Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/390

* NEGRO EDUCATION. 3i0 NEGRO EDUCATION. gain in power and cxt-xulive aliilily that came out of lliat f.^iJeiieiKL'. While their masters were lighting to keep them in slavery, they were receiving in the absence of those masters the edu- cation which was to tit them to be freemen. The sudden emancipation of the blades brought about a condition bordering upon chaos. The Southern white man knew little of the treatment due a negro freeman, and the negro knew as little what his relation to liis former master should be. The white man was uiuible to look upon the black in any other light than as his servant, and the black man looked upon all service as degrading, considering that freedom and education ought to e.empt him from labor, especially from the labor of the hands. Upon the heels of the Northern armies came an army of devoted women, eager to teach the freednien. In September, 18(il, the American ilissionary Association opened its first school for contrabands at Hampton, Va., the outcome of which is the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (q.v.). In the following January schools were started at Hilton Head and Beau- fort, S. C, and in 18U2 and 18G3 teachers were sent to Tennessee. The Rev. .John Eaton, an army chaplain from Ohio, afterwards United States Commissioner of Education, was placed by General Grant in charge of the instruction of the colored people, of whom it is estimated that more than a Tnillion learned to read and write; of the 80,000 colored troops in the Northern army, 20,- 000 learned to reail and write. The churclies of the North vied with one another in their en- deavors to bring education to the black man. In 1805 the I'Vcedmen's Bureau (q.v.) was estab- lished, and, in addition to other work, it super- intended the education given to the freedmen by the Government and the churches of the North. Between 180.5 and 1870 more than five million dollars was expended by this organization for educational jnirposes. In some cases Gov- ernment buildings and land were granted. The proved capacity of the negroes for educa- tion suggested the wisdom and economy of pro- viding their schools with teachers of their own race, and during the years from 1808 to 1878 there were founded twenty-five normal and col- legiate institutions under the control of dilTer- ent religious denominations, the Congregation- alists ,Tnd Baptists leading in the number and f-ize of their schools. They extended from Hamp- ton in Virginia to Tillotson in Texas. At At- lanta, Nashville, f'hattanooga, and other centres institutions were built costing from $200,000 to $.")nO.OOO, and having a yearly attendance of from 300 to .500 students. They have trained many of the teachers of the negro race. The work of these schools has often Ix'en criti- cised, and sometimes, perhaps, justly. But it is nevertheless true that they have had much to do with the uplifting of the negro race. From them have gone forth many of the best teachers of the negro public schools. Most of these in- stitutions had as their model the New England high school or college. Latin and Greek had often a prominent place. The practical side of rduration. which was largely provided for in the New England home, was not supplieil in the one- room cabin of the South. Too great emphasis was sometimes placed upon the literary and academic side of education, and too little upon the gaining of a knowledge of the common things of life and of the forming of habits of intelligent industry. It was natural that the colored man, after years of forced labor, should revolt against any education that gave prominence to the work of the hand. It was natural that his teacher, who heard it continually said that negroes were lit only to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, should wish to prove that they could be- come successful lawyers, ])hysicians, and clergy- men. The wisdom of raising up leaders of "a ])eople is umjuestioned, liut where ninety per cent, of a race live on the land, as is the case with the blacks of the South, and where a large majority live, as the masses of the negro race still do, in one-room cabins un<ler the lien system of crops, it would seem that there ought to be a clo.se relation between education and vocation, and that their teachers and clergymen should be taught how to build their own houses, and how to cultivate their land properly. Each year is giving to these higher institutions for negroes in the South, as to the colleges of the North, curricvila which have a more vital connection with life. What is called race prejudice has caused a, separation between the white and black races which, though attended with evil, has been pro- ductive of much good. The unwillingness of the Southern whites to allow white and black chil- dren to be taught in the same schools has re- sulted in the founding of the sehools just de- .scribed, which are in some rojiects superior to most of those that are ojien to the white children of the South. It has al.so resulted in a sj'stem of public schools taught by colored teachers which, while it has its disadvantages, has re- sulted in good to the race. Before the year 1870 there were practically no negro public schools, with the exception of those in Memphis, New Orleans, and Nashville. There were, however, in the District of Columbia 10,- 404 colored children in ])ul)lic and private schools. In 1870. while for the nuwt part there was op])osition, certain far-seeing Southerners de- clared in favor of the education of the blacks. In 1871 a little improvement was made. In 1872 Delaware and Kentucky were the only States that had not made provision fiu' negro education. In 187.3 and 1874 State normal schools began to be established for the training of negro teachers. In 1S77 the total numlier of negro children re- ported of school age was 1..5l:!.Oii,5. ami the num- ber enrolled in the schools .571..50t!. There were twenty-seven normal schools with .378.5 pupils, and twenty-three institutions for secondarv in- struction, with 2087 pupils. In 1882-83 the col- ored school population in the District of Colum- bia and the former slave States was 1.044..572, and the enrollment 802.!t82. Tlius, less than twenty years after the war there was built up in the .South a public school system for both whites and blacks, with normal schools for the training of teachers, which, con-idering the extreme pov- erty of the Southi'rn States, was admirable. In 1807-08 the United States Conunissinner of Edu- cation stated that there was an enrollment in the schools of 1.. 500.742 colored children, or .52.07 per cent, of the colored school ])opuIation. while his report for 1000-01 shows an enrollment of .57.22 per cent, of the negro children. The aver- age daily attendance in the colored schools is 02.40 per cent, of their enrollment. No account of negro education in .merica