The Possibilities of the Human Intellect.—Ignorance Favorable to
Slavery.—An Act by the Legislature of Alabama imposing a Penalty
on any one Instructing a Colored Person.—Educational Privileges
of the Creoles in the City of Mobile.—Prejudice against Colored
Schools in Connecticut.—The Attempt of Miss Prudence Crandall to
admit Colored Girls into her School at Canterbury.—The
Indignation of the Citizens at this Attempt to Mix the Races in
Education.—The Legislature of Connecticut passes a Law
abolishing the School.—The Building assaulted by a Mob.—Miss
Crandall arrested and imprisoned for teaching Colored Children
against the Law.—Great Excitement.—The Law finally
repealed.—An Act by the Legislature of Delaware taxing Persons
who brought into, or sold Slaves out of, the State.—Under Act of
1829 Money received for the Sale of Slaves in Florida was added
to the School Fund in that State.—Georgia prohibits the
Education of Colored Persons under Heavy Penalty.—Illinois
establishes Separate Schools for Colored Children.—The "Free
Mission Institute" at Quincy, Illinois, destroyed by a Missouri
Mob.—Numerous and Cruel Slave Laws in Kentucky retard the
Education of the Negroes.—An Act passed in Louisiana preventing
the Negroes in any Way from being instructed.—Maine gives equal
School Privileges to Whites and Blacks.—St. Francis Academy for
Colored Girls founded in Baltimore in 1831.—The Wells
School.—The First School for Colored Children established in
Boston by Intelligent Colored Men in 1798.—A School-house for
the Colored Children built and paid for out of a Fund left by
Abiel Smith for that Purpose.—John B. Russworm one of the
Teachers and afterward Governor of the Colony of Cape Palmas,
Liberia.—First Primary School for Colored Children established
in 1820.—Missouri passes Stringent Laws against the Instruction
of Negroes.—New York provides for the Education of
Negroes.—Elias Neau opens a School in New York City for Negro
Slaves in 1704.—"New York African Free School" in 1786.—Visit
of Lafayette to the African Schools in 1824.—His
Address.—Public Schools for Colored Children in New
York.—Colored Schools in Ohio.—"Cincinnati High School" for
Colored Youths founded in 1844.—Oberlin College opens its Doors
to Colored Students.—The Establishment of Colored Schools in
Pennsylvania by Anthony Benezet in 1750.—His Will.—"Institute
for Colored Youths" established in 1837.—"Avery College," at
Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, founded in 1849.—Ashmun Institute,
or Lincoln University, founded in October, 1856.—South Carolina
takes Definite Action against the Education or Promotion of the
Colored Race in 1800-1803-1834.—Tennessee makes no
Discrimination against Color in the School Law of 1840.—Little
Opportunity afforded in Virginia for the Colored Man to be
enlightened.—Stringent Laws enacted.—History of Schools for the
Colored Population in the District of Columbia.
Return to Table of
Contents
THE institution of American slavery needed protection from the day of
its birth to the day of its death. Whips, thumbscrews, and manacles of
iron were far less helpful to it than the thraldom of the intellects
of its hapless victims. "Created a little lower than the angels,"
"crowned with glory and honor," armed with authority "over every
living creature," man was intended by his Maker to rule the world
through his intellect. The homogeneousness of the crude faculties of
man has been quite generally admitted throughout the world; while even
scientists, differing widely in many other things, have united in
ascribing to the human mind everywhere certain possibilities. But one
class of men have dissented from this view—the slave-holders of all
ages. A justification of slavery has been sought in the alleged belief
of the inferiority of the persons enslaved; while the broad truism of
the possibilities of the human mind was confessed in all legislation
that sought to prevent slaves from acquiring knowledge. So the
slave-holder asserted his belief in the mental inferiority of the
Negro, and then advertised his lack of faith in his assertion by
making laws to prevent the Negro intellect from receiving those truths
which would render him valueless as a slave, but equal to the duties
of a freeman.
ALABAMA
had an act in 1832 which declared that "Any person or persons who
shall attempt to teach any free person of color or slave to spell,
read, or write, shall, upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined
in a sum not less than $250, nor more than $500." This act also
prohibited with severe penalties, by flogging, "any free negro or
person of color" from being in company with any slaves without written
permission from the owner or overseer of such slaves; it also
prohibited the assembling of more than five male slaves at any place
off the plantation to which they belonged; but nothing in the act was
to be considered as forbidding attendance at places of public worship
held by white persons. No slave or free person of color was permitted
to "preach, exhort, or harangue any slave or slaves, or free persons
of color, except in the presence of five respectable slave-holders, or
unless the person preaching was licensed by some regular body of
professing Christians in the neighborhood, to whose society or church
the negroes addressed properly belonged."
In 1833, the mayor and aldermen of the city of Mobile were authorized
by an act of the Legislature to grant licenses to such persons as they
deemed suitable to give instruction to the children of free Colored
Creoles. This applied only to those who resided in the city of Mobile
and county of Baldwin. The instruction was to be given at brief
periods, and the children had to secure a certificate from the mayor
and aldermen. The ground of this action was the treaty between France
and the United States in 1803, by which the rights and privileges of
citizens had been secured to the Creoles residing in the above places
at the time of the treaty.
ARKANSAS,
so far as her laws appear, did not prohibit the education of Negroes;
but a study of her laws leaves the impression that the Negroes there
were practically denied the right of instruction.
CONNECTICUT
never legislated against educating Colored persons, but the prejudice
was so strong that it amounted to the same thing. The intolerant
spirit of the whites drove the Colored people of Hartford to request a
separate school in 1830. Prejudice was so great against the presence
of a Colored school in a community of white people, that a school,
established by a very worthy white lady, was mobbed and then
legislated out of existence.
"In the summer of 1832, Miss Prudence Crandall, an excellent,
well-educated Quaker young lady, who had gained considerable
reputation as a teacher in the neighboring town of Plainfield,
purchased, at the solicitation of a number of families in the
village of Canterbury, Connecticut, a commodious house in that
village, for the purpose of establishing a boarding and day
school for young ladies, in order that they might receive
instruction in higher branches than were taught in the public
district school. Her school was well conducted, but was
interrupted early in 1833 in this wise: Not far from the village
a worthy colored man was living, by the name of Harris, the owner
of a good farm, and in comfortable circumstances. His daughter
Sarah, a bright girl, seventeen years of age, had passed with
credit through the public school of the district in which she
lived, and was anxious to acquire a better education, to qualify
herself to become a teacher of the colored people. She applied to
Miss Crandall for admission to her school. Miss Crandall
hesitated, for prudential reasons, to admit a colored person
among her pupils; but Sarah was a young lady of pleasing
appearance and manners, well known to many of Miss Crandall's
present pupils, having been their classmate in the district
school, and was, moreover, a virtuous, pious girl, and a member
of the church in Canterbury. No objection could be made to her
admission, except on acount of her complexion, and Miss Crandall
decided to receive her as a pupil. No objection was made by the
other pupils, but in a few days the parents of some of them
called on Miss Crandall and remonstrated; and although Miss
Crandall pressed upon their consideration the eager desire of
Sarah for knowledge and culture, and the good use she wished to
make of her education, her excellent character, and her being an
accepted member of the same Christian church to which they
belonged, they were too much prejudiced to listen to any
arguments—'they would not have it said that their daughters went
to school with a nigger girl.' It was urged that if Sarah was not
dismissed, the white pupils would be withdrawn; but although the
fond hopes of success for an institution which she had
established at the risk of all her property, and by incurring a
debt of several hundred dollars, seemed to be doomed to
disappointment, she decided not to yield to the demand for the
dismissal of Sarah; and on the 2d day of March, 1833, she
advertised in the 'Liberator' that on the first Monday in April
her school would be open for 'young ladies and little misses of
color.' Her determination having become known, a fierce
indignation was kindled and fanned by prominent people of the
village and pervaded the town. In this juncture, the Rev. Samuel
J. May, of the neighboring town of Brooklyn, addressed her a
letter of sympathy, expressing his readiness to assist her to the
extent of his power, and was present at the town meeting held on
the 9th of March, called for the express purpose of devising and
adopting such measures as 'would effectually avert the nuisance
or speedily abate it if it should be brought into the village.'
"The friends of Miss Crandall were authorized by her to state to
the moderator of the town meeting that she would give up her
house, which was one of the most conspicuous in the village, and
not wholly paid for, if those who were opposed to her school
being there would take the property off her hands at the price
for which she had purchased it, and which was deemed a reasonable
one, and allow her time to procure another house in a more
retired part of the town.
"The town meeting was held in the meeting-house, which, though
capable of holding a thousand people, was crowded throughout to
its utmost capacity. After the warning for the meeting had been
read, resolutions were introduced in which were set forth the
disgrace and damage that would be brought upon the town if a
school for colored girls should be set up there, protesting
emphatically against the impending evil, and appointing the civil
authority and select-men a committee to wait upon 'the person
contemplating the establishment of said school, and persuade her,
if possible, to abandon the project.'
"The resolutions were advocated by Rufus Adams, Esq., and Hon.
Andrew T. Judson, who was then the most prominent man of the
town, and a leading politician in the State, and much talked of
as the Democratic candidate for governor, and was a
representative in Congress from 1835 to 1839, when he was elected
judge of the United States District Court, which position he held
until his death in 1853, adjudicating, among other causes, the
libel of the 'Amistad' and the fifty-four Africans on board.
After his address on this occasion, Mr. May, in company with Mr.
Arnold Buffum, a lecturing agent of the New England Anti-Slavery
Society, applied for permission to speak in behalf of Miss
Crandall, but their application was violently opposed, and the
resolutions being adopted, the meeting was declared, by the
moderator, adjourned.
"Mr. May at once stepped upon the seat where he had been sitting,
and rapidly vindicated Miss Crandall, replying to some of the
misstatements as to her purposes and the character of her
expected pupils, when he gave way to Mr. Buffum, who had spoken
scarcely five minutes before the trustees of the church ordered
the house to be vacated and the doors to be shut. There was then
no alternative but to yield.
"Two days afterward Mr. Judson called on Mr. May, with whom he
had been on terms of a pleasant acquaintance, not to say of
friendship, and expressed regret that he had applied certain
epithets to him; and went on to speak of the disastrous effect on
the village from the establishment of 'a school for nigger
girls.' Mr. May replied that his purpose was, if he had been
allowed to do so, to state at the town meeting Miss Crandall's
proposition to sell her house in the village at its fair
valuation, and retire to some other part of the town. To this Mr.
Judson replied: 'Mr. May, we are not merely opposed to the
establishment of that school in Canterbury, we mean there shall
not be such a school set up anywhere in the State.'
"Mr. Judson continued, declaring that the colored people could
never rise from their menial condition in our country, and ought
not to be permitted to rise here; that they were an inferior race
and should not be recognized as the equals of the whites; that
they should be sent back to Africa, and improve themselves there,
and civilize and Christianize the natives. To this Mr. May
replied that there never would be fewer colored people in this
country than there were then; that it was unjust to drive them
out of the country; that we must accord to them their rights or
incur the loss of our own; that education was the primal,
fundamental right of all the children of men; and that
Connecticut was the last place where this should be denied.
"The conversation was continued in a similar strain, in the
course of which Mr. Judson declared with warmth: 'That nigger
school shall never be allowed in Canterbury, nor in any town of
this State'; and he avowed his determination to secure the
passage of a law by the Legislature then in session, forbidding
the institution of such a school in any part of the State.
"Undismayed by the opposition and the threatened violence of her
neighbors, Miss Crandall received, early in April, fifteen or
twenty colored young ladies and misses from Philadelphia, New
York, Providence, and Boston, and the annoyances of her
persecutors at once commenced: all accommodations at the stores
in Canterbury being denied her, her pupils being insulted
whenever they appeared on the streets, the doors and door-steps
of her house being besmeared, and her well filled with filth;
under all of which, both she and her pupils remained firm. Among
other means used to intimidate, an attempt was made to drive away
those innocent girls by a process under the obsolete vagrant law,
which provided that the select-men of any town might warn any
person, not an inhabitant of the State, to depart forthwith,
demanding $1.67 for every week he or she remained after receiving
such warning; and in case the fine was not paid and the person
did not depart before the expiration of ten days after being
sentenced, then he or she should be whipped on the naked body,
not exceeding ten stripes.
"A warrant to that effect was actually served upon Eliza Ann
Hammond, a fine girl from Providence, aged seventeen years; but
it was finally abandoned, and another method was resorted to,
most disgraceful to the State as well as the town. Foiled in
their attempts to frighten away Miss Crandall's pupils by their
proceedings under the obsolete 'pauper and vagrant law,' Mr.
Judson and those who acted with him pressed upon the Legislature,
then in session, a demand for the enactment of a law which should
enable them to accomplish their purpose; and in that bad purpose
they succeeded, by securing the following enactment, on the 24th
of May, 1833, known as the 'black law.'
"'Whereas, attempts have been made to establish literary
institutions in this State for the instruction of colored persons
belonging to other States and countries, which would tend to the
great increase of the colored population of the State, and
thereby to the injury of the people: therefore,
"'Be it enacted, etc., That no person shall set up or establish
in this State any school, academy, or other literary institution
for the instruction or education of colored persons, who are not
inhabitants of this State, or harbor or board, for the purpose of
attending or being taught or instructed in any such school,
academy, or literary institution, any colored person who is not
an inhabitant of any town in this State, without the consent in
writing, first obtained, of a majority of the civil authority,
and also of the select-men of the town in which such school,
academy, or literary institution is situated,' etc.
"'And each and every person who shall knowingly do any act
forbidden as aforesaid, or shall be aiding or assisting therein,
shall for the first offense forfeit and pay to the treasurer of
this State a fine of $100, and for the second offense $200, and
so double for every offense of which he or she shall be
convicted; and all informing officers are required to make due
presentment of all breaches of this act.'
"On the receipt of the tidings of the passage of this law, the
people of Canterbury were wild with exultation; the bells were
rung and a cannon was fired to manifest the joy. On the 27th of
June, Miss Crandall was arrested and arraigned before Justices
Adams and Bacon, two of those who had been the earnest opponents
of her enterprise; and the result being predetermined, the trial
was of course brief, and Miss Crandall was 'committed' to take
her trial at the next session of the Supreme Court at Brooklyn,
in August. A messenger was at once dispatched by the party
opposed to Miss Crandall to Brooklyn, to inform Mr. May, as her
friend, of the result of the trial, stating that she was in the
hands of the sheriff, and would be put in jail unless he or some
of her friends would 'give bonds' for her in a certain sum."
The denouement may be related most appropriately in the language of
Mr. May:
"I calmly told the messenger that there were gentlemen enough in
Canterbury whose bond for that amount would be as good or better
than mine, and I should leave it for them to do Miss Crandall
that favor. 'But,' said the young man, 'are you not her friend?'
'Certainly,' I replied, 'too sincerely her friend to give relief
to her enemies in their present embarrassment, and I trust you
will not find any one of her friends, or the patrons of her
school, who will step forward to help them any more than myself.'
'But, sir,' he cried, 'do you mean to allow her to be put in
jail?' 'Most certainly,' was my answer, 'if her persecutors are
unwise enough to let such an outrage be committed.' He turned
from me in blank surprise, and hurried back to tell Mr. Judson
and the justices of his ill success.
"A few days before, when I first heard of the passage of the law,
I had visited Miss Crandall with my friend, Mr. George W. Benson,
and advised with her as to the course she and her friends ought
to pursue when she should be brought to trial. She appreciated at
once and fully the importance of leaving her persecutors to show
to the world how base they were, and how atrocious was the law
they had induced the Legislature to enact—a law, by the force of
which a woman might be fined and imprisoned as a felon in the
State of Connecticut for giving instruction to colored girls. She
agreed that it would be best for us to leave her in the hands of
those with whom the law originated, hoping that, in their
madness, they would show forth all their hideous features.
"Mr. Benson and I, therefore, went diligently around to all who
he knew were friendly to Miss Crandall and her school, and
counselled them by no means to give bonds to keep her from
imprisonment, because nothing would expose so fully to the public
the egregious wickedness of the law and the virulence of her
persecutors as the fact that they had thrust her into jail.
"When I found that her resolution was equal to the trial which
seemed to be impending, that she was ready to brave and to bear
meekly the worst treatment that her enemies would venture to
subject her to, I made all the arrangements for her comfort that
were practicable in our prison. It fortunately happened that the
most suitable room, unoccupied, was the one in which a man named
Watkins had recently been confined for the murder of his wife,
and out of which he had been taken and executed. This
circumstance we foresaw would add not a little to the public
detestation of the black law. The jailer, at my request,
readily put the room in as nice order as was possible, and
permitted me to substitute for the bedstead and mattrass on which
the murderer had slept, fresh and clean ones from my own house
and Mr. Benson's.
"About 2 o'clock, P.M., another messenger came to inform me that
the sheriff was on the way from Canterbury to the jail with Miss
Crandall, and would imprison her unless her friends would give
the required bail. Although in sympathy with Miss Crandall's
persecutors, he saw clearly the disgrace that was about to be
brought upon the State, and begged me and Mr. Benson to avert it.
Of course we refused. I went to the jailer's house and met Miss
Crandall on her arrival. We stepped aside. I said: 'If now you
hesitate—if you dread the gloomy place so much as to wish to be
saved from it, I will give bonds for you even now.' 'Oh, no,' she
promptly replied, 'I am only afraid they will not put me in jail.
Their evident hesitation and embarrassment show plainly how much
they deprecated the effect of this part of their folly, and
therefore I am the more anxious that they should be exposed, if
not caught in their own wicked devices.
"We therefore returned with her to the sheriff and the company
that surrounded him, to await his final act. He was ashamed to do
it. He knew it would cover the persecutors of Miss Crandall and
the State of Connecticut with disgrace. He conferred with several
about him, and delayed yet longer. Two gentlemen came and
remonstrated with me in not very seemly terms: 'It would be a
—— shame, an eternal disgrace to the State, to have her put
into jail—into the very room that Watkins had last occupied.'
"'Certainly, gentlemen,' I replied, 'and this you may prevent if
you please.'
"'Oh!' they cried, 'we are not her friends; we are not in favor
of her school; we don't want any more —— niggers coming among
us. It is your place to stand by Miss Crandall and help her now.
You and your —— abolition brethren have encouraged her to
bring this nuisance into Canterbury, and it is —— mean in you
to desert her now.'
"I rejoined: 'She knows we have not deserted her, and do not
intend to desert her. The law which her persecutors have
persuaded our legislators to enact is an infamous one, worthy of
the dark ages. It would be just as bad as it is whether we would
give bonds for her or not. But the people generally will not so
soon realize how bad, how wicked, how cruel a law it is unless we
suffer her persecutors to inflict upon her all the penalties it
prescribes. She is willing to bear them for the sake of the cause
she has so nobly espoused. If you see fit to keep her from
imprisonment in the cell of a murderer for having proffered the
blessings of a good education to those who in our country need it
most, you may do so; we shall not.'
"They turned from us in great wrath, words falling from their
lips which I shall not repeat.
"The sun had descended nearly to the horizon; the shadows of
night were beginning to fall around us. The sheriff could defer
the dark deed no longer. With no little emotion, and with words
of earnest deprecation, he gave that excellent, heroic, Christian
young lady into the hands of the jailer, and she was led into the
cell of Watkins. So soon as I had heard the bolts of her prison
door turned in the lock, and saw the key taken out, I bowed and
said: 'The deed is done, completely done. It cannot be recalled.
It has passed into the history of our nation and our age.' I went
away with my steadfast friend, George W. Benson, assured that the
legislators of the State had been guilty of a most unrighteous
act, and that Miss Crandall's persecutors had also committed a
great blunder; that they all would have much more reason to be
ashamed of her imprisonment than she or her friends could ever
have.
"The next day we gave the required bonds. Miss Crandall was
released from the cell of the murderer, returned home, and
quietly resumed the duties of her school until she should be
summoned as a culprit into court, there to be tried by the
infamous 'Black Law of Connecticut.' And, as we expected, so
soon as the evil tidings could be carried in that day, before
Professor Morse had given to Rumor her telegraphic wings, it was
known all over the country and the civilized world, that an
excellent young lady had been imprisoned as a criminal—yes, put
into a murderer's cell—in the State of Connecticut, for opening
a school for the instruction of colored girls. The comments that
were made upon the deed in almost all the newspapers were far
from grateful to the feelings of her persecutors. Even many who,
under the same circumstances, would probably have acted as badly
as Messrs. A. T. Judson & Co., denounced their procedure as
'un-Christian, inhuman, anti-Democratic, base, mean.'
"On the 23d of August, 1833, the first trial of Miss Crandall
was had in Brooklyn, the seat of the county of Windham, Hon.
Joseph Eaton presiding at the county court.
"The prosecution was conducted by Hon. A. T. Judson, Jonathan A.
Welch, Esq., and I. Bulkley, Esq. Miss Crandall's counsel was
Hon. Calvin Goddard, Hon. W. W. Elsworth, and Henry Strong, Esq.
"The judge, somewhat timidly, gave it as his opinion 'that the
law was constitutional and obligatory on the people of the
State.'
"The jury, after an absence of several hours, returned into
court, not having agreed upon a verdict. They were instructed and
sent out again, and again a third time, in vain; they stated to
the judge that there was no probability that they could ever
agree. Seven were for conviction and five for acquittal, so they
were discharged.
"The second trial was on the 3d of October, before Judge Daggett
of the Supreme Court, who was a strenuous advocate of the black
law. His influence with the jury was overpowering, insisting in
an elaborate and able charge that the law was constitutional,
and, without much hesitation, the verdict was given against Miss
Crandall. Her counsel at once filed a bill of exceptions, and
took an appeal to the Court of Errors, which was granted. Before
that, the highest legal tribunal in the State, the cause was
argued on the 22d of July, 1834. Both the Hon. W. W. Elsworth and
the Hon. Calvin Goddard argued with great ability and eloquence
against the constitutionality of the black law. The Hon. A. T.
Judson and Hon. C. F. Cleaveland said all they could to prove
such a law consistent with the Magna Charta of our republic.
The court reserved a decision for some future time; and that
decision was never given, it being evaded by the court finding
such defects in the information prepared by the State's attorney
that it ought to be quashed.
"Soon after this, an attempt was made to set the house of Miss
Crandall on fire, but without effect. The question of her duty to
risk the lives of her pupils against this mode of attack was then
considered, and upon consultation with friends it was concluded
to hold on and bear a little longer, with the hope that this
atrocity of attempting to fire the house, and thus expose the
lives and property of her neighbors, would frighten the
instigators of the persecution, and cause some restraint on the
'baser sort.' But a few nights afterward, about 12 o'clock, being
the night of the 9th of September, her house was assaulted by a
number of persons with heavy clubs and iron bars, and windows
were dashed to pieces. Mr. May was summoned the next morning, and
after consultation it was determined that the school should be
abandoned."
Mr. May thus concluded his account of this event, and of the
enterprise:
"The pupils were called together and I was requested to announce
to them our decision. Never before had I felt so deeply sensible
of the cruelty of the persecution which had been carried on for
eighteen months in that New England village, against a family of
defenseless females. Twenty harmless, well-behaved girls, whose
only offense against the peace of the community was that they had
come together there to obtain useful knowledge and moral culture,
were to be told that they had better go away, because, forsooth,
the house in which they dwelt would not be protected by the
guardians of the town, the conservators of the peace, the
officers of justice, the men of influence in the village where it
was situated. The words almost blistered my lips. My bosom glowed
with indignation. I felt ashamed of Canterbury, ashamed of
Connecticut, ashamed of my country, ashamed of my color."[58]
Thus ended the generous, disinterested, philanthropic Christian
enterprise of Prudence Crandall, but the law under which her
enterprise was defeated was repealed in 1838.
It is to be regretted that Connecticut earned such an unenviable place
in history as this. It seems strange, indeed, that such an occurrence
could take place in the nineteenth century in a free State in a
republic in North America! But such is "the truth of history."
DELAWARE
never passed any law against the instruction of Negroes, but in 1833
passed an act taxing every person who sold a slave out of the State,
or brought one into the State, five dollars, which went into a school
fund for the education of white children alone. In 1852, the Revised
Statutes provided for the taxation of all the property of the State
for the support of the schools for white children alone. So, by
implication, Delaware prohibited the education of Colored children.
In 1840, the Friends formed the African School Association in
Wilmington; and under its management two excellent schools, for boys
and girls, were established.
FLORIDA.
On the 28th of December, 1848, an act was passed providing "for the
establishment of common schools." The right to vote at district
meetings was conferred upon every person whose property was liable to
taxation for school purposes; but only white children were allowed
school privileges.
In the same year an act was passed providing that the school funds
should consist of "the proceeds of the school lands," and of all
estates, real or personal, escheating to the State, and "the proceeds
of all property found on the coast or shores of the State." In 1850
the counties were authorized to provide, by taxation, not more than
four dollars for each child within their limits of the proper school
age. In the same year the amount received from the sale of any slave,
under the act of 1829, was required to be added to the school fund.
The common school law was revised in 1853, and the county
commissioners were authorized to add from the county treasury any sum
they thought proper for the support of common schools.[59]
GEORGIA
passed a law in 1770 (copied from S. C. Statutes, passed in 1740),
fixing a fine of £20 for teaching a slave to read or write. In 1829
the Legislature enacted the following law:
"If any slave, negro, or free person of color, or any white
person, shall teach any other slave, negro, or free person of
color to read or write either written or printed characters, the
said free person of color or slave shall be punished by fine and
whipping, or fine or whipping, at the discretion of the court;
and if a white person so offend, he, she, or they shall be
punished with a fine not exceeding $500, and imprisonment in the
common jail at the discretion of the court."
In 1833 the above law was consolidated into a penal code. A penalty of
$100 was provided against persons who employed any slave or free
person of Color to set type or perform any other labor about a
printing-office requiring a knowledge of reading or writing. During
the same year an ordinance was passed in the city of Savannah, "that
if any person shall teach or cause to be taught any slave or free
person of color to read or write within the city, or who shall keep a
school for that purpose, he or she shall be fined in a sum not
exceeding $100 for each and every such offense; and if the offender be
a slave or free person of color, he or she may also be whipped, not
exceeding thirty-nine lashes."
In the summer of 1850 a series of articles by Mr. F. C. Adams appeared
in one of the papers of Savannah, advocating the education of the
Negroes as a means of increasing their value and of attaching them to
their masters. The subject was afterward taken up in the Agricultural
Convention which met at Macon in September of the same year. The
matter was again brought up in September, 1851, in the Agricultural
Convention, and after being debated, a resolution was passed that a
petition be presented to the Legislature for a law granting permission
to educate the slaves. The petition was presented to the Legislature,
and Mr. Harlston introduced a bill in the winter of 1852, which was
discussed and passed in the lower House, to repeal the old law, and to
grant to the masters the privilege of educating their slaves. The bill
was lost in the senate by two or three votes.[60]
ILLINOIS'
school laws contain the word "white" from beginning to end. There is
no prohibition against the education of Colored persons; but there
being no mention of them, is evidence that they were purposely
omitted. Separate schools were established for Colored children before
the war, and a few white schools opened their doors to them. The Free
Mission Institute at Quincy was destroyed by a mob from Missouri in
ante-bellum days, because Colored persons were admitted to the
classes.
INDIANA
denied the right of suffrage to her Negro population in the
constitution of 1851. No provision was made for the education of the
Negro children. And the cruelty of the laws that drove the Negro from
the State, and pursued him while in it, gave the poor people no hope
of peaceful habitation, much less of education.
KENTUCKY
never put herself on record against the education of Negroes. By an
act passed in 1830, all the inhabitants of each school district were
taxed to support a common-school system. The property of Colored
persons was included, but they could not vote or enjoy the privileges
of the schools. And the slave laws were so numerous and cruel that
there was no opportunity left the bondmen in this State to acquire any
knowledge of books even secretly.
LOUISIANA
passed an act in 1830, forbidding free Negroes to enter the State. It
provided also, that whoever should "write, print, publish, or
distribute any thing having a tendency to produce discontent among the
free colored population, or insubordination among the slaves," should,
on conviction thereof, be imprisoned "at hard labor for life, or
suffer death, at the discretion of the court." And whoever used
language calculated to produce discontent among the free or slave
population, or was "instrumental in bringing into the State any paper,
book, or pamphlet having such tendency," was to "suffer imprisonment
at hard labor, not less than three years nor more than twenty-one
years, or death, at the discretion of the court." "All persons,"
continues the act, "who shall teach, or permit, or cause to be taught,
any slave to read or write, shall be imprisoned not less than one
month nor more than twelve months."
In 1847, a system of common schools for "the education of white youth
was established." It was provided that "one mill on the dollar, upon
the ad valorem amount of the general list of taxable property,"
should be levied for the support of the schools.
MAINE
gave the elective franchise and ample school privileges to all her
citizens, without regard to race or color, by her constitution of
1820.
MARYLAND
always restricted the right of suffrage to her "white male
inhabitants," and, therefore, always refused to make any provisions
for the education of her Negro population. There is nothing upon her
statute-books prohibiting the instruction of Negroes, but the law that
designates her schools for "white children" is sufficient proof that
Negro children were purposely omitted and excluded from the benefits
of the schools.
St. Frances Academy for Colored girls was founded in connection with
the Oblate Sisters of Providence Convent, in Baltimore, June 5, 1829,
under the hearty approbation of the Most Rev. James Whitfield, D.D.,
the Archbishop of Baltimore at that time, and receiving the sanction
of the Holy See, October 2, 1831. The convent originated with the
French Fathers, who came to Baltimore from San Domingo as refugees, in
the time of the revolution in that island in the latter years of last
century. There were many Colored Catholic refugees who came to
Baltimore during that period, and the French Fathers soon opened
schools there for the benefit of the refugees and other Colored
people. The Colored women who formed the original society which
founded the convent and seminary, were from San Domingo; though they
had, some of them, certainly, been educated in France. The schools
which preceded the organization of the convent were greatly favored
by. Most Rev. Ambrose Marechal, D.D., who was a French Father, and
Archbishop of Baltimore from 1817 to 1828, Archbishop Whitfield being
his successor. The Sisters of Providence is the name of a religious
society of Colored women who renounced the world to consecrate
themselves to the Christian education of Colored girls. The following
extract from the announcement which, under the caption of "Prospectus
of a School for Colored Girls under the Direction of the Sisters of
Providence," appeared in the columns of the "Daily National
Intelligencer," October 25, 1831, shows the spirit in which the school
originated, and at the same time shadows forth the predominating ideas
pertaining to the province of the race at that period.
The prospectus says:
"The object of this institute is one of great importance,
greater, indeed, than might at first appear to those who would
only glance at the advantages which it is calculated to directly
impart to the leading portion of the human race, and through it
to society at large. In fact, these girls will either become
mothers of families or household servants. In the first case the
solid virtues, the religious and moral principles which they may
have acquired in this school will be carefully transferred as a
legacy to their children. Instances of the happy influence which
the example of virtuous parents has on the remotest lineage in
this humble and naturally dutiful class of society are numerous.
As to such as are to be employed as servants, they will be
intrusted with domestic concerns and the care of young children.
How important, then, it will be that these girls shall have
imbibed religious principles, and have been trained up in habits
of modesty, honesty, and integrity."[61]
The Wells School, established by a Colored man by the name of Nelson
Wells, in 1835, gave instruction to free children of color. It was
managed by a board of trustees who applied the income of $7,000 (the
amount left by Mr. Wells) to the support of the school. It
accomplished much good.
MASSACHUSETTS.
A separate school for Colored children was established in Boston, in
1798, and was held in the house of a reputable Colored man named
Primus Hall. The teacher was one Elisha Sylvester, whose salary was
paid by the parents of the children whom he taught. In 1800 sixty-six
Colored citizens presented a petition to the School Committee of
Boston, praying that a school might be established for their benefit.
A sub-committee, to whom the petition had been referred, reported in
favor of granting the prayer, but it was voted down at the next town
meeting. However, the school taught by Mr. Sylvester did not perish.
Two young gentlemen from Harvard University, Messrs. Brown and
Williams, continued the school until 1806. During this year the
Colored Baptists built a church edifice in Belknap Street, and fitted
up the lower room for a school for Colored children. From the house of
Primus Hall the little school was moved to its new quarters in the
Belknap Street church. Here it was continued until 1835, when a
school-house for Colored children was erected and paid for out of a
fund left for the purpose by Abiel Smith, and was subsequently called
"Smith School-house." The authorities of Boston were induced to give
$200.00 as an annual appropriation, and the parents of the children in
attendance paid 12½ cents per week. The school-house was dedicated
with appropriate exercises, Hon. William Minot delivering the
dedicatory address.
The African school in Belknap Street was under the control of the
school committee from 1812 to 1821, and from 1821 was under the charge
of a special sub-committee. Among the teachers was John B. Russworm,
from 1821 to 1824, who entered Bowdoin College in the latter year, and
afterward became governor of the colony of Cape Palmas in Southern
Liberia.
The first primary school for Colored children in Boston was
established in 1820, two or three of which were subsequently kept
until 1855, when they were discontinued as separate schools, in
accordance with the general law passed by the Legislature in that
year, which provided that, "in determining the qualifications of
scholars to be admitted into any public school, or any district school
in this commonwealth, no distinction shall be made on account of the
race, color, or religious opinions of the applicant or scholar." "Any
child, who, on account of his race, color, or religious opinions
should be excluded from any public or district school, if otherwise
qualified," might recover damages in an action of tort, brought in
the name of the child in any court of competent jurisdiction, against
the city or town in which the school was located.[62]
MISSISSIPPI
passed an act in 1823 providing against the meeting together of
slaves, free Negroes, or Mulattoes above the number of five. They were
not allowed to meet at any public house in the night; or at any house,
for teaching, reading, or writing, in the day or night. The penalty
for the violation of this law was whipping, "not exceeding
thirty-nine" lashes.
In 1831 an act was passed making it "unlawful for any slave, free
negro, or mulatto to preach the Gospel," upon pain of receiving
thirty-nine lashes upon the naked back of the presumptuous preacher.
If a Negro received written permission from his master he might preach
to the Negroes in his immediate neighborhood, providing six
respectable white men, owners of slaves, were present.
In 1846, and again in 1848, school laws were enacted, but in both
instances schools and education were prescribed for "white youth
between the ages of six and twenty years."
MISSOURI
ordered all free persons of color to move out of the State in 1845. In
1847 an act was passed providing that "no person shall keep or teach
any school for the instruction of negroes or mulattoes in reading or
writing in this State."
NEW YORK
had the courage and patriotism, in 1777, to extend the right of
suffrage to every male inhabitant of full age. But by the revised
constitution, in 1821, this liberal provision was abridged so that
"no man of color, unless he shall have been for three years a citizen
of this State, and for one year next preceding any election, shall be
seized and possessed of a freehold estate of $250 over and above all
debts and encumbrances charged thereon, and shall have been actually
rated and paid a tax thereon, shall be entitled to vote at any such
election. And no person of color shall be subject to direct taxation
unless he shall be seized and possessed of such real estate as
aforesaid." In 1846, and again in 1850, a Constitutional amendment
conferring equal privileges upon the Negroes, was voted down by large
majorities.
A school for Negro slaves was opened in the city of New York in 1704
by Elias Neau, a native of France, and a catechist of the "Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts." After a long
imprisonment for his public profession of faith as a Protestant, he
founded an asylum in New York. His sympathies were awakened by the
condition of the Negroes in slavery in that city, who numbered about
1,500 at that time. The difficulties of holding any intercourse with
them seemed almost insurmountable. At first he could only visit them
from house to house, after his day's toil was over; afterward he was
permitted to gather them together in a room in his own house for a
short time in the evening. As the result of his instructions at the
end of four years, in 1708, the ordinary number under his instruction
was 200. Many were judged worthy to receive the sacrament at the hands
of Mr. Vesey, the rector of Trinity Church, some of whom became
regular and devout communicants, remarkable for their orderly and
blameless lives.
But soon after this time some Negroes of the Carmantee and Pappa
tribes formed a plot for setting fire to the city and murdering the
English on a certain night. The work was commenced but checked, and
after a short struggle the English subdued the Negroes. Immediately a
loud and angry clamor arose against Elias Neau, his accusers saying
that his school was the cause of the murderous attempt. He denied the
charge in vain; and so furious were the people that, for a time, his
life was in danger. The evidence, however, at the trial proved that
the Negroes most deeply engaged in this plot were those whose masters
were most opposed to any means for their instruction. Yet the offence
of a few was charged upon the race, and even the provincial government
lent its authority to make the burden of Neau the heavier. The common
council passed an order forbidding Negroes "to appear in the streets
after sunset, without lanthorns or candles"; and as they could not
procure these, the result was to break up the labors of Neau. But at
this juncture Governor Hunter interposed, and went to visit the school
of Neau, accompanied by several officers of rank and by the society's
missionaries, and he was so well pleased that he gave his full
approval to the work, and in a public proclamation called upon the
clergy of the province to exhort their congregations to extend their
approval also. Vesey, the good rector of Trinity Church, had long
watched the labors of Neau and witnessed the progress of his scholars,
as well as assisted him in them; and finally the governor, the
council, mayor, recorder, and two chief justices of New York joined in
declaring that Neau "in a very eminent degree deserved the
countenance, favor, and protection of the society." He therefore
continued his labors until 1722, when, "amid the unaffected sorrow of
his negro scholars and the friends who honored him for their sake, he
was removed by death."
The work was then continued by "Huddlestone, then schoolmaster in New
York"; and he was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Wetmore, who removed in 1726
to Rye; whereupon the Rev. Mr. Colgan was appointed to assist the
rector of Trinity Church, and to carry on the instruction of the
Negroes. A few years afterward Thomas Noxon assisted Mr. Colgan, and
their joint success was very satisfactory. Rev. R. Charlton, who had
been engaged in similar labor at New Windsor, was called to New York
in 1732, where he followed up the work successfully for fifteen years,
and was succeeded by Rev. Samuel Auchmuty. Upon the death of Thomas
Noxon, in 1741, Mr. Hildreth took his place, who, in 1764, wrote that
"not a single black admitted by him to the holy communion had turned
out badly, or in any way disgraced his profession." Both Auchmuty and
Hildreth received valuable support from Mr. Barclay, who, upon the
death of Mr. Vesey, in 1746, had been appointed to the rectory of
Trinity Church.
The frequent kidnapping of free persons of color excited public alarm
and resulted in the formation of "The New York Society for Promoting
the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting such of them as have been or
may be Liberated." These are the names of the gentlemen who organized
the society, and became the board of trustees of the "New York
African Free School":
Melancthon Smith, Jno. Bleeker, James Cogswell, Lawrence Embree,
Thomas Burling, Willett Leaman, Jno. Lawrence, Jacob Leaman, White
Mattock, Mathew Clarkson, Nathaniel Lawrence, Jno. Murray, Jr.
Their school, located in Cliff Street, between Beekman and Ferry, was
opened in 1786, taught by Cornelius Davis, attended by about forty
pupils of both sexes, and appears, from their book of minutes, to have
been satisfactorily conducted. In the year 1791 a female teacher was
added to instruct the girls in needle-work, the expected advantages of
which measure were soon realized and highly gratifying to the society.
In 1808 the society was incorporated, and in the preamble it is
recorded that "a free school for the education of such persons as have
been liberated from bondage, that they may hereafter become useful
members of the community," has been established. It may be proper here
to remark that the good cause in which the friends of this school were
engaged, was far from being a popular one. The prejudices of a large
portion of the community were against it; the means in the hands of
the trustees were often very inadequate, and many seasons of
discouragement were witnessed; but they were met by men who, trusting
in the Divine support, were resolved neither to relax their exertions
nor to retire from the field.
Through the space of about twenty years they struggled on; the number
of scholars varying from forty to sixty, until the year 1809, when the
Lancasterian, or monitorial, system of instruction was introduced
(this being the second school in the United States to adopt the plan),
under a new teacher, E. J. Cox, and a very favorable change was
produced, the number of pupils, and the efficiency of their
instruction being largely increased.
Soon after this, however, in January, 1814, their school-house was
destroyed by fire, which checked the progress of the school for a
time, as no room could be obtained large enough to accommodate the
whole number of pupils. A small room in Doyer Street was temporarily
hired, to keep the school together till further arrangements could be
made, and an appeal was made to the liberality of the citizens and to
the corporation of the city, which resulted in obtaining from the
latter a grant of two lots of ground in William. Street, on which to
build a new school-house; and in January, 1815, a commodious brick
building, to accommodate 200 pupils, was finished on this lot, and
the school was resumed with fresh vigor and increasing interest. In a
few months the room became so crowded that it was found necessary to
engage a separate room, next to the school, to accommodate such of the
pupils as were to be taught sewing. This branch had been for many
years discontinued, but was now resumed under the direction of Miss
Lucy Turpen, a young lady whose amiable disposition and faithful
discharge of her duties rendered her greatly esteemed both by her
pupils and the trustees. This young lady, after serving the board for
several years, removed with her parents to Ohio, and her place was
supplied by Miss Mary Lincrum, who was succeeded by Miss Eliza J. Cox,
and the latter by Miss Mary Ann Cox, and she by Miss Carolina Roe,
under each of whom the school continued to sustain a high character
for order and usefulness.
The school in William Street increasing in numbers, another building
was found necessary, and was built on a lot of ground 50 by 100 feet
square, on Mulberry Street, between Grand and Hester streets, to
accommodate five hundred pupils, and was completed and occupied, with
C. C. Andrews for teacher, in May, 1820.
General Lafayette visited this school September 10, 1824, an abridged
account of which is copied from the "Commercial Advertiser" of that
date:
Visit of Lafayette to the African School in 1824.
"At 1 o'clock the general, with the company invited for the
occasion, visited the African free school, on Mulberry Street.
This school embraces about 500 scholars; about 450 were present
on this occasion, and they are certainly the best disciplined and
most interesting school of children we have ever witnessed. As
the general was conducted to a seat, Mr. Ketchum adverted to the
fact that as long ago as 1788 the general had been elected a
member of the institution (Manumission Society) at the same time
with Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, of England. The general
perfectly remembered the circumstances, and mentioned
particularly the letter he had received on that occasion from the
Hon. John Jay, then president of the society. One of the pupils,
Master James M. Smith, aged eleven years, then stepped forward
and gracefully delivered the following address:
"'General Lafayette: In behalf of myself and fellow-schoolmates
may I be permitted to express our sincere and respectful
gratitude to you for the condescension you have manifested this
day in visiting this institution, which is one of the noblest
specimens of New York philanthropy. Here, sir, you behold
hundreds of the poor children of Africa sharing with those of a
lighter hue in the blessings of education; and while it will be
our pleasure to remember the great deeds you have done for
America, it will be our delight also to cherish the memory of
General Lafayette as a friend to African emancipation, and as a
member of this institution.'
"To which the general replied, in his own characteristic style,
'I thank you, my dear child.'
"Several of the pupils underwent short examinations, and one of
them explained the use of the globes and answered many questions
in geography."
Public Schools for Colored Children.
These schools continued to flourish under the same management, and
with an attendance varying from 600 in 1824 to 862 in 1832, in the
latter part of which year the Manumission Society, whose schools were
not in part supported by the public fund, applied to the Public School
Society for a committee of conference to effect a union. It was felt
by the trustees that on many accounts it was better that the two sets
of schools should remain separate, but, fearing further diversion of
the school fund, it was desirable that the number of societies
participating should be as small as possible, and arrangements were
accordingly made for a transfer of the schools and property of the
elder society. After some delay, in consequence of legislative action
being found necessary to give a title to their real estate, on the 2d
of May, 1834, the transfer was effected, all their schools and school
property passing into the hands of the New York Public School Society,
at an appraised valuation of $12,130.22.
The aggregate register of these schools at the time of the transfer
was nearly 1,400, with an average attendance of about one half that
number. They were placed in charge of a committee with powers similar
to the committee on primary schools, but their administration was not
satisfactory, and it was soon found that the schools had greatly
diminished in numbers, efficiency, and usefulness. A committee of
inquiry was appointed, and reported that, in consequence of the great
anti-slavery riots and attacks on Colored people, many families had
removed from the city, and of those that remained many kept their
children at home; they knew the Manumission Society as their special
friends, but knew nothing of the Public School Society; the reduction
of all the schools but one to the grade of primary had given great
offence; also the discharge of teachers long employed, and the
discontinuance of rewards, and taking home of spelling books; strong
prejudices had grown up against the Public School Society. The
committee recommended a prompt assimilation of the Colored schools to
the white; the establishment of two or more upper schools in a new
building; a normal school for Colored monitors; and the appointment of
a Colored man as school agent, at $150 a year. The school on Mulberry
Street at this time, 1835, was designated Colored Grammar School No.
1. A. Libolt was principal, and registered 317 pupils; there were also
six primaries, located in different parts of the city, with an
aggregate attendance of 925 pupils.
In 1836 a new school building was completed in Laurens Street, opened
with 210 pupils, R. F. Wake (colored), principal, and was designated
Colored Grammar School No. 2. Other means were taken to improve the
schools, and to induce the Colored people to patronize them; the
principal of No. 1, Mr. Libolt, was replaced by Mr. John Peterson,
colored, a sufficient assurance of whose ability and success we have
in the fact that he has been continued in the position ever since. A
"Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children" was
organized, and established two additional schools, one in Thomas
Street, and one in Centre, and a marked improvement was manifest; but
it required a long time to restore the confidence and interest felt
before the transfer, and even up to 1848 the aggregate attendance in
all the Colored schools was only 1,375 pupils.
In the winter of 1852 the first evening schools for Colored pupils
were opened; one for males and one for females, and were attended by
379 pupils. In the year 1853 the Colored schools, with all the schools
and school property of the Public School Society, were transferred to
the "Board of Education of the City and County of New York," and still
further improvements were made in them; a normal school for Colored
teachers was established, with Mr. John Peterson, principal, and the
schools were graded in the same manner as those for white children.
Colored Grammar School No. 3, was opened at 78 West Fortieth Street,
Miss Caroline W. Simpson, principal, and in the ensuing year three
others were added; No. 4 in One Hundred and Twentieth Street (Harlem),
Miss Nancy Thompson, principal; No. 5, at 101 Hudson Street, P. W.
Williams, principal; and No. 6, at 1,167 Broadway, Prince Leveridge,
principal. Grammar Schools Nos. 2, 3, and 4, had primary departments
attached, and there were also at this time three separate primary
schools, and the aggregate attendance in all was 2,047. Since then the
attendance in these schools has not varied much from these figures.
The schools themselves have been altered and modified from time to
time, as their necessity seemed to indicate; though under the general
management of the Board of Education, they have been in the care of
the school officers of the wards in which they are located, and while
in some cases they received the proper attention, in others they were
either wholly, or in part, neglected. A recent act has placed them
directly in charge of the Board of Education, who have appointed a
special committee to look after their interests, and measures are
being taken by them which will give this class of schools every
opportunity and convenience possessed by any other, and, it is hoped,
will also improve the grade of its scholarship.[63]
NORTH CAROLINA
suffered her free persons of color to maintain schools until 1835,
when they were abolished by law. During the period referred to, the
Colored schools were taught by white teachers, but after 1835 the few
teachers who taught Colored children in private houses were Colored
persons. The public-school system of North Carolina provided that no
descendant from Negro ancestors, to the fourth generation inclusive,
should enjoy the benefit thereof.
OHIO.
The first schools for Colored children in Ohio were established at
Cincinnati in 1820, by Colored men. These schools were not kept up
regularly. A white gentleman named Wing, who taught a night school
near the corner of Vine and Sixth Streets, admitted Colored pupils
into his school. Owen T. B. Nickens, a public-spirited and intelligent
Colored man, did much to establish schools for the Colored people.
In 1835 a school for Colored children was opened in the Baptist Church
on Western Row. It was taught at different periods by Messrs. Barbour,
E. Fairchild, W. Robinson, and Augustus Wattles; and by the
following-named ladies: Misses Bishop, Matthews, Lowe, and Mrs.
Merrell. Although excellent teachers as well as upright ladies and
gentlemen, they were subjected to great persecutions. They were unable
to secure board, because the spirit of the whites would not
countenance the teachers of Negro schools, and they spelled the word
with two g's. And at times the teachers were compelled to close the
school on account of the violence of the populace. The salaries of the
teachers were paid partly by an educational society of white
philanthropists, and partly by such Colored persons as had means. Of
the latter class were John Woodson, John Liverpool, Baker Jones,
Dinnis Hill, Joseph Fowler, and William O'Hara.
In 1844, the Rev. Hiram S. Gilmore, founded the "Cincinnati High
School" for Colored youth. Mr. Gilmore was a man rich in sentiments of
humanity, and endowed plenteously with executive ability and this
world's goods. All these he consecrated to the elevation and education
of the Colored people.
This school-house was located at the east end of Harrison Street, and
was in every sense a model building, comprising five rooms, a chapel,
a gymnasium, and spacious grounds. The pupils increased yearly, and
the character of the school made many friends for the cause. The
following persons taught in this school: Joseph H. Moore, Thomas L.
Boucher, David P. Lowe, Dr. A. L. Childs, and W. F. Colburn. Dr.
Childs became principal of the school in 1848.
In 1849, the Legislature passed an act establishing schools for
Colored children, to be maintained at the public expense. In 1850, a
board of Colored trustees was elected, teachers employed, and
buildings hired. The schools were put in operation. The law of 1849
provided that so much of the funds belonging to the city of Cincinnati
as would fall to the Colored youth, by a per capita division, should
be held subject to the order of the Colored trustees. But their order
was not honored by the city treasurer, upon the ground that under the
constitution of the State only electors could hold office; that
Colored men were not electors, and, therefore, could not hold office.
After three months the Colored schools were closed, and the teachers
went out without their salaries.
John I. Gaines, an intelligent and fearless Colored leader, made a
statement of the case to a public meeting of the Colored people of
Cincinnati, and urged the employment of counsel to try the case in
the courts. Money was raised, and Flamen Ball, Sr., was secured to
make an application for mandamus. The case was finally carried to
the Supreme Court and won by the Colored people.
In 1851, the schools were opened again; but the rooms were small and
wretchedly appointed, and the trustees unable to provide better ones.
Without notice the Colored trustees were deposed. The management of
the Colored schools was vested in a board of trustees and school
visitors, who were also in charge of the schools for the white
children. This board, under a new law, had authority to appoint six
Colored men who were to manage the Colored schools with the exception
of the school fund. This greatly angered the leading Colored men, and,
therefore, they refused to endorse this new management.
The law was altered in 1856, giving the Colored people the right to
elect, by ballot, their own trustees.
In 1858, Nicholas Longworth built the first school-house for the
Colored people, and gave them the building on a lease of fourteen
years, in which time they were to pay for it—$14,000. In 1859, a
large building was erected on Court Street.
Oberlin College opened its doors to Colored students from the moment
of its existence in 1833, and they have never been closed at any time
since. It was here that the incomparable Finney, with the fierceness
of John Baptist, the gentleness of John the Evangelist, the logic of
Paul, and the eloquence of Isaiah, pleaded the cause of the American
slave, and gave instruction to all who sat at his feet regardless of
color or race. George B. Vashon, William Howard Day, John Mercer
Langston, and many other Colored men graduated from Oberlin College
before any of the other leading colleges of the country had consented
to give Colored men a classical education.
PENNSYLVANIA.
Anthony Benezet established, in 1750, the first school for Colored
people in this State, and taught it himself without money and without
price. He solicited funds for the erection of a school-house for the
Colored children, and of their intellectual capacities said: "I can
with truth and sincerity declare that I have found among the negroes
as great variety of talents as among a like number of whites, and I am
bold to assert that the notion entertained by some, that the blacks
are inferior in their capacity, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the
pride or ignorance of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves
at such a distance as to be unable to form a right judgment of them."
He died on the 3d of May, 1784, universally beloved and sincerely
mourned, especially by the Negro population of Pennsylvania, for whose
education he had done so much. The following clause in his will
illustrates his character in respect to public instruction:
"I give my above said house and lot, or ground-rent proceeding
from it, and the rest and residue of my estate which shall remain
undisposed of after my wife's decease, both real and personal, to
the public school of Philadelphia, founded by charter, and to
their successors forever, in trust, that they shall sell my house
and lot on perpetual ground-rent forever, if the same be not
already sold by my executors, as before mentioned, and that as
speedily as may be they receive and take as much of my personal
estate as may be remaining, and therewith purchase a yearly
ground-rent, or ground-rents, and with the income of such
ground-rent proceeding from the sale of my real estate, hire and
employ a religious-minded person, or persons, to teach a number
of negro, mulatto, or Indian children to read, write, arithmetic,
plain accounts, needle-work, etc. And it is my particular desire,
founded on the experience I have had in that service, that in the
choice of such tutors, special care may be had to prefer an
industrious, careful person of true piety, who may be or become
suitably qualified, who would undertake the service from a
principle of charity, to one more highly learned, not equally
disposed; this I desire may be carefully attended to, sensible
that from the number of pupils of all ages, the irregularity of
attendance their situation subjects them to will not admit of
that particular inspection in their improvement usual in other
schools, but that the real well-doing of the scholars will very
much depend upon the master making a special conscience of doing
his duty; and shall likewise defray such other necessary expense
as may occur in that service; and as the said remaining income of
my estate, after my wife's decease, will not be sufficient to
defray the whole expense necessary for the support of such a
school, it is my request that the overseers of the said public
school shall join in the care and expense of such school, or
schools, for the education of negro, mulatto, or Indian children,
with any committee which may be appointed by the monthly meetings
of Friends in Philadelphia, or with any other body of benevolent
persons who may join in raising money and employing it for the
education and care of such children; my desire being that as
such a school is now set up, it may be forever maintained in this
city."
Just before his death he addressed the following note to the
"overseers of the school for the instruction of the black people."
"My friend, Joseph Clark, having frequently observed to me his
desire, in case of my inability of continuing the care of the
negro school, of succeeding me in that service, notwithstanding
he now has a more advantageous school, by the desire of doing
good to the black people makes him overlook these pecuniary
advantages, I much wish the overseers of the school would take
his desires under their peculiar notice and give him such due
encouragement as may be proper, it being a matter of the greatest
consequence to that school that the master be a person who makes
it a principle to do his duty."
The noble friends were early in the field as the champions of
education for the Negroes. It was Anthony Benezet, who, on the 26th of
January, 1770, secured the appointment of a committee by the monthly
meeting of the Friends, "to consider on the instruction of negro and
mulatto children in reading, writing, and other useful learning
suitable to their capacity and circumstances." On the 30th of May,
1770, a special committee of Friends sought to employ an instructor
"to teach, not more at one time than thirty children, in the first
rudiments of school learning and in sewing and knitting." Moles
Paterson was first employed at a salary of £80 a year, and an
additional sum of £11 for one half of the rent of his dwelling-house.
Instruction was free to the poor; but those who were able to pay were
required to do so "at the rate of 10s. a quarter for those who write,
and 7s. 6d. for others."
In 1784, William Waring was placed in charge of the larger children,
at a salary of £100; and Sarah Dougherty, of the younger children and
girls, in teaching spelling, reading, sewing, etc., at a salary of
£50. In 1787, aid was received from David Barclay, of London, in
behalf of a committee for managing a donation for the relief of
Friends in America; and the sum of £500 was thus obtained, which, with
the fund derived from the estate of Benezet, and £300 from Thomas
Shirley, a Colored man, was appropriated to the erection of a
school-house. In 1819 a committee of "women Friends," to have
exclusive charge of the admission of girls and the general
superintendence of the girls' school, was associated with the
overseers in the charge of the school. In 1830, in order to relieve
the day school of some of the male adults who had been in the habit of
attending, an evening school for the purpose of instructing such
persons gratuitously was opened, and has been continued to the present
time. In 1844, a lot was secured on Locust Street, extending along
Shield's Alley, now Aurora Street, on which a new house was erected in
1847, the expense of which was paid for in part from the proceeds of
the sale of a lot bequeathed by John Pemberton. Additional
accommodations were made to this building, from time to time, as room
was demanded by new classes of pupils.
In 1849, a statistical return of the condition of the people of color
in the city and districts of Philadelphia shows that there were then
one grammar school, with 463 pupils; two public primary schools, with
339; and an infant school, under the charge of the Pennsylvania
Abolition Society, of 70 pupils, in Clifton Street: a ragged and a
moral-reform school, with 81 pupils. In West Philadelphia there was
also a public school, with 67 pupils; and, in all, there were about 20
private schools, with 300 pupils; making an aggregate of more than
1,300 children receiving an education.
In 1859, according to Bacon's "Statistics of the Colored People of
Philadelphia," there were 1,031 Colored children in public schools,
748 in charity schools of various kinds, 211 in benevolent and
reformatory schools, and 331 in private schools, making an aggregate
of 2,321 pupils; besides four evening schools, one for adult males,
one for females, and one for young apprentices. There were 19
Sunday-schools connected with the congregations of the Colored people,
and conducted by their own teachers, containing 1,667 pupils, and four
Sunday-schools gathered as mission schools by members of white
congregations, with 215 pupils. There was also a "Public Library and
Reading-room" connected with the "Institute for Colored Youth,"
established in 1853, having about 1,300 volumes; besides three other
small libraries in different parts of the city. The same pamphlet
shows that there were 1,700 of the Colored population engaged in
different trades and occupations, representing every department of
industry.[64]
In 1794, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society established a school for
children of the people of color, and in 1809 erected a school building
at a cost of four thousand dollars, which they designated as "Clarkson
Hall," in 1815. In 1813, a board of education was organized consisting
of thirteen persons, with a visiting committee of three, whose duty it
was to visit the schools once each week. In 1818, the school board, in
their report, speak very kindly and encouragingly of the Clarkson
Schools, which, they say, "furnish a decided refutation of the charge
that the mental endowments of the descendants of Africa are inferior
to those possessed by their white brethren. We can assert, without
fear of contradiction, that the pupils of this seminary will sustain a
fair comparison with those of any other institution in which the same
elementary branches are taught."
In 1820, an effort was made to have the authorities of the white
schools provide for the education of the Colored children as well as
the whites, because the laws of the State required the education of
all the youth. The comptrollers of the public schools confessed that
the law provided for the education of "poor and indigent children,"
and that it extended to those of persons of color. Accordingly, in
1822, a school for the education of indigent persons of color of both
sexes, was opened in Lombard Street, Philadelphia. In 1841, a primary
school was opened in the same building. In 1833, the "Unclassified
School" in Coates Street, and at frequent intervals after this several
schools of the same grade, were started in West Philadelphia.
In 1837, by the will of Richard Humphreys, who died in 1832, an
"Institute for Colored Youth" was started. The sum of ten thousand
dollars was devised to certain trustees who were to pay it over to
some society that might be disposed to establish a school for the
education of the "descendants of the African race in school learning
in the various branches of the mechanic arts and trade, and in
agriculture." Thirty members of the society of Friends formed
themselves into an association for the purpose of carrying out the
wishes and plans of Mr. Humphreys. In the preamble of the constitution
they adopted, their ideas and plans were thus set forth:
"We believe that the most successful method of elevating the
moral and intellectual character of the descendants of Africa, as
well as of improving their social condition, is to extend to them
the benefits of a good education, and to instruct them in the
knowledge of some useful trade or business, whereby they may be
enabled to obtain a comfortable livelihood by their own industry;
and through these means to prepare them for fulfilling the
various duties of domestic and social life with reputation and
fidelity, as good citizens and pious men."
In order to carry out the feature of agricultural and mechanic arts,
the association purchased a farm in Bristol township, Philadelphia
County, in 1839, where boys of the Colored race were taught farming,
shoemaking, and other useful trades. The incorporation of the
institution was secured in 1842, and in 1844 another friend
dying—Jonathan Zane—added a handsome sum to the treasury, which,
with several small legacies, made $18,000 for this enterprise. But in
1846 the work came to a standstill; the farm with its equipments was
sold, and for six years very little was done, except through a night
school.
In 1851, a lot for a school building was purchased on Lombard Street,
and a building erected, and the school opened in the autumn of 1852,
for boys, under the care of Charles L. Reason, an accomplished young
Colored teacher from New York. A girls' school was opened the same
year, and, under Mr. Reason's excellent instruction, many worthy and
competent teachers and leaders of the Negro race came forth.
Avery College, at Allegheny City, was founded by the Rev. Charles
Avery, a native of New York, but for the greater part of a long and
useful life adorned by the noblest virtues, a resident of
Pennsylvania. By will he left $300,000 for the christianization of the
African race; $150,000 to be used in Africa, and $150,000 in America.
He left $25,000 as an endowment fund for Avery College.
At a stated meeting during the session of the Presbytery at New
Castle, Pa., October 5, 1853, it was resolved that "there shall be
established within our bounds, and under our supervision, an
institution, to be called the Ashum Institute, for the scientific,
classical, and theological education of colored youth of the male
sex."
Accordingly, J. M. Dickey, A. Hamilton, R. P. Dubois, ministers; and
Samuel J. Dickey and John M. Kelton, ruling elders, were appointed a
committee to perfect the idea. They were to solicit and receive funds,
secure a charter from the State of Pennsylvania, and erect suitable
buildings for the institute. On the 14th of November, 1853, they
purchased thirty acres of land at the cost of $1,250. At the session
of the Legislature in 1854, a charter was granted establishing "at or
near a place called Hinsonville, in the county of Chester, an
institution of learning for the scientific, classical, and theological
education of colored youth of the male sex, by the name and style of
Ashum Institute." The trustees were John M. Dickey, Alfred Hamilton,
Robert P. Dubois, James Latta, John B. Spottswood, James M. Crowell,
Samuel J. Dickey, John M. Kelton, and William Wilson.
By the provisions of the charter the trustees were empowered "to
procure the endowment of the institute, not exceeding the sum of
$100,000; to confer such literary degrees and academic honors as are
usually granted by colleges"; and it was required that "the institute
shall be open to the admission of colored pupils of the male sex, of
all religious denominations, who exhibit a fair moral character, and
are willing to yield a ready obedience to the general regulations
prescribed for the conduct of the pupils and the government of the
institute."
The institute was formally dedicated on the 31st of December, 1856. It
is now known as Lincoln University.
RHODE ISLAND
conferred the right of elective franchise upon her Colored citizens by
her constitution in 1843, and ever since equal privileges have been
afforded them. In 1828 the Colored people of Providence petitioned for
a separate school, but it was finally abolished by an act of the
Legislature.
SOUTH CAROLINA
took the lead in legislating against the instruction of the Colored
race, as she subsequently took the lead in seceding from the Union. In
1740, while yet a British province, the Legislature passed the
following law:
"Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them
to be employed in writing, may be attended with inconveniences,
Be it enacted, That all and every person and persons
whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or
slaves to be taught, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe
in any manner of writing whatever, hereafter taught to write,
every such person or persons shall for every such offense forfeit
the sum of £100 current money."
In 1800 the State Assembly passed an act, embracing free Colored
people as well as slaves in its shameful provisions, enacting "that
assemblies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, whether
composed of all or any such description of persons, or of all or any
of the same and a proportion of white persons, met together for the
purpose of mental instruction in a confined or secret place, or with
the gates or doors of such place barred, bolted, or locked, so as to
prevent the free ingress to and from the same," are declared to be
unlawful meetings; the officers dispersing such unlawful assemblages
being authorized to "inflict such corporal punishment, not exceeding
twenty lashes, upon such slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, and
mestizoes, as they may judge necessary for deterring them from the
like unlawful assemblage in future." Another section of the same act
declares, "that it shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free
negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes, even in company with white persons,
to meet together and assemble for the purpose of mental instruction or
religious worship before the rising of the sun or after the going down
of the same." This section was so oppressive, that in 1803, in answer
to petitions from certain religious societies, an amending act was
passed forbidding any person before 9 o'clock in the evening "to break
into a place of meeting wherever shall be assembled the members of any
religious society of the State, provided a majority of them shall be
white persons, or other to disturb their devotions unless a warrant
has been procured from a magistrate, if at the time of the meeting
there should be a magistrate within three miles of the place; if not,
the act of 1800 is to remain in full force."
On the 17th of December, 1834, definite action was taken against the
education of free Colored persons as well as slaves. The first section
is given:
"Section 1. If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read
or write, or shall aid or assist in teaching any slave to read or
write, or cause or procure any slave to be taught to read or
write, such person, if a free white person, upon conviction
thereof shall, for each and every offense against, this act, be
fined not exceeding $100 and imprisonment not more than six
months; or, if a free person of color, shall be whipped not
exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceeding $50, at the
discretion of the court of magistrates and freeholders before
which such free person of color is tried; and if a slave, to be
whipped, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty
lashes, the informer to be entitled to one-half the fine and to
be a competent witness. And if any free person of color or slave
shall keep any school or other place of instruction for teaching
any slave or free person of color to read or write, such free
person of color or slave shall be liable to the same fine,
imprisonment, and corporal punishment as by this act are imposed
and inflicted on free persons of color and slaves for teaching
slaves to write."
The second section forbids, under pain of severe penalties, the
employment of any Colored persons as "clerks or salesmen in or about
any shop, store, or house used for trading."
TENNESSEE
passed a law in 1838 establishing a system of common schools by which
the scholars were designated as "white children over the age of six
years and under sixteen." In 1840 an act was passed in which no
discrimination against color appeared. It simply provided that "all
children between the ages of six and twenty-one years shall have the
privilege of attending the public schools." And while there was never
afterward any law prohibiting the education of Colored children, the
schools were used exclusively by the whites.
TEXAS
never put any legislation on her statute-books withholding the
blessings of the schools from the Negro, for the reason, doubtless,
that she banished all free persons of color, and worked her slaves so
hard that they had no hunger for books when night came.
VIRGINIA,
under Sir William Berkeley, was not a strong patron of education for
the masses. For the slave there was little opportunity to learn, as he
was only allowed part of Saturday to rest, and kept under the closest
surveillance on the Sabbath day. The free persons of color were
regarded with suspicion, and little chance was given them to cultivate
their minds.
On the 2d of March, 1819, an act was passed prohibiting "all meetings
or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes, or mulattoes, mixing and
associating with such slaves, at any meeting-house or houses, or any
other place or places, in the night, or at any school or schools for
teaching them reading and writing either in the day or night." But
notwithstanding this law, schools for free persons of color were kept
up until the Nat. Turner insurrection in 1831, when, on the 7th of
April following, the subjoined act was passed:
"Sec. 4. And be it enacted, That all meetings of free negroes
or mulattoes at any school-house, church, meeting-house, or other
place, for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or
night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered
an unlawful assembly; and any justice of the county or
corporation wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own
knowledge, or on the information of others of such unlawful
assemblage or meeting, shall issue his warrant directed to any
sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the
house or houses where such unlawful assemblage or meeting may be,
for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free negroes
or mulattoes, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender
or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not
exceeding 26 lashes.
"Sec. 5. And be it enacted, That if any person or persons
assemble with free negroes or mulattoes at any school-house,
church, meeting-house, or other place, for the purpose of
instructing such free negroes or mulattoes to read or write, such
persons or persons shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a
sum not exceeding $50, and, moreover, may be imprisoned, at the
discretion of a jury, not exceeding two months.
"Sec. 6. And be it enacted, That if any white person, for pay
or compensation, shall assemble with any slaves for the purpose
of teaching, and shall teach any slave to read or write, such
person, or any white person or persons contracting with such
teacher so to act, who shall offend as aforesaid, shall, for each
offense, be fined, at the discretion of a jury, in a sum not less
than $10, nor exceeding $100, to be recovered on an information
or indictment."
This law was rigidly enforced, and in 1851, Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a
white lady from South Carolina, was cast into the Norfolk jail for
violating its provisions.
West Virginia was not admitted into the Union until 1863. Wisconsin,
Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey did not prohibit the education
of their Colored children.
THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
presents a more pleasing and instructive field for the examination of
the curious student of history.
In 1807, the first school-house for the use of Colored pupils was
erected in Washington, D. C., by three Colored men, named George Bell,
Nicholas Franklin, and Moses Liverpool. Not one of this trio of Negro
educators knew a letter of the alphabet; but having lived as slaves in
Virginia, they had learned to appreciate the opinion that learning was
of great price. They secured a white teacher, named Lowe, and put
their school in operation.
At this time the entire population of free persons amounted to 494
souls. After a brief period the school subsided, but was reorganized
again in 1818. The announcement of the opening of the school was
printed in the "National Intelligencer" on the 29th of August, 1818.
"A School,
Founded by an association of free people of color, of the city of
Washington, called the 'Resolute Beneficial Society,' situate
near the Eastern Public School and the dwelling of Mrs. Fenwick,
is now open for the reception of children of free people of color
and others, that ladies or gentlemen may think proper to send to
be instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar,
or other branches of education apposite to their capacities, by a
steady, active, and experienced teacher, whose attention is
wholly devoted to the purposes described. It is presumed that
free colored families will embrace the advantages thus presented
to them, either by subscribing to the funds of the society, or by
sending their children to the school. An improvement of the
intellect and morals of colored youth being the objects of this
institution, the patronage of benevolent ladies, and gentlemen,
by donation or subscription, is humbly solicited in aid of the
fund, the demands thereon being heavy and the means at present
much too limited. For the satisfaction of the public, the
constitution and articles of association are printed and
published. And to avoid disagreeable occurrences, no writings are
to be done by the teacher for a slave, neither directly nor
indirectly, to serve the purpose of a slave on any account
whatever. Further particulars may be known by applying to any of
the undersigned officers.
"William Costin, President.
"George Hicks, Vice-President.
"James Harris, Secretary.
"George Bell, Treasurer.
"Archibald Johnson, Marshal.
"Fred. Lewis, Chairman of the Committee.
"Isaac Johnson, } Committee.
"Scipio Beens, }
"N. B.—An evening school will commence on the premises on the
first Monday of October, and continue throughout the season.
"☞ The managers of Sunday-schools in
the eastern district are thus most dutifully informed that on
Sabbath-days the school-house belonging to this society, if
required for the tuition of colored youth, will be uniformly at
their service.
August 29, 3t."
This school was first taught by a Mr. Pierpont, of Massachusetts, a
relative of the poet, and after several years was succeeded by a
Colored man named John Adams, the first teacher of his race in the
District of Columbia. The average attendance of this school was about
sixty-five or seventy.
MR. HENRY POTTER'S SCHOOL.
The third school for Colored children in Washington was established by
Mr. Henry Potter, an Englishman, who opened his school about 1809, in
a brick building which then stood on the southeast corner of F and
Seventh streets, opposite the block where the post-office building now
stands. He continued there for several years and had a large school,
moving subsequently to what was then known as Clark's Row on
Thirteenth Street, west, between G and H streets, north.
MRS. HALL'S SCHOOL.
During this period Mrs. Anne Maria Hall started a school on Capitol
Hill, between the old Capitol and Carroll Row, on First Street, east.
After continuing there with a full school for some ten years, she
moved to a building which stood on what is now the vacant portion of
the Casparis House lot on A Street, close to the Capitol. Some years
later she went to the First Bethel Church, and after a year or two she
moved to a house still standing on E Street, north, between Eleventh
and Twelfth, west, and there taught many years. She was a Colored
woman from Prince George's County, Maryland, and had a respectable
education, which she obtained at schools with white children in
Alexandria. Her husband died early, leaving her with children to
support, and she betook herself to the work of a teacher, which she
loved, and in which, for not less than twenty-five years, she met with
uniform success. Her schools were all quite large, and the many who
remember her as their teacher speak of her with great respect.
MRS. MARY BILLING'S SCHOOL.
Of the early teachers of Colored schools in this district there is no
one whose name is mentioned with more gratitude and respect by the
intelligent Colored residents than that of Mrs. Mary Billing, who
established the first Colored school that was gathered in Georgetown.
She was an English woman; her husband, Joseph Billing, a
cabinet-maker, coming from England in 1800, settled with his family
that year in Washington, and dying in 1807, left his wife with three
children. She was well educated, a capable and good woman, and
immediately commenced teaching to support her family. At first, it is
believed, she was connected with the Corporation School of Georgetown.
It was while in a white school certainly that her attention was
arrested by the wants of the Colored children, whom she was accustomed
to receive into her schools, till the opposition became so marked that
she decided to make her school exclusively Colored. She was a woman of
strong religious convictions, and being English, with none of the
ideas peculiar to slave society, when she saw the peculiar destitution
of the Colored children in the community around her, she resolved to
give her life to the class who seemed most to need her services. She
established a Colored school about 1810, in a brick house still
standing on Dunbarton Street, opposite the Methodist church, between
Congress and High streets, remaining there till the winter of
1820-'21, when she came to Washington and opened a school in the house
on H Street, near the Foundry Church, then owned by Daniel Jones, a
Colored man, and still owned and occupied by a member of that family.
She died in 1826, in the fiftieth year of her age. She continued her
school till failing health, a year or so before her death, compelled
its relinquishment. Her school was always large, it being patronized
in Georgetown as well as afterward by the best Colored families of
Washington, many of whom sent their children to her from Capitol Hill
and the vicinity of the Navy Yard. Most of the better-educated Colored
men and women now living, who were school children in her time,
received the best portion of their education from her, and they all
speak of her with a deep and tender sense of obligation. Henry Potter
succeeded her in the Georgetown school, and after him Mr. Shay, an
Englishman, who subsequently came to Washington and for many years had
a large Colored school in a brick building known as the Round Tops, in
the western part of the city, near the Circle, and still later
removing to the old Western Academy building, corner of I and
Seventeenth streets. He was there till about 1830, when he was
convicted of assisting a slave to his freedom, and sent a term to the
penitentiary. Mrs. Billing had a night school in which she was greatly
assisted by Mr. Monroe, a government clerk and a Presbyterian elder,
whose devout and benevolent character is still remembered in the
churches. Mrs. Billing had scholars from Bladensburg and the
surrounding country, who came into Georgetown and boarded with her and
with others. About the time when Mrs. Billing relinquished her school
in 1822 or 1823, what may be properly called
THE SMOTHERS SCHOOL-HOUSE,
was built by Henry Smothers on the corner of Fourteenth and H streets,
not far from the Treasury building. Smothers had a small
dwelling-house on this corner, and built his school-house on the rear
of the same lot. He had been long a pupil of Mrs. Billing, and had
subsequently taught a school on Washington Street, opposite the Union
Hotel in Georgetown. He opened his school in Washington in the old
corporation school-house, built in 1806, but some years before this
period abandoned as a public school-house. It was known as the Western
Academy, and is still standing and used as a school-house on the
corner of I and Nineteenth streets, west. When his school-house on
Fourteenth and H streets was finished, his school went into the new
quarters. This school was very large, numbering always more than a
hundred and often as high as a hundred and fifty scholars. He taught
here about two years, and was succeeded by John W. Prout about the
year 1825. Prout was a man of ability. In 1831, May 4, there was a
meeting, says the "National Intelligencer" of that date, of "the
colored citizens, large and very respectable, in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church," to consider the question of emigrating to Liberia.
John W. Prout was chosen to preside over the assemblage, and the
article in the "Intelligencer" represents him as making "a speech of
decided force and well adapted to the occasion, in support of a set of
resolutions which he had drafted, and which set forth views adverse to
leaving the soil that had given them birth, their true and veritable
home, without the benefits of education." The school under Prout was
governed by a board of trustees and was organized as
A FREE SCHOOL,
and so continued two or three years. The number of scholars was very
large, averaging a hundred and fifty. Mrs. Anne Maria Hall was the
assistant teacher. It relied mainly for support upon subscription,
twelve and a half cents a month only being expected from each pupil,
and this amount was not compulsory. The school was free to all Colored
children, without money or price, and so continued two or three years,
when failing of voluntary pecuniary support (it never wanted
scholars), it became a regular tuition school. The school under Mr.
Prout was called the "Columbian Institute," the name being suggested
by John McLeod, the famous Irish school-master, who was a warm friend
of this institution after visiting and commending the scholars and
teachers, and who named his new building, in 1835, the Columbian
Academy. The days of thick darkness to the Colored people were
approaching. The Nat. Turner insurrection in Southampton County,
Virginia, which occurred in August, 1831, spread terror everywhere in
slave communities. In this district, immediately upon that terrible
occurrence, the Colored children, who had in very large numbers been
received into the Sabbath-schools in the white churches, were all
turned out of those schools. This event, though seeming to be a fiery
affliction, proved a blessing in disguise. It aroused the energies of
the Colored people, taught them self-reliance, and they organized
forthwith Sabbath-schools of their own. It was in the Smothers
school-house that they formed their first Sunday-school, about the
year 1832, and here they continued their very large school for several
years, the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church ultimately springing
from the school organization. It is important to state in this
connection that
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL,
always an extremely important means of education for Colored people in
the days of slavery, was emphatically so in the gloomy times now upon
them. It was the Sabbath-school that taught the great mass of the free
people of color about all the school knowledge that was allowed them
in those days, and hence the consternation which came upon them when
they found themselves excluded from the schools of the white churches.
Lindsay Muse, who has been the messenger for eighteen Secretaries of
the Navy, successively, during fifty-four years, from 1828 to the
present time, John Brown, Benjamin M. McCoy, Mr. Smallwood, Mrs.
Charlotte Norris, afterward wife of Rev. Eli Nugent, and Siby McCoy,
are the only survivors of the resolute little band of Colored men and
women who gathered with and guided that Sunday-school. They had, in
the successor of Mr. Prout, a man after their own heart,
JOHN F. COOK,
who came into charge of this school in August, 1834, about eight years
after his aunt, Alethia Tanner, had purchased his freedom. He learned
the shoemaker's trade in his boyhood, and worked diligently, after the
purchase of his freedom, to make some return to his aunt for the
purchase-money. About the time of his becoming of age, he dislocated
his shoulder, which compelled him to seek other employment, and in
1831, the year of his majority, he obtained the place of assistant
messenger in the Land Office. Hon. John Wilson, now Third Auditor of
the Treasury, was the messenger, and was Cook's firm friend till the
day of his death. Cook had been a short time at school under the
instruction of Smothers and Prout, but when he entered the Land Office
his education was at most only the ability to stumble along a little
in a primary reading-book. He, however, now gave himself in all his
leisure moments, early and late, to study. Mr. Wilson remembers his
indefatigable application, and affirms that it was a matter of
astonishment at the time, and that he has seen nothing in all his
observations to surpass and scarcely to equal it. He was soon able to
write a good hand, and was employed with his pen in clerical work by
the sanction of the commissioner, Elisha Hayward, who was much
attached to him. Cook was now beginning to look forward to the life of
a teacher, which, with the ministry, was the only work not menial in
its nature then open to an educated Colored man. At the end of three
years he resigned his place in the Land Office, and entered upon the
work which he laid down only with his life. It was then that he gave
himself wholly to study and the business of education, working with
all his might; his school numbering quite a hundred scholars in the
winter and a hundred and fifty in the summer. He had been in his work
one year when the storm which had been, for some years, under the
discussion of the slavery question, gathering over the country at
large, burst upon this district.
THE SNOW RIOT,
or "Snow storm," as it has been commonly called, which occurred in
September, 1835, is an event that stands vividly in the memory of all
Colored people who lived in this community at that time. Benjamin
Snow, a smart Colored man, keeping a restaurant on the corner of
Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, was reported to have made some
remark of a bravado kind derogatory to the wives of white mechanics;
whereupon this class, or those assuming to represent them, made a
descent upon his establishment, destroying all his effects. Snow
himself, who denied using the offensive language, with difficulty
escaped unharmed, through the management of white friends, taking
refuge in Canada, where he still resides. The military was promptly
called to the rescue, at the head of which was General Walter Jones,
the eminent lawyer, who characterized the rioters, greatly to their
indignation, as "a set of ragamuffins," and his action was thoroughly
sanctioned by the city authorities.
At the same time, also, there was a fierce excitement among the
mechanics at the Navy Yard, growing out of the fact that a large
quantity of copper bolts being missed from the yard and found to have
been carried out in the dinner-pails by the hands, the commandant had
forbid eating dinners in the yard. This order was interpreted as an
insult to the white mechanics, and threats were made of an assault on
the yard, which was put in a thorough state of defence by the
commandant. The rioters swept through the city, ransacking the houses
of the prominent Colored men and women, ostensibly in search of
anti-slavery papers and documents, the most of the gang impelled
undoubtedly by hostility to the Negro race and by motives of plunder.
Nearly all the Colored school-houses were partially demolished and the
furniture totally destroyed, and in several cases they were completely
ruined. Some private houses were also torn down or burnt. The Colored
schools were nearly all broken up, and it was with the greatest
difficulty that the Colored churches were saved from destruction, as
their Sabbath-schools were regarded, and correctly regarded, as the
means through which the Colored people, at that time, procured much of
their education.
The rioters sought, especially, for John F. Cook, who, however, had
seasonably taken from the stable the horse of his friend, Mr. Hayward,
the Commissioner of the Land Office, an anti-slavery man, and fled
precipitately from the city. They marched to his school-house,
destroyed all the books and furniture, and partially destroyed the
building. Mrs. Smothers, who owned both the school-house and the
dwelling adjoining the lots, was sick in her house at the time, but an
alderman, Mr. Edward Dyer, with great courage and nobleness of spirit,
stood between the house and the mob for her protection, declaring that
he would defend her house from molestation with all the means he could
command. They left the house unharmed, and it is still standing on the
premises. Mr. Cook went to Columbia, Pennsylvania, opened a school
there, and did not venture back to his home till the autumn of 1836.
At the time the riot broke out, General Jackson was absent in
Virginia. He returned in the midst of the tumult, and immediately
issuing orders in his bold, uncompromising manner to the authorities
to see the laws respected at all events, the violence was promptly
subdued. It was, nevertheless, a very dark time for the Colored
people. The timid class did not for a year or two dare to send their
children to school, and the whole mass of the Colored people dwelt in
fear day and night. In August, 1836, Mr. Cook returned from
Pennsylvania and reopened his school, which under him had, in 1834,
received the name of
UNION SEMINARY.
During his year's absence he was in charge of a free Colored public
school in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which he
surrendered to the care of Benjamin M. McCoy when he came back to his
home, Mr. McCoy going there to fill out his engagement.
He resumed his work with broad and elevated ideas of his business.
This is clearly seen in the plan of his institution, embraced in the
printed annual announcements and programmes of his annual exhibitions,
copies of which have been preserved. The course of study embraced
three years, and there was a male and a female department, Miss
Catharine Costin at one period being in charge of the female
department. Mr. Seaton, of the "National Intelligencer," among other
leading and enlightened citizens and public men, used to visit his
school from year to year, and watch its admirable working with deep
and lively interest. Cook was at this period not only watching over
his very large school, ranging from 100 to 150 or more pupils, but was
active in the formation of the "First Colored Presbyterian Church of
Washington," which was organized in November, 1841, by Rev. John C.
Smith, D.D., and worshipped in this school-house. He was now also
giving deep study to the preparation for the ministry, upon which, in
fact, as a licentiate of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, he
had already in some degree entered. At a regular meeting of "The
presbytery of the District of Columbia," held in Alexandria, May 3,
1842, this church, now commonly called the Fifteenth Street
Presbyterian Church, was formally received under the care of that
presbytery, the first and still the only Colored Presbyterian church
in the district. Mr. Cook was elected the first pastor July 13, 1843,
and preached his trial sermon before ordination on the evening of that
day in the Fourth Presbyterian Church (Dr. J. C. Smith's) in the city,
in the presence of a large congregation. This sermon is remembered as
a manly production, delivered with great dignity and force, and deeply
imbued with the spirit of his work. He was ordained in the Fifteenth
Street Church the next evening, and continued to serve the church with
eminent success till his death in 1855. Rev. John C. Smith, D.D., who
had preached his ordination sermon, and been his devoted friend and
counsellor for nearly twenty years, preached his funeral sermon,
selecting as his text, "There was a man sent from God whose name was
John." There were present white as well as Colored clergymen of no
less than five denominations, many of the oldest and most respectable
citizens, and a vast concourse of all classes white and Colored. "The
Fifteenth Street Church," in the words of Dr. Smith in relation to
them and their first pastor, "is now a large and flourishing
congregation of spiritually-minded people. They have been educated in
the truth and the principles of our holy religion, and in the new,
present state of things the men of this church are trusted, relied on
as those who fear God and keep His commandments. The church is the
monument to John F. Cook, the first pastor, who was faithful in all
his house, a workman who labored night and day for years, and has
entered into his reward. 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'
'They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.'"
In 1841, when he entered, in a preliminary and informal way, upon the
pastorate of the Fifteenth Street Church, he seems to have attempted
to turn his seminary into a high school, limited to twenty-five or
thirty pupils, exclusively for the more advanced scholars of both
sexes; and his plan of studies to that end, as seen in his
prospectus, evinces broad and elevated views—a desire to aid in
lifting his race to higher things in education than they had yet
attempted. His plans were not put into execution, in the matter of a
high school, being frustrated by the circumstances that there were so
few good schools in the city for the Colored people, at that period,
that his old patrons would not allow him to shut off the multitude of
primary scholars which were depending upon his school. His seminary,
however, continued to maintain its high standard, and had an average
attendance of quite 100 year after year, till he surrendered up his
work in death.
He raised up a large family and educated them well. The oldest of the
sons, John and George, were educated at Oberlin College. The other
three, being young, were in school when the father died. John and
George, it will be seen, succeeded their father as teachers,
continuing in the business down to the present year. Of the two
daughters, the elder was a teacher till married in 1866, and the other
is now a teacher in the public schools of the city. One son served
through the war as sergeant in the Fortieth Colored Regiment, and
another served in the navy.
At the death of the father, March 21, 1855, the school fell into the
hands of the son, John F. Cook, who continued it till May, 1857, when
it passed to a younger son, George F. T. Cook, who moved it from its
old home, the Smothers House, to the basement of the Presbyterian
Church, in the spring of 1858, and maintained it till July, 1859. John
F. Cook, jr., who had erected a new school-house on Sixteenth Street,
in 1862, again gathered the school which the tempests of the war had
dispersed, and continued it till June, 1867, when the new order of
things had opened ample school facilities throughout the city, and the
teacher was called to other duties. Thus ended the school which had
been first gathered by Smothers nearly forty-five years before, and
which, in that long period, had been continually maintained with
seldom less than one hundred pupils, and for the most part with one
hundred and fifty, the only suspensions being in the year of the Snow
riot, and in the two years which ushered in the war.
The Smothers House, after the Cook school was removed in 1858, was
occupied for two years by a free Catholic school, supported by "The
St. Vincent de Paul Society," a benevolent organization of Colored
people. It was a very large school with two departments, the boys
under David Brown, and the girls under Eliza Anne Cook, and averaging
over one hundred and fifty scholars. When this school was transferred
to another house, Rev. Chauncey Leonard, a Colored Baptist clergyman,
now pastor of a church in Washington, and Nannie Waugh opened a school
there, in 1861, that became as large as that which had preceded it in
the same place. This school was broken up in 1862 by the destruction
of the building at the hands of the incendiaries, who, even at that
time, were inspired with all their accustomed vindictiveness toward
the Colored people. But this was their last heathenish jubilee, and
from the ashes of many burnings imperishable liberty has sprung forth.
About the time that Smothers built his school-house, in 1823,
LOUISA PARKE COSTIN'S SCHOOL
was established in her father's house on Capitol Hill, on A Street,
south, under the shadow of the Capitol. This Costin family came from
Mount Vernon immediately after the death of Martha Washington, in
1802. The father, William Costin, who died suddenly in his bed, May
31, 1842, was for twenty-four years messenger for the Bank of
Washington in this city. His death was noticed at length in the
columns of the "National Intelligencer" in more than one communication
at the time. The obituary notice, written under the suggestions of the
bank officers who had previously passed a resolution expressing their
respect for his memory, and appropriating fifty dollars toward the
funeral expenses, says: "It is due to the deceased to say that his
colored skin covered a benevolent heart"; concluding with this
language:
"The deceased raised respectably a large family of children of his
own, and, in the exercise of the purest benevolence, took into his
family and supported four orphan children. The tears of the orphan
will moisten his grave, and his memory will be dear to all those—a
numerous class—who have experienced his kindness"; and adding these
lines:
"Honor and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part—there all the honor lies."
John Quincy Adams, also, a few days afterward, in a discussion of the
wrongs of slavery, alluded to the deceased in these words, "The late
William Costin, though he was not white, was as much respected as any
man in the district, and the large concourse of citizens that attended
his remains to the grave, as well white as black, was an evidence of
the manner in which he was estimated by the citizens of Washington."
His portrait, taken by the direction of the bank authorities, still
hangs in the directors' room, and it may also be seen in the houses of
more than one of the old and prominent residents of the city.
William Costin's mother, Ann Dandridge, was the daughter of a
half-breed (Indian and Colored), her grandfather being a Cherokee
chief, and her reputed father was the father of Martha Dandridge,
afterward Mrs. Custis, who, in 1759, was married to General
Washington. These daughters, Ann and Martha, grew up together on the
ancestral plantations. William Costin's reputed father was white, and
belonged to a prominent family in Virginia, but the mother, after his
birth, married one of the Mount Vernon slaves by the name of Costin,
and the son took the name of William Costin. His mother, being of
Indian descent made him, under the laws of Virginia, a free-born man.
In 1800 he married Philadelphia Judge (his cousin), one of Martha
Washington's slaves, at Mount Vernon, where both were born in 1780.
The wife was given by Martha Washington at her decease to her
granddaughter, Eliza Parke Custis, who was the wife of Thomas Law, of
Washington. Soon after William Costin and his wife came to Washington,
the wife's freedom was secured on kind and easy terms, and the
children were all born free. This is the account which William Costin
and his wife and his mother, Ann Dandridge, always gave of their
ancestry, and they were persons of great precision in all matters of
family history, as well as of the most marked scrupulousness in their
statements. Their seven children, five daughters and two sons, went to
school with the white children on Capitol Hill, to Mrs. Maria Haley
and other teachers. The two younger daughters, Martha and Frances,
finished their education at the Colored convent in Baltimore. Louisa
Parke and Ann had passed their school days before the convent was
founded. Louisa Parke Costin opened her school at nineteen years of
age, continuing it with much success till her sudden death in 1831,
the year in which her mother also died. When Martha returned from the
convent seminary, a year or so later, she reopened the school,
continuing it till about 1839. This school, which was maintained some
fifteen years, was always very full. The three surviving sister own
and reside in the house which their father built about 1812. One of
these sisters married Richard Henry Fisk, a Colored man of good
education, who died in California, and she now has charge of the
Senate ladies' reception-room. Ann Costin was for several years in the
family of Major Lewis (at Woodlawn, Mount Vernon), the nephew of
Washington. Mrs. Lewis (Eleanor Custis) was the granddaughter of
Martha Washington. This school was not molested by the mob of 1835,
and it was always under the care of a well-bred and well-educated
teacher.
THE WESLEYAN SEMINARY.
While Martha Costin was teaching, James Enoch Ambush, a Colored man,
had also a large school in the basement of the Israel Bethel Church,
on Capitol Hill, for a while, commencing there in April, 1833, and
continuing in various places till 1843, when he built a school-house
on E Street, south, near Tenth, island, and established what was known
as "The Wesleyan Seminary," and which was successfully maintained for
thirty-two years, till the close of August, 1865. The school-house
still stands, a comfortable one-story wooden structure, with the sign
"Wesleyan Seminary" over the door, as it has been there for
twenty-five years. This was the only Colored school on the island of
any account for many years, and in its humble way it accomplished a
great amount of good. For some years Mr. Ambush had given much study
to botanic medicine, and since closing his school he has become a
botanic physician. He is a man of fine sense, and without school
advantages, has acquired a respectable education.
FIRST SEMINARY FOR COLORED GIRLS.
The first seminary in the District of Columbia for Colored girls was
established in Georgetown, in 1827, under the special auspices of
Father Vanlomen, a benevolent and devout Catholic priest, then pastor
of the Holy Trinity Church, who not only gave this interesting
enterprise his hand and his heart, but for several years himself
taught a school of Colored boys three days in a week, near the
Georgetown college gate, in a small frame house, which was afterward
famous as the residence of the broken-hearted widow of Commodore
Decatur. This female seminary was under the care of Maria Becraft, who
was the most remarkable Colored young woman of her time in the
district, and, perhaps, of any time. Her father, William Becraft, born
while his mother, a free woman, was the housekeeper of Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, always had the kindest attentions of this
great man, and there are now pictures, more than a century and a half
old, and other valuable relics from the Carroll family in the
possession of the Becraft family, in Georgetown, which Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, in his last days presented to William Becraft
as family keepsakes. William Becraft lived in Georgetown sixty-four
years, coming there when eighteen years of age. He was for many years
chief steward of Union Hotel, and a remarkable man, respected and
honored by everybody. When he died, the press of the district noticed,
in a most prominent manner, his life and character. From one of the
extended obituary notices, marked with heavy black lines, the
following paragraph is copied:
"He was among the last surviving representatives of the old
school of well-bred, confidential, and intelligent domestics, and
was widely known at home and abroad from his connection, in the
capacity of steward for a long series of years, and probably from
its origin, and until a recent date, with the Union Hotel,
Georgetown, with whose guests, for successive generations, his
benevolent and venerable aspect, dignified and obliging manners,
and moral excellence, rendered him a general favorite."
Maria Becraft was marked, from her childhood, for her uncommon
intelligence and refinement, and for her extraordinary piety. She was
born in 1805, and first went to school for a year to Henry Potter, in
Washington, about 1812; afterward attending Mrs. Billing's school
constantly till 1820. She then, at the age of fifteen, opened a school
for girls in Dunbarton Street, in Georgetown, and gave herself to the
work, which she loved, with the greatest assiduity, and with uniform
success. In 1827, when she was twenty-two years of age, her remarkable
beauty and elevation of character so much impressed Father Vanlomen,
the good priest, that he took it in hand to give her a higher style of
school in which to work for her sex and race, to the education of
which she had now fully consecrated herself. Her school was
accordingly transferred to a larger building, which still stands on
Fayette Street, opposite the convent, and there she opened a boarding
and day school for Colored girls, which she continued with great
success till August, 1831, when she surrendered her little seminary
into the care of one of the girls that she had trained, and in October
of that year joined the convent at Baltimore as a Sister of
Providence, where she was the leading teacher till she died, in
December, 1833, a great loss to that young institution, which was
contemplating this noble young woman as its future Mother Superior.
Her seminary in Georgetown averaged from thirty to thirty-five pupils,
and there are those living who remember the troop of girls, dressed
uniformly, which was wont to follow in procession their pious and
refined teacher to devotions on the Sabbath at Holy Trinity Church.
The school comprised girls from the best Colored families of
Georgetown, Washington, Alexandria, and surrounding country. The
sisters of the Georgetown convent were the admirers of Miss Becraft,
gave her instruction, and extended to her most heartfelt aid and
approbation in all her noble work, as they were in those days wont to
do in behalf of the aspiring Colored girls who sought for education,
withholding themselves from such work only when a depraved and
degenerate public sentiment upon the subject of educating the Colored
people had compelled them to a more rigid line of demarcation between
the races. Ellen Simonds and others conducted the school a few years,
but with the loss of its original teacher it began to fail, and
finally became extinct. Maria Becraft is remembered, wherever she was
known, as a woman of the rarest sweetness and exaltation of Christian
life, graceful and attractive in person and manners, gifted,
well-educated, and wholly devoted to doing good. Her name as a Sister
of Providence was Sister Aloyons.
MISS MYRTILLA MINER'S SEMINARY
for Colored girls was initiated in Washington. This philanthropic
woman was born in Brookfield, Madison County, New York, in 1815. Her
parents were farmers, with small resources for the support of a large
family. The children were obliged to work, and the small advantages of
a common school were all the educational privileges furnished to them.
Hop-raising was a feature in their farming, and this daughter was
accustomed to work in the autumn, picking the hops. She was of a
delicate physical organization, and suffered exceedingly all her life
with spinal troubles. Being a girl of extraordinary intellectual
activity, her place at home chafed her spirit. She was restless,
dissatisfied with her lot, looked higher than her father, dissented
from his ideas of woman's education, and, in her desperation, when
about twenty-three years old, wrote to Mr. Seward, then recently
elected Governor of her State, asking him if he could show her how it
was possible for a woman in her circumstances to become a scholar;
receiving from him the reply that he could not, but hoped a better day
was coming, wherein woman might have a chance to be and to do to the
extent of her abilities. Hearing at this time of a school at Clinton,
Oneida County, New York, for young women, on the manual-labor system,
she decided to go there; but her health being such as to make manual
labor impossible at the time, she wrote to the principal of the Clover
Street Seminary, Rochester, New York, who generously received her,
taking her notes for the school bills, to be paid after completing her
education. Grateful for this noble act, she afterward sent her younger
sister there to be educated, for her own associate as a teacher; and
the death of this talented sister, when about to graduate and come as
her assistant in Washington, fell upon her with crushing force. In the
Rochester school, with Myrtilla Miner, were two free Colored girls,
and this association was the first circumstance to turn her thoughts
to the work to which she gave her life. From Rochester she went to
Mississippi, as a teacher of planters' daughters, and it was what she
was compelled to see, in this situation, of the dreadful practices and
conditions of slavery, that filled her soul with a pity for the
Colored race, and a detestation of the system that bound them, which
held possession of her to the last day of her life. She remained there
several years, till her indignant utterances, which she would not
withhold, compelled her employer, fearful of the results, to part
reluctantly with a teacher whom he valued. She came home broken down
with sickness, caused by the harassing sights and sounds that she had
witnessed in plantation life, and while in this condition she made a
solemn vow that whatever of life remained to her should be given to
the work of ameliorating the condition of the Colored people. Here her
great work begins. She made up her mind to do something for the
education of free Colored girls, with the idea that through the
influence of educated Colored women she could lay the solid
foundations for the disenthrallment of their race. She selected the
district for the field of her efforts, because it was the common
property of the nation, and because the laws of the district gave her
the right to educate free Colored children, and she attempted to
teach none others. She opened her plan to many of the leading friends
of freedom, in an extensive correspondence, but found especially, at
this time, a wise and warm encourager and counsellor in her scheme, in
William R. Smith, a Friend, of Farmington, near Rochester, New York,
in whose family she was now a private teacher. Her correspondents
generally gave her but little encouragement, but wished her God-speed
in what she should dare in the good cause. One Friend wrote her from
Philadelphia; entering warmly into her scheme, but advised her to wait
till funds could be collected. "I do not want the wealth of
Crœsus," was her reply; and the Friend sent her $100, and with this
capital, in the autumn of 1851, she came to Washington to establish a
Normal School for the education of Colored girls, having associated
with her Miss Anna Inman, an accomplished and benevolent lady of the
Society of Friends, from Southfield, Rhode Island, who, however, after
teaching a class of Colored girls in French, in the house of Jonathan
Jones, on the island, through the winter, returned to New England. In
the autumn of 1851 Miss Miner commenced her remarkable work here in a
small room, about fourteen feet square, in the frame house then, as
now, owned and occupied by Edward C. Younger, a Colored man, as his
dwelling, on Eleventh Street, near New York Avenue. With but two or
three girls to open the school, she soon had a roomful, and to secure
larger accommodation, moved, after a couple of months, to a house on F
Street, north, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth streets, west, near
the houses then occupied by William T. Carroll and Charles H. Winder.
This house furnished her a very comfortable room for her school, which
was composed of well-behaved girls from the best Colored families of
the district. The persecution of those neighbors, however, compelled
her to leave, as the Colored family who occupied the house was
threatened with conflagration, and after one month her little school
found a more unmolested home in the dwelling-house of a German family
on K Street, near the western market. After tarrying a few months
here, she moved to L Street, into a room in the building known, as
"The Two Sisters," then occupied by a white family. She now saw that
the success of her school demanded a school-house, and in
reconnoitring the ground she found a spot suiting her ideas as to size
and locality, with a house on it, and in the market at a low price.
She raised the money, secured the spot, and thither, in the summer of
1851, she moved her school, where for seven years she was destined to
prosecute, with the most unparalleled energy and conspicuous success,
her remarkable enterprise. This lot, comprising an entire square of
three acres, between Nineteenth and Twentieth streets, west, N and O
streets, north, and New Hampshire Avenue, selected under the guidance
of Miss Miner, the contract being perfected through the agency of
Sayles J. Bowen, Thomas Williamson, and Allen M. Gangewer, was
originally conveyed in trust to Thomas Williamson and Samuel Rhodes,
of the Society of Friends, in Philadelphia. It was purchased of the
executors of the will of John Taylor, for $4,000, the deed being
executed June 8, 1853, the estimated value of the property now being
not less than $30,000. The money was mainly contributed by Friends, in
Philadelphia, New York, and New England. Catharine Morris, a Friend,
of Philadelphia, was a liberal benefactor of the enterprise, advancing
Miss Miner $2,000, with which to complete the purchase of the lot, the
most, if not all, of which sum, it is believed, she ultimately gave to
the institution; and Harriet Beecher Stowe was another generous
friend, who gave her money and her heart to the support of the brave
woman who had been willing to go forth alone at the call of duty. Mr.
Rhodes, some years editor of the "Friends' Quarterly Review," died
several years ago, near Philadelphia. Mr. Williamson, a conveyancer in
that city, and father of Passmore Williamson, is still living, but
some years ago declined the place of trustee. The board, at the date
of the act of incorporation, consisted of Benjamin Tatham, a Friend,
of New York City, Mrs. Nancy M. Johnson, of Washington, and Myrtilla
Miner, and the transfer of the property to the incorporated body was
made a few weeks prior to Miss Miner's death. This real estate,
together with a fund of $4,000 in government stocks, is now in the
hands of a corporate body, under act of Congress approved March 3,
1863, and is styled "The Institution for the Education of Colored
Youth in the District of Columbia." The officers of the corporation at
this time are John C. Underwood, president; Francis G. Shaw,
treasurer; George E. Baker, secretary; who, with Nancy M. Johnson, S.
J. Bowen, Henry Addison, and Rachel Howland, constitute the executive
committee. The purpose of the purchase of this property is declared,
in a paper signed by Mr. Williamson and Mr. Rhodes, dated
Philadelphia, June 8, 1858, to have been "especially for the
education of colored girls."
This paper also declares that "the grounds were purchased at the
special instance of Myrtilla Miner," and that "the contributions by
which the original price of said lot, and also the cost of the
subsequent improvements thereof, were procured chiefly by her
instrumentality and labors." The idea of Miss Miner in planting a
school here was to train up a class of Colored girls, in the midst of
slave institutions, who should show forth in their culture and
capabilities, to the country and to mankind, that the race was fit for
something higher than the degradation which rested upon them. The
amazing energy with which this frail woman prosecuted her work is well
known to those who took knowledge of her career. She visited the
Colored people of her district from house to house, and breathed a new
life into them pertaining to the education of their daughters. Her
correspondence with the philanthropic men and women of the North was
immense. She importuned Congressmen, and the men who shaped public
sentiment through the columns of the press, to come into her school
and see her girls, and was ceaseless in her activities day and night,
in every direction, to build up, in dignity and refinement, her
seminary, and to force its merits upon public attention.
The buildings upon the lot when purchased—a small frame dwelling of
two stories, not more than twenty-five by thirty-five feet in
dimensions, with three small cabins on the other side of the
premises—served for the seminary and the homes of the teacher and her
assistant. The most aspiring and decently bred Colored girls of the
district were gathered into the school; and the very best Colored
teachers in the schools, of the district at the present time, are
among those who owe their education to this self-sacrificing teacher
and her school. Mrs. Means, aunt of the wife of General Pierce, then
President of the United States, attracted by the enthusiasm of this
wonderful person, often visited her in the midst of her work, with the
kindest feelings; and the fact that the carriage from the Presidential
mansion was in this way frequently seen at the door of this humble
institution, did much to protect it from the hatred with which it was
surrounded.
Mr. Seward and his family were very often seen at the school, both
Mrs. Seward and her daughter Fanny being constant visitors; the
latter, a young girl at the time, often spending a whole day there.
Many other Congressmen of large and generous instincts, some of them
of pro-slavery party relations, went out there, all confessing their
admiration of the resolute woman and her school, and this kept evil
men in abeyance.
The opposition to the school throughout the district was strong and
very general, among the old as well as the young. Even Walter Lenox,
who, as mayor, when the school was first started, gave the teacher
assurances of favor in her work, came out in 1857, following the
prevailing current of depraved public sentiment and feeding its tide,
in an elaborate article in the "National Intelligencer," under his own
signature; assailed the school in open and direct language, urging
against it that it was raising the standard of education among the
Colored population, and distinctly declaring that the white population
of the district would not be just to themselves to permit the
continuance of an institution which had the temerity to extend to the
Colored people "a degree of instruction so far beyond their social and
political condition, which condition must continue," the article goes
on to say, "in this and every other slave-holding community." This
article, though fraught with extreme ideas, and to the last degree
prescriptive and inflammatory, neither stirred any open violence, nor
deterred the courageous woman in the slightest degree from her work.
When madmen went to her school-room threatening her with personal
violence, she laughed them to shame; and when they threatened to burn
her house, she told them that they could not stop her in that way, as
another house, better than the old, would immediately rise from its
ashes.
The house was set on fire in the spring of 1860, when Miss Miner was
asleep in the second story, alone, in the night-time, but the smell of
the smoke awakened her in time to save the building and herself from
the flames, which were extinguished. The school-girls, also, were
constantly at the mercy of coarse and insulting boys along the
streets, who would often gather in gangs before the gate to pursue and
terrify these inoffensive children, who were striving to gather wisdom
and understanding in their little sanctuary. The police took no
cognizance of such brutality in those days. But their dauntless
teacher, uncompromising, conscientious, and self-possessed in her
aggressive work, in no manner turned from her course by this
persecution, was, on the other hand, stimulated thereby to higher
vigilance and energy in her great undertaking. The course of
instruction in the school was indeed of a higher order than had
hitherto been opened to the Colored people of the district, as was
denounced against the school by Walter Lenox, in his newspaper attack.
Lectures upon scientific and literary subjects were given by
professional and literary gentlemen, who were friends to the cause.
The spacious grounds afforded to each pupil an ample space for a
flower bed, which she was enjoined to cultivate with her own hands and
to thoroughly study. And an excellent library, a collection of
paintings and engravings, the leading magazines and choice newspapers,
were gathered and secured for the humble home of learning, which was
all the while filled with students, the most of whom were bright,
ambitious girls, composing a female Colored school, which, in dignity
and usefulness, has had no equal in the district since that day. It
was her custom to gather in her vacations and journeys not only money,
but every thing else that would be of use in her school, and in this
way she not only collected books, but maps, globes, philosophical, and
chemical, and mathematical apparatus, and a great variety of things to
aid in her instruction in illustrating all branches of knowledge. This
collection was stored in the school building during the war, and was
damaged by neglect, plundered by soldiers, and what remains is not of
much value. The elegant sofa-bedstead which she used during all her
years in the seminary, and which would be an interesting possession
for the seminary, was sold, with her other personal effects, to Dr.
Carrie Brown (Mrs. Winslow), of Washington, one of her bosom friends,
who stood at her pillow when she died.
Her plan embraced the erection of spacious structures, upon the site
which had been most admirably chosen, complete in all their
appointments for the full accommodation of a school of one hundred and
fifty boarding scholars. The seminary was to be a female college,
endowed with all the powers and professorships belonging to a
first-class college for the other sex. She did not contemplate its
springing up into such proportions, like a mushroom, in a single
night, but it was her ambition that the institution should one day
attain that rank. In the midst of her anxious, incessant labors, her
physical system began so sensibly to fail, that in the summer of 1858,
under the counsel of the friends of herself and her cause, she went
North to seek health, and, as usual in all her journeys, to beg for
her seminary, leaving her girls in the care of Emily Howland, a noble
young woman, who came down here for the love of the cause, without
money and without price, from the vicinity of Auburn, New York. In the
autumn, Miss Miner returned to her school; Miss Howland still
continuing with her through the winter, a companion in her trials,
aiding her in her duties, and consenting to take charge of the school
again in the summer of 1859, while Miss Miner was on another journey
for funds and health. In the autumn of that year, after returning from
her journey, which was not very successful she determined to suspend
the school, and to go forth into the country with a most persistent
appeal for money to erect a seminary building, as she had found it
impossible to get a house of any character started with the means
already in her hands. She could get no woman, whom she deemed fit to
take her work, willing to continue her school, and in the spring of
1860, leasing the premises, she went North on her errand. In the
ensuing year she traversed many States, but the shadow of the
Rebellion was on her path, and she gathered neither much money nor
much strength. The war came, and in October, 1862, hoping, but vainly,
for health from a sea-voyage and from the Pacific climate, she sailed
from New York to California. When about to return, in 1866, with
vivacity of body and spirit, she was thrown from a carriage in a
fearful manner; blighting all the high hopes of resuming her school
under the glowing auspices she had anticipated, as she saw the
Rebellion and the hated system tumbling to pieces. She arrived in New
York, in August of that year, in a most shattered condition of body,
though with the fullest confidence that she should speedily be well
and at her work in Washington. In the first days of December she went
to Washington in a dying condition, still resolute to resume her work;
was carried to the residence of her tried friend, Mrs. Nancy M.
Johnson; and on the tenth of that month, surrounded by the friends who
had stood with her in other days, she put off her wasted and wearied
body in the city which had witnessed her trials and her triumphs, and
her remains slumber in Oak Hill Cemetery.
Her seminary engaged her thoughts to the last day of her life. She
said in her last hours that she had come back here to resume her work,
and could not leave it thus unfinished. No marble marks the
resting-place of this truly wonderful woman, but her memory is
certainly held precious in the hearts of her throngs of pupils, in the
hearts of the Colored people of this district, and of all who took
knowledge of her life, and who reverenced the cause in which she
offered herself a willing sacrifice. Her assistants in the school were
Helen Moore, of Washington; Margaret Clapp, Amanda Weaver, and Anna H.
Searing, of New York State, and two of her pupils, Matilda Jones, of
Washington, and Emma Brown, of Georgetown, both of whom subsequently,
through the influence of Miss Miner and Miss Howland, finished their
education at Oberlin, and have since been most superior teachers in
Washington. Most of the assistant teachers from the North were from
families connected with the Society of Friends, and it has been seen
that the bulk of the money came from that society. The sketch would be
incomplete without a special tribute to Lydia B. Mann, sister of
Horace Mann, who came here in the fall of 1856, from the Colored
Female Orphan Asylum of Providence, R. I., of which she was then, as
she continues to be, the admirable superintendent, and, as a pure
labor of love, took care of the school in the most superior manner
through the autumn and winter, while Miss Miner was North recruiting
her strength and pleading for contributions. It was no holiday duty to
go into that school, live in that building, and work alone with head
and hands, as was done by all those refined and educated women who
stood from time to time in that humble, persecuted seminary. Miss Mann
is gratefully remembered by her pupils here and their friends.
Mention should also be made of Emily Howland, who stood by Miss Miner
in her darkest days, and whose whole heart was with her in all her
work. She is a woman of the largest and most self-sacrificing
purposes, who has been and still is giving her best years, all her
powers, talents, learning, refinement, wealth, and personal toil, to
the education and elevation of the Colored race. While here she
adopted, and subsequently educated in the best manner, one of Miss
Miner's pupils, and assisted several others of her smart girls in
completing their education at Oberlin. During the war she was teaching
contrabands in the hospital and the camp, and is now engaged in
planting a colony of Colored people in Virginia with homes and a
school-house of their own.
A seminary, such as was embraced in the plan of Miss Miner, is
exceedingly demanded by the interest of Colored female education in
the District of Columbia and the country at large, and any scheme by
which the foundations that she laid so well may become the seat of
such a school, would be heartily approved by all enlightened friends
of the Colored race. The trustees of the Miner property, not
insensible of their responsibilities, have been carefully watching for
the moment when action on their part would seem to be justified. They
have repeatedly met in regard to the matter, but, in their counsels,
hitherto, have deemed it wise to wait further developments. They are
now about to hold another meeting, it is understood, and it is to be
devoutly hoped that some plan will be adopted by which a school of a
high order may be, in due time, opened for Colored girls in this
district, who exceedingly need the refining, womanly training of such
a school.
The original corporators of Miss Miner's institution were Henry
Addison, John C. Underwood, George C. Abbott, William H. Channing,
Nancy M. Johnson, and Myrtilla Miner. The objects, as expressed in the
charter, "are to educate and improve the moral and intellectual
condition of such of the colored youth of the nation as may be placed
under its care and influence."
MARY WORMLEY'S SCHOOL.
In 1830, William Wormley built a school-house for his sister Mary,
near the corner of Vermont Avenue and I Street, where the restaurant
establishment owned and occupied by his brother, James Wormley, now
stands. He had educated his sister expressly for a teacher, at great
expense, at the Colored Female Seminary in Philadelphia, then in
charge of Miss Sarah Douglass, an accomplished Colored lady, who is
still a teacher of note in the Philadelphia Colored High School.
William Wormley was at that time a man of wealth. His livery-stable,
which occupied the place where the Owen House now stands, was one of
the largest and best in the city. Miss Wormley had just brought her
school into full and successful operation when her health broke down,
and she lived scarcely two years. Mr. Calvert, an English gentleman,
still living in the first ward, taught a class of Colored scholars in
this house for a time, and James Wormley was one of the class. In the
autumn of 1834, William Thomas Lee opened a school in the same place,
and it was in a flourishing condition in the fall of 1835, when the
Snow mob dispersed it, sacking the school-house, and partially
destroying it by fire. William Wormley was at that time one of the
most enterprising and influential Colored men of Washington, and was
the original agent of the "Liberator" newspaper for this district.
The mob being determined to lay hold of him and Lee, they fled from
the city to save their lives, returning when General Jackson, coming
back from Virginia a few days after the outbreak, gave notice that the
fugitives should be protected. The persecution of William Wormley was
so violent and persistent, that his health and spirits sank under its
effects, his business was broken up, and he died a poor man, scarcely
owning a shelter for his dying couch. The school-house was repaired
after the riot, and occupied for a time by Margaret Thompson's school,
and still stands in the rear of James Wormley's restaurant.
BENJAMIN M'COY'S, AND OTHER SCHOOLS.
About this time another school was opened in Georgetown, by Nancy
Grant, a sister of Mrs. William Becraft, a well-educated Colored
woman. She was teaching as early as 1828, and had a useful school for
several years. Mr. Nuthall, an Englishman, was teaching in Georgetown
during this period, and as late as 1833 he went to Alexandria and
opened a school in that city. William Syphax, among others now
resident in Washington, attended his school in Alexandria about 1833.
He was a man of ability, well educated, and one of the best teachers
of his time in the district. His school in Georgetown was at first in
Dunbarton Street, and afterward on Montgomery.
The old maxim, that "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
Church," seems to find its illustration in this history. There is no
period in the annals of the country in which the fires of persecution
against the education of the Colored race burned more fiercely in this
district, and the country at large, than in the five years from 1831
to 1836, and it was during this period that a larger number of
respectable Colored schools were established than in any other five
years prior to the war. In 1833, the same year in which Ambush's
school was started, Benjamin M. McCoy, a Colored man, opened a school
in the northern part of the city, on L Street, between Third and
Fourth streets, west. In 1834 he moved to Massachusetts Avenue,
continuing his school there till he went to Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, in the autumn of 1836, to finish the engagement of Rev.
John F. Cook, who came back to Washington at that time and re-opened
his school. The school at Lancaster was a free public Colored school,
and Mr. McCoy was solicited to continue another year; but declining,
came back, and in 1837 opened a school in the basement of Asbury
Church, which, in that room and in the house adjoining, he maintained
with great success for the ensuing twelve years. Mr. McCoy was a pupil
of Mrs. Billing and Henry Smothers; is a man of good sense, and his
school gave a respectable rudimental education to multitudes, who
remember him as a teacher with great respect. He is now a messenger in
the Treasury Department. In 1833, a school was established by Fanny
Hampton, in the western part of the city, on the northwest corner of K
and Nineteenth streets. It was a large school, and was continued till
about 1842, the teacher dying soon afterward. She was half-sister of
Lindsay Muse. Margaret Thompson succeeded her, and had a flourishing
school of some forty scholars on Twenty-sixth Street, near the avenue,
for several years, about 1846. She subsequently became the wife of
Charles H. Middleton, and assisted in his school for a brief time.
About 1830, Robert Brown commenced a small school, and continued it at
intervals for many years till his death. As early as 1833, there was a
school opened in a private house in the rear of Franklin Row, near the
location of the new Franklin School building. It was taught by a white
man, Mr. Talbot, and continued a year or two. Mrs. George Ford, a
white teacher, a native of Virginia, kept a Colored school in a brick
house still standing on New Jersey Avenue, between K and L streets.
She taught there many years, and as early, perhaps, as half a century
ago.
DR. JOHN H. FLEET'S SCHOOL
was opened, in 1836, on New York Avenue, in a school-house which stood
nearly on the spot now occupied by the Richards buildings at the
corner of New York Avenue and Fourteenth Street. It had been
previously used for a white school, taught by Mrs. McDaniel, and was
subsequently again so used. Dr. Fleet was a native of Georgetown, and
was greatly assisted in his education by the late Judge James Morsell,
of that city, who was not only kind to this family, but was always
regarded by the Colored people of the district as their firm friend
and protector. John H. Fleet, with his brothers and sisters, went to
the Georgetown Lancasterian School, with the white children, for a
long period, in their earlier school days, and subsequently to other
white schools. He was also for a time a pupil of Smothers and Prout.
He was possessed of a brilliant and strong intellect, inherited from
his father, who was a white man of distinguished abilities. He studied
medicine in Washington, in the office of Dr. Thomas Henderson, who had
resigned as assistant surgeon in the army, and was a practising
physician of eminence in Washington. He also attended medical lectures
at the old medical college, corner of Tenth and E streets. It was his
intention at that time to go to Liberia, and his professional
education was conducted under the auspices of the Colonization
Society. This, with the influence of Judge Morsell, gave him
privileges never extended here to any other Colored man. He decided,
however, not to go to Liberia, and in 1836 opened his school. He was a
refined and polished gentleman, and conceded to be the foremost
Colored man in culture, in intellectual force, and general influence
in this district at that time. His school-house on New York Avenue was
burned by an incendiary about 1843, and his flourishing and excellent
school was thus ended. For a time he subsequently taught music, in
which he was very proficient; but about 1846 he opened a school on
School-house Hill, in the Hobbrook Military School building, near the
corner of N Street, north, and Twenty-third Street, west, and had a
large school there till about 1851, when he relinquished the business,
giving his attention henceforth exclusively to music, and with eminent
success. He died in 1861. His school was very large and of a superior
character.
CHARLES H. MIDDLETON'S SCHOOL
was started in the same section of the city, in a school-house which
then stood, near the corner of Twenty-second Street, west, and I,
north, and which had been used by Henry Hardy for a white school.
Though both Fleet's and Johnson's schools were in full tide of success
in that vicinity, he gathered a good school, and when his two
competitors retired—as they both did about this time,—his school
absorbed a large portion of their patronage, and was thronged. In
1852, he went temporarily with his school to Sixteenth Street, and
thence to the basement of Union Bethel Church on M Street, near
Sixteenth, in which, during the administration of President Pierce, he
had an exceedingly large and excellent school, at the same period when
Miss Miner was prosecuting her signal work. Mr. Middleton, now a
messenger in the Navy Department, a native of Savannah, Ga., is
free-born, and received his very good education in schools in that
city, sometimes with white and sometimes with Colored children. When
he commenced his school he had just returned from the Mexican war, and
his enterprise is especially worthy of being made prominent, not only
because of his high style as a teacher, but also because it is
associated with
THE FIRST MOVEMENT FOR A FREE COLORED PUBLIC SCHOOL.
This movement originated with a city officer, Jesse E. Dow, who, in
1848 and 1849, was a leading and influential member of the common
council. He encouraged Mr. Middleton to start his school, by assuring
him that he would give all his influence to the establishment of free
schools for Colored as well as for white children, and that he had
great confidence that the council would be brought to give at least
some encouragement to the enterprise. In 1850 Mr. Dow was named among
the candidates for the mayoralty; and when his views in this regard
were assailed by his opponents, he did not hesitate to boldly avow his
opinions, and to declare that he wished no support for any office
which demanded of him any modification of these convictions. The
workmen fail, but the work succeeds. The name of Jesse E. Dow merits
conspicuous record in this history for this bold and magnanimous
action. Mr. Middleton received great assistance in building up his
school from Rev. Mr. Wayman, then pastor of the Bethel Church, and
afterward promoted to the bishopric. The school was surrendered
finally to Rev. J. V. B. Morgan, the succeeding pastor of the church,
who conducted the school as a part of the means of his livelihood.
ALEXANDER CORNISH AND OTHERS.
In the eastern section of the city, about 1840, Alexander Cornish had
a school several years in his own house on D Street, south, between
Third and Fourth, east, with an average of forty scholars. He was
succeeded, about 1846, by Richard Stokes, who was a native of Chester
County, Pa. His school, averaging one hundred and fifty scholars, was
kept in the Israel Bethel Church, near the Capitol, and was continued
for about six years. In 1840, there was a school opened by Margaret
Hill in Georgetown, near Miss English's seminary. She taught a very
good school for several years.
ALEXANDER HAYS'S SCHOOL
was started on Ninth Street, west, near New York Avenue. Mr. Hays was
born in 1802, and belonged originally to the Fowler family in
Maryland. When a boy he served for a time at the Washington Navy Yard,
in the family of Captain Dove, of the navy, the father of Dr. Dove, of
Washington, and it was in that family that he learned to read. Michael
Tabbs had a school at that time at the Navy Yard, which he taught in
the afternoons under a large tree, which stood near the old Masonic
Hall. The Colored children used to meet him there in large numbers
daily, and while attending this singular school, Hays was at the same
time taught by Mrs. Dove, with her children. This was half a century
ago. In 1826, Hays went to live in the family of R. S. Coxe, the
eminent Washington lawyer, who soon purchased him, paying Fowler $300
for him. Mr. Coxe did this at the express solicitation of Hays, and
seventeen years after he gave him his freedom—in 1843. While living
with Mr. Coxe he had married Matilda Davis, the daughter of John
Davis, who served as steward many years in the family of Mr. Seaton,
of the "National Intelligencer." The wedding was at Mr. Seaton's
residence, and Mr. Coxe and family were present on the occasion. In
1836, he bought the house and lot which they still own and occupy, and
in 1842, the year before he was free, Hays made his last payment, and
the place was conveyed to his wife. She was a free woman, and had
opened a school in the house in 1841. Hays had many privileges while
with Mr. Coxe, and with the proceeds of his wife's school they paid
the purchase-money ($550) and interest in seven years. Mr. Hays was
taught reading, writing, and arithmetic by Mr. Coxe, his wife, and
daughters, while a slave in their family. When the Colored people were
driven from the churches, in the years of the mobs, Mrs. Coxe
organized a large Colored Sabbath-school in her own parlor, and
maintained it for a long period, with the cooperation of Mr. Coxe and
the daughters. Mr. Hays was a member of this school. He also attended
day schools, when his work would allow of it. This was the education
with which, in 1845, he ventured to take his wife's school in charge.
He is a man of good-sense, and his school flourished. He put up an
addition to his house, in order to make room for his increasing
school, which was continued down to 1857—sixteen years from its
opening. He had also a night school and taught music, and these two
features of his school he has revived since the war. This school
contained from thirty-five to forty-five pupils. Rev. Dr. Samson, Mr.
Seaton, and Mr. Coxe often visited his school and encouraged him in
his excellent work. Thomas Tabbs used also to come into his school and
give him aid and advice, as also did John McLeod.
MR. AND MRS. FLETCHER'S SCHOOL
was opened about 1854, in the building in which Middleton first
taught, on I, near Twenty-second Street. Mr. Fletcher was an
Englishman, a well-educated gentleman, and a thorough teacher. He was
induced to open the school by the importunities of some aspiring
Colored young men in that part of the city, who desired first-rate
instruction. He soon became the object of persecution, though he was a
man of courtesy and excellent character. His school-house was finally
set on fire and consumed, with all its books and furniture; but the
school took, as its asylum, the basement of the John Wesley Church.
The churches which they had been forced to build in the days of the
mobs, when they were driven from the white churches which they had
aided in building, proved of immense service to them in their
subsequent struggles. Mrs. Fletcher kept a variety store, which was
destroyed about the time the school was opened. She then became an
assistant in her husband's school, which numbered over one hundred and
fifty pupils. In 1858, they were driven from the city, as persecution
at that time was particularly violent against all white persons who
instructed the Colored people. This school was conducted with great
thoroughness, and had two departments, Mrs. Fletcher, who was an
accomplished person, having charge of the girls in a separate room.
ELIZA ANNE COOK,
a niece of Rev. John F. Cook, and one of his pupils, who has been
teaching for about fifteen years, should be mentioned. She attended
Miss Miner's school for a time, and was afterward at the Baltimore
convent two years. She opened a school in her mother's house, and
subsequently built a small school-house on the same lot, Sixteenth
Street, between K and L streets. With the exception of three years,
during which she was teaching in the free Catholic school opened in
the Smothers school-house in 1859, and one year in the female school
in charge of the Colored sisters, she has maintained her own private
school from 1854 down to the present time, her number at some periods
being above sixty, but usually not more than twenty-five or thirty.
MISS WASHINGTON'S SCHOOL.
In 1857, Annie E. Washington opened a select primary school in her
mother's house, on K Street, between Seventeenth and Eighteenth
streets, west. The mother, a widow woman, was a laundress, and by her
own labor has given her children good advantages, though she had no
such advantages herself. This daughter was educated chiefly under Rev.
John E. Cook and Miss Miner, with whom she was a favorite scholar. Her
older sister was educated at the Baltimore convent. Annie E.
Washington is a woman of native refinement, and has an excellent
aptitude for teaching, as well as a good education. Her schools have
always been conducted with system and superior judgment, giving
universal satisfaction, the number of her pupils being limited only by
the size of her room. In 1858, she moved to the basement of the
Baptist Church, corner of Nineteenth and I streets, to secure larger
accommodations, and there she had a school of more than sixty scholars
for several years.
A FREE CATHOLIC COLORED SCHOOL.
A free school was established in 1858, and maintained by the St.
Vincent de Paul Society, an association of Colored Catholics, in
connection with St. Matthew's Church. It was organized under the
direction of Father Walter, and kept in the Smothers school-house for
two years, and was subsequently for one season maintained on a smaller
scale in a house on L Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets,
west, till the association failed to give it the requisite pecuniary
support after the war broke out. This school has already been
mentioned.
OTHER SCHOOLS.
In 1843, Elizabeth Smith commenced a school for small children on the
island in Washington, and subsequently taught on Capitol Hill. In
1860, she was the assistant of Rev. Wm. H. Hunter, who had a large
school in Zion Wesley Church, Georgetown, of which he was the pastor.
She afterward took the school into her own charge for a period, and
taught among the contrabands in various places during the war.
About 1850, Isabella Briscoe opened a school on Montgomery Street,
near Mount Zion Church, Georgetown. She was well educated, and one of
the best Colored teachers in the district before the Rebellion. Her
school was always well patronized, and she continued teaching in the
district up to 1868.
Charlotte Beams had a large school for a number of years, as early as
1850, in a building next to Galbraith Chapel, I Street, north, between
Fourth and Fifth, west. It was exclusively a girls' school in its
later years. The teacher was a pupil of Enoch Ambush, who assisted her
in establishing her school.
A year or two later, Rev. James Shorter had a large school in the
Israel Bethel Church, and Miss Jackson taught another good school on
Capitol Hill about the same time. The above-mentioned were all Colored
teachers.
Among the excellent schools broken up at the opening of the war, was
that of Mrs. Charlotte Gordon, Colored, on Eighth Street, in the
northern section of the city. It was in successful operation several
years, and the number in attendance sometimes reached one hundred and
fifty. Mrs. Gordon was assisted by her daughter.
In 1841, David Brown commenced teaching on D Street, south, between
First and Second streets, island, and continued in the business till
1858, at which period he was placed in charge of the large Catholic
free school in the Smothers house, as has been stated.[65]
Here is a picture that every Negro in the country may contemplate with
satisfaction and pride. In the stronghold of slavery, under the shadow
of the legalized institution of slavery, within earshot of the
slave-auctioneer's hammer, amid distressing circumstances, poverty,
and proscription, three unlettered ex-slaves, upon the threshold of
the nineteenth century, sowed the seed of education for the Negro race
in the District of Columbia, from which an abundant harvest has been
gathered, and will be gathered till the end of time!
What the Negro has done to educate himself, the trials and hateful
laws that have hampered him during the long period anterior to 1860,
cannot fail to awaken feelings of regret and admiration among the
people of both sections and two continents.