 2, Washington, D. C, April,
1898.)

WESLEY, JOHN. _Thoughts upon Slavery. In the Potent Enemies of America
Laid Open.... London, printed: Reprinted in Philadelphia with Notes,
and Sold by Joseph Cruikshank_. 1774.

WIGHAM, ELIZA. _The Anti-Slavery Cause in America and its Martyrs_.
(London, 1863.)

WILLIAMS, GEORGE W. _History of the Negro Race in the United States
from 1619-1880. Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens:
together with a Preliminary Consideration of the Unity of the Human
Family, an Historical Sketch of Africa and an Account of the Negro
Governments of Sierra Leone and Liberia_. (New York, 1883.)

WOOLMAN, JOHN. _The Works of John Woolman. In two parts. Part I: a
Journal of the Life, Gospel-Labors, and Christian Experiences of that
Faithful Minister of Christ, John Woolman, Late of Mount Holly, in the
Province of New Jersey_. (London, 1775.)

---- _Same. Part Second. Containing his Last Epistle and other
Writings_. (London, 1775.)

---- _Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recommended to
the Professors of Christianity of every Denomination_. (Philadelphia,
1754.)

---- _Considerations on Keeping Negroes; Recommended to the Professors
of Christianity of every Denomination. Part Second_. (Philadelphia,
1762.)

WRIGHT, R.R., JR. _The Negro in Pennsylvania_. (Philadelphia, 1912.)


MAGAZINES

_The Abolitionist, or Record of the New England Anti-Slavery Society_.
Edited by a committee. Appeared in January, 1833.

_The African Methodist Episcopal Church Review_. Valuable for the
following articles:

"The Colored Public Schools of Washington," by James Storum, vol. v.,
p. 279.

"The Negro as an Inventor," by R.R. Wright, vol. ii., p. 397. "Negro
Poets," vol. iv., p. 236.

"The Negro in Journalism," vols. vi., 309, and xx., 137.

_The African Repository_. Published by the American Colonization
Society from 1826 to 1832. A very good source for the development of
Negro education both in this country and Liberia. Some of its most
valuable articles are: "Learn Trades or Starve," by Frederick
Douglass, vol. xxix., pp. 136 and 137. Taken from Frederick Douglass's
Paper.

"Education of the Colored People," by a highly respectable gentleman
of the South, vol. xxx., pp. 194,195, and 196.

"Elevation of the Colored Race," a memorial circulated in North
Carolina, vol. xxxi., pp. 117 and 118.

"A Lawyer for Liberia," a sketch of Garrison Draper, vol. xxxiv., pp.
26 and 27.


Numerous articles on the religious instruction of the Negroes occur
throughout the foregoing volumes. Information about the actual
literary training of the colored people is given as news items.

_The American Museum_, or _Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive
Pieces, etc., Prose and Poetical_. Vols. i.-iv. (First and second
editions, Philadelphia, 1788. Third edition, Philadelphia, 1790.)
Contains some interesting essays on the intellectual status of the
Negroes, etc., contributed by "Othello," a free Negro.

_The Colonizationist and Journal of Freedom_. The author has been able
to find only the volume which contains the numbers for the year 1834.

_The Crisis_. A record of the darker races published by the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

_The Maryland Journal of Colonization_. Published as the official
organ of the Maryland Colonization Society. Among its important
articles are: "The Capacities of the Negro Race," vol. iii., p. 367;
and "The Educational Facilities of Liberia," vol. vii., p. 223.

_The Non-Slaveholder_. Two volumes of this publication are now found
in the Library of Congress.

_The School Journal_.

_The Southern Workman_. Volume xxxvii. contains Dr. R.R. Wright's
valuable dissertation on "Negro Rural Communities in Indiana."


NEWSPAPERS

  District of Columbia.
    _The Daily National Intelligencer_.

  Louisiana
    _The New Orleans Commercial Bulletin._

  Maryland.
    _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser._
    _The Maryland Gazette._
    _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette_ or _The Baltimore Advertiser._

  Massachusetts.
    _The Liberator._

  New York.
    _The New York Daily Advertiser._
    _The New York Tribune._

  North Carolina.
    _The State Gazette of North Carolina._
    _The Newbern Gazette._

  Pennsylvania.
    _The Philadelphia Gazette._

  South Carolina.
    _The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser._
    _The State Gazette of South Carolina._
    _The Charleston Courier._
    _The South Carolina Weekly Advertiser._
    _The Carolina Gazette._
    _The Columbian Herald._

  Virginia.
    _The Richmond Enquirer._
    _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald._
    _The Virginia Herald._ (Fredericksburg.)
    _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle._


LAWS, DIGESTS, CHARTERS, CONSTITUTIONS, AND REPORTS

GENERAL

Code Noir ou Recueil d'edits, declarations et arrets concernant la
Discipline et le commerce des esclaves Negres des isles francaises de
l'Amerique (in Recueils de reglemens, edits, declarations et arrets,
concernant le commerce, l'administration de la justice et la police
des colonies francaises de l'Amerique, et les engages avec le Code
Noir, et l'addition audit code). (Paris, 1745.)

GOODELL, WILLIAM. _The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice: Its
Distinctive Features Shown by its Statutes, Judicial Decisions, and
Illustrative Facts._ (New York, 1853.)

PETERS, RICHARD. _Condensed Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in
the Supreme Court of the United States._ Six volumes. (Philadelphia,
1830-1834.)

THORPE, F.N. _Federal and State Constitution, Colonial Charters, and
Other Organic Laws of the States, Territories, and Colonies now or
heretofore Forming the United States of America. Compiled and Edited
under an Act of Congress, June 30, 1906._ (Washington, 1909.)


STATE

  Alabama.
  _Acts of the General Assembly Passed by the State of Alabama._
  CLAY, C.C. _Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama to
  1843._ (Tuscaloosa, 1843.)

  Connecticut.
  _Public Acts Passed by the General Assembly of Connecticut._

  Delaware.
  _Laws of the State of Delaware Passed by the General Assembly._

  District of Columbia.
  BURCH, SAMUEL. _A Digest of the Laws of the Corporation of
  the City of Washington, with an Appendix of the Laws of the
  United States Relating to the District of Columbia._ (Washington,
  1823.)

  Florida.
  _Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida._
  _Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of
  Florida._

  Georgia.
  _Laws of the State of Georgia._
  COBB, HOWELL. _A Digest of the Statutes of Georgia in General
  Use to 1846._ (New York, 1846.)
  DAWSON, WILLIAM. _A Compilation of the Laws of the State
  of Georgia to 1831._ (Milledgeville, 1831.)
  PRINCE, O.H. _A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia to
  1837._ (Athens, 1837.)

  Illinois.
  _Laws of the State of Illinois Passed by the General Assembly._
  STARR, M., and RUSSELL H. CURTIS. _Annotated Statutes of
  Illinois in Force, January 1, 1885._

  Indiana.
  _Laws of a General Nature Passed by the State of Indiana._

  Kentucky.
  _Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky._

  Louisiana.
  _Acts Passed by the Legislature of the State of Louisiana._
  BULLARD, HENRY A., and THOMAS CURRY. _A New Digest of
  the Statute Laws of the State of Louisiana to 1842._ (New
  Orleans, 1842.)

  Maryland.
  _Laws Made and Passed by the General Assembly of the State of
  Maryland._

  Massachusetts.
  _Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Court of Massachusetts._
  QUINCY, JOSIAH, JR. _Reports of Cases, Superior Court of
  Judicature of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, 1761-1772._
  (Boston, 1865.)

  Mississippi.
  _Laws of the State of Mississippi Passed at the Regular Sessions
  of the Legislature._
  POINDEXTER, GEORGE. _Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi._
  (Natchez, 1824.)
  HUTCHINSON, A. _Code of Mississippi._ (Jackson, 1848.)

  Missouri.
  _Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri._

  New Jersey.
  _Acts of the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey._

  New York.
  _Laws of the State of New York._

  Ohio.
  _Acts of a General Nature Passed by the General Assembly of
  the State of Ohio._
  _Acts of a Local Nature Passed by the General Assembly of the
  State of Ohio._

  Pennsylvania.
  _Laws of the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania._
  BRIGHTLY, FRANK F. _A Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania._
  STROUD, G.M. _Purdon's Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania
  from 1700 to 1851._ (Philadelphia, 1852.)

  Rhode Island.
  _Acts and Resolves Passed by the General Assembly of the State
  of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations._

  South Carolina.
  _Acts and Resolutions of the General Assembly of the State of
  South Carolina._
  BREVARD, JOSEPH. _An Alphabetical Digest of the Public
  Statute Laws of South Carolina from 1692 to 1813._ Three
  volumes. (Charleston, 1814.)

  Tennessee.
  _Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee._

  Virginia.
  _Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia._
  HENING, W.W. _Statutes at Large: A Collection of all the Laws
  of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the
  Year 1816._ (Richmond, 1819 to 1823.) Published pursuant
  to an act of the General Assembly of Virginia,
  passed on the 5th of February, 1808. The work was extended
  by S. Shepherd who published three additional
  volumes in 1836. Chief source of historical material for
  the history of Virginia.
  TATE, Joseph. _A Digest of the Laws of Virginia._ (Richmond,
  1841.)




INDEX


  Abdy, E.S., learned that slaves were taught
  Abolitionists, interested in the enlightenment of Negroes
  Account of a pious Negro
  Actual education after the revolutionary period
  Adams, Rev. Henry, teacher at Louisville
  Adams, John, report of James Otis's argument on the Writs of
  Assistance; views on slavery
  Address of the American Convention of Abolition Societies
  African Benevolent Society of Rhode Island, school of
  African Episcopalians of Philadelphia, school of
  African Free School of Baltimore
  African Free Schools of New York
  African Methodist Episcopal Church, established Union Seminary;
  purchased Wilberforce
  Agricultural Convention of Georgia recommended that slaves be taught to
    read
  Alabama, law of 1832; provision for teaching Negroes at Mobile;
  Presbyterians of, interested
  Albany Normal School, colored student admitted
  Alexandria, Virginia Quakers of, instructed Negroes; Benjamin Davis, a
  teacher of
  Allen, Richard, organized A.M.E. Church; author
  Allen, W.H., teacher of Negroes
  Ambush, James E., teacher in the District of Columbia
  American Colonization Society, The, efforts of, to educate Negroes
  American Convention of Abolition Societies, The, interested in the
  education of Negroes; recommended industrial education; addresses of
  American Union, The, organized; names of its promoters (see note 1 on
  page 142)
  Amherstburg, Canada, opened a colored school; established a mission
  school
  Anderson, John G., musician
  Andrew, one of the first two colored teachers in Carolina
  Andrews, C.C. principal of New York African Free Schools
  Andrews, E.A., student of the needs of the Negroes
  Anti-slavery agitation, effect of, on education in cities
  Appalachian Mountains, settled by people favorable to Negroes
  Appo, William, musician
  Arnett, B.W., teacher in Pennsylvania
  Ashmun Institute, founded; names of the trustees
  Athens College, admitted colored students
  Attainments of Negroes at the close of the eighteenth century
  Auchmutty, Reverend, connected with the school established by Elias
    Neau
  Augusta, Dr. A.T., learned to read in Virginia
  Avery College, established
  Avery, Rev. Charles, donor of $300,000 for the education
    and Christianization of the African race

  Bacon, Rev. Thomas, sermons on the instruction of Negroes
  Baldwin County, Alabama, provision for teaching Negroes
  Baltimore, several colored churches; colored schools of; an adult
    school of 180 pupils; Sunday-schools; day and night school; Bible
    Society; African Free School; donation of Wells; donation of
    Crane; school tax paid by Negroes, note on page----
  Banks, Henry, learned to read in Virginia
  Banneker, Benjamin, studied in Maryland; made a clock; took up
  astronomy;
    encouraged by Ellicott; corresponded with Thomas Jefferson
  Baptist preacher, taught Negroes in South Carolina
  Baptists, aided the education of Negroes; established school at
    Bexley, Liberia; changed attitude toward the uplift of Negroes
  Barclay, David, gave money to build school-house
  Barclay, Reverend, instructed Negroes in New York
  Barr, John W., taught M.W. Taylor in Kentucky
  Baxter, Richard, instructed masters to enlighten their slaves
  Beard, Simeon, had a school in Charleston
  Becraft, Maria, established a school in the District of Columbia
  Bell family, progress of
  Bell, George, built first colored school-house in District of Columbia
  Bell School established
  Benezet, Anthony, advocated the education of Negroes; taught Negroes;
    believed in western colonization; opinion on Negro intellect;
    bequeathed wealth to educate Negroes; school-house built
    with the fund;(see note giving sketch of his career)
  Berea College, founded
  Berkshire Medical School had trouble admitting Negroes; graduated
  colored physicians
  Berry's portraiture of the Negroes' condition after the reaction
  Bibb, Mary E., taught at Windsor, Canada
  Billings, Maria, taught in the District of Columbia
  Birney, James G., criticized the church; helped Negroes on free soil
  Bishop, Josiah, preached to white congregation in Portsmouth, Virginia
  Bishop of London, declared that the conversion of slaves did not work
    manumission
  "Black Friday," Portsmouth, Ohio, Negroes driven out
  Blackstone, studied to justify the struggle for the rights of man; his
    idea of the body politic forgotten
  Bleecker, John, interested in the New York African Free Schools
  Boone, R.G., sketch of education in Indiana
  Boston, Massachusetts, colored school opened; opened its first primary
    school; school in African Church; several colored churches; struggle
  for democratic education; (see also Massachusetts)
  Boucher, Jonathan, interested in the uplift of Negroes; an advocate of
  education; (see note on, 56); extract from address of
  Boulder, J.F., student in a mixed school in Delaware
  Bowditch, H.J., asked that Negroes be admitted to Boston public schools
  Bowdoin College, admitted a Negro
  Bradford, James T., studied at Pittsburgh
  Branagan advocated colonization of the Negroes in the West
  Bray, Dr. Thomas, a promoter of the education of Negroes; "Associates
    of Dr. Bray,"; plan of, for the instruction of Negroes
  Brearcroft, Dr., alluded to the plan for the enlightenment of Negroes
  Breckenridge, John, contributed to the education of the colored people
    of Baltimore
  Bremer, Fredrika, found colored schools in the South; observed the
    teaching of slaves
  British American Manual Labor Institute, established at Dawn, Canada
  Brown, a graduate of Harvard College, taught colored children in Boston
  Brown County, Ohio, colored schools of, established
  Brown, Jeremiah H., studied at Pittsburgh
  Brown, J.M., attended school in Delaware
  Brown, William Wells, author; leader and educator
  Browning family, progress of
  Bruce, B.K., learned to read,
  Bryan, Andrew, preacher in Georgia
  Buchanan, George, on mental capacity of Negroes
  Buffalo, colored Methodist and Baptist churches of, lost
    members
  Burke, E.P., found enlightened Negroes in the South
    mentioned case of a very intelligent Negro
  Burlington, New Jersey, Quakers of, interested in the uplift
    of the colored people
  Butler, Bishop, urged the instruction of Negroes
  Buxton, Canada, separate schools established in

  Caesar, a Negro poet of North Carolina
  Calvert, Mr., an Englishman who taught Negroes in the
    District of Columbia
  Camden Insurrection, effect of
  Cameron, Paul C., sketch of John Chavis
  Canaan, New Hampshire, academy broken up
  Canada, education of Negroes in; names of settlements with schools;
    difficulties of races; separate schools; mission schools; results
    obtained; (see Drew's note on condition of)
  Capers, Bishop William, opinion on reconstructing the policy of Negro
    education; plan of, to instruct Negroes; work of, among the colored
    people; catechism of
  Cardozo, F.L., entered school in Charleston
  Carey, Lott, educated himself
  Cass County, Michigan, school facilities in the colored settlement of
  Castleton Medical School, admitted Negroes
  Catholics, interested in the education of Negroes
  Catto, Rev. William T., author and preacher
  Cephas, Uncle, learned from white children
  Chandler, solicitor, of Boston, opinion on the segregation of
    colored pupils
  Channing, William, criticized the church for its lack of interest
    in the uplift of the Negroes
  Charleston, colored members of church of; Minor Society of;
    colored schools of, attended by Bishop Daniel A. Payne;
    insurrection of; theological seminary of, admitted a Negro
  Charlton, Reverend, friend of Negroes in New York
  Chatham, Canada, colored schools of
  Chavis, John, educated at Princeton; a teacher of white youths
    in North Carolina
  Chester, T. Morris, student at Pittsburgh
  Chicago, separate schools of; disestablished
  Child, M.E., teacher in Canada
  Churches, aided education through Sabbath-schools
  Christians not to be held as slaves
  Cincinnati, colored schools of; Negroes of; sought public support
    for their schools; a teacher of, excluded a colored boy from a
    public school; law of
  City, the influences of, on the education of Negroes; attitude of
    anti-slavery societies of, toward the education of the Negroes
  Clapp, Margaret, aided Myrtilla Miner in the District of Columbia; (see
    note 2)
  Clarkson Hall Schools of Philadelphia
  Clarkson, Matthew, a supporter of the New York African Free Schools
  Cleveland, C.F., Argument of, in favor of Connecticut law against
    colored schools
  Cleveland, colored schools of
  Code Noir, referred to; (see note, 23)
  Co-education of the races
  Coffin, Levi, taught Negroes in North Carolina; promoted the migration
    of Negroes to free soil; traveled in Canada
  Coffin, Vestal, assistant of his father in North Carolina
  Cogswell, James, aided the New York African Free Schools
  Coker, Daniel, a teacher in Baltimore
  Colbura, Zerah, a calculator who tested Thomas Fuller
  Colchester, Canada, mission school at
  Cole, Edward, made settlement of Negroes in Illinois
  Colgan, Reverend; connected with Neau's school in New York
  College of West Africa established
  Colleges, Negroes not admitted; manual labor idea of; change in
    attitude of
  Colonization scheme, influence of, on education
  Colonizationists, interest of, in the education of Negroes
  Colored mechanics, prejudice against; slight increase in
  Columbia, Pennsylvania, Quakers of, interested in the uplift of Negroes
  Columbian Institute established in the District of Columbia
  Columbus, Ohio, colored schools of
  Condition of Negroes, in the eighteenth century; at the close of the
    reaction
  Connecticut, defeated the proposed Manual Labor College at New Haven;
    spoken of as place for a colored school of the American Colonization
  Society; allowed separate schools at Hartford; inadequately supported
    colored schools; struggle against separate schools of;
    disestablishment of separate schools of
  Convention of free people of color, effort to establish a college
  Convent of Oblate Sisters of Providence, educated colored girls in
    academy of
  Cook, John F., teacher in the District of Columbia; forced by the Snow
    Riot to go to Pennsylvania
  Corbin, J.C. student at Chillicothe, Ohio
  Cornish, Alexander, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Costin, Louisa Parke, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Cox, Ann, teacher in New York African Free Schools
  Coxe, Eliza J., teacher in the New York African Free Schools
  Coxe, General, of Fluvanna County, Virginia, taught his slaves to read
    the Bible
  Coxe, R.S., a supporter of Hays's school in the District of Columbia
  Crandall, Prudence, admitted colored girls to her academy; opposed by
    whites; law against her enacted; arrested, imprisoned, and tried;
    abandoned her school
  Crane, William, erected a building for the education of Negroes in
    Baltimore
  Crummell, Alexander, sought admission to the academy at Canaan, New
    Hampshire
  Cuffee, Paul, author

  D'Alone, contributor to a fund for the education of Negroes
  Dartmouth, theological school of, admitted Negroes
  Davies, Reverend, teacher of Negroes in Virginia
  Davis, Benjamin, taught Negroes in Alexandria, Virginia
  Davis, Cornelius, teacher of New York African Free Schools
  Davis, Rev. Daniel, interest of, in the uplift of the people of color
  Dawn, Canada, colored schools of
  Dawson, Joseph, aided colored schools
  Dean, Rev. Philotas, principal of Avery College
  De Baptiste, Richard, student in a school at his father's home in
    Fredericksburg
  De Grasse, Dr. John V., educated for Liberia
  Delany, M.R., attended school at Pittsburgh
  Delaware, abolition Society of, provided for the education of the
    Negroes; law of 1831; law of 1863
  Detroit, African Baptist Church of; separate schools of
  Dialogue on the enlightenment of Negroes about 1800
  District of Columbia, separate schools of; churches of, contributed to
    education of Negroes
  Douglass, Mrs., a white teacher of Negroes in Norfolk
  Douglass, Frederick, learned to read; leader and advocate of education;
    author; opinion of, on vocational education; extract from paper of
  Douglass, Sarah, teacher of Philadelphia
  Dove, Dr., owner of Dr. James Durham
  Dow, Dr. Jesse E., co-worker of Charles Middleton of the District of
    Columbia
  Draper, Garrison, studied law after getting education at Dartmouth; an
    account of
  Drew, Benjamin, note of, on Canada; found prejudice in schools of
    Canada
  Duncan, Benedict, taught by his father
  Durham, James, a colored physician of New Orleans
  Dwight, Sarah, teacher of colored girls

  _Edit du'roi_,
  _Education of Colored People_,
  Education of colored children at public expense,
    (see also Chapter XIII,)
  Edwards, Mrs. Haig, interest of, in the uplift of slaves,
  Eliot, Rev. John, appeal in behalf of the conversion of slaves,
  Ellis, Harrison, educated blacksmith,
  Ellsworth, W.W., argument of, against the constitutionality of the
    Connecticut law prohibiting the establishment of colored schools,
  Emancipation of slaves, effects of, on education,
  Emlen Institute established in Ohio,
  Emlen, Samuel, philanthropist,
  England, ministers of the Church of, maintained a school for colored
    children at Newport,
  English Colonial Church established mission schools in Canada,
  English High School established at Monrovia,
  Essay of Bishop Porteus,
  Established Church of England directed attention to the uplift of the
    slaves,
  Everly, mentioned resolutions bearing on the instruction of slaves,
  Evidences of the development of the intellect of Negroes,

  Falmouth colored Sunday-school broken up,
  Fawcett, Benjamin, address to Negroes of Virginia,
    extract from,
  Fee, Rev. John G., criticized church because it neglected the Negroes,
    founded Berea College,
  Fleet, Dr. John, educated for Liberia,
    teacher in the District of Columbia,
  Fleetwood, Bishop, urged that Negroes be instructed,
    (see note on p.)
  Fletcher, Mr. and Mrs., teachers in the District of Columbia,
  Flint, Rev. James, received letters bearing on the teaching of Negroes,
  Florida, law of, unfavorable to the enlightenment of Negroes,
    a more stringent law of,
  Foote, John P., praised the colored schools of Cincinnati,
  Ford, George, a Virginia lady who taught pupils of color in the
  District of Columbia,
  Fort Maiden, Canada, schools of,
  Fortie, John, teacher in Baltimore,
  Fothergill, on colonization,
  Fox, George, urged Quakers to instruct the colored people,
  Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio, admitted colored students,
  Franklin, Benjamin, aided the teachers of Negroes,
  Franklin, Nicholas, helped to build first schoolhouse for colored
  children in the District of Columbia,
  Frederic, Francis, taught by his master,
  Free schools not sought at first by Negroes,
  Freeman, M.H., teacher; principal of Avery College
  French, the language of, taught in colored schools; educated Negroes
  Friends, minutes of the meetings of, bearing on the instruction of
    Negroes
  Fugitive Slave Law, effects of
  Fuller, James C, left a large sum for the education of Negroes
  Fuller, Thomas, noted colored mathematician

  Gabriel's insurrection, effect of
  Gaines, John I., led the fight for colored trustees in Cincinnati, Ohio
  Gallia County, Ohio, school of
  Gardner, Newport, teacher in Rhode Island
  Garnett, H.H., was to be a student at Canaan, New Hampshire; author;
    president of Avery College
  Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, appeal of, in behalf of the education of Negroes;
    speech of, on education; solicited funds for colored manual
    labor school
  Geneva College, change in attitude of
  Georgetown, teachers and schools of
  Georgia, prohibitive legislation of; objections of the people of,
    to the education of Negroes; colored mechanics of, opposed;
    Presbyterians of, taught Negroes; slaveholders of,
    in Agricultural Convention urged the enlightenment of Negroes
  Gettysburg Theological Seminary, admitted a Negro
  Gibson, Bishop, of London, appeal in behalf of the neglected Negroes;
    letters of
  Giles County, Tennessee, colored preacher of, pastor of a white church
  Gilmore, Rev. H., established a high school in Cincinnati
  Gist, Samuel, made settlement of Negroes
  Gloucester, New Jersey, Quakers of, interested in teaching Negroes
  Gloucester, John, preacher in Philadelphia
  Goddard, Calvin, argument of, against the constitutionality
    of the law prohibiting colored schools in Connecticut
  Goodwyn, Morgan, urged that Negroes be elevated
  Grant, Nancy, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Green, Charles Henry, studied in Delaware
  Greenfield, Eliza, musician
  Gregg of Virginia, settled his slaves on free soil
  Gregoire, H., on the mental capacity of Negroes
  Grimke brothers, students in Charleston

  Haddonfield, New Jersey, Quakers of, instructed Negroes
  Haiti and Santo Domingo, influence of the revolution of
  Halgy, Mrs., teacher in the District of Columbia
  Hall,
    a graduate of Harvard University, teacher in the Boston colored
    school,
  Hall, Anna Maria, student in Alexandria,
    teacher,
  Hall, Primus, established a colored school at his home in Boston,
  Hamilton, Alexander, advocate of the rights of man,
  Hampton, Fannie, teacher in District of Columbia,
  Hancock, Richard M., studied at Newberne,
  Hanover College, Indiana, accepted colored students,
  Harlan, Robert, learned to read in Kentucky,
  Harper, Chancellor, views of, on the instruction of Negroes,
  Harper, Frances E.W., poet,
  Harper, John, took his slaves from North Carolina to Ohio and liberated
    them,
  Harry, one of the first two colored teachers in Carolina,
  Hartford,
    separate schools of,
    dissatisfaction of the Negroes of,
    with poor school facilities,
    struggle of some citizens of,
    against caste in education,
    separate schools of, disestablished,
  Haviland, Laura A., teacher in Canada,
  Hays, Alexander, teacher in District of Columbia,
  Haynes, Lemuel, pastor of a white church,
  Heathenism, Negroes reduced to,
  Henry, Patrick, views of, on the rights of man,
  Henson, Rev. Josiah, leader and educator,
  Higher education of Negroes urged by free people of color,
    change in the attitude of some Negroes toward,
    promoted in the District of Columbia,
    in Pennsylvania,
    in Ohio,
  Hildreth, connected with Neau's school in New York,
  Hill, Margaret, teacher in the District of Columbia,
  Hillsborough, North Carolina, influence of the insurrection of,
  Homeopathic College, Cleveland, admitted colored students,
  Horton, George, poet,
  Huddlestone, connected with Neau's school,
  Humphreys, Richard, gave $10,000 to educate Negroes,
  Hunter, John A., attended a mixed school,

  Illinois, schools of, for benefits of whites,
    separate schools of, a failure,
    unfavorable legislation of,
    separate schools of, disestablished,
  Indiana, schools in colored settlements of,
    attitude of, toward the education of the colored people,
    prohibitive legislation of,
  Industrial education recommended,
  Industrial revolution, effect of, on education,
  Inman, Anna, assistant of Myrtilla Miner,
  Institute for Colored Youth established at Philadelphia,
  Institute of Easton, Pennsylvania, admitted a Negro,
  Instruction, change in meaning of the word
  Inventions of Negroes; (see note 1)
  Insurrections, slave, effect of
  Iowa, Negroes of, had good school privileges

  Jackson, Edmund, demanded the admission of colored pupils to Boston
    schools
  Jackson, Stonewall, teacher in a colored Sunday-school
  Jackson, William, musician
  Jay, John, a friend of the Negroes
  Jay, William, criticized the Church for its failure to elevate the
    Negroes;
    attacked the policy of the colonizationists
  Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, admitted Negroes
  Jefferson, Thomas, views of, on the education of Negroes; (see note);
    letter of, to Abbe H. Gregoire; letter to M.A. Julien; failed to
    act as Kosciuszko's executor; corresponded with Banneker
  Jesuits, French, instructed slaves
  Jesuits, Spanish, teachers of Negroes
  Johnson, Harriet C., assistant at Avery College
  Johnson, John Thomas, teacher in the District of Columbia;
    teacher in Pittsburgh
  Jones, Alfred T., learned to read in Kentucky
  Jones, Anna, aided Myrtilla Miner
  Jones, Arabella, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Jones, Rev. C.C., a white preacher among Negroes of Georgia;
    Argument of,
    for the religious instruction of Negroes; catechism of, for religious
    instruction; estimate of those able to read
  Jones, Matilda, supported Myrtilla Miner
  Journalistic efforts of Negroes; (see note)
  Judson, A.T., denounced Prudence Crandall's policy; upheld the law
    prohibiting the establishment of colored schools in Connecticut

  Keith, George, advocated religious training for the Negroes
  Kemble, Frances Anne, discovered that the Negroes of some masters
    were taught to read; (see note 4)
  Kentucky, Negroes of, learned the rudiments of education; work of the
    Emancipating Labor Society of; work of the Presbyterians of;
    public opinion of; colored schools of
  Kinkaid, J.B., taught M.W. Taylor of Kentucky
  Knoxville, people of, favorable to the uplift of the colored race
  Kosciuszko, T., plan of, to educate Negroes; (see note);
    will of; fund of

  Lafayette, Marquis de, visited New York African Free Schools;
    said to be interested in a colored school in the West
  Lancastrian method of instruction, effect of
  Lane Seminary, students of, taught Negroes
  Langston, J.M., student at Chillicothe and Oberlin
  Latin, taught in a colored school
  Law, Rev. Josiah, instructed Negroes in Georgia; (see note 1)
  Lawrence, Nathaniel, supporter of New York colored schools
  _Lawyer for Liberia_, a document
  Lawyers, colored, recognized in the North; (see note 2)
  Lay, Benjamin, advocate of the instruction of slaves
  Leary, John S., went to private school
  Lee, Thomas, a teacher in the District of Columbia
  Leile, George, preacher in Georgia and Jamaica
  Le Jeune, taught a little Negro in Canada
  Le Petit instructed Negroes
  Lewis, R.B., author
  Lexington, Kentucky, colored school of; (see note 1, p. 223)
  Liberia, education of Negroes for; education of Negroes in
  Liberia College, founded
  Liberty County, Georgia, instruction of Negroes in
  Liverpool, Moses, one of the founders of the first colored school in
    the District of Columbia
  Livingston, W., teacher in Baltimore
  Locke, John, influence of
  Lockhart, Daniel J., instructed by white boys
  London, Bishop of, formal declarations of, abrogating the law that a
    Christian could not be held a slave
  London, Canada, private school; mission school
  Longworth, Nicholas, built a school-house for Negroes
  Louisiana, education of Negroes in; hostile legislation of; Bishop Polk
    of, on instruction of Negroes
  Louisville, Kentucky, colored schools of
  L'Ouverture, Toussaint, influence of
  Lowell, Massachusetts, colored schools of; disestablished
  Lowry, Rev. Samuel, taught by Rev. Talbot of Franklin College
  Lowth, Bishop, interested in the uplift of the heathen
  Lucas, Eliza, teacher of slaves
  Lundy, Benjamin, helped Negroes on free soil
  Lunenburg County, Virginia, colored congregation of

  Madison, James, on the education of Negroes; letter of
  Maine, separate school of
  Malone, Rev. J.W., educated in Indiana
  Malvin, John, organized schools in Ohio cities
  Mangum, P.H., and W.P., pupils of John Chavis, a colored teacher
  Manly, Gov. Charles, of North Carolina, taught by John Chavis
  Mann, Lydia, aided Myrtilla Miner,
  Manual Labor College, demand for,
  Manumission, effect of the laws of,
  Martin, Martha, sent to Cincinnati to be educated,
    sister sent to a southern town to learn a trade,
  Marechal, Rev. Ambrose, helped to maintain colored schools,
  Maryland, Abolition Society of, to establish an academy for Negroes,
    favorable conditions,
    public opinion against the education of Negroes,
    law of, against colored mechanics,
  Maryville Theological Seminary, students of, interested in the uplift
    of Negroes,
  Mason, Joseph T. and Thomas H., teachers in the District of Columbia,
  Massachusetts, schools of,
    struggles for democratic education,
    disestablishment of separate schools,
  Mather, Cotton, on the instruction of Negroes,
    resolutions of,
  Matlock, White, interest of, in Negroes,
  Maule, Ebenezer, helped to found a colored school in Virginia,
  May, Rev. Samuel, defender of Prudence Crandall,
  McCoy, Benjamin, teacher in the District of Columbia,
  McDonogh, John, had educated slaves,
  McIntosh County, Georgia, religious instruction of Negroes,
  McLeod, Dr., criticized the inhumanity of men to Negroes,
  Meade, Bishop William, interested in the elevation of Negroes,
    work of, in Virginia,
    followed Bacon's policy,
    collected literature on the instruction of Negroes,
  Means, supported Myrtilla Miner,
  Mechanics, opposed colored artisans,
  Medical School of Harvard University open to colored students,
  Medical School of the University of New York admitted colored students,
  Memorial to Legislature of North Carolina, the education of slaves
    urged,
  Methodist preacher in South Carolina, work of, stopped by the people,
  Methodists, enlightened Negroes,
    change in attitude of,
    founded Wilberforce,
  Michigan, Negroes admitted to schools of,
  Middleton, Charles, teacher in the District of Columbia,
  Miles, Mary E.. assistant of Gilmore in Cincinnati,
  Milton, influence of,
  Miner, Myrtilla, teacher in the District of Columbia,
    founded a school,
  Minor Society of Charleston established a school for Negroes,
  Minority report of Boston School Committee opposed segregation of
    colored pupils,
  Minutes of Methodist Episcopal Conference, resolution
    on the instruction of Negroes
  Minutes of the Meetings of Friends,
    action taken to elevate the colored people
  Missionaries,
    English, interested in uplift of Negroes
    French
    Spanish
  Missouri, prohibitive legislation of
  Mitchell, John G., student in Indiana
  Mitchell, S.T., began his education in Indiana
  Mobile, provision for the education of the Negroes
  Montgomery, I.T., educated under the direction of his master
  Moore, Edward W., teacher, and author of an arithmetic
  Moore, Helen, helped Myrtilla Miner
  Moorland, Dr. J.E., an uncle of, studied medicine
  Moravian Brethren, instructed colored people
  Morris, Dr. E. C, instructed by his father
  Morris, J., taught by his white father
  Morris, J.W., student in Charleston
  Morris, Robert, appointed magistrate
  Murray, John, interested in the New York African Free Schools

  Nantucket, Massachusetts, colored schools of
  Neau, Elias, founded a colored school in New York City
  Negroes,
    learning to read and write
    free education of
    learning in spite of opposition
    instructing white persons
    reduced to heathenism
  Neill, Rev. Hugh, missionary teacher of Negroes in Pennsylvania
  Nell, Wm., author
  New Bedford, Massachusetts,
    colored schools of
    disestablished
  Newbern, North Carolina, effects of insurrection of
  New Castle, Presbytery of,
    established Ashmun Institute
  New England,
    schools in Anti-Slavery Society of
    planned to establish a manual labor college
    sent colored students to Canaan, New Hampshire
  Newhall, Isabella, excluded a colored boy from school
  New Hampshire, academy of,
    broken up
    schools of, apparently free to all
  New Haven, separate schools of
    colored Manual Labor College not wanted
    interested in the education of persons for Africa and Haiti
  New Jersey, Quakers of,
    endeavored to elevate colored people
    law of, to teach slaves
    Negroes of, in public schools
    Presbyterians of, interested in Negroes
    separate schools
    caste in schools abolished
  New Orleans, education of the Negroes of
  Newport, Rhode Island, separate schools
  New York, Quakers of,
    taught Negroes
    Presbyterians
    of, interested in Negroes,
    work of Anti-Slavery Society of,
    separate schools of,
    schools opened to all,
  New York Central College, favorable to Negroes,
  New York City, African Free Schools,
    transfer to Public School Society,
    transfer to Board of Education,
    society of free people of color of, organized a school,
  Newspapers, colored, gave evidence of intellectual progress,
    (see note 1,)
  North Carolina, Quakers of, instructed Negroes,
    Presbyterians of, interested in the education of Negroes,
    Tryon's instructions against certain teachers,
    manumission societies of, promoting the education of colored people,
    reactionary laws of,
    memorial sent to Legislature of, for permission to teach slaves,
  Northwest Territory, education of transplanted Negroes,
    settlements of, with schools,
  Noxon, connected with Neau's school in New York City,
  Nutall, an Englishman, taught Negroes in New York,

  Oberlin grew out of Lane Seminary,
  Objections to the instruction of Negroes considered and answered,
  Ohio, colored schools of (see Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, and
  Northwest Territory); struggle for education at public expense,
    unfavorable legislation,
    law of 1849,
  Olmsted, P.L., found a plantation of enlightened slaves,
  O'Neal of South Carolina Bar discussed with Chancellor Harper the
    question of instructing Negroes,
  Oneida Institute contributed to the education of Negroes,
  Oregon, law of, hostile to Negroes,
  Othello, a free Negro, denounced the policy of neglecting the Negroes,
  Otis, James, on the rights of all men,

  Palmer, Dr., catechism of,
  Pamphlet, Gowan, a preacher in Virginia,
  Parry, Alfred H., successful teacher,
  Parsons, C.G., observed that some Negroes were enlightened,
  _Pastoral Letters of Bishop Gibson of London_,
  Patterson, Edward, learned to read in a Sabbath-school,
  Payne, Dr. C.H., taught by his mother to read,
  Payne, Bishop Daniel, student in Charleston,
    agent to purchase Wilberforce,
  Payne, Mrs. Thomas, studied under her master,
  Pease, W., instructed by his owner,
  Penn, William, believed in emancipation to afford Negroes an
  opportunity for improvement,
  Pennington, J. C, writer, teacher, and preacher of influence,
  Pennsylvania, work of Quakers of,
    favorable legislation,
    law of,
    against colored mechanics,
    (see also Quakers, Friends, Presbyterians, and Philadelphia)
  Perry, R.L., attended school at Nashville
  Peterboro School of New York established
  Petersburg, Virginia, colored schools of, colored churches
  Pettiford, W.A., attended private school in North
    Carolina
  Philadelphia, Negroes of, taught by Quakers, early
    colored schools, public aid secured for the education of Negroes,
    names of teachers public and private, statistics of colored schools,
    (see Quakers, Presbyterians, and Pennsylvania)
  Phillips, Wendell, argument against the segregation of
    colored people in Boston
  Physicians, colored, (see note 3, 279)
  Pinchback, P.B.S., studied in the Gilmore High School in
    Cincinnati
  Pinkney, William, views on the mental capacity of Negroes
  _Pious Negro, True Account of_, a document
  Pittsburgh, colored schools of
  _Plan for the Improvement of the Free Black_, a document
  Plantation system, the rise of,
    effects of, on the enlightenment
    of the Negroes
  Pleasants, Robert, founder of a colored manual labor school
  Polk, Bishop, of Louisiana, advocate of the instruction
    of Negroes
  Porteus, Bishop, a portion of his essay on the uplift of
    Negroes (see also, note 2)
  Portland, Maine, colored schools of
  Potter, Henry, taught Negroesin the District of Columbia
  Preachers, colored, preached to Negroes (see note 4). preached
    to white people
  Presbyterians, taught Negroes,
    struggles of,
    Acts of
    Synods of, a document
  _Presbyterian Witness_, criticized
    churchmen neglectful of the
    Negroes
  _Proposition for encouraging the Christian education of
    Indian and Mulatto children at Lambeth, Virginia_
  Protestant Episcopal High School at Cape Palmas, Liberia
  Prout, John, a teacher in the District of Columbia
  Providence, Rhode Island, separate schools of
  Providence Convent of Baltimore, influence of
  Purcell, Jack, bearing of the confession of
  Puritans, attitude of, toward the uplift of Negroes

  Quakers, educational work among Negroes,
    promoting education in the Northwest Territory,
    (see also Friends)

  Racial inferiority, the argument of
  Randolph, John, slaves of, sent to Ohio
  Raymond, Daniel, contributed to the education of Negroes
  Reaction, the effect of
  Reason, Chas. L., teacher in Institute for Colored Youth
  Redmond, Sarah, denied admission to Boston School
  Redpath, James, observation in the South
  Refugees from Haiti and Santo Domingo, influence of;
    bearing of, on insurrection
  Refugees Home School established
  Religious instruction discussed by Churchmen
  Remond, C.L., lecturer and orator
  Resolute Beneficial Society established a school
  Revels, U.S. Senator Hiram, student in Quaker Seminary
  Rhode Island, work of Quakers of; efforts of colored
    people of; African Benevolent Society of; school laws of;
    separate schools disestablished
  Rice, Rev. David, complained that slaves were not enlightened
  Rice, Rev. Isaac, mission of, in Canada
  Richards, Fannie, teacher in Detroit
  Riley, Mrs. Isaac, taught by master
  Riots of cities, effect of
  Roberts, Rev. D.R., attended school in Indiana
  Rochester, Baptist Church of, lost members
  Roe, Caroline, teacher in New York African Free Schools
  Rush, Dr. Benjamin, desire to elevate the slaves; objections
    of masters considered; interview with Dr. James Durham;
  Rush Medical School admitted colored student
  Russworm, John B., first colored man to graduate from college
  Rutland College, Vermont, opened to colored students

  Sabbath-schools, a factor in education; separation of the races
  St. Agnes Academy established in the District of Columbia
  St. Frances Academy established in Baltimore
  Salem, Massachusetts, colored school of
  Salem, New Jersey, work of Quakers of
  Sampson, B.K., assistant teacher of Avery College
  Samson, Rev. Dr., aided Hays, a teacher of Washington
  Sanderson, Bishop, interest in the uplift of the heathen
  Sandiford, Ralph, attacked slavery
  Sandoval, Alfonso, opposed keeping slaves
  Sandwich, Canada, separate school of
  Sandy Lake Settlement broken up
  Saunders of Cabell County, West Virginia, settled his slaves
    on free soil
  Savannah,
    colored schools of
    churches of
  Scarborough, President W.S.,
    early education of
  Schoepf, Johann, found conditions favorable
  Seaman, Jacob, interest of, in New York colored schools
  Searing, Anna H., a supporter of Myrtilla Miner
  Seaton, W.W., a supporter of Alexander Hays's School
  Secker, Bishop,
    plan of, for the instruction of Negroes
    had Negroes educated for Africa
    extract from sermon of
  Settle, Josiah T., was educated in Ohio
  Sewell, Chief Justice, on the instruction of Negroes
  Shadd, Mary Ann, teacher in Canada
  Shaffer, Bishop C.T., early education of, in Indiana
  Sharp, Granville, on the colonization of Negroes
  Sidney, Thomas, gave money to build school-house
  Slave in Essex County, Virginia, learned to read
  Slavery, ancient, contrasted with the modern
  Small, Robert, student in South Carolina
  Smedes, Susan Dabney, saw slaves instructed
  Smith, Gerrit,
    contributed money to the education of the Negro
    founder of the Peterboro School
    appeal in behalf of colored mechanics
  Smith, Melancthon, interest of, in the New York African Free Schools
  Smothers, Henry, founded a school in Washington
  Snow riot, results of
  Snowden, John Baptist, instructed by white children
  Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
    efforts of
  South Carolina,
    schools of unfavorable conditions
    prohibitive legislation
    governor of, discussed the Vesey insurrection
  Spain, King of, desired trade in enlightened slaves only
  Spanish missionaries taught Negroes in America
  Springfield, colored schools of
  Statistics on the intellectual condition of Negroes
  Stewart, Rev., a missionary in North Carolina
  Stewart, T. McCants, student in Charleston
  Stokes, Richard, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Storrs, C.B.,
    advocate of free discussion
    influence of
  Stowe, H.B.,
    assisted Myrtilla Miner
    interest of, in industrial education
  Stratton, Lucy, taught Negroes
  Sturgeon, Rev. William, work of, in Philadelphia
  Sumler, Jas. W., learned to read with difficulty
  Sylvester, Elisha, efforts of, in Boston

  Tabbs, Thomas, teacher in the District of Columbia
  Talbot County, Maryland, the education of the Negro in
  Talbot, Mr., tutor in the District of Columbia,
  Talbot, Reverend, taught Samuel Lowry at Franklin College,
  Tappan, Arthur, work of, in behalf of Negroes,
  Tanner, Bishop Benjamin Tucker, attended school in Pennsylvania,
  Tarborough, North Carolina, effect of the insurrection of,
  Tatem, Isaac, instructed Negroes,
  Taylor, M.W., taught by his mother,
  Taylor, Dr. Wm., educated for service in Liberia,
  Taylor, Reverend, interest of, in the enlightenment of Negroes,
  Templeton, John N., educational efforts of,
  Tennessee, education of the Negroes of,
    legislation of,
  Terrell, Mary Church, mother of, taught by white gentleman,
  Terrell, Robert H., father of, learned to read,
  Thetford Academy opened to Negroes,
  Thomas, J.C. teacher of W.S. Scarborough,
  Thomas, Rev. Samuel, teacher in South Carolina,
  Thompson, Margaret, efforts of, in the District of Columbia,
  Thornton, views of, on colonization,
  Toop, Clara G., an instructor at Avery College,
  Toronto, Canada, evening school organized,
  Torrey, Jesse, on education and emancipation,
  Trenton, New Jersey, Quakers of, interested,
  Troumontaine, Julian, teacher in Savannah,
  "True Bands," educational work of, in Canada,
    (see also note 1,)
  Trumbull, John, teacher in Philadelphia,
  Tucker, Ebenezer, principal of Union Literary Institute,
  Tucker, Judge St. George, discussed slave insurrections,
  Turner, Bishop Henry M., early education of,
  Turner, Nathaniel, the education of,
    effects of the insurrection of,

  Union College admitted a Negro,
  Union Literary Institute, Indiana, favorable to the instruction of
    Negroes,

  Vanlomen, Father, aided Maria Becraft,
  Vashon, George B., principal of Avery College,
  Vermont, required practically no segregation,
  Vesey, Denmark, effect of the insurrection of,
  Vesey, Reverend, interest of, in Neau's school,
  Virginia, question of instructing Negroes of,
    education of Negroes of, given legal sanction,
    colored schools of,
    work of abolitionists of,
    interest of Quakers of,
    efforts of Presbyterians of,
    prohibitive legislation of,
  Vocational training emphasized by Frederick Douglass,
    interest of H.B. Stowe in,

  Wagoner, H.O., taught by his parents,
  Walker, David, appeal of,
  Wall, Mary, teacher in the District of Columbia,
    (see note 1)
  Ward, S.R., attainments of,
  Warren, John W., studied under white children,
  Warville, Brissot de, found desirable conditions,
  Washington, George, attitude of,
    will of,
  Waterford, Ephraim, taught by his employer,
  Watkins, Wm., teacher in Baltimore,
  Watrum, Francois Philibert, inquiry of, about instructing Negroes,
  Wattles, Augustus, philanthropist and educator,
  Wayman, Reverend, advocate of the instruction of Negroes,
  Wayman, Rev. Dr., interest of, in free schools,
  Weaver, Amanda, assisted Myrtilla Miner,
  Wells, Nelson, bequeathed $10,000 to educate Negroes,
  Wesley, John, opinion of, on the intellect of Negroes,
  Western Reserve converted to democratic education,
  Wetmore, Reverend, a worker connected with Neau's school,
  Wheatley, Phyllis, education of,
    poetry of,
  White, j. T., attended school in Indiana,
  White, Dr. Thomas J., educated for Liberia,
  White, W.J., educated by his white mother,
  Whitefield, Rev. George, interest in the uplift of Negroes,
    plan of, to establish a school,
  Whitefield, Rev. James, promoted education in Baltimore,
  Whitefield, James M., poet,
  Wickham, executor of Samuel Gist,
  Williams, Bishop, urged the duty of converting the Negroes,
  Williamson, Henry, taught by his master,
  Wilmington, Delaware, educational work of abolitionists of,
  Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and Man, published a pamphlet on the uplift of
    the Negroes,
    contributed money to educate the Negroes of Talbot County, Maryland,
  Wilson, Rev. Hiram, inspector of schools in Canada,
    founder of a manual labor school,
  Windsor, Canada, school privileges of,
  Wing, Mr., teacher in Cincinnati,
  Winslow, Parson, children of, indulgent to Uncle Cephas,
  Wisconsin, equal school facilities of,
  Woodson, Ann, taught by her young mistress,
  Woodson, Emma J., instructor at Avery College,
  Woodson, Louis, teacher in Pittsburgh,
  Woolman, John, interest of,
  Wormley, James, efforts of, in the District of Columbia,
    (see note 1)
  Wormley, Mary, teacher in the District of Columbia,
  Wortham, Dr. James L., pupil of John Chavis
  Wright, Rev. John F., one of the founders of Wilberforce University

  Xenia, Ohio, settlement of, Wilberforce University established near

  Zane, Jonathan, gave $18,000 for the education of Negroes





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