The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 - A History of the Education of the Colored People of the - United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 by Carter Godwin Woodson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War Author: Carter Godwin Woodson Release Date: February 15, 2004 [EBook #11089] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO *** Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paoluccci and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War By C.G. Woodson. 1919PREFACE About two years ago the author decided to set forth in a small volume the leading facts of the development of Negro education, thinking that he would have to deal largely with the movement since the Civil War. In looking over documents for material to furnish a background for recent achievements in this field, he discovered that he would write a much more interesting book should he confine himself to the ante-bellum period. In fact, the accounts of the successful strivings of Negroes for enlightenment under most adverse circumstances ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Education Of
The Negro Prior To 1861 by Carter Godwin
Woodson
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at
no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever.
You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the
terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: The Education Of The Negro Prior To 1861 A
History of the Education of the Colored People of
the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to
the Civil War
Author: Carter Godwin Woodson
Release Date: February 15, 2004 [EBook #11089]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG
EBOOK EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO ***
Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paoluccci
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861
A History of the Education of the Colored People of
the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to
the Civil War
By
C.G. Woodson.
1919PREFACE
About two years ago the author decided to set
forth in a small volume the leading facts of the
development of Negro education, thinking that he
would have to deal largely with the movement
since the Civil War. In looking over documents for
material to furnish a background for recent
achievements in this field, he discovered that he
would write a much more interesting book should
he confine himself to the ante-bellum period. In
fact, the accounts of the successful strivings of
Negroes for enlightenment under most adverse
circumstances read like beautiful romances of a
people in an heroic age.
Interesting as is this phase of the history of the
American Negro, it has as a field of profitable
research attracted only M.B. Goodwin, who
published in the Special Report of the United
States Commissioner of Education of 1871 an
exhaustive History of the Schools for the Colored
Population in the District of Columbia. In that same
document was included a survey of the Legal
Status of the Colored Population in Respect to
Schools and Education in the Different States. But
although the author of the latter collected a mass
of valuable material, his report is neither
comprehensive nor thorough. Other publicationstouching this subject have dealt either with certain
localities or special phases.
Yet evident as may be the failure of scholars to
treat this neglected aspect of our history, the
author of this dissertation is far from presuming
that he has exhausted the subject. With the hope
of vitally interesting some young master mind in
this large task, the undersigned has endeavored to
narrate in brief how benevolent teachers of both
races strove to give the ante-bellum Negroes the
education through which many of them gained
freedom in its highest and best sense.
The author desires to acknowledge his
indebtedness to Dr. J.E.
Moorland, International Secretary of the Young
Men's Christian
Association, for valuable information concerning
the Negroes of Ohio.
C.G. Woodson.
Washington, D.C. June 11, 1919.CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.—Introduction
II.—Religion with Letters
III.—Education as a Right of Man
IV.—Actual Education
V.—Better Beginnings
VI.—Educating the Urban Negro
VII.—The Reaction
VIII.—Religion without Letters
IX.—Learning in Spite of Opposition
X.—Educating Negroes Transplanted to Free Soil
XI.—Higher Education
XII.—Vocational Training
XIII.—Education at Public Expense
Appendix: DocumentsBibliography
Index
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861
* * * * *CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Brought from the African wilds to constitute the
laboring class of a pioneering society in the new
world, the heathen slaves had to be trained to
meet the needs of their environment. It required
little argument to convince intelligent masters that
slaves who had some conception of modern
civilization and understood the language of their
owners would be more valuable than rude men
with whom one could not communicate. The
questions, however, as to exactly what kind of
training these Negroes should have, and how far it
should go, were to the white race then as much a
matter of perplexity as they are now. Yet, believing
that slaves could not be enlightened without
developing in them a longing for liberty, not a few
masters maintained that the more brutish the
bondmen the more pliant they become for
purposes of exploitation. It was this class of
slaveholders that finally won the majority of
southerners to their way of thinking and
determined that Negroes should not be educated.
The history of the education of the ante-bellum
Negroes, therefore, falls into two periods. The first
extends from the time of the introduction of slaveryto the climax of the insurrectionary movement
about 1835, when the majority of the people in this
country answered in the affirmative the question
whether or not it was prudent to educate their
slaves. Then followed the second period, when the
industrial revolution changed slavery from a
patriarchal to an economic institution, and when
intelligent Negroes, encouraged by abolitionists,
made so many attempts to organize servile
insurrections that the pendulum began to swing the
other way. By this time most southern white people
reached the conclusion that it was impossible to
cultivate the minds of Negroes without arousing
overmuch self-assertion.
The early advocates of the education of Negroes
were of three classes: first, masters who desired to
increase the economic efficiency of their labor
supply; second, sympathetic persons who wished
to help the oppressed; and third, zealous
missionaries who, believing that the message of
divine love came equally to all, taught slaves the
English language that they might learn the
principles of the Christian religion. Through the
kindness of the first class, slaves had their best
chance for mental improvement. Each slaveholder
dealt with the situation to suit himself, regardless of
public opinion. Later, when measures were passed
to prohibit the education of slaves, some masters,
always a law unto themselves, continued to teach
their Negroes in defiance of the hostile legislation.Sympathetic persons were not able to accomplish
much because they were usually reformers, who
not only did not own slaves, but dwelt in practically
free settlements far from the plantations on which
the bondmen lived.
The Spanish and French missionaries, the first to
face this problem, set an example which influenced
the education of the Negroes throughout America.
Some of these early heralds of Catholicism
manifested more interest in the Indians than in the
Negroes, and advocated the enslavement of the
Africans rather than that of the Red Men. But being
anxious to see the Negroes enlightened and
brought into the Church, they courageously
directed their attention to the teaching of their
slaves, provided for the instruction of the
numerous mixed-breed offspring, and granted
freedmen the educational privileges of the highest
classes. Put to shame by this noble example of the
Catholics, the English colonists had to find a way to
overcome the objections of those who, granting
that the enlightenment of the slaves might not lead
to servile insurrection, nevertheless feared that
their conversion might work manumission. To meet
this exigency the colonists secured, through
legislation by their assemblies and formal
declarations of the Bishop of London, the
abrogation of the law that a Christian could not be
held as a slave. Then allowed access to the
bondmen, the missionaries of the Church of