Transcriber's Note:

Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Most notably, in Issue No. 2, April, 1923, spelling errors found in Paul Cuffe's own writings (e.g., travel journals, letters, will, etc.) are left as published. Text that has been changed is noted at the [end] of this ebook.

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY

CARTER G. WOODSON
EDITOR

VOLUME VIII

1923

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE
AND HISTORY, Inc.
LANCASTER, PA., AND WASHINGTON, D. C.
1923

LANCASTER PRESS, INC.
LANCASTER, PA.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME VIII

[No. 1. January, 1923]

[No. 2. April, 1923]

[No. 3. July, 1923]

[No. 4. October, 1923]

THE JOURNAL
OF
NEGRO HISTORY

Vol. VIII., No. 1 January, 1923.

THE EDUCATIONAL EFFORTS OF THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU AND FREEDMEN'S AID SOCIETIES IN SOUTH CAROLINA, 1862-1872[1]

Introduction

Slavery in the United States was abolished by force of circumstances. The appeal to arms in April, 1861, was made by the North for the purpose of saving the Union, but only within a few months after the breaking out of hostilities "what shall we do with the slaves within our lines" was the cry heard from all sections of the invaded territory. Deserted by their masters or endeavoring to obtain freedom, the Negroes came into the Union camps in such large numbers that humanitarian as well as military reasons demanded that something be done to change their status and alleviate their physical suffering.[2] In the absence of a uniform national policy on the matter, the several commanding generals settled the question according to their own notions. Butler, at Fortress Monroe, for example, refused to return the group of fugitive slaves and cleverly styled them "contraband of war."

It was under these circumstances that voluntary benevolent associations or freedmen's aid societies sprang up in quick succession all over the North as agencies first to relieve physical suffering and finally to administer to the religious and educational needs of the blacks and white refugees. Missionary efforts were rapidly pushed by them to all Confederate States just as fast as the Union armies advanced into the invaded territory. These private philanthropic efforts which began in 1861 finally led toward the close of the war to the establishment by the United States Government of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands—an agency which carried on the work already begun by the societies and at the same time cooperated with them until changed conditions were reached about 1870.

The military event in South Carolina which called forth immediate relief was the capture of Hilton Head and the adjacent sea islands on November 7, 1861, by Commodore Dupont and General T. W. Sherman.[3] The agencies formed to succor the blacks on these islands were the New England Freedmen's Aid Society, the New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, and the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association. These several bodies were non-sectarian in character. Cooperating with them were some regular church organizations.

At some time during the seven years existence of the Freedmen's Bureau it embraced a six-fold program: (1) distributing rations and medical supplies; (2) establishing schools and aiding benevolent associations; (3) regulating labor contracts; (4) taking charge of confiscated lands; (5) administering justice in cases where blacks were concerned, and (6) the payment of bounties to soldiers. The societies likewise exercised various physical functions, but it is only the educational activities of all parties concerned that are of primary interest here.

The chosen period of ten years, 1862-1872, represents a rise and fall. During the war the non-sectarian societies operated with all the vigor that the military situation would permit. At its close in 1865 and lasting through 1866 their greatest efforts were expended. Beginning about 1867, signs of retrenchment appear; and in 1868 their operations practically cease. At the same time, both as a cause and as a result of the dissolution of the non-sectarian societies, the church organizations took up the work and carried it not only until the end of this decade but down to the present time. The Freedmen's Bureau, as guardian over all, had no funds the first year or two, but in 1867 and especially in 1868 and 1869 when the societies weakened, it did its greatest work. After 1870 the Freedmen's Bureau had but a nominal existence. By Congressional action the institution expired in 1872. With this ending and one or two important developments by the church organizations in 1871 and 1872, this essay likewise closes.

This educational campaign is thus one conducted by outside parties. The several organizations adopted the policy of "no distinction on account of race or color"; but, inasmuch as the schools were conducted primarily for the blacks, these ten years represent an effort for this race with automatically very little attention to the native whites. The subject, then, lends itself to the following organization: The Port Royal Experiment, the organization and relationship, the establishment and work of schools, the difficulties and complications, and self-help and labor among the freedmen.

The Port Royal Experiment

The sea islands of South Carolina are located between Charleston and Savannah on the Atlantic seaboard. In the group connected with the capture of Hilton Head are St. Helena, Port Royal, Morgan, Paris and Phillips. Collectively, as a military designation, these were known as Port Royal. On these islands in 1861 there were about nine thousand slaves,—the lowest in America.[4] As laborers on the cotton and rice plantations these slaves for generations had been removed from all the influences that tended to elevate the bondmen elsewhere. They were densely illiterate, superstitious and in general but little removed from African barbarism.[5] To add to the general low stage of these slaves their language was a jargon hardly understandable by those who came to teach them.[6] For example, some of them would say: "Us aint know nothin' an' you is to larn we."

Upon the capture of Hilton Head by the Federals, the white masters fled to Charleston and the up-country and abandoned all of their property.[7] The control of abandoned property at this time rested with the Treasury Department. Accordingly, Secretary Chase sent Edward L. Pierce, of Milton, Massachusetts, to Port Royal to report on the amount of cotton and also to make recommendations for its collection and sale. The findings of Pierce together with that of Sherman in command of the military forces introduce us to our main story. At the suggestion of Chase, Pierce and Sherman sent appeals broadcast to the North for the immediate relief of the abandoned slaves. In February, 1862, Sherman issued this General Order No. 9: "The helpless condition of the blacks inhabiting the vast area in the occupation of the forces of this command, calls for immediate action on the part of a highly favored and philanthropic people.... Hordes of totally uneducated, ignorant and improvident blacks have been abandoned by their constitutional guardians, not only to all the future chances of anarchy and starvation, but in such a state of abject ignorance and mental stolidity as to preclude all possibility of self-government and self-maintenance in their present condition.... To relieve the Government of a burden that may hereafter become insupportable ... a suitable system of culture and instruction must be combined with one providing for their physical wants. In the meanwhile ... the service of competent instructors will be received whose duties will consist in teaching them, both young and old, the rudiments of civilization and Christianity."[8]

In response to this appeal there was organized in Boston, on February 7, 1862, the Boston Education Commission, later known as the New England Freedmen's Aid Society or the New England Society, and on the twenty-second of the same month, at a mass meeting held at the Cooper Institute in New York City, the New York National Freedmen's Relief Association was organized. At this meeting the following rules were adopted with reference to the abandoned slaves:

1. "They must be treated as free men.

2. "They must earn their livelihood like other freemen and not be dependent upon charity.

3. "Schools and churches shall be established among them, and the sick shall be cared for."[9]

Following in the wake of Boston and New York came Philadelphia in March with the Port Royal Relief Committee, later known as the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association or the Pennsylvania Society. Carrying out the resolutions mentioned above, there assembled on the third of March, 1862, at the port of New York, a party of fifty-three teachers and superintendents of labor, including twelve women, who set sail on the same day for Port Royal.[10] The salaries of these persons were to be paid by their respective societies, while transportation and military protection were afforded by the United States Government. Following this original party in March and April, came twenty more representatives from the New England Society and likewise added increments from New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere all through the year. In the Fall the American Missionary Association of New York added a corps of thirty-one teachers. It must be remarked at this point that these individuals represented the flower of New England culture. The first party, "Gideonites" as they were called, was made up in part of recent graduates of Harvard, Yale, Brown and the divinity schools of Andover and Cambridge.[11] Furthermore, they were sent forward on their mission by William Cullen Bryant, William Lloyd Garrison, Francis G. Shaw and Edward Everett Hale, with the sanction and close cooperation of the Secretary of the Treasury, S. P. Chase.

The voluntary steps taken by these parties attracted considerable attention and concern from the best minds of Europe, as well as the United States. Articles on the subject appeared in English and French periodicals.[12] The result of these efforts to aid and elevate the sea island Negroes was to be considered as an index as to their ability to learn and likewise would indicate the possibility of general development of slaves in other States. The labors of the United States Government and the societies here, therefore, came to be known as the "Port Royal Experiment."

The United States Government and the regulation of the abandoned territory for three years, until the close of the war, underwent a number of changes. Prior to the arrival of the Gideonites on March 9th, the territory was controlled by the special cotton agent, E. L. Pierce, as directed by the Treasury Department. In June, in response to Congressional action, control passed to the War Department. Pierce was displaced and Major Rufus Saxton was made the administrator with headquarters at Beaufort on Port Royal. His duties were to supervise the growth and sale of cotton, to regulate labor, to direct the activities of new comers and settle them at suitable points over the several islands. At the same time the military forces stationed at Hilton Head passed successively under the command of Sherman and General David Hunter.

Pursuant to the Congressional Act of June 7, 1862, "for the collection of direct taxes in insurrectionary states" the abandoned property was bought in by the United States Government and private individuals. In September, 1863, the Government relinquished its purchases whereby the "freedmen," as they were now called, could buy property in twenty-acre lots and at the same time establish school farms of six thousand acres, the proceeds from which were to be used for educational purposes. According to the plan laid out by Pierce, the islands were divided into four districts which contained a total of one hundred and eighty-nine plantations.[13] Over each district was placed a general superintendent with a local superintendent for each plantation. W. C. Gannet and John C. Zachas of the New England Society were placed in charge of the schools.[14]

School work had already begun prior to the arrival of the main party through the initiative taken by Pierce and his coworkers. On the eighth of January, 1862, Rev. Solomon Peck, of Roxbury, Massachusetts, established a school for the contrabands at Beaufort. Another was opened at Hilton Head by Barnard K. Lee of Boston the same month.[15] In February there was organized still another at Beaufort, which was taught for a short while by an agent of the American Missionary Association.[16] In estimating what was accomplished by these preliminary disorganized efforts we can assume that it was no more than learning the alphabet.

After their arrival in March those persons who had come in the capacity of teachers began their work immediately. By the eighth of May there were eight schools in operation.[17] The improvised school houses consisted of cotton barns, sheds or old kitchens and "praise houses."[18] Some had classes in tents.[19] The furniture correspondingly was equally as crude. The desks were mere boards thrown across old chairs. A fair idea of the general informal state of affairs both as to the time and place of teaching is gained by this recital of one teacher's experience: "I leave town about 6 o'clock A. M. and arrive at the first plantation about 9, and commence teaching those too young to labor. About 11 the task is done, and the field hands come in for their share. About 1 P. M. I go to the other three plantations one and a half miles. They assemble at the most central one for instruction. This lasts about two hours, first teaching the young then the older persons ... there being no buildings suitable for a school on any plantation, I teach them under the shadow of a tree, where it is more comfortable than any house could be in hot weather."[20] In only one or two instances were there buildings erected specifically for school purposes. One interesting case is that of a building sent from the North in sections and likewise erected piece by piece. An estimate of what was done as a whole during the first year of the "experiment" may be made from the fact that 35,829 books and pamphlets were sent to Port Royal by northern agencies, and 3,000 scholars were put under instruction. In addition to this purely educational effort there were distributed 91,834 garments, 5,895 yards of cloth, and $3,000 worth of farming implements and seeds.[21]

Further light on the general nature and progress of the work is gained through a return visit made by Pierce to Port Royal in March, 1863. At this time he reported that there were more than 30 schools conducted by about 40 or 45 teachers. The average attendance was 2,000 pupils and the enrollment 1,000 more. The ages ranged from 8 to 12.[22] As to the studies "the advanced classes were reading simple stories and mastered some passages in such common school books, as Hillard's Second Primary Reader, Wilson's Second Reader, and others of similar grade." Some few were having elementary lessons in arithmetic, geography and writing.

A very large part of the school exercises consisted of utilizing what the teachers found the scholars endowed with by nature—an abundance of feeling as expressed in their folk songs and crude religion. An insight into their inwardly depressed condition is gained by the fact that these songs were usually cast in the minor mode, although they were sung in a joyful manner.[23] "In their lowest state singing was the one thing they could always do well. At first they sang melody alone, but after having once been given an idea of harmony, they instantly adopted it. Their time and tone were always true."[24] They took particular delight in ringing out "Roll Jordan Roll." Along with the singing the general atmosphere of the instruction was religious. Indeed, the New Testament was used as a text-book. After the pupils had learned to read a little they were set to work learning the Psalms and the Ten Commandments.

One teacher of the Port Royal group, herself of African descent, was Charlotte S. Forten of Philadelphia. She was a graduate of the State Normal School, Salem, Massachusetts, and had taught in the same city. Refusing a residence in Europe, she joined one of the parties for Port Royal to teach among her own people. This woman enjoyed the friendship of Whittier and, as a beautiful singer herself, the poet sent her directly his Hymn written for the scholars of St. Helena Island which she taught them to sing for the Emancipation Proclamation exercises of January 1, 1863.[25]

The banner school on "St. Helen's Isle" and Port Royal was the one in charge of Laura M. Towne, of Philadelphia, and supported by the Philadelphia Society. After three years' work this school had reached a fair degree of organization. The school was conducted in the building sent in sections as referred to above and was known as the "Penn School" in honor of the society which supported it. Classes were grouped as primary, intermediate, and higher, each in charge of one teacher in a separate room. The branches of study, however, were the same in all—reading, spelling, writing, geography, and arithmetic.[26] The situation here described represents in the embryo the present day Penn Normal and Agricultural Institute.

Similarly well housed was the school taught by Elizabeth Hyde Botume, of Boston, under the auspices of the New England Society. It commands interest for the reason that it was the beginning in industrial training on these islands. As plantation laborers the pupils knew little or nothing of sewing. To supply this need Miss Botume solicited the necessary apparatus from her northern friends and began work on some old contraband goods stored in an arsenal. She reported that sewing was a fascination to all and that "they learned readily and soon developed much skill and ingenuity."[27] This school has come down today as the Old Fort Plantation School. The work of these two women thus took on a permanent character and to this extent largely formed an exception to the general informality of the schooling at Port Royal.

Obviously, the heroic efforts of the several societies to assist the blacks amounted to far more than school-room procedure. Indeed, this was a very small part of the work of the teachers and it was so regarded by them. They visited the little cabins, counselled and advised their wards, attended church, and taught them in the Sabbath Schools. Three years of this intermingling between the culture of New England and the most degraded slaves in America resulted in some promising signs for the latter. There was some improvement in manners and dress and an increase in wants. At the stores set up on the islands they were buying small articles for the improvement of their surroundings.[28] For the first time they were now being paid wages. At the tax sales in March, 1863, when 16,479 acres were up for auction they purchased about 3,500 acres at the price of 93½ cents an acre. Shortly afterwards they had doubled this amount.[29] As free laborers, however, they were somewhat disappointing to their new employers since old habits still persisted. All in all, with some three thousand or one-third of the whole number having received "more or less" instruction in books the societies were well satisfied with the experiment and at the close of the war increased their efforts at Port Royal and throughout the State.

Organization and Relationship

The Freedmen's Bureau as established by Act of Congress March 3, 1865, "with the supervision and management of all abandoned lands and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from rebel states," was an outgrowth of the Port Royal experiment and other such enterprises carried on elsewhere. Social conditions in the South at the close of the war called for increased efforts on the part of northern benevolence, but this was only possible through governmental aid and supervision. The societies already at work during the war made appeals to the government toward this end. One committee, for example, on December 1, 1863, stated that the needs represented "a question too large for anything short of government authority, government resources, and government ubiquity to deal with."[30]

The organization of the Freedmen's Bureau as affecting South Carolina consisted of a commissioner at Washington, an assistant commissioner for the State at large with headquarters at Charleston, and sub-assistant commissioners—one for each of the five districts into which the State was divided. Furthermore, there was a subdivision of each district with agents in charge. For the educational work of the Freedmen's Bureau there was a corps consisting of a general superintendent on the commissioner's staff, a State superintendent correspondingly on the assistant commissioner's staff at Charleston, and the various sub-assistant commissioners and agents who combined the supervision of schools with their other duties. The personnel of this hierarchy consisted of General O. O. Howard, Commissioner, J. W. Alvord, general superintendent of education, General Rufus Saxton, General R. K. Scott, Colonel J. R. Edie, successively, assistant commissioners, and Reuben Tomlinson, Major Horace Neide, Major E. L. Deane, successively, State superintendents of education. These officers, beginning with the lowest, made to their respective chiefs monthly, quarterly or semi-annual reports which were finally submitted to the commissioner at Washington, who was required to make "before the commencement of each regular session of Congress, a full report of his proceedings."

The duties of the general superintendent were to "collect information, encourage the organization of new schools, find homes for teachers and supervise the whole work."[31] Similarly, the State superintendent was to take cognizance of all that was "being done to educate refugees and freedmen, secure proper protection to schools and teachers, promote method and efficiency, and correspond with the benevolent agencies ... supplying his field."[32] On October 5, 1865, Tomlinson sent out this notice to the people of the whole State: "I request all persons in any part of this state ... to communicate with me furnishing me with all the facilities for establishing schools in their respective neighborhoods."[33]

Between the Freedmen's Bureau and the several aid societies there was perfect understanding. Howard announced: "In all this work it is not my purpose to supersede the benevolent agencies already engaged, but to systematize and facilitate them."[34] So close was the cooperation between the efforts of the Bureau and the societies that it is hard in places to separate the work of the two.

Prior to the supplementary Freedmen's Bureau Act of July 16, 1866, the Commission had no funds appropriated to it for educational purposes. It was able to help only by supervision, transportation of teachers and occupation of buildings in possession of the Freedmen's Bureau. This action of the first year met the full approval of Congress, for in the Act of July 16, 1866, it was stated "that the commissioner ... shall at all time cooperate with private benevolent agencies of citizens in aid of freedmen ... and shall hire or provide by lease buildings for purposes of education whenever such association shall without cost to the government, provide suitable teachers and means of instruction, and he shall furnish such protection as may be required for the safe conduct of such schools." Further, "the commissioner of this bureau shall have power to seize, hold, use, lease or sell all buildings and tenements ... and to use the same or appropriate the proceeds derived therefrom to the education of the freed people."[35] In the following March, 1867, $500,000 was appropriated by Congress for the Freedmen's Bureau "for buildings for schools and asylums; including construction, rental and repairs."[36]

The aid societies which under these provisions operated in South Carolina may be classified in three groups:

1. Non-sectarian: The New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, the New England Freedmen's Aid Society and the Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association (as enumerated above).

2. Denominational: (a) The American Baptist Home Mission Society; (b) the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church; (c) the Presbyterian Committee of Missions for Freedmen; (d) the Friends Association of Philadelphia for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen; (e) and the Protestant Episcopal Freedman's Commission.

3. Semi-denominational: The American Missionary Association.

To the non-sectarian societies might be added the London Freedmen's Aid Society and the Michigan Freedmen's Relief Association, although the latter supported only one school and for a short time only. The American Missionary Association, during the war, served as the agency for the Free Will Baptists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Congregationalists, at which time its work was non-sectarian; but as the first two drew out at the close of the war, this association became very largely a congregational agency, establishing churches along with its schools. None of these several agencies confined their attention exclusively to South Carolina, although two of them, the New York and New England societies, did their best work in this State.

The spirit of good will that existed between the Freedmen's Bureau and the societies, however, did not exist among the societies themselves, particularly among the church organizations. For the purpose of bringing about coordination and unity of action from 1863 to 1866, the New York, New England and Pennsylvania societies joined hands with various western societies operating in other States. Each year and oftener these bodies underwent reorganization until in May, 1866, at Cleveland, all non-sectarian societies in all parts of the country united and formed the American Freedmen's Union Commission.[37] To this general body the local societies sustained a relationship of local autonomy. They were now known as the New York, New England, and Pennsylvania "Branches."

In addition to the organization already mentioned, there were attached to each of the branches or local bodies numerous auxiliaries which usually made themselves responsible for some one teacher or group of teachers. In 1867 the New England Society had a total of 187 auxiliaries, 104 in Massachusetts, 75 in Vermont, 6 in New Hampshire, 1 in Connecticut and 1 in Georgia.[38] The strongest New England auxiliary was that at Dorchester, while that of New York was at Yonkers. The London Freedmen's Aid Society with its many branches raised one-half a million of dollars for the cause of the freedmen in America. England reasoned that since America had given so freely toward the Irish famine that it was now her duty and opportunity to return the favor.[39] South Carolina's share in this sum was the support of a school at Greenville and one at St. Helena.[40]

During the war the several church bodies supported the non-sectarian societies, but toward the close of the war they began by degrees to withdraw support and take independent action.[41] To their regular missionary departments was now added this new "Freedmen's Aid Society" and to support it a "Freedmen's Fund." Several of the churches also had their Woman's Home Missionary Society which established and conducted schools in conjunction with the parent organization. The efforts of the Presbyterians, Friends, and Episcopalians were similarly directed in that they established the parochial type of school as an annex to the church. With some exceptions, this policy militated against the progress of their schools.[42] Among all the different classes of societies the American Missionary Association (New York City) was the best prepared for its work. This association was organized in 1846 and prior to the war had already established schools and missions.

The several groups of societies had elements in common. They were one on the question of the treatment of the Negro, there being scarcely any difference in their purposes as stated in their constitutions. They felt that the National Government was too silent on the principles of freedom and equality and that the State Governments, North as well as South, had laws inimical to the Negro that should be abolished. The two groups differed in personnel, the non-sectarian consisting largely of business men, particularly the New York Society, and the denominational of clergymen. In the selection of teachers the former made no requirements as to church affiliation, whereas the latter usually upheld this principle.

The ultimate aim of the church bodies was usually religious. They endeavored to institute the true principles of Christianity among the blacks, but in order to do this, in order to raise up ministers and Christian leaders among them, schools were necessary.[43] The Baptists in particular emphasized the training of ministers and the reports of their agents in the field always included the number baptized along with the number of schools and students.

Establishment and Work of Schools

The schools established during this period may be roughly classified as primary and higher, under the auspices of the non-sectarian and denominational bodies respectively. They include day schools, night schools, and Sabbath schools.

The term "higher" includes secondary and college instruction, although within this decade only two or three schools were even doing secondary work while another which reports "classical" students was really of secondary rank. Some of the church schools were graced with the name "college" and "university" which in reality merely represents the expectation of the promoters. In later years at least two of the institutions begun at this time reached college rank.[44]

The Freedmen's Bureau assumed general charge and supervision of education for the State in the fall of 1865, under the direction of Superintendent Reuben Tomlinson. Schools were in operation, however, before this time—those at Port Royal and the Beaufort district, as mentioned above, continued in operation and in increased numbers. At Charleston schools were opened under the control of the military government on the fourth of March, 1865, only a few weeks after the surrender of the city. James Redpath was appointed as superintendent of these schools. Outside of these two places no regularly organized schools were begun until the Fall, when they were extended over all the State.

The Charleston and Columbia schools are of chief interest. On March 31, 1865, after the schools had just opened, Redpath reported the following in operation with the attendance of each:

There were employed eighty-three teachers, seventy-five of whom, white and colored, were natives of Charleston. The salaries of these teachers were paid by the New York and New England societies and cooperating with Redpath in organizing these schools were agents of these societies, one of whom served as a principal of one school. Within a month or two another school was added to this list, and during the same time there sprang up five night schools for adults. The students were made up of both white and Negro children and were taught in separate rooms. The whites, however, represented a very small proportion of the total number.[45]

In the fall of the year, with the reopening of the schools, the general organization underwent considerable changes due to the restoration of the regular civil government in charge of the ex-Confederates. Most of the schools mentioned above were now conducted for white children and taught by the native whites as of old. The Morris Street School, however, was kept for Negro children and taught by the native whites. The Normal School in time became the Avery Institute. The New England Society, which in the Spring had supported the Morris Street School, moved to the Military Hall and subsequently built the Shaw Memorial School. This school was named in the honor of Colonel Robert G. Shaw, who was killed during the war in the assault on Fort Wagner (Morris Island) while leading his Negro troops. The funds for the erection of the school were contributed by the family of Colonel Shaw and they retained a permanent interest in it. In 1874, when the New England Society dissolved, the school was bought by the public school authorities and used for Negro children.[46] During the course of four or five years other schools were established here or in the vicinity of Charleston by the several church organizations.

Charleston thus made a commendable start in education partly for the reason that the city had a school system before the war and for a while during the conflict. The free Negroes of this city likewise had been instructed under certain restrictions during slavery time.[47] The schools which were controlled or supported by the northern agencies were by 1868 offering an elementary grade of instruction corresponding to about the fourth or fifth grade with classes in geography, English composition and arithmetic. Just here, however, it must be said that the personnel of the student body was constantly changing or at least during 1865 and 1866. Charleston was merely a sort of way station for the blacks, who, returning from the up-country where they had fled or had been led during the war, were on their way to the sea islands to take up land as offered by Sherman's order.[48] During April, 1865, Redpath reported that at least five hundred pupils "passed through" the schools, remaining only long enough to be taught a few patriotic songs, to keep quiet and to be decently clad. Others in turn came and in turn were "shipped off."[49]

Columbia, though behind Charleston in point of time, made an equally good beginning in spite of annoying handicaps. There was a fertile field here for teaching, since the blacks were crowding in from all the surrounding territory. Sherman having destroyed about all the suitable buildings, T. G. Wright, representative of the New York Society, in company with three northern ladies, started a school on November 6, 1865, in the basement of a Negro church with 243 scholars. Soon thereafter, on November 7th, another was begun in the small room of a confiscated building "very unsuitable for a school room." On the same day two other schools were begun at similar places, one of them at General Ely's headquarters and taught by his daughters. On the ninth another school started on Arsenal Hill in an old building rented for a church by the freedmen and on the thirteenth still another was opened in one of the government buildings. These schools were numerically designated as "No. 1," "No. 2," etc., being nine in all. In addition to these there were two night schools begun about the same time, one of them enrolling fifty adult males and the other 121.[50] The Columbia schools were taught wholly under the control of the New York Society by northern ladies with the assistance of a few Negro instructors who were competent to assist them. They had a large attendance and consequently there were many changes made in the location of schools in the course even of the first few months.

Fortunately these temporary congested quarters gave way in the fall of 1867 when the Howard School was completed. This school was erected by the New York Society and the Freedmen's Bureau at a cost of about $10,000. It contained ten large class rooms. At the close of the school year (1868) it had an attendance of 600. The closing exercises of the year seemed to have attracted considerable attention inasmuch as the officers of the city, Tomlinson, and newspaper men all attended. The examinations at the close embraced reading, spelling, arithmetic, geography, history and astronomy. The Columbia Phoenix (a local paper) said of the exercises: "We were pleased with the neat appearance and becoming bearing of the scholars ... and the proficiency exhibited in the elementary branches was respectable."[51]

The New York Society did its best work in Columbia. At Beaufort this same organization had schools which occupied the large buildings formerly used by the whites. The New England Society was best represented at Charleston and Camden. The Philadelphia Society was best represented at St. Helena. Some notion of the exact location of the schools fostered by these societies (May, 1866) may be gained from the following table:[52]

With some exceptions the schools enumerated here and elsewhere unfortunately had only a short existence for the reason that the societies which supported them gradually became short of funds. The New York Society, for example, in 1868, found itself hardly able to bring its teachers home. The efficiency of other societies likewise began to wane. By January 1, 1870, or within a few months afterwards, the Freedmen's Bureau passed out of existence. Alvord and his whole staff thereby were discharged from duty. The non-sectarian societies ceased to exist because the aid societies of the several northern churches claimed the allegiance of their members. A stronger reason, as given by them, was that the freedmen were now (1868) in a position to help themselves politically through the provision of Negro Suffrage for the new State government, under the Congressional plan of reconstruction. The Freedmen's Bureau was discontinued for similar reasons.

A few of the schools so well begun either passed into the hands of the State under regular State or municipal control of schools, as, for example, the Shaw Memorial at Charleston, or they became private institutions with other means of northern support. Before expiration, however, during 1869, the Freedmen's Bureau used its remaining funds to establish new schools and repair buildings throughout the State. A graphic picture of the Bureau's activity during the latter part of 1869 is thus shown:[54]

School Houses Erected

School Houses Repaired and Rented

After all, the real significance of this educational movement was the policy adopted by the denominational bodies that they should establish permanent institutions—colleges and normal schools to train teachers for the common schools and also in time that the Negroes themselves should run these institutions.[55] South Carolina under the Negro-Carpet-Bag rule in 1868, then, for the first time ventured to establish a school system supported by public taxation. For this object there were practically no competent teachers to serve the Negroes. The only sources of supply were the persons trained in the schools herein described and a few of the northern teachers who remained behind.[56] Very small and crude it was in the beginning, but the policy adopted here at least furnishes the idea upon which ever since the public schools of the State have been mainly justified. By 1870 the Perm School at St. Helena was sending out teachers in response to calls from the State.[57] In the same year the principal of the Avery Institute reported that he was asked by the State to furnish fifty teachers.[58] This school was perhaps the best fitted to perform this function.

The American Missionary Association supported, at Port Royal and other points in the State, schools which, along with many others, had only a temporary existence. The lasting and best contribution of this association to this movement was the Avery Institute, its second best was the Brewer Normal. Avery was established at Charleston on October 1, 1865, in the State Normal School building, which was offered by General Saxton. The school commenced with twenty teachers and one thousand scholars with every available space taken, one hundred being crowded in the dome. The next year, having been turned out of this building, the school was held for two years in the Military Hall in Wentworth Street. On May 1, 1869, the school entered its present new large building on Bull Street when it dropped the name of the Saxton School for Avery in honor of the philanthropist from a portion of whose bequest $10,000 was spent by the American Missionary Association for the grounds and a mission home. The building proper was erected by the Freedmen's Bureau at a cost of $17,000.[59]

Avery very soon dropped its primary department and concentrated its efforts on the normal or secondary department where it had from the beginning a comfortable number of students. These students came largely from the free Negro class. Under the guidance of their well-trained Negro principal the boys and girls here were reading Milton's "L'Allegro," translating Caesar, and solving quadratic equations.[60] From the standpoint of grade of instruction, Avery was the banner school of the State. With a less pretentious beginning Brewer was established by the American Missionary Association at Greenwood in 1872 on school property valued at $4,000.

The Baptist Home Mission Society, following in the wake of the American Missionary Association, made a beginning at Port Royal with the labor of Rev. Solomon Peck, at Beaufort. This society in 1871 established Benedict at Columbia. The school property consisted of eighty acres of land with one main building—"a spacious frame residence," two stories, 65 x 65. This property cost $16,000 with the funds given by Mrs. Benedict, a Baptist lady of New England. During the first year the school had sixty-one students, most of whom were preparing for the ministry.[61] In 1868, Mrs. Rachel C. Mather established the Industrial School at Beaufort which now bears her name. This school came under the auspices of the Women's American Baptist Home Mission Society.

The Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church conducted primary schools at Charleston, Darlington, Sumter, John's Island, Camden, St. Stephens, Gourdins' Station, Midway and Anderson; but, like the Baptists, its substantial contribution was Claflin University. This institution was established in 1869 in the building formerly used by the Orangeburg Female Academy. The property was purchased through the personal efforts of its first president, Dr. A. Webster. The University was granted a charter by the State and named in honor of Hon. Lee Claflin of Massachusetts, by whose liberality it came into existence. The attendance the first year was 309 and by 1872 the institution had a college department, a normal department, a theological department, and a preparatory department.[62] The Women's Home Missionary Society of this same church had the excellent policy of establishing homes for girls where, in addition to purely classroom work, they would be taught the principles of home making and Christian womanhood. In pursuance of this object in 1864 Mrs. Mather of Boston established a school at Camden which in later years became known as the Browning Industrial Home.

The Presbyterian Church, through its Committee of Missions for Freedmen, in 1865 established the Wallingford Academy in Charleston at a cost of $13,500, the Freedmen's Bureau paying about one-half of this amount. In 1870 the number of pupils was 335. In later years this school, like others planted by the churches, was doing creditable secondary work and training teachers for the city and different parts of the State.[63] At Chester in 1868 this Committee established the Brainerd Institute and in the same year the Goodwill Parochial School at Mayesville.

The Protestant Episcopal Freedmen's Commission in cooperation with its South Carolina Board of Missions to Negroes established a school at Charleston (1866) in the Marine Hospital through the effort of Rev. A. Toomer Porter, a native white man of Charleston. Two years later this institution had a corps of thirteen teachers and about six hundred pupils.[64] Smaller efforts were likewise made by this commission at Winnsboro and other parts of the State.

The Friends (Pennsylvania Quakers) made a most valuable contribution to this general educational movement in 1868 through the efforts of Martha Schofield in establishing at Aiken the Schofield Normal and Industrial School. This institution in time became one of the most influential, not only in South Carolina but in the entire South. The Friends' Association of Philadelphia for the Aid and Elevation of the Freedmen, established, in 1865, at Mt. Pleasant (Charleston) the school which later became known as the Laing Normal and Industrial School.[65] Miss Abbey D. Munro, in 1869, became its principal.

Difficulties and Complications.

As a result of these efforts an observer said: "In South Carolina where, thirty years ago, the first portentious rumblings of the coming earthquake were heard and where more recently the volcanic fires of rebellion burst forth ... our missionaries and teachers have entered to spread their peaceful and healing influence.... The Sea Islands have been taken possession of in the name of God and humanity.... King Cotton has been dethroned and is now made humbly to serve for the enriching and elevating of the late children of oppression."[66] Another said: "New England can furnish teachers enough to make a New England out of the whole South, and, God helping, we will not pause in our work until the free school system ... has been established from Maryland to Florida and all along the shores of the Gulf."[67] They came to the South with the firm belief in the capacity of the Negro for mental development and on a scale comparable to the white man. The letters written by teachers to northern friends abound in reports to this effect. Such was the spirit in which the northern societies entered the South.

The northern societies, however, failed "to make a New England out of the South"; but due credit must be given them for their earnestness and enthusiasm. They entered the State while the war was in progress and thus imperiled their lives. The planters at Port Royal who had abandoned their property certainly looked forward to the restoration of the same and to this end they struggled by force of arms. The freedmen themselves, as well as their northern benefactors under these conditions, lived in fear lest the restored planters should successfully reestablish the old regime. One teacher at Mitchelville on Hilton Head reported one week's work as "eventful." A battle only twelve miles away at Byrd's Point was raging while her school was in session. The cannonading could be heard and the smoke of the burning fields was visible.[68]

There were other difficulties. In view of the fact that the missionaries associated with the freedmen in a way totally unknown to southern tradition, they were met with social ostracism. It was impossible to obtain boarding accommodations in a native white family and in line with the same attitude the lady teachers were frequently greeted with sneers and insults and a general disregard for the courtesies of polite society. One teacher said: "Gentlemen sometimes lift their hats to us, but the ladies always lift their noses."[69]

Social contact with the Negroes, however, was a necessity.[70] The letter of instruction to teachers from the Pennsylvania Branch contained this rule: "All teachers, in addition to their regular work, are encouraged to interest themselves in the moral, religious and social improvement of the families of their pupils; to visit them in their homes; to instruct the women and girls in sewing and domestic economy; to encourage and take part in religious meetings and Sunday schools."[71] Thus it was that a very large part of the activities of the teachers were what we call "extracurricular." They were not confined to the school room but went from house to house.[72]

The spirit of informality which seemed to pervade the whole work, along with that of the Freedmen's Bureau, moreover, serves to explain in part their misfortune resulting from poor business methods. The reports which Howard and Alvord have left us reveal unusually important facts. Their funds were limited and what monies they did raise were not always judiciously expended. The salaries of the teachers usually ranged from $25 to $50 a month. One society paid $35 a month without board and $20 with board. These salaries, the personal danger, the social ostracism and unhealthy climate, all lead one to feel, however, that the motive behind these pioneering efforts was strictly missionary. Some of the teachers worked without a salary and a few even contributed of their means to further the work.

The campaign of education for the elevation of the freedmen was a product of war time and as such was conducted in the spirit engendered by war conditions. In addition to the purely school exercises of the three R's was the political tenor of the instruction. As staunch Republicans no little allusion was made to "Old Jeff Davis" and the "Rebels." Besides the native songs with which the scholars were so gifted there was frequent singing of John Brown and Marching through Georgia. The Fourth of July and the first of January were carefully observed as holidays. Several of the teachers in the schools and officers of the Freedmen's Bureau—Tomlinson, Cardoza, Jillson, Mansfield, French, and Scott—became office holders in the Negro-carpetbagger government of 1868.

There was another handicap. The Civil War left South Carolina "Shermanized." The story of this invader's wreck of the State is a familiar one. Barnwell, Buford's Bridge, Blackville, Graham's Station (Sato), Midway, Bamberg, and Orangeburg were all more or less destroyed. Three-fifths of the capital was committed to the flames and Charleston, although this city escaped the invader, had been partially burned already in 1861.[73] With millions of dollars in slave property lost, added to the above, the native whites were in no frame of mind to approve this philanthropic effort of the northern teachers. Furthermore, on the question of education the State had no substantial background by which it could encourage any efforts at this time. Free schools had been established prior to the war, but owing to the eleemosynary stigma attached to them and the permissive character of the legislative acts very little had been accomplished for the whites even, in the sense that we understand public education today.[74]

There ran very high the feeling that the Yankees were fostering social equality and that if they were allowed to educate the freedmen the next thing would be to let them vote.[75] Some reasoned that since the North had liberated the slaves, it was now its business to care for them. It is safe to say that without the protection of the United States military forces during the first year at least the efforts to enlighten the ex-slaves would have been impossible. The native white attitude, however, appears to have undergone a change from year to year and from locality to locality.

At Orangeburg, the superintendent of education reported that a night school was fired into on one or two occasions, and the attempt to discover the perpetrators of this outrage was without success.[76] A. M. Bigelow, a teacher of a colored school at Aiken, was compelled by curses and threats to leave the town in order to save his life.[77] In the town of Walhalla a school conducted by the Methodist church was taught by a lady from Vermont. A number of white men tried to break it up by hiring a drunken vagabond Negro to attend its sessions and accompany the young lady through the village street. The attempted outrage was frustrated only by the intercession of a northern gentleman. At Newberry, about the same time, a man who was building a school for the freedmen was driven by armed men from the hotel where he was staying and his life threatened. These occurrences the superintendent reported as "specimen" cases.[78]

In other sections of the State where the planters sustained amicable relations to all the functions of the Freedmen's Bureau, there was little opposition to the elevation of the freedmen. In the districts of Darlington, Marion, and Williamsburg there was a fair spirit of cordiality. At Darlington the Yankee editor of The New Era in its first edition probably thus expressed the feeling of the community: "Let the excellent work be sustained wherever it shall be introduced and the happiest results will be witnessed."[79]

Charleston and Columbia, despite the wreck of these cities, as already shown, proved to be an open field for educational endeavor. In the former city where it was no new thing to see the blacks striving for education, the opposition expressed itself in the occupation of the buildings formerly used for the whites.[80] A correspondent of The New York Times reported that in Columbia "the whites extend every possible facility and encouragement in this matter of education."[81] There is one instance of actual initiative in the education of the freedmen in the case of Rev. A. Toomer Porter of the Episcopal Church in Charleston as already mentioned. This gentleman went North to solicit the necessary funds and while there visited Howard and President Johnson. For his purpose the president himself contributed one thousand dollars.[82] For this deed The Charleston Courier remarked that it was "a much more substantial and lasting token of friendship to the colored race than all the violent harangues of mad fanatics." Finally in enumerating here and there cases of a favorable attitude, Governor Orr's remarks cannot be overlooked. To the colored people at Charleston he said: "I am prepared to stand by the colored man who is able to read the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. I am prepared to give the colored man the privilege of going to the ballot-box and vote."[83]

The length of service for most of the teachers was one year. In the original Port Royal party of March 3, 1862, several of the party returned home before summer. The American Missionary Association which sent thirty-five teachers to Port Royal reported "eight for a short time only." From these facts it is to be inferred, despite the glowing reports of success, that the teachers met with discouragement and disappointment. Some of them were unfit for their duties and some no doubt committed acts of indiscretion with reference to the relationship of the races.

The difficulties and complications of this movement were a part of the war itself. Calmer moments of reflection which it is ours now to enjoy, however, reveal the great value of the educational efforts of the northern missionaries. Unfortunately, the efforts to uplift were directed to only one race, but in a larger sense the work done has been for the welfare of all. South Carolinians to-day will all pay tribute to the work of Abbey D. Munro, Martha Schofield and Laura M. Towne. These women, with others, gave their lives for the elevation of the Negro race and what they did is merely a representation of that common battle against ignorance and race prejudice. "She (Miss Towne) came to a land of doubt and trouble and led the children to fresh horizons and a clearer sky. The school she built is but the symbol of a great influence; there it stands, making the desert blossom and bidding coming generations look up and welcome ever-widening opportunities. Through it she brought hope to a people and gave them the one gift that is beyond all price to men."[84]

Self-Help and Labor Among the Freedmen

Were the Negroes there in such numbers and condition as to help themselves? South Carolina in 1860 had a white population of 291,300, a slave population of 402,406 and a free colored population of 9,914.[85] Having this large number of slaves, the dominant race in its efforts to maintain control passed its police laws by which the evils of slavery existed there in their worst form. One of these laws was that of 1834 which made it a punishable offense to teach any slave to read and write.[86] This law, however, was often violated and free Negroes and even slaves attended school long enough to develop unusual power.

After generations of oppression the dawn of freedom brought with it a social upheaval. The freedmen now proceeded to taste the forbidden fruit and the people who brought learning to them they received with open arms.[87] The Yankee school master was not only to the freedmen a teacher but his deliverer from bondage. Happily in the enthusiasm of the "late children of oppression" for learning they proved themselves to be not objects of charity but actual supporters and promoters of the educational movement.

It was a principle of some of the societies to open no new school unless a fair proportion of its expenses could be met by the parents of the pupils.[88] There were made various arrangements by which the freedmen could help sustain the schools. In some instances they boarded the teachers and met the incidental expenses of the school while the societies paid the salaries and traveling expenses. In this way nearly one-half of the cost was sustained by them and in some instances nearly two-thirds of it.[89] As the foregoing tables have helped to show in part, in some cases the freedmen met the entire expenses, bought the lot, erected the school house, and paid the salary of the teacher.

During 1866, Tomlinson reported five houses had been built by them and others were under the course of erection. These were located at the following places:

During 1867 twenty-three school houses were reported to have been built by the freedmen aided by the Freedmen's Bureau and northern societies. For the support of school teachers this year they contributed $12,200. This with $5,000 for school houses made an aggregate of $17,200.[90] The school houses were placed in the hands of trustees selected from among themselves and were to be held permanently for school purposes.[91]

The means by which the freedmen offered their support was not always in cash but in kind. During the early years following the war there was a scarcity of money in circulation. The employers of the blacks, the planters, were themselves unable always to pay in cash, and as a substitute a system of barter grew up.[92] Directing attention to this situation and the general question of self-help, Governor Andrews of Massachusetts, president of the New England Society, sent out the following circular to the freedmen of the South: "The North must furnish money and teachers—the noblest of her sons and daughters to teach your sons and daughters. We ask you to provide for them, wherever possible, school houses and subsistence. Every dollar you thus save us will help to send you another teacher ... you can supply the teachers' homes with corn, eggs, chickens, milk and many other necessary articles.... Work an extra hour to sustain and promote your schools."[93] The value of such labor averaged only about eight dollars a month, but Governor Andrews' recommendation was carried out in so many cases that much good was thereby accomplished.

The campaign of education for the freedmen was temporary in character and was so regarded by the Freedmen's Bureau and the societies. It was merely an effort to place the ex-slaves on their own feet and afterwards it was their task. In line with this policy the Freedmen's Bureau and the military authorities seized every opportunity of instituting self-government among them, especially where they were congregated in large numbers. Such a case was Mitchelville.

Sherman's field order 15 called for the laying aside of a vast stretch of territory exclusively for the freedmen. In the same manner in 1864 the military officers at Hilton Head laid out a village for them near the officers' camps and introduced measures of self-government. The village was called Mitchelville in honor of General Ormsby Mitchell who had been like a father to the multitude of fifteen hundred or more occupying the village. The place was regularly organized with a Mayor and Common Council, Marshal, Recorder and Treasurer, all black, and all elected by Negroes, except the Mayor and Treasurer. Among the powers of the Common Council, which concern us here, was the compulsory provision that "every child between the ages of six and fifteen years ... shall attend school daily, while they are in session, excepting only in cases of sickness ... and the parents and guardians will be held responsible that said children so attend school, under the penalty of being punished at the discretion of the Council of Administration."[94] We may or may not call this South Carolina's first compulsory school law.

With a view to training teachers from among themselves the northern teachers seized every opportunity to pick out a bright student who would ultimately assume full responsibility. Accordingly, the schools were taught by persons of both races. In addition those Negroes who already had some learning were pressed into service. This arrangement had its obvious disadvantages as well as advantages. The Negro teacher understood the environment and the character and nature of the pupils to a far greater extent than the northern coworker; but, as could be expected, the native teacher was lacking in preparation. As one of the northern journals expressed the situation, the "men and women from the North carry much more than their education. They carry their race, moral training, their faculty, their character, influence of civilization, their ideas, sentiments and principles that characterize northern society."[95] Occasionally native white teachers were employed, but not always to the satisfaction of either the Yankee teachers or their pupils.

Besides the regular organized schools that came under the control of the Freedmen's Bureau and the societies, the freedmen in their eagerness to learn opened what Alvord styles "native schools" where some man or woman who had just learned to read and write a very little set about for the smallest pittance to teach his neighbors' children. Such teaching, though possibly arising from a commendable spirit, was a travesty on education. The white teachers characterized these native schools "so far as any intelligent result goes" as "worse than useless." They would rather receive "their pupils totally ignorant than with the bad habits of reading, pronunciation and spelling of these schools."[96] However, there were among the Negro teachers a few who deserve special mention as showing signs of an endeavor to help the movement and at the same time may serve as a test of the value of the missionary movement by their northern friends.

Some of the Negro teachers were from the North, as in the case of Charlotte S. Forten already mentioned. There was also Mrs. C. M. Hicks who was sent South by the New York Society and supported by an auxiliary association in Albany. Her school was located at Anderson and contained nearly two hundred pupils. After mentioning the good order and decorum of the school, The Anderson Intelligencer, a local white paper, says: "We were gratified with the proficiency and success attained and trust that they will persevere in their efforts to make better citizens and become more worthy of the high privileges now granted to the race. This school is presided over by a colored female (Mrs. Hicks) ... she is intelligent and capable and devotes all her energies to the school."[97]

At Greenville there was Charles Hopkins who taught a school for the support of which his white neighbors contributed $230. He bought at his own risk the building from the State arsenal and moved it two miles on a piece of ground which he had leased for one year. The school opened with about two hundred scholars among whom were "boys and girls with rosy cheeks, blue eyes and flaxen hair, though lately slaves, mingled with the black and brown faces."[98] A visitor characterized the school as having "good order, rapid progress in learning and a great deal more." After supporting the school as long as possible Hopkins was relieved by the Freedmen's Bureau which assumed the responsibility he had incurred, and he was further aided by the accession of three additional teachers. His salary was contributed by the New York Branch. Frank Carter at Camden was making similar efforts during this period.

Down on Hilton Head at Mitchelville in connection with the Port Royal experiment there was Lymus Anders, a full-blooded African, who, prior to the coming of the northern teachers, was unable to read and write. Although fifty years old and having a family, he managed to learn to read by having one of the teachers give him lessons at night and at odd intervals. He was enterprising and after only a year or two had managed to save four or five hundred dollars. He bought land at the tax sales; and, in the efforts of his people at Mitchelville to have churches and schools, he succeeded in erecting a church and a school house with help from the whites and Negroes. The building cost nearly $350 and in time there was added a teachers' home. The school was taught by ladies from Northampton, Massachusetts, who always had the cooperation and assistance of Anders. They characterized him as a "black Yankee," not very moral or scrupulous, but a man who led all the others of his race in enterprise and ambition.[99]

Ned Lloyd White, who had picked up clandestinely a knowledge of reading while still a slave, was an assistant to two ladies at St. Helena, who had a school of ninety-two pupils made up largely of refugees from a neighboring island. Likewise engaged was "Uncle Cyrus," a man of seventy, who, in company with one Ned, assembled one hundred and fifty children in two schools and taught them the best they could until teachers were provided by the relief societies.[100]

The brightest light among the Negro teachers was F. L. Cardoza. He was a native of Charleston and received his primary and common school education there under the instruction of the free Negroes of that city. Being unable at his own expense to pursue his studies at home as far as he desired, he attended the University of Glasgow. He returned to Charleston and became a leader in the educational affairs of the city immediately at the close of the war. He was employed by the American Missionary Association and became principal of the Saxton School, later known as Avery Institute. In conformity with his classical training, he offered his advanced pupils languages and in time they were ready for Howard University in Washington. There were some four thousand children in the city of school age. Seeing the need of a permanent graded school system supported by public taxation, he used his influence to bring about this result. With regard to this project Governor Orr said: "I heartily approve of the scheme of Mr. Cardoza to educate thoroughly the colored children of Charleston.... I am satisfied he will devote himself to the work earnestly and faithfully, and merits, and should receive the confidence of the public in his laudable undertaking." Other public officials spoke in the same vein. One of the northern teachers said of him: "He is the right man in the right place and I am very thankful that it has fallen my lot to be placed under him."[101]

Conclusion

Most of the work of the Bureau and the societies as already shown was temporary in character and perhaps rightly so. In Howard's own words, "it was but a beginning—a nucleus—an object lesson." Not more than one-sixth of the total black population of school age was reached. The movement only inaugurated a system of educational pioneering in the benighted South. Scientific data as to exactly what was accomplished unfortunately cannot be obtained owing to the inaccuracy of the Freedmen's Bureau reports. For example, in the report of July 1, 1868, the superintendent gives a total of sixty-two schools in operation with an additional "estimated" number of 451. Again, the amount of work done by the separate individual societies does not always tally with the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau.

Notwithstanding the fact that the efforts put forth failed to reach our modern ideal of the education of all the people, yet the movement did accomplish at least these three things: (1) By penetrating almost every county or district in the State, the schools served to awaken the Negroes to the need of education and to demonstrate to all persons that it was practicable to educate them; (2) it led up to the establishment of the public schools and left for this system material equipment in the form of school buildings and furniture; and (3), greatest of all, the combined efforts of the Freedmen's Bureau and the societies left the State with institutions of higher grade—the principal source of teachers for the common schools.

Luther P. Jackson

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This dissertation was submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Education of Columbia University in 1922.

[2] I. The sources for this dissertation are:

1. Public Documents. Senate: 38 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 1—Letter from freedmen's aid societies, Dec. 17, 1863. 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 2, No. 27—Reports of assistant commissioners, Dec. 1, 1865, to March 6, 1866. 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 6—Reports of assistant commissioners, Jan. 3, 1867. House Executive Documents. 39 Cong., 1 Sess., Vol. 7, No. 11; 39 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 3, No. 1; 40 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 2, No. 1; 40 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. 3, No. 1; 41 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 6, No. 142; 41 Cong., 3 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 1; 42 Cong., 2 Sess., Vol. 1, No. 1—Reports of Howard as Commissioner, Dec. 1865-Dec. 1871. United States Statutes at Large, Vols. 13-17. (Boston).

2. Reports of General Superintendent and the Societies. J. W. Alvord, Schools and Finances of Freedmen (Washington, 1866); J. W. Alvord, Semi-annual reports, 1867-'70; J. W. Alvord, Letters from the South, relating to the condition of freedmen, Addressed to General O. O. Howard (Washington, 1870); American Missionary Association, Annual report, 1862-1872; Educational Commission for freedmen, Annual report, No. 1, 1862-'63 (Boston, 1863); and New England Freedmen's Aid Society, Annual report, No. 2, 1863-'64; New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, Annual report, 1865-'66 (N. Y., 1866). Ibid., Brief History with 4th annual report, 1865; Friends Association of Philadelphia for the Aid and Elevation of Freedmen, Annual report, 1866-71; Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Annual report, 1869-'72; American Baptist Home Mission Society, Annual report, 1863-'72; and Board of Missions for Freedmen of the Presbyterian Church, Annual report, 1869-'70.

3. Newspapers and Periodicals. The New York Times; The New York Tribune; The Charleston Daily Courier; The Darlington New Era; The Columbia Phoenix; The Nation. The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XII (Sept., 1863). Edward L. Pierce—"The Freedmen at Port Royal"; Atlantic Monthly, vol. XII (May-June, 1864). Charlotte S. Forten, Life on the Sea Islands, The North American Review, vol. CI (July, 1865); William C. Gannet, The Freedmen at Port Royal; The Southern Workman, vol. XXX (July, 1901). Laura M. Towne, Pioneer Work on the Sea Islands; The American Missionary, 1862-'72, organ of the American Missionary Association; The American Freedman, 1866-'68 (incomplete), organ of American Freedmen's Union Commission; The National Freedman, 1865-66 (incomplete), organ of New York National Freedman's Relief Association; Pennsylvania Freedmen's Bulletin, 1866-'67 (incomplete), organ of Pennsylvania Freedmen's Relief Association; Freedmen's Record and Freedmen's Journal, 1865-'68 (incomplete), organ of New England Freedmen's Aid Society; The Freedman, London, 1866 (incomplete), organ of London Freedmen's Aid Society; and The Baptist Home Mission Monthly, 1878-'80, organ of American Baptist Home Mission Society.

4. Diary, Reminiscences, and Autobiography. Eliza Ware Pearson (editor), Letters from Port Royal, written at the time of the Civil War (Boston, 1906); Rupert S. Holland (editor), Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne, written from the sea islands of South Carolina, 1862-1884 (Cambridge, 1912); Henry N. Sherwood (editor), Journal of Mrs. Susan Walker, March 3d to June 6th, 1862. Quarterly publication of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio, vol. 1, No. 1, 1912; Eliz Hyde Botume, First days among the Contrabands (Boston, 1893); Oliver O. Howard, Autobiography, 2 vols., vol. 2 (New York, 1907); and A. Toomer Porter, The History of a Work of Faith and Love in Charleston, S. C. (New York, 1882).

5. Description and Travel. Charles Nordhoff, The Freedmen of South Carolina; some account of their appearance, condition and peculiar customs (New York, 1863); Whitelaw Reid, After the War, A Southern Tour, May 1, 1865, to May 1, 1866 (New York, 1866); and Sidney Andrews, The South Since the War as Shown by 14 Weeks Travel in Georgia and the Carolinas, 1866.

II. Secondary Sources. Myrta L. Avary, Dixie After the War (New York, 1906); Laura J. Webster, Operation of the Freedmen's Bureau in South Carolina, Smith College Studies in History, vol. 1, 1915-'16; Paul S. Pierce, The Freedmen's Bureau, University of Iowa Studies (Iowa City, 1904); Thomas Jesse Jones, Negro Education, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletins, 1916, Nos. 38 and 39; Colyer Meriwether, History of Higher Education in South Carolina, U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 3, 1888; William W. Sweet, The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Civil War (Cincinnati, 1912); Amory D. Mayo, Work of Northern Churches in the Education of the Freedmen. Advanced sheets. U. S. Bureau of Education. Chapter V, 1903; Bowyer Stewart, The Work of the Church in the South during the Period of Reconstruction (Episcopalian). Hale Memorial Sermon, 1913 (Chicago, 1913); J. P. Hollis, Early Period of Reconstruction in South Carolina. Johns Hopkins University. History and Political Studies, 1905; Negro Year Book, 1918-'19 (Tuskegee, Alabama); Charleston Year Book, 1880; and W. E. B. DuBois, Souls of Black Folk (Chicago, 1903).

[3] Not to be confused with the more familiar Gen. W. T. Sherman mentioned later.

[4] Gannet, North American Review, vol. 101 (1865), p. 2.

[5] Laura M. Towne, Southern Workman, July, 1901, "Life on the Sea Islands"; Journal of Mrs. Susan Walker; Charles Nordhoff, The Freedmen of South Carolina.

[6] The Nation, vol. I (1865), p. 744. Sidney Andrews, The South Since the War, p. 228.

[7] Charlotte S. Forten, in The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XIII (May, 1864), p. 593; Botume, First Days among the Contrabands, p. 11.

[8] New York National Freedmen's Relief Association, Annual Report, 1866, pp. 5-6.

[9] Ibid., pp. 8-9.

[10] Journal of Susan Walker, p. 11; Boston Ed. Commission, Annual Report, 1863, p. 7; Letters from Port Royal, pp. 2-3.

[11] Pierce, in The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XII, 1863, p. 299.

[12] Ibid., p. 292.

[13] Nordhoff, The Freedmen of South Carolina, p. 12.

[14] Journal of Susan Walker, p. 14.

[15] Congressional Globe, 41 Cong., 3 Sess., vol. I, No. 1.

[16] J. W. Alvord, Fifth Semi-annual Report (Jan. 1, '68), p. 4.

[17] New York Tribune, June 17, 1862.

[18] "Cabins of slaves for religious meetings."

[19] Botume, First Days among the Contrabands, p. 42.

[20] The American Missionary, vol. VI (Aug., 1862), p. 186.

[21] House Executive Documents, 41 Cong., 2 Sess., vol. VI, No. 142, p. 4.

[22] Pierce, in The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XII (1863), p. 303.

[23] The Nation, vol. I (1865), p. 745.

[24] Laura M. Towne, Southern Workman, July, 1901, p. 337. Nordhoff, p. 10.

[25]

"Oh, none in all the world before

Were ever glad as we!

We're free on Carolina's shore,

We're all at home and free.

"We hear no more the driver's horn

No more the whip we fear,

This holy day that saw Thee born

Was never half so dear.

"The very oaks are greener clad,

The waters brighter smile;

Oh, never shone a day so glad

On sweet St. Helen's Isle.

"Come once again, O blessed Lord!

Come walking on the sea!

And let the mainlands hear the word

That sets the islands free!"

See Pierce, in The Atlantic Monthly, vol. XII, p. 305; Letters from Port Royal, p. 133.

[26] The Nation, vol. I (1865), p. 747.

[27] Botume, First Days among the Contrabands, p. 64.

[28] The Nation, vol. I (1865), p. 746.

[29] N. E. Freedman's Aid Society, Annual Report, 1864, p. 15.

[30] Senate Executive Documents, 38 Cong., 1 Sess., vol. I, No. 1, pp. 2-6.

[31] House Executive Documents, 41 Cong., 2 Sess., vol. VI, No. 142, p. 11.

[32] Ibid., 39 Cong., 1 Sess., vol. VII, No. 11, p. 49.

[33] National Freedman, Oct., 1865, p. 300.

[34] Howard, Autobiography, vol. II, p. 221.

[35] Statutes at Large, XIV, p. 176.

[36] Ibid., p. 486.

[37] U. S. Bureau of Ed. Bulletin, 1916, No. 38, pp. 269-271; Annual Reports of Societies, 1863-1868.

[38] The Freedmen's Record (1865-1874), quoted in Bulletin, 1916, No. 38, p. 297.

[39] The Freedman, August, 1865, p. 12.

[40] J. W. Alvord, Semi-annual Report, July 1, 1869, p. 81.

[41] W. W. Sweet, Methodist Episcopal Church and the Civil War, p. 175.

[42] A. D. Mayo, Northern Churches and the Freedmen, p. 300.

[43] A. D. Mayo, Northern Churches and the Freedmen, p. 291.

[44] U. S. Bureau of Education Bulletin (1916), No. 39, p. 16.

[45] National Freedman, May 1, 1865, p. 122; Ibid., April 30, 1865, p. 150. American Freedman, May, 1866, p. 29.

[46] Charleston Year Book (1880), p. 122.

[47] See Carter G. Woodson, Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 129.

[48] Sidney Andrews, The South Since the War, p. 98.

[49] National Freedman, June 1, 1865, p. 150.

[50] National Freedman, Nov. 15, 1865, p. 314; Ibid., May, 1866, pp. 139-140.

[51] J. W. Alvord, Report, Jan. 1, 1868, p. 27. American Freedman, July-August, 1868, p. 442.

[52] The American Freedman, May, 1866, p. 261. This does not, however, indicate in all cases the number of schools at each town.

[53] The school at Camden increased in size the next year.

[54] J. W. Alvord, Report, Jan. 1, 1870, p. 25.

[55] Freedmen's Aid Society of the M. E. Church, Annual Report, 1871, pp. 19-20.

[56] Mayo, Northern Churches and the Freedmen, p. 300.

[57] Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne, p. 221.

[58] American Missionary Ass'n Annual Report, 1870, p. 221.

[59] History of the A. M. A., p. 36; Annual Report, 1868, p. 47; Mayo, p. 287.

[60] The Nation, vol. 1 (1865), p. 778.

[61] American Baptist Home Mission Society, Annual Report, 1872, p. 26.

[62] Merriwether, History of Higher Education in South Carolina, p. 125; Annual Report (1872) F. A. S., p. 17.

[63] Charleston Year Book (1880), pp. 126-127; Annual Report (1870) Presbyterian Committee, p. 12.

[64] Porter, Work of Faith and Love, p. 6; Stewart, Work of the Church during Reconstruction, p. 63.

[65] Annual Report (1866) Friends Ass'n, p. 8.

[66] A. M. A. Annual Report (1864), p. 16.

[67] Freedmen's Journal, Jan. 1, 1865, p. 3.

[68] Ibid., p. 7.

[69] National Freedman, Feb., 1866, p. 49.

[70] Letters from Port Royal; Letters and Diary of Laura M. Towne.

[71] Pennsylvania Freedmen's Bulletin, Oct., 1866, p. 1.

[72] Baptist Home Mission Monthly (1879), p. 6.

[73] Columbia Phoenix, March 21, 1865.

[74] Merriwether, History of Higher Education in South Carolina, p. 115.

[75] House Executive Documents, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., vol. VII, No. 11, p. 13.

[76] J. W. Alvord, Semi-annual Report (July 1, 1867), p. 25.

[77] The Nation, vol. III, Oct. 25, 1866.

[78] Alvord, Semi-annual Report (Jan. 1, 1870), p. 26.

[79] The New Era, July 28, 1865.

[80] Alvord, Report, Aug. 6, 1866, p. 5.

[81] New York Times, Aug. 14, 1866.

[82] Porter, Work of Faith and Love, p. 6; The Nation, vol. II (1866); p. 770.

[83] Charleston Courier, Feb. 15, 1867; American Freedman, April, 1867, p. 204.

[84] The school referred to here is the one already mentioned, the Penn Normal and Agricultural School. It is an excellent community school and one especially fitted for St. Helena, the population of which is still largely colored. See United States Bureau of Education Bulletin (1916), No. 39, p. 483. Miss Towne remained in service 39 years, Miss Schofield 48 years, and Miss Munro at Mt. Pleasant 45 years.

[85] United States Census, 1860.

[86] Hurd, Law of Freedom and Bondage, II, p. 98.

[87] Baptist Home Mission Monthly, June, 1879, p. 182.

[88] Freedmen's Record, April, 1868, p. 50.

[89] Freedmen's Aid Society, Annual Report (1871), p. 13.

[90] H. Ex. Docs., 40 Cong., 2 Sess., vol. II, No. 1, p. 8.

[91] J. W. Alvord, Report on Schools and Finances of Freedmen, July, 1866, p. 6.

[92] American Freedman, July, 1868, p. 446.

[93] National Freedman, Oct., 1865, p. 299.

[94] Whitelaw Reid, After the War, pp. 89-91.

[95] National Freedman, June, 1866, p. 169.

[96] Freedmen's Record, April, 1868, p. 52.

[97] Anderson Intelligencer, July, 1867, quoted in The American Freedman, Aug., 1867, p. 264.

[98] American Freedman, Feb., 1867, p. 168.

[99] Letters from Port Royal, p. 37; The Freedmen's Journal, Jan. 1, 1865, pp. 13-15; W. C. Gannet, North American Review, vol. CI (1865), p. 24.

[100] Pierce, in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 12 (1863), p. 305.

[101] A. M. A. Annual Report, 1866, p. 27; 1867, pp. 32-33; National Freedman, May, 1866, p. 142.

THE RELIGION OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO SLAVE: HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE AND DEATH

I propose to discuss the religious behavior of the American Negro slave, between 1619 and the close of the Civil War, first, by a brief discussion of the religion of the tribes in Africa, and the tendency of the old habits and traditions to maintain themselves among the American slave; second, by a consideration of what the slave found in America, and his contact with another religious culture called Christianity; and third, by a description of the slave's reaction to a Christian environment, or what the slave's religious behavior really was.[1] My thesis is that the religion of Africa disappeared from the consciousness of the American slave; that the slave himself, by contact with a new environment, became a decidedly different person, having a new religion, a primitive Christianity, with the central emphasis, not upon this world, but upon heaven.[2]

My task is to show that the religion of the Negro slave between 1619 and the Civil War did not originate in Africa, but was something totally different from the prevailing religion of the black continent in that it placed emphasis upon heaven; and that this distinctive element in the religion of the slave grew out of his contact with Christianity in America. In taking this position I have tried to give due weight to those considerations which tend to support a contrary position, such as the inertia of African habits and traditions in the life of the American slave, and the hostile tendency of his social surroundings to religious development.[3] On the other hand, I have considered the disintegrating effects of the American slave system upon black groups that originated in Africa, together with the American slave's new social contacts, which produced in him the religious attitude found, and out of which arose the early slave-preacher and church. Finally, I have attempted to show that the naive imagery and emphasis in the "spirituals" are selected elements that helped the slave adjust himself to his particular world.

Our beginning is with the prevailing religion of Africa, Fetishism. Authorities use the term "Fetishism" as the "(a) worship of inanimate objects, often regarded as purely African; (b) Negro religion in general; (c) the worship of inanimate objects conceived as the residence of spirits not inseparably bound up with, nor originally connected with, such objects; (d) the doctrine of spirits embodied in, or attached to, or conceiving influence through certain material objects;[4] (e) the use of charms, which are not worshipped, but derive their magical power from a god or spirit; (f) the use as charms of objects regarded as magically potent in themselves."

All of the elements embodied in this definition are found, generally, in the primitive religions of the African peoples. Believing that persons and objects of this world were inhabited by spirits, the African necessarily accounted for the phenomena of the universe by the arbitrary will of spiritual beings, whom he feared, and, therefore, worshipped, or sought to control by magic. Unable thus to find companionship with these unseen, mysterious personalities, the men of Africa knew no land of sunshine beyond the dreadful shadow of the grave; but the American slave, who experienced death as a short period of darkness before a day of eternal glory, did not inherit the fears of Africa.

Now what did the slave bring from Africa? In answering this question let us consider what is commonly referred to as the inertia of African heritage. American missionaries reported that it was harder to teach the slaves who were born in Africa than those born in this country. This quotation from the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial America and West Indies, 1699, Section 473, supports this view: "Negroes born in this country were generally baptized, but for Negroes imported, the gross barbarity and rudeness of their manners, the variety and strangeness of their language, and the weakness and shallowness of their minds rendered it in a manner impossible to attain to any progress in their conversion."[5]

Two definite cases bear a similar testimony, the one being that of Phyllis Wheatley, a girl brought here from Africa, who spoke of how her mother there worshipped the rising sun, the other, this story related by a man concerning his grandfather: "He was an old man, nearly 80 years old," he said, "and he manifested all the fondness for me that I could expect from one so old.... He always expressed contempt for his fellow slaves, for when young he was an African of rank.... He had singular religious notions, never going to meeting, or caring for the preachers he could, if he would, occasionally hear. He retained his native traditions respecting the deity and hereafter."[6]

Other cases, though few, clearly demonstrate that among the American slaves also there existed a belief in ghosts and a lurking fear of the denizens of a mysterious world. But what was religion in Africa was generally regarded by the American slaves themselves as mere superstition.

The hostility of masters to new slave-contacts had some bearing on the situation. Whatever superstition, whether from Africa or another source, we find among the slaves, had a tendency to maintain itself the more because of the attitude of some masters toward the religious education of their bondmen. Slaves of those owners, who, through love of money, were indifferent toward education, encouraged in vice and superstition, had no time for religious training. Although, ever since 1619, and especially after the rebellion of Nat Turner, there were some slaves whose eagerness to learn occasioned State-laws against the education or assembling of slaves, nevertheless, during the entire period there was a countless number of slaves who were absolutely disinterested in their own education. They were also handicapped in religious advancement, because many owners believed that baptism made the slave free, which belief was prevalently held until 1729, when the Christian nations finally reached the decision that baptism did not mean manumission, and that even a Christian could be a slave.[7] Such a sentiment against the contact of slaves with the Christian religion, beyond doubt, tended to keep them in ignorance and superstition, and to develop among them religious habits and attitudes peculiar to an isolated group, but the point can be over-emphasized, in view of all that actually happened.

Dr. Park says: "Coming from all parts of Africa and having no common language, and common tradition, the memories of Africa which they brought with them were soon lost.... The fact that the Negro brought with him from Africa so little tradition which he was able to transmit and perpetuate on American soil makes that race unique among all peoples of our cosmopolitan population."[8] In connection herewith, moreover, we must also take into account that slave-groups, upon reaching America, were broken up and the members thereof sold into different parts of the country, where new habits had to be formed, because of a different environment. Contrasting the life in Africa with that of slaves in America, Washington better expresses the idea in these words: "The porters, carrying their loads along the narrow forest paths, sing of the loved ones in their far-away homes. In the evening the people of the villages gather around the fire and sing for hours. These songs refer to war, to hunting, and to the spirits that dwell in the deep woods. In them all the wild and primitive life of the people is reflected....

"There is a difference, however, between the music of Africa and that of her transplanted children. There is a new note in the music which had its origin in the Southern plantations, and in this new note the sorrow and the sufferings which came from serving in a strange land find expression."[9]

Let us direct attention to what the Negro slave found in America, a Christian atmosphere. With their various groups broken into fragments and scattered by the American slave-trade, as the slaves here learned the English language, they were more able to assimilate the elements of Christianity found in American life. Sold into Christian homes, but gathered with their masters around the family altar, they became actual participants in the singing and praying that broke the morning and evening silence of those eventful days. The old records show that from the very beginning of American slavery[10] slaves experienced Christianity through the conscious help of some masters, and later, as the whites saw that the Christian religion made the Negroes better slaves and did not set them free, the blacks secured more favorable opportunities for religious instruction. In some States masters were required even by legislation to look after the religious education of their slaves.[11] In Louisiana, for example, planters were obliged by the Code Noir to have their Negroes instructed and baptized, to give them Sundays and holidays for rest and worship. But, even when not required by law, a few owners established schools for their slaves, and either taught or hired others to teach them "the way of eternal life."

So it is reported that by the 19th century: "Few Negroes escaped some religious instruction from those good people. Usually on Sunday afternoons, but sometimes in the morning, the slaves would be gathered in the great house and lessons in the catechism had to be learned. The Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments were also taught. Hymns were sung and prayers rose to Heaven. Many good masters read sermons to their slaves. Other masters hired ministers.... Others preached themselves."[12]

Another source of contact with Christianity was that resulting from the attitude of persons who worked, not for the religious development of their own slaves alone, but who, with a larger human interest, unmindful of the benefits that might come to their individual households, gave their lives to bless all slaves. One of the very purposes of American slavery being to benefit the slaves, one can readily see how missionary work among them grew with the system of slavery itself.

"After 1716," Woodson tells us, "when Jesuits were taking over slaves in large numbers, and especially after 1726, when Law's Company was importing many to meet the demand for laborers in Louisiana, we read of more instances of the instruction of Negroes by the Catholics. ... Le Petit spoke of being 'settled to the instruction of the boarders, the girls who live without, and the Negro women.' In 1738 he said, 'I instruct in Christian morals the slaves of our residence, who are Negroes, and as many others as I can get from their masters.'"

Awakened by what the zealous French in Louisiana were doing, English missionaries made progressive plans for preaching the gospel to the blacks. During the 18th century numerous missionaries, catechists, and school-masters, sent from England to America, founded schools for the slaves, and distributed many sermons, lectures, and Bibles among them. In 1705 Thomas counted among his communicants in South Carolina twenty Negroes who could read and write. Later, making a report of the work he and his associates were doing, he said: "I have here presumed to give an account of 1,000 slaves so far as they know of it and are desirous of Christian knowledge and seem willing to prepare themselves for it, in learning to read, for which they redeem the time from their labor. Many of them can read the Bible distinctly, and great numbers of them were learning when I left the province."[14]

"After some opposition," Woodson further says, "this work began to progress somewhat in Virginia. The first school established in that colony was for Indians and Negroes.... On the binding out a 'bastard or pauper-child black or white,' churchwardens specifically required that he should be taught 'to read and write and calculate as well as to follow some profitable form of labor.' ... Reports of an increase in the number of colored communicants came from Accomac County where four or five hundred families were instructing their slaves at home and had their children catechised on Sunday."[15]

Side by side with the work done by missionaries, men of different denominations vied with one another in bringing slaves into the light of a Christian atmosphere. Some founded Sunday schools, some preached of the "inner light in every man," others more successfully preached salvation by faith in the power of a risen Christ, who died for the sins of men. Soon after the first Negroes were placed upon the shores of Jamestown, slaves began to be baptized, and received into the Episcopal Church. Earnest says that "at least one Negro was baptized soon after the contact with the colonists in Virginia."[16] Washington says that only five years after slavery was introduced into Virginia a Negro child named William was baptized, and that from that time on the names of Negroes can be found upon the register of most of the churches. In the old record-book of Bruton Parish, 1,122[17] Negro-baptisms were recorded between 1746 and 1797.[18] In 1809 there were about 9,000 Negro Baptists in Virginia.[19] The African Baptist Church of Richmond alone subsequently increased from 1,000 to 3,832 in 24 years. The Methodist Magazine of October, 1827, reports that as early as 1817 there were 43,411 Negro members in the Methodist societies.[20]

"The Negro seems, from the beginning," says Washington, "to have been very closely associated with the Methodists in the United States. When the Reverend Thomas Coke was ordained by John Wesley, as Superintendent or Bishop of the American Society in 1784, he was accompanied on most of his travels throughout the United States by Harry Hosier, a colored minister who was at the same time the Bishop's servant and an evangelist of the Church. Harry Hosier, who was the first American Negro preacher of the Methodist Church in the United States, was one of the notable characters of his day."[21]

Let us now consider the effects of these early religious contacts upon the life of slave-preachers, some of whom were comparatively well educated. Concerning Jack of Virginia it is said that "his opinions were respected, his advice followed, and yet he never betrayed the least symptoms of arrogance or self-conceit. His dwelling was a rude log-cabin, his apparel was of the plainest, coarsest materials.... He refused gifts of better clothing, saying, 'These clothes are a great deal better than are generally worn by people of my color, and, besides, if I wear them I find I shall be obliged to think about them even at meetings.'"[22]

With an influence among the slaves equal to Jack's, two other Negro messengers of the gospel, Andrew Bryan and Samson, his brother, who earlier had appeared in Georgia, were publicly whipped and imprisoned with 50 companions, but they joyously declared that they would suffer death for their faith found in Christ, whom they expected to preach until death.[23] By their uncompromising attitude,[24] which silenced opponents and raised up friends, they won for themselves among the slaves that sacred esteem belonging to saintly martyrs like Polycarp, Huss, and Fox.

There were other itinerant ministers in these days, who were either given their freedom or purchased it by working as common laborers while preaching. Being better educated, and more closely in contact with the religious life of the whites than the masses of slaves, they were carriers of Christian sentiment from the whites to the blacks, inspiring them with the hope of life in an unseen world. One day there arrived in Fayetteville, North Carolina, Henry Evans, a Methodist preacher, a free Negro from Virginia, who worked as a carpenter during the week and preached on Sunday. Forbidden by the Town Council of Fayetteville to preach, he made his meetings secret, changing them from time to time until he was tolerated. Just before his death, while leaning on the altar-rail, he said to his followers:

"I have come to say my last word to you. It is this: None but Christ. Three times I have had my life in jeopardy for preaching the gospel to you. Three times I have broken the ice on the edge of the water and swam across the Cape Fear to preach the gospel to you, and if in my last hour I could trust to that or anything but Christ crucified, for my salvation, all should be lost, and my soul perish forever."[25]

Some of these ministers led an independent movement. Six years after Richard Allen, with a few followers, withdrew in 1790 from the Free African Society in Philadelphia,[26] and started an independent Methodist Church in a blacksmith shop, Negro members of the Methodist Episcopal Church in New York began separate meetings. After pastoring a white church,[27] Josiah Bishop started the First Colored Baptist Church of Portsmouth in 1791. Finding accommodations in the white church of Richmond inadequate, the Negroes petitioned for separate meetings in 1823.[28] Harding, speaking of the opportunity of religious instruction and of divine worship allowed the slaves in Kentucky, says that "in every church-edifice, seats were set apart for the occupancy of colored worshippers.... Almost every neighborhood had its Negro preacher whose credentials, if his own assertion was to be taken, came directly from the Lord."[29]

What were the results of these contacts? The most important was that with its charming stories of the creation of the universe, of the Egyptian bondage, and of the journey across the Red Sea, with its New Testament emphasis upon the power, death, and resurrection of Christ, with its apocalyptic imagery, the Bible became to the slave the most sacred book of books. Upon its pages he saw the tears of men and women constantly fall, and from its truths he saw the pious preacher choose words suitable for exhortation. The peculiar interest of the Negro-slave in reading this book was soon apparent.

One old man, being secretly taught by a slave-girl to read the Bible, said, with trembling voice, while tears were falling from his penetrating eyes: "Honey, it 'pears when I can read dis good book I shall be nearer to God."[31] Another slave prayed thus: "I pray de good massa Lord will put it into de niggers' hearts to larn to read de good book. Ah, Lord, make de letters in our spelling books big and plain, and make our eyes bright and shining, and make our hearts big and strong for to larn.... Oh, Hebbenly Fader, we tank De for makin' our massas willin' to let us come to dis school."[32]

Upon a battlefield of the Civil War, another, a soldier, said: "Let me lib wid dis musket in one hand an' de Bible in de oder,—dat if I die at de muzzle ob de musket, die in de water, die on de land, I may know I hab de bressed Jesus in my hand an' hab no fear."[33]

How the text from Hebrews 2:9, "That He, by the grace of God, should taste of death for every man," became a part of his life, was told by Josiah Henson after becoming free: "This was the first text of the Bible to which I had ever listened, knowing it to be such. I have never forgotten it, and scarce a day has passed since, in which I have not recalled it, and the sermon that was preached from it. The divine character of Jesus Christ, his life and teachings, his sacrifice of himself for others, his death and resurrection were all alluded to, and some of the points were dwelt upon with great power.... I was wonderfully impressed, too, with the use which the preacher made of the last words of the text, 'for every man' ... the bond as well as the free; and he dwelt on the glad tidings of the Gospel to the poor, the persecuted ... till my heart burned within me, and I was in a state of greatest excitement ... that such a being ... should have died for me ... a poor slave...."[34]

Contemporaries assert that often while following the plow, gathering up the frosty corn, or driving the ox-cart to the barn, slaves, burning with enthusiasm, talked of how much sermons satisfied their hungry souls. Household and plantation slaves, gray-haired fathers and mothers with their children, crowded eagerly to hear the gospel preached. Thus Earnest says of one man: "His slaves came 17 miles to reach Mr. Wright's nearest preaching place."[35] Concerning the spread of the Christian religion among the slaves on the seaboard of South Carolina, it is affirmed that "the scenes on the Sabbath were affecting. The Negroes came in crowds from two parishes. Often have I seen (a scene, I reckon, not often witnessed) groups of them 'double-quicking' in the roads, in order to reach the church in time.... The white service being over, the slaves would throng the seats vacated by their masters...."[36] John Thompson, in the story of his life, says that, "As soon as it got among the slaves, it spread from plantation to plantation, until it reached ours where there were but few who did not experience religion."[37]

From the blighting, superstitious fears of a heartless universe, the heralds of Christianity brought to the slave words of hope and salvation, a message of companionship with a heavenly father. "You are poor slaves and have a hard time of it here," said they, "but I can tell you the blessed Savior shed his blood for you as much as for your masters.... Break off from all your wicked ways, your lying, stealing, swearing, drunkenness, and vile lewdness; give yourselves to prayer and repentance and fly to Jesus, and give up your heart to him in true earnest; and flee from the wrath to come."[38]

Fred Douglass relates that "the preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were by nature rebels against his government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ.... I was wretched."[39]