The Journal of Negro History Volume V Part 63

[1] Williams, G. W., _History of the Negro Race in America_, N. Y., 1883, Vol. II, p. 58.

[2] See _The Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, written by himself, with an introduction by Lucius Matlack_, New York, 1849. I am indebted to the Brooklyn Public Library for the loan of this book.

[3] Compare with this description of a New Orleans slave pen the descriptions of Richmond auctions by W. H. Russell, _My Diary North and South_, N. Y., 1863, page 68, and William Chambers, _Things as they are in America_, London, 1854, pages 273-286.

[4] He says that his object in going to Detroit was to get some schooling. He was unable to meet the expense, however, and as he puts it: "I graduated in three weeks and this was all the schooling I ever had in my life." His teacher for this brief period was W. C. Monroe who afterwards presided at John Brown's Chatham Convention in May, 1858.

[5] See Smith, _Liberty and Free Soil Parties in the Northwest_, New York, 1897.

[6] See _The Journal of Negro History_, Vol. V, No. 1, January, 1920, pp. 22-36.

[7] This plan was recommended by a convention of colored people held at Sandwich, C. W., early in 1851. See _The Voice of the Fugitive_, March 12, 1851. A file of this paper for 1851-2 is in the library of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

[8] _The Voice of the Fugitive_, June 4, 1851.

[9] _The Voice of the Fugitive_, Nov. 19, 1851.

[10] _Ibid._, Jan. 29, 1852. See also _The Liberator_, June 11, 1852.

[11] _Ibid._, _The Refugee, or the Narratives of Fugitive Slaves in Canada related by themselves_, Boston. 1856, pp. 323-326.

[12] Hairland, _A Woman's Life Work_, Grand Rapids, 1881, p. 192.

[13] Mitch.e.l.l, _Underground Railroad_, London, 1860, pp. 142-149.

[14] Howe, _The Refugees from Slavery in Canada West, Report to the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission_, Boston, 1864. The Freedmen's Inquiry Commission was inst.i.tuted by Stanton in 1863 to consider what should be done for slaves already freed. The members of the Commission were Dr. Samuel G. Howe, Robert Dale Owen and James Mackay.

MYRTILLA MINER

A century ago it was generally conceded that a person unfitted for any other occupation either public or private could at least be a teacher, for many teachers of the colonies were felons and convicts brought to America to serve as indentured servants. This egregious error, however, was discovered by the pioneers of the new era in education, who saw clearly enough that the strength of the nation depended upon the _professional_ as well as the academic equipment of its teachers and thus the training school for teachers had its birth. Its influence has been most significant in raising the standards of efficiency in the elementary schools and equally significant is its need in the high schools and colleges of this country.

No one in the District of Columbia can think of the benefits derived from the professional teacher training without immediate recollection and sacred memory of its pioneer and benefactress, Myrtilla Miner. For her n.o.ble character, her high ideals, her progressive methods in education, her struggles against opposition in the pursuit of her G.o.dgiven task, her lasting contribution of an organized inst.i.tution for the training of teachers in the spirit of the Master to serve all humanity, the citizens of the District of Columbia and especially the people of color must ever revere her memory.[1]

On the 4th of March, 1815, in Brookfield, Madison County, New York, Myrtilla Miner, of poor and humble, yet of industrious parentage, was born. As a child, though frail of physique and deprived of opportunity, her indomitable will enabled her to overcome the obstacles of poverty and superst.i.tion as well as poor health. Wading through them all she earned enough by arduous labor in the hopfields near her home to purchase books for her further enlightenment. These struggles against fate, however, were the rocks upon which her n.o.ble character was built. Here were sown the seed of sympathy for the weak, appreciation for the struggling, and respect for the ambitious.

After a year's training at Clinton, Oneida County, New York, where she obtained the elements of education under the most adverse circ.u.mstances of ill health and lack of funds, Miss Miner accepted a call to teach in Mississippi in order to pay the debts incurred for the training she had already received. Her experience in Mississippi was indeed invaluable, for there she learned through horrible experiences the evils of the inst.i.tution of slavery. She boldly protested against the cruelties of the slaveholders and the inst.i.tution in general. She innocently requested permission to teach the slaves of the planter whose daughters she was then instructing.

When told that such was a criminal offense against the laws of Mississippi and that she should "go North and teach the 'n.i.g.g.e.rs,'"

Miss Miner with an intrepid spirit resolved then and there that she _would_ go North and teach them. Out of this unpleasant experience developed the determination to found a Normal School for girls of color in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton.

Returning North, Miss Miner found other difficulties than poor health confronting her in her efforts to establish a school for the Negro youth in the District of Columbia. Funds had to be raised, pro-slavery opposition had to be overcome, and public sentiment had to be changed at least to indifference. Each of these in itself was sufficiently colossal to try the strength, physical and moral, of the ablest anti-slavery agitators of that day. It was at the time of the pa.s.sage of that infamous Fugitive Slave Law, when freedmen and runaways like William Parker, Jerry McHenry and Joshua Glover were knocked down, beaten, bound and cast into prison; when abolitionists were incarcerated for their anti-slavery propaganda and giving aid to the fugitives; when even our valiant Frederick Dougla.s.s admitted himself too timid to support any such project as that undertaken by Miss Miner in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton.[2] It was in times such as these that this fearless and resolute little woman, with an enthusiasm that seemingly glistened in her penetrating eyes, determined to give her life to the cause of alleviating suffering, dispelling ignorance, and liberating the oppressed Americans in body and mind.

With the small sum of one hundred dollars that she had secured from Mrs. Ednah Thomas,[3] of Philadelphia, a member of the Society of Friends, Miss Miner started out upon her great work in behalf of the Negro children of the District of Columbia. Her thrift prompted her to solicit funds of various and peculiar sorts. Donations of old papers, books, weights, measures and other castaway material were transformed by this real teacher into valuable material for the instruction of her undeveloped pupils.

Funds of the material sort were not the only difficulties that beset her road of progress, for pro-slavery opposition a.s.sailed Miss Miner from every side.[4] Such propaganda as the following appeared in the _National Intelligencer_, a Was.h.i.+ngton newspaper of pro-slavery sentiments and was spread far and wide. (1) The school would attract free colored people from the adjoining States, (2) it was proposed to give them an education far beyond what their political and social condition would justify, (3) the school would be a center of influence directed against the existence of slavery in the District of Columbia, and (4) it might endanger the inst.i.tution of slavery and even rend asunder the Union itself.[5]

The truth of some parts of this declaration was quite evident and irrefutable, for education, as Miss Miner understood it, was destined to make every slave a man and every man free. This, of course, increased the difficulty of Miss Miner's task but her faith was abiding and her courage unabated. Miss Miner realized fully that the lot of the eight thousand free people of color of the District of Columbia was but little better than that of the 3,000 slaves, for the former, though free according to the letter of the law, in actual life had no rights that a white man was compelled to respect. They were not admitted to public inst.i.tutions, could not attend the city schools, could not testify against a white man in court, and could not travel without a pa.s.s without running the risk of being cast into prison.

Amidst it all, on the 6th day of December 1851, in a rented room about fourteen feet square, in the frame house on Eleventh Street near New York Avenue then owned and occupied as a dwelling by Edward C.

Younger,[6] a Negro, Myrtilla Miner with six pupils established as a private inst.i.tution for the education of girls of color the first Normal School in the District of Columbia and the fourth one in the United States. Increase of enrollment soon forced her to secure accommodations and within two months she had moved into a house on the north side of F Street between Eighteenth and Nineteenth, near the house then occupied by William T. Carroll and Charles H. Winder. This house furnished her a very comfortable room for her growing school of well-behaved girls, from the best Negro families of the District of Columbia. Threats on the part of white neighbors to set fire to the house forced her to leave the home of the Negro family with whom she had stayed but one month and to seek quarters elsewhere. Miss Miner then succeeded in getting accommodations in the dwelling-house of a German family on K Street, near the K Street market. After tarrying a few months there, she moved to L Street into a room in the building known as the "The Two Sisters," then occupied by a white family. But the inconvenience of holding school in rented quarters of private dwellings proved a very unpleasant one indeed; for not only did she suffer the lack of comfort which such quarters naturally could not offer, but found herself constantly hara.s.sed by the necessity of moving to escape the enmity and persecution of her white neighbors.

A new day, however, was to dawn. With the aid of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dr. Gamaliel Bailey and a few such faithful Philadelphia friends as Thomas Williamson, Samuel Rhoads, Benjamin Tatham, Jasper Cope and Catherine Morris, enough funds were raised to purchase a site of three acres or more for a permanent home on a lot near N Street and New Hamps.h.i.+re Avenue, between Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, Northwest. Though the environment of this new home was most pleasing and beautiful, being surrounded with flowers and fruit trees, the enmity of the white hoodlums still followed her. She and her pupils were frequently a.s.sailed with torrents of stones and other missiles.

Once threatened by mob violence, Miss Miner bravely and defiantly exclaimed, "Mob my school! You dare not! If you tear it down over my head I shall get another house. There is no law to prevent my teaching these people and I shall teach them even unto death!" Testimony of some of Miss Miner's former pupils upholds such a defiance as truly descriptive of her fearless nature.

In its earlier days the Miner Normal School was supported by private funds and directed by a board of trustees consisting of Benjamin Tatham and H. W. Bellows of New York; Samuel M. Janney of Virginia; Johns Hopkins of Baltimore; Samuel Rhoads and Thomas Williamson of Philadelphia; G. Bailey and L. D. Gale of Was.h.i.+ngton; C. E. Stowe of Andover; H. W. Beecher of Brooklyn, together with an executive committee consisting of S. J. Bowen, J. M. Wilson and L. D. Gale of Was.h.i.+ngton; Miss Miner, princ.i.p.al and William H. Beecher, secretary.

The curriculum of the school then embraced boarding, domestic economy, teachers' training course and the primary departments. It is interesting to note that some of the advanced ideas in education today, such as student self-government, vitalized teaching, socialized recitation, and civic as well as personal hygiene, were taught and practiced by Miss Miner during the fifties of the last century.

As an ill.u.s.tration of pupil self-government, I quote the following from the _Memoir of M. Miner_ by Mrs. Ellen M. O'Connor, concerning a visit made by Miss Margaret Robinson of Philadelphia to Miss Miner's school: "In the winter of 1853 accompanied by a friend, I visited the school of Myrtilla Miner, under circ.u.mstances of peculiar interest.

Arriving about ten A. M., we learned from a pupil at the door that the teacher was absent on business of importance to the school. We were not a little disappointed, supposing all recitations would await her coming. What was our surprise on entering to find every girl in her place, closely occupied with her studies. We seated ourselves by polite invitation; soon a cla.s.s read; then one in mental arithmetic exercised itself, the more advanced pupils acting as monitors; all was done without confusion. When the teacher entered she expressed no surprise, but took up the business where she found it and went on." On one occasion, being obliged to leave for several days, Miss Miner propounded to the pupils the question, whether the school should be closed, or they should continue their exercises without her? They chose the latter. On her return she found all doing well, not the least disorder having occurred.

As to vitalized teaching, Matilda Jones Madden, one of Miss Miner's pupils, wrote the following: "She gave special attention to the proper writing of letters and induced a varied correspondence between many prominent persons and her pupils, thus in a practical way bringing her school into larger notice with many of its patrons and friends and vastly increasing the experience of her pupils."

Mrs. John F. N. Wilkinson, a former pupil of Miss Miner, of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., states that Miss Miner held cla.s.ses in astronomy with the larger girls who were required to meet at the school in the evenings to study their lessons from nature. Mrs. Amelia E. Wormley, the mother of the writer, residing in Was.h.i.+ngton, also a pupil of Miss Miner, recalls vividly the emphasis which Miss Miner placed upon the teaching of physical culture and the tenderness with which she handled the younger children of her school.[7]

The school increased in usefulness and importance. As a result of this, on March 3, 1863, the Senate and House of Representatives pa.s.sed an act to incorporate this inst.i.tution for the education of girls of color in the District of Columbia. By the act William H. Channing, George J. Abbot, Miss Miner, and others, their a.s.sociate and successors were const.i.tuted and declared a body politic and corporate by the name and t.i.tle of "The Inst.i.tution for the Education of Colored Youth," to be located in the District of Columbia. Though this act of Congress legalized the inst.i.tution, the school appears to have lapsed into inactivity from 1863 to 1871 because of the absence of its guiding spirit, Miss Miner. On account of ill health she was compelled to give up the work, and the strain and stress of civil affairs reduced national interest and support to a minimum. After a sojourn of three years in California in search of renewed energy and more funds for the fulfillment of her plans and the consummation of her ideals, Miss Miner departed from this life at the home of Mrs.

Nancy M. Johnson of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., on the 17th of December 1864.

In 1871 the work of the school was resumed in connection with Howard University. A preparatory and Normal Department was opened and controlled by this inst.i.tution but supported by the Miner Funds. The school existed in this connection until September 13, 1876, when it began a separate and independent existence which lasted until 1879 when it was taken over by the school system of the District of Columbia. From 1879 to 1887 the Miner Normal School was jointly controlled by the Board[8] of Trustees of the Public Schools of the District and the Miner Board of Trustees, the princ.i.p.al's salary being paid by the Miner Board to which she made her reports while the obligation of keeping up the enrollment of the school was a.s.sumed by the Trustees representing the District Government.

In 1887 the Trustees of the District a.s.sumed full charge of the school thus centralizing authority and management. The unification of the dual management under District authority added keener interest on the part of the citizens.h.i.+p of the community and a deeper feeling of responsibility on the part of the faculty. Fortunately for the inst.i.tution, moreover, the women who succeeded Miss Miner as the heads of this inst.i.tution caught the great spirit of their predecessor and in their efforts to continue the useful work which she had done, followed so closely in the path which she had trodden as to a.s.sure success and preclude any necessity for general reorganization.

The first of these women to take up the work of Miss Miner, was Miss Mary B. Smith, of Beverly, Ma.s.sachusetts, who was a.s.sisted by her sister Miss Sarah R. Smith. These two worthy ladies were succeeded by Miss Martha Briggs who is characterized by Dr. W. S. Montgomery in his _Historical Sketch on Education for the Colored Race in the District of Columbia, 1807-1905_, "as a born teacher whose work showed those qualities of head and heart that have made her name famous in the annals of education in the character of the graduates. The student teachers caught her missionary spirit and went forth from her presence stronger souls, full of sympathy to magnify the teacher's vocation and to inspire the learner. Many of the women who sat at her feet are laboring in the schools here now, filling the highest positions and in beauty and richness of character running like a thread of gold through the teaching corps."

Miss Briggs was succeeded in 1883 by Dr. Lucy E. Moten, who after faithful and successful service for thirty-seven years, retired June 20, 1920. As princ.i.p.al of the Miner Normal School, Dr. Moten graduated the majority of the teachers now employed in the public schools of the District. She saw the Normal course lengthened from a one year course to that of a two year course, offering greater opportunity for broader professional equipment of the student teachers, the results of which are manifest in the Was.h.i.+ngton Public Schools today. This school, however, is destined in the near future to undergo other changes in the line of progress. It may be the extension of the course to three years or the development of a Teacher's college of four years which will offer courses leading to a degree. With an enthusiastic whole-hearted response of the teaching corps of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., to the slogan of the new Superintendent, Dr. Frank Was.h.i.+ngton Ballou--"Hats off to the past and coats off to the future," The Miner Normal School will reach higher in its aim to serve and realize the ideals of its n.o.ble founder and benefactress, whose struggles and sacrifices are sacred in the memory of every teacher of color in the District of Columbia.

G. SMITH WORMLEY.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The facts set forth in this sketch were obtained largely from Ellen M. O'Connor's _Myrtilla Miner, A Memoir_; W. S. Montgomery's _Historical Sketch of the Education for the Colored Race in the District of Columbia, 1807-1905_; and _The Special Report of the Commissioner of Education_ on the condition and improvement of the Public Schools in the District of Columbia, submitted to the Senate June 1868 and the House, with additions, June 17, 1870-1871. Some valuable facts were also obtained from former pupils of Miss Myrtilla Miner now residing in the District of Columbia and from public spirited citizens who cooperated with her.

[2] O'Connor, _Memoir of Myrtilla Miner, Letter of Frederick Dougla.s.s_, p. 23.

[3] _Special Report of Commissioner of Education_, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C., Henry Barnard, 1868, p. 207.

[4] She had some friends, however, as the following shows:

"There are in the United States 500,000 free people of color.

They are generally, although subject to taxation, excluded by law or prejudice from schools of every grade. Their case becomes at once an object of charity which rises infinitely above all party or sectional lines. This charity we are gratified in being able to state has already been inaugurated, through the devoted labors of an excellent young lady from Western New York by the name of Miss Myrtilla Miner who has established and maintained for the past four years in the city of Was.h.i.+ngton a school for the education of free colored youth. This school is placed there because it is national ground, and the nation is responsible for the well-being of its population; because there are there 11,000 of this suffering people excluded by law from schools and dest.i.tute of instruction; because there are in the adjoining States of Maryland and Virginia 130,000 equally dest.i.tute, who can be reached in no other way; and because it is hoped through this means to reach a cla.s.s of girls of peculiar interest, often the most beautiful and intelligent, and yet the most hopelessly wretched, and who are often objects of strong paternal affection.

The slaveholder would gladly educate and save these children, but domestic peace drives them from his hearth; he cannot emanc.i.p.ate them to be victims of violence or l.u.s.t; he cannot send them to Northern schools, where prejudice would brand them, and it is proposed to open an asylum near them, where they may be brought, emanc.i.p.ated, educated and taught housewifery as well as science, and thus be prepared to become teachers among their own mixed race.

"In its present condition this school embraces boarding, domestic economy, normal teachers and primary departments, and is placed under the care of an a.s.sociation consisting of the following trustees: Benjamin Tatham, New York; Samuel M. Janney, Loudoun County, Virginia; Johns Hopkins, Baltimore; Samuel Rhoads and Thomas Williamson, Philadelphia; G. Bailey and L. D. Gale, Was.h.i.+ngton; H. W. Bellows, New York; C. E. Stowe, Andover; H. W.

Beecher, Brooklyn, together with an executive committee consisting of S. J. Bowen, J. M. Wilson and L. D. Gale, of Was.h.i.+ngton; and M. Miner, Princ.i.p.al, and William H. Beecher, of Reading, Secretary.