The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 Part 6

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1797, p. 41.]

The regular tutors referred to above were largely indentured servants who then const.i.tuted probably the majority of the teachers of the colonies.[1] In 1773 Jonathan Boucher said that two thirds of the teachers of Maryland belonged to this cla.s.s.[2] The contact of Negroes with these servants is significant. In the absence of rigid caste distinctions they a.s.sociated with the slaves and the barrier between them was so inconsiderable that laws had to be pa.s.sed to prevent the miscegenation of the races. The blacks acquired much useful knowledge from servant teachers and sometimes a.s.sisted them.

[Footnote 1: See the descriptions of indentured servants in the advertis.e.m.e.nts of colonial newspapers referred to on pages 82-84; and Boucher, _A View of the Causes_, etc., p. 39.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, pp. 39 and 40.]

Attention was directed also to the fact that neither literary nor religious education prepared the Negroes for a life of usefulness.

Heeding the advice of Kosciuszko, Madison and Jefferson, the advocates of the education of the Negroes endeavored to give them such practical training as their peculiar needs demanded. In the agricultural sections the first duty of the teacher of the blacks was to show them how to get their living from the soil. This was the final test of their preparation for emanc.i.p.ation. Accordingly, on large plantations where much supervision was necessary, trustworthy Negroes were trained as managers. Many of those who showed apt.i.tude were liberated and encouraged to produce for themselves. Slaves designated for freedom were often given small parcels of land for the cultivation of which they were allowed some of their time. An important result of this agricultural training was that many of the slaves thus favored ama.s.sed considerable wealth by using their spare time in cultivating crops of their own.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 196.]

The advocates of useful education for the degraded race had more to say about training in the mechanic arts. Such instruction, however, was not then a new thing to the blacks of the South, for they had from time immemorial been the trustworthy artisans of that section. The aim then was to give them such education as would make them intelligent workmen and develop in them the power to plan for themselves. In the North, where the Negroes had been largely menial servants, adequate industrial education was deemed necessary for those who were to be liberated.[1] Almost every Northern colored school of any consequence then offered courses in the handicrafts. In 1784 the Quakers of Philadelphia employed Sarah Dwight to teach the colored girls sewing.[2] Anthony Benezet provided in his will that in the school to be established by his benefaction the girls should be taught needlework.[3] The teachers who took upon themselves the improvement of the free people of color of New York City regarded industrial training as one of their important tasks.[4]

[Footnote 1: See the _Address of the Am. Conv. of Abolition Societies_, 1794; _ibid._, 1795; _ibid._, 1797 _et pa.s.sim._]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa._, p. 249.]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1869, p. 375.]

[Footnote 4: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p. 20.]

None urged this duty upon the directors of these schools more persistently than the antislavery organizations. In 1794 the American Convention of Abolition Societies recommended that Negroes be instructed in "those mechanic arts which will keep them most constantly employed and, of course, which will less subject them to idleness and debauchery, and thus prepare them for becoming good citizens of the United States."[1] Speaking repeatedly on this wise the Convention requested the colored people to let it be their special care to have their children not only to work at useful trades but also to till the soil.[2] The early abolitionists believed that this was the only way the freedmen could learn to support themselves.[3]

In connection with their schools the antislavery leaders had an Indenturing Committee to find positions for colored students who had the advantages of industrial education.[4] In some communities slaves were prepared for emanc.i.p.ation by binding them out as apprentices to machinists and artisans until they learned a trade.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, 1794, p. 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1795, p. 29; _ibid._, 1797, pp. 12, 13, and 31.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1797, p. 31.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, 1818, p. 9.]

Two early efforts to carry out this policy are worthy of notice here.

These were the endeavors of Anthony Benezet and Thaddeus Kosciuszko.

Benezet was typical of those men, who, having the courage of their conviction, not only taught colored people, but gladly appropriated property to their education. Benezet died in 1784, leaving considerable wealth to be devoted to the purpose of educating Indians and Negroes. His will provided that as the estate on the death of his wife would not be sufficient entirely to support a school, the Overseers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia should join with a committee appointed by the Society of Friends, and other benevolent persons, in the care and maintenance of an inst.i.tution such as he had planned. Finally in 1787 the efforts of Benezet reached their culmination in the construction of a schoolhouse, with additional funds obtained from David Barclay of London and Thomas Sidney, a colored man of Philadelphia. The pupils of this school were to study reading, writing, arithmetic, plain accounts, and sewing.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 375.]

With respect to conceding the Negroes' claim to a better education, Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish general, was not unlike Benezet. None of the revolutionary leaders were more moved with compa.s.sion for the colored people than this warrior. He saw in education the powerful leverage which would place them in position to enjoy the newly won rights of man. While a.s.sisting us in gaining our independence, Kosciuszko acquired here valuable property which he endeavored to devote to the enlightenment of the slaves. He authorized Thomas Jefferson, his executor, to employ the whole thereof in purchasing Negroes and liberating them in the name of Kosciuszko, "in giving them an education in trades or otherwise, and in having them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality." The instructors were to provide for them such training as would make them "good neighbors, good mothers or fathers, good husbands or wives, teaching them the duties of citizens.h.i.+p, teaching them to be defenders of their liberty and country, and of the good order of society, and whatsoever might make them useful and happy."[1] Clearly as this was set forth the executor failed to discharge this duty enjoined upon him. The heirs of the donor inst.i.tuted proceedings to obtain possession of the estate, which, so far as the author knows, was never used for the purpose for which it was intended.

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol. xi., pp. 294-295.]

In view of these numerous strivings we are compelled to inquire exactly what these educators accomplished. Although it is impossible to measure the results of their early efforts, various records of the eighteenth century prove that there was lessening objection to the instruction of slaves and practically none to the enlightenment of freedmen. Negroes in considerable numbers were becoming well grounded in the rudiments of education. They had reached the point of const.i.tuting the majority of the mechanics in slaveholding communities; they were qualified to be tradesmen, trustworthy helpers, and attendants of distinguished men, and a few were serving as clerks, overseers, and managers.[1] Many who were favorably circ.u.mstanced learned more than mere reading and writing. In exceptional cases, some were employed not only as teachers and preachers to their people, but as instructors of the white race.[2]

[Footnote 1: Georgia and South Carolina had to pa.s.s laws to prevent Negroes from following these occupations for fear that they might thereby become too well informed. See Brevard, _Digest of Public Statute Laws of S.C._, vol. ii., p. 243; and Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 2: Ba.s.sett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p. 74; ma.n.u.scripts relating to the condition of the colored people of North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee now in the hands of Dr. J.E. Moorland.]

A more accurate estimate of how far the enlightenment of the Negroes had progressed before the close of the eighteenth century, is better obtained from the reports of teachers and missionaries who were working among them. Appealing to the Negroes of Virginia about 1755, Benjamin Fawcett addressed them as intelligent people, commanding them to read and study the Bible for themselves and consider "how the Papists do all they can to hide it from their fellowmen." "Be particularly thankful," said he, "for the Ministers of Christ around you, who are faithfully laboring to teach the truth as it is in Jesus."[1] Rev. Mr. Davies, then a member of the Society for Promoting the Gospel among the Poor, reported that there were mult.i.tudes of Negroes in different parts of Virginia who were "willingly, eagerly desirous to be instructed and embraced every opportunity of acquainting themselves with the Doctrine of the Gospel," and though they had generally very little help to learn to read, yet to his surprise many of them by dint of application had made such progress that they could "intelligently read a plain author and especially their Bible." Pity it was, he thought, that any of them should be without necessary books. Negroes were wont to come to him with such moving accounts of their needs in this respect that he could not help supplying them.[2] On Sat.u.r.day evenings and Sundays his home was crowded with numbers of those "whose very Countenances still carry the air of importunate Pet.i.tioners" for the same favors with those who came before them. Complaining that his stock was exhausted, and that he had to turn away many disappointed, he urged his friends to send him other suitable books, for nothing else, thought he, could be a greater inducement to their industry to learn to read.

[Footnote 1: Fawcett, _Compa.s.sionate Address_, etc., p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Fawcett, _Compa.s.sionate Address_, etc., p. 33.]

Still more reliable testimony may be obtained, not from persons particularly interested in the uplift of the blacks, but from slaveholders. Their advertis.e.m.e.nts in the colonial newspapers furnish unconscious evidence of the intellectual progress of the Negroes during the eighteenth century. "He's an 'artful,'"[1] "plausible,"[2]

"smart,"[3] or "sensible fellow,"[4] "delights much in traffic,"[5]

and "plays on the fife extremely well,"[6] are some of the statements found in the descriptions of fugitive slaves. Other fugitives were speaking "plainly,"[7] "talking indifferent English,"[8] "remarkably good English,"[9] and "exceedingly good English."[10] In some advertis.e.m.e.nts we observe such expressions as "he speaks a little French,"[11] "Creole French,"[12] "a few words of High-Dutch,"[13] and "tolerable German."[14] Writing about a fugitive a master would often state that "he can read print,"[15] "can read writing,"[16] "can read and also write a little,"[17] "can read and write,"[18] "can write a pretty hand and has probably forged a pa.s.s."[19] These conditions obtained especially in Charleston, South Carolina, where were advertised various fugitives, one of whom spoke French and English fluently, and pa.s.sed for a doctor among his people,[20] another who spoke Spanish and French intelligibly,[21] and a third who could read, write, and speak both French and Spanish very well.[22]

[Footnote 1: _Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800; _The Maryland Gazette_, Feb. 27, 1755; _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser_, July 23, 1776; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, May 18, 1786; _The State Gazette of North Carolina_, July 2, 1789.]

[Footnote 2: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, S.C.), Sept. 26, 1797, and _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802.]

[Footnote 3: _The Charleston Courier_, June 1, 1804; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20, and 27, 1786; and _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb. 19, 1793.]

[Footnote 4: _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Feb. 19 and April 2, 1783; _State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20 and May 18, 1786.]

[Footnote 5: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advocate_, Oct. 17, 1780.]

[Footnote 6: _The Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan. 21, 1800; and _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle_, April 24, 1790.]

[Footnote 7: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Jan. 20 and March 1, 1800; and _The South Carolina Weekly Gazette_, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759.]

[Footnote 8: _The City Gaz. and Daily Adv._, Jan. 20 and March 1, 1800; and _S.C. Weekly Gaz._, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759.]

[Footnote 9: _The Newbern Gazette_, May 23 and Aug. 15, 1800; _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb. 19, 1793; _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, S.C.), Sept. 26, 1797; Oct.

5, 1798; Aug. 23 and Sept. 9, 1799; Aug. 18 and Oct. 3, 1800; and March 7, 1801; and _Maryland Gazette_, Dec. 30, 1746; and April 4, 1754; _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Oct. 24 to 31, 1759; and Feb. 19, 1783; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Sept. 13 and Nov. 1, 1784; and _The Carolina Gazette_, Aug. 12, 1802.]

[Footnote 10: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Sept. 26, 1797; May 15, 1799; and Oct. 3, 1800; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Aug. 21, 1786; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug. 26, 1784; _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug. 1, 1754; Oct. 28, 1773; and Aug.

19, 1784; and _The Columbian Herald_, April 30, 1789.]

[Footnote 11: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct. 5, 1798; Aug. 18 and Sept. 18, 1800; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug. 16, 1784.]

[Footnote 12: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct. 5, 1798.]

[Footnote 13: _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug. 19, 1784.]

[Footnote 14: _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb. 20 and 27, 1780.]

[Footnote 15: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct.

17, 1780. _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser_, July 23, 1776.]

[Footnote 16: _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21, 1795.]

[Footnote 17: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct.

17, 1780; and Sept. 20, 1785; and _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21, 1795; and January 4, 1798; _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802; and _The Charleston Courier_, June 29, 1803. _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle_, March 19, 1791.]