Part 3

The Bureau and the Peabody Education Fund have been most helpful allies in making suggestions in relation to legislation in school matters, and giving, in intelligible, practical form, the experiences of other States, home and foreign, in devising and perfecting educational systems. All the States of the South, as soon as they recovered their governments, put in operation systems of public schools which gave equal opportunities and privileges to both races. It would be singularly unjust not to consider the difficulties, social, political, and pecuniary, which embarrassed the South in the efforts to inaugurate free education. It required unusual heroism to adapt to the new conditions, but she was equal in fidelity and energy to what was demanded for the reconstruction of society and civil institutions. The complete enfranchisement of the negroes and their new political relations, as the result of the war and the new amendments to the Constitution, necessitated an entire reorganization of the systems of public education. To realize what has been accomplished is difficult, at best—impossible, unless we estimate sufficiently the obstacles and compare the facilities of to-day with the ignorance and bondage of a generation ago, when some statutes made it an indictable offence to teach a slave or free person of color. Comparisons with densely populated sections are misleading, for in the South the sparseness and poverty of the population are almost a preventive of good schools. Still the results have been marvellous. Out of 448 cities in the United States, with a population each of 8,000 and over, only 73 are in the South. Of 28, with a population from 100,000 to 1,500,000, only 2 (St. Louis being excluded) are in the South. Of 96, with a population between 25,000 and 100,000, 17 are in the South. The urban population is comparatively small, and agriculture is the chief occupation. Of 858,000 negroes in Georgia, 130,000 are in cities and towns, and 728,000 in the country; in Mississippi, urban colored population, 42,000, rural, 700,000; in South Carolina, urban, 74,000, rural, 615,000; in North Carolina, urban, 66,000, against 498,000 rural; in Alabama, 65,000 against 613,000; in Louisiana, 93,000 against 466,000. The schools for colored children are maintained on an average 89.2 days in a year, and for white children 98.6, but the preponderance of the white over the black race, in towns and cities, helps in part to explain the difference. While the colored population supplies less than its due proportion of pupils to the public schools, and the regularity of attendance is less than with the white, yet the difference in length of school term in schools for white and schools for black children is trifling. In the same grades the wages of teachers are about the same. The annual State school revenue is apportioned impartially among white and black children, so much per capita to each child. In the rural districts the colored people are dependent chiefly upon the State apportionment, which is by law devoted mainly to the payment of teachers’ salaries. Hence, the school-houses and other conveniences in the country for the negroes are inferior, but in the cities the appropriation for schools is general and is allotted to white and colored, according to the needs of each. A small proportion of the school fund comes from colored sources. All the States do not discriminate in assessments of taxable property, but in Georgia, where the ownership is ascertained, the negroes returned in 1892 $14,869,575 of taxable property against $448,883,959 returned by white owners. The amount of property listed for taxation in North Carolina in 1891 was, by white citizens, $234,109,568; by colored citizens, $8,018,446. To an inquiry for official data, the auditor of the State of Virginia says: “The taxes collected in 1891 from white citizens were $2,991,646.24, and from the colored, $163,175.67. The amount paid for public schools for whites, $588,564.87; for negroes, $309,364.15. Add $15,000 for Colored Normal and $80,000 for colored lunatic asylum. Apportioning the criminal expenses between the white and the colored people in the ratio of convicts of each race received into the Penitentiary in 1891, and it shows that the criminal expenses put upon the State annually by the whites are $55,749.57 and by the negroes $204,018.99.”

Of the desire of the colored people for education the proof is conclusive, and of their capacity to receive mental culture there is not the shade of a reason to support an adverse hypothesis. The Bureau of Education furnishes the following suggestive table:

SIXTEEN FORMER SLAVE STATES AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

─────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────┬───────────────── Year. │ Common School Enrollment. │ Expenditures. ─────────────────┼─────────────────┬─────────────────┼───────────────── │ White. │ Colored. │ Both Races. ─────────────────┼─────────────────┼─────────────────┼───────────────── 1876–77 │ 1,827,139│ 571,506│ $11,231,073 1877–78 │ 2,034,946│ 675,150│ 12,093,091 1878–79 │ 2,013,684│ 685,942│ 12,174,141 1879–80 │ 2,215,674│ 84,709│ 12,678,685 1880–81 │ 2,234,877│ 802,374│ 13,656,814 1881–82 │ 2,249,263│ 802,982│ 15,241,740 1882–83 │ 2,370,110│ 817,240│ 16,363,471 1883–84 │ 2,546,448│ 1,002,313│ 17,884,558 1884–85 │ 2,676,911│ 1,030,463│ 19,253,874 1885–86 │ 2,773,145│ 1,048,659│ 20,208,113 1886–87 │ 2,975,773│ 1,118,556│ 20,821,969 1887–88 │ 3,110,606│ 1,140,405│ 21,810,158 1888–89 │ 3,197,830│ 1,213,092│ 23,171,878 1889–90 │ 3,402,420│ 1,296,959│ 24,880,107 1890–91 │ 3,570,624│ 1,329,549│ 26,690,310 1891–92 │ 3,607,549│ 1,354,316│ 27,691,488 ─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────┴─────────────────

Total amount expended in 16 years, $295,851,470.

In 1890–91 there were 79,962 white teachers and 24,150 colored. To the enrollment in common schools should be added 30,000 colored children, who are in normal or secondary schools. The amount expended for education of negroes is not stated separately, but Dr. W. T. Harris estimates that there must have been nearly $75,000,000 expended by the Southern States, in addition to what has been contributed by missionary and philanthropic sources. In Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas, annual grants are made for the support of colored normal and industrial schools.

The negroes must rely very largely upon the public schools for their education, and so they should. They are, and will continue to be, the most efficient factors for uplifting the race. The States, at immense sacrifice, with impartial liberality, have taxed themselves for a population which contributes very little to the State revenues, and nothing could be done more prejudicial to the educational interests of the colored people than to indulge in any hostility or indifference to, or neglect of, these free schools. Denominations and individuals can do nothing more harmful to the race than to foster opposition to the public schools.

XII. A potential agency in enlightening public opinion and in working out the problem of the education of the negro has been the John F. Slater Fund. “In view of the apprehensions felt by all thoughtful persons,” when the duties and privileges of citizenship were suddenly thrust upon millions of lately emancipated slaves, Mr. Slater conceived the purpose of giving a large sum of money to their proper education. After deliberate reflection and much conference, he selected a Board of Trust and placed in their hands a million of dollars. This unique gift, originating wholly with himself, and elaborated in his own mind in most of its details, was for “the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States and their posterity, by conferring on them the blessings of Christian education.” “Not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of our common country,” he sought to provide “the means of such education as shall tend to make them good men and good citizens,” associating the instruction of the mind “with training in just notions of duty toward God and man, in the light of the Holy Scriptures.” Leaving to the corporation the largest discretion and liberty, in the prosecution of the general object, as described in his Letter of Trust, he yet indicated as “lines of operation adapted to the condition of things” the encouragement of “institutions as are most effectually useful in promoting the training of teachers.” The Trust was to be administered “in no partisan, sectional, or sectarian spirit, but in the interest of a generous patriotism and an enlightened Christian spirit.” Soon after organization the Trustees expressed very strongly their judgment that the scholars should be “trained in some manual occupation, simultaneously with their mental and moral instruction,” and aid was confined to such institutions as gave “instruction in trades and other manual occupations,” that the pupils might obtain an intelligent mastery of the indispensable elements of industrial success. So repeated have been similar declarations on the part of the Trustees and the General Agents that manual training, or education in industries, may be regarded as an unalterable policy; but only such institutions were to be aided as were, “with good reason, believed to be on a permanent basis.” Mr. Slater explained “Christian Education,” as used in his Letter of Gift, to be teaching, “leavened with a predominant and salutary Christian influence,” such as was found in “the common school teaching of Massachusetts and Connecticut,” and that there was “no need of limiting the gifts of the Fund to denominational institutions.” Since the first appropriation, near fifty different institutions have been aided, in sums ranging from $500 to $5,000. As required by the Founder, neither principal nor income is expended for land or buildings. For a few years aid was given in buying machinery or apparatus, but now the income is applied almost exclusively to paying the salaries of teachers engaged in the normal or industrial work. The number of aided institutions has been lessened, with the view of concentrating and making more effective the aid and of improving the instruction in normal and industrial work. The table appended presents a summary of the appropriations which have been made from year to year.

CASH DISBURSED BY JOHN F. SLATER FUND, AS APPROPRIATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.

To August 13, 1884 $ 24,881.66 To April 30, 1885 30,414.19 To April 30, 1886 38,724.98 To April 30, 1887 39,816.28 To April 30, 1888 46,183.34 To April 30, 1889 43,709.98 To April 30, 1890 41,560.02 To April 30, 1891 50,650.00 To April 30, 1892 45,816.33 To April 30, 1893 37,475.00 To April 30, 1894 40,750.00 ——————————— $439,981.78

JOHN MURPHY & CO., PRINTERS, BALTIMORE.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling. 2. Retained anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed. 3. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers.