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                THE TRUSTEES OF THE JOHN F. SLATER FUND

                        OCCASIONAL PAPERS, NO. 3




                        EDUCATION OF THE NEGROES

                               SINCE 1860


                                   BY

                         J. L. M. CURRY, LL. D.
         _Secretary of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund_


                               BALTIMORE
                       PUBLISHED BY THE TRUSTEES
                                  1894




                             ANNOUNCEMENT.


The Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund propose to publish from time to
time papers that relate to the education of the colored race. These
papers are designed to furnish information to those who are concerned in
the administration of schools, and also to those who by their official
stations are called upon to act or to advise in respect to the care of
such institutions.

The Trustees believe that the experimental period in the education of
the blacks is drawing to a close. Certain principles that were doubted
thirty years ago now appear to be generally recognized as sound. In the
next thirty years better systems will undoubtedly prevail, and the aid
of the separate States is likely to be more and more freely bestowed.
There will also be abundant room for continued generosity on the part of
individuals and associations. It is to encourage and assist the workers
and the thinkers that these papers will be published.

Each paper, excepting the first number (made up chiefly of official
documents), will be the utterance of the writer whose name is attached
to it, the Trustees disclaiming in advance all responsibility for the
statement of facts and opinions.




                  EDUCATION OF THE NEGROES SINCE 1860.


                             INTRODUCTION.

The purpose of this paper is to put into permanent form a narrative of
what has been done at the South for the education of the negro since
1860. The historical and statistical details may seem dry and
uninteresting, but we can understand the significance of this
unprecedented educational movement only by a study of its beginnings and
of the difficulties which had to be overcome. The present generation,
near as it is to the genesis of the work, cannot appreciate its
magnitude, nor the greatness of the victory which has been achieved,
without a knowledge of the facts which this recital gives in connected
order. The knowledge is needful, also, for a comprehension of the future
possible scope and kind of education to be given to the Afro-American
race. In the field of education we shall be unwise not to reckon with
such forces as custom, physical constitution, heredity, racial
characteristics and possibilities, and not to remember that these and
other causes may determine the limitations under which we must act. The
education of this people has a far-reaching and complicated connection
with their destiny, with our institutions, and possibly with the Dark
Continent, which may assume an importance akin, if not superior, to what
it had centuries ago. The partition of its territory, the international
questions which are springing up, and the effect of contact with and
government by a superior race, must necessarily give an enhanced
importance to Africa as a factor in commerce, in relations of
governments, and in civilization. England will soon have an unbroken
line of territorial possessions from Egypt to the Cape of Good Hope.
Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, possibly Russia, will soon have
such footholds in Africa as, whatever else may occur, will tend to the
development of century-paralyzed resources.

What other superior races have done, and are doing, for the government
and uplifting of the inferior races, which, from treaty or conquest,
have been placed under their responsible jurisdiction, may help in the
solution of our problem. Italy had a grand question in its unification;
Prussia a graver one in the nationalization of Germany, taxing the
statesmanship of Stein, Bismarck, and their co-laborers; Great Britain,
in the administration of her large and widely remote colonial
dependencies with their different races; but our problem has peculiar
difficulties which have not confronted other governments, and therefore
demands the best powers of philanthropist, sociologist, and statesman.

The emergence of a nation from barbarism to a general diffusion of
intelligence and property, to health in the social and civil relations;
the development of an inferior race into a high degree of enlightenment;
the overthrow of customs and institutions which, however indefensible,
have their seat in tradition and a course of long observance; the
working out satisfactorily of political, sociological, and ethical
problems—are all necessarily slow, requiring patient and intelligent
study of the teachings of history and the careful application of
something more than mere empirical methods. Civilization, freedom, a
pure religion, are not the speedy outcome of revolutions and cataclysms
any more than has been the structure of the earth. They are the slow
evolution of orderly and creative causes, the result of law and
preordained principles.

The educational work described in this paper has been most valuable, but
it has been so far necessarily tentative and local. It has lacked broad
and definite generalization, and, in all its phases, comprehensive,
philosophical consideration. As auxiliary to a thorough study and
ultimate better plans, the Slater Fund, from time to time, will have
prepared and published papers bearing on different phases of the negro
question.


I. The history of the negro on this continent is full of pathetic and
tragic romance, and of startling, unparalleled incident. The seizure in
Africa, the forcible abduction and cruel exportation, the coercive
enslavement, the subjection to environments which emasculate a race of
all noble aspirations and doom inevitably to hopeless ignorance and
inferiority, living in the midst of enlightenments and noblest
civilization and yet forbidden to enjoy the benefits of which others
were partakers, for four years amid battle and yet, for the most part,
having no personal share in the conflict, by statute and organic law and
law of nations held in fetters and inequality, and then, in the
twinkling of an eye, lifted from bondage to freedom, from slavery to
citizenship, from dependence on others and guardianship to suffrage and
eligibility to office—can be predicated of no other race. Other peoples,
after long and weary years of discipline and struggle, against heaviest
odds, have won liberty and free government. This race, almost without
lifting a hand, unappreciative of the boon except in the lowest aspects
of it, and unprepared for privileges and responsibilities, has been
lifted to a plane of citizenship and freedom, such as is enjoyed, in an
equal degree, by no people in the world outside of the United States.

Common schools in all governments have been a slow growth, reluctantly
conceded, grudgingly supported, and perfected after many experiments and
failures and with heavy pecuniary cost. Within a few years after
emancipation, free and universal education has been provided for the
negro, without cost to himself, and chiefly by the self-imposed taxes of
those who, a few years before, claimed his labor and time without direct
wage or pecuniary compensation.


II. Slavery, recognized by the then international law and the connivance
and patronage of European sovereigns, existed in all the colonies prior
to the Declaration of Independence, and was reinforced by importation of
negroes from Africa in foreign and New England and New York vessels. In
course of time it was confined to the Southern States, and the negroes
increased in numbers at a more rapid rate than did the whites, even
after the slave trade was abolished and declared piracy.

For a long time there was no general exclusion by law of the slaves from
the privileges of education. The first prohibitory and punitive laws
were directed against unlawful assemblages of negroes, and subsequently
of free negroes and mulattoes, as their influence in exciting discontent
or insurrection was deprecated and guarded against. Afterwards,
legislation became more general in the South, prohibiting meetings for
teaching reading and writing. The Nat Turner insurrection in Southampton
County, Virginia, in 1831, awakened the Southern States to a
consciousness of the perils, which might environ or destroy them, from
combinations of excited, inflamed, and ill-advised negroes.

As documents and newspapers tending to inflame discontent and
insurrection were supposed to have been the immediate provocation to
this conspiracy for murder of whites and for freedom of the blacks, laws
were passed against publishing and circulating such documents among the
colored population, and strengthening the prohibitions and penalties
against education.

Severe and general as were these laws, they rarely applied, and were
seldom, if ever, enforced, against teaching of individuals or of groups
on plantations, or at the homes of the owners. It was often true that
the mistress of a household, or her children, would teach the house
servants, and on Sundays include a larger number. There were also Sunday
Schools in which black children were taught to read, notably the school
in which Stonewall Jackson was a leader. It is pleasant to find recorded
in the memoir of Dr. Boyce, a Trustee of this Fund from its origin until
his death, that, as an editor, a preacher, and a citizen, he was deeply
interested in the moral and religious instruction of the negroes.

After a most liberal estimate for the efforts made to teach the negroes,
still the fact exists that, as a people, they were wholly uneducated in
schools. Slavery doomed the millions to ignorance, and in this condition
they were when the war began.


III. Almost synchronously with the earliest occupation of any portion of
the seceding States by the Union Army, efforts were begun to give the
negroes some schooling. In September, 1861, under the guns of Fortress
Monroe, a school was opened for the “contrabands of war.” In 1862,
schools were extended to Washington, Portsmouth, Norfolk, and Newport
News, and afterwards to the Port Royal islands on the coast of South
Carolina, to Newbern and Roanoke Island in North Carolina. The
proclamation of emancipation, January 1, 1863, gave freedom to all
slaves reached by the armies, increased the refugees, and awakened a
fervor of religious and philanthropic enthusiasm for meeting the
physical, moral, and intellectual wants of those suddenly thrown upon
charity. In October, 1863, General Banks, then commanding the Department
of the Gulf, created commissioners of enrollment, who established the
first public schools for Louisiana. Seven were soon in operation, with
twenty-three teachers and an average attendance of 1422 scholars. On
March 22, 1864, he issued General Order, No. 38, which constituted a
Board of Education “for the rudimental instruction of the freedmen” in
the Department, so as to “place within their reach the elements of
knowledge.”

The Board was ordered to establish common schools, to employ teachers,
to acquire school sites, to erect school buildings where no proper or
available ones for school purposes existed, to purchase and provide
necessary books, stationery, apparatus, and a well selected library, to
regulate the course of studies, and “to have the authority and perform
the same duties that assessors, supervisors, and trustees had in the
Northern States in the matter of establishing and conducting common
schools.” For the performance of the duties enjoined, the Board was
empowered to “assess and levy a school tax upon real and personal
property, including crops of plantations.” These taxes were to be
sufficient to defray expense and cost of establishing, furnishing, and
conducting the schools for the period of one year. When the tax list and
schedules should be placed in the hands of the Parish Provost Marshal,
he was to collect and pay over within thirty days to the School Board.
Schools previously established were transferred to this Board; others
were opened, and in December, 1864, they reported under their
supervision 95 schools, 162 teachers, and 9,571 scholars. This system
continued until December, 1865, when the power to levy the tax was
suspended. An official report of later date says: “In this sad juncture
the freedmen expressed a willingness to endure and even petitioned for
increased taxation in order that means for supporting their schools
might be obtained.”

On December 17, 1862, Col. John Eaton was ordered by General Grant to
assume a general supervision of freedmen in the Department of Tennessee
and Arkansas. In the early autumn of that year schools had been
established, and they were multiplied during 1863 and 1864. In the
absence of responsibility and supervision there grew up abuses and
complaints. By some “parties engaged in the work” of education,
“exorbitant charges were made for tuition,” and agents and teachers,
“instead of making common cause for the good of those they came to
benefit, set about detracting, perplexing, and vexing each other.”
“Parties and conflicts had arisen.” “Frauds had appeared in not a few
instances—evil minded, irresponsible, or incompetent persons imposing
upon those not prepared to defeat or check them.” “Bad faith to fair
promises had deprived the colored people of their just dues.”[1]

Footnote 1:

  See report of Chaplain Warren, 1864, relating to colored schools.

On September 26, 1864, the Secretary of War, through Adjutant General
Thomas, issued Order No. 28, in which he said: “To prevent confusion and
embarrassment, the General Superintendent of Freedmen will designate
officers, subject to his orders, as Superintendents of colored schools,
through whom he will arrange the location of all schools, teachers,
occupation of houses, and other details pertaining to the education of
the freedmen.” In accordance with this order, Col. Eaton removed his
headquarters from Vicksburg to Memphis. On October 20, 1864, he issued
sixteen rules and regulations for the guidance of superintendents and
teachers of colored schools in his supervision. These instructions to
subordinates were wise and provided for the opening of a sufficient
number of schools, for the payment of tuition fees from 25 cents to
$1.25 per month for each scholar, according to the ability of the
parents; for the admission free of those who could not pay and the
furnishing of clothing by the aid of industrial schools, for the
government of teachers in connection with the societies needing them,
&c. The “industrial schools” were schools in which sewing was taught,
and in which a large quantity of the clothing and material sent from the
North was made over or made up for freedmen’s use, and were highly
“useful in promoting industrious habits and in teaching useful arts of
housewifery.” The supervision under such a competent head caused great
improvement in the work, but department efforts were hindered by some
representatives of the benevolent societies who did not heartily welcome
the more orderly military supervision. An Assistant Superintendent,
March 31, 1865, reports, in and around Vicksburg and Natchez, 30
schools, 60 teachers, and 4,393 pupils enrolled; in Memphis, 1,590
pupils, and in the entire supervision, 7,360 in attendance.

General Eaton submitted a report of his laborious work which is full of
valuable information. Naturally, some abatement must be made from
conclusions which were based on the wild statements of excited freedmen,
or the false statements of interested persons. “Instinct of unlettered
reason” caused a hegira of the blacks to camps of the Union Army, or
within protected territory. The “negro population floated or was kicked
about at will.” Strict supervision became urgent to secure “contraband
information” and service, and protect the ignorant, deluded people from
unscrupulous harpies. “Mental and moral enlightenment” was to be striven
for, even in those troublous times, and it was fortunate that so capable
and faithful an officer as General Eaton was in authority.

All the operations of the supervisors of schools did not give
satisfaction, for the Inspector of Schools in South Carolina and
Georgia, on October 13, 1865, says: “The Bureau does not receive that
aid from the Government and Government officials it had a right to
expect, and really from the course of the military officials in this
Department, you might think that the only enemies to the Government are
the agents of the Bureau.”


IV. By act of Congress of March 3, 1865, the Freedmen’s Bureau was
created. The scope of its jurisdiction and work extended far beyond
education. It embraced abandoned lands and the supply of the negroes
with food and clothing, and during 1865 as many as 148,000 were reported
as receiving rations. The Quartermaster and Commissary Departments were
placed at the service of the agents of the Bureau, and, in addition to
freedom, largesses were lavishly given to “reach the great and
imperative necessities of the situation.” Large and comprehensive powers
and resources were placed in the hands of the Bureau, and limitations of
the authority of the Government were disregarded in order to meet the
gravest problem of the century. Millions of recently enslaved negroes,
homeless, penniless, ignorant, were to be saved from destitution or
perishing, to be prepared for the sudden boon of political equality, to
be made self-supporting citizens and to prevent their freedom from
becoming a curse to themselves and their liberators. The Commissioner
was authorized “to seize, hold, use, lease, or sell all buildings and
tenements and any lands appertaining to the same, or otherwise formally
held, under color of title by the late Confederate States, and buildings
or lands held in trust for the same, and to use the same, or appropriate
the proceeds derived therefrom, to the education of the freed people.”
He was empowered also to “coöperate with private benevolent associations
in aid of the freedmen.” The Bureau was attached to the War Department
and was at first limited in duration to one year, but was afterwards
prolonged. General O. O. Howard was appointed Commissioner, with
assistants. He says he was invested with “almost unlimited authority”
and that the act and orders gave “great scope and liberty of action.”
“Legislative, judicial, and executive powers were combined, reaching all
the interests of the freedmen.” On June 2, 1865, the President ordered
all officers of the United States to turn over to the Bureau “all
property, funds, lands, and records in any way connected with freedmen
and refugees.” This bestowment of despotic power was not considered
unwise because of the peculiar exigencies of the times and the condition
of the freedmen, who, being suddenly emancipated by a dynamic process,
were without schools, or teachers, or means to procure them. To organize
the work, a Superintendent of Schools was appointed for each State.
Besides the regular appropriation by Congress, the Military authorities
aided the Bureau. Transportation was furnished to teachers, books, and
school furniture, and material aid was given to all engaged in
education.

General Howard used his large powers to get into his custody the funds
scattered in the hands of many officers, which could be made available
for the freedmen. Funds bearing different names were contributed to the
work of “colored education.”[2] During the war some of the States sent
money, to officers serving in the South, to buy substitutes from among
the colored people to fill up their quota under the draft. A portion of
the bounty money thus sent, by an order of Gen. B. F. Butler, August 4,
1864, was retained in the hands of officers who had been superintendents
of negro affairs, and by the President’s order of June 2, 1865 was
turned over to the disbursing officers of the Bureau of Freedmen. After
the organization of the Bureau, Gen. Howard instructed agents to turn
money, held by them, over to the chief disbursing officer of the Bureau.
This was in no sense public money, but belonged to individuals, enlisted
as contraband recruits to fill the State quotas. What was unclaimed of
what was held in trust under Gen. Butler’s order was used for
educational purposes.

Footnote 2:

  See Spec. Ed. Rep., District of Columbia, p. 259.

In the early part of 1867, the accounting officers of the Treasury
Department ascertained that numerous frauds were being perpetrated on
colored claimants for bounties under acts of Congress. Advising with
General Howard, the Treasury officials drew a bill, which Congress
enacted into a law, devolving upon the Commissioner the payment of
bounties to colored soldiers and sailors. This enlarged responsibility
gave much labor to General Howard, in his already multifarious and
difficult duties, and made more honorable the acquittal which he secured
when an official investigation was subsequently ordered upon his
administration of the affairs of the Bureau.

The Act of Congress of July 16, 1866, gave a local fund, which was
expended in the district in which it accrued, and besides there were
general appropriations for the support of the Bureau, which were, in
part, available for schools.

Mr. Ingle, writing of school affairs in the District in 1867 and 1868,
says:

“Great aid was given at this period by the Freedmen’s Bureau, which, not
limiting its assistance to schools for primary instruction, did much
toward establishing Howard University, in which no distinction was made
on account of race, color, or sex, though it had originally been
intended for the education of negro men alone.”

The monograph of Edward Ingle on “The Negro in the District of
Columbia”—one of the valuable Johns Hopkins University Studies—gives
such a full and easily accessible account of the education of the
negroes in the District, that it is needless to enlarge the pages of
this paper by a repetition of what he has so satisfactorily done.

The Bureau found many schools in localities which had been within the
lines of the Union armies, and these, with the others established by its
agency, were placed under more systematic supervision. In some States,
schools were carried on entirely by aid of the funds of the Bureau, but
it had the coöperation and assistance of various religious and
benevolent societies. On July 1, 1866, Mr. Alvord, Inspector of Schools
and Finances, reported 975 schools in fifteen States and the District,
1,405 teachers, and 90,778 scholars. He mentioned as worthy of note a
change of sentiment among better classes in regard to freedmen’s
schools, and that the schools were steadily gaining in numbers,
attainments, and general influence. On January 17, 1867, General Howard
reports to the Secretary of War $115,261.56 as used for schools, and the
Quartermaster’s Department as still rendering valuable help. Education
“was carried on vigorously during the year,” a better feeling
prevailing, and 150,000 freedmen and children “occupied earnestly in the
study of books.” The taxes, which had been levied for schools in
Louisiana, under the administration of T. W. Conway, had been
discontinued, but $500,000 were asked for schools and asylums. In 1867,
the Government appointed Generals Steedman and Fullerton as Inspectors,
and from General Howard’s vehement reply to their report—which the War
Department declines to permit an inspection of—it appears that their
criticisms were decidedly unfavorable. Civilians in the Bureau were now
displaced by army officers. In July, 1869, Mr. Alvord mentions decided
progress in educational returns, increasing thirst for knowledge,
greater public favor, and the establishment of 39 training schools for
teachers, with 3,377 pupils. Four months later, General Howard says
“hostility to schools and teachers has in great measure ceased.” He
reported the cost of the Bureau at $13,029,816, and earnestly
recommended “the national legislature” to establish a general system of
free schools, “furnishing to all children of a suitable age such
instruction in the rudiments of learning as would fit them to discharge
intelligently the duties of free American citizens.” Solicitor Whiting
had previously recommended that the head of the Freedmen’s Bureau should
be a cabinet officer, but this was not granted, and the Bureau was
finally discontinued—its affairs being transferred to the War Department
by Act of Congress, June 10, 1872. It is apparent from the reports of
Sprague, Assistant Commissioner in Florida, and of Alvord in 1867 and
1870, that the agents of the Bureau sometimes used their official
position and influence for organizing the freedmen for party politics
and to control elections. A full history of the Freedmen’s Bureau would
furnish an interesting chapter in negro education, but a report from
Inspector Shriver on October 3, 1873, says the Department has “no means
of verifying the amount of retained bounty fund;” and on December 4,
1873, the Department complains of “the incomplete and disordered
condition of the records of the late Bureau.” (See Ex. Doc. No. 10, 43d
Con., 1st Ses., and Ho. Mis. Doc. No. 87, 42d Con., 3d Ses.)

That no injustice may be done to any one, the answer of the “Record and
Pension Office, War Department,” May 21, 1894, to my application for
statistics drawn from the records, is embodied in this paper. So far as
the writer has been able to investigate, no equally full and official
account has heretofore been given.

                  *       *       *       *       *

“The following consolidated statement, prepared from records of
Superintendents of Education of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands, shows the number of schools, teachers, and pupils in
each State, under control of said Bureau, and the amount expended for
Schools, Asylums, construction and rental of school buildings,
transportation of teachers, purchase of books, etc.:—


                               1865–1866.

           Number of Schools                            1,264
           Number of Teachers                           1,793
           Number of Pupils                           111,193

           Amount Expended by Bureau             $ 225,722 94
           Received from Freedmen                   18,500 00
           Received from Benevolent Associations    83,200 00


                                 1867.

           Number of Schools                            1,673
           Number of Teachers                           2,032
           Number of Pupils                           109,245

           Amount Expended                       $ 415,330 00
           From Freedmen                            17,200 00
           From Benevolent Associations             65,087 00


                                 1868.

           Number of Schools                            1,739
           Number of Teachers                           2,104
           Number of Pupils                           102,562

           Amount Expended                       $ 909,210 20
           From Freedmen                            42,130 00
           From Benevolent Associations            154,736 50


                                 1869.

           Number of Schools                            1,942
           Number of Teachers                           2,472
           Number of Pupils                           108,485

           Amount Expended                       $ 591,267 56
           From Freedmen                            85,726 00
           From Benevolent Associations             27,200 00


                                 1870.

           Number of Schools                            1,900
           Number of Teachers                           2,376
           Number of Pupils                           108,135

           Amount Expended                       $ 480,737 82
           From Freedmen                            17,187 00
           From Benevolent Associations              4,240 00

“This statement or statistical table is made up from the reports of the
Superintendents of Education of the several States under the control of
the Bureau from 1865 to 1870, when government aid to the freedmen’s
schools was withdrawn. It embraces the number of schools established or
maintained, the number of teachers employed, the number of pupils, and
the amount expended for school purposes in each State and the District
of Columbia. The expenditures also include the amounts contributed by
the Bureau for the construction and maintenance of asylums for the
freedmen, which cannot be separated from the totals given.

“The table is based upon the reports of the School Superintendents, and
has been prepared with great care. The results thus obtained, however,
differ in some material respects from the figures given by the
Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau in his annual reports. These
discrepancies, which this Department is unable to reconcile or explain,
will be seen by a comparison of the table with the following statement
made from the reports of the Commissioner:


                                 1866.

              Number of Schools                        975
              Number of Teachers                     1,405
              Number of Pupils                      90,778


                  _Disbursements for School Purposes._

              By the Bureau                   $ 123,659 39
              By the Benevolent Associations     82,200 00
              By the Freedmen                    18,500 00
                                               ———————————
                          Total                $224,359 39


                                 1867.

              Number of Schools                      1,839
              Number of Teachers                     2,087
              Number of Pupils                     111,442


                  _Disbursements for School Purposes._

              By the Bureau                   $ 531,345 48
              By the Benevolent Associations     65,087 01
              By the Freedmen                    17,200 00
                                               ———————————
                          Total                $613,632 49


                                 1868.

              Number of Schools                      1,831
              Number of Teachers                     2,295
              Number of Pupils                     104,327


                  _Disbursements for School Purposes._

              By the Bureau                   $ 965,896 67
              By Benevolent Associations        700,000 00
              By the Freedmen [est’d]           360,000 00
                                             —————————————
                          Total              $2,025,896 67


                                 1869.

              Number of Schools                      2,118
              Number of Teachers                     2,455
              Number of Pupils                     114,522


                  _Disbursements for School Purposes._

              By the Bureau                   $ 924,182 16
              By Benevolent Associations        365,000 00
              By the Freedmen [est’d]           190,000 00
                                             —————————————
                          Total              $1,479,182 16


                                 1870.

              Number of Schools                      2,677
              Number of Teachers                     3,300
              Number of Pupils                     149,581


                  _Disbursements for School Purposes._

              By the Bureau                   $ 976,853 29
              By Benevolent Associations        360,000 00
              By the Freedmen [est’d]           200,000 00
                                             —————————————
                          Total              $1,536,853 29

“It has been found impracticable to ascertain the amounts expended by
the Freedmen’s Bureau for Howard and Fisk Universities and the schools
at Hampton, Atlanta, and New Orleans, the items of expenditure for these
schools not being separated in the reports from the gross expenditures
for school purposes.”

                  *       *       *       *       *

A committee of investigation upon General Howard’s use of the Bureau for
his pecuniary aggrandizement were divided in opinion, but a large
majority exonerated him from censure and commended him for the excellent
performance of difficult duties. An equally strong and unanimous verdict
of approval was rendered by a Court of Inquiry, General Sherman
presiding, which was convened under an Act of Congress, February 13,
1874.


V. It has been stated that the Bureau was authorized to act in
coöperation with benevolent or religious societies in the education of
the negroes. A number of these organizations had done good service
before the establishment of the Bureau and continued their work
afterwards. The teachers earliest in the field were from the American
Missionary Association, Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission, American
Baptist Home Mission Society, and the Society of Friends. After the
surrender of Vicksburg and the occupation of Natchez, others were sent
by the United Presbyterians, Reformed Presbyterians, United Brethren in
Christ, Northwestern Freedmen’s Aid Commission, and the National
Freedmen’s Aid Association. The first colored school in Vicksburg was
started in 1863 by the United Brethren in the basement of a Methodist
church.

The American Missionary Association was the chief body, apart from the
Government, in the great enterprise of meeting the needs of the negroes.
It did not relinquish its philanthropic work because army officers and
the Federal Government were working along the same line. Up to 1866 its
receipts were swollen by “the aid of the Free Will Baptists, the
Wesleyans, the Congregationalists, and friends in Great Britain.” From
Great Britain it is estimated that “a million of dollars in money and
clothing were contributed through various channels for the freedmen.”
The third decade of the Association, 1867–1876, was a marked era in its
financial history. The Freedmen’s Bureau turned over a large sum, which
could be expended only in buildings. A congressional report says that
between December, 1866, and May, 1870, the Association received
$243,753.22. Since the Association took on a more distinctive and
separate denominational character, because of the withdrawal of other
denominations into organizations of their own, it, along with its church
work, has prosecuted, with unabated energy and marked success, its
educational work among the negroes. It has now under its control or
support—


                     Chartered Institutions      6
                     Normal Schools             29
                     Common Schools             43


                                TOTALS.

                     Schools                    78
                     Instructors               389
                     Pupils                 12,609


                          PUPILS CLASSIFIED.

                     Theological                47
                     Collegiate                 57
                     College Preparatory       192
                     Normal                  1,091
                     Grammar                 2,378
                     Intermediate            3,692
                     Primary                 5,152

Some of these schools are not specially for negroes. It would be unjust
not to give the Association much credit for Atlanta University and for
Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute, which are not included in the
above recapitulation, as the latter stands easily first among all the
institutions designed for negro development, both for influence and
usefulness. During the war and for a time afterwards, the school work of
the Association was necessarily primary and transitional, but it grew
into larger proportions, with higher standards, and its normal and
industrial work deserves special mention and commendation. From 1860 to
October 1, 1893, its expenditures in the South for freedmen, directly
and indirectly, including church extension as well as education, have
been $11,610,000.


VI. In 1866 was organized “The Freedmen’s Aid and Southern Society of
the Methodist Episcopal Church.” Under that compact, powerful,
well-disciplined, enthusiastic organization, more than $6,000,000 have
been expended in the work of education of negroes. Dr. Hartzell said,
before the World’s Congress in Chicago, that Wilberforce University, at
Xenia, Ohio, was established in 1857 as a college for colored people,
and “continues to be the chief educational centre of African Methodism
in the United States.” He reports, as under various branches of
Methodism, 65 institutions of learning for colored people, 388 teachers,
10,100 students, $1,905,150 of property, and $652,500 of endowment.
Among these is Meharry Medical College of high standard and excellent
discipline, with dental and pharmaceutical departments as well as
medical. Near 200 students have been graduated. The School of Mechanic
Arts in Central Tennessee College, under the management of Professor
Sedgwick, has a fine outfit, and has turned out telescopes and other
instruments, which command a ready and remunerative market in this and
other countries.


VII. On April 16, 1862, slavery was abolished in the District of
Columbia. By November, 13,000 refugees had collected at Washington,
Alexandria, Hampton, and Norfolk. Under an unparalleled exigency,
instant action was necessary. The lack of educational privileges led
Christian societies to engage in educational work, at least in the
rudiments of learning, for the benefit of these people, who were eager
to be instructed. Even where education had not previously been a part of
the functions of certain organizations, the imperative need of the
liberated left no option as to duty. With the assistance of the Baptist
Free Mission Society and of the Baptist Home Mission Society, schools
were established in Alexandria as early as January 1, 1862, and were
multiplied through succeeding years. After Appomattox, the Baptist Home
Mission Society was formally and deliberately committed to the education
of the blacks, giving itself largely to the training of teachers and
preachers. In May, 1892, the Society had, under its management, 24
schools with 216 instructors, 4,861 pupils, of whom 1,756 were preparing
to teach, school property worth $750,000 and endowment funds of
$156,000. Probably, not less than 50,000 have attended the various
schools. Since 1860, $2,451,859.65 have been expended for the benefit of
the negroes. The Superintendent of Education says: “The aggregate amount
appropriated for the salaries of teachers from the time the Society
commenced its work until January, 1883, was:—District of Columbia,
$59,243.57; Virginia, $65,254.44; North Carolina, $41,788.90; South
Carolina, $29,683.71; Florida, $3,164.16; Georgia, $26,963.21; Alabama,
$4,960.37; Mississippi, $6,611.05; Louisiana, $39,168.25; Texas,
$2,272.18; Arkansas, $150; Tennessee, $57,898.86; Kentucky, $1,092.54;
Missouri, $300. The following gives the aggregate amount appropriated
for teachers and for all other purposes such as land, buildings, etc.,
from January, 1883, to January, 1893:—District of Columbia, $103,110.01;
Virginia, $193,974.08; North Carolina, $142,861.95; South Carolina,
$137,157.79; Florida, $55,923.96; Georgia, $314,061.48; Alabama,
$35,405.86; Mississippi, $86,019.70; Louisiana, $33,720.93; Texas,
$131,225.27; Arkansas, $13,206.20; Tennessee, $164,514.05; Kentucky,
$49,798.56; Missouri, $6,543.13. Until January, 1883, the appropriations
for teachers and for lands, buildings, etc., were kept as separate
items. I have already given the appropriations for the teachers up to
that date. For grounds and buildings, $421,119.50 were appropriated.” In
connection with the Spelman Seminary and the Male School in Atlanta,
there has been established, under intelligent and discriminating rules,
a first class training department for teachers. A new commodious
structure well adapted to the purpose, costing $55,000, was opened in
December. At Spelman there is an admirable training school for nurses,
where the pupils have hospital practice. Shaw University at Raleigh has
the flourishing Leonard Medical School and a well equipped pharmacy.


VIII. The Presbyterian Church at the North, in May, 1865, adopted a
deliverance in favor of special efforts in behalf of the “lately
enslaved African race.” From the 28th annual report of the Board of
Missions for Freedmen, it appears that, besides building churches,
special exertions have been put forth “in establishing parochial
schools, in planting academies and seminaries, in equipping and
supporting a large and growing university.” The report mentions fifteen
schools,—three in North Carolina, four in South Carolina, three in
Arkansas, and one in each of the States of Texas, Mississippi, Virginia,
Georgia, and Tennessee. $1,280,000 have been spent. “In the high schools
and parochial schools, we have (May, 1893) 10,520 students who are being
daily moulded under Presbyterian educational influence.” The United
Presbyterian Church reports for May, 1893, an enrollment in schools of
2,558. The Southern Presbyterians have a Theological Seminary in
Birmingham, Alabama, which was first opened in Tuskaloosa in 1877.


IX. The Episcopal Church, through the Commission on Church Work among
the Colored People, during the seven years of its existence, 1887–1893,
has expended $272,068, but the expenditure is fairly apportioned between
ministerial and teaching purposes. The schools are parochial “with an
element of industrial training,” and are located in Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, but the “Reports” do not give
the number of teachers and scholars. The Friends have some well
conducted schools, notably the Schofield in Aiken, South Carolina. They
have sustained over 100 schools and have spent $1,004,129. In the
mission work of the Roman Catholic Church among the negroes, school work
and church work are so blended that it has been very difficult to make a
clear separation. Schools exist in Baltimore, Washington, and all the
Southern States, but with how many teachers and pupils and at what cost
the Report of the Commission for 1893 does not show. A few extracts are
given. “We need,” says one, “all the help possible to cope with the
Public Schools of Washington. In fact our school facilities are poor,
and, unless we can do something to invite children to our Catholic
Schools, many of them will lose their faith.” Another person writes:
“Next year we shall have to exert all the influence in our power to hold
our school. Within two doors of our school a large public school
building is being erected; this new public school building will draw
pupils away from the Catholic School, unless the latter be made equally
efficient in its work.”


X. On February 6, 1867, George Peabody gave to certain gentlemen two
million dollars in trust, to be used “for the promotion and
encouragement of intellectual, moral, or industrial education among the
young of the more destitute portions of the Southwestern States of our
Union.” This gift embraced both races, and Dr. Barnas Sears was
fortunately selected as the General Agent, to whom was committed
practically the administration of the Trust. In his first report he
remarked that, in many of the cities aided by the Fund, provision was
made for the children of both races, but said that, as the subject of
making equal provision for the education of both races was occupying
public attention, he thought it the safer and wiser course not to set up
schools on a precarious foundation, but to confine help to public
schools and make efforts in all suitable ways to improve or have
established State systems of education. Still, in some localities aid
was judiciously given, and the United States Superintendent of Education
for the negroes in North Carolina gave testimony that but for the
Peabody aid many of the colored schools would be closed. “Our
Superintendents have aided largely in distributing the Peabody Fund in
nearly all the States.” “Great good has thereby been accomplished at
very little added expense.” The Peabody Fund bent its energies and
directed its policy towards securing the establishment of State systems
of education which should make adequate and permanent provision for
universal education. State authorities would have more power and general
influence than individuals, or denominational or private corporations.
They represent the whole people, are held to a strict accountability,
protect “from the charge of sectarianism and from the liability of being
overreached by interested parties.” State systems, besides, have a
continuous life and are founded on the just principle that property is
taxable for the maintenance of general education. The Fund now acts
exclusively with State systems, and continues support to the negroes
more efficiently through such agencies.


XI. Congress, by land grants since 1860, has furnished to the Southern
States substantial aid in the work of Agricultural and Mechanical
education. On March 2, 1867, the Bureau of Education was established for
the collection and diffusion of information. This limited sphere of work
has been so interpreted and cultivated that the Bureau, under its able
Commissioners, especially under the leadership of that most accomplished
American educator, Dr. W. T. Harris, has become one of the most
efficient and intelligent educational agencies on the continent. To the
general survey of the educational field and comparative exhibits of the
position of the United States and other enlightened countries, have been
added discussions by specialists, and papers on the various phases of
educational life, produced by the incorporation of diverse races into
our national life or citizenship. The Annual Reports and Circulars of
Information contain a vast mass of facts and studies in reference to the
colored people, and a digest and collaboration of them would give the
most complete history that could be prepared.

The Bureau and the Peabody Education Fund have been most helpful allies
in making suggestions in relation to legislation in school matters, and
giving, in intelligible, practical form, the experiences of other
States, home and foreign, in devising and perfecting educational
systems. All the States of the South, as soon as they recovered their
governments, put in operation systems of public schools which gave equal
opportunities and privileges to both races. It would be singularly
unjust not to consider the difficulties, social, political, and
pecuniary, which embarrassed the South in the efforts to inaugurate free
education. It required unusual heroism to adapt to the new conditions,
but she was equal in fidelity and energy to what was demanded for the
reconstruction of society and civil institutions. The complete
enfranchisement of the negroes and their new political relations, as the
result of the war and the new amendments to the Constitution,
necessitated an entire reorganization of the systems of public
education. To realize what has been accomplished is difficult, at
best—impossible, unless we estimate sufficiently the obstacles and
compare the facilities of to-day with the ignorance and bondage of a
generation ago, when some statutes made it an indictable offence to
teach a slave or free person of color. Comparisons with densely
populated sections are misleading, for in the South the sparseness and
poverty of the population are almost a preventive of good schools. Still
the results have been marvellous. Out of 448 cities in the United
States, with a population each of 8,000 and over, only 73 are in the
South. Of 28, with a population from 100,000 to 1,500,000, only 2 (St.
Louis being excluded) are in the South. Of 96, with a population between
25,000 and 100,000, 17 are in the South. The urban population is
comparatively small, and agriculture is the chief occupation. Of 858,000
negroes in Georgia, 130,000 are in cities and towns, and 728,000 in the
country; in Mississippi, urban colored population, 42,000, rural,
700,000; in South Carolina, urban, 74,000, rural, 615,000; in North
Carolina, urban, 66,000, against 498,000 rural; in Alabama, 65,000
against 613,000; in Louisiana, 93,000 against 466,000. The schools for
colored children are maintained on an average 89.2 days in a year, and
for white children 98.6, but the preponderance of the white over the
black race, in towns and cities, helps in part to explain the
difference. While the colored population supplies less than its due
proportion of pupils to the public schools, and the regularity of
attendance is less than with the white, yet the difference in length of
school term in schools for white and schools for black children is
trifling. In the same grades the wages of teachers are about the same.
The annual State school revenue is apportioned impartially among white
and black children, so much per capita to each child. In the rural
districts the colored people are dependent chiefly upon the State
apportionment, which is by law devoted mainly to the payment of
teachers’ salaries. Hence, the school-houses and other conveniences in
the country for the negroes are inferior, but in the cities the
appropriation for schools is general and is allotted to white and
colored, according to the needs of each. A small proportion of the
school fund comes from colored sources. All the States do not
discriminate in assessments of taxable property, but in Georgia, where
the ownership is ascertained, the negroes returned in 1892 $14,869,575
of taxable property against $448,883,959 returned by white owners. The
amount of property listed for taxation in North Carolina in 1891 was, by
white citizens, $234,109,568; by colored citizens, $8,018,446. To an
inquiry for official data, the auditor of the State of Virginia says:
“The taxes collected in 1891 from white citizens were $2,991,646.24, and
from the colored, $163,175.67. The amount paid for public schools for
whites, $588,564.87; for negroes, $309,364.15. Add $15,000 for Colored
Normal and $80,000 for colored lunatic asylum. Apportioning the criminal
expenses between the white and the colored people in the ratio of
convicts of each race received into the Penitentiary in 1891, and it
shows that the criminal expenses put upon the State annually by the
whites are $55,749.57 and by the negroes $204,018.99.”

Of the desire of the colored people for education the proof is
conclusive, and of their capacity to receive mental culture there is not
the shade of a reason to support an adverse hypothesis. The Bureau of
Education furnishes the following suggestive table:


        SIXTEEN FORMER SLAVE STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

 ─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────
       Year.      │     Common School Enrollment.     │  Expenditures.
 ─────────────────┼─────────────────┬─────────────────┼─────────────────
                  │     White.      │    Colored.     │   Both Races.
 ─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────
 1876–77          │        1,827,139│          571,506│      $11,231,073
 1877–78          │        2,034,946│          675,150│       12,093,091
 1878–79          │        2,013,684│          685,942│       12,174,141
 1879–80          │        2,215,674│           84,709│       12,678,685
 1880–81          │        2,234,877│          802,374│       13,656,814
 1881–82          │        2,249,263│          802,982│       15,241,740
 1882–83          │        2,370,110│          817,240│       16,363,471
 1883–84          │        2,546,448│        1,002,313│       17,884,558
 1884–85          │        2,676,911│        1,030,463│       19,253,874
 1885–86          │        2,773,145│        1,048,659│       20,208,113
 1886–87          │        2,975,773│        1,118,556│       20,821,969
 1887–88          │        3,110,606│        1,140,405│       21,810,158
 1888–89          │        3,197,830│        1,213,092│       23,171,878
 1889–90          │        3,402,420│        1,296,959│       24,880,107
 1890–91          │        3,570,624│        1,329,549│       26,690,310
 1891–92          │        3,607,549│        1,354,316│       27,691,488
 ─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────

            Total amount expended in 16 years, $295,851,470.

In 1890–91 there were 79,962 white teachers and 24,150 colored. To the
enrollment in common schools should be added 30,000 colored children,
who are in normal or secondary schools. The amount expended for
education of negroes is not stated separately, but Dr. W. T. Harris
estimates that there must have been nearly $75,000,000 expended by the
Southern States, in addition to what has been contributed by missionary
and philanthropic sources. In Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, annual
grants are made for the support of colored normal and industrial
schools.

The negroes must rely very largely upon the public schools for their
education, and so they should. They are, and will continue to be, the
most efficient factors for uplifting the race. The States, at immense
sacrifice, with impartial liberality, have taxed themselves for a
population which contributes very little to the State revenues, and
nothing could be done more prejudicial to the educational interests of
the colored people than to indulge in any hostility or indifference to,
or neglect of, these free schools. Denominations and individuals can do
nothing more harmful to the race than to foster opposition to the public
schools.


XII. A potential agency in enlightening public opinion and in working
out the problem of the education of the negro has been the John F.
Slater Fund. “In view of the apprehensions felt by all thoughtful
persons,” when the duties and privileges of citizenship were suddenly
thrust upon millions of lately emancipated slaves, Mr. Slater conceived
the purpose of giving a large sum of money to their proper education.
After deliberate reflection and much conference, he selected a Board of
Trust and placed in their hands a million of dollars. This unique gift,
originating wholly with himself, and elaborated in his own mind in most
of its details, was for “the uplifting of the lately emancipated
population of the Southern States and their posterity, by conferring on
them the blessings of Christian education.” “Not only for their own
sake, but also for the sake of our common country,” he sought to provide
“the means of such education as shall tend to make them good men and
good citizens,” associating the instruction of the mind “with training
in just notions of duty toward God and man, in the light of the Holy
Scriptures.” Leaving to the corporation the largest discretion and
liberty, in the prosecution of the general object, as described in his
Letter of Trust, he yet indicated as “lines of operation adapted to the
condition of things” the encouragement of “institutions as are most
effectually useful in promoting the training of teachers.” The Trust was
to be administered “in no partisan, sectional, or sectarian spirit, but
in the interest of a generous patriotism and an enlightened Christian
spirit.” Soon after organization the Trustees expressed very strongly
their judgment that the scholars should be “trained in some manual
occupation, simultaneously with their mental and moral instruction,” and
aid was confined to such institutions as gave “instruction in trades and
other manual occupations,” that the pupils might obtain an intelligent
mastery of the indispensable elements of industrial success. So repeated
have been similar declarations on the part of the Trustees and the
General Agents that manual training, or education in industries, may be
regarded as an unalterable policy; but only such institutions were to be
aided as were, “with good reason, believed to be on a permanent basis.”
Mr. Slater explained “Christian Education,” as used in his Letter of
Gift, to be teaching, “leavened with a predominant and salutary
Christian influence,” such as was found in “the common school teaching
of Massachusetts and Connecticut,” and that there was “no need of
limiting the gifts of the Fund to denominational institutions.” Since
the first appropriation, near fifty different institutions have been
aided, in sums ranging from $500 to $5,000. As required by the Founder,
neither principal nor income is expended for land or buildings. For a
few years aid was given in buying machinery or apparatus, but now the
income is applied almost exclusively to paying the salaries of teachers
engaged in the normal or industrial work. The number of aided
institutions has been lessened, with the view of concentrating and
making more effective the aid and of improving the instruction in normal
and industrial work. The table appended presents a summary of the
appropriations which have been made from year to year.


                       CASH DISBURSED BY JOHN F.
                     SLATER FUND, AS APPROPRIATIONS
                     FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

                     To August 13, 1884 $ 24,881.66
                     To April  30, 1885   30,414.19
                     To April  30, 1886   38,724.98
                     To April  30, 1887   39,816.28
                     To April  30, 1888   46,183.34
                     To April  30, 1889   43,709.98
                     To April  30, 1890   41,560.02
                     To April  30, 1891   50,650.00
                     To April  30, 1892   45,816.33
                     To April  30, 1893   37,475.00
                     To April  30, 1894   40,750.00
                                        ———————————
                                        $439,981.78




                      JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS,
                               BALTIMORE.

------------------------------------------------------------------------




                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES


 1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as
      printed.
 3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers.