The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 Part 24

[Footnote 2: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention of the Free People of Color_, 1836; Garrison's Address.]

In the course of time these workers succeeded in various communities.

The movement for the higher education of the Negroes of the District of Columbia centered largely around the academy established by Miss Myrtilla Miner, a worthy young woman of New York. After various discouragements in seeking a special preparation for life's work, she finally concluded that she should devote her time to the moral and intellectual improvement of Negroes.[1] She entered upon her career in Was.h.i.+ngton in 1851 a.s.sisted by Miss Anna Inman, a native of New York, and a member of the Society of Friends. After teaching the girls French one year Miss Inman returned to her home in Southfield, Rhode Island.[2] Finding it difficult to get a permanent location, Miss Miner had to move from place to place among colored people who were generally persecuted and threatened with conflagration for having a white woman working among them. Driven to the extremity of building a schoolhouse for her purpose, she purchased a lot with money raised largely by Quakers of New York, Philadelphia, and New England, and by Harriet Beecher Stowe.[3] Miss Miner had also the support of Mrs.

Means, an aunt of the wife of President Franklin Pierce, and of United States Senator W.H. Seward.[4] Effective opposition, however, was not long in developing. Articles appeared in the newspapers protesting against this policy of affording Negroes "a degree of instruction so far above their social and political condition which must continue in this and every other slaveholding community."[5] Girls were insulted, teachers were abused along the streets, and for lack of police surveillance the house was set afire in 1860. It was sighted, however, in time to be saved.[6]

[Footnote 1: O'Connor, _Myrtilla Miner_, pp. 11, 12.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 207.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1871, p. 208.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, pp. 208, 209, and 210.]

[Footnote 5: _The National Intelligencer._]

[Footnote 6: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 209.]

Undisturbed by these efforts to destroy the inst.i.tution, Miss Miner persisted in carrying out her plan for the higher education of colored girls of the District of Columbia. She worked during the winter, and traveled during the summer to solicit friends and contributions to keep the inst.i.tution on that higher plane where she planned it should be. She had the building well equipped with all kinds of apparatus, utilized the ample ground for the teaching of horticulture, collected a large library, and secured a number of paintings and engravings with which she enlightened her pupils on the finer arts. In addition to the conventional teaching of seminaries of that day, Miss Miner provided lectures on scientific and literary subjects by the leading men of that time, and trained her students to teach.[1] She hoped some day to make the seminary a first-cla.s.s teachers' college. During the Civil War, however, it was difficult for her to find funds, and health having failed her in 1858 she died in 1866 without realizing this dream.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 210.]

[Footnote 2: Those who a.s.sisted her were Helen Moore, Margaret Clapp, Anna H. Searing, Amanda Weaver, Anna Jones, Matilda Jones, and Lydia Mann, the sister of Horace Mann, who helped Miss Miner considerably in 1856 at the time of her failing health. Emily Holland was her firm supporter when the inst.i.tution was pa.s.sing through the crisis, and stood by her until she breathed her last. See _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 210.]

Earlier in the nineteenth century the philanthropists of Pennsylvania had planned to establish for Negroes several higher inst.i.tutions.

Chief among these was the Inst.i.tute for Colored Youth. The founding of an inst.i.tution of this kind had been made possible by Richard Humphreys, a Quaker, who, on his death in 1832, devised to a Board of Trustees the sum of $10,000 to be used for the education of the descendants of the African race.[1] As the instruction of Negroes was then unpopular, no steps were taken to carry out this plan until 1839.

The Quakers then appointed a Board and undertook to execute this provision of Humphreys's will. In conformity with the directions of the donor, the Board of Trustees endeavored to give the colored youth the opportunity to obtain a good education and acquire useful knowledge of trades and commercial occupations. Humphreys desired that "they might be enabled to obtain a comfortable livelihood by their own industry, and fulfill the duties of domestic and social life with reputation and fidelity as good citizens and pious men."[2]

Accordingly they purchased a tract of land in Philadelphia County and taught a number of boys the principles of farming, shoemaking, and other useful occupations.

[Footnote 1: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa._, p. 249.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 379.]

Another stage in the development of this inst.i.tution was reached in 1842, the year of its incorporation. It then received several small contributions and the handsome sum of $18,000 from another Quaker, Jonathan Zane. As it seemed by 1846 that the attempt to combine the literary with the industrial work had not been successful, it was decided to dispose of the industrial equipment and devote the funds of the inst.i.tution to the maintenance of an evening school. An effort at the establishment of a day school was made in 1850, but it was not effected before 1852. A building was then erected in Lombard Street and the school known thereafter as the Inst.i.tute for Colored Youth was opened with Charles L. Reason of New York in charge. Under him the inst.i.tution was at once a success in preparing advanced pupils of both s.e.xes for the higher vocations of teaching and preaching. The attendance soon necessitated increased accommodations for which Joseph Dawson and other Quakers liberally provided in later years.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 380.]

This favorable tendency in Pennsylvania led to the establishment of Avery College at Alleghany City. The necessary fund was bequeathed by Rev. Charles Avery, a rich man of that section, who left an estate of about $300,000 to be applied to the education and Christianization of the African race.[1] Some of this fund was devoted to missionary work in Africa, large donations were made to colored inst.i.tutions of learning, and another portion was appropriated to the establishment of Avery College. This inst.i.tution was incorporated in 1849. Soon thereafter it advertised for students, expressing willingness to make every provision without regard to religious proclivities. The school had a three-story brick building, up-to-date apparatus for teaching various branches of natural science, a library of all kinds of literature, and an endowment of $25,000 to provide for its maintenance. Rev. Philotas Dean, the only white teacher connected with this inst.i.tution, was its first princ.i.p.al. He served until 1856 when he was succeeded by his a.s.sistant, M.H. Freeman, who in 1863 was succeeded by George B. Vashon. Miss Emma J. Woodson was an a.s.sistant in the inst.i.tution from 1856 to 1867. After the din of the Civil War had ceased the inst.i.tution took on new life, electing a new corps of teachers, who placed the work on a higher plane. Among these were Rev.

H.H. Garnett, president, B.K. Sampson, Harriet C. Johnson, and Clara G. Toop.[2]

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. x.x.xiv., p. 156.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 381.]

It was due also to the successful forces at work in Pennsylvania that the Ashmun Inst.i.tute, now Lincoln University, was established in that State. The need of higher education having come to the attention of the Presbytery of New Castle, that body decided to establish within its limits an inst.i.tution for the "scientific, cla.s.sical, and theological education of the colored youth of the male s.e.x." In 1853 the Synod approved the plans of the founders and provided that the inst.i.tution should be under the supervision and control of the Presbytery or Synod within whose bounds it might be located. A committee to solicit funds, find a site, and secure a charter for the school was appointed. They selected for the location Hensonville, Chester County, Pennsylvania.[1] The legislature incorporated the inst.i.tution in 1854 with John M. d.i.c.key, Alfred Hamilton, Robert P.

DuBois, James Latta, John B. Spottswood, James Crowell, Samuel J.

d.i.c.key, Alfred Hamilton, John M. Kelton, and William Wilson as trustees. Sufficient buildings and equipment having been provided by 1856, the doors of this inst.i.tution were opened to young colored men seeking preparation for work in this country and Liberia.[2]

[Footnote 1: Baird, _A Collection_, etc., p. 819.]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the United States Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 382.]

An equally successful plan of workers in the West resulted in the founding of the first higher inst.i.tution to be controlled by Negroes.

Having for some years believed that the colored people needed a college for the preparation of teachers and preachers, the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in session in 1855 appointed Rev. John F. Wright as general agent to execute this design.

Addressing themselves immediately to this task Rev. Mr. Wright and his a.s.sociates solicited from philanthropic persons by 1856 the amount of $13,000. The agents then made the purchase payment on the beautiful site of Tawawa Springs, long known as the healthy summer resort near Xenia, Ohio.[1] That same year the inst.i.tution was incorporated as Wilberforce University. From 1856 to 1862 the school had a fair student body, consisting of the mulatto children of southern slaveholders.[2] When these were kept away, however, by the operations of the Civil War, the inst.i.tution declined so rapidly that it had to be closed for a season. Thereafter the trustees appealed again to the African Methodist Episcopal Church which in 1856 had declined the invitation to cooperate with the founders. The colored Methodists had adhered to their decision to operate Union Seminary, a manual labor school, which they had started near Columbus, Ohio.[3] The proposition was accepted, however, in 1862. For the amount of the debt of $10,000 which the inst.i.tution had incurred while pa.s.sing through the crisis, Rev. Daniel A. Payne and his a.s.sociates secured the transfer of the property to the African Methodist Episcopal Church. These new directors hoped to develop a first-cla.s.s university, offering courses in law, medicine, literature, and theology. The debt being speedily removed the school showed evidences of new vigor, but was checked in its progress by an incendiary, who burned the main building while the teachers and pupils were attending an emanc.i.p.ation celebration at Xenia, April 14, 1865. With the amount of insurance received and donations from friends, the trustees were able to construct a more commodious building which still marks the site of these early labors.[4]

[Footnote 1: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol. ii., p. 113.]

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

372-373.]

[Footnote 3: _History of Greene County, Ohio_, chapter on Wilberforce; and _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 373.]

[Footnote 4: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol. ii., p. 113.]

A brighter day for the higher education of the colored people at home, however, had begun to dawn during the forties. The abolitionists were then aggressively demanding consideration for the Negroes. Men "condescended" to reason together about slavery and the treatment of the colored people. The northern people ceased to think that they had nothing to do with these problems. When these questions were openly discussed in the schools of the North, students and teachers gradually became converted to the doctrine of equality in education. This revolution was inst.i.tuted by President C.B. Storrs, of Western Reserve College, then at Hudson, Ohio. His doctrine in regard to the training of the mind "was that men are able to be made only by putting youth under the responsibilities of men." He, therefore, encouraged the free discussion of all important subjects, among which was the appeal of the Negroes for enlightenment. This policy gave rise to a spirit of inquiry which permeated the whole school. The victory, however, was not easy. After a long struggle the mind of the college was carried by irresistible argument in favor of fair play for colored youth. This inst.i.tution had two colored students as early as 1834.[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society_, p. 42.]

Northern inst.i.tutions of learning were then reaching the third stage in their partic.i.p.ation in the solution of the Negro problem. At first they had to be converted even to allow a free discussion of the question; next the students on being convinced that slavery was a sin, sought to elevate the blacks thus degraded; and finally these workers, who had been accustomed to instructing the neighboring colored people, reached the conclusion that they should be admitted to their schools on equal footing with the whites. Geneva College, then at Northfield, Ohio, now at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, was being moved in this manner.[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-slavery Society_, 1834. p. 43.]

Lane Seminary, however, is the best example of a school which pa.s.sed through the three stages of this revolution. This inst.i.tution was peculiar in that the idea of establis.h.i.+ng it originated with a southerner, a merchant of New Orleans. It was founded largely by funds of southern Presbyterians, was located in Cincinnati about a mile from slave territory, and was attended by students from that section.[1]

When the right of free discussion swept the country many of the proslavery students were converted to abolition. To southerners it seemed that the seminary had resolved itself into a society for the elevation of the free blacks. Students established Sabbath-schools, organized Bible cla.s.ses, and provided lectures for Negroes ambitious to do advanced work. Measures were taken to establish an academy for colored girls, and a teacher was engaged. But these n.o.ble efforts put forth so near the border States soon provoked firm opposition from the proslavery element. Some of the students had gone so far in the manifestation of their zeal that the inst.i.tution was embarra.s.sed by the charge of promoting the social equality of the races.[2] Rather than remain in Cincinnati under restrictions, the reform element of the inst.i.tution moved to the more congenial Western Reserve where a nucleus of youth and their instructors had a.s.sumed the name of Oberlin College. This school did so much for the education of Negroes before the Civil War that it was often spoken of as an inst.i.tution for the education of the people of color.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society_, p. 43.]

Interest in the higher education of the neglected race, however, was not confined to a particular commonwealth. Inst.i.tutions of other States were directing their attention to this task. Among others were a school in New York City founded by a clergyman to offer Negroes an opportunity to study the cla.s.sics,[1] New York Central College at McGrawville, Oneida Inst.i.tute conducted by Beriah Green at Whitesboro, Thetford Academy of Vermont, and Union Literary Inst.i.tute in the center of the communities of freedmen transplanted to Indiana. Many other of our best inst.i.tutions were opening their doors to students of African descent. By 1852 colored students had attended the Inst.i.tute at Easton, Pennsylvania; the Normal School of Albany, New York; Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Rutland College, Vermont; Jefferson College, Pennsylvania; Athens College, Athens, Ohio; Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio; and Hanover College near Madison, Indiana. Negroes had taken courses at the Medical School of the University of New York; the Castleton Medical School in Vermont; the Berks.h.i.+re Medical School, Pittsfield, Ma.s.sachusetts; the Rush Medical School in Chicago; the Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia; the Homeopathic College of Cleveland; and the Medical School of Harvard University. Colored preachers had been educated in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; the Dartmouth Theological School; and the Theological Seminary of Charleston, South Carolina.[2]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 530.]

[Footnote 2: These facts are taken from M.R. Delany's _The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States Practically Considered_, published in 1852; the _Reports of the Antislavery and Colonization Societies_, and _The African Repository_.]

Prominent among those who brought about this change in the att.i.tude toward the education of the free blacks was Gerrit Smith, one of the greatest philanthropists of his time. He secured privileges for Negroes in higher inst.i.tutions by extending aid to such as would open their doors to persons of color. In this way he became a patron of Oneida Inst.i.tute, giving it from $3,000 to $4,000 in cash and 3,000 acres of land in Vermont. Because of the hospitality of Oberlin to colored students he gave the inst.i.tution large sums of money and 20,000 acres of land in Virginia valued at $50,000. New York Central College which opened its doors alike to both races obtained from him several donations.[1] This gentleman proceeded on the presumption that it is the duty of the white people to elevate the colored and that the education of large numbers of them is indispensable to the uplift of the degraded cla.s.ses.[2] He wanted them to have the opportunity for obtaining either a common or cla.s.sical education; and hoped that they would go out from our inst.i.tutions well educated for any work to which they might be called in this country or abroad.[3] He himself established a colored school at Peterboro, New York. As this inst.i.tution offered both industrial and literary courses we shall have occasion to mention it again. Both a cause and result of the increasing interest in the higher education of Negroes was that these unfortunates had made good with what little training they had. Many had by their creative power shown what they could do in business,[4]

some had convinced the world of the inventive genius of the man of color,[5] others had begun to rank as successful lawyers,[6] not a few had become distinguished physicians,[7] and scores of intelligent Negro preachers were ministering to the spiritual needs of their people.[8] S.R. Ward, a scholar of some note, was for a few years the pastor of a white church at Courtlandville, New York. Robert Morris had been honored by the appointment as Magistrate by the Governor of Ma.s.sachusetts, and in New Hamps.h.i.+re another man of African blood had been elected to the legislature.[9]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed_., 1871, p. 367.]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. x., p. 312.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., p. 312.]

[Footnote 4: Among these were John B. Smith, Coffin Pitts, Robert Douglas, John P. Bell, Augustus Was.h.i.+ngton, Alexander S. Thomas, Henry Boyd, P.H. Ray, and L.T. Wilc.o.x.]