Chapter XII · NEGRO SCHOOL LAWS. 1619-1860.

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Crandall arrested and imprisoned for teaching Colored Children against the Law.—Great Excitement.—The Law finally repealed.—An Act by the Legislature of Delaware taxing Persons who brought into, or sold Slaves out of, the State.—Under Act of 1829 Money received for the Sale of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.

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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