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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, ph. D. (Harvard)
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
XLbc imicfterbocftec ipresg
1915
Copyright, 1915
Y
CARTER GODWIN WOODSON
Ube ftnicfterbocftec press, IRew ]|?orfe
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 move-
ment since the Civil War. In looking over docu-
ments 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 suc-
cessful strivings of Negroes for enlightenment
under most adverse circumstances read like beauti-
ful 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 pub-
lished 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
iii
iv Preface
comprehensive nor thorough. Other publications
touching this subject have dealt either with certain
locaUties 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 indebt-
edness to Dr. J. E. Moorland, International Sec-
retary of the Young Men's Christian Association,
for valuable information concerning the Negroes
of Ohio.
C. G. Woodson.
Washington, D. C.
Jan. 2S, 1915-
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 ......
I
i8
51
70
93
122
151
179
205
229
256
283
307
337
399
435
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 worid, the heathen slaves had to be trained
to meet the needs of their environment. It re-
quired 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
2 The Education of the Negro
brutish the bondmen the more pliant they be-
come for purposes of exploitation. It was this
class of slaveholders that finally won the majority
of southerners to their way of thinking and deter-
mined 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 move-
ment about 1835, when the majority of the people
in this country answered in the affirmative the ques-
tion 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 inteUigent Negroes, encouraged by aboli-
tionists, 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 impos-
sible 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 mission-
aries who, believing that the message of divine
love came equally to all, taught slaves the EngUsh
language that they might learn the principles of
the Christian religion. Through the kindness of
Introduction 3
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 practi-
cally 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 influ-
enced the education of the Negroes throughout
America. Some of these early heralds of Catholi-
cism 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 freedmenthe
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 over-
come 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
4 The Education of the Negro
meet this exigency the colonists secured, through
legislation by their assemblies and formal declara-
tions 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 Hberal
Puritans, who directed their attention to the con-
version of the slaves long before this sect ad-
vocated 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 prog-
ress 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 imto salvation."
Introduction 5
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 de-
manded liberty for themselves, could not but
concede that slaves were entitled at least to
freedom of body. The frequent acts of manumis-
sion 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 f reed-
men schools, missions, and churches were estab-
lished 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. Intel-
ligent 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
6 The Education of the Negro
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 some-
thing to mathematics, science, and philosophy.
Furthermore, having disproved the theories of
their mental inferiority, some of the race, in con-
formity 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 estab-
lishment of special colored schools. The found-
ing 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 bond-
age. 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 cul-
tural education. The teachers of colored schools
offered courses in the industries along with ad-
vanced 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 enlight-
Introduction 7
enment of the Negroes began to favor the half
reactionary policy of educating them only on the
condition that they should be colonized. The colo-
nization 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 cen-
tury 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 commu-
nities where progressive Negroes had been suf-
ficiently enlightened to provide their own school
facilities. The first of these forces was the world-
wide 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 num-
ber of slaves. Becoming too numerous to be
considered as included in the body politic as
conceived by Locke, Montesquieu, and Black-
stone, the slaves were generally doomed to live
without any enlightenment whatever. There-
after rich planters not only thought it unwise
to educate men thus destined to live on a plane
8 The Education of the Negro
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 intelHgent Negroes of anti-
slavery 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 dis-
orders that slaveholders lived in eternal dread
of servile insurrection, Southern States adopted
the thoroughly reactionary poHcy 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
Introduction 9
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 posi-
tions 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 un-
serviceable 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 igno-
rance 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.
10 The Education of the Negro
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
EngUsh 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 de-
veloped 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
Introduction ii
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 prin-
ciples 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 reac-
tionary period all instruction of the colored people
included the teaching of the rudiments of educa-
tion 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 cleri-
cal profession. Many Scotch-Irish of the Appa-
lachian Mountains and liberal Methodists and
12 The Education of the Negro
Baptists of the Western slave States did not
materially change their attitude toward the en-
lightenment of the colored people during the reac-
tionary period. The Negroes among these people
continued to study books and hear religious
instruction conveyed to matiuing 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 dis-
covered 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 emanci-
pation 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
Introduction 13
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 intui-
tion without having had the guidance of an in-
structor. The fact is that these drastic laws were
not passed to restrain "discreet" southerners
from doing whatever they desired for the better-
ment 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 cen-
sured for his benevolence. In the rare cases of
arrest of such instructors they were usually
acquitted after receiving a reprimand.
14 The Education of the Negro
With this winking at the teaching of Negroes
in defiance of the law a better day for their educa-
tion 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 influ-
ential 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 con-
ducted 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 per-
Introduction 15
sons of color were thereby deprived of helpful con-
tact. 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 in-
struction, 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 per-
sons 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 conver-
sion 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 readjust-
ment of things. The training of Negroes in
any manner whatever was then very unpopular
1 6 The Education of the Negro
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 edu-
cation. But in view of the changed conditions
most of these philanthropists concluded that the
Negroes were very much in need of practical educa-
tion. 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 emer-
gency they advocated actual vocational training.
To make this new system extensive the Negroes
freely cooperated 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 advo-
cating 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 exten-
sive discussion certain States of New England
finally decided the question in the affirmative,
Introduction 17
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 clergy-
men interested in the propagation of the gospel
among the heathen of the new world. Addressing
themselves to this task, the missionaries easily dis-
covered 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^ 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.
Many early advocates of slavery favored the
enlightenment of the Africans. That it was an
advantage to the Negroes to be brought within
' Bourne, Spain in America, p. 241 ; and The Penn. Mag. of
History, xii., 265.
18
Religion with Letters 19
the light of the gospel was a common argument
in favor of the slave trade.* 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.' This was about the atti-
tude 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. ' 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 impor-
tation of all classes of slaves to meet the demand
for cheap labor.'' This request was granted by
the King of Spain, but the masters of such bond-
men were expressly ordered to have them indoctri-
nated in the principles of Christianity. It was
' Proslavery Argument; and Lecky, History of England, vol.
ii., p. 17.
» Faust, German Element in United States, vol. i., pp. 242-43.
3 Bancroft, History of United States, vol. i., p. 124.
♦ Herrera, Historia General, dec. iv., libro ii.; dec. v., libro ii.;
dec. vii., libro iv.
20 The Education of the Negro
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. ^ In later years the
change in the attitude of the Spaniards toward
this problem was noted. In Mexico the ayunta-
mientos were under the most rigid responsibility
to see that free children bom 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."'
In the French settlements of America the in-
struction of the Negroes did not early become a
difficult problem. There were not many Negroes
among the French. Their methods of coloniza-
tion did not require many slaves. Nevertheless,
whenever the French missionary came into con-
tact 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. ^ Moreover,
evidence of a general interest in the improvement
of Negroes appeared in the Code Noir which made
' Bourne, Spain in America, p. 241.
» Special Report U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 389.
i Jesuit Relations, vol, v., p. 63.
Religion with Letters 21
it incumbent upon masters to enlighten their
slaves that they might grasp the principles of the
Christian religion.^ 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. ^
After 1 716, 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. 3 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."'' 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. "^ Years later Frangois
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.^ Hoping to enable
' Code Noir, p. 107. ' Jesuit Relations, vol. v., p. 62.
3 Ibid., vol. Ixvii., pp. 259 and 343. * Ibid., vol. Ixviii., p. 201.
6 Ibid., vol. Ixix., p. 31. * Ibid., vol. Ixx., p. 245.
22 The Education of the Negro
the slaves to elevate themselves, certain inhabi-
tants 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 con-
firmed 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.
The education of Negroes was facilitated among
the French and Spanish by their Hberal 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. ^
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 Span-
ish came to America for the purpose of exploita-
tion, 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 con-
tradistinction to the English, generally liberated
their mulatto offspring and sometimes recog-
nized them as their equals. Such Negroes con-
stituted a class of persons who, although they
' Bancroft, Arizona and New Mexico, pp. 27-32.
Religion with Letters 23
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 bom free,
with the view that the accomplishment of ac-
quired liberty should have on the former the same
effect that the happiness of natural liberty caused
in other subjects.' As these mixed breeds were
later lost, so to speak, among the Latins, it is
almost impossible to determine what their cir-
cumstances were, and what advantages of educa-
tion they had.
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
' 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.
24 The Education of the Negro
to do this by holding up to the members of the
AngHcan Church the praiseworthy example of the
Catholics whom the British had for years de-
nounced as enemies of Christ. The criticism had
its effect. But to prosecute this work extensively
the English colonists had to overcome the difficulty
found in the observance of the law that no Chris-
tian could be held a slave. Now, if the teaching
of slaves enabled them to be converted and their
Christianization led to manumission, the colo-
nists 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.^
After the solution of this problem English mission-
aries 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.*
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p, 352.
' 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
Religion with Letters 25
Complaints from men of this type led to system-
atic 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' 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
groimd them thoroughly in the Church catechism.
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 in-
struction 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 Good-
wyn. 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.
' Pascoe, Classified Digest of the Records of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 24.
26 The Education of the Negro
and to repeat "morning and evening prayers and
graces composed for their use at home."^
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 com-
municants twenty Negroes, who with several
others "well imderstanding the English tongue"
could read and write. * Reverend 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." 3 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. One Reverend Taylor,
already interested in the cause, hoped that other
masters and mistresses would follow the example
of Mrs. Edwards. ''
Through the efforts of the same society another
school was opened in New York City in 1704 under
' Dalcho, An Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in South Carolina, p. 39; Special Rep. U. S. Com. of Ed.,
1871, p. 362.
' Meriwether, Education in South Carolina, p. 123.
3 Special Rep. U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 362.
* An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, pp. 13-14.
Religion with Letters 27
Elias Neau. ^ 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. ^ 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. Reverend Wetmore entered
the field in 1726. Later there appeared Rever-
ends Colgan and Noxon, both of whom did much
to promote the cause. In 1732 came Reverend
Charlton who toiled in this field until 1747 when
he was succeeded by Reverend Auchmutty. He
' An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, pp. 6-12.
' Ibid., p. 9.
28 The Education of the Negro
had the cooperation of Mr. Hildreth, the assistant
of his predecessor. Much help was obtained from
Reverend Barclay who, at the death of Mr. Vesey
in 1764, became the rector of the parish supporting
the school.^
The results obtained in the English colonies dur-
ing 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 cen-
tury, availed himself of the opportunity to aid
those missionaries who were laboring in the colo-
nies 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 move-
ment by giving fifty pounds for the education
of colored children in Talbot County, Maryland. "
After some opposition this work began to pro-
gress somewhat in Virginia. ^ The first school
established in that colony was for Indians and
Negroes.'' In the course of time the custom of
teaching the latter had legal sanction there. On
' Special Report U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 362.
'Ibid., 1871, p. 364.
3 Meade, Old Families and Churches in Virginia, p. 264;
Plumer, Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of Negroes, pp.
11-12.
< Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, vol. iv. , p. 406.
Religion with Letters 29
binding out a "bastard or pauper child black or
white," churchwardens specifically required that
he should be taught "to read, write, and cal-
culate as well as to follow some profitable form of
labor." ^ 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 instruct-
ing 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 Chil-
dren.'' 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 move-
ment 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
' Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia, in J. H. U. Studies,
Series xxxi., No. 3, p. 107.
30 The Education of the Negro
the age of eighteen. ^ The neighboring colony of
North CaroHna also was moved by these efforts
despite some difficulties which the missionaries
there encountered.*
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 bond-
men 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. ^
Seeing that many leading planters had been
influenced by those opposed to the enlightenment
of Negroes, Bishop Gibson of London issued an
' Meade, Old Families and Churches in Virginia, pp. 264-65.
' Ashe, History of North Carolina, pp. 389-90.
3 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.
Religion with Letters 31
appeal in behalf of the bondmen, addressing the
clergy and laymen in two letters^ published in
London in 1727. In one he exhorted masters
and mistresses of families to encourage and pro-
mote 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.
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. ' ' ^ Contending that slaves should
enjoy rights like those of servants in the house-
hold of the patriarchs, Bacon insisted that next
to one's children and brethren by blood, one's
' An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, pp. i6, 21, and 32; and
Dalcho, An Historical Account, etc., pp. 104 et seq.
' Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, pp. 51 et seq.
32 The Education of the Negro
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 bond-
men to have them enHghtened. 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 suppHed out of the intelligent
slaves by choosing such among them as were
best taught to instruct the rest.^ 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. ^
With almost equal zeal did Bishops WilHams
and Butler plead the same cause. ^ 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
^ Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, pp. ii6 et seq.
'Ibid., p. ii8,
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 363.
Religion with Letters 33
"despicable as they are in the eyes of man are
nevertheless the creatures of God."^
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 Seeker.^ 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.^ 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.'*
This organization hit upon the plan of purchas-
ing two Negroes named Harry and Andrew, and
of qualifying them by thorough instruction in the
principles of Christianity and the fundamentals
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 363.
' Seeker, Works, vol. v., p. 88. ^ Ibid., vol. vi., p. 467.
*An Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 6.
3
34 The Education of the Negro
of education, to serve as schoolmasters to their
people. Under the direction of Reverend Garden,
the missionary who had directed the training of
these young men, a building costing about three
hundred and eight pounds was erected in Charles-
ton, South Carolina. In the school which opened
in this building in 1744 Harry and Andrew served
as teachers.^ 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 knowl-
edge to their fellow slaves. " ^ 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.
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
' Meriwether, Education in South Carolina, p. 123; McCrady,
South Carolina, etc., p. 246; Dalcho, An Historical Account 0}
the Protestant Episcopal Church in South Carolina, pp. 156, 157,
164.
'Ibid., pp. 157 and 164.
Religion with Letters 35
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 be-
come sufficiently strong to cause the school to be
discontinued.^ 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.*
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 organ-
ization 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. 3 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. Rever-
M» Account of the Endeavors Used by the Society for the Prop-
agation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, p. 15.
* Bourne, Spain in America, p. 241.
i Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 362.
36 The Education of the Negro
end Wayman, another missionary to Pennsyl-
vania 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 Httle effect."^
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.^ In
this position Reverend Sturgeon remained nine-
teen 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.
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. ^ Bray's most
influential supporter was M. D 'Alone, the private
secretary of King WiUiam. D'Alone gave for
the maintenance of the cause a fund, the proceeds
' Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p, 248.
'Ibid., p. 241.
3 Ibid., p. 252; Smyth, Works of Franklin, vol. iv., p. 23; and
vol, v., p. 431.
Religion with Letters 37
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 "Asso-
ciates of Doctor Bray."^ 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. ^ About the close of the
French and Indian War, Reverend 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 ex-
ample of these men appealing to him as a wise
policy, he directed to it the attention of the clergy
at home. ^
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
' Smyth, Works of Franklin, vol. v., p. 431.
' Wickersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 249.
3 Bassett, Slavery and Servitude in North Carolina, Johns Hop-
kins University Studies, vol. xv., p. 226.
38 The Education of the Negro
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.^ 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 w™ 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 Sal-
vation." 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."*
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
^Pennsylvania Magazine of History, vol. xiii., p. 265.
' Locke, Anti-slavery Before 1808, p. 15; Mather, Life of John
Eliot, p. 14; New Plymouth Colony Records, vol. x,, p. 452.
Religion with Letters 39
claims of the despised race to the benefits of reli-
gious instruction.^ Mather believed that ser-
vants 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 com-
mitted 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."^
The sentiment of the clergy of this epoch was
more directly expressed by Richard Baxter, the
noted Nonconformist, in his " Directions to Mas-
ters in Foreign Plantations," incorporated as rules
into the Christian Directory. ^ Baxter believed in
^ Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 15.
^ Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, p. 137 et seq.
3 Baxter, Practical Works, vol. i., p. 438.
40 The Education of the Negro
natural liberty and the equality of man, and justi-
fied 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." ^ His aim here, however, is not to abohsh
the institution of slavery but to enlighten the
Africans and bring them into the Church.^ Ex-
actly what effect Baxter had on this movement
cannot be accurately figured out. The fact, how-
ever, 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.
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 pubUshing his Selling of
Joseph, a distinctly anti-slavery pamphlet, based
on the natural and inalienable right of every man
to be free. 3 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
' Baxter, Practical Works, vol. i., p. 438-40.
» Ibid., p. 440.
3 Moore, Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 91.
Religion with Letters 41
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,^ 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. ' "^ 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.
'Moore, Notes on Slavery in Massachusetts, p. 92; Locke,
Anti-slavery, etc., p. 31.
^ Moore, Notes on Slavery, etc., p. 91 ; The Athenian Oracle,
vol. ii., pp. 460 et seq.
42 The Education of the Negro
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, *
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 con-
science to take steps to Christianize the slaves,
lest the Catholics, whom they had derided as
undesirable churchmen, should put the Protestants
to shame. * 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 con-
version 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. ^
^ Moore, Notes on Slavery, etc., p. 79.
» This good example of the CathoHcs 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.
i Ibid., p. 96.
Religion with Letters 43
More effective than the efforts of other sects
in the enHghtenment 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 solv-
ing the problem of enlightening the Negroes.
While certain Puritans were afraid that conver-
sion 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 emphasiz-
ing the relation of man to God the Puritans ' ' atro-
phied 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 discharg-
44 The Education of the Negro
ing the duties of citizenship. As early as 1672
their attention was directed to this important
matter by George Fox. ^ 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."* 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. ^ William Penn
advocated the emancipation of slaves, '' that they
might have every opportunity for improvement.
In 1696 the Quakers, while protesting against the
slave trade, denounced also the policy of neglect-
ing their moral and spiritual welfare. ^ The grow-
ing interest of this sect in the Negroes was shown
later by the development in 17 13 of a definite
scheme for freeing and returning them to Africa
after having been educated and trained to serve
as missionaries on that continent. ^
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.
* Quaker Pamphlet, p. 8; Moore, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 79.
» Ibid., p. 79.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., p. 376.
< Rhodes, History of the United States, vol. i., p. 6; Bancroft,
History of the United States, vol. ii., p. 401.
* Locke, Anti-slavery, p. 32. * Ibid., p. 30.
Religion with Letters 45
In slaveholding communities the Quakers were per-
secuted, not necessarily because they adhered to
a peculiar faith, not primarily because they had
manners and customs unacceptable to the colon-
ists, but because in answering the call of duty to
help all men they incurred the ill will of the mas-
ters who denounced them as undesirable persons,
bringing into America spurious doctrines subver-
sive of the institutions of the aristocratic settle-
ments.
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?"* 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 pro-
hibiting 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
' Quaker Pamphlet, p. 9.
46 The Education of the Negro
supremacy.^ Of course, it was inconsistent with
the spirit and creed of the Quakers to take this
oath.
The settlers of North CaroUna 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 ap-
prehension 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. '
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 Estab-
lished Church did not reach all parts of the col-
ony. 3 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.
It was in the settlements of New Jersey, Penn-
sylvania, and New York that the Quakers en-
countered less opposition in carrying out their
policy of cultivating the minds of colored people.
' 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.
' Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. i., p. 389. The same
instructions were given to Governor Francis Nicholson.
mid., pp. 389, 390.
Religion with Letters 47
Among these Friends the education of Negroes
became the handmaiden of the emancipation
movement. While John Hepburn, WiUiam Burl-
ing, Elihu Coleman, and Ralph Sandiford largely
confined their attacks to the injustice of keeping
slaves, Benjamin Lay was working for their im-
provement as a prerequisite of emancipation.^
Lay entreated the Friends to "bring up the
Negroes to some Learning, Reading and Writ-
ing 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 Reli-
giousness, and learn some Honest Trade or Im-
ployment 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 Reli-
gious Principles will not allow of such Severity,
as to keep them in everlasting Bondage and
Slavery."^
The struggle of the Northern Quakers to en-
lighten 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. ^ Efforts in this direction were re-
doubled about the middle of the eighteenth cen-
' Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 31.
' Ibid., p. 32.
3 Dr. DuBois gives a good account of these efiforts in his Sup-
pression of the African Slave Trade.
48 The Education of the Negro
tury when Anthony Benezet/ addressing himself
with unwonted zeal to the uplift of these unfor-
tunates, 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. '
What the other sects did for the enlightenment
of Negroes during this period, was not of much im-
portance. As the Presbyterians, Methodists, and
Baptists did not proselyte extensively in this coun-
try prior to the middle of the eighteenth century,
these denominations had little to do with Negro
education before the liberalism and spirit of tol-
» 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 Quak-
ers, 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.
* Quaker Pamphlet, p. 31.
Religion with Letters 49
eration, 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 White-
field,^ who, strange to say, was regarded by the
Negro race as its enemy for having favored the
introduction of slavery. He was primarily inter-
ested 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."^ While on a visit to this
country in 1740 he purchased a large tract of land
at Nazareth, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of
foimding a school for the education of Negroes. *
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." Some
» Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 374.
' Ibid., p. 374.
3 Turner, The Negro in Pennsylvania, p. 128.
* 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 Mora-
4
50 The Education of the Negro
writers have accepted the statement that White-
field commenced the erection of a schoolhouse at
Nazareth; others maintain that he failed to ac-
complish anything. ^ 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 church-
men their friends and made it easy for this sect
to proselyte the race.
vian, p. 80; Plumer, Thoughts on the Religious Instruction of
Negroes, p. 3; Reichel, The Moravians in North Carolina, p. 139.
" 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 rehgion there was a need
of another factor to make the education of the
Negroes thorough. This required force was sup-
pHed 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 po-
litical 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 colo-
nies than in Great Britain. Getting from these
writers strange ideas of individual liberty and the
51
52 The Education of the Negro
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, in-
dustrial liberty, and political equality. Given
impetus by the diffusion of these ideas, the revolu-
tionary movement became productive of the spirit
of universal benevolence. Hearing the conten-
tion for natural and inalienable rights, Nathaniel
Appleton ^ and John Woolman, ^ 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 assist-
ance 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."^
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
' Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 19, 20, 23.
' Works of John Woolman in two parts, pp. 58 axid 73; Moore,
Notes on Slavery in Mass., p. 71.
3 Adams, Works of John Adams, vol. x., p. 315; Moore, Notes
on Slavery in Mass., p. 71.
Education as a Right of Man 53
of men's bodies and minds, but Laurens, Henry,
Wythe, Mason, and Washington pointed out the
injustice of such a poHcy. Accordingly we find
arrayed against the aristocratic masters almost
all the leaders of the American Revolution.*
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.^ 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 eco-
nomic grounds; 3 Jonathan Boucher,'* Dr. Rush,s
and Benjamin Franklin*^ were devising plans to
educate slaves for freedom; and Isaac Tatem^
and Anthony Benezet^ were actually in the
^ Cobb, Slavery, etc., p. 82.
=■ 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-
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.
4 Boucher, A View of the Causes and Consequences of the Ameri-
can Revolution, p. 39.
s Rush, An Address to the Inhabitants of, etc., p. 16.
* Smyth, Works of Franklin, vol. iv., p. 23; vol. v., p. 431.
7 Wickersham, History of Ed. in Pa., p. 249.
* 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.
54 The Education of the Negro
schoolroom endeavoring to enlighten their black
brethren.
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 philo-
sophers, 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. ^
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.* He styled
' Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, appendix.
' The American Museum, vol. iv., pp. 415 and 511.
Education as a Right of Man 55
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 un-
acquainted with the world." Dr. McLeod de-
nounced slavery because it "debases a part of the
human race" and tends "to destroy their intel-
lectual powers."^ "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 informa-
tion.' Slavery, therefore, must be abolished be-
cause it infringes upon the natural right of men
to be enlightened.
During this period religion as a factor in the
educational progress of the Negroes was not elimi-
nated. 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 inter-
» McLeod, Negro Slavery, p. i6.
' Rice, Speech in the Constitutional Convention of Kentucky,
P-5-
56 The Education of the Negro
ested 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, "^ 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 "parti-
cipate in the general joy." With the hope of
inducing men to discharge the same duty, Bishop
Warburton* boldly asserted a few years later that
slaves are "rational creatures endowed with all
our qualities except that of color, and our brethren
' 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
aboUtionist. 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 ameUoration had to
be the abolition of slavery. His chief concern then was the cul-
tivation of the minds in order to make amends for the drudgery
to their bodies. See Boucher, Causes, etc., p. 39.
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p, 363.
Education as a Right of Man 57
both by nature and grace." John Woolman,'' 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.
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 Revolu-
tion 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."^
' An influential minister of the Society of Friends and an
extensive traveler through the colonies, Woolman had an oppor-
tunity 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 1 760. 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 them-
selves. See Works of John Woolman in two parts, pp. 58 and 73.
' Matlack, History of American Slavery and Methodism, pp.
29 et seq.; McTyeire, History of Methodism, p. 28.
58 The Education of the Negro
Frequently in contact with men who were
advocating the right of the Negroes to be edu-
cated, 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. * 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 free-
men at extra cost to do his work. ^ 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 ^ said and did little
to promote the actual education of the colored
people.
Madison in stating his position on this question
was a little more definite than some of his contem-
poraries. Speaking of the necessary preparation
of the colored people for emancipation he thought
it was possible to determine the proper course of
' Lossing, Life of George Washington, vol. iii., p. 537.
* Adams, Works of John Adams, vol. viii., p. 379; vol. ix., p. 92;
vol. X., p. 380.
J Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools, p. 57.
Education as a Right of Man 59
instruction. He believed, however, thai, 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 dis-
cipline" 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."^ 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.
No one of the great statesmen of this time was
more interested in the enlightenment of the Negro
than Benjamin Franklin. "* 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 Phila-
delphia, the philosopher was, while in London,
connected with the English ' ' gentlemen concerned
with the pious design," ^ serving as chairman of the
organization for the year 1 760. He was a firm sup-
' Madison, Works of, vol. iii., p. 496.
» Smyth, Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. v., p. 431.
3 Ibid., vol. iv., p. 23.
6o The Education of the Negro
porter of Anthony Benezet,* and was made presi-
dent of the AboUtion Society of Philadelphia which
in 1774 founded a successful colored school. ^ This
school was so well planned and maintained that
it continued about a hundred years.
John Jay kept up his interest in the Negro race. ^
In the Convention of 1787 he cooperated with
Gouvemeur Morris, advocating the aboUtion 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 re-
trieved only by abolishing the iniquitous traffic
in human souls and improving the Negroes.'*
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 at-
tendance, maintenance, and supervision of these
schools that they soon took rank among the best
in the United States.
More interesting than the views of any other
man of this epoch on the subject of Negro edu-
cation were those of Thomas Jefferson. Bom
of pioneer parentage in the mountains of Virginia,
' Sm5^h, Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. v., p. 431.
' Ibid., vol. X., p. 127; and Wickersham, History of Education
in Pennsylvania, p. 253.
3 Jay, Works of John Jay, vol. i., p. 136; vol. iii., p. 331.
* Ibid., vol. iii., p. 343.
Education as a Right of Man 6i
Jefferson never lost his frontier democratic ideals
which made him an advocate of simplicity, equal-
ity, 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 educa-
tion and freedom. Jefferson said so much more
on these important questions than his contempo-
raries 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.^ In his scheme for a modern
system of public schools Jefferson included the
training of the slaves in industrial and agricul-
tural branches to equip them for a higher station
in life, else he thought they should be removed
from the country when liberated.^ 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
' Washington, Works of Jefferson, vol. vi., p. 456.
' Ibid., vol. viii., p. 380; and Mayo, Educational Movement in
the South, p. 37.
62 The Education of the Negro
equals of white men, ^ and did not actually advocate
their incorporation into the body politic.
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
' As to what Jefferson thought of the Negro intellect we are
still in doubt. Writing in 1791 to Banneker, the Negro mathe-
matician 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 circum-
stances, which could not be neglected, would admit. Replying
to Gr^goire of Paris, who wrote an interesting essay on the
Literature of Negroes, showing the power of their intellect, Jeffer-
son assured him that no person living wished more sincerely than
he to see a complete refutation of the doubts he himself had enter-
tained 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 per-
sonal 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 understand-
ing, 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."
Education as a Right of Man 63
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, '^
many southerners emancipated their slaves to
give them a better chance to improve their condi-
tion, 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 per-
sons especially interested in these unfortunates
found the objects of their piety more accessible.'
Not all slaveholders, however, were thus in-
duced 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
Yet a few days later when writing to Joel Barlow, Jefferson
referred to Bishop Gr^goire'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-
' Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 14.
^ Brissot de Warville, New Travels, vol. i., p. 220; Johann
Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, p. 149.
64 The Education of the Negro
attitude of the people of Georgia, however, was
then more favorable than that of the South Caro-
linians. ^ 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, fol-
lowing 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 what-
ever."^ The penalty, however, was less than
that imposed in South Carolina. ^ 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.
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
' 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.
" Marbury and Crawford, Digest of the Laws of the State of
Georgia, p. 438.
3 Brevard, Digest of the Public Statutes of South Carolina,
vol. ii., p. 243.
Education as a Right of Man 65
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 leam to speak the English language imper-
fectly only. ^ The reformers, who at times admitted
this, maintained that the alleged difficulties en-
countered 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 bom colored children. '
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 prin-
ciples of Christian religion, was sufficient to meet
the needs of those designated for freedom.
' Meade, Sermons of Thomas Bacon, pp. 81-87.
» Porteus, Works of, vol. vi., p. 177; Warburton, ^4 Sermon,
etc., pp. 25 and 27.
5
66 The Education of the Negro
On the other hand, most southerners who con-
ceded the right of the Negro to be educated did
not openly aid the movement except with the
understanding that the enUghtened ones should be
taken from their fellows and colonized in some
remote part of the United States or in their native
land.' 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.' Feeling that it
would be wrong to expatriate- them, Benezet and
Branagan^ advocated the colonization of such
Negroes on the public lands west of the AUeghanies.
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 super-
vision of the home government until they could
take care of themselves. •*
' Writings of James Monroe, vol. iii., pp. 261, 266, 292, 295,
321, 322, 336, 338, 349, 351, 352, 353, 378.
' Brissot de Warville, Travels, vol. i., p. 262.
3 Tyrannical Lihertymen, pp. lo-ii; Locke, Anti-slavery, etc.,
pp. 31-32; Branagan, Serious Remonstrance, p. 18.
< Washington, Works of Jefferson, vol. iii., p. 296; vol. iv., p. 291
and vol. viii., p. 380.
Education as a Right of Man 67
Without resorting to the subterfuge of coloni-
zation, not a few slaveholders were still wise
enough to show why the improvement of the
Negroes should be neglected altogether. Van-
quished by the logic of Daniel Davis ' and Benjamin
Rush,' 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.^ Answering these incon-
' 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 Chris-
tianity and humanity would have rather dictated the sending of
books and teachers into Africa and endeavors for their salvation.
' 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 appropri-
ated to work for themselves. Reading and writing are discour-
aged 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. i6.
3 Meade, Sermons of Rev. Thomas Bacon, pp. 81-97.
68 The Education of the Negro
sistent 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 as-
serted, 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 in-
habitants of Europe, but superior to some of them. '
William Pinkney, the antislavery leader of
Maryland, beHeved 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. ' Others like George
Buchanan referred to the Negroes' talent for the
fine arts and to their achievements in literature,
mathematics, and philosophy. Buchanan in-
formed 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."'
» Wesley, Thoughts upon Slavery, p. 92.
■ Pinkney, Speech in Maryland House of Delegates, p. 6.
3 Buchanan, An Oration on the Moral and Political Evil 0/
Slavery, p. 10.
Education as a Right of Man 69
Franklin considered the idea of the natural inferi-
ority 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. ^ So disgusting was
this notion of inferiority to Abbe Gregoire of Paris
that he wrote an interesting essay on "Negro
Literatiire" to prove that people of color have
unusual intellectual power.'' 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 "modem 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 tmable to form a right judgment of them.^
* Smyth, Works of Franklin, vol. vi., p. 222.
* Gregoire, La Litterature des Nhgres.
» Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 187 1, 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 anti-
slavery agitators. Recognizing the Negroes' need
of preparation for citizenship, the abolitionists pro-
claimed as a common purpose of their organiza-
tions the education of the colored people with a
view to developing in them self-respect, self-
support, and usefulness in the commimity.^
' Smyth, Works of Benjamin Franklin, vol. x., p. 127; Torrey,
Portraiture of Slavery, p. 2 1 . See also constitution of almost any
antislavery society organized during this period.
70
Actual Education 71
The proposition to cultivate the minds of the
slaves came as a happy solution of what had been
a perplexing problem. Many Americans who con-
sidered 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. ^
Assured then that the efforts at emancipation
would be tested by experience, a larger number of
men advocated abolition. These leaders recom-
mended 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.^ 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 anti-
slavery societies had in their constitutions a
provision for a committee of education to influ-
ence 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
'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.
'Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1797,
address.
72 The Education of the Negro
happiness."' 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 f reedmen might participate
in civil rights as fast as they qualified by edu-
cation."
This work was organized by the aboHtionists
but was generally maintained by members of the
various sects which did more for the enHghten-
ment of the people of color through the antislavery
organizations than through their own.^ The
support of the clergy, however, did not mean
that the education of the Negroes would continue
incidental to the teaching of reHgion. 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
* The constitution of almost any antislavery society of that
time provided for this work. See Proc. of Am. Conv., etc., 1795,
address.
' 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.
3 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.
Actual Education 73
in large numbers, bringing their slaves with them, *
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. *
It must be observed, however, that the in-
terest 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 fimds, open schools,
and supervise their education. ^ In the course
of time their efforts became more systematic
and consequently more successful. These educa-
tors adopted the threefold policy of instructing
Negroes in the principles of the Christian religion,
giving them the fundamentals of the common
^ 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.
' Ibid., and Coke, Journal, etc., pp. 16-18.
3 Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition So-
cieties, 1797.
74 The Education of the Negro
branches, and teaching them the most useful
handicrafts.^ 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 Presby-
terian 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."* 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. "^ The
Conference recommended that the Church publish
a special text-book to teach these children learning
as well as piety. '' 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. ^
With such influence brought to bear on persons
in the various walks of life, the movement for the
' Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition SO'
cieties, 1797.
' Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 44.
3 Washington, Story of the Negro, vol. ii., p. 121.
* Ibid., p. 121.
5 Laws of New Jersey, 1788.
Actual Education 75
effective education of the colored people became
more extensive. Voicing the sentiment of the
different local organizations, the American Con-
vention of Abolition Societies of 1794 urged the
branches to have the children of free Negroes and
slaves instructed in " common literature. " ^ 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. ^
The regular tutors referred to above were largely
indentured servants who then constituted probably
the majority of the teachers of the colonies. ^ In
1773 Jonathan Boucher said that two thirds of
the teachers of Maryland belonged to this class.''
The contact of Negroes with these servants is
significant. In the absence of rigid caste distinc-
tions they associated with the slaves and the
barrier between them was so inconsiderable that
laws had to be passed to prevent the miscegenation
' Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition So-
cieties, 1796, p. 18.
'Ibid., 1797, p. 41.
3 See the descriptions of indentured servants in the advertise-
ments of colonial newspapers referred to on pages 82-84; and
Boucher, A View of the Causes, etc., p. 39.
< Ibid., pp. 39 and 40.
76 The Education of the Negro
of the races. The blacks acquired much useful
knowledge from servant teachers and sometimes
assisted them.
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 endeav-
ored to give them such practical training as their
peculiar needs demanded. In the agricultural sec-
tions 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 planta-
tions where much supervision was necessary,
trustworthy Negroes were trained as managers.
Many of those who showed aptitude were liberated
and encoiuraged 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. ^
The advocates of useful education for the de-
graded 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
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 196.
Actual Education 77
trustworthy artisans of that section. The aim
then was to give them such education as would
make them inteUigent 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 liber-
ated.^ Almost every Northern colored school of
any consequence then offered courses in the handi-
crafts. In 1784 the Quakers of Philadelphia
employed Sarah Dwight to teach the colored girls
sewing.^ Anthony Benezet provided in his will
that in the school to be established by his bene-
faction the girls should be taught needlework. ^ The
teachers who took upon themselves the improve-
ment of the free people of color of New York City
regarded industrial training as one of their import-
ant tasks.'*
None urged this duty upon the directors of
these schools more persistently than the anti-
slavery organizations. In 1794 the American
Convention of Abolition Societies recommended
that Negroes be instructed in "those mechanic
arts which will keep them most constantly em-
ployed and, of course, which will less subject them
to idleness and debauchery, and thus prepare them
' See the Address of the Am Conv. of Abolition Societies, 1794;
ihid., 1795; ibid., 1797 et passim.
' Wickersham, History of Ed. in Pa., p. 249.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1869, p. 375.
* Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools, p. 20,
78 The Education of the Negro
for becoming good citizens of the United States. "*
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. * The early
abolitionists believed that this was the only way
the freedmen could leam to support themselves.'
In connection with their schools the antislavery
leaders had an Indenturing Committee to find
positions for colored students who had the advan-
tages of industrial education.'* In some commu-
nities slaves were prepared for emancipation by
binding them out as apprentices to machinists
and artisans until they learned a trade.
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 pro-
vided 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,
* Proceedings of the American Convention, 1794, p. 14.
» Ibid., 1795, p. 29; ibid., 1797, pp. 12, 13, and 31.
» Ibid., 1797, p. 31. * Ibid., 1818, p. 9.
Actual Education 79
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 construc-
tion of a schoolhouse, with additional funds ob-
tained from David Barclay of London and Thomas
Sidney, a colored man of Philadelphia. The pu-
pils of this school were to study reading, writing*
arithmetic, plain accounts, and sewing.^
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 lever-
age 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 execu-
tor, 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,
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 375.
8o The Education of the Negro
and of the good order of society, and whatsoever
might make them useful and happy. "^ Clearly
as this was set forth the executor failed to dis-
charge 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.
In view of these numerous strivings we are
compelled to inquire exactly what these educators
accomphshed. Although it is impossible to meas-
ure 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 groimded in the rudiments of education.
They had reached the point of constituting the
majority of the mechanics in slaveholding com-
munities; they were qualified to be tradesmen,
trustworthy helpers, and attendants of distin-
guished men, and a few were serving as clerks,
overseers, and managers. ' Many who were favor-
ably circumstanced learned more than mere
reading and writing. In exceptional cases, some
were employed not only as teachers and preachers
' African Repository, vol. xi., pp. 294-295.
^ 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.
Actual Education 8i
to their people, but as instructors of the white
race. ^
A more accurate estimate of how far the enHght-
enment 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
aroimd you, who are faithfully laboring to teach
the truth as it is in Jesus. "^ Reverend 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 Httle
help to learn to read, yet to his surprise many of
them by dint of application had made such pro-
gress that they could "intelligently read a plain
author and especially their Bible." Pity it was,
he thought, that any of them should be without
^ 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.
' Fawcett, Compassionate Address, etc., p. 33.
6
82 The Education of the Negro
necessary books. Negroes were wont to come to
him with such moving accoimts of their needs in
this respect that he could not help supplying
them.^ On Saturday evenings and Sundays his
home was crowded with nimibers of those " whose
very Countenances still carry the air of importimate
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 disap-
pointed, he urged his friends to send him other suit-
able books, for nothing else, thought he, could be a
greater inducement to their industry to learn to read.
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
imconscious evidence of the intellectual progress
of the Negroes during the eighteenth century.
"He's an 'artful,'"' "plausible,"^ "smart,""
or "sensible fellow, "^ "delights much in traffic,"^
' Fawcett, Compassionate Address, etc., p. 33.
» Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800; The Mary-
land Gazette, Feb. 27, 1755; Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Balti-
more Advertiser, July 23, 1776; The State Gazette of South Carolina,
May 18, 1786; The State Gazette of North Carolina, July 2, 1789.
3 The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser (Charleston, S. C),
Sept. 26, 1797, and The Carolina Gazette, June 3, 1802.
* The Charleston Courier, Jvme i, 1804; The State Gazette of
South Carolina, Feb. 20, and 27, 1786; and The Maryland Journal
and Baltimore Advertiser, Feb. 19, 1793.
s South Carolina Weekly Advertiser, Feb. 19 and April 2, 1783;
State Gazette of South Carolina, Feb. 20 and May 18, 1786.
* The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advocate, Oct. 17, 1780.
Actual Education 83
and "plays on the fife extremely well," ^ are some
of the statements found in the descriptions of
fugitive slaves. Other fugitives were speaking
" plainly, "^^ "talking indifferent English, "^ "re-
markably good English,"'* and "exceedingly good
English." s In some advertisements we observe
such expressions as "he speaks a little French, "<•
"Creole French," ' "a few words of High-Dutch," »
and "tolerable German."' Writing about a fugi-
tive a master would often state that "he can read
' The Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800; and
The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle, April 24, 1 790.
^ The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser, Jan. 20 and March i,
1800; and The South Carolina Weekly Gazette, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759.
3 The City Gaz. and Daily Adv., Jan. 20 and March i, 1800;
and S. C. Weekly Gaz., Oct. 24 to 31, 1759.
< The Newbern Gazette, May 23 and Aug. 15, 1800; The Mary-
land 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. i, 1784; and The Carolina Gazette, Aug. 12,
1802.
s 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. i, 1754; Oct. 28, 1773; and
Aug. 19, 1784; and The Columbian Herald, April 30, 1789.
* 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.
1 The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser, Oct. 5, 1798.
* The Maryland Gazette, Aug. 19, 1784.
9 The State Gazette of South Carolina, Feb. 20 and 27, 1780.
84 The Education of the Negro
print, "^ "can read writing,"* "can read and also
write a little,"^ "can read and write,"" "can write
a pretty hand and has probably forged a pass."*
These conditions obtained especially in Charies-
ton. South Carolina, where were advertised
various fugitives, one of whom spoke French
and English fluently, and passed for a doctor
among his people,^ another who spoke Spanish
and French intelligibly, ^ and a third who could
read, write, and speak both French and Spanish
very well. *
' The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, Oct. 17, 1780.
Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser, July 23,
1776.
* The Maryland Gazette, May 21, 1795.
3 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 Ports-
mouth Chronicle, March 19, 1791.
* The Maryland Gazette, Feb. 27, 1755; and Oct. 27, 1768;
The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser, Oct. i, 1793;
The Virginia Herald (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800.
s The Maryland Gazette, Feb. i, 1755 and Feb. i, 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, Yeh. 4, 1802; and The Virginia
Herald (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800.
* 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-
^ The City Gazette of South Carolina, Jan. 5, 1799.
' The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser (Charleston, South
Carolina), June 22 and Aug. 8, 1797; April i and May 15, 1799.
Actual Education 85
Equally convincing as to the educational pro-
gress 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, ^ who won distinction as a preacher
in Georgia in 1782, and then went to Jamaica
where he foimded the first Baptist church of that
colony. The competent and indefatigable Andrew
Bryan ^ proved to be a worthy successor of George
Leile in Georgia. From 1 770 to 1 790 Negro preach-
ers 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 Bap-
tist church, some members of which could read,
write, and keep accounts.'' Lemuel Haynes was
then widely known as a well-educated minister of
' He was sometimes called George Sharp. See Benedict,
History of the Baptists, etc., p. 189.
» Ibid., p. 189.
3 Semple, History of the Baptists, etc., p. 112.
* Ibid., p. 114.
86 The Education of the Negro
the Protestant Episcopal Church. John Glouces.
ter, who had been trained under Gideon Blackburn
of Tennessee, distinguished himself in Philadel-
phia where he founded the African Presbyterian
Church.' 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.^ 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. 3 This favorable condition of
affairs could not long exist after the aristocratic
element in the coimtry 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 Method-
ists 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.
The intellectual progress of the colored people
of that day, however, was not restricted to their
clergymen. Other Negroes were learning to excel
' Baird, A Collection, etc., p. 817.
» Semple, History of the Baptists, etc., p. 355.
i Ibid., p. 356.
Actual Education 87
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. *
Those who had the pleasure of reading the poems
stated that they were characterized by ''simplicity,
purity, and natural grace. "^ The other noted
Negro of North Carolina was mentioned in 1799
by Buchan in his Domestic Medicine as the discov-
erer 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. ^
To this class of bright Negroes belonged Thomas
Fuller, a native African, who resided near Alex-
andria, Virginia, where he startled the students of
his time by his unusual attainments in mathe-
matics, despite the fact that he could neither
read nor write. Once acquainted with the power
of numbers, he commenced his education by coimt-
ing 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
' Baldwin, Observations, etc., p. 20.
» Ibid., p. 21.
3 Smyth, A Tour in the U. S., p. 109; and Baldwin, Observations,
p. 20.
88 The Education of the Negro
problems. Depending upon his own system of
mental arithmetic he learned to obtain accurate
results just as quickly as Mr. Zerah Colbum, a
noted calculator of that day, who tested the Negro
mathematician.* 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 calcula-
tion where he left off. * One of the questions pro-
pounded 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.
Another Negro of this type was James Durham,
a native slave of the city of Philadelphia. Dur-
ham was purchased by Dr. Dove, a physician in
New Orleans, who, seeing the divine spark in the
slave, gave him a chance for mental develop-
ment. 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 acqiiiring
a rudimentary education, and soon learned several
' Baldwin, Observations, p. 21.
» Needles, An Historical Memoir, etc., p. 32.
Actual Education 89
modem languages, speaking English, French, and
Spanish fluently. Beginning his medical educa-
tion 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^ of New
Orleans. Dr. Benjamin Rush, the noted physician
of Philadelphia, who was educated at the Edin-
burgh 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.^
Most prominent among these brainy persons of
color were PhylUs Wheatley and Benjamin Ban-
neker. 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
' Brissot de Warville, New Travels, vol. i., p. 223.
* Baldwin, Observations, etc., p. 17.
90 The Education of the Negro
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 pubHshers 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 Han-
cock.^ Glancing at her works, the modem critic
would readily say that she was not a poetess, just as
the student of poHtical 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, Phylhs
Wheatley was an exceptionally intellectual person.
The other distingmshed Negro, Benjamin Ban-
neker, was bom in Baltimore County, Maryland,
November 9, 1731, near the village of Ellicott
Mills. Banneker was sent to school in the neigh-
borhood, where he learned reading, writing, and
arithmetic. Determined to acquire knowledge
while toiling, he applied his mind to things intel-
lectual, cultivated the power of observation, and de-
veloped a retentive memory. These acquirements
finally made him tower above all other American
scientists of his time with the possible exception of
' Baldwin, Observations, etc., p. i8; Wright, Poems of Phyllis
Wheatley, Introduction.
Actual Education 91
Benjamin Franklin. In conformity with his desire
to do and create, his tendency was toward mathe-
matics. Although he had never seen a clock,
watches being the only timepieces in the vicinity,
he made in 1 770 the first clock manufactured in the
United States,^ thereby attracting the attention
of the scientific world. Learning these things,
the owner of EUicott 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 in-
struction.^ 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 ap-
pears 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 attain-
ments and the value of his contributions to
mathematics and science. ^
' Washington, JeffersorCs Works, vol. v., p. 429.
^ Baldwin, Observations, etc., p. 16.
J Washington, Jefferson's Works, vol. v., p. 429.
92 The Education of the Negro
So favorable did the aspect of things become as a
resiilt 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. ^ After touring Penn-
sylvania five years later, Brissot de Warville
reported that there existed then a coimtry 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 commimity
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. " *
'Schoepf, Travels in the Confederation, p. 149.
' 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 posi-
tion 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
93
94 The Education of the Negro
adequate enlightenment to a large number of col-
ored people? Was interest in the education of this
class so widely manifested thereafter as to cause the
movement to endiire? A brief account of these ef-
forts in the various States will answer these questions.
In the Northern and Middle States an increasing
nimiber of educational advantages for the white
race made germane the question as to what
consideration should be shown to the colored
people.^ A general admission of Negroes to the
schools of these progressive commimities was
imdesirable, 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.'
In most cases, however, the movement for separate
schools originated not with the white race, but
with the people of color themselves.
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
chtirch. In 1770 the Rhode Island Quakers
' Niles's Register, vol. xvi., pp. 241-243 "and vol. xxiii., p. 23.
* See The Proceedings of the Am. Conv. of Abolition Societies.
Better Beginnings 95
were endeavoring to give young Negroes such an
education as becomes Christians. In 1773 New-
port 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, tmder the charge of EHsha Sylvester, a
white nian, was established in that city in the house
of Primus Hall, a Negro of very good standing.^
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.* 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.^
' Special Report of U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 357.
=> Ibid., p. 357.
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.
96 The Education of the Negro
The school was then moved to the African Meeting
House in Belknap Street where it remained tmtil
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 prim-
ary school for the education of colored children. ^
Generally speaking, we can say that while the
movement for special colored schools met with
some opposition in certain portions of New Eng-
land, in other parts of the Northeastern States
the religious organizations and aboHtion societies,
which were espousing the cause of the Negro,
yielded to this demand. These schools were
sometimes fotmd 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. '
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 popula-
tion. 3 Those who were scattered through the State
were allowed to attend white schools, which did not
"meet their special needs."'' In the metropolis,
» Special Rep. of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 357.
* Adams, Anti-slavery, p. 142.
3 La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, Travels, etc., p. 233.
* Am. Conv., 1798, p. 7.
Better Beginnings 97
where the blacks constituted one- tenth of the
inhabitants in 1800, however, the mental improve-
ment of the dark race could not be neglected. The
Hberalism of the revolutionary era led to the
organization in New York of the " Society for Pro-
moting the Manumission of Slaves and Protect-
ing 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. ' Among those
interested in this organization and its enterprises
were Melancthon Smith, John Bleecker, James
Cogswell, Jacob Seaman, White Matlock, Mat-
thew Clarkson, Nathaniel Lawrence, and John
Murray, Jr.* The school opened in 1790 with
Cornelius Davis as a teacher of forty pupils. In
1 791 a lady was employed to instruct the girls
in needle- work. ^ The expected advantage of this
industrial training was soon realized.
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 attend-
ance of from forty to sixty pupils. "• About 1801
the community began to take more interest in the
institution, and the Negroes "became more gen-
erally impressed with a sense of the advantages and
' Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools, p. 14'
» Ibid., pp. 14 and 15. s Ibid., p. 16. *Ibid., p. 17.
7
98 The Education of the Negro
importance of education, and more disposed to
avail themselves of the privileges offered them."^
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. * Many more colored
children were then able Xo 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 i8io.^ 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 bom
of slaves to read the Scriptures.''
Decided improvement was noted after 1814.
The directors then purchased a lot on which they
constructed a building the following year.^ 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 addi-
tional quarters to accommodate the department
' Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies^
1801, p. 6.
' Ibid., 1801, Report from New York.
3 Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools, p. 20.
* Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies, 18 12, p. 7.
s Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools,
p. 18.
Better Beginnings 99
of sewing. This work had been made popular by
the efforts of Misses Turpen, Eliza J. Cox, Ann
Cox, and Caroline Roe. ^ The subsequent growth
of the classes was such that in 1820 the Manumis-
sion Society had to erect a building large enough
to accommodate five himdred pupils.^ The in-
structors were then not only teaching the elemen-
tary branches of reading, writing, arithmetic, and
geography, but also astronomy, navigation, ad-
vanced composition, plain sewing, knitting, and
marking. 3 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. ^ 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. ^ Lafayette, a promoter of the emancipa-
tion 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
' Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools,
p. 17.
'Ibid., p. 18. 3 Ibid., p. 19.
* Proceedings of the Am. Convention of Abolition Soc, 1818,
p. 9; Adams, Anti-slavery, p. 142.
* Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1820.
loo The Education of the Negro
the schools the General pronounced them the
"best disciplined and the most interesting schools
of children" he had ever seen.''
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
commimity at school. The delegates sent from
that State, to the Convention of the AboUtion
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.* 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 incorpor-
ated with the white children in the various small
schools scattered over the State. ^ 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
' Andrews, History of the New York African Free Schools, p. 20.
* Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., i8oi, p. 12.
i Ibid., p. 12, and Quaker Pamphlet, p. 40.
Better Beginnings loi
Gloucester. An account from its antislavery
society shows that the local friends of the indi-
gent 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.^ Later reports from this State
show the same tendency toward democratic
education.
The efforts made in this direction in Delaware,
were encouraging. The Abolition Society of
Wilmington had not greatly promoted the spe-
cial education of "the Blacks and the people of
color." In 1 80 1, 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."*
In 1802 plans for the extension of this system
were laid and bore good fruit the following year.^
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
' Proceedings of the American Conv., etc., 1801, p. 12.
» Ibid., p. 20. 3 Ibid., 1802, p. 17.
102 The Education of the Negro
friendly endeavors.^ In 1816 more important re-
sults 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"' 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. ^
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 quaHfying
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
^Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1809, p. 20.
'Ibid., 1816, p. 20. 3 Ibid., 1821, p. 18.
Better Beginnings 103
education. ^ 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 improve-
ment.* 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.
Not content with the schools which were already
opened to Negroes, the friends of the race con-
tinued 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^ was teaching the girls spelling, reading,
and sewing in 1784. The work done in Phila-
delphia was so successful that the place became
the rallying center for the Quakers throughout the
^ A. M. E. Church Review, vol. xv., p. 625.
» Wickersham, History oj Education in Pa., p. 253.
3 Ibid., p. 251.
104 The Education of the Negro
country, * 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. =• In 1789 the Quakers
organized "The Society for the Free Instruction
of the Orderly Blacks and People of Color."
Taking into consideration the "many disadvan-
tages which many well-disposed blacks and people
of color labored imder from not being able to read,
write, or cast accoimts, 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. ^ 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 cooperating 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.^
The next decade was of larger undertakings, s
The report of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society
of 1 80 1 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
' Quaker Pamphlet, p. 42.
' Wickersham, History of Ed. in Pa., p. 252. J Ibid., p. 251.
< Turner, The Negro in Pa., p. 128.
s Parish, Remarks on the Slavery, etc., p. 43.
Better Beginnings 105
per annum for three years.' 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.'
With these contributions the Quakers and Aboli-
tionists 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.^ In 1807 the Quakers met the needs
of the increasing population of the city by found-
ing an additional institution of learning known as
the Adelphi School. ■*
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. "s Not deterred, however, by this seemingly
discouraging development, the friends of the race
toiled on as before. In 18 10 certain Quaker women
who had attempted to establish a school for
colored girls in 1795 apparently succeeded.^ The
' Proceedings of the American Conv., 1802, p. 18.
' Ibid., 1803, p. 13.
3 Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the Colored People
of Philadelphia, p. 19.
* Ibid., p, 20.
s Proceedings of the American Conv., 1809, p. 16, and 1812,
p. 16.
* Wickersham, History of Ed. in Pa., p. 252.
io6 The Education of the Negro
institution, however, did not last many years. But
the Clarkson Hall schools maintained by the Aboli-
tion 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."^ They asserted without fear of con-
tradiction 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 himdred boys and girls,
and to a number of adults attending evening
schools. These victories had been achieved de-
spite 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. "^ After
1818, however, help was obtained from the State
to educate the colored children of Columbia and
Philadelphia.
The assistance obtained from the State, how-
ever, 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
^Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 18 12, Report
from Philadelphia.
' Ibid., 18 15, Report from Phila.
Better Beginnings 107
Liberties organized the Female Association which
maintained one or more schools.^ That same
year the Union Society founded in 18 10 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.^
The Infant School Society of Philadelphia was also
doing good work in looking after the education of
small colored children. ^ In the course of time
crowded conditions in the colored schools neces-
sitated the opening of additional evening classes
and the erection of larger buildings.
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. Mary-
land 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
' Wickersham, History of Education in Pa., p. 252.
' One of these was at the Sessions House of the Third Presby-
terian 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.
3 Statistical Inquiry, etc., p. 19.
io8 The Education of the Negro
people of color were under a course of instruction,
and that an academy and qualified teachers for
them would be provided.^ 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.
Most interest in the cause in Maryland was
manifested near the cities of Georgetown and
Baltimore.' Long active in the cause of ele-
vating 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 unfortimates everything
that would broaden their horizon and help them
to imderstand life. The abolitionists and Pro-
testant churches were also in the field, but the
work of the early fathers in these cities was
more effective. These forces at work in George-
town 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. 3 Later in the nineteenth century the
^Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1797, p. 16.
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., pp. 195 et seq., and
PP- 352-353-
3 Ibid., p. 353.
Better Beginnings 109
efforts made to educate the Negroes of the rural
districts of Maryland were eclipsed by the better
work accomplished by the free blacks in Balti-
more and the District of Columbia.
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 spell-
ing monosyllables.^ It is significant that colored
children of Alexandria, just as in the case of
Georgetown, attended schools established for the
whites.* Their coeducation extended not only to
Sabbath schools but to other institutions of leam-
^ Proceedings of the Am. Conv., etc., 1797, p. 35.
» Ibid., 1797, p. 36.
no The Education of the Negro
ing, which some Negroes attended during the week. ^
Mrs. Maria Hall, one of the eariy teachers of
the District of Columbia, obtained her education
in a mixed school of Alexandria. ^ 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.
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. ^ Of the schools
organized for them in the central part of the
commonwealth, those about Richmond seemed
to be less prosperous. The abolitionists of Vir-
ginia, reporting for that city in 1798, said that
considerable progress had been made in the educa-
tion of the blacks, and that they contemplated
the establishment of a school for the instruc-
tion of Negroes and other persons. They were
apprehensive, however, that their funds would be
scarcely sufficient for this purpose.'* In 1801, one
year after Gabriel's Insurrection, the abolitionists
of Richmond reported that the cause had been
' Proceedings of the Am. Conv., p. 17; ibid., 1827, p. 53.
' Special Report of U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 198.
3 Ibid., p. 393.
* Proceedings of the Am. Conv., etc., 1798, p. 16.
Better Beginnings in
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 Ameri-
can 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"^
to direct attention to the Negroes' bodily comfort.
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 circu-
lated a pamphlet entitled "Proposals for Estab-
lishing a Free School for the Instruction of Children
of Blacks and People of Color." ^ They recom-
mended 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 numer-
' Proceedings of the Am. Conv., 180 1, p. 15.
a Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 215.
112 The Education of the Negro
ous 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 Coimty. The whole revenue of the
land was to go toward the support of the institu-
tion, or, in the event the school should be estab-
lished elsewhere, he would give it one hundred
pounds. Ebenezer Maule, another friend, sub-
scribed fifty pounds for the same purpose.*
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 imder a Friend at
Gravelly Run."
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-
' Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 216. ' Ibid., p. 216.
Better Beginnings 113
wardens was prohibited by statute immediately
after Gabriel's Insurrection in 1800.* Negroes
eager to learn were thereafter largely restricted
to private tutoring and instruction offered in
Sabbath-schools. Furthermore, as Virginia de-
veloped few urban communities there were not
sufficient persons of color in any one place to
cooperate in enlightening themselves even as much
as public sentiment allowed. After 1838 Virginia
Negroes had practically no chance to educate
themselves.
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,'
continued imabated from 1780, the time of their
greatest activity, to the period of the intense
abolition agitation and the servile insurrections.
In 1 81 5 the Quakers were still exhorting their
members to establish schools for the literary and
religious instruction of Negroes. ^ The following
year a school for Negroes was opened for two days
in a week."* So successful was the work done by
' Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. xvi., p. 124.
" Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 231; Levi Co&n, Reminiscences,
pp. 69-71; Bassett, Slavery in North Carolina, p. 66.
3 Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 232.
* Thwaites, Early Travels, vol. ii., p. 66.
114 The Education of the Negro
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. " ^ In 1819 some of them
could speU and a few could write. The plan of
these workers was to extend the instruction until
males could "read, write, and cipher," and imtil
the females could "read and write."*
In the course of time, however, these philan-
thropists 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 discon-
tented.^ The timorous element threatened the
teachers with the terrors of the law, induced
the benevolent slaveholders to prohibit the attend-
ance of their Negroes, and had the school closed. *
Moreover, it became more difficult to obtain aid
for this cause. Between 181 5 and 1825 the North
Carolina Manumission Societies were redoubling
their efforts to raise funds for this purpose. By
18 19 they had collected $47.00 but had not in-
creased this amount more than $2.62 two years
later. ^
The work done by the various workers in North
' Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 232. » Ibid., 232.
3 Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 69. * Ibid., p. 70.
5 Weeks, Southern Quakers, p. 241.
Better Beginnings 115
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 improve-
ment of the slaves.^ 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."*
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. ^
The reaction culminated, however, before this
plan could be properly presented to the people
of that commonwealth.
During these years an exceptionally bright
Negro was serving as a teacher not of his own
' An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of
Slavery by the Friends of Liberty and Equality, passim.
' Ibid. 3 Ibid.
ii6 The Education of the Negro
race but of the most aristocratic white people of
North Carolina. This educator was a freeman
named John Chavis. He was bom probably near
Oxford, Granville Coimty, 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." ^
There he took rank as a good Latin and a fair
Greek scholar.
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."'
He was then reported also as a regularly commis-
sioned preacher to his people in Lexington. In
1805 he returned to North Carolina where he often
preached to various congregations. ^ His career as
' Bassett, Slavery in North Carolina, p. 73.
» Ibid., p. 74; and Baird, A Collection, etc., pp. 816-817.
3 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,
Better Beginnings 117
a clergyman was brought to a close in 1831 by the
law enacted to prevent Negroes from preaching.^
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."'
The best people of the commimity patronized this
school. Chavis cotmted 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 com-
monwealth, and Dr. James L. Wortham of Oxford,
North Carolina. 3
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. Re-
garding education as a matter of concern to
persons immediately interested South Carolinians
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.
' See Chapter VII.
' Bassett, Slavery in North Carolina, p. 74.
J 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,
ii8 The Education of the Negrro
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 pro-
hibited the education of the slaves in 1740^ and
seemingly that of other Negroes in 1800,* these
measures were not considered a direct attack on
the instruction of free persons of color. Further-
more, 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 ad-
vantage 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 opportimity
to make intellectual advancement. ^
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 intoler-
able. It was still lawful for a slave to learn to
read, and free persons of color had the privilege
of acquiring any knowledge whatsoever. •* The
chief incentive to the education of Negroes in that
' Brevard, Digest of the Public Statute Law of South Carolina,
vol. ii., p. 243.
' Ibid., p. 243.
3 Laws of 1740 and 1800, and Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 1078.
* Marbury and Crawford, Digest of the Laws of the State of
Georgia, p. 438.
Better Beginnings 119
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. *
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 meet-
ings 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."^
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
' Orr, Education in the South.
' Flint, Recollections of the Last Ten Years, p. 345.
120 The Education of the Negro
jurisdiction, denied the right of education to a
large class of mixed breeds.^ Many of these,
thanks to the Hberality of the French, had been
freed, and constituted an important element of
society. Not a few of them had educated them-
selves, accumulated wealth, and ranked with
white men of refinement and culture.*
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 aboHtionists, being much longer active
than those in most slave States, continued to
emphasize the education of the blacks as a correla-
tive to emancipation. Furthermore, the Western
Baptists, Methodists, and Scotch-Irish Presbyter-
ians 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
^ Laws of Louisiana.
'Alliot, Collections Historigues, p. 85; and Thwaites, Early
Western Travels, vol. iv., pp. 320 and 321; vol, xii., p. 69; and
vol. xix., p. 126.
Better Beginnings 121
for eight or ten Negro slaves with their families
to form a community of this kind under the direc-
tion 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 clergy-
man 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.^
'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, Hke 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 discotu-age the education of the lowest class was
natural to the aristocrats who on coming to power
established governments based on the representa-
tion of interests, restriction of suffrage, and the
ineligibility of the poor to office. After this period
the work of enUghtening the blacks in the south-
em and border States was largely confined to a
few towns and cities where the concentration of the
colored population continued.
122
Educating the Urban Negro 123
The rise of the American city made possible the
contact of the colored people with the world, afford-
ing 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 opportimity
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 per-
sons; and watermen, embracing fishermen, boat-
men, 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 pro-
tected from the rigors of the slave code; house
servants, rewarded wth 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. ^ 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,
'Jones, Religious Instruction, p. 117.
124 The Education of the Negro
as the first Negroes were not chiefly field hands
but to a considerable extent house servants, whom
masters often taught to read and write.
Urban Negroes had another important advan-
tage in their opportunity to attend well-regulated
Simday-schools. These were extensively organ-
ized in the towns and cities of this country dining
the first decades of the last century. The " Sab-
bath-school " constituted an important factor in
Negro education. Although cloaked with the
purpose of bringing the blacks to God by giving
them reHgious instruction the institution permitted
its workers to teach them reading and writing
when they were not allowed to study such in other
institutions.^ Even the radical slaveholder was
slow to object to a poHcy which was intended to
facilitate the conversion of men's souls. All
friends especially interested in the mental and
spiritual upHft of the race hailed this movement
as marking an epoch in the elevation of the
colored people.
In the course of time racial difficulties caused the
development of the colored " Sabbath-school "
to be very much Hke 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
' 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.
Educating the Urban Negro 125
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 de-
pended 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 181 5 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 addi-
tion to two churches of this denomination, a
flourishing African Missionary Society.^ 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.
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,
' Adams, Anti-slavery, etc., pp. 73 and 74.
126 The Education of the Negro
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.^ Large as the number of aboHtionists
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 aboHtion
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
' 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 Jeflferson's proposition,
recommended that it begin by instructing the slaveholders, over-
seers, 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 anti-
slavery 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.
Educating the Urban Negro 127
their immediate emancipation a blessing either to
themselves or to society. " ^
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 educa-
tion, 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 Socie-
ties in 1 8 19 is typical of these appeals. ^ They
requested free persons of color to endeavor as
much as possible to use economy in their ex-
penses, to save something from their earnings
for the education of their children . . . and "let
all those who by attending to this admonition
have acqmred 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
'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.
' Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1819, p. 21.
128 The Education of the Negro
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. "^
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 enHghtenment. 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 Troimiontaine
taught openly in Savannah up to 1829 when such
an act was prohibited by law. He taught clan-
destinely thereafter, however, iintil 1844. ' 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 peo-
ple of this city did not then regard it as a crime for
Negroes to acquire an education, their white in-
structors felt that they were not condescending in
' Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1819, p. 22.
' Wright, Negro Education in Georgia, p. 20.
Educating the Urban Negro 129
teaching them, and children of Caucasian blood
raised no objection to attending special and pa-
rochial schools accessible to both races. The
educational privileges which the colored people
there enjoyed, however, were largely paid for by
the progressive freedmen themselves.^ Some of
them educated their children in France.
Charleston, South Carolina, furnished a good
example of a center of imusual 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 18 10 the "Minor
Society" to secure to their orphan children the
benefits of education . ^ 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 Charles-
ton 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, fash-
ionable tailors, shoe manufacturers, and man-
tua-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. "^ As such positions required
' Many of the mixed breeds of New Orleans were leading
business men.
* Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 1078.
' Niles Register, vol. xlix., p. 40.
130 The Education of the Negro
considerable skill and intelligence, these laborers
had of necessity acquired a large share of useful
knowledge. The favorable circumstances of the
Negroes in certain Hberal 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.^ The return of certain Negroes
from Philadelphia to Petersburg, Virginia, during
the first decade of the nineteenth century, is a
case in evidence.*
The successful strivings of the race in the Dis-
trict 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 opportimity.^ Mrs. Maria Billings, the
first to estabHsh 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
Bladensbiirg, Maryland. The tuition fee in some
of these schools was a Httle high, but many free
blacks of the District of Columbia were sufficiently
well established to meet these demands. The rapid
progress made by the BeU and Browning families
during this period was of much encouragement to
' Notions of the Americans, p. 26.
» Wright, Views of Society and Manners in America, p. 73.
3 Special Report 0} the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 195 et seq.
Educating the Urban Negro 131
the ambitious colored people, who were laboring to
educate their children. ^
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 Colimibia.
Just emerging from bondage, these men could not
teach themselves, but employed a white man to
take charge of the school.^ 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 in-
structed white children.^ 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 18 18 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 in-
structed 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
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 195.
' Ibid., 196. 3 Ibid., 197.
132 The Education of the Negro
free colored families would embrace the advantages
thus presented to them either by subscription to
the funds of the Society or by sending their child-
ren 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. ' ' * This school was continued until 1 822
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.*
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
himdred and fifty pupils, generally paying tui-
tion. 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. ^ The school
• Daily National Intelligencer, August 29, 1818.
« Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 198.
* Ibid., 1871, p. 199.
Educating the Urban Negro 133
was then called the ' ' Columbian Institute .' ' Prout
was later assisted by Mrs. Anne Maria Hall. *
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 trans-
ferred 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.^ Other good results were obtained
' 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 es-
tablished 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.
« Jbid., p. 204.
134 The Education of the Negro
by Louisa Parke Costin, a member of one of the
oldest colored families in the District of Colimibia.
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.^
Equally helpful was the work of Arabella Jones.
Educated at the St. Frances Academy at Balti-
more, she was well grounded in the English
branches and fluent in French. She taught on the
"Island," calling her school "The St. Agnes
Academy."^ 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. 3 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
^ Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 203.
' Ibid., p. 211. 3 Ibid., p. 211.
Educating the Urban Negro 135
unbecoming remarks about the wives of the white
mechanics.^ 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.
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, ^ 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.^ This expulsion
however, was not an unmixed evil, for the colored
people themselves thereafter established and di-
rected a larger number of institutions of learning. '•
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., p. 201.
' 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 George-
town 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.
3 Sp. Report, etc. 187, pp. 217, 218, 219, 220, 221.
* Ibid., pp. 220-222.
136 The Education of the Negro
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 suppUed 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.*
John F. Cook rettuned from Pennsylvania and
reopened his seminary.' About this time there
flourished a school established by Fannie Hamp-
ton. After her death the work was carried on by
Margaret Thompson imtil 1846. She then mar-
ried 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 ^ retired. Middleton's school,
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 212, 213,
and 283.
* Ibid., p. 200.
» Compelled to leave Washington in 1838 because of the per-
secution 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
Educating the Urban Negro 137
however, owes its importance to the fact that
it was connected with the movement for free col-
ored pubUc schools started by Jesse E. Dow, an
official of the city, and supported by Rev. Doc-
tor Wayman, then pastor of the Bethel Church.*
Other colaborers with these teachers were Alex-
ander Cornish, Richard Stokes, and Margaret
Hill.='
Then came another effort on a large scale.
This was the school of Alexander Hays, an eman-
cipated 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 contem-
poraries. The last two were teachers from Eng-
land. On account of the feeHng 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.^ Other
colored families of the District of Columbia. See Special Report
of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 214.
' Ibid., p. 215.
' Ihid., pp. 214-215.
' 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
138 The Education of the Negro
white men and women were teaching colored
children during these years. The most prominent
of these were Thomas Tabbs, an erratic philan-
thropist, 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. * The efforts
of Miss Myrtilla Miner, their contemporary, will
be mentioned elsewhere.^
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 3 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 enHght-
ened. 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
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.
' Ibid., p. 214.
» O'Connor, Myrtilla Miner, p. 80.
* Drewery, Slave Insurrections in Virginia, p. 121.
Educating the Urban Negro 139
untiring co-worker in furnishing these facilities,
was the Most Reverend Ambrose Marechal, Arch-
bishop of Baltimore from 18 17 to 1828.* These
schools were such an improvement over those
formerly opened to Negroes that colored youths
of other towns and cities thereafter came to Balti-
more for higher training. ^
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 so-
ciety that finally formed the St. Frances Academy
for girls in connection with the Oblate Sisters of
Providence Convent in Baltimore, June 5, 1829.3
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 in-
tegrity."" To reach this end they endeavored to
' special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 205.
' Ibid., p. 205. 3 Jbid., p. 205.
* Ibid., p. 206.
140 The Education of the Negro
supply the school with cultivated and capable
teachers. Students were offered courses in all
the branches of "refined and useful education,
including aU that is regularly taught in well
regulated female seminaries."^ This school was
so well maintained that it survived all reactionary
attacks and became a center of enhghtenment for
colored women.
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 school-
house in the District of Columbia, went to Balti-
more to study under Coker.* 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. ^ In
1825 the Negroes there had a day and a night
school, giving courses in Latin and French. Four
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., p. 206.
» Ibid., p. 196.
» Adams, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 14.
Educating the Urban Negro 141
years later there appeared an "African Free
School" with an attendance of from 150 to 175
every Sunday.^
By 1830 the Negroes of Baltimore had several
special schools of their own.* In 1835 there was
behind the African Methodist Church in Sharp
Street a school of seventy pupils in charge of
William Watkins.^ W. Livingston, an ordained
clergyman of the Episcopal Church, had then
a colored school of eighty pupils in the African
Church at the comer of Saratoga and Ninth
Streets. '' 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 con-
sequence were maintained by free women of color,
who owed their education to the Convent of the
Oblate Sisters of Providence. ^ 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.*^ Yet another observer felt that the
Negroes of Baltimore had more opportunities than
they embraced. 7
' Adams, Anti-Slavery, etc., pp. 14 and 15.
* Buckingham, America, Historical, etc., vol. i., p. 438.
' Ibid., p. 438; Andrews, Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade,
PP- 54» 55» S'Od 56; and Varle, A Complete View of Baltimore, p. 33.
■« Varle, A Complete View of Baltimore, p. 33; and Andrews,
Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade, pp. 85 and 92.
» Ibid., p. 33. 6 Ibid., p. 54 i Ibid., p. 37.
142 The Education of the Negro
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,^ he was informed that the educa-
tion 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 philan-
thropic labors."* 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.^ The leading people of Baltimore
thought that it would be better to accomplish
this task through the Colonization Society,
' 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 Wilham
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 coloniza-
tion 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 ef-
fected by legislation, they hoped to provide religious and literary
instruction for all colored children that they might "ameUorate
their economic condition" and prepare themselves for higher
usefulness. See the Exposition of the Object and Plans of the
American Union, pp. 11-14.
» Andrews, Slavery and the Domestic Slave Trade, pp. 57.
3 Ibid., p. 188.
Educating the Urban Negro 143
a southern organization carrying out the very
policy which the American Union proposed to
pursue. *
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.^ With this benefaction the trustees
concerned established in 1835 what they called
the Wells School. It offered Negroes free instruc-
tion long after the Civil War.
In seeking to show how these good results were
obtained by the Negroes' cooperative 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, them-
selves, 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 re-
moval, that they not only permitted the estabHsh-
' Andrews, Slavery, etc., p. 56.
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 353.
144 The Education of the Negro
ment 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 Breck-
enridge 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^ and it was often mentioned as a
high school.
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 pur-
= A contributor to the Christian Chronicle found in this institu-
tion 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. xxzti., p. 91.
Educating the Urban Negro 145
chased 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 them-
selves, the free people of color organized a
society which in 1804 opened a school with
John Trumbull as teacher.^ About the same
time the African Episcopalians founded a colored
school at their church. ^ A colored man gave three
hundred pounds of the required funds to build
the first colored schoolhouse in Philadelphia.'
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.'* 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 achieve-
ments claimed for the colored schools of Phila-
delphia none were considered more significant
' Turner, The Negro in Pennsylvania, p. 129.
" Ibid., p. 130.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 377.
Proceedings of the American Convention, etc., 1825, p. 13.
146 The Education of the Negro
than that they produced teachers qvialified 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. *
The statistics of later years show how successftd
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
jT-ear, 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 Philadel-
phia 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 famiHes
and industrial schools of Philadelphia many men
and women of both races. * Although these in-
^ Proceedings of the Am. Convention, etc., 1830, p.8; and Wick-
ersham, History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 253.
' 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
Educating the Urban Negro 147
structors restricted their work to the teaching of
the rudiments of education, they did much to
help the more advanced schools to enUghten 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.*
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
this House of Industry, and the Sheppard School, another indus-
trial institution, was in operation in 1850 in a building bearing the
same name. In 1 849 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 Phila-
delphia, 1859.
' Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the Colored People of
Philadelphia, in 1859.
148 The Education of the Negro
1832 when the colored people had qualified them-
selves to take over the schools of the New York
Manumission Society. They then got rid of all
the white teachers, even Andrews, the princi-
pal, 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 opportimities 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 institu-
tions kept by friendly white teachers or by teachers
of their own color. ^ 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.' 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 re-
ceived their compensation from those who patron-
ized them. 2
Whether from lack of interest in their welfare
on the part of the pubHc, or from the desire of the
* See the Address of the American Convention, 1819.
' 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.
3 Ibid., p. 58.
Educating the Urban Negro 149
Negroes to share their own burdens, the colored
people of Rhode Island were endeavoring to
provide for the education of their children dur-
ing 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. ^
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 some-
times 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.
^ Stockwell, History of Ed. in R. I., p. 30.
I50 The Education of the Negro
In the eastern cities where colored school systems
thereafter continued, the work was not always suc-
cessful. The influx of fugitives in the rough some-
times jeopardized their chances for education by
menacing hberal 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 aboHtion-
ists 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 disestabHshed.
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.
151
152 The Education of the Negro
Such we have observed was the case in Virginia,*
South Carolina,^ and Georgia.^ To control the
assemblies of slaves, North Carolina,'' Delaware, *
and Maryland^ early passed strict regulations for
their inspection.
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 effec-
tive 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, accel-
erated 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
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 391.
' Brevard, Digest of the Public Statute Law of S. C, vol. ii.,
P- 243-
3 Marbury and Crawford, Digest of Laws of the State of Georgia^
p. 438.
* Laws of North Carolina, vol. i., pp. 126, 563, and 741.
s Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 335.
6 Ibid., p. 352.
The Reaction 153
mills, and in cheapening cloth, increased the de-
mand 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. ^ 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 condi-
tion, 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.
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,
^ Turner, The Rise of the New West, pp. 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49;
and Hammond, Cotton Industry, chaps, i. and ii.
154 The Education of the Negro
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.^ De-
prived 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, there-
fore, favored the extermination of the institution.
Others advocated the expansion of slavery not
to extend the influence of the South, but to dis-
perse the slaves with a view to bringing about a
closer contact between them and their masters.*
This poUcy was duly emphasized during the debate
on the admission of the State of Missouri.
Seeking to direct the attention of the world to
the slavery of men's bodies and minds the abo-
litionists 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
enHghtenment to convince slaves that they would
be better off as freemen than as dependents
whose very wills were subject to those of their
' 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.
' Annals of Congress, First Session, vol. i., pp. 996 et seq. and
1396 et seq.
The Reaction 155
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 in-
telligent 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 insurrec-
tionary 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 imme-
diate 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 suffi-
cient 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."^ The insurrectionary pas-
' Washington, Works of Jefferson, vol. iv., p. 467.
156 The Education of the Negro
sion among the colored people was kindled, too,
around Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, and New
Orleans by certain Negroes who to escape the hor-
rors of the political upheaval in Santo Domingo, ^
immigrated into this cotintry in 1793. The edu-
cation of the colored race had paved the way for the
dissemination of their ideas of Hberty 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.
The insurrection of Gabriel in Virginia and that
of South CaroHna in the year 1800 are cases in
evidence. Unwilling to concede that slaves coiild
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.^ James
Monroe said there was no evidence that any white
man was connected with it. ^ 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.'' Observing that many Negroes were suf-
ficiently enUghtened to see things as other men,
' Drewery, Insurrections in Virginia, p. 121.
' The New York Daily Advertiser, Sept. 22, 1800; and The
Richmond Enquirer, Oct. 21, 1831.
3 Writings of James Monroe, vol. iii., p. 217.
* Educated Negroes then constituted an alarming element in
Massachusetts, Virginia, and South Carolina. See The New York
Daily Advertiser, Sept. 22, 1800.
The Reaction 157
the editor of the Aurora asserted that in negotiat-
ing with the "Black Republic" the United States
and Great Britain had set the seal of approval
upon servile insurrection.'' Others referred to
inflammatory handbills which Negroes extensively
read.^ 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. " ^
Camden was disturbed by an insurrection in
1816 and Charleston in 1822 by a formidable plot
which the officials believed was due to the "sin-
ister" influences of enlightened Negroes. "^ 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 i8oo.s Jack Purcell,
an accomplice of Vesey, weakened in the crisis and
confessed. He said that Vesey was in the habit of
' See The New York Daily Advertiser, Sept. 22, 1800.
' Ibid., Oct. 7, 1800.
3 Letter of St. George Tucker in Joshua Coflfin's Slave Insur-
rections.
* The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser (Charleston,
South Carolina), August 21, 1822.
s Ibid., August 21, 1822.
158 The Education of the Negro
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.^ 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
pubHsh pamphlets against slavery " the longest day
he Hved, " imtil the Southern States consented to
emancipate their slaves.^
The statement of the Governor of South Caro-
Hna 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 extra-
ordinary 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. " ^ It was thus brought home
to the South that the enlightened Negro was
having his heart fired with the spirit of Uberty by
' The City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser, August 21,
1822. » Ibid., August 21, 1822.
J The Norfolk and Portsmouth Herald, Aug. 30, 1822.
The Reaction i59
his perusal of the accounts of servile insurrections
and the congressional debate on slavery.
Southerners of all types thereafter attacked the
poHcy of educating Negroes.^ Men who had
expressed themselves neither one way nor the
other changed their attitude when it became
evident that abolition Uterature 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 under-
stand the principles of the Christian religion, were
thereafter willing to forego the benefits of their sal-
vation rather than see them destroy the institution
of slavery.
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.'' By 18 19 much dis-
satisfaction had arisen from the seeming danger of
» Hodgson, Whitney's Remarks during a yourney through North
America, p. 184.
' Laws of Missouri Territory, etc., p. 498.
i6o The Education of the Negro
the various colored schools in Virginia. The Gen-
eral 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.^ 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 accompHshing 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 pur-
poses.^ 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." ^
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 18 14''
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,
' Tate, Digest of the Laws of Virginia, pp. 849-850.
' Poindexter, Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi, p.
390.
3 Ibid., p. 390. •
•» BuUard and Curry, A New Digest of the Statute Laws of the
State of Louisiana, p. i6i.
The Reaction i6i
Tarborough, and Hillsborough, North Carolina,^
had risen, and David Walker of Massachusetts had
published to the slaves his fiery appeal to arms.*
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 sui-
fer 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.^
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 pun-
ished with a fine not exceeding $500 and with
^ Cofifin, Slave Insurrections, p. 22.
'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 coloniza-
tion plan." See Walker's Appeal.
J Acts passed at the Ninth Session of the Legislature of Louisi-
ana, p. 96.
II
i62 The Education of the Negro
imprisonment in the common jail at the discretion
of the committing magistrate. ^
In Virginia where the prohibition did not
then extend to freedmen, there was enacted in
1 83 1 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 pur-
pose 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.*
The whole coimtry was again disturbed by the
insurrection in Southampton Coimty, Virginia, in
1 83 1 . The slave States then had a striking example
of what the intelligent Negroes of the South might
eventiially 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. ^ Given
unusual social and intellectual advantages, he
developed into a man of considerable "mental
* Dawson, A Compilation of the Laws of the State of Georgia, etc.,
P- 413.
» Laws of Virginia, 1830-183 1, p. 108, Sections 5 and 6.
» Drewery, Insurrections in Virginia, p. 27.
The Reaction 163
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. "^ He had received in-
struction also from his parents and his indulgent
young master, J. C. Turner.
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.^
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 discon-
tented 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
' Drewery, Insurrections in Virginia, p. 28.
' 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.
164 The Education of the Negro
Governor was cognizant of the fact that not only
was the sentiment of the incendiary pamphlets
read but often the words. ^ 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 compHed with
this request.*
The aim of the subsequent reactionary legisla-
tion of the South was to complete the work of
preventing the dissemination of information among
Negroes and their reading of aboHtion Uterature.
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 rehgious worship, or
brought it under direct supervision of the owners
of the slaves concerned, and proscribed the pri-
vate teaching of slaves in any manner whatever.
Mississippi, which already had a law to prevent
the mental improvement of the slaves, enacted
in 1 83 1 another measure to remove from them
the more enHghtened members of their race. All
* The Richmond Enquirer, Oct. 21, 1 83 1.
» The Laws of Virginia, 1831-1832, p. 20.
The Reaction 165
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. ^ 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 ^o by a
judge or justice of the peace, upon the recom-
mendation of five "respectable and judicious
citizens."* 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.^ 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
» Hutchinson, Code of Mississippi, p. 533.
' Laws of Delaware, 1832, pp. 181-182.
3 Ibid., 1863, p. 330 et seq.
i66 The Education of the Negro
persons. ^ Florida made the same regtilations more
stringent in 1846 when she enjoyed the freedom of
a State. *
Alabama had some difficulty in getting a satis-
factory 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 "respect-
able slaveholders" or unless the officiating minister
was Hcensed by some regular chiirch of which the
persons thus exhorted were members.^ 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 Louis-
iana 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 smtable to instruct for limited periods, in
that city and the coimties of Mobile and Baldwin,
the free colored children, who were descendants
of colored Creoles residing in the district in 1803.''
Another difficulty of certain commonwealths
had to be overcome. Apparently Georgia had
' Acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida,
1832, p. 145. ^ Acts of Florida, 1846, ch. 87, sec. 9.
3 Clay, Digest of the Laws of the State of Alabama, p. 543.
* Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 323.
The Reaction 167
already incorporated into its laws provisions
adequate to the prevention of the mental improve-
ment of Negroes. But it was discovered that em-
ployed 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 employ-
ment 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."^
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. *
North CaroUna 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. ^
' Cobb, Digest of the Laws of Georgia, p. 555; and Prince, Digest
of the Laws of Georgia, p. 658.
' Laws of South Carolina, 1834.
3 Bassett, Slavery in North Carolina, p. 74; and testimonies of
various ex-slaves.
i68 The Education of the Negro
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.^ The pubHc school
system established thereafter specifically provided
that its benefits should not extend to any de-
scendant from Negro ancestors to the fourth gen-
eration inclusive.^ 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 commiuiities.
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 181 7 ^ 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 educa-
tion of Negroes.'' 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
' Revised Statutes of North Carolina, 578.
' Laws of North Carolina, 1835, C. 6, S. 2.
3 Laws of the Territory of Missouri, p. 498.
* Laws of the State of Missouri, 1847, pp. 103 and 104.
The Reaction 169
of seditious books or pamphlets which might
lead to insurrection or rebellion among Negroes.^
Tennessee, however, did not positively forbid the
education of colored people. Kentucky had a sys-
tem of regulating the egress and regress of slaves
but never passed any law prohibiting their in-
struction. 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.
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"^ he considered such read-
ing an inefficient method of religious instruction.
He, therefore, supported the oppressive measures
of the South. The other member of the bar main-
' Public Acts passed at the First Session of the General Assem-
bly of the State of Tennessee, p. 145, chap. 44.
' DeBow, The Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western
States, vol. ii., p. 269.
170 The Education of the Negro
tained 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 teach-
ing a slave to read? Such laws look to me as
rather cowardly."^ This attorney was almost of
the opinion of many others who- beHeved 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.
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 in-
dispensable 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
* DeBow, The Industrial Resources of the Southern and Western
States, vol. ii., p. 279.
The Reaction 171
avenue by which light may enter their [the slaves']
minds. If we could extingmsh 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. " ^
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 alto-
gether. 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.^
The reactionary tendency was in no sense
confi.ned 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 oppres-
sion, 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
' Cofl&n, Slave Insurrections, p. 23; and Goodell, Slave Code, p.
323-
' Ibid., pp. 323-324.
172 The Education of the Negro
time found it necessary to devote their time to
the ameUoration of the economic condition of the
refugees to make them acceptable to the white
people rather than to direct their attention to
mere education.^ Not a few northerners, dread-
ing an infiiix of free Negroes, drove them even
from communities to which they had learned to
repair for education.
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 Canterbiuy, Con-
necticut. Trouble arose when Sarah Harris, a
colored girl, asked admission to this institution.'
For many reasons Miss Crandall hesitated to admit
her but finally yielded. Only a few days there-
after the parents of the white girls called on Miss
Crandall to offer their objections to sending their
children to school with a ** nigger." ^ Miss Cran-
dall 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 meet-
ing. They passed resolutions to protest through a
committee of local officials against the establish-
ment of a school of this kind in that community.
At this meeting Andrew T. Judson denounced the
poHcy of Miss Crandall, while Reverend Samuel
' Proceedings of the American Convention.
* Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 30.
3 Ibid., pp. 32 et seq.
The Reaction 173
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 ele-
vate 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 Chris-
tianize the natives. ^ On the contrary, Mr. May
thought that there would never be fewer colored
people in this cotuitry than were fotmd here
then and that it would be unjust to exile them.
He asserted that white people should grant Ne-
groes 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. *
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 imder penalty of paying $1.67
for every week he remained after receiving such
' Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 33; and Special Report of the U. S.
Com. of Ed., pp. 328 et seq.
'Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 33.
174 The Education of the Negro
notice.* 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 legis-
lature. 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.*
The enactment of this law caused Canterbury
to go wild with joy. Miss Crandall was arrested
on the 27th of Jtuie, 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 coimty seat of the county
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 331; and
May, Letters to A. T. Judson, Esq., and Others, p. 5,
» Ibid., p. 5.
The Reaction 175
of Windham. The jury failed to agree upon a
verdict, doubtless because Joseph Eaton, who pre-
sided, 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 226. 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 de-
stroy the building, Mr. May and Miss Crandall
decided to abandon the school.^
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 reac-
tionary 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
' Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 26.
176 The Education of the Negro
New Haven ^ and the principal of the Noyes
Academy at Canaan, New Hampshire, saw his
institution destroyed because he decided to admit
colored students. ^ These fastidious persons, how-
ever, raised no objection to the estabhshment of
schools to prepare Negroes to expatriate themselves
under the direction of the American Colonization
Society.^
Observing these conditions the friends of the
colored people could not be silent. The aboHtion-
ists 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.'* Considering educa-
tion one of the rights of man, the aboHtionists
persistently rebuked the North and South for their
inhuman poHcy. On every opportune occasion
they appealed to the world in behalf of the op-
pressed race, which the hostile laws had removed
' Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, p. 14.
' Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery Society,
P-34-
3 Alexander, A History of Colonization on the Western Continent,
p. 348.
<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.
The Reaction 177
from humanizing influences, reduced to the plane
of beasts, and made to die in heathenism.
In reply to the abolitionists the protagonists of
the reactionaries said that but for the "intrusive
and intriguing interference of pragmatical fanatics ' ' ^
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 un-
desirable 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."^ He believed that education
thus perverted would become equally dangerous
to the master and the slave, and that while fanati-
cism continued its war upon the South the measures
of necessary precaution and defense had to be
continued. He asserted, however, that education
^ Hodgkin, An Inquiry into the Merits of the Am. Col. Soc, p. 3 1 ;
and The South Vindicated from the Treason and Fanaticism of the
Abolitionists, p. 68.
» Ibid., p. 69.
1 78 The Education of the Negro
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.^ The South has not yet
learned that an educated man is a better laborer
than an ignorant one.
• 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 abolition-
ists that the reactionary legislation of the
South consigned the Negroes to heathenism,
slaveholders considering themselves Christians,
felt that some semblance of the religious instruc-
tion 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 posi-
179
i8o The Education of the Negro
tion 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, there-
fore, soon limited its work among the Negroes of
the South to the mere verbal instruction of those
who belonged to the local parishes. Further-
more, 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 Bap-
tists 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 coiirse, did
not find it difficult to abandon the idea of teaching
Religion without Letters i8i
Negroes to read. ^ Moreover, only so far as it was
necessary to prepare men to preach and exhort was
there an urgent need for Hterary education among
these plain and unassuming missionaries. They
came, not emphasizing the observance of forms
which required so much development of the intel-
lect, 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 re-
ceived in various ways from workers of these
denominations often turned out to be more than
religion without letters.^
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. ^
Synod after synod denounced the attitude of cruel
masters toward their slaves and took steps to
do legally all they could to provide religious in-
struction for the colored people. ^ When public
sentiment and reactionary legislation made the in-
struction 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, s
Then came the crisis of the prolonged aboHtion
' Matlack, History of Methodism, etc., p. 132; Benedict, History
of the Baptists, ^.212. 'Adams, South-side View, p. 59.
3 Baird, Collections, etc., pp. 814-817. * Ibid., p. 815.
s Enormity of the Slave Trade, etc , p. 67.
1 82 The Education of the Negro
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.^
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.
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 CaroHna, a goodly number of these church-
men, who suffered no diminution of interest in the
enlightenment of Negroes. In the States of Ken-
tucky 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 Moimtains,
where early in the nineteenth century the blacks
were in some cases treated as equals of the whites. *
' Baird, Collections, etc., pp. 8l6, 817.
' 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,
Religion without Letters 183
The Quakers, and many Catholics, however,
were as effective as the mountaineers in elevating
Negroes. They had for centuries labored to pro-
mote religion and education among their colored
brethren. So earnest were these sects in working
for the uplift of the Negro race that the reaction-
ary 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.^ This
favorable situation did not mean so much, however,
since with the exception of the Catholics in Mary-
land and Louisiana and the Quakers in Pennsyl-
vania, not many members of these sects lived in
communities of a large colored population. Fur-
thermore, they were denied access to the Negroes
in most southern communities, even when they
volunteered to work as missionaries among the
colored people.*
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
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 217-221.
' In several Southern States special laws were enacted to
prevent the influx of such Christian workers.
184 The Education of the Negro
by law from exhorting their fellows. The ground
for such action was usually said to be incom-
petency 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 depend-
ent upon a few benevolent white ministers of the
slave communities. Dtiring this period of un-
usual proselyting among the whites, these preachers
could not minister to the needs "of their own race. ^
Besides, even when there was found a white clergy-
man who was willing to labor among these lowly
people, he often knew little about the inner work-
ings of their minds, and faiHng to enlighten their
understanding, left them the victims of sinful
habits, incident to the institution of slavery.
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.^ In places where the blacks once
had the privilege of getting an elementary educa-
tion, only an inconceivable fraction of them could
rise above illiteracy. Most of these were freedmen
found in towns and cities. With the exception of
' Jones, Religious Instruction, p. 175.
» Goodell, Slave Code, p. 324.
Religion without Letters 185
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.
There had never been any regular daily instruc-
tion 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.^ 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 "=* 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 luiable 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. ^
Thus the development of the religious education
of the Negroes in certain parts of the South had
' 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.
' Olmsted, Back Country, pp. 105, 108.
3 Conway, Testimonies Concerning Slavery, p. 5.
1 86 The Education of the Negro
been from literary instruction as a means of im-
parting Christian truth to the policy of oral indoc-
trination, and from this purely memory teaching
to no education at all.
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 con-
duct 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 intel-
ligence allowed him on some memorized portion of
the Bible. The rest of the evening would be de-
voted to individual prayers and the singing of
favorite hymns, developed largely from the expe-
rience 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 enUghten-
ment of Negroes was not a danger, it was clear
after the Southampton insurrection in 1831 that
Religion without Letters 187
two factors in Negro education would for some
time continue generally eliminated. These were
reading matter and colored preachers.
Prominent among the southerners who endeav-
ored to readjust their policy of enlightening the
black population, were Bishop William Meade, ^
Bishop William Capers,* and Rev. C. C. Jones. ^
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. "« 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 Alex-
andria and Frederick ini8i3andi8i4.s 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.^
Early a champion of the colonization of the
Negroes, he was sent on a successful mission to
Georgia in 18 18 to secure the release of certain
recaptiired Africans who were about to be sold.
Going and returning from the South he was
' Goodloe, Southern Platform, pp. 64-65.
' Wightman, Life of Bishop William Capers, p. 294.
3 Jones, Religious Instruction, Introductory Chapter.
< Goodloe, Southern Platform, p. 64.
s Ibid., p. 65. * Ibid., p. 66.
i88 The Education of the Negro
active in establishing auxiliaries of the Amer-
ican Colonization Society. He helped to extend
its sphere also into the Middle States and New
England. ^
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 Hterary training of Negroes, and
advocated the extermination- of slavery.* 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.^
Wishing to give his views on the religious instruc-
tion 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 pos-
sibly be made, so fully answered, and in fine every-
thing that ought to be said so well said, and
^ Niles Register, vol. xvi., pp. 165-166.
* Meade, Sermons of Rev. Thos. Bacon, p. 2 ; and Goodell, The
Southern Platform, pp.64, 65. ' Ibid., p. 65.
Religion without Letters 189
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."^ 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.'*"^
Another worker in this field was Bishop William
Capers of the Methodist Episcopal Church of
South Carolina. A southerner to the manner bom,
he did not share the zeal of the antislavery
men who would educate Negroes as a preparation
for manumission.^ 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 originat-
ing in false philosophy. Capers endeavored to
prove that the relation of slave and master is
authorized by the Holy Scriptures. He was of
^ Meade, Sermons of Rev. Thos. Bacon, pp. 31, 32, 81, 90, 93, 95
104, and 105. ' Ibid., p. 104.
3 Wightman, Life of William Capers, p. 295.
190 The Education of the Negro
the opinion, however, that certain abuses which
might ensue, were immoraHties to be prevented
or punished by all proper means, both by the
Church discipline and the civil law.* BeHeving
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.
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."^ The old Negroes were to
look to preachers for the exposition of these prin-
ciples while the children were to be turned over
to catechists who would avail themselves of the
opportunity of imparting these fimdamentals
to the yoimg at the time their minds were in the
plastic state. Yet all instructors and preachers
to Negroes had to be careful to inculcate the per-
formance of the duty of obedience to their masters
as southerners foimd 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. ^
' Wightman, Life of William Capers, p. 296.
' Ibid., p. 298. 3 Ihid., p. 296,
///^
Religion without Letters 191
Bishop Capers was the leading spirit in the
movement instituted in that commonwealth about
1829 to establish missions to the slaves. So gen-
erally did he arouse the people to the performance
of this duty that they not only allowed preachers
access to their Negroes but requested that mission-
aries be sent to their plantations. Such petitions
came from C. C. Pinckney, Charles Boring, and
Lewis Morris. ^ Two stations were established in
1829 and two additional ones in 1833. There-
after 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 Method-
ists of South CaroHna had twenty-six such estab-
lishments, which employed thirty-two preachers,
ministering to 11,546 communicants of color.
The missionary revenue raised by the local con-
ference had increased from $300 to $25,000 a year. *
The most striking example of this class of
workers was the Rev. C. C. Jones, a minister
of the Presbyterian Church. Educated at Prince-
ton 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 dis-
cussion 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 imfor-
' Wightman, Life of William Capers, p, 296.
' African Repository, vol. xxiv., p. 157.
192 The Education of the Negro
tunates 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 bene-
fits of right living. In this respect he was like
two of his contemporaries. Rev. Josiah Law* of
Georgia and Bishop Polk of Louisiana.* De-
nouncing 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 htmian family "in majesty
of intellect, elegance of manners, purity of morals,
and ardor of piety." ^ 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 to-
gether in churches, to create kindlier feelings
among them, increase the tendency of the blacks
' 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-
' Rhodes, History of the U. S., vol. i., p. 331.
3 Jones, Religious Instruction, p. 103.
Religion without Letters 193
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.^
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.^ History, he believed, showed that the
direct way of exposing the slaves to acts of in-
subordination was to leave them in ignorance and
superstition to the care of their own religion. ^
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 op-
position to becoming Christians. The rebellions
in South Carolina from 1730 to 1739, he main-
tained, were fomented by the Spaniards in St.
Augustine. The upheaval in New York in
1 74 1 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 rebel-
lions in Camden in 18 16 and in Charleston in 1822
were not exceptions to the rule. He conceded
that the Southampton Insurrection in Virginia in
'Jones, Religious Instruction, pp. io6, 217.
' Ibid., pp. 212, 274. 3 Ibid., p. 215.
13
194 The Education of the Negro
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 "igno-
rant and misguided teachers" like Nat Turner.
Such undesirable leaders, thought he, would
never have had the opportunity to do mis-
chief, if the masters had taken it upon them-
selves to instruct their slaves.^ He asserted
that no large number of slaves well instructed in
the Christian religion and taken into the chtirches
directed by white men had ever been found guilty
of taking part in servile insurrections."
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 be-
lieved that the domestic element of the system of
slavery in the Southern States afforded "adequate
means" for the improvement, adapted to their con-
dition and the circumstances of the country; and
fimiished " the natural, safe, and effectual means " ^
of the intellectual and moral elevation of the
* Jones, Religious Instruction, etc., p. 212.
' Plumer, Thoughts, etc., p. 4.
3 Smith, Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery,
pp. 228 et seq.
Religion without Letters 195
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 in-
struction must be an entirely different thing from
the training of the Caucasian, " in regard to whom
"the term education had widely different significa-
tions." For this reason these defenders believed
that instead of giving the Negro systematic in-
struction 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. "^ 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 fre-
quently favored by their masters with services ex-
pressly for their instruction, that Sabbath-schools
had been estabUshed 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. ^
Seeing even in the policy of religious instruc-
tion nothing but danger to the position of the slave
States, certain southerners opposed it under all
circumstances. Some masters feared that verbal
' Van Evrie, Negroes and Negro Slavery, p. 215.
» Smith, Lectures on the Philosophy of Slavery, p. 228.
196 The Education of the Negro
instruction would increase the desire of slaves to
learn. Such teaching might develop into a pro-
gressive system of improvement, which, without
any special efifort in that direction, would follow
in the natural order of things. * 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 there-
by be afforded an opportunity to come South and
inculcate doctrines subversive- of the interests and
safety of that section.* 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 revolutioni2:e
the civil institutions of the South.
The black population of certain sections, how-
ever, was not reduced to heathenism. Although
often threatening to execute the reactionary laws,
many of which were never intended to be rigidly en-
forced, the southerners did not at once eliminate the
Negro as a religious instructor. ^ It was fortimate
that a few Negroes who had learned the importance
of early Christian training, organized among them-
selves local associations. These often appointed
an old woman of the plantation to teach children
too yoimg to work in the fields, to say prayers,
'Jones, Religious Instruction, p. 192; Olmsted, Back Country,
pp. 106-108. * Ibid., p. 106.
3 This statement is based on the testimonies of ex-slaves.
Religion without Letters 197
repeat a little catechism, and memorize a few
hymns. ^ 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.*
To local associations organized by kindly slave-
holders there was less opposition because the chief
aim always was to restrain strangers and undesir-
able persons from coming South to incite the
Negroes to servile insurrection. Two good ex-
amples of these local organizations were the ones
foimd in Liberty and Mcintosh counties, Georgia.
The constitutions of these bodies provided that
the instruction should be altogether oral, em-
bracing the general principles of the Christian
religion as understood by orthodox Christians. "^
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 cate-
chisms especially adapted to the work were written
by churchmen, and placed in the hands of discreet
missionaries acceptable to the slaveholders. Among
other pubHcations of this kind were Dr. Capers's
Short Catechism for the Use of Colored Members on
' Jones, Religious Instruction, pp. 114, 117.
' While the laws in certain places were not so drastic as to
prohibit religious assemblies, the same was eflfected by patrols
and mobs.
3 The Constitution of the Liberty County Association for the
Religious Instruction of Negroes, Article IV.
198 The Education of the Negro
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. " *
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 reaction-
ary period no propaganda of any southern church
included anything which could be designated as
systematic instruction of the Negroes.* 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
imderstanding as to their responsibility to God.
Observing closely these conditions one would
wonder Httle that many Negroes became low and
degraded. The very institution of slavery itself
' Meade, Sermons of Rev. Thomas Bacon, p. 2.
* Madison's Works, vol. iii., p. 314; Olmsted, Back Country, p.
107; Bimey, The American Churches, etc., p. 6; and Jones,
Religious Instruction, etc., p. 100.
Religion without Letters 199
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 in-
human. 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 off-
spring 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 fre-
quently called upon to tell what they knew and
were sometimes forced to say what they did
200 The Education of the Negro
not know. Furthermore, to prevent the slaves
from cooperating to rise against their masters,
they were often taught to mistreat and malign
each other to keep aUve 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 suf-
ficient 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 cotdd not be silent.* James G.
Bimey said that the slaveholding churches Hke
indifferent observers, had watched the abasement
of the Negroes to a plane of beasts without remon-
strating with legislatures against the iniqmtous
measures.' Moreover, because there was neither
Hterary nor systematic oral instruction of the
colored members of southern congregations, imiting
with the Chiu-ch 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 encour-
aged to attend family prayers. ^ In view of this
state of affairs Bimey was not stuprised that it
was only here and there that one could find a few
' Tower, Slavery Unmasked, p. 394.
* Bimey, American Churches, p. 6. 3 Ihid,, p, 7.
Religion without Letters 201
slaves who had an intelligent view of Christianity
or of a future life.
William E. Channing 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 imderstanding. 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. " ^
Discussing the report that slaves were taught
religion, Channing rejoiced that any portion of
them heard of that truth "which gives inward
freedom."^ He thought, however, that this num-
ber was very small. Channing was certain that
most slaves were still buried in heathen ignorance.
But extensive as was this so-called religious in-
struction, 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
' Channing, Slavery, p, 77. ' Ihid., p. 78.
202 The Education of the Negro
bondman cotild 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 de-
fender of the system ever answered satisfactorily
for Channing. Seeing then no hope for the eleva-
tion of the Negro as a slave, he became a more
determined aboUtionist.
WilHam 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 ima-
nimity, " had been the adoption of expediency as
a standard of right and wrong in the place of the
revealed wiU of God. ^ "Thus," continued he,
"good men and good Christians have been tempted
by their zeal for the American Colonization
Society to coimtenance opinions and practices
inconsistent with justice and humanity."^ 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 unhap-
pily the evil influence of the reactionaries had
not been confined to their own circles but had
' Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 24. ' Ibid., p. 25.
Religion without Letters 203
to a lamentable extent "vitiated the moral sense"
of other commimities. The proslavery leaders,
he said, had reconciled public opinion to the con-
tinuance 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.^
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 as-
serted 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.^ 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.'
" 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
' Jay, An Inquiry, etc., p. 26.
' Fee, Antislavery Manual, p. 147. ^ Ibid., p. 148.
204 The Education of the Negro
bread of life, and which inevitably consigns the
great mass of them to imending 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.'" '
' 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. Further-
more, 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 mis-
chievous abolitionists. The truth is that there-
after some citizens disregarded the laws of their
States and taught worthy slaves whom they desired
to reward or use in business requiring an elemen-
tary 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
205
2o6 The Education of the Negro
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 attend-
ing 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* 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
' Mott, Biographical Sketches, p. 87.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 207
owners* wishes and watchfulness."* C. G. Par-
sons 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."
While on a tour through parts of Georgia, E. P.
Burke observed that, notwithstanding the great
precaution which was taken to prevent the men-
tal improvement of the slaves, many of them
"stole knowledge enough to enable them to read
and write with ease."^ Robert Smalls'* of South
Carolina and Alfred T. Jones s of Kentucky began
their education in this manner.
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 Presby-
terian 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.**
' Redpath, Roving Editor, etc., p. i6l.
' Parsons, Inside Veiw, etc., p. 248.
3 Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia, p. 85.
4 Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 126.
sDrew, Refugee, p. 152. ^ Niles Register, vol. Ixxi., p. 296.
2o8 The Education of the Negro
Intelligent Negroes secretly communicated to
their fellow men what they knew. Henry Banks
of Stafford Coimty, Virginia, was taught by his
brother-in-law to read, but not write. ^ The father
of Benedict Duncan, a slave in Maryland, taught
his son the alphabet. * 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.^ A mulatto
of Richmond taught John H. Smythe when he was
between the ages of five and seven. ^ 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, s
Dr. E. C. Morris, President of the National Baptist
Convention, belonged to a Georgia family, all of
whom were well instructed by his father.*
The white parents of Negroes often seciu-ed 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. '
W. J. White acquired his education from his
mother, who was a white woman. ^ 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
* Drew, Refugee, etc., p. 72. ^ Ibid., p. no.
3 Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 679. < Ibid., p. 873.
5 Ibid., p. 368. * This is his own statement.
' This is based on an account given by his son.
• The Crisis, vol. v., p. 119.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 209
sent to a southern town to learn the milliner's
trade. ^ 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 Hamil-
ton, Ohio, to be educated and there married his
actual wife, their colored mother. ^
The very employment of slaves in business
estabhshments accelerated their mental develop-
ment. 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.^
B. K. Bruce, while still a slave, educated himself
^ Drew, Refugee, p. 143.
* Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 539.
3 Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia, p. 86.
Frances Anne Kemble gives in her journal an interesting ac-
count of her observations in Georgia. She says: "I must tell you
that I have been delighted, surprised, and the very least per-
plexed, 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 Kem-
ble, Journal, p. 34.
14
210 The Education of the Negro
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 mas-
ter did not go in person once in sbc 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."* 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.*
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
'McDonogh, "Letter on African Colonization."
"Olmsted, Cotton Kingdom, vol. ii., p. 70.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 211
barber.^ 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 over-
seer during the absence of his master from Virginia. '
A fugitive slave from Essex County of the same
State was not allowed to go to school publicly, but
had an opportimity to learn from white persons
privately.^ 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.'* M. W. Taylor of Ken-
tucky studied imder attorneys J. B. Kinkaid and
John W. Barr, whom he served as messenger, s
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. ^
The educational experiences of President Scar-
borough and of Bishop Turner show that some
white persons were willing to make unusual sacri-
fices 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 imtil he could read well and had
» Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 258.
' This is based on the statements of Judge and Mrs. Terrell.
3 Drew, Refugee, p. 335. * Ibid., p. 96.
s Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 933. * Drew, Refugee, p. 180.
212 The Education of the Negro
mastered the first principles of geography, gram-
mar, 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 Scar-
borough received much instruction from his white
playmates. ^
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. ^ 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 em-
ployed 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 imusual
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. ■*
* Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 410.
' 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.
3 Ibid., p. 806.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 213
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 elemen-
tary education.^ While serving as overseer for
his Scotch-Irish master, Daniel J. Lockhart of
the same commonwealth learned to read imder
the instruction of his owner's boys. They were
not interrupted in their benevolent work.* In
the same manner John Warren, a slave of Tennes-
see, acquired a knowledge of the common branches. '
John Baptist Snowden of Maryland was secretly
instructed by his owner's children. '» 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. ^ One of the Grimke
Sisters taught her little maid to read while brush-
ing her young mistress's locks. ^ 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.^
The young mistress of Mrs. Ann Woodson of
Virginia instructed her until she could read in the
first reader.* Abdy observed in 1834 that slaves
' Drew, Refugee, p. 97. =" Ibid., p. 45. 3 Ibid., p. 185.
4 Snowden, Autobiography, p. 23.
s Albert, The House of Bondage, p. 125.
* Birney, The Grimke Sisters, p. 11.
^ Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 613.
* This fact is stated in one of her letters.
214 The Education of the Negro
of Kentucky had been thus taught to read. He
believed that they were about as well ofif as they
would have been, had they been free.^ 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.^ Confining his
operations to the kitchen, another such teacher of
this plantation was unusually successful in instruct-
ing the adult male slaves. Five of these Negroes
experienced such enHghtenment that they became
preachers. ^
Planters themselves sometimes saw to the educa-
tion of their slaves. Ephraim Waterford was
botmd out in Virginia imtil he was twenty-one
on the condition that the man to whom he was
hired should teach him to read. '• Mrs. Isaac Riley
and Henry Williamson, of Maryland, did not at-
tend school but were taught by their master to spell
and read but not to write, s The master and mis-
tress of Williamson Pease, of Hardman County,
Tennessee, were his teachers.^ Francis Fredric
'Abdy, Journal oj a Residence and Tour in U. S. A., 1833-
1834, p. 346.
' Smedes, A Southern Planter, pp. 79-80. ^ Ibid., p. 80.
* Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery, p. 373.
s Ibid., p. 133. « Ibid., p. 123.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 215
began his studies under his master in Virginia.
Frederick Douglass was indebted to his kind
mistress for his first instruction.^ Mrs. Thomas
Payne, a slave in what is now West Virginia, was
fortunate in having a master who was equally
benevolent.* Honorable I. T. Montgomery, now
the Mayor of Moimd Bayou, Mississippi, was,
while a slave of Jefferson Davis's brother, in-
structed in the common branches and trained to be
the confidential accoimtant of his master's planta-
tion. ^ 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. '*
The enhghtenment of the Negroes, however,
was not Umited to what could be accomplished
by individual efforts. In many southern com-
munities colored schools were maintained in de-
fiance 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. ^ Richard
M. Hancock wrote of studying in a private school
' Lee, Slave Life in Virginia and Kentucky, p. x.
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 368.
3 This is his own statement.
4 Parsons, Inside View, etc., p. 248. s Drew, Refugee, p. 99.
2i6 The Education of the Negro
in Newbem, North Carolina;^ John S. Leary went
to one in Fayetteville eight years ;^ 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. 3 About 1840, J. F. Boulder was a student
in a mixed school of white and colored pupils in
Delaware.'' Bishop J. M. Brown, a native of the
same commonwealth, attended a private school
taught by a friendly woman of the Quaker sect.^
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
Himter should not have been allowed to study
and stopped his attendance. ^ Francis L. Cardozo
of Charleston, South Carolina, entered school there
in 1842 and continued his studies until he was
twelve years of age.^ During the fifties J. W.
Morris of the same city attended a school con-
ducted by the then distinguished Simeon Beard.*
In the same way T. McCants Stewart ' and the
Gritnke brothers ^° were able to begin their edu-
cation there prior to emancipation.
More schools for slaves existed than white men
knew of, for it was difficult to find them. Fred-
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 406. » Ibid., p. 432.
3 Ibid., p. 469. 4 Ibid., p. 708. s Ibid., 930.
* Drew, Refugee, p, 1 14. v Simmons, Men of Mark, 428.
* Ibid., p. 162. » Ibid., p. 1052.
"This is their own statement.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 217
rika Bremer heard of secret schools for slaves during
her visit to Charleston, but she had extreme diffi-
culty 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. "^ 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. "^ Frances
Anne Kemble noted such instances in her diary. '
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 colored school in the city of Savannah. ■*
The city Negroes of Virginia continued to main-
tain schools despite the fact that the fear of servile
insurrection caused the State to exercise due vigi-
lance 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
begim by a Negro and continued by an educated
^ Bremer, The Homes of the New World, vol. ii., p. 499.
* Ibid., p. 491 ; Burke, Reminiscences of Georgia, p. 85.
3 Kemble, Journal, etc., p. 34.
* Special Report of ike U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 340.
2i8 The Education of the Negro
Scotch-Irishman, who had followed the profession
of teaching in his native land. Becoming sus-
picious 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.^
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. * 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 earHer 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 defend-
ant acknowledged her guilt, but, pleading igno-
rance 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 himdred dollars fine and im-
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 352.
* Parsons, Inside View 0} Slavery, p. 251; and Lyman, Leaven
jor Doughfaces, p. 43.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 219
prisOnment for six months, and that its positive
terms "allowed no discretion in the community
magistrate."^
All such schools, however, were not secretly
kept. Writing from Charleston in 185 1 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.*
The Negroes of Lexington, Kentucky, had in
1830 a school in which thirty colored children
were taught by a white man from Tennessee.^
This gentleman had pledged himself to devote
the rest of his life to the uplift of his " black
brethren." ^ Travelers noted that colored schools
were found also in Richmond, Maysville, Dan-
ville, and Louisville decades before the Civil
War.s 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."^ Some
^ ijth Annual Report of the American and Foreign Antislavery
Societies, 1853, p. 143.
* Bremer, The Homes of the New World, vol. ii., p. 499.
^Abdy, Journal of a Residence and Tour in U. S. A., 1833-34,
P- 346 *Ibid., pp. 346-348.
5 Tower, Slavery Unmasked; Dabney, Journal of a Tour through
the U. S. and Canada, p. 185; Niles Register, vol. Ixxii., p. 322;
and Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 631.
* Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 603.
220 The Education of the Negro
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. * Negroes had schools
in Tennessee also. R. L. Perry was during these
years attending a school at Nashville. ^ An uncle
of Dr. J. E. Moorland spent some time studying
medicine in that city.
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 Hke
Edward Patterson and Nat Turner learned to read
and write in Sabbath-schools. White men who
diffused such information ran the gaimtlet of mobs,
but Hke 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 imdertake 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 re-
stricted to the narrow circle of the clergy. Be-
lieving with churchmen that the Bible is the
revelation of God, many laymen contended that
no man should be restrained from knowing his
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 629. » Ibid., p. 620
Learning in Spite of Opposition 221
Maker directly.^ Negroes, therefore, almost wor-
shiped the Bible, and their anxiety to read it was
their greatest incentive to learn. Many southern-
ers braved the terrors of public opinion and taught
their Negroes to read the Scriptures. To this ex-
tent General Coxe of Fluvanna County, Virginia,
taught about one htindred of his adult slaves.*
While serving as a professor of the Military Insti-
tute at Lexington, Stonewall Jackson taught a
class of Negroes in a Sunday-school. ^
Further interest in the cause was shown by the
Evangelical Society of the Synods of North
Carolina and Virginia in 1834." Later Presby-
terians of Alabama and Georgia urged masters
to enlighten their slaves. ^ 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. ^
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
^ Orr, " An Address on the Need of Education in the South,
1879."
' This statement is made by several of General Coxe's slaves
who are still living. 3 School Jonrnal, vol. Ixxx., p. 332.
* African Repository, vol. x., pp. 174, 205, and 245.
s Ihid., vol. xi., pp. 140 and 268.
* Goodell, Slave Code, pp. 323-324.
222 The Education of the Negro
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 ele-
mentary branches of education."^
Some of the objects of such charity turned out
to be interesting characters. Samuel Lowry of
Tennessee worked and studied privately imder
Reverend Talbot of FrankUn College, and at the
age of sixteen was sujSiciently advanced to teach
with success. He imited with the Church of the
Disciples and preached in that .connection until
1859.* 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.^ Another
colored man of imusual intelhgence 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 commimity. He was so well prepared for his
work that out of a four days' argtmient 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.*
^ The Enormity of the Slave Trade, etc., p. 74.
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 144.
3 Bremer, Homes of the New World, vol. ii,, pp. 488-491.
<The Richmond Enquirer, July, 1859; and Afr. Repository ^
vol. XXXV., p. 255.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 223
Statistics of this period show that the propor-
tionately 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 moimtaineers did not
yield to the reactionaries who were determined
to keep the Negroes in heathendom. Kentucky
and Tennessee did not expressly forbid the educa-
tion of the colored people.^ 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 pro-
vide for the education of their children. ^
^ 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 Louis-
ville, also a center of free colored population, efforts were being
made to educate ambitious Negroes. Travelers noted that col-
ored 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.
^ Abdy, Journal of a Tour, etc., 1 833-1834, pp. 346-348.
224 The Education of the Negro
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 Col-
lege in Kentucky. In the charter of this institution
was incorporated the declaration that "God has
made of one blood aU 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.^ The
State has since prohibited the co-education of the
two races.
The centers of this interest in the moimtains of
Tennessee were Mar3rv'ille and Knoxville. Aroimd
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.^ They were then
advocating the social uplift of Negroes through
the local organ, the Maryville Intelligencer. From
' Catalogue of Berea College, 1 896-1 897.
^ 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 promi-
nently 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. Eut
little could be accomplished by private teachers in the dissemina-
tion of information among Negroes after the free persons of color
had been excluded from the State.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 225
this nucleus of antislavery men developed a
community with ideals not imlike those of Berea. ^
The Knoxville people who advocated the enlight-
enment 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."* He
maintained that imless masters could lawfully de-
grade their slaves to the condition of beasts, they
were just as much boimd to teach them to read
the Bible as to teach any other class of their
population.
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
' Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery Society,
New York, 1837, p. 48; and the New England Antislavery
Almanac for 1841, p. 31. * African Repository, vol. xxxii., p. 16.
15
226 The Education of the Negro
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 Agri-
cultural 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.'
In 1855 certain influential citizens of North
Carolina* 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.
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. Unfor-
tunately 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 dis-
closure would often cause him to be dreadfully
punished or sold to some cruel master of the lower
South. Moreover, statistics of this kind are
' Special' Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., p. 339.
» African Repository, vol. xxxi., pp. 117-118.
Learning in Spite of Opposition 227
scarce and travelers who undertook to answer this
question made conflicting statements. Some per-
sons of that day left records which indicate that
only a few slaves succeeded in acquiring an imper-
fect 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. ^ 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 de-
velop intellectual power. ^ Rev. C. C. Jones ^ be-
lieved 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 imusual
spiritual and mental development. ^ Nehemiah
Adams, giving the southern view of slavery in
1854, said that large nimibers of the slaves could
read and were furnished with the Scriptures. ^
Amos Dresser, who traveled extensively in the
Southwest, believed that one out of every fifty
could read and write. ^ C. G. Parsons thought
* Arfwedson, The United States and Canada, p. 331.
' See their pamphlets, addresses, and books referred to else-
where. 3 Jones, Religious Instruction of Negroes, p. 115.
< Redpath, The Roving Editor, p. 161.
s Adams, South-Side View of Slavery, pp. 52 and 59.
* Dresser, The Narrative of Amos Dresser, p. 27; Dabney,
Journal of a Tour through the United States and Canada, p. 185.
228 The Education of the Negro
that five thousand out of the four hundred thou-
sand slaves of Georgia had these attainments.*
These figures, of course, would run much higher
were the free people of color included in the esti-
mates. Combining the two it is safe to say that
ten per cent, of the adult Negroes had the rudi-
ments of education in i860, but the proportion was
much less than it was near the close of the era of
better beginnings about 1825.
' Parsons, Inside View of Slavery, p. 248.
CHAPTER X
EDUCATING NEGROES TRANSPLANTED TO FREE SOIL
WHILE the Negroes of the South were struggl-
ing against odds to acquire knowledge, the
more ambitious ones were for various reasons
making their way to centers of Hght 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 legis-
lation, 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.^ The fugitives found ready
helpers in Elmira, Rochester, Buffalo, New York;
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; Gallipolis, Portsmouth,
Akron, and Cincinnati, Ohio; and Detroit, Michi-
gan.^ Colored settlements which proved attrac-
tive to these wanderers had been established in
' Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 32.
' Ibid., pp. 32 and 37.
229
230 The Education of the Negro
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 enlight-
enment. 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.
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 southern-
ers, who saw themselves hindered in carrying out
their plan for educating the blacks for citizen-
ship, 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
When Transplanted to Free Soil 231
in time to aid the abolitionists, who had for years
constituted a small minority advocating a seem-
ingly 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 import-
ant 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 estab-
lished a number of Negroes near Sandy Lake in
Northwestern Pennsylvania. ^ There was a colored
settlement near Berlin Crossroads, Ohio. ^ Another
group of pioneering Negroes emigrating to this
State found homes in the Van Buren township of
Shelby County. Edward Cole, a Virginian, who
in 1 81 8 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
"Cole's 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
' Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 249.
' Langston, From the Virginia Plantation to the National
Capitol, p. 35.
3 Davidson and Stuv6, A Complete History of Illinois, pp. 321-
322; and Washbume, Sketch of Edward Cole, Second Governor cf
Illinois, pp. 44 and 53.
232 The Education of the Negro
"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. " ^ In 1818, Wickham, the executor
of this estate, purchased land and estabHshed these
Negroes in what was called the Upper and Lower
Camps of Brown County, Ohio.
Augustus Wattles, a native of Connecticut, made
a settlement of Negroes in Mercer Coimty early
in the nineteenth century.^ Abotit the year 1834
many of the freedmen, then concentrating at Cin-
cinnati, were induced to take up 30,000 acres of
land in the same vicinity.^ John Harper of
North Carolina manumitted his slaves in 1850 and
had them sent to this community.'' John Ran-
dolph of Roanoke freed his slaves at his death, and
provided for the purchase of farms for them in
Mercer County. ^ The Germans, however, would
not allow them to take possession of these lands.
Driven later from Shelby County^ also, these freed-
men finally found homes in Miami County. '
Then there was one Saunders, a slaveholder of
Cabell County, now West Virginia, who liberated
his slaves and furnished them homes in free ter-.
^History of Brown County, pp. 313 et seq.; and Lane, Fifty
Years and over of Akron and Summit County, Ohio, pp. 579-580.
' Howe, Ohio Historical Collections, p. 356. J Ibid., p. 356.
< Manuscript in the hands of Dr. J. E. Moreland.
s The African Repository, vol. xxii., pp. 322-323.
* Howe, Ohio Historical Collections, p. 465, ? Ibid., p. 466.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 233
ritory. 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 Dinwiddle
County, Virginia, were liberated in 1854 and
sent to Ohio, ^ where some of them were
educated.
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 pro-
hibiting 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. *
Prominent among these seekers of better op-
portunities were the parents of Richard De
Baptiste. His father was a popular mechanic of
Fredericksburg, where he for years maintained
a secret school. ^ 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 Ken-
tuckian, however, an important colored settlement
near Xenia, Greene County, Ohio, was then taking
shape. The nucleus of this group was furnished
^ Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 723.
* Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Studies, Series xxxi.. No. 3, p. 492; and Acts of the Gen-
eral Assembly of Virginia, 1848, p. 117.
J Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 352.
234 The Education of the Negro
about 1856 by Noah Spears, who secured small
farms there for sixteen of his former bondmen.'
The settlement was not only sought by fugitive
slaves and free Negroes, but was selected as the
site for Wilberforce University.'
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. '
One of their purposes was educational. Convinced
that the "buying, selUng, 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. " '' To elevate their slaves to the
plane of men, southern Quakers early hit upon the
scheme of establishing in the Northwest such Ne-
groes 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 con-
tinue their policy of enlightening the colored peo-
ple, these philanthropists promoted the migration
of the blacks to the Northwest Territory with still
greater zeal. Most of these settlements were made
'Wright, " Negro Rural Communities" {Southern Workman,
vol. xxxvii., p. 158).
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., p. 373; and Non-
Slaveholder, vol. ii., p. 113.
3 Wright, " Negro Rural Communities " (Southern Workman,
vol. xxxvii., p. 158) ; and Bassett, Slavery in North Carolina, p. 68.
* A Brief Statement of the Rise and Progress of the Testimony,
etc
When Transplanted to Free Soil 235
in Hamilton, Howard, Wayne, Randolph, Vigo,
Gibson, Grant, Rush, and Tipton Counties, In-
diana, and in Darke County, Ohio.^ 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.* Associated with these
leaders also were Benjamin Lundy of Tennessee
and James G. Bimey, once a slaveholder of
Huntsville, Alabama. The latter manumitted
his slaves and apprenticed and educated some of
them in Ohio. ^
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. ■*
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
' Wright, "Rural Negro Communities in Indiana" {Southern
Workman, vol. xxxvii., pp. 162-166) ; and Bassett, Slavery in North
Carolina, pp. 67 and 68.
' Coffin, Reminiscences, p. 106.
3 Bimey, James G. Bimey and His Times, p. 139.
< Jones, Religious Instruction oj the Negroes, p. 115.
236 The Education of the Neorro
only 23,736 from 1850 to i860, that of the free
States increased 29,839. In the South only-
Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, and North CaroUna
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 shghtly increased in Alabama,
Kentucky, Missouri, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisi-
ana, South Carolina, and the District of Columbia.
The nimiber of free Negroes of Florida remained
practically constant. Those of Arkansas, Mis-
sissippi, 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 i860 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-'
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 i860 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
* See statistics on pages 237-240.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 237
1850, had just seven in i860; the latter had none
in 1850 and only two in i860. In all other slave
States the number of pupils of African blood had
materially decreased.^ In the free States there
» STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE
UNITED STATES IN 1850
d
.0
a
ATTENDING
SCHOOL
ADULTS UNABLE
TO READ
STATE
2
"a
E
J"
"3
P.
6
B
3
0
Alabama
2,265
33
35
68
108
127
235
Arkansas
608
6
5
II
61
55
116
California
962
I
0
I
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
I
0
I
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. 43 1
1.588
3.019
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
lOI
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
S.229
6.344
Rhode Island
3.670
304
247
SSI
130
137
267
South Carolina
8,960
54
26
80
421
459
880
Tennessee
6,422
40
30
70
5 06
591
1,097
Texas
397
II
9
20
34
24
58
Vermont
718
58
32
90
32
19
51
Virginia
54.333
37
27
64
5. 141
6.374
11.S15
Wisconsin
63s
32
35
67
55
37
92
238 The Education of the Negro
were 22,107 colored children in school in 1850,
and 28,978 in i860. Most of these were in New
Jersey, Ohio, New York, and Pennsylvania, which
in i860 had 2,741; 5,671; 5,694; and 7,573,
respectively. ^
The report on illiteracy shows further the differ-
ences 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 «i86o this niimber had
reached 59,832. In all such commonwealths
except Arkansas, Louisiana, Florida, and Missis-
sippi there was an increase in illiteracy among
the free blacks. These States, however, were
hardly exceptional, because Arkansas and Missis-
sippi had suffered a decrease in their free colored
population, that of Florida had remained the same,
e
.0
•3
i
ATTENDING
SCHOOL
ADULTS UNABLE
TO READ
TKRRITOKIES
S
-3
1
"3
"3
2
s
1
1
District of Colum-
bia
10.059
232
235
467
1,106
2,108
3.214
Minnesota
39
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
I
0
I
Total
434.495
13.864
12,597
26,461
40.722
49,800
90.522
See Sixth Census of the United States, 1850.
* See statistics on pages 237-240.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 239
and the difference in the case of Louisiana was very
sHght. 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 trans-
planted freedmen. ' In the Northern States where
» STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE
UNITED STATES IN i860
a
0
3
§•
ATTENDING
SCHOOL
ADULTS UNABLE
TO READ
STATB
"a
1
IS
V
■3
s
s
0
H
Alabama
2,690
48
6s
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
3-15
Delaware
19,829
122
128
250
3.056
3.452
6,508
Florida
932
3
6
9
48
72
120
Georgia
3.S00
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
I.3S0
2.463
Louisiana
18,647
IS3
122
275
485
717
1,202
Maine
1.327
148
144
293
25
21
46
240 The Education of the Negro
this condition did not obtain, the benevolent whites
had, in cooperation with the Negroes, done much to
reduce illiteracy among them during these years.
§
ClI
1
o
ATTENDING
SCHOOL
ADULTS UNABLB
TO READ
STATE
•3
s
"3
B
.9
3
0
0
•a
a
1
Maryland
83.942
687
668
I.35S
9,904
ii,79S
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
13
Mississippi
773
0
2
'2
50
60
110
Missouri
3.572
76
79
155
371
S14
885
New Hampshire
494
49
31
80
15
19
34
New Jersey
25.318
I.413
1.328
2,741
1.7^0
2.085
3.80s
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
S.671
2.995
3.191
6,186
Oregon
128
0
2
2
7
5
12
Pennsylvania
56.949
3.882
3.691
7.573
3.893
5.466
9,359
Rhode Island
3.052
276
256
532
119
141
260
South Carolina
9.914
158
207
36s
633
783
1,4x6
Tennessee
7,300
28
24
52
743
952
1.69s
Texas
355
4
7
11
25
37
62
Vermont
709
65
50
115
27
20
47
Virginia
58.042
21
20
41
S.489
6,008
12,397
Wisconsin
1. 171
62
SO
112
S3
4S
98
TERRITORIES
Colorado
46
No returns
Dakota
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
District Columbia
11.131
315
363
678
1,151
2.221
3.375
Nebraska
67
I
1
2
6
7
13
Nevada
45
0
0
0
6
I
7
New Mexico
85
0
0
0
12
15
27
Utah
30
0
0
0
0
0
0
Washington
30
0
0
0
I
0
I
Total
488,070
16,594
16.03s
32,629
41.27s
50,461
91.736
See Seventh Census of the United States, vol. i.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 241
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 attain-
ments 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.'' A larger number of the former had
picked up useful knowledge. In fact, the prohi-
bition 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. ^ The free
blacks then going to the Northwest Territory
proved to be decidedly helpful to their bene-
factors in providing colored churches and
schools with educated workers, who otherwise
' Howe, The Refugee from Slavery, p. 77.
' Russell, The Free Negro in Virginia Qohns Hopkins Uni-
versity Studies, series xxxi., No. 3, p. 107).
16
242 The Education of the Negro
would have been brought from the East at much
expense.
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 i, 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. ' After the pas-
sage 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. ^ 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.''
The break-up of these churches meant the end of
the day and Sunday-schools which were maintained
^ Evans, A History of Scioto County, Ohio, p. 613.
» Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 249.
i Ibid., p. 249. 4 Ihid., p. 250.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 243
in them. Moreover, the migration of these Ne-
groes aroused such bitter feeHng 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.
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 Ne-
groes repaired for enlightenment. In other groups
where there was no such opportunity, they had the
cooperation 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,^ 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.^ Augus-
tus Wattles said that with the assistance of aboli-
' 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.
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 948 ; and Hickok, The Negro in
Ohio, p. 85.
244 The Education of the Negro
tionists he organized twenty-five such schools in
Ohio counties after 1833.^ Brown County alone
had six. Not many years later a Negro settlement
in Gallia County, Ohio, was paying a teacher
fifty dollars a quarter. *
Still better colored schools were established in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania^ and in Springfield, Co-
lumbus, and Cincinnati, Ohio. While the enlight-
enment 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.^
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 es-
pecially adapted to their instruction. Such efforts
were frequent after 1 830. '^ 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.^ 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
^ Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 355.
' Hickok, The Negro in Ohio, p. 89.
3 Wickersham, Education in Pennsylvania, p. 248.
* Life of Martin R. Delaney, p. 33.
5 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1 871, p. 214.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 245
Society" which established other colored schools
in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Springfield.'
The concentration of the freedmen and fugitives
at Cincinnati was followed by efforts to train them
for higher service. The Negroes themselves en-
deavored to provide their own educational facil-
ities in opening in 1820 the first colored school in
that city. This school did not continue long, but
another was established the same year. There-
after 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 Ne-
groes 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 them-
selves. 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. I^ 1^35 ^^e 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.^ In 1844 ^^v. Hiram
Gilmore opened there a high school which among
other students attracted P. B. S. Pinchback, former
' Hickok, The Negro in Ohio, p. 88. » Ibid., p. 83.
246 The Education of the Negro
Governor of Louisiana. Mary E. Miles, a grad-
uate of the Normal School at Albany, New York,
served as an assistant of Gilmore after having
worked among her people in Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania. ^
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 ac-
complished 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."
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 influ-
ential 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
' Delany, The Condition of the Colored People, etc., 132.
' This statement is based on the accounts of various western
freedmen.
3 Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 113.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 247
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. ^ John M. Langston was for a while one
of Corbin's fellow-students at Chi licothe before
the former entered Oberlin. United States Sen-
ator Hiram Revels of Mississippi spent some time
in a Quaker seminary in Union County, Indiana. "
Rev. J. T. White, one of the leading spirits of Ar-
kansas during the Reconstruction, was bom and
educated in Clark County in that State. ^ Fannie
Richards, still a teacher at Detroit, Michigan, is an-
other example of the professional Negro equipped
for service in the Northwest before the Rebellion. '•
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. ^
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
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 829.
» Ibid., p. 948. s Ibid., p. 590.
* Ibid., p. 1023.
5 Wright, "Negro Rural Communities in Indiana," Southern
Workman, vol. xxxvii., p. 169.
248 The Education of the Negro
colonists, to the mutual aid resulting from the
proximity of the communities, and to the co-
operation of the Canadians. The previous expe-
rience 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 thou-
sand of sixty thousand Negroes in Canada in i860
were free bom. ^ Many of those, who had always
been free, fled to Canada^ 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, Sand-
wich, 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 pro-
duced a population sufficiently dense to facilitate
cooperation in matters pertaining to social better-
ment. 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
* Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 222.
» Ibid., pp. 247-250.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 249
sympathy than among the northerners that his
work was more agreeable and more successful
than it would have been in the free States. Ignor-
ing the request that the refugees be turned from
Canada as imdesirables, the white people of that
country protected and assisted them. ^ Canadians
later underwent some change in their attitude
toward their newcomers, but these British- Ameri-
icans never exhibited such militant opposition to
the Negroes as sometimes developed in the North-
ern States.^
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. ^ But
conditions there did not at first redound to the
education of the colored children.'* Some were
' Siebert, The Underground Railroad, pp. 201 and 233.
» Ibid., 233.
3 Howe, The Refugees from Slavery, p. 77.
< 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 che 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 om<. " See Drew's
A North-side View of Slavery, etc., p. 341.
250 The Education of the Negro
too destitute to avail themselves of these oppor-
tunities; 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
imhealthy to attend regularly.' Besides, race
prejudice was not long in making itself the most
disturbing factor. In 1852 Benjamin Drew fotmd
the minds of the people of Sandwich much exer-
cised over the question of admitting Negroes into
the public schools. The same feeUng was then
almost as strong in Chatham, Hamilton, and Lon-
don.' Consequently, "partly owing to this pre-
judice, 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."^ There were separate
schools at Colchester, Amherstburg, Sandwich,
Dawn, and Buxton. " 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. ^
The Negroes, themselves, however, did not object
to the coeducation of the races. Where there
were a few white children in colored settlements
' Mitchell, The Underground Railroad, pp. 140, 164, and 165.
' Drew, A North-side View of Slavery, pp. 118, 147, 235, 341,
and 342.
3 Ibid., p. 341.
* Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 229.
s Ibid., p. 229.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 251
they were admitted to schools maintained espe-
cially for pupils of African descent. * In Toronto
no distinction in educational privileges was made,
but in later years there flourished an evening
school for adults of color. ^
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. ^ 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 awak-
ened there," might be "free to assert itself un-
hindered by real or imagined opposition. " '* There
were no such schools in 1830, but by 1838 philan-
thropists had established the first mission among
the Canadian refugees. ^ 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.*^ In
' First Annual Report of the Anti-slavery Society of Canada,
1852, Appendix, p. 22.
' Ibid., p. 15.
3 Drew, A North-side View of Slavery, pp. 118, 147, 235, 341,
and 342.
* Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 229.
s Father Henson's Story of His Own Life, p. 209.
* First Annual Report of the Anti-slavery Society of Canada,
1852, p. 22.
252 The Education of the Negro
1839 these workers were conducting four schools
while Rev. Hiram Wilson, their inspector, prob-
ably had several other institutions under his
supervision.^ In 1844 Levi Coffin fotmd a large
school at Isaac Rice's mission at Fort Maiden
or Amherstburg.* Rice had toiled among these
people six years, receiving very little financial
aid, and suffering imusual hardships. ^ Mr. E.
Child, a graduate of Oneida Institute, was later
added to the corps of mission teachers.'' 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 structiure "for school
and meeting purposes." ^ On Sundays the school-
' Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 199.
' " 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 Undergrovmd Railroad of the West. "
See Coffin's Reminiscences, p. 251.
3 Ibid., pp. 249-251.
* Siebert, The Underground Railroad, p. 202.
» Haviland, A Woman's Work, pp. 192, 196, 201.
When Transplanted to Free Soil 253
houses and churches were crowded by eager seek-
ers, many of whom lived miles away. Among
these earnest students a traveler saw an aged couple
more than eighty years old.^ These elementary
schools broke the way for a higher institution at
Dawn, known as the Manual Labor Institute.
With these immigrants, however, this was not a
mere passive participation in the work of their
amelioration. From the very beginning the col-
ored people partly supported their schools.
Without the cooperation of the refugees the large
private schools at London, Chatham, and Wind-
sor could not have succeeded. The school at
Chatham was conducted by Alfred Whipper,*
a colored man, that at Windsor by Mary E. Bibb,
the wife of Henry Bibb, ^ the founder of the Refu-
gees' Home Settlement, and that at Sandwich by
Mary Ann Shadd, of Delaware.'' Moreover, the
majority of these colonists showed increasing
interest in this work of social uplift. ^ Foregoing
their economic opportunities many of the refugees
congregated in towns of educational facihties. 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
^ Haviland, A Woman's Work, pp. 192, 193.
' Drew, A North-side View of Slavery, p. 236.
3 Ihid., p. 322.
< Delany, The Condition of the Colored People, etc., 131.
s Howe, The Refugees from Slavery, pp. 70, 71, 108, and no.
254 The Education of the Negro
effected among other things the improvement of
schools and the increase of their attendance.^
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 circum-
stanced. 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.^ Availing
'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 mem-
bers are to take a general interest in each other's welfare; to
pursue such plans and objects as may be for their mutual advan-
tage; 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 sup-
plies 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.
* According to the report of the Freedmen's Inquiry Commis-
When Transplanted to Free Soil 255
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.^ Before i860 the culture
of these settlements was attracting the colored
graduates of northern institutions which had be-
gun to give men of African blood an opportunity
to study in their professional schools.
sion 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. More-
over, 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 infe-
rior 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.
' 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.^ Although
these workers had radically different views as to
' 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 Min-
utes of the Proceedings of the Convention for the Improvement of
the Free People of Color, 1830, pages 10, 11.
256
Higher Education 257
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 enHghtenment
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, oppor-
tunities for education which never would have
been given those expecting to remain in the
United States.^
The policy of promoters of African coloniza-
tion, however, did not immediately become unpro-
gressive. Their plan of education differed from
previous efforts in that the objects of their philan-
thropy 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.* These
^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.
' African Repository, vol. i., p. 277.
17
258 The Education of the Negro
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. " ^ To execute
this scheme the leaders of the colonization move-
ment endeavored to educate Negroes in "mechanic
arts, agriculture, science, and BibHcal literature."*
Exceptionally bright youths were to be given
special training as catechists, teachers, preachers,
and physicians. 2 A southern planter offered a
plantation for the establishment of a suitable
institution of learning,'' 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
181 7 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. ^
Twelve years later another effort was made to
establish a school of this kind at Newark in that
State, ^ while other promoters of that faith were
endeavoring to establish a similar institution at
^ African Repository, vol. ii., p. 223,
'Ibid., vol. xxviii., pp. 271, 347; Child, An Appeal, p. 144.
3 African Repository, vol. i., p. 277.
* Report of the Proceedings at the Organization of the African
Education Society, p. 9.
s African Repository, vol. i., p. 276, and Griffin, A Plea for
Africa, p. 65.
^African Repository, vol. iv., pp. 186, 193, and 375; and vol.
Higher Education 259
Hartford, Connecticut, ' all hoping to make use of
the Kosciuszko fund. '
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, de-
vi., pp. 47, 48, 49, and Report of the Proceedings of the African
Education Society, p. 7.
' Ibid., pp. 7 and 8 and African Repository, vol. iv., p. 375.
' 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 Edu-
cation 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 adminis-
trator $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 me-
chanics 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. ii., pp. 163, 233; also 7 Peters, 130,
and 8 Peters, 52.
26o The Education of the Negro
noiinced 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 to-
ward its elevation in this country.^ Should the
colored people be properly educated, the prejudice
against them would not continue such as to neces-
sitate 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 obUvion'scup their moral degradation."'
Influential abolitionists were also attacking this
policy of the colonizationists. William Jay, how-
ever, 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. ^ Jay advocated the educa-
tion 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
' Williams, History of the Negro Race, p. 67.
'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 II.
3 Reese, Letters to Honorable William Jay.
Higher Education 261
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.' 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.^ The desirable thing to
do was to influence churches and schools to admit
students of color on terms of equality with all
other races.
Encountering this opposition, the institutions
projected by the colonization society existed in
name only. Exactly how and why the organiza-
tion 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 impera-
tively 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
'Jay, Inquiry, p. 26; and Letters, p. 21.
'Ibid., p. 22.
262 The Education of the Negro
whole plan of colonization. ' ' ^ 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 aboHtionists to remain in the United States.
This would put the colonizationists in the position
of increasing the intelligent element of the colored
poptilation, which was then regarded as a menace
to slavery. Consequently these timorous "educa-
tors" did practically nothing during the reaction-
ary period to carry out their plan of estabHshing
colleges.
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 pub-
licly in the North for professional work in Liberia.
Dr. WiUiam Taylor and Dr. Fleet were thus edu-
cated in medicine in the District of Columbia.*
In the same way John V. DeGrasse, of New York,
and Thomas J, White, ^ of Brooklyn, were allowed
to complete the Medical Course at Bowdoin in
1849. Garrison Draper, who had acquired his
* Hodgkin, Inquiry into the Merits of the Am. Col. Sac.,
P-3I-
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, and African
Repository, vol. x., p. 10.
J Niles Register, vol. Ixxv., p. 384.
Higher Education 263
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.* In
1858 the Berkshire Medical School graduated two
colored doctors, who were gratuitously educated by
the American Colonization Society. The graduat-
ing class thinned out, however, and one of the
professors resigned because of their attendance. '
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.^ 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. •♦
* African Repository, vol. xxxiv., pp. 26 and 27.
' Ibid., p. 30.
3 Boone, The History of Education in Indiana, p. 237; and
African Repository, vol. xxx., p. 195.
*Ibid., p. 195.
264 The Education of the Negro
In fact, many of the colored schools of the free
States were supported by ardent colonizationists.
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 coloniza-
tion societies. ^ The first institution of conse-
quence in this field was the Alexander High School.
To this school many of the prominent men of
Liberia owed the beginning of their Uberal educa-
tion. 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. * 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 Chiirch in
every county of the Republic. •^ Liberia College
was at the request of its foimders, the directors of
the American Colonization Society, incorporated
by the legislature of the country in 185 1. As it
took some time to secure adequate funds, the main
building was not completed, and students were not
admitted before 1862.
' African Repository, under the caption of "Education in Lib-
eria" in various volumes; and Alexander, A History of Col., pp.
348, 391-
*Ibid., p. 348.
* Monroe, Cydopcedia of Education, vol. iv., p. 6.
Higher Education 265
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. Russ-
worm, a classmate of Hon. John P. Hale, received
his degree from Bowdoin.^ 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. "
Having had such a little to encourage them to
expect a general admission into northern institu-
tions, 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, mak-
ing the stay at school pleasant and enabling the
poorest youth to secure an education.^ It was
' Dyer, Speech in Congress on the Progress of the Negro, 1914.
* Clarke, The Condition of the Free People of Color, 1859, p. 3, and
the Sixth A nnual Report of the A merican A ntislavery Society, p. 1 1 .
3 Proceedings of the Third Convention of Free People of Color
held in Philadelphia in 18 j6, pp. 7 and 8; Ibid., Fourth Annual
Convention, p. 26; Proceedings of the New England Antislavery
Society, 1836, p. 40.
266 The Education of the Negro
the kind of higher institution which had already
been estabHshed in several States to meet the
needs of the illiterate whites. Such higher train-
ing 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 dis-
cerning 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.^
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 dis-
couragements in seeking a special preparation for
life's work, she finally concluded that she should
devote her time to the moral and intellectual im-
provement of Negroes.* 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
' Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of
the Free People of Color, 1836; Garrison's Address.
' O'Connor, Myrtilla Miner, pp. 11, 12.
Higher Education 267
French one year Miss Inman returned to her home
in Southfield, Rhode Island. ' 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 pur-
chased a lot with money raised largely by Quakers
of New York, Philadelphia, and New England, and
by Harriet Beecher Stowe. ^ 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.^ Effective opposition,
however, was not long in developing. Articles
appeared in the newspapers protesting against this
policy of affording Negroes "a degree of instruc-
tion so far above their social and political condi-
tion which must continue in this and every other
slaveholding community."'' Girls were insulted,
teachers were abused along the streets, and for
lack of police surveillance the house was set afire
in i860. It was sighted, however, in time to be
saved. ^
Undisturbed by these efforts to destroy the
institution. Miss Miner persisted in carrying out
her plan for the higher education of colored girls
' Special Report of the U. 5. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 207.
'Ibid., 1871, p. 208. 3 Ibid., pp. 208, 209, and 210.
* The National Intelligencer.
s Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 209.
268 The Education of the Negro
of the District of Columbia. She worked during
the winter, and traveled during the summer to
solicit friends and contributions to keep the institu-
tion 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 con-
ventional 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. ^ 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 realiz-
ing this dream. '
Earlier in the nineteenth century the philan-
thropists 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
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 210.
' 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 SpecialReport of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 210.
Higher Education 269
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.^ 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 direc-
tions of the donor, the Board of Trustees en-
deavored 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 citi-
zens and pious men."* Accordingly they pur-
chased a tract of land in Philadelphia County and
taught a number of boys the principles of farming,
shoemaking, and other useful occupations
Another stage in the development of this in-
stitution 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 indus-
» Wickersham, History of Education in Pa., p. 249.
» Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 379.
270 The Education of the Negro
trial equipment and devote the funds of the institu-
tion 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 Daw-
son and other Quakers Hberally provided in later
years. ^
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.^ 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 estabUsh-
ment of Avery College. This institution was
incorporated in 1849. Soon thereafter it adver-
tised for students, expressing wilUngness to make
every provision without regard to religious pro-
clivities. The school had a three-story brick
' Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed., 1 87 1, p. 380.
' African Repository, vol. xxxiv., p. 156.
Higher Education 271
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 in-
stitution, 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. Gamett, president, B. K.
Sampson, Harriet C. Johnson, and Clara G
Toop.^
It was due also to the successful forces at work
in Pennsylvania that the Ashmun Institute, now
Lincoln University, was estabHshed 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 theo-
logical 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 Pres-
bytery 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.
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 381.
272 The Education of the Negro
They selected for the location Hensonville, Chester
County, Pennsylvania.' The legislature incor-
porated 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
btdldings and equipment having been provided
by 1856, the doors of this institution were opened
to yoimg colored men seeking preparation for work
in this country and Liberia. '
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 beUeved that the colored people
needed a college for the preparation of teachers
and preachers, the Cincinnati Conference of the
Method'st Episcopal Church in session in 1855
appointed Rev. John F. Wright as general agent
to execute this design. Addressing themselves
immediately to this task Reverend 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.^ That same
year the institution was incorporated as Wilber-
force University. From 1856 to 1862 the school
'Baird, A Collection, etc., p. 819.
'Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 382.
* The Non-Slaveholder, vol. ii., p. 1 13.
Higher Education 273
had a fair student body, consisting of the mulatto
children of southern slaveholders.^ 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 cooperate 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.*
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 direc-
tors 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 com-
^ Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 372-
373-
' History of Greene County, Ohio, chapter on Wilberforce;
and Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 373.
18
274 The Education of the Negro
modious building which still marks the site of these
early labors.^
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 to-
gether 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 doc-
trine 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 enUghtenment. 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.'
* The Non-Slaveholder, vol. ii., p. 113.
'First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society ,
p. 42.
Higher Education 275
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 con-
vinced 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 con-
clusion 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. ^
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. ' 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 so-
ciety for the elevation of the free blacks. Stu-
dents established Sabbath-schools, organized Bible
' First Annual Report of the American Anti-slavery Society,
1834, p. 43.
» Ibid., p. 43.
276 The Education of the Negro
classes, and provided lectures for Negroes am-
bitious 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 institu-
tion was embarrassed by the charge of promoting
the social equality of the races. ^ Rather than
remain in Cincinnati tmder restrictions, the reform
element of the institution moved to the more con-
genial 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 edu-
cation of the people of color.
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,^ New York Central College
at McGrawville, Oneida Institute conducted by
Beriah Green at Whitesboro, Thetford Academy
of Vermont, and Union Literary Institute in the
^ First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
P-43-
' Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 530.
Higher Education 2^^
center of the communities of freedmen trans-
planted to Indiana. Many other of our best in-
stitutions were opening their doors to students
of African descent. By 1852 colored students had
attended the Institute at East on, Pennsylvania;
the Normal School of Albany, New York; Bow-
doin College, Brimswick, 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 Castle ton Medical School in Vermont; the
Berkshire Medical School, Pittsfield, Massachu-
setts; the Rush Medical School in Chicago; the
Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia; the
Homeopathic College of Cleveland; and the Med-
ical School of Harvard University. Colored
preachers had been educated in the Theological
Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania ; the Dart-
mouth Theological School; and the Theological
Seminary of Charleston, South Carolina.^
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
' 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.
278 The Education of the Negro
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. ^ This gentleman proceeded on
the presumption that it is the duty of the white
people to elevate the colored and that the educa-
tion of large numbers of them is indispensable to
the uplift of the degraded classes.* He wanted
them to have the opportiinity for obtaining either
a common or classical education; and hoped that
they would go out from our institutions well edu-
cated for any work to which they might be called
in this country or abroad. ^ 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,'*
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 367.
' African Repository, vol. x., p. 312. 3 Ibid., p. 312.
* Among these were John B. Smith, Coffin Pitts, Robert Doug-
las, John P. Bell, Augustus Washington, Alexander S. Thomas,
Henry Boyd, P. H. Ray, and L. T. Wilcox.
Higher Education 279
some had convinced the world of the inventive
genius of the man of color, ' others had begun to
rank as successful lawyers, ^ not a few had become
distinguished physicians, ^ and scores of intelligent
Negro preachers were ministering to the spiritual
needs of their people. * 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. ^
Thanks to the open doors of liberal schools, the
race could boast of a number of efficient educators. *
' A North Carolina Negro had discovered a cure for snake-
bite; 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.
» The most noted of these lawyers were Robert Morris, Mal-
colm B. Allen, G. B. Vashon, and E. G. Walker.
3 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.
* 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 Mc-
Cune Smith, Highland Garnett, Daniel A. Paytie, James C. Penn-
ington, M. Haines, and John F. Cook.
s Baldwin, Observations, etc., p. 44.
* James B. Russworm, an alumnus of Bowdoin, was the first
Negro to receive a degree from a college in this country.
28o The Education of the Negro
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.
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 congre-
gation, took up theology about 1815. Paul Cuf-
fee wrote an interesting account of Sierra Leone.
Rev. Daniel Coker published a book on slavery
in 1 8 10. 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 Ho-
garth published an addition to this volume and
in 1 84 1 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 suc-
cessful lecturer and controversialist. James M.
Whitefield, George Horton, and Frances E. W.
Higher Education 281
Harper were publishing poems. H. H. Gamett
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 credit-
able autobiography. More effective still were the
journalistic efforts of the Negro intellect pleading
its own cause. ^ Colored newspapers varying from
' 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 appear-
ance of Thomas Van Rensselaer's Ram's ilorw, Frederick Douglass
started The North Star at Rochester, while G. Allen and Highland
Gamett were appeaHng to the country through The National
Watchman of Troy, New York. That same year Martin R.
Delany brought out The Pittsburg Mystery, axid 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 The Anglo-African, a magazine published in New
York in 1859 by Thomas Hamilton, who was succeeded in editor-
ship by Robert Hamilton and Highland Gamett. In 1852 there
were in existence The Colored American, The Struggler, The Watch-
man, 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.
282 The Education of the Negro
the type of weeklies like The North Star to that of
the modem magazine like The Anglo- African were
published in most large towns and cities of the
North.
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 opportuni-
ties. Industrial education was then emphasized
as the proper method of equipping the race for
usefulness. The advocacy of such training, how-
ever, was in no sense new. The eariy 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
283
284 The Education of the Negro
white mechanics a formidable prejudice against
colored artisans.^
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. * But in the nine-
teenth century, when more white men in the
South were condescending to do skilled labor and
trying to develop manufactures, they found them-
selves handicapped by competition with the slave
mechanics. Before i860 most southern mechan-
ics, machinists, local manufacturers, contractors,
and railroad men with the exception of conductors
were Negroes.^ Against this custom of making
colored men such an economic factor the white
mechanics frequently protested. '' 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. ^
The white artisans prevailed upon the legisla-
tures of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Georgia
to enact measures hostile to their rivals.^ In
' Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, p. 26.
' Buckingham, Slave States of America, vol. ii., p. 112.
3 Du Bois and Dill, The Negro American Artisan, p. 36.
</Wd., pp. 31,32,33.
sibid., p. 34, and Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871,
P- 365-
* Du Bois and Dill, The Negro American Artisan, pp. 31, 32.
Vocational Training 285
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. ^ The peo-
ple of Georgia, however, were not unanimously in
favor of keeping the Negro artisan down. We have
already observed that at the request of the Agri-
cultural 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. ^
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 eco-
nomic development of our free States. Would the
' Du Bois and Dill, The Negro American Artisan, p. 32.
» Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 339.
286 The Education of the Negro
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. ^
The friends of the colored race, however, were
not easily discouraged by that "vulgar race
prejudice which reigns in the breasts of working
classes."* Arthur Tappan, Gerrit Smith, and
William Lloyd Garrison made the appeal in behalf
of the untrained laborers. ^ 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 situ-
ations.'* Garrison believed that their failure to
find employment at trades was not due so much
to racial differences as to their lack of train-
ing. 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
' Minutes of the Third Annual Convention of the Free People of
Color, p. 18.
' Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, p. 26.
J This statement is based on articles appearing in The Liberator
from time to time.
* Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the Improve'
ment of the Free People of Color, 1 831, p. 10.
Vocational Training 287
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."^
To expect the cooperation of the white working
classes in thus elevating the colored race turned
out to be a delusion. They reached the con-
clusion 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 appren-
tices, 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. ^ 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
' Minutes of the Second Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, i83i,p. ii.
» The Liberator, June 13, 1835.
288 The Education of the Negro
colored man could then more easily get his son
into a lawyer's office to leam law than he could
*'into a blacksmith shop to blow the bellows and
wield the sledge hammer. "^
Left then in a quandary as to what they should
do, northern Negroes hoped to use the then popu-
lar "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 admit-
ted 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 assem-
bled 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. ^ One of the
first acts of the convention was to inquire as to
* Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, p. 248.
'Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment oj the Free People of Color, p. 26; and The Liberator, October
22, 1831; and The Abolitionist, November, 1833 (p. 191).
Vocational Training 289
how fast colored men were becoming attached to
mechanical pursuits/ and whether or not there
was any prospect that a manual labor school for
the instruction of the youth would shortly be es-
tablished. 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, Connecti-
cut. 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. ^ Gar-
rison 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. ^ 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. '•
Before these well-laid plans could mature,
however, unexpected opposition developed in
New Haven. Indignation meetings were held,
' Minutes of the Fourth Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, p. 27.
'Minutes of the Third Annual Convention for the Improve-
ment of the Free People of Color, p. 34.
3 The Abolitionist (November 1833), p. 191.
< The Liberator, October 22, 1831.
19
290 The Education of the Negro
protests against this project were filed, and
the free people of color were notified that the
institution was not desired in Connecticut.^ 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 nimiber
of undesirable Negroes. At their meeting the
citizens of New Haven resolved "That the found-
ing 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, com-
mon council, and freemen will resist the move-
ment by every lawful means."' 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.
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
accompHsh their aim by subsidizing the Noyes
» Monroe, Cyclopcedia of Education, vol. iv., p. 406.
* Ibid., vol. iv., p. 406; and The Liberator, July 9, 1831.
Vocational Training 291
Academy of Canaan, New Hampshire, and making
such changes as were necessary to subserve the
purposes intended. ^ The plan was not to convert
this into a colored school. The promoters hoped
to maintain there a model academy for the co-edu-
cation of the races "on the manual labor system. "
The treasurer of the Antislavery Society was to
turn over certain moneys to this academy to pro-
vide 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 pr'ncipal's
acceptance of this proposition, there were soon
evidences to the contrary. Fearing imaginary
evils, these modem Canaanites destroyed the
academy, dragging the building to a swamp with
a hundred yoke of oxen.' 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.
This work was more successful in the State of
New York. There, too, the cause was cham-
pioned by the abolitionists. ^ After the emancipa-
tion of all Negroes in that commonwealth by
1827 the New York Antislavery Society devoted
^ The Liberator, July 4, 1835.
' Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for
the Improvement of the Free People of Color, p. 34; and Monroe,
Cyclopcedia of Education, vol. iv., p. 406.
3 Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for
the Improvement of the Free People of Color, p. 25.
292 The Education of the Negro
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 ev dent 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 anjrthing like the
opportunity for industrial training, however, was
Gerrit Smith.* 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 in-
struction, 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 edu-
cation."* The faculty estimated the four hours
of labor as worth on an average of about I2j^
cents for each student.
Efforts were then being made for the establish-
ment of another institution near Philadelphia.
These endeavors culminated in the above-men-
tioned benefaction of Richard Humphreys, by the
will of whom $10,000 was devised to establish a
school for the purpose of instructing "descendants
' African Repository, vol. x., p. 312.
' Ibid., vol. X., p. 312.
Vocational Training 293
of the African race in school learning in the various
branches of the mecnanical arts and trades and
agriculture."' 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 in-
struct 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. "^ Directing their attention
first to things practical the association purchased
in 1839 a piece of land in Bristol township, Phila-
delphia County, where they offered boys instruc-
tion in farming, shoemaking, and other useful
trades. Their endeavors, so far as training in the
mechanic arts was concerned, proved to be a fail-
ure. 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
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 379.
'Ibid., i87i,p. 379.
294 The Education of the Negro
thereafter, the trustees of the fund finally estab-
lished the Institute for Colored Youth of which we
have spoken elsewhere.
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.^ 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 iith of Novem-
ber, 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
' Howe, Ohio Historical Collections, p. 355.
Vocational Training 295
the Institute."^ The means of the two philan-
thropists were united. The trustees purchased
a farm and appointed Wattles as superintendent
of the establishment, caUing 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. * It was removed to Bucks
County, Pennsylvania, in 1858 and then to War-
minster in the same county in 1873.
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 "^
stood firm for the Negro. They soon had oppo-
sition from the proslavery leaders who impeded
the progress of the institution. But thanks to
the indefatigable Ebenezer Tucker, its first prin-
cipal, the "Nigger School" weathered the storm.
The Institute, however, was founded to educate
both races. Its charter required that no dis-
tinction should be made on account of race, color,
rank, or religion. Accordingly, although the stu-
dent 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
' Howe, Ohio Historical Collections, p. 356.
' Wickersham, History of Education in Pa., p. 254.
J Boone, The History of Education in Indiana, p. 77.
296 The Education of the Negro
more than one-third of the students. ^ 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.'
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 estabUsh 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. "^
A tract of three hundred acres of land was pur-
chased, a few buildings were constructed, and
pupils were soon admitted. The managers en-
^ 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.
' Records of the United States Bureau of Education.
3 Henson, Life of Josiah Henson, pp. 73, 74.
Vocational Training 297
deavored to make the school "self-supporting by
the employment of the students for certain por-
tions of the time on the land. "^ The advantage
of schooling of this kind attracted to Dresden
and Dawn sufficient refugees to make these pros-
perous 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.^ 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. ^ 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.
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
» Henson, Life of Josiah Henson, p. 115. ' Ibid., p. 117.
3 Drew, A North-Side View of Slavery, p. 309; and Coffin,
Reminiscences, pp. 249, 250.
298 The Education of the Negro
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 im-
practicability of preparing themselves for occupa-
tions which they apparently had no chance to
follow. Moreover, bright freedmen were not at
first attracted to mechanical occupations. Ambi-
tious Negroes who triumphed over slavery and
made their way to the North for educational ad-
vantages 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. "^ 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. '
The chief reason for the failure of the new
educational policy was that the managers of the
manual labor schools made the mistakes often com-
mitted by promoters of industrial education of our
day. At first they proceeded on the presumption
that one could obtain a classical education while
' Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention,
etc., p. 25.
' The Fifth Report of the American Antislavery Society, p. 115;
Douglass, The Life and Times of, p. 248.
Vocational Training 299
learning a trade and at the same time earn suffi-
cient 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 condi-
tions were seldom sufficiently favorable to enable
the employer to derive profit enough from stu-
dents' 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 accom-
modate 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 com-
munities, 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 evi-
dent 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 re-
sponsible for the literary training knew little of
300 The Education of the Negro
and cared still less for the work in mechanic arts,
and those who were employed to teach trades sel-
dom had sufficient education to impart what they
knew. The students, too, in their efforts to pur-
sue 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 i860 show that there was
an increase in the number of colored mechanics,
especially in Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Columbus,
the Western Reserve, and Canada. ^ 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, *
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
' Clarke, Present Condition oj the Free People of Color of the
United States, 1859, PP- 9i lo» u. I3. ^nd 29.
* Ibid., pp. 9, 10, and 23.
Vocational Training 301
Monday instead of Saturday is the open day of
the week because this was wash-day for the man-
ual labor colleges. Even after the Civil War some
schools had their long vacation in the winter in-
stead 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 gener-
ation 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
302 The Education of the Negro
would be better to open an industrial school.
Douglass was opposed both to the estabHshment 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 EngUsh education." ^
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 poUcy 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
* Douglass, The Life and Times of, p. 248.
Vocational Training 303
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 lucra-
tive 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. "^
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, how-
ever, 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 condi-
tion reach that of professional men. The attain-
ment 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. "^ He was
^ Douglass, The Life and Times of, p. 248. 'Ibid., p. 249.
304 The Education of the Negro
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.
Douglass deplored the fact that education and
emigration had gone together. As soon as a
colored man of genius like Russworm, Gamett,
Ward, or Crummell appeared, the so-called friends
of the race reached the conclusion that he could
better serve his race elsewhere. Seeing them-
selves pitted against odds, such bright men had
had to seek more congenial countries. The train-
ing of Negroes merely to aid the colonization
scheme would have Httle 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. ^
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. BeUeving
in the mechanical genius of the Negroes he
' Douglass, The Life and Times, p. 250.
Vocational Training 305
hoped that in the establishment of this institu-
tion they would have an opportunity for develop-
ment. 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."^ An element of this kind, he be-
lieved, would rise under the fostering care of
vocational teachers.
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. ^ 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. Anx-
ious 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-
' Douglass, The Life and Times of, p. 251.
' African Repository, vol. xxix., p. 136.
ao
3o6 The Education of the Negro
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. " ^
The leading free people of color heeded this mes-
sage. 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.
This great enterprise, like all others, was soon
to encounter opposition. Mrs. Stowe was at-
tacked 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 conscien-
tiously, although her action was decidedly embar-
rassing to him both at home and abroad."
* Douglass, Life and Times of, p. 252.
" 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 en-
lightened. 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 develop-
ment 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.^ Unable then to cope with systems
' 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.
307
3o8 The Education of the Negro
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 appropri-
ated 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 un-
desirable. Confronted then with this caste pre-
judice, one of the hardest struggles of the Negroes
and their sympathizers was that for democratic
education.
The friends of the colored people in Pennsyl-
vania 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
Education at Public Expense 309
to the benefits of the law for the education of the
poor were taken in 1818 to enable them to at-
tend the free public schools. Following the same
policy, the Abolition Society of Philadelphia, see-
ing 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 Afri-
can descent were entitled by law. The request was
granted. The Comptroller opened in Lombard
Street in 1822 a school for children of color, main-
tained at the expense of the State. This furnished
a precedent for other such schools which were
established in 1833, and 1841.^ 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. ^
In 1834 the legislature of Pennsylvania estab-
lished a system of public schools, but the claims
of the Negroes to public education were neither
guaranteed nor denied. ^ The school law of 1854,
however, seems to imply that the benefits of the
system had always been understood to extend to
colored children.'* This measure provided that
the comptrollers and directors of the several school
districts of the State could establish within their
» Special Report oj the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 379.
' Ibid., p. 379,
J Purdon's Digest of the Laws of Pa., p. 291, sections 1-23.
< Stroud and Brightly, Purdon's Digest, p. 1064, section 23.
3IO The Education of the Negro
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 accom-
modations 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. *
The children of Robert B. Purvis, however, were
turned away from the public schools of Philadel-
phia on the ground that special educational
facilities for them had been provided.* It was
not until i88i that Pennsylvania finally swept
away all the distinctions of caste from her public
school system.
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 benevo-
lent 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
' Wickersham, History of Education in Pa., p. 253.
' Wigham, The Antislavery Cause in America, p. 103.
Education at Public Expense 311
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. ' Considered
then entitled to the benefits of this fund, colored
pupils were early admitted into the public schools
without any social distinction.^ 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.^
Separate schools were declared illegal by an act
of the General Assembly in 1881.
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. '' 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, s
In 1 84 1 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 super-
intendent's report for 1847 shows that schools
' Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. v., p. 2604.
* Southern Workman, vol. xxxvii., p. 390.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 187 1, p. 400.
< Randall, Hist, of Common School System of New York, p. 24.
s Ibid., p. 48.
312 The Education of the Negro
for Negroes had been established in fifteen count-
ies 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 pubHc 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 chil-
dren were generally admitted to the common
schools. Wherever race prejudice, however, was
sufiiciently 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 ex-
empted from the payment of the "rate bill"
which fell as a charge upon the other citizens of
the district. ^
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 bur-
den to incorporated villages than to cities or
' Randall, Hist, of Common School System of New York, p. 248.
Education at Public Expense 313
rural districts, and that they were, therefore, en-
titled to every allowance of money to educate them . *
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 facili-
ties, 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 So-
ciety to reduce the number of organizations par-
ticipating 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.*
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 chil-
dren 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
' Randall, Hist, of Common School System of New York, p. 249.
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 366.
314 The Education of the Negro
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 reconstruc-
tion, however, was not completed until 1853,
when the property of the colored schools was trans-
ferred to the Board of Education of New York. ^
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 neg-
lected 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
» Spuial Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 366.
Education at Public Expense 315
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 incor-
porated 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 adminis-
tration 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.^
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. ^ A decade later another such
^Laws of New York, 1900, ch, 492.
* Stockwell, Hisl. of Education in R. I., p. 169.
31 6 The Education of the Negro
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 favor-
able to the people of color. The State temporarily
adopted a rule by which the school fund was
thereafter not distributed, as formeriy, 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-four-
teenths 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.^
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. Peti-
tions 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 sufiicient
momentum to break down the barriers prior to
1866 when the legislature of Rhode Island
»Stockwell, Hist, of Education in R. I., p. 51.
Education at Public Expense 317
passed an act abolishing separate schools for
Negroes. ^
Prior to the reactionary movement the schools of
Connecticut were, like most others in New Eng-
land 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 ac-
cording 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. '
This arrangement, however, soon proved un-
satisfactory. Because of the small number of
Negroes in Connecticut towns, they found their
pro rata inadequate to the maintenance of sepa-
rate schools. No buildings were provided for
them, such schools as they had were not properly
supervised, the teachers were poorly paid, and
^Public Laws of the State of Rhode Island, 1865-66, p. 49.
'Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 334.
3i8 The Education of the Negro
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 edu-
cation 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.^
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 aboHtion-
ists were working hard to extermnate caste from
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed.^ 1871, p. 334.
Education at Public Expense 319
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.^ 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. ^ Comply-
ing with this decision the School Society erected
the much-needed building in 1852. To provide for
the maintenance of the separate schools the prop-
erty 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. ^
Ardent antislavery men believed that this se-
gregation 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 Negroqs, 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 1 868. 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. ^
^Minority Report, etc., p. 21. ' Ibid., p. 22.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 334.
* Public Acts of the General Assembly of Conn., 1868, p. 296.
320 The Education of the Negro
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.*
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 pubUc 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 educa-
tion.
Basing their action on the equality of men before
the law, the advocates of democratic education
held meetings from which went frequent and ur-
gent petitions to school committees until Negroes
were accepted in the public schools in all towns
in Massachusetts except Boston.^ Children of
African blood were successfully admitted to the
New Bedford schools on equality with the white
youth in 1838. ^ In 1846 the school committee
of that town reported that the colored pupils
were regular in their attendance, and as successful
^Minority Report, etc., p. 35.
» Ibid., p. 20, and Niles Register, vol. Ixvi., p. 320.
^ Minority Report, etc., p. 23.
Education at Public Expense 321
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. ^
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 dis-
charge the duties of life. It is the principle of
equality cherishe'd 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 with-
drew fourteen of their children from the South
Grammar School. The system, however, pros-
pered thereafter rather than declined.* Many
had no trouble in making the change. ^
These victories having been won in other towns
* Minority Report, etc., p. 25.
■ Ibid., p. 6. 3 Ibid., p. 23.
322 The Education of the Negro
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 bene-
fit 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 sup-
port 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.^ 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 com-
mittee refused the request. Following the opinion
' Wigham, The Antislavery Cause in America, p. 103.
Education at Public Expense 323
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."-^ 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
Coimcil, had a legal right to establish and main-
tain 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. '
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 advan-
tages they might confer. ^ Any action, therefore,
which tended to restrict to any individual or class
^Minority Report, etc., p. 31. ' Ibid., p. 30.
iJbid., p. 3.
324 The Education of the Negro
the advantages and benefits designed for all, was
an illegal use of authority, and an arbitrary act
used for pernicious purposes.^ Their republican
system, the minority beUeved, 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. ' 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 equahty. The power of the
School Committee, therefore, was limited and con-
strained by the general spirit of the civil policy
and by the letter and spirit of the laws which
regulated the system. •* It was further maintained
that to debar the colored youth from these advan-
tages, 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.'»
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 feUow-citizens as the law recognized and
pointed out. PhiUips beUeved that they had
' Minority Report, etc.pp. 4 and 5. * Ibid., pp. 3 et. seq.
i Ibid., p. 4. ♦ Ibid., p. 5.
Education at Public Expense 325
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 distinc-
tions 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 pennitted to intermarry should be
debarred by Mr. Chandler's "sapient committee"
from educational contact. ^
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.*
In other towns of New England, where the black
population was considerable, separate schools were
' Minority Report, etc., p. 27.
^Acts and Resolves of the General Court of Mass., 1855, ch. 256.
326 The Education of the Negro
established. There was one even in Portland,
Maine.' 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 Constitu-
tion of Vermont was interpreted as extending to
Negroes the benefits of the Bill of Rights, making
all men free and equal. Persons of color, there-
fore, were regarded as men entitled to all the
privileges of freemen, among which was that of ed-
ucation at the expense of the State. * The framers
of the Constitution of New Hampshire were equally
Uberal in securing this right to the dark race.^
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.
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 popu-
lation in that commonwealth increased. The law
of 1825 provided that moneys raised from tax-
^ Adams, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 142.
' Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, vol. vi., p. 3762.
» Ibid., vol. iv., p. 2471.
Education at Public Expense 327
ation of half a mill on the dollar should be appro-
priated 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."' Some interpreted this
law to include Negroes. To overcome the objec-
tion 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. =* Thereafter
benevolent societies and private associations main-
tained colored schools in Cincinnati, Columbus,
Cleveland, and the southern counties of Ohio.'
But no help came from the cities and the State
before 1849 when the legislature passed a law
authorizing the establishment of schools for chil-
dren of color at public expense. '*
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
' Laws of Ohio, vol. xxiii. , pp. 37 et seq.
* Hickok, The Negro in Ohio, p. 85.
J Simmons, Men of Mark, p. 374.
*Laws of Ohio, vol. liii., pp. 117-118.
328 The Education of the Negro
that the colored trustees were not electors, and
therefore could not be office holders qualified to
receive and disburse public funds. ^ 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. '
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 con-
tended 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. 3 This was taken as a reflection on the
standing of the blacks of the city and tended to
make them refuse to cooperate 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. *
^Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, pp. 371, 372.
'Ibid., 1 87 1, p. 372.
J Laws of the Stale of Ohio, vol. liii,, p. 1 18. * Ibid., p. 1 18.
Education at Public Expense 329
During the contest for the control of the colored
schools certain Negroes of Cincinnati were endeav-
oring 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 un-
usual excitement.' 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.*
Thereafter some progress in the development of
separate schools in Cincinnati was noted. By
1855 the Board of Education of that city had es-
tablished four pubUc 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,
'New York Tribune, Feb. 19, 1855.
' New York Tribune, Feb. 19, 1855; and Carlier, L'Esclavage,
etc., p. 339.
330 The Education of the Negro
therefore, been more generally intelligent than
free persons of color not only in other States
but in all other parts of the world. ^ It was in ap-
preciation 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.* 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. ^
The agitation for the admission of colored chil-
dren to the pubUc schools was not confined to Cin-
cinnati alone, but came up throughout the section
north of the Ohio River. " Where the black popu-
lation 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 usu-
ally 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
* Foote, The Schools of Cincinnati, p. 92.
' Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 372.
3 Ibid., p. 372.
* Hickok, The Negro in Ohio, ch. iii. ; and Boone, History of
Education in Indiana, p. 237.
Education at Public Expense 331
slavery had become intelligent, virtuous, and re-
spectable persons, and in not a few cases had
accumulated considerable wealth.' 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. ^ But great as
their progress had been, the advocates of the
restriction of their educational privileges con-
sidered 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.
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. ' ^ 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 cor-
' Foote, The Schools of Cincinnati, p. 93.
» Ibid., p. 92.
s Boone, History of Ed. in Indiana, p. 237.
332 The Education of the Negro
poration.^ 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. ' With the exception of prohibit-
ing the immigration of such persons into that
State not much accotmt of them was taken until
1853. Then the legislature amended the law
authorizing the establishment of schools in town-
ships 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. ^ This provision had really
been incorporated into the former law, but was
omitted by oversight on the part of the engrossing
clerk. '»
A resolution of the House instructing the ed-
ucational 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
* Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana, 1837, p. 15.
' Boone, History of Education in Indiana, p. 237.
J Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana, 1855, p. 161.
* Boone, History of Education in Indiana, p. 237.
Education at Public Expense 333
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. " ^ 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.
In Illinois the situation was better than in
Indiana, but far from encouraging. The con-
stitution 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.^ It seemed to some
that, in excluding the colored children from the
public schools, the law contemplated the establish-
ment 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 pro-
' Boone, History of Education in Indiana, p. 237.
' The Constitution of Illinois, in the Journal of the Constitution
of the State of Illinois, 1847, p. 344.
334 The Education of the Negro
viding 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.
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 constitu-
tion of the State, which, interpreted as they saw
it, guaranteed all persons equality.^ 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 con-
dition 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
* Thorpe, Federal and State Constitutions, Const, of Illinois.
Education at Public Expense 335
white schools the following year.^ The State
Legislature had sufficient moral courage to do
away with these caste distinctions in 1874.'
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 wtre enumerated with others to
determine the basis for the apportionment of the
school funds, and were allowed to attend the pub-
lic schools. Wisconsin granted Negroes equal
school privileges. 3 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. -^
' Special Report of U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 343.
' Starr and Curtis, Annotated Statutes of Illinois, ch. 105, p.
2261.
3 Special Report of the U. S. Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 400.
* 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
2 337
33^ Appendix
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 compan-
ions 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 :
Appendix 339
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 serv-
ants, 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 re-
ward 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.
340 Appendix
EDIT DU ROI
Concemant les Esclaves N^gres des Colonies, qui
seront amenfe, ou envoy^s en France. Donn^ k
Paris au mois d'Octobre 1716.
I. Nous avons connu la n^cessit^ qu'il y a d'y sou-
tenir I'ex^cution de I'^dit du mars 1685, qui en main-
tenant la discipline de I'Eglise Catholique, Apostolique
et Romaine, pourvoit k ce qui conceme I'^tat et la
quality des Esclaves N^gres, qu'on entretient dans
lesdites colonies pour la culture des terres; et comme
nous avons ^t^ inform^s que plusieurs habitans de nos
Isles de rAm6rique d^sirent envoyer en France quel-
ques-uns de leur Esclaves pour les confirmer dans les
Instructions et dans les Exercices de notre Religion, et
pour leur f aire apprendre en m^me tems quelque Art et
Metier dont les colonies recevroient beaucoup d'util-
it^ par le retour de ces Esclaves ; mais que les habitans
craignaient que les Esclaves ne pretendent ^tre libres
en arrivant en France, ce qui pourroit causer auxdits
habitans une perte considerable, et les d^toumer d'un
objet aussi pieux et aussi utile.
II. Si quelques-uns des habitans de nos colonies, cu
oflBciers employes sur I'Etat desdites colonies, veulent
amener en France avec eux des Esclaves N^gres, de I'un
& de I'autre sexe, en quality de domestique ou autre-
ment pour les fortifier davantage dans notre Religion,
tant par les instructions qu'ils recevront, que par I'ex-
emple de nos autre sujets, et pour leur faire apprendre
en m6me tems quelque Art et Metier, dont les colonies
puissent retirer de I'utilit^, par le retour de ces Es-
claves, lesdits propri^taires seront tenus d'en obtenir
la permission des Gouverneurs G^n^raux, ou Comman-
Appendix 341
dans dans chaque Isle, laquelle permission contiendra
le nom du proprietaire, celui des Esclaves, leur age
& leur signalement. — Code Noir ou Recueil d'6-
dits, declarations, et arrets concernant des Es-
claves N^gres Discipline 'el le commerce des Esclaves
N^gres des isles frangaises de I'Amerique (in Recueil
de r^glemens, edits, declarations, et arrets concernant
le commerce, 1' administration de la justice et la police
des colonies frangaises de I'Amerique et les Engages
avec le Code Noir et I'addition audit Code) (Jefferson's
copy). A Paris chez les Libraires Associ^s, 1745.
A PROPOSITION FOR ENCOURAGING THE CHRISTIAN ED-
UCATION OF INDIAN, NEGRO, AND MULATTO CHILDREN
AT LAMBETH, VIRGINIA, 1 724
" 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 mistess 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.
342 Appendix
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 Uttle troubled to observe how small a Pro-
gress 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 Sug-
gestions of the Change which Baptism would make in
the Condition of the Negroes, to the Loss and Dis-
advantage 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 ReHgions, and more particularly
Appendix 343
against the Christian, as forbidding all that Licentious-
ness 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 Diffi-
culty, 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
344 Appendix
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 Enghsh 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 Uttle 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 Obli-
gations 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 them-
selves in this Work, if they see it wholly neglected, or
but coldly pursued, in the FamiHes 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 contrib-
ute 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
Appendix 345
they and the Negroes are most at liberty and the
Clergy are taken up with the pubUc Duties of their
Function. — Dalcho's An Historical Account of the
Protestant Episcopal Account of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church in South Carolina, pages 112-114.
AN EXTRACT FROM A SERMON PREACHED BY BISHOP
SECKER OF LONDON IN I74I
"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, under-
going 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 themseVes, will
take much Pains to teach it their slaves; whom even
the better Part of them are in a great Measure habitu-
ated 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
346 Appendix
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 becom-
ing 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 I75O
"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
Appendix 347
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 drud-
gery 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 stubborn-
ness 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 sim-
plicity 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 unteach-
able, they cannot be brought to any knowledge in
these matters.
348 Appendix
" 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 bom 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 weU 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 chris-
tians, or remain heathens as long as they Hve: as if
either their souls were not worth the saving, or as if
Appendix 349
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 chris-
tian 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, back-
biting, overreaching, idleness, and sabbath-breaking,
everywhere to be seen among us, are a great encourage-
ment 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 ex-
amples, 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
rehgion into their minds.
350 Appendix
" 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 our-
selves, 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, bom 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 effectu-
ally 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 oc-
casion 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
Appendix 351
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 recom-
mend 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 1 755
"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 Wor-
ship. Be particularly thankful to the Ministers of
352 Appendix
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 wiU 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 Govern-
ment, 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
fathful 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
Appendix 353
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, hke 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 Instruct-
ors and Fathers in Christ. ..." — Fawcett's Ad-
dress 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 con-
siderable Number of Negroes embracing the Gospel,
is in a letter written by Mr. Davies, Minister at Han-
over 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
23
354 Appendix
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 nec-
essary 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 apost-
atized; 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 passion-
ate 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 sufificient 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
fol owing 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
Augustlast,there was a hopeful Appearance of a greater
Appendix 355
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 cate-
chized 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 Hund-
red 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 con-
siderable 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 Pro-
fessions, especially when attended with a truly Chris-
356 Appendix
tain 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 ac-
quainting 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 AppUcation 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., Sattirday afternoon, and Sunday, says
Dr. Douglass in his Stunmary. See the Monthly
Review for October, 1755, page 274] my House is
crowded with Numbers of them, whose very Counten-
ances still carry the air of importunate Petitioners for
Appendix 357
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 pri-
vate 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. In-
deed, 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.
35^ Appendix
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 worid 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 rec-
ommending 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 con-
tinue 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 1 773
"You pay far too little regard to parental educa-
tion. . . .
"What is still less credible is that at least two-thirds
of the Uttle education we receive is derived from
instructors who are either indented servants or trans-
ported felons. Not a ship arrives either with redemp-
tioners or convicts, in which schoolmasters are not as
regularly advertised for sale as weavers, tailors, or
any other trade; with little other difiEerence, that I
Appendix 359
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 unfavor-
able to education. It certainly is no necessary circum-
stance, essential to the condition of a slave, that he be
uneducated ; yet this is the general and almost univer-
sal 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 Con-
sequences of the American Revolution, pp. 183, 1 88,
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 1 784)
"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 ca-
pacity to the Greenlanders, many of whom have made
very sincere Christians. Several travellers of good
360 Appendix
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 dis-
couragements, that might well depress and stupefy
even the best understandings, yet give sufiQcient
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 ctdtivated European. It is not, there-
fore, 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 efiEectual
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 oiu" 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 Provi-
dence, to remove. The principal of them, it is con-
ceived, are these which here follow:
I . " Although several of oiir 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
Appendix 361
talents and qualifications, that facility and address
in conveying religious truths, that unconquerable
activity, patience, and perseverance, which the in-
struction of dull and uncultivated minds requires,
and which we sometimes see so eminently and success-
fully 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 sufificient.
3. "Another impediment to the progress of our
slaves in christian knowledge has been their too fre-
quent 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 princi-
ples 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 compan-
ions 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
362 Appendix
honotirably 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 uncivihzed 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 con-
version 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 defer-
ence to better judgments, submitted to their con-
sideration.
" The first and most essential step towards a real
and effectual conversion of our Negroes would be the
Appendix 363
appointment of a missionary (in addition to the pres-
ent 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 apart-
ment 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 essen-
tial 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 earHest 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
364 Appendix
christian life. To this great object, therefore, must
our chief attention be directed; and as ahnost every-
thing must depend on the abiHty, 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 dili-
gence. 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 CaroUna,
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 annu-
ally 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 estabHshment being made in Charlestown
by government, this excellent institution was dropt;
for after the year 1751, no further mention is made of
Appendix 365
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 siniilar foundation at Barba-
does." — 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 neces-
sary 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 Concur-
rence 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, 1 774
"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
366 Appendix
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 reUef, 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 hberty intended, and that they
may be instructed by themselves, or placed out to
such masters and mistresses who will be careful of their
rehgious 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 Philadel-
phia, in the Fourth Month, 1843, p. 38.
FROM THE MINUTES OF THE YEARLY MEETING OF THE
FRIENDS OF PHILADELPHIA AND NEW JERSEY, 1 779
"A tender Christian sympathy appears to be
awakened in the minds of many who are not in rehgious
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 encourage-
ment, than that of Isiymg a foundation in the rising
generation for their becoming good and useful men?
Appendix 367
remembering what was formeriy 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 Haddoniield 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
368 Appendix
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, 1 769
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 bond-
age, 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
Appendix 369
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 circum-
stances, 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 Ufe?
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 1 757 AND 1 773
"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, endeavor-
ing to train them in the principles of the Christian
reUgion?"
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 disinterest-
edly 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
24
370 Appendix
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
enjo5dng the benefit of their toil." — Ibid., pp. 51, 52,
and 54.
EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE METHODIST
CONFERENCE, 1 785
"Q. What directions shall we give for the pro-
motion 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
Appendix 371
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
from the Methodist Episcopal Church, etc., p. 35.
A PORTION OF AN ACT OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF
THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN I80O
The Assembly recommended:
"2. The instruction of Negroes, the poor and
those who are destitute of the means of grace in var-
ious parts of this extensive country; whoever con-
templates 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 PRESBY-
TERIAN CHURCH IN 1 801
"The Assembly resumed the consideration of the
communication from the Trustees of the General As-
372 Appendix
sembly 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 dis-
charge 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 Gen-
eral 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 super-
intend 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 apprentice-
Appendix 373
ship 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 cooperating 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 super-
intend the school instruction of the children and
youth of the free blacks. They may either influence
them to attend regularly the schools already estab-
lished 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 pro-
cure and preserve a regular record of the marriages,
births, and manumissions of all free blacks.
IV. The Committee of Employ, who shall en-
deavor 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 main-
tenance. The committee may attempt the institution
of some simple and useful manufactures which will
374 Appendix
require but little skill, and also may assist, in com-
mencing business, such as appear to be qualified for it.
Whenever the Committee of Inspection shall find
persons of any particular description requiring atten-
tion, they shall immediately direct them to the com-
mittee of whose care they are the proper objects.
In matters of a mixed nature, the committee shall con-
fer, 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 pur-
poses, and to be kept separate from the other funds of
the Society.
The Committee shall make a report on their pro-
ceedings, 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
Appendix 375
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 CON-
VENTION OF DELEGATES TO THE FREE AFRICANS AND
OTHER FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, I796"
" In the first place. We earnestly recommend to you,
a regular attention to the duty of public worship;
376 Appendix
by which means you will evince gratitude to your
CREATOR, and, at the same time, promote knowl-
edge, 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 univer-
sal 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
Appendix 377
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 ac-
complished 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 espe-
cial 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
378 Appendix
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 Uving, 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
Appendix 379
read and write, and to be brought up to some useful
occupation, agreeable to the laws of the Common-
wealth 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 180O
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 clasp-
ing 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
38o Appendix
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
Appendix 381
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 believ-
ing 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 beHeving 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.
382 Appendix
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, pra)dng 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 mj' people are more faith-
ful, 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 adven-
tures, 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 pro-
Appendix 383
vince 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 tilHng 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.
384 Appendix
I then inquiredof 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 Hne 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, Di-
alogues," etc., in the Appendix of Thomas Bacon's Ser-
mons Addressed to Masters and Servants.
LETTER TO ABb6 Gr6gOIRE, 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 understand-
ing 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
Appendix 385
•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 your-
self 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 bond-
age 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 phi-
lanthropic intentions of the donor. I learn with
pleasure your continued efforts for the instruction of
the future generations of men, and, beHeving 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
as
386 Appendix
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 I, 1 825
"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 Ufe 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
discipUne cannot be impracticable. The degree in
which this disciphne 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 labour-
ers, and the known fact that, where the labour is com-
pulsory, the greater the number of labourers brought
together (unless, indeed, where co-operation of many
hands is rendered essential by a partictilar 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 establish-
ment, would sufficiently accumulate in five, or even
Appendix 387
more years, for the objects in view. And candor
obliges me to say that I aAi not satisfied either that
the prospect of emancipation at a future day will
sufficiently overcome the natural and habitual repug-
nance 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 vol-
untary 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 recol-
lected that in all these establishments there is a relig-
ious 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 com-
mon treasury, must be Httle applicable to the dis-
similar assemblage in question. His experience may
afford valuable aid in its general organization, and
in the distribution of details of the work to be per-
formed. But an efficient administration must, as is
judiciously proposed, be in _ hands practically ac-
388 Appendix
quainted with the propensities and habits of the mem-
bers of the new community. "
FROM FREDERICK DOUGLASS's PAPER, 1 853: " 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 HveHhood, are rapidly, unceasingly and inevitably
passing into other hands; every hour sees the black
man elbowed out of emplo3mient 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 monopo-
lized 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
Appendix 389
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 some-
thing? 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 he; 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,
390 Appendix
the facilities for doing so are few — institutions of learn-
ing 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
Appendix 391
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 with-
in 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 oflficers 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.
392 Appendix
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 institu-
tion 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 incor-
porate a college in Liberia, but I fear the project has
failed, as I have heard nothing more of it since. Sup-
posing however the funds raised for such an institu-
tion, where are the professors to come from? They
Appendix 393
must be educated in this country; and how can that
be done without estabHshing 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 per-
sons 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 hum-
blest 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
394 Appendix
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., wotdd, of course,
be most competent to prepare a plan for the proposed
institution, and the ablest of them should be con-
sulted ; 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 pre-
sume 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 1 85 5, TO SECURE THE MODIFICA-
TION 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
Appendix 395
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: "i. That it behooves us
as christian people to establish the institution of
matrimony among our slaves, with all its legal obli-
gations 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 mission-
39^ Appendix
aries, 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 pubHc expense, either by Mis-
sionary or the Colonization Societies, but the first
lawyer goes out independent of- any associated aid.
Mr. Garrison Draper, a colored man of high respect-
ability, and long a resident of Old Town, early deter-
mined 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 Gil-
man, 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 prac-
tice 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
Appendix 397
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 Oilman, 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. Oilman, 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. Oilman, 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, Bait., Md.
African Repository, vol. xxxiv., pp. 26 and 27.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
There is no helpfid 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 in-
vestigator 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 incul-
cate an appreciation of the extensive efiEorts to enlighten the
antebellum Negro.
Considered as a local problem this question has received more
attention. A few writers have undertaken to sketch the move-
ment 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 contain-
ing specimens of original composition, both in prose and
verse, by several of the pupils; pieces spoken at public ex-
aminations; an interesting dialogue between Doctor Samuel
L Mitchell, of New York, and a little boy of ten years old,
399
400 Bibliography
and lines illustrative of the Lancastrian system of instruc-
tion. 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 Aboli-
tionists 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. (Cin-
cinnati, 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 Popula-
tion 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, (Wash-
ington, 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 Commis-
sioner of Education for the year 1901. Contains a brief
Bibliography 401
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 pre-
fixed an historical sketch of the system. Prepared in pur-
suance 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
I stand 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. (Lancas-
ter, Pa., 1886.) Considerable space is given to the educa-
tion 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 De-
scendants, Established by the Society of Friends, etc. (Phila-
delphia, 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, Cam-
bridge.
ad
402 Bibliography
Alliot, Paul. RSflexions historiques et poUtiques sur la LouiS'
iane. (Cleveland, 191 1.) 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 voltmaes.
(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 Descrip-
tive. Two volumes. (New York, 184 1.)
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. (Lon-
don, 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 Terri-
tory and Part of West Florida, Commenced at Philadelphia in
the Winter of i8oy and Concluded in i8og. (Pittsburg, 18 10.)
Gives a few facts.
Faux, W. Venerable Days in America. (London, 1823.) A
"journal of a tour in the United States principally under-
taken to ascertain by positive evidence, the condition
and probable prospects of British emigrants, including
accounts of Mr. Kirkbeck's settlement in Illinois and in-
Bibliography 403
tended 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 Uttle light on the condition of the mixed breeds
of the Western Hemisphere.
Kemble, Frances Anne. Journal of a Residence on a Plantation
in 1838-1830. (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,
18 13.) 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 A merica,
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 17Q3 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, Due DE. Travels through the
United States of America, the Country of the Iroquois, and
Upper Canada in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797. (London,
1 799-) The author discusses the attitude of the people
toward the uplift of the Negroes.
ScHOEPF, Johann David. Reise durch der Mittlern und Sud-
lichen Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten nach Ost-
Florida und den Bahama Inseln unternommen in den Jahren
1783 und 1784. (Cincinnati, 1812.) A translation of this
404 Bibliography
work was published by Alfred J. Morrison at Philadelphia
in 191 1 . 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 Sutcliflf 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., 18 19.) 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,
1 861.) 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 anti-
slavery 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 voltmie.
Bibliography 405
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 Introduc-
tion hy 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 Abb6
Gr^goire, M. A. Julien, and Benjamin Banneker. In
Jefferson's Works, Memorial Edition, xii. and xv. He
comments on Negroes' talents.
Madison, James. Letter to Frances 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 Educa-
tion. (Brooklyn, 1883.) A collection of public letters
addressed to Andrew T. Judson, remonstrating on the un-
just 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 Grimki Sisters; Sara and Angelina
GrimkS, 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.
4o6 Bibliography
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 pro-
moters 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 ad-
vocated 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, i860.)
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
Bibliography 407
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 antebellum 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, lySi, to December 7, 1813. Three volumes. (New
York, 1 82 1.)
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 18 17 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, Massa-
chusetts, by T. Flint, Principal of the Seminary of Rapide,
Louisiana. (Boston, 1826.) Mentions the teaching of
Negroes.
4o8 Bibliography
GENERAL HISTORIES
Bancroft, George. History of the United States. Ten vol-
umes. (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 vol-
umes. (New York, 1 904-1 908.) The volumes which have
a bearing on the subject treated in this monograph are
Bourne's Spain in America, Edward Channing's Jefferson-
ian System, F. J. Turner's Rise of the New West, and
A. B. 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 par 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 Nw" 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. Chi-
cago, 1877.)
STATE HISTORIES
Ashe, S. A. History of North Carolina. (Greensboro, 1908.)
Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of A rizona 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.
Bibliography 409
Brackett, Jeffrey R. The Negro in Maryland. Johns Hop-
kins 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 Denomina-
tion in America and in Other Parts of the World. (Boston,
1813.)
Fifty Years among the Baptists. (New York, i860.)
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 no-
tices 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.)
410 Bibliography
Davidson, Rev. Robert. History of the Presbyterian Church
in the Stale 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 Mo-
ravian 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 F. Documentary History of the Struggle for
Religious Liberty in Virginia. (Lynchburg, Va., 1900.)
M ATL ACK, Lucius. The History of A merican Slavery and Method-
ism from 1780 to i84g: and History of the Wesleyan Method-
ist 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 Princi-
pal 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 Govern-
ment 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, 18 10.)
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.)
Bibliography 411
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 Mary-
land Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, and
Relief of Free Negroes and others unlawfully held in Bond-
age. 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. (Phil-
adelphia, 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, 181 7, 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, 181 7.)
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,
412 Bibliography
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 1 741.) 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, 180Q. (New York, 1809.) The speak-
er did not forget the duty of all men to uplift those unfor-
tunates who had already been degraded.
Smith, Thomas P. An Address before the Colored Citizens of
Boston in Opposition to the A bolition 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.)
Bibliography 413
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 SoHcitor'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 Chil-
dren can be Lawfully Excluded from Free Public Schools.
(Boston, 1846.)
Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the Improve-
ment of the Public Schools in the District of Columbia, con-
taining 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 Amer-
ican 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, 1 860-1865.) Con-
tains 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 A bolition on
Present Condition of the Colored People, etc., 1838. (Phil-
adelphia, 1838.)
Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the People of Color of the
City and Districts of Philadelphia. (Philadelphia, 1849.)
414 Bibliography
Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia in i8SQt compiled by
Benj. C. Bacon. (Philadelphia, 1859.)
Statistical Abstract of the United States, i8g8. 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 (Jan-
uary), 5th, 1838. (Philadelphia, 1838.)
Trades of the Colored People. (Philadelphia, 1838.)
United States Censuses of 1790, 1800, 1810, 1820, 1830, 1840,
1850, and i860.
Varle, Charles. A Complete View of Baltimore; with a Statisti-
cal Sketch of all the Commerical, 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. PubUshed 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, 1701-18Q2,
with much Supplementary • Information. (London, 1893.)
A good source for the accounts of the efforts of this organiza-
tion among Negroes.
Bibliography 415
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REPORTS OF THE AMERICAN CONVENTION, 1794-1831
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Minutes of the Proceedings of the Fourth Convention of Dele-
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Minutes of the Proceedings of the Fifth Convention of Dele-
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41 6 Bibliography
American Convention of Abolition Societies. Minutes of the
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Minutes of the Proceedings of the Eighth Convention of Dele-
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Bibliography 417
until the fifteenth Day of the same Month, inclusive. (Phila-
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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.
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The Second Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
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27
4i8 Bibliography
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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, i8ji~ end.
Reports of the National Anti- Slavery Convention, 1833- end.
REPORTS OP COLONIZATION SOCIETIES
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MISCELLANEOUS BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS
Adams, Alice Dana. The Neglected Period of Anti-Slavery in
America. RadcliflFe 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
420 Bibliography
of the peculiar Institution, with Sights and Insights into
their new Relations as Freedmen, Freemen, and Citizens»
with an Introduction by Reverend Bishop WiUard Malla-
lieu. (New York and Cincinnati, 1890.) •
Alexander, A. A History of Colonization on the Western Conti-
nent 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 Ne-
groes 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 Com-
mittee of the Synod of Kentucky. (Newburyport, 1 836.)
Anderson, Matthew. Presbyterianism — 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 Execu-
tive 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 Sub-
ject 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.)
Bibliography 421
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in a Short Representation of the calamitous state of the en-
slaved 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. (Phila-
delphia.)
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Some Historical Account of Guinea, its Situation, Produce,
and the General Disposition of its Inhabitants. With an
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BiRNEY, James G. The American Churches, the Bulwarks of
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1842.)
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Brackett, Jeffery R. The Negro in Maryland. A Study of the
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422 Bibliography
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An Inquiry into the Law of Negro Slavery in the United States
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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 Cen-
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Conway, Moncure Daniel. Testimonies Concerning Slavery.
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Holland, Edwin C. Refutation of Calumnies Circulated against
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Jay, William. An Inquiry into the Character and Tendencies of
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Jones, C. C. A Catechism of Scripture, Doctrine, and Practice.
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Long, J. D. Pictures of Slavery in Church and State, Including
Personal Reminiscences, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes,
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LowERY, Woodbury. The Spanish Settlements within the
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Mallary, R. O. Maybank: Some Memoirs of a Southern Chris-
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May, S. J. Some Recollections of our Anti-Slavery Conflict.
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PORTEUS, Bishop Beilby. The Works of the Rev. Beilby Porteus,
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Power, Rev. John H. Review of the Lectures of William A.
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Rice, David. Slavery Inconsistent with Justice and Good Policy:
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United States, with Reflections on the Practicability of Restoring
the Moral Rights of the Slave, without Impairing the Legal
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for Free Persons of Color, Including Memoirs of Facts on the
Interior Traffic in Slaves, and on Kidnapping, Illustrated with
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Particular and very Expressly to those of the United States of
America. Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, Septem-
ber 28, i82g. 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.
Bibliography 429
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 161Q-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,
1 775-)
Same. Part Second. Containing his Last Epistle and
other Writings. (London, 1775.)
Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes. Recom-
mended 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 A bolitionist, or Record of the New England A nti-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 Coloniza-
tion 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,
430 Bibliography
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 ofiBcial
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 Communi-
ties in Indiana. "
NEWSPAPERS
District of Columbia.
The Daily National Intelligencer.
Bibliography 431
Louisiana.
The New Orleans Commercial BuUeiin,
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 CaroHna.
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
Code Noir ou Reciieil d'Sdits, declarations et arrits concernant la
Discipline et le commerce des esclaves Negres des isles fran-
Saises de I'AmSrique (in Recueils de reglemens, Sdits, declara-
tions et arrits, concernant le commerce, l' administration de la
justice et la police des colonies frangaises de I'Amerique, et les
engages avec le Code Noir, et V addition audit code). (Paris,
1745.)
432 Bibliography
GooDELL, William. The American Slave Code in Theory and
Practice: Its Distinctive Features Shown by its Staiutes, Judi-
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Peters, Richard. Condensed Reports of Cases Argued and Ad-
judged 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 Parsed 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 A ppendix of the Laws of the
United States Relating to the District of Columbia. (Wash-'
ington, 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 Gen-
eral Use to 1846. (New York, 1846.)
Dawson, William. A Compilation of the Laws of the State
of Georgia to 183 1. (Milledgeville, 1831.)
Prince, O. H. A Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia to
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Illinois.
Laws of the State of Illinois Passed by the General Assembly.
Bibliography 433
Starr, M., and Russell H. Curtis. Annotated Statutes of
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Indiana.
Laws of a General Nature Passed by the State of Indiana.
Kentucky.
Acts of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Ken-
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Louisiana.
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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 Alassachusetts Bay, 1761-JTJ2.
(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 Missis-
sippi. (Natchez, 1824.)
Hutchinson, A. Code of Mississippi. (Jackson, 1848.)
Missouri.
Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Missouri.
New Jersey.
A cts of the General A ssembly 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.
28
434 Bibliography
Stroud, G. M. Purdon's Digest of the Laws of Pennsylvania
from 1700 to 185 1. (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
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Tennessee.
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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
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suant to an act of the General Assembly of Virginia,
passed on the 5th of February, 1808. The work was ex-
tended by S. Shepherd who published three additional
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Tate, Joseph. A Digest of the Laws of Virginia. (Rich-
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INDEX
Abdy, E. S., learned that
slaves were taught, 213, 227
Abolitionists, interested in the
enlightenment of Negroes,
71-72, 75. 76, 77. 78, 97-
iio, 127, 163, 177
Account of a pious Negro,
382-384
Actual education after the rev-
olutionary period, 70 et seq.
Adams, Rev. Henry, teacher
at Louisville, 247
Adams, John, report of James
Otis's argument on the
Writs of Assistance, 52;
views on slavery, 58
Address of the American Con-
vention of Abolition So-
cieties, 374-377
African Benevolent Society of
Rhode Island, school of, 149
African Episcopalians of Phila-
delphia, school of, 145
African Free School of Balti-
more, 141
African Free Schools of New
York, 97, 99, 148, 313
African Methodist Episcopal
Church, established Union
Seminary, 273; purchased
Wilberforce, 273
Agricultural Convention of
Georgia recommended that
slaves be taught to read,
225-226
Alabama, law of 1832; pro-
vision for teaching Negroes
at Mobile, 166; Presbyteri-
ans of, interested, 221
Albany Normal School, colored
student admitted, 277
Alexandria, Virginia Quakers
of, instructed Negroes, 109;
Benjamin Davis, a teacher
of, 109
Allen, Richard, organized
A. M. E. Church, 86; author,
280
Allen, W. H., teacher of
Negroes, 280
Ambush, James E., teacher in
the District of Columbia,
American Colonization Society,
The, efforts of, to educate
Negroes, 257 et seq.
American Convention of
Abolition Societies, The,
interested in the education
of Negroes, 75, 76, 77, 78,
97-110, 127; recommended
industrial education, 76, 77,
78, and 99; addresses of,
374-377
American Union, The, organ-
ized, 142; names of its pro-
moters, 142; (see note i on
page 142)
Amherstburg, Canada, opened
a colored school, 250; es-
tablished a mission school,
251
Anderson, John G., musician,
280
Andrew, one of the first two
colored teachers in Carolina,
33-34
Andrews, C. C, principal of
435
436
Index
Andrews, C. C. — Cont.
New York African Free
Schools, 148
Andrews, E. A., student of the
needs of the Negroes, 142
Anti- slavery agitation, efiFect
of, on education in cities,
126, 127
Appalachian Mountains, set-
tled by people favorable to
Negroes, 182
Appo, William, musician, 280
Arnett, B. W., teacher in
Pennsylvania, 280
Ashmun Institute, founded,
271; names of the trustees,
272
Athens College, admitted col-
ored students, 277
Attainments of Negroes at the
close of the eighteenth cen-
tury, 80-92
Auchmutty, Reverend, con-
nected with the school es-
tablished by Elias Neau,
27
Augusta, Dr. A. T., learned to
read in Virginia, 210
Avery College, established,
270
Avery, Rev. Charles, donor of
$300,000 for the education
and Christianization of the
African race, 270
Bacon, Rev. Thomas, sermons
on the instruction of Ne-
groes, 31, 32, 346-351
Baldwin County, Alabama,
provision for teaching Ne-
groes, 166
Baltimore, several colored
churches, 125; colored
schools of, 138-144; an adult
school of 180 pupils, 140;
Sunday-schools, 140; daj'
and night school, 140; Bible
Society, 140; African Free
School, 141; donation of
Wells, 143; donation of
Crane, 144; school tax paid
by Negroes, note on page
307
Banks, Henry, learned to read
in Virginia, 208
Banneker, Benjamin, studied
in Maryland, 90; made a
clock, 91 ; took up astro-
nomy, 91 ; encouraged by El-
licott, 91 ; corresponded with
Thomas Jcflferson, 91
Baptist preacher, taught Ne-
groes in South 'Carolina,
220
Baptists, aided the education
of Negroes, 5, 72, 73, 119,
120; established school at
Bexley, Liberia, 264 ; changed
attitude toward the uplift
of Negroes, 180
Barclay, David, gave money
to build school-house, 79
Barclay, Reverend, instructed
Negroes in New York, 28
Barr, John W., taught M. W.
Taylor in Kentucky, 211
Baxter, Richard, instructed
masters to enlighten their
slaves, 39-40
Beard, Simeon, had a school
in Charleston, 216
Becraft, ?ilaria, established a
school in the District of
Columbia, 133
Bell famil}^, progress of, 130
Ecll, George, built first colored
school-house in District of
Columbia, 131
Bell School established, 131-
132
Benezet, Anthony, advocated
the educationof Negroes, 48;
taught Negroes, 53-54; be-
lieved in western coloniza-
tion, 66; opinion on Negro
intellect, 69; bequeathed
wealth to educate Negroes,
78-79; school-house built
with the fund, 79; (see note
giving sketch of his career,
79)
Berea College, founded, 224
Index
437
Berkshire Medical School had
trouble admitting Negroes,
277; graduated colored phy-
sicians, 263
Berry's portraiture of the
Negroes' condition after the
reaction, 1 70-1 71
Bibb, Mary E., taught at
Windsor, Canada, 253
Billings, Maria, taught in the
District of Columbia, 130
Birney, James G., criticized
the church, 200, 201; helped
Negroes on free soil, 235
Bishop, Josiah, preached to
white congregation in Ports-
mouth, Virginia, 86
Bishop of London, declared
that the conversion of slaves
did network manumission, 25
"Black Friday," Portsmouth,
Ohio, Negroes driven out.
242
Blackstone, studied to justify
the struggle for the rights of
man, 51 ; his idea of the body
politic forgotten, 7
Bleecker, John, interested in
the New York African Free
Schools, 97
Boone, R. G., sketch of educa-
tion in Indiana, 331
Boston, Massachusetts, colored
school opened, 95, 149;
opened its first primary
school, 95; school in African
Church, 96; several colored
churches, 125; struggle for
democratic education, 322;
(see also Massachusetts)
Boucher, Jonathan, interested
in the uplift of Negroes, 53,
56; an advocate of education
75; (see note on, 56); extract
from address of, 357-359
Boulder, J. F., student in a
mixed school in Delaware,
216
Bowditch, H. J., asked that
Negroes be admitted to
Boston public schools, 322
Bowdoin College, admitted a
Negro, 277
Bradford, James T., studied at
Pittsburgh, 246
Branagan advocated coloniza-
tion of the Negroes in the
West, 66
Bray, Dr. Thomas, a promoter
of the education of Negroes,
36-37; "Associates of Dr.
Bray," 37; plan of, for the
instruction of Negroes, 365
Brearcroft, Dr., alluded to the
plan for the enlightenment
of Negroes, 33
Breckenridge, John, contrib-
uted to the education of the
colored people of Baltimore,
144
Bremer, Fredrika, found col-
ored schools in the South,
217; observed the teaching
of slaves, 217, 219, 227
British American Manual
Labor Institute, established
at Dawn, Canada, 253, 296
Brcwn, a graduate of Harvard
College, taught colored chil-
dren in Boston, 95
Brown County, Ohio, colored
schools of, established, 244
Brown, Jeremiah H., studied at
Pittsburgh, 246
Brown, J. M., attended school
in Delaware, 216
Brown, William Wells, author,
281; leader and educator.
Browning family, progress of,
130-131
Bruce, B. K., learned to read,
209-210
Bryan, Andrew, preacher in
Georgia, 85
Buchanan, George, on mental
capacity of Negroes, 68
Buffalo, colored Methodist and
Baptist churches of, lost
members, 242
Burke, E. P., found enlight-
ened Negroes in the South,
438
Index
Burke, E. P.—Cont.
207; mentioned case of a
very intelligent Negro, 209
Burlington, New Jersey, Quak-
ers of, interested in the up-
lift of the colored people,
100
Butler, Bishop, urged the
instruction of Negroes, 32
Buxton, Canada, separate
schools established in, 250
Caesar, a Negro poet of North
Carolina, 87
Calvert, Mr., an Englishman
who taught Negroes in the
District of Columbia, 134
Camden Insurrection, eflfect of,
157, 159
Cameron, Paul C, sketch of
John Chavis, 116
Canaan, New Hampshire, acad-
emy broken up, 176, 290-291
Canada, education of Negroes
in, 247-255; names of settle-
ments with schools, 248;
difficulties of races, 249-251 ;
separate schools, 250-251;
mission schools, 251-253;
results obtained, 254-255;
(see Drew's note on condi-
tion of, 249)
Capers, Bishop William, opin-
ion on reconstructing the
policy of Negro education,
189-190; plan of, to instruct
Negroes, 190; work of, among
the colored people, 1 91-192;
catechism of, 197
Cardozo, F. L., entered school
in Charleston, 216
Carey, Lott, educated himself,
206
Cass County, Michigan, school
facilities in the colored
settlement of, 233
Castleton Medical School, ad-
mitted Negroes, 277
Catholics, interested in the
education of Negroes, 11,
42, 108, 138, 150, 183
Catto, Rev. William T., author
and preacher, 281
Cephas, Uncle, learned from
white children, 213
Chandler, solicitor, of Boston,
opinion on the segregation of
colored pupils, 323
Channing, William, criticized
the church for its lack of in-
terest in the uplift of the
Negroes, 201-202
Charleston, colored members
of church of, 125; Miner
Society of, 129; colored
schools of, attended by
Bishop Daniel A. Payne,
129; insurrection of, 157;
theological seminary of, ad-
mitted a Negro, 277
Charlton, Reverend, friend of
Negroes in New York, 27
Chatham, Canada, colored
schools of, 253
Chavis, John, educated at
Princeton, 116; a teacher of
white youths in North Caro-
lina, 117
Chester, T. Morris, student at
Pittsburgh, 246
Chicago, separate schools of,
334; disestablished, 335
Child, M. E., teacher in
Canada, 252
Churches, aided education
through Sabbath - schools,
125
Christians not to be held as
slaves, 4, 25
Cincinnati, colored schools of,
245, 328, 329; Negroes of,
sought public support for
their schools, 328; a teacher
of, excluded a colored boy
from a public school, 329;
law of 1849, 328
City, the influences of, on the
education of Negroes, 123-
124; attitude of anti-slavery
societies of, toward the
education of the Negroes,
126-127
Index
439
Clapp, Margaret, aided Myr-
tilla Miner in the District of
Columbia, 268; (see note 2)
Clarkson Hall Schools of Phila-
delphia, 105-106
Clarkson, Matthew, a sup-
porter of the New York
African Free Schools, 97
Cleveland, C. F., Argument of,
in favor of Connecticut law
against colored schools, 175
Cleveland, colored schools of.
Code Noir, referred to, 20, 21,
42 ; (see note, 23)
Co-education of the races, 108,
109, no, 136, 216
Coffin, Levi, taught Negroes in
North Carolina, 114; pro-
moted the migration of
Negroes to free soil, 235;
traveled in Canada, 252
Coffin, Vestal, assistant of his
father in North Carolina,
114
Cogswell, James, aided the
New York African Free
Schools, 97
Coker, Daniel, a teacher in
Baltimore, 140
Colbum, Zerah, a calculator
who tested Thomas Fuller,
88
Colchester, Canada, mission
school at, 251
Cole, Edward, made settle-
ment of Negroes in Illinois,
231
Colgan, Reverend; connected
with Neau's school in New
York, 27
College of West Africa estab-
lished, 264
Colleges, Negroes not admitted,
265; manual labor idea of,
265; change in attitude of,
274, 275, 276, 277
Colonization scheme, influ-
ence of, on education, 66,
150
Colonizationists, interest of,
in the education of Negroes,
257-260, 261-264
Colored mechanics, prejudice
against, 283, 284, 286, 287;
slight increase in, 300
Columbia, Pennsylvania, Qua-
kers of, interested in the
uplift of Negroes, 103
Columbian Institute estab-
lished in the District of Co-
lumbia, 133
Columbus, Ohio, colored
schools of, 245
Condition of Negroes, in the
eighteenth century, 80-^2 ;
at the close of the reaction,
171, 176, 184
Connecticut, defeated the pro-
posed Manual Labor College
at New Haven, 289-290;
spoken of as place for a
colored school of the Ameri-
can Colonization Society,
290 ; allowed separate schools
at Hartford, 318; inade-
quately supported colored
schools, 319; struggle against
separate schools of, 319; dis-
establishment of separate
schools of, 319
Convention of free people of
color, effort to establish a
college, 176, 288, 289, 290
Convent of Oblate Sisters of
Providence, educated col-
ored girls in academy of,
139, 141, 143
Cook, John F., teacher in the
District of Columbia, 135,
280; forced by the Snow
Riot to go to Pennsylvania,
135, 136
Corbin, J. C, student at
Chillicothe, Ohio, 246-247
Cornish, Alexander, teacher in
the District of Columbia, 137
Costin, Louisa Parke, teacher
in the District of Columbia,
134
Cox, Ann, teacher in New York
African Free Schools, 99
440
Index
Coxe, Eliza J., teacher in the
New York African Free
Schools, 99
Coxe, General, of Fluvanna
County, Virginia, taught his
slaves to read the Bible, 221
Coxe, R. S., a supporter of
Hays's school in the District
of Columbia, 137
Crandall, Prudence, admitted
colored girls to her academy,
1 72 ; opposed by whites, 1 72 ;
law against her enacted, 1 74 ;
arrested, imprisoned, and
tried, 175; abandoned her
school, 175
Crane, William, erected a
building for the education of
Negroes in Baltimore, 144
Crummell, Alexander, sought
admission to the academy at
Canaan, New Hampshire,
291
CuflFee, Paul, author, 280
D'Alone, contributor to a
fund for the education of
Negroes, 36
Dartmouth, theological school
of, admitted Negroes, 277
Davies, Reverend, teacher of
Negroes in Virginia, 81
Davis, Benjamin, taught
Negroes in Alexandria, Vir-
ginia, 109
Davis, Cornelius, teacher of
New York African Free
Schools, 97
Davis, Rev. Daniel, interest of,
in the uplift of the people of
color, 67
Dawn, Canada, colored schools
of, 250
Dawson, Joseph, aided colored
schools, 270
Dean, Rev. Philotas, principal
of Avery College, 271
De Baptiste, Richard, student
in a school at his father's
home in Fredericksburg,
217-218
De Grasse, Dr. John V., edu-
cated for Liberia, 262
Delany, M. R., attended school
at Pittsburgh; 246, 281
Delaware, abolition Society of,
provided for the education of
the Negroes, loi ; law of 183 1,
165; law of 1863, 165
Detroit, African Baptist
Church of, 242; separate
schools of, 242, 247
Dialogue on the enlighten-
ment of Negroes about 1800,
379-382
District of Columbia, separate
schools of, 130-138; churches
of, contriijuted to education
of Negroes, 133, 135
Douglass, Airs., a white
teacher of Negroes in Nor-
folk, 218
Douglass, Frederick, learned
to read, 212, 215; leader and
advocate of education, 241 ;
author, 281; opinion of, on
vocational education, 301-
306; extract from paper of,
388-391
Douglass, Sarah, teacher of
Philadelphia, 134
Dove, Dr., owner of Dr. James
Durham, 88
Dow, Dr. Jesse E., co-worker
of Charles Anddleton of
the District of Columbia,
137
Draper, Garrison, studied law
after getting education at
Dartmouth, 262-263; an
account of, 395-397
Drew, Benjamin, note of, on
Canada, 249; found pre-
'judice in schools of Canada,
250
Duncan, Benedict, taught by
his father, 208
Durham, James, a colored
physician of New Orleans,
88
Dwight, Sarah, teacher of
colored girls, 77
Index
441
Edit dtiroi, 340-341
Education of Colored People,
391-394
Education of colored children
at public expense, 15-16;
(see also Chapter XIII,
307-335)
Edwards, Mrs. Haig, interest
of, in the uplift of slaves, 26
EHot, Rev. John, appeal in
behalf of the conversion of
slaves, 38
El'lis, Harrison, educated
blacksmith, 207
Ellsworth, W. W., argument
of, against the constitu-
tionality of the Connecticut
law prohibiting the estab-
lishment of colored schools,
175
Emancipation of slaves, effects
of, on education, 63, 67
Emlen Institute established
in Ohio, 294
Emlen, Samuel, philanthro-
pist, 294
England, ministers of the
Church of, maintained a
school for colored children
at Newport, 95
English Colonial Church es-
tablished mission schools in
Canada, 251
English High School estab-
lished at Monrovia, 264
Essay of Bishop Porteus, 359-
365
Established Church of Eng-
land directed attention to
the uplift of the slaves, 4,
25, 26, 27, 28
Everly, mentioned resolutions
bearing on the instruction of
slaves, 42
Evidences of the development
of the intellect of Negroes,
82-84
Falmouth colored Sunday-
school broken up, 185
Fawcett, Benjamin, address
to Negroes of Virginia, 81;
extract from, 351-357
Fee, Rev. John G., criticized
church because it neglected
the Negroes, 203-204;
founded Berea College, 224
Fleet, Dr. John, educated for
Liberia, 262; teacher in the
District of Columbia, 136
Fleetwood, Bishop, urged that
Negroes be instructed, 24;
(see note on p. 25)
Fletcher, Mr. and Mrs,,
teachers in the District of
Columbia, 137
Flint, Rev. James, received
letters bearing on the teach-
ing of Negroes, 119
Florida, law of, unfavorable
to the enlightenment of Ne-
groes, 165; a more stringent
law of, 166
Foote, John P., praised the
colored schools of Cin-
cinnati, 329-330
Ford, George, a Virginia lady
who taught pupils of color in
the District of Columbia, 138
Fort Maiden, Canada, schools
of, 252
Fortie, John, teacher in Balti-
more, 141
Fothergill, on colonization, 66
Fox, George, urged Quakers to
instruct the colored people,
44
Franklin College, New Athens,
Ohio, admitted colored
students, 277
Franklin, Benjamin, aided the
teachers of Negroes, 53, 59-
60
Franklin, Nicholas, helped to
build first schoolhouse for
colored children in the Dis-
trict of Columbia, 131
Frederic, Francis, taught by
his master, 214-215
Free schools not sought at first
by Negroes, 127-128
442
Index
Freeman, M. H., teacher, 280;
principal of Avery College,
271
French, the language of,
taught in colored schools,
140; educated Negroes, 3,
20, 21, 22, 23, 120
Friends, minutes of the meet-
ings of, bearing on the in-
struction of Negroes, 365-
370
Fugitive Slave Law, effects of,
242-243
Fuller, James C, left a large
sum for the education of
Negroes, 296
Fuller, Thomas, noted colored
mathematician, 87
Gabriel's insurrection, effect
of, no. III, 112, 156
Gaines, John I., led the fight
for colored trustees in Cin-
cinnati, Ohio, 328
Gallia County, Ohio, school of,
244
Gardner, Newport, teacher in
Rhode Island, 149
Gamett, H. H., was to be a
student at Canaan, New
Hampshire, 291; author,
280-281 ; president of Avery
College, 271
Garrison, Wm. Lloyd, appeal
of, in behalf of the educa-
tion of Negroes, 176, 227;
speech of, on education, 256;
solicited funds for colored
manual labor school, 289
Geneva College, change in
attitude of, 275
Georgetown, teachers and
schools of, 108, 109, 130
Georgia, prohibitive legislation
of, 8, 64, 80, 161, 167; objec-
tions of the people of, to the
education of Negroes, 63-64,
118, 119, 128; colored me-
chanics of, opposed, 284-285 ;
Presbyterians of, taught
Negroes, 221 ; slaveholders of,
in Agricultural Convention
urged the enlightenment of
Negroes, 226, 285
Gettysburg Theological Semi-
nary, admitted a Negro, 277
Gibson, Bishop, of London,
appeal in behalf of the
neglected Negroes, 30-31;
letters of, 342-345
Giles County, Tennessee,
colored preacher of, pastor
of a white church, 222
Gilmore, Rev. H., established
a high school in Cincinnati,
245
Gist, Samuel, made settlement
of Negroes, 231-232
Gloucester, New Jersey, Qua-
kers of, interested in teach-
ing Negroes, loi
Gloucester, John, preacher in
Philadelphia, 86
Goddard, Calvin, argument of,
against the constitutionality
of the law prohibiting
colored schools in Connecti-
cut, 175
Goodwyn, Morgan, urged that
Negroes be elevated, 24
Grant, Nancy, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 136
Green, Charles Henry, studied
in Delaware, 211
Greenfield, Eliza, musician,
280
Gregg of Virginia, settled his
slaves on free soil, 233
Gr^goire, H., on the mental
capacity of Negroes, 69
Grimk^ brothers, students in
Charleston, 216
Haddonfield, New Jersey,
Quakers of, instructed Ne-
groes, 100
Haiti and Santo Domingo, in-
fluence of the revolution of,
8, 156, 157
Haley, Mrs., teacher in the
District of Columbia, 130
Index
443
Hall, a graduate of Harvard
University, teacher in the
Boston colored school, 95
Hall, Anna Maria, student in
Alexandria, no; teacher,
131
Hall, Primus, established a
colored school at his home
in Boston, 95
Hamilton, Alexander, advo-
cate of the rights of man, 58
Hampton, Fannie, teacher in
District of Columbia, 136
Hancock, Richard M., studied
at Newberne, 215, 216
Hanover College, Indiana, ac-
cepted colored students, 277
Harlan, Robert, learned to
read in Kentucky, 213
Harper, Chancellor, views of,
on the instruction of Ne-
groes, 169
Harper, Frances E. W., poet,
280
Harper, John, took his slaves
from North Carolina to
Ohio and liberated them,
232
Harry, one of the first two
colored teachers in Carolina,
33-34
Hartford, separate schools of,
317; dissatisfaction of the
Negroes of, with poor school
facilities, 318; struggle of
some citizens of, against
caste in education, 319;
separate schools of, dis-
established, 319
Haviland, Laura A., teacher in
Canada, 252
Hays, Alexander, teacher in
District of Columbia, 137
Haynes, Lemuel, pastor of a
white church, 280
Heathenism, Negroes reduced
to, 185, 198, 200
Henry, Patrick, views of, on
the rights of man, 5
Henson, Rev. Josiah, leader
and educator, 241, 296
Higher education of Negroes
urged by free people of color,
260; change in the attitude
of some Negroes toward, 288 ;
promoted in the District of
Columbia, 266-268; in Penn-
sylvania, 268-272; in Ohio,
272 et seq.
Hildreth, connected with
Neau's school in New York,
28
Hill, Margaret, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 137
Hillsborough, North Carolina,
influence of the insurrection
of, 161
Homeopathic College, Cleve-
land, admitted colored stu-
dents, 277
Horton, George, poet, 280
Huddlestone, connected with
Neau's school, 27
Humphreys, Richard, gave
$10,000 to educate Negroes,
292
Hunter, John A., attended a
mixed school, 216
Illinois, schools of, for benefits
of whites, 333; separate
schools of, a failure, 334;
unfavorable legislation of,
243. 333, .335; . separate
schools of, disestablished, 335
Indiana, schools in colored
settlements of, 234-235 ; atti-
tude of, toward the educa-
tion of the colored people,
331-332; prohibitive legisla-
tion of, 331, 332
Industrial education recom-
mended, 65, 76, 77, 78, 79
Industrial revolution, effect
of, on education, 152-154
Inman, Anna, assistant of
Myrtilla Miner, 266
Institute for Colored Youth
established at Philadelphia,
268 et seq.
Institute of Easton, Pennsyl-
vania, admitted a Negro, 277
444
Index
Instruction, change in meaning
of the word, 179
Inventions of Negroes, 279;
(see note i )
Insurrections, slave, effect of,
no, III, 112, 156, 160, 161,
193. 194
Iowa, Negroes of, had good
school privileges, 335
Jackson, Edmund, demanded
the admission of colored
pupils to Boston schools,
322
Jackson, Stonewall, teacher in
a colored Sunday-school, 221
Jackson, William, musician,
280
Jay, John, a friend of the
Negroes, 60
Jay, William, criticized the
Church for its failure to
elevate the Negroes, 202-
203, 227; attacked the policy
of the colonizationists, 260-
261
Jefferson College, Pennsyl-
vania, admitted Negroes, 277
Jefferson, Thomas, views of,
on the education of Negroes,
60, 61, 62, 63, 66; (see note,
63); letter of, to Abb6 H.
Gr^goire, 384-385; letter to
M. A. Julien, 385-386;
failed to act as Kosciuszko's
executor, 79; corresponded
with Banncker, 91
Jesuits, French, instructed
slaves, 20, 21
Jesuits, Spanish, teachers of
Negroes, 20
Johnson, Harriet C, assistant
at Avery College, 271
Johnson, John Thomas, teacher
in the District of Columbia,
133. 136; teacher in Pitts-
burgh, 244
Jones, Alfred T., learned to
read in Kentucky, 207
Jones, Anna, aided Myrtilla
Miner, 268
Jones, Arabella, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 134
Tones, Rev. C. C, a white
preacher among Negroes of
Georgia, 187, 191; argument
of, for the religious instruc-
tion of Negroes, 193-194;
catechism of, for religious
instruction, 198; estimate of
those able to read, 277
Jones, Matilda, supported
Myrtilla Miner, 268
Journalistic efforts of Negroes,
281-282; (see note, 281)
Judson, A. T., denounced
Prudence Crandall's policy,
172-173; upheld the law
prohibiting the establish-
ment of colored schools in
Connecticut, 1 75
Keith, George, advocated re-
ligious training for the
Negroes, 44
Kemble, Frances Anne, dis-
covered that the Negroes of
some masters weie taught
to read, :>og; (see note 4, 209)
Kentucky, Negroes of, learned
the rudiments of education,
120, 121, 223-224; work of
the Emancipating Labor
Society of, 121; work of the
Presb\'terians of, 182; pub-
lic opinion of, 169, 233;
colored schools of, 219
Kinkaid, J. B., taught M. W.
Taylor of Kentucky, 211
Knoxville, people of, favorable
to the uplift of the colored
race, 225
Kosciuszko, T., plan of, to
educate Negroes, 76, 78,
79-80, (see note, 259); will
of. 377-378; fund of, 259
Lafayette, Marquis de, visited
New York African Free
Schools, 99; said to be in-
terested in a colored^ school
in the West, 121
Index
445
Lancastrian metliod of instruc-
tion, eflfect of, 98
Lane Seminary, students of,
taught Negroes, 245, 275
Langston, J. M., student at
Chillicothe and Oberlin,
247
Latin, taught m a colored
school, 140
Law, Rev. Josiah, instructed
Negroes in Georgia, 192;
(see note i )
Lawrence, Nathaniel, sup-
porter of New York colored
schools, 97
Lawyer for Liberia, a docu-
ment, 395-397
Lawyers, colored, recognized
in the North, 279; (see note
2) . .
Lay, Benjamin, advocate of
the instruction of slaves, 47
Leary, John S., went to private
school, 216
Lee, Thomas, a teacher in the
District of Columbia, 134
Leile, George, preacher in
Georgia and Jamaica, 85
Le Jeune, taught a little
Negro in Canada, 20
Le Petit instructed Negroes, 2 1
Lewis, R. B., author, 281
Lexington, Kentucky , colored
school of, 219; (see note i, p.
223)
Liberia, education of Negroes
for, 258; education of Ne-
groes in, 264
Liberia College, founded, 264
Liberty County, Georgia, in-
struction of Negroes in, 197
Liverpool, Moses, one of the
founders of the first colored
school in the District of
Columbia, 131
Livingston, W., teacher in Bal-
timore, 141
Locke, John, influence of, 7,
51, 57
Lockhart, Daniel J., instructed
by white boys, 213
London, Bishop of, formal
declarations of, abrogating
the law that a Christian
could not be held a slave,
24
London, Canada, private
school, 250, 253; mission
school, 251
Longworth, Nicholas, built a
school-house for Negroes,
330
Louisiana, education of Ne-
groes in, 1 19-120, 128; hos-
tile legislation of, 160, 161;
Bishop Polk of, on instruc-
tion of Negroes, 192
Louisville, Kentucky, colored
schools of, 219-220
L'Ouverture, Toussaint, in-
fluence of, 8, 163
Lowell, Massachusetts, colored
schools of, 149, 320; dis-
established, 321
Lowry, Rev. Samuel, taught
by Rev. Talbot of Franklin
College, 222
Lowth, Bishop, interested in
the uplift of the heathen, 24
Lucas, Eliza, teacher of slaves,
35
Lundy, Benjamin, helped Ne-
groes on free soil, 235
Lunenburg County, Virginia,
colored congregation of, 85
Madison, James, on the educa-
tion of Negroes, 58-59; letter
of, 386-388
Maine, separate school of, 326
Malone, Rev. J. W., educated
in Indiana, 247
Malvin, John, organized
schools in Ohio cities, 244-
245
Mangum, P. H., and W. P.,
pupils of John Chavis, a
colored teacher, 117
Manly, Gov. Charles, of North
Carolina, taught by John
Chavis, 117
446
Index
Mann, Lydia, aided Myrtilla
Miner, 268
Manual Labor Collie, de-
mand for, 265, 266, 288,
289; 293, 297, 300
Manumission, eflFect of the
laws of, 63
Martin, Martha, sent to Cin-
cinnati to be educated, 208;
sister sent to a southern
town to learn a trade, 209
Mar^chal, Rev. Ambrose,
helped to maintain colored
schools, 139
Maryland, Abolition Society of,
to establish an academy for
Negroes, 107; favorable con-
ditions, 107; public opinion
against the education of
Negroes, 169; law of, against
colored mechanics, 284
Maryville Theological Semi-
nary, students of, interested
in the uplift of Negroes, 224
Mason, Joseph T. and Thomas
H., teachers in the District
of Columbia, 137
Massachusetts, schools of, 320;
struggles for democratic edu-
cation, 320-325; disestab-
lishment of separate schools,
325
Mather, Cotton, on the in-
struction of Negroes, 6, 38,
39, 54; resolutions of, 337-
339
Matlock, White, interest of,
in Negroes, 97
Maule, Ebenezer, helped to
found a colored school in
Virginia, 112
May, Rev. Samuel, defender
of Prudence Crandall, 173,
176, 227
McCoy, Benjamin, teacher in
the District of Columbia, 136
McDoncgh, John, had edu-
cated slaves, 210
Mcintosh County, Georgia,
religious instruction of Ne-
groes, 197
McLeod, Dr., criticized the
inhumanity of men to Ne-
groes, 55
Meade, Bishop William, in-
terested in the elevation of
Negroes, 187; work of, in
Virginia, 187; followed
Bacon's policy, 188; col-
lected literature on the
instruction of Negroes, 198
Means, supported Myrtilla
Miner, 267
Mechanics, opposed colored
artisans, 283, 284, 286, 287
Medical School of Harvard
University open to colored
students, 277
Medical School of the Univer-
sity of New York admitted
colored students, 277
Memorial to Legislature of
North Carolina, the educa-
tion of slaves urged, 394-395
Methodist preacher in South
Carolina, work of, stopped
by the people, 185
Methodists, enlightened Ne-
groes, 5, 48, 49; 57, 64,
72-73, 74i 119; change in
attitude of, 180; founded
Wilberforce, 272
Michigan, Negroes admitted to
schools of, 335
Middleton, Charles, teacher in
the District of Columbia, 136
Miles, Mary E., assistant of
Gilmore in Cinciimati, 246,
280
Milton, influence of, 51
Miner, Myrtilla, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 138;
founded a school, 266-268
Minor Society of Charleston
established a school for
Negroes, 129
Minority report of Boston
School Committee opposed
segregation of colored pupils,
323-324
Minutes of Methodist Episco-
pal Conference, resolution
Index
447
Minutes — Cont.
on the instruction of Negroes,
370-371
Minutes of the Meetings of
Friends, action taken to
elevate the colored people,
365-370
Missionaries, English, inter-
ested in uplift of Negroes, 4,
25, 26, 27, 28-43; French,
3, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 120;
Spanish, 3, 19-20, 22, 23
Missouri prohibitive legisla-
tion of, 159, 160, 168
Mitchell, John G., student in
Indiana, 247
Mitchell, S. T., began his edu-
cation in Indiana, 247
Mobile, provision for the edu-
cation of the Negroes, 166
Montgomery, I. T., educated
under the direction of his
master, 215
Moore, Edward W., teacher,
and author of an arithmetic,
280
Moore, Helen, helped Myrtilla
Miner, 268
Moorland, Dr. J. E., an uncle
of, studied medicine, 220
Moravian Brethren, instructed
colored people, 49-50
Morris, Dr, E. C., instructed
by his father, 208
Morris, J., taught by his
white father, 208
Morris, J. W., student in
Charleston, 216
Morris, Robert, appointed
magistrate, 279
Murray, John, interested in
the New York African Free
Schools, 97
Nantucket, Massachusetts,
colored schools of, 149, 320
Neau, Elias, founded a colored
school in New York City,
26-27
Negroes, learning to read and
write, 83-84; free education
of, 307-335; learning in
spite of opposition, 12, 13,
14; instructing white per-
sons, 81, 115, 117: reduced
to heathenism, 12, 185, 198,
200
Neill, Rev. Hugh, missionary
teacher of Negroes in Penn-
sylvania, 35
Nell, Wm., author, 281
New Bedford, Massachusetts,
colored schools of, 149, 320;
disestablished, 320
Newbem, North Carolina,
effects of insurrection of,
160-161
New Castle, Presbytery of,
established Ashmun Insti-
tute, 271
New England, schools in, 96;
Anti-Slavery Society of,
planned to establish a man-
ual labor college, 290; sent
colored students to Canaan,
New Hampshire, 291
Newhall, Isabella, excluded a
colored boy from school, 329
New Hampshire, academy of,
broken up, 176, 291; schools
of, apparently free to all, 326
New Haven, separate schools
of, 96; colored Manual
Labor College not wanted,
260; interested in the educa-
tion of persons for Africa
and Haiti, 258, 289, 290
New Jersey, Quakers of, en-
deavored to elevate colored
people, 46, 100; law of, to
teach slaves, 74; Negroes of,
in public schools, 310-31 1;
Presbyterians of, interested
in Negroes, 181; separate
schools, 311 ; caste in schools
abolished, 311
New Orleans, education of the
Negroes of, 128
Newport, Rhode Island, sepa-
rate schools, 149, 315
New York, Quakers of, taught
Negroes, 46; Presbyterians
448
Index
New York — Cont.
of, interested in Negroes,
l8i; work of Anti- Slavery-
Society of, 291-292; sepa-
rate schools of, 97, 311;
schools opened to all, 315
New York Central College,
favorable to Negroes, 276
New York City, African Free
Schools, 97-99; transfer to
Public School Society, 313;
transfer to Board of Educa-
tion, 314; society of free
people of color of, organized
a school, 148
Newspapers, colored, gave
evidence of intellectual prog-
ress, 281; (see note i, 281)
North Carolina, Quakers of,
instructed Negroes, 46, 113,
114; Presbyterians of, in-
terested in the education of
Negroes, 182; Tryon's in-
structions against certain
teachers, 46 ; manumission
societies of, promoting the
education of colored people,
113, 115; reactionary laws
of, 168; memorial sent to
Legislature of, for permis-
sion to teach slaves, 226,
394, 395
Northwest Territory, educa-
tion of transplanted Negroes,
229 et seq.\ settlements of,
with schools, 243
Noxon, connected with Neau's
school in New York City, 27
Nutall, an Englishman, taught
Negroes in New York, 138
Oberlin grew out of Lane
Seminary, 276, 300
Objections to the instruction of
Negroes considered and an-
swered, 30, 63, 64, 65, 195
Ohio, colored schools of (see
Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleve-
land, and Northwest Terri-
tory) ; struggle for education
at public expense, 326-331;
unfavorable legislation, 326,
327; law of 1849, 327
Olmsted, F. L., found a planta-
tion of enlightened slaves,
210, 227 -
O'Neal of South Carolina Bar
discussed with Chancellor
Harper the question of in-
structing Negroes, 169
Oneida Institute contributed to
the education of Negroes, 276
Oregon, law of, hostile to
Negroes, 243
Othello, a free Negro, de-
nounced the policy of ne-
glecting the Negroes, 54
Otis, James, on the rights of all
men, 5
Palmer, Dr., catechism of, 198
Pamphlet, Gowan, a preacher
in Virginia, 85
Parry, Alfred H., successful
teacher, 136
Parsons, C. G., observed that
some Negroes were en-
lightened, 207, 215, 227
Pastoral Letters of Bishop Gib-
son of London, 342-345
Patterson, Edward, learned to
read in a Sabbath-school,
220
Payne, Dr. C. H., taught by
his mother to read, 208
Payne, Bishop Daniel, student
in Charleston, 129; agent
to purchase Wilberforce, 273
Payne, Mrs. Thomas, studied
under her master, 215
Pease, W., instructed by his
owner, 214
Penn, William, believed in
emancipation to afford Ne-
groes an opportunity for
improvement, 44
Pennington, J. C, writer,
teacher, and preacher of
influence, 281
Pennsylvania, work of Quakers
of, 46, 101-107; favorable
legislation, 308; law of.
Index
449
Penn sy 1 vania — Cont .
against colored mechanics,
284; (see also Quakers,
Friends, Presbyterians, and
Philadelphia)
Perry, R. L., attended school
at Nashville, 219
Peterboro School of New York
established, 278, 292
Petersburg, Virginia, colored
schools of, no; colored
churches, 85, 125
Pettiford, W. A., attended
private school in _ North
Carolina, 216
Philadelphia, Negroes of , taught
by Quakers, 103-107; early
colored schools, 103-107,
145-147; public aid secured
for the education of Negroes,
309-310; names of teachers
public and private, 147;
statistics of colored schools,
145-147; (see Quakers, Pres-
byterians, and Pennsylvania)
Phillips, Wendell, argument
against the segregation of
colored people in Boston,
324-325
Physicians, colored, 279; (see
note 3, 279)
Pinchback, P. B. S., studied in
the Gilmore High School in
Cincinnati, 245-246
Pinkney, William, views on the
mental capacity of Negroes,
68
Pious Negro, True Account of,
a document, 382-384
Pittsburgh, colored schools of,
244
Plan for the Improvement of the
Free Black, a document,
372-374
Plantation system, the rise of,
effects of, on the enlighten-
ment of the Negroes, 7, 153,
154
Pleasants, Robert, founder of
a colored manual labor
school, 111-112
Polk, Bishop, of Louisiana,
advocate of the instruction
of Negroes, 192
Porteus, Bishop, a portion of
his essay on the uplift of
Negroes, 359-365; (see also,
note 2, p. 42)
Portland, Maine, colored
schools of, 326
Potter, Henry, taught Negroes
in the District of Columbia,
130
Preachers, colored, preached
to Negroes, 85, 86, 183, 279;
(see note 4, 279); preached
to white people, 86, 222,
279, 280
Presbyterians, taught Negroes,
48, 72, 74, 120; struggles of,
181-182, 221,271; Acts of
Synods of, a document, 371-
372 ....
Presbyterian Witness, criticized
churchmen neglectful of the
Negroes, 225
Proposition for encouraging
the Christian education of
Indian and Mulatto children
at Lambeth, Virginia, 341
Protestant Episcopal High
School at Cape Palmas,
Liberia, 264
Prout, John, a teacher in the
District of Columbia, 132
Providence, Rhode Island,
separate schools of, 315
Providence Convent of Balti-
more, influence of, 139
Purcell, Jack, bearing of the
confession of, 158
Puritans, attitude of, toward
the uplift of Negroes, 4, 37,
38, 39, 40-42
Quakers, educational work
among Negroes, 4, 11, 43,
45,47, 48, 72, 100, 109, III,
112, 183; promoting educa-
tion in the Northwest Terri-
tory, 234-235, 236, 243;
(see also Friends)
450
Index
Racial inferiority, the argu-
ment of, 67-69
Randolph, John, slaves of,
sent to Ohio, 232
Raymond, Daniel, contributed
to the education of Negroes,
144
Reaction, the eflfect of, 9, 10,
12, 135, 137, 152, 155, 170-
171, 177
Reason, Chas. L., teacher in
Institute for Colored Youth,
270, 280
Redmond, Sarah, denied ad-
mission to Boston School,322
Redpath, James, observation
in the South, 206
Refugees from Haiti and Santo
Domingo, influence of, 8,
138, 139; bearing of, on in-
surrection, 156
Refugees Home School es-
tabUshed, 252
Religious instruction discussed
by Churchmen, 11, 179,
204, 221-222
Remond, C. L., lecturer and
orator, 280
Resolute Beneficial Society
established a school, 131
Revels, U. S. Senator Hiram,
student in Quaker Seminary,
247
Rhode Island, work of Quakers
of, 94; efforts of colored
people of, 149, 315; African
Benevolent Society of, 149;
school laws of, 316, 317;
separate schools disestab-
lished, 317
Rice, Rev. David, complained
that slaves were not en-
lightened, 55
Rice, Rev. Isaac, mission of, in
Canada, 252
Richards, Fannie, teacher in
Detroit, 247
Riley, Mrs. Isaac, taught by
master, 214
Riots of cities, eflfect of, 242-
243, 284
Roberts, Rev. D. R., attended
school in Indiana, 247
Rochester, Baptist Church of,
lost members, 242
Roe, Caroline, teacher in New
York African Free Schools,
99
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, desire to
elevate the slaves, 53; ob-
jections of masters consider-
ed, 67; interview with Dr.
James Durham, 89
Rush Medical School ad-
mitted colored student, 277
Russworm, John B., first
colored man to graduate
from college, 265
Rutland College, Vermont,
opened to colored students,
277
Sabbath-schools, a factor in
education, 124; separation
of the races, 125, 135, 185
St. Agnes Academy estab-
lished in the District of
Columbia, 134
St. Frances Academy estab-
lished in Baltimore, 139
Salem, Massachusetts, colored
school of, 149, 321
Salem, New Jersey, work of
Quakers of, 100
Sampson, B. K., assistant
teacher of Avery College,
271
Samson, Rev. Dr., aided Hays,
a teacher of Washington, 137
Sanderson, Bishop, interest in
the uplift of the heathen, 25
Sandiford, Ralph, attacked
slavery, 47
Sandoval, Alfonso, opposed
keeping slaves, 20
Sandwich, Canada, separate
school of, 250
Sandy Lake Settlement broken
up, 231
Saunders of Cabell Coimty,
West Virginia, settled his
slaves on free soil, 232
Index
451
Savannah, colored schools of,
128; churches of, 85
Scarborough, President W. S.,
early education of, 21 1-2 12
Schoepf, Johann, found condi-
tions favorable, 92
Seaman, Jacob, interest of, in
New York colored schools,
97
Searing, Anna H., a supporter
of Myrtilla Miner, 268
Seaton, W. W., a supporter of
Alexander Hays's School,
137
Seeker, Bishop, plan of, for the
instruction of Negroes, 33;
had Negroes educated for
Africa, 33; extract from
sermon of, 345-346
Settle, Josiah T., was educated
in Ohio, 209
Sewell, Chief Justice, on the
instruction of Negroes, 40-41
Shadd, Mary Ann, teacher in
Canada, 280
Shaffer, Bishop C. T., early
education of, in Indiana, 247
Sharp, Granville, on the coloni-
zation of Negroes, 66
Sidney, Thomas, gave money
to build school-house, 79
Slave in Essex County, Vir-
ginia, learned to read, 211
Slavery, ancient, contrasted
with the modern, 54
Small, Robert, student in
South Carolina, 207
Smedes, Susan Dabney, saw
slaves instructed, 214, 227
Smith, Gerrit, contributed
money to the education of
the Negro, 277, 278; founder
of the Peterboro School, 278;
appeal in behalf of colored
mechanics, 286
Smith, Melancthon, interest
of, in the New York African
Free Schools, 97
Smothers, Henry, founded a
school in Washington, 132
Snow riot, results of, 134, 135
Snowden, John Baptist, in-
structed by white children,
213
Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel in Foreign
Parts, efforts of, 4, 25, 26,
35,36
South Carolina, schools of, 34;
unfavorable conditions, 63,
64, 117, 167; prohibitive
legislation, 64, 80, 84, 167;
governor of, discussed the
Vesey insurrection, 158
Spain, King of, desired trade
in enlightened slaves only,
19
Spanish missionaries taught
Negroes in America, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23
Springfield, colored schools of,
245
Statistics on the intellectual
condition of Negroes, 227,
228, 236-240
Stewart, Rev., a missionary
in North Carolina, 37
Stewart, T. McCants, student
in Charleston, 216
Stokes, Richard, teacher in
the District of Columbia,
137
Storrs, C. B., advocate of free
discussion, 274; influence
of, 274
Stowe, H. B., assisted Myrtilla
Miner, 267; interest of, in
industrial education, 301-
306
Stratton, Lucy, taught Ne-
groes, 280
Sturgeon, Rev. William, work
of, in Philadelphia, 36
Sumler, Jas. W., learned to
read with difficulty, 213
Sylvester, Elisha, efforts of,
in Boston, 95
Tabbs, Thomas, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 138
Talbot County, Maryland, the
education of the Negro in, 31
452
Index
Talbot, Mr., tutor in the
District of Columbia, 138
Talbot, Reverend, taught
Samuel Lowry at Franklin
College, 222
Tappan, Arthur, work of, in
behalf of Negroes, 286
Tanner, Bishop Benjamin
Tucker, attended school in
Pennsylvania, 246
Tarborough, North Carolina,
eflfect of the insurrection of,
161
Tatem, Isaac, instructed Ne-
groes, 53
Taylor, M. W., taught by his
mother, 208, 211
Taylor, Dr. Wm., educated for
service in Liberia, 262
Taylor, Reverend, interest of,
in the enlightenment of
Negroes, 26
Templeton, John N., educa-
tional eflforts of, 280
Tennessee, education of the
Negroes of, 120, 121, 219,220,
224-225; legislation of, 168
Terrell, Mary Church, mother
of, taught by white gentle-
man, 211
Terrell, Robert H., father of,
learned to read, 211
Thetford Academy opened to
Negroes, 276
Thomas, J. C., teacher of W.
S. Scarborough, 212
Thomas, Rev. Samuel, teacher
in South Carolina, 26
Thompson, Margaret, efforts
of, in the District of Colimi-
bia, 136
Thornton, views of ,on coloniza-
tion, 66
Toop, Clara G., an instructor
at Avery College, 271
Toronto, Canada, evening
school organized, 251
Torrey, Jesse, on education
and emancipation, 126
Trenton, New Jersey, Quakers
of, interested, 100
Troumontaine, Julian, teacher
in Savannah, 128
"True Bands," educational
workof, in Canada, 253; (see
also note i, p. 254)
Tnmibull, John, teacher in
Philadelphia, 145
Tucker, Ebenezer, principal
of Union Literary Institute,
295
Tucker, Judge St. George, dis-
cussed slave insurrections,
157
Turner, Bishop Henry M.,
early education of, 212
Turner, Nathaniel, the educa-
tion of, 162; effects of the
insurrection of, 162-164
Union College admitted a
Negro, 265
Union Literary Institute, In-
diana, favorable to the in-
struction of Negroes, 276,295
Vanlomen, Father, aided Maria
Becraft, 133
Vashon, George B., principal
of Avery College, 271
Vermont, required practically
no segregation, 326
Vesey, Denmark, effect of the
insurrection of , 157
Vesey, Reverend, interest of,
in Neau's school, 28
Virginia, question of instruct-
ing Negroes of, 24, 28, 29;
education of Negroes of,
given legal sanction, 29;
colored schools of, 28, no,
III, 217, 218; work of abo-
litionists of, 109-112; inter-
est of Quakers of, 45, 109;
efforts of Presbyterians of,
81, 182; prohibitive legisla-
tion of, 113, 160, 162, 164,
233
Vocational training empha-
sized by Frederick Douglass,
301-306; interest of H. B.
Stowe in, 301, 306
Index
453
Wagoner, H. O., taught by his
parents, 208
Walker, David, appeal of, 161
Wall, Mary, teacher in the
District of Columbia, 133;
(see note i)
Ward, S. R., attainments of,
279
Warren, John W., studied
under white children, 213
Warville, Brissot de, found
. desirable conditions, 92
Washington, George, attitude
of, 58 ; will of, 378
Waterford, Ephraim, taught
by his employer, 214
Watkins, Wm., teacher in
Baltimore, 141
Watrum, Frangois Philibert,
inquiry of, about instructing
Negroes, 21
Wattles, Augustus, philanthro-
pist and educator, 232,
294
Wayman, Reverend, advocate
of the instruction of Ne-
groes, 36
Wayman, Rev. Dr., interest
of, in free schools, 137
Weaver, Amanda, assisted
Myrtilla Miner, 268
Wells, Nelson, bequeathed
$10,000 to educate Negroes,
Wesley, John, opinion of, on
the intellect of Negroes, 68
Western Reserve converted
to democratic education,
274
Wetmore, Reverend, a worker
connected with Neau's
school, 27
Wheatley, Phyllis, education
of, 89; poetry of, 90
White, J. T., attended school
in Indiana, 247
White, Dr. Thomas J., edu-
cated for Liberia, 262
White, W. J., educated by his
white mother, 208
Whitefield, Rev. George, in-
terest in the uplift of Ne-
groes, 49 ; plan of, to establish
a school, 50
Whitefield, Rev. James, pro-
moted education in Balti-
more, 139
Whitefield, James M., poet,
280
Wickham, executor of Samuel
Gist, 232
Williams, Bishop, urged the
duty of converting the Ne-
groes, 32
Williamson, Henry, taught by
his master, 214
Wilmington, Delaware, edu-
cational work of abolition-
ists of, loi
Wilson, Bishop of Sodor and
Man, published a pam-
phlet on the uplift of the
Negroes, 28; contributed
money to educate the Ne-
groes of Talbot County,
Maryland, 28
Wilson, Rev. Hiram, inspector
of schools in Canada, 252;
founder of a manual labor
school, 296-297
Windsor, Canada, school privi-
leges of, 250, 253
Wing, Mr., teacher in Cin-
cinnati, 245
Winslow, Parson, children of,
indulgent to Uncle Cephas,
213 .
Wisconsin, equal school facili-
ties of, 335
Woodson, Ann, taught by her
young mistress, 213
Woodson, Emma J., instructor
at Avery College, 271
Woodson, Louis, teacher in
Pittsburgh, 246
Woolman, John, interest of,
52, 57
Wormley, James, eflforts of, in
the District of Columbia,
133; (see note i)
Worrpley, Mary, teacher in
the District of Columbia, 134
454
Index
Wortham, Dr. James L., pupil
of John Chavis, 117
Wright, Rev. John F., one of
the founders of Wilberforce
University, 272
Xenia, Ohio, settlement of,
233; Wilberforce University
established near, 272
Zane, Jonathan, gave $18,000
for the education of Negroes,
269
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