The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 Part 8

Generally speaking, we can say that while the movement for special colored schools met with some opposition in certain portions of New England, in other parts of the Northeastern States the religious organizations and abolition societies, which were espousing the cause of the Negro, yielded to this demand. These schools were sometimes found in churches of the North, as in the cases of the schools in the African Church of Boston, and the Sunday-school in the African Improved Church of New Haven. In 1828 there was in that city another such school supported by public-school money; three in Boston; one in Salem; and one in Portland, Maine.[1]

[Footnote 1: Adams, _Anti-slavery_, p. 142.]

Outside of the city of New York, not so much interest was shown in the education of Negroes as in the States which had a larger colored population.[1] Those who were scattered through the State were allowed to attend white schools, which did not "meet their special needs."[2]

In the metropolis, where the blacks const.i.tuted one-tenth of the inhabitants in 1800, however, the mental improvement of the dark race could not be neglected. The liberalism of the revolutionary era led to the organization in New York of the "Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves and Protecting such of them as have been or may be liberated." This Society ushered in a new day for the free persons of color of that city in organizing in 1787 the New York African Free School.[3] Among those interested in this organization and its enterprises were Melancthon Smith, John Bleecker, James Cogswell, Jacob Seaman, White Matlock, Matthew Clarkson, Nathaniel Lawrence, and John Murray, Jr.[4] The school opened in 1790 with Cornelius Davis as a teacher of forty pupils. In 1791 a lady was employed to instruct the girls in needle-work.[5] The expected advantage of this industrial training was soon realized.

[Footnote 1: La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, _Travels_, etc., p. 233.]

[Footnote 2: _Am. Conv._, 1798, p. 7.]

[Footnote 3: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p. 14.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, pp. 14 and 15.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid._, p. 16.]

Despite the support of certain distinguished members of the community, the larger portion of the population was so prejudiced against the school that often the means available for its maintenance were inadequate. The struggle was continued for about fifteen years with an attendance of from forty to sixty pupils.[1] About 1801 the community began to take more interest in the inst.i.tution, and the Negroes "became more generally impressed with a sense of the advantages and importance of education, and more disposed to avail themselves of the privileges offered them."[2] At this time one hundred and thirty pupils of both s.e.xes attended this school, paying their instructor, a "discreet man of color," according to their ability and inclination.[3] Many more colored children were then able to attend as there had been a considerable increase in the number of colored freeholders. As a result of the introduction of the Lancastrian and monitorial systems of instruction the enrollment was further increased and the general tone of the school was improved. Another impetus was given the work in 1810.[4] Having in mind the preparation of slaves for freedom, the legislature of the State of New York, made it compulsory for masters to teach all minors born of slaves to read the Scriptures.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 17.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_, 1801, p. 6.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1801, Report from New York.]

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

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition Societies_, 1812, p. 7.]

Decided improvement was noted after 1814. The directors then purchased a lot on which they constructed a building the following year.[1] The nucleus then took the name of the New York "African Free Schools."

These schools grew so rapidly that it was soon necessary to rent additional quarters to accommodate the department of sewing. This work had been made popular by the efforts of Misses Turpen, Eliza J. c.o.x, Ann c.o.x, and Caroline Roe.[2] The subsequent growth of the cla.s.ses was such that in 1820 the Manumission Society had to erect a building large enough to accommodate five hundred pupils.[3] The instructors were then not only teaching the elementary branches of reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography, but also astronomy, navigation, advanced composition, plain sewing, knitting, and marking.[4] Knowing the importance of industrial training, the Manumission Society then had an Indenturing Committee find employment in trades for colored children, and had recommended for some of them the pursuit of agriculture.[5] The comptrollers desired no better way of measuring the success of the system in shaping the character of its students than to be able to boast that no pupils educated there had ever been convicted of crime.[6] Lafayette, a promoter of the emanc.i.p.ation and improvement of the colored people, and a member of the New York Manumission Society, visited these schools in 1824 on his return to the United States. He was bidden welcome by an eleven-year-old pupil in well-chosen and significant words. After spending the afternoon inspecting the schools the General p.r.o.nounced them the "best disciplined and the most interesting schools of children" he had ever seen.[7]

[Footnote 1: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p. 18.]

[Footnote 2: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p. 17.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, p. 18.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, p. 19.]

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the Am. Convention of Abolition Soc._, 1818, P. 9; Adams, _Anti-slavery_, p. 142.]

[Footnote 6: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1820.]

[Footnote 7: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p. 20.]

The outlook for the education of Negroes in New Jersey was unusually bright. Carrying out the recommendations of the Haddonfield Quarterly Meeting in 1777, the Quakers of Salem raised funds for the education of the blacks, secured books, and placed the colored children of the community at school. The delegates sent from that State, to the Convention of the Abolition Societies in 1801, reported that there had been schools in Burlington, Salem, and Trenton for the education of the Negro race, but that they had been closed.[1] It seemed that not much attention had been given to this work there, but that the interest was increasing. These delegates stated that they did not then know of any schools among them exclusively for Negroes. In most parts of the State, and most commonly in the northern division, however, they were incorporated with the white children in the various small schools scattered over the State.[2] There was then in the city of Burlington a free school for the education of poor children supported by the profits of an estate left for that particular purpose, and made equally accessible to the children of both races. Conditions were just as favorable in Gloucester. An account from its antislavery society shows that the local friends of the indigent had funds of about one thousand pounds established for schooling poor children, white and black, without distinction. Many of the black children, who were placed by their masters under the care of white instructors, received as good moral and school education as the lower cla.s.s of whites.[3]

Later reports from this State show the same tendency toward democratic education.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1801, p.

12.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, p. 12, and Quaker Pamphlet, p. 40.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Conv._, etc., 1801, p. 12.]

The efforts made in this direction in Delaware, were encouraging. The Abolition Society of Wilmington had not greatly promoted the special education of "the Blacks and the people of color." In 1801, however, a school was kept the first day of the week by one of the members of the Society, who instructed them gratis in reading, writing, and arithmetic. About twenty pupils generally attended and by their a.s.siduity and progress showed themselves as "capable as white persons laboring under similar disadvantages."[1] In 1802 plans for the extension of this system were laid and bore good fruit the following year.[2] Seven years later, however, after personal and pecuniary aid had for some time been extended, the workers had still to lament that beneficial effects had not been more generally experienced, and that there was little disposition to aid them in their friendly endeavors.[3] In 1816 more important results had been obtained.

Through a society formed a few years prior to this date for the express purpose of educating colored children, a school had been established under a Negro teacher. He had a fair attendance of bright children, who "by the facility with which they took in instruction were silently but certainly undermining the prejudice"[4] against their education. A library of religious and moral publications had been secured for this inst.i.tution. In addition to the school in Wilmington there was a large academy for young colored women, gratuitously taught by a society of young ladies. The course of instruction covered reading, writing, and sewing. The work in sewing proved to be a great advantage to the colored girls, many of whom through the instrumentality of that society were provided with good positions.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid._, p. 20.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1802, p. 17.]

[Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1809, p.

20.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., 1816, p. 20.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., 1821, p. 18.]

In Pennsylvania the interest of the large Quaker element caused the question of educating Negroes to be a matter of more concern to that colony than it was to the others. Thanks to the arduous labors of the antislavery movement, emanc.i.p.ation was provided for in 1780.

The Quakers were then especially anxious to see masters give their "weighty and solid attention" to qualifying slaves for the liberty intended. By the favorable legislation of the State the poor were by 1780 allowed the chance to secure the rudiments of education.[1]

Despite this favorable appearance of things, however, friends of the despised race had to keep up the agitation for such a construction of the law as would secure to the Negroes of the State the educational benefits extended to the indigent. The colored youth of Pennsylvania thereafter had the right to attend the schools provided for white children, and exercised it when persons interested in the blacks directed their attention to the importance of mental improvement.[2]

But as neither they nor their defenders were numerous outside of Philadelphia and Columbia, not many pupils of color in other parts of the State attended school during this period. Whatever special effort was made to arouse them to embrace their opportunities came chiefly from the Quakers.

[Footnote 1: _A.M.E. Church Review_, vol. xv., p. 625.]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa_., p. 253.]

Not content with the schools which were already opened to Negroes, the friends of the race continued to agitate and raise funds to extend their philanthropic operations. With the donation of Anthony Benezet the Quakers were able to enlarge their building and increase the scope of the work. They added a female department in which Sarah Dwight[1]

was teaching the girls spelling, reading, and sewing in 1784. The work done in Philadelphia was so successful that the place became the rallying center for the Quakers throughout the country,[2] and was of so much concern to certain members of this sect in London that in 1787 they contributed five hundred pounds toward the support of this school.[3] In 1789 the Quakers organized "The Society for the Free Instruction of the Orderly Blacks and People of Color." Taking into consideration the "many disadvantages which many well-disposed blacks and people of color labored under from not being able to read, write, or cast accounts, which would qualify them to act for themselves or provide for their families," this society in connection with other organizations established evening schools for the education of adults of African blood.[4] It is evident then that with the exception of the school of the Abolition Society organized in 1774, and the efforts of a few other persons generally cooperating like the anti-slavery leaders with the Quakers, practically all of the useful education of the colored people of this State was accomplished in their schools.

Philadelphia had seven colored schools in 1797.[5]

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 251.]

[Footnote 2: Quaker Pamphlet, p. 42.]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Ed. in Pa_., p. 252.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_., p. 251.]

[Footnote 5: Turner, _The Negro in Pa_., p. 128.]

The next decade was of larger undertakings.[1] The report of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society of 1801 shows that there had been an increasing interest in Negro education. For this purpose the society had raised funds to the amount of $530.50 per annum for three years.[2] In 1803 certain other friends of the cause left for this purpose two liberal benefactions, one amounting to one thousand dollars, and the other to one thousand pounds.[3] With these contributions the Quakers and Abolitionists erected in 1809 a handsome building valued at four thousand dollars. They named it Clarkson Hall in honor of the great friend of the Negro race.[4] In 1807 the Quakers met the needs of the increasing population of the city by founding an additional inst.i.tution of learning known as the Adelphi School.[5]

[Footnote 1: Parish, _Remarks on the Slavery_, etc., p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Conv_., 1802, p. 18.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_., 1803, p. 13.]