The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 The History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War BY CARTER GODWIN WOODSON, Ph. D. (HARVARD) 460 pp. $2.00; by mail $2.15 "This book is neither a controversial treatise on Negro education nor a study of recent problems. Dr. Woodson has given us something new. He has by scientific treatment amassed numerous facts to show the persistent strivings of ante-bellum Negroes anxious to be enlightened. What they accomplished is all but marvelous." The author aims to put the student of history in touch with the great movements which effected the uplift of the Negroes, 'and to determine the causes which finally reduced many of them to heathenism. " The titles of the chapters are: "Introduction," "Religion with Letters," "Education as a Right of Man," "Actual Education," "Better Beginnings," "Educating the Urban Negro,' "The Reaction," Religion without Letters," "Learning in Spite of Opposition," "Educating Negroes Transplanted to Free Soil," "Higher Education," "Vocational Training,' "Education at Public Expense." In the appendix are found a number of valuable documents. The volume contains also a critical bibliography and a helpful index. OPINIONS "I like it very much. You seem to have loosened up on your style a bit and you have done an excellent piece of research. I hope that your book will have a good sale."-Edward Channing. McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History Harvard University. "It seems clear to me that you have made a substantial contribution to the subject and I know I shall profit by it."-Frederick J. Turner, Professor of History, Harvard University. "I thought at first it would be out of my line, but on turning its pages, I discovered that it may well hold the attention of everybody with an intelligent interest in the colored people. You write easily and flexibly and have certainly compiled important material in the true spirit of scholarship. I congratulate you sincerely."-Ferdinand Schevill, Professor of History in the University of Chicago. "It seems to me that you have taken a field of which little has been known and developed in It a most interesting and valuable book. I am glad to have it in my library and rejoice that I have had the privilege of some personal acquaintance with the author."-Francis W. Shepardson, Professor of History in the University of Chicago. "I am delighted with the thoroughly scholarly way in which it has been put together and I know enough about the subject to appreciate what it has cost you in time and effort to perform this work."Dr. Robert E. Park. "It is the story of the effort on the part of certain agencies to educate the Negro. It is above all the story of the strivings of the Negro himself under tremendous difficulties and opposition, to learn things, to know more, to be more. Apart from the fund of information on the subject which Dr. Woodson has here offered, the supreme point of this study is the unconquerable will of the Negro. The book, as a whole, is an illumination of the recent development of education among the colored people."-The Washington Star. THIS BOOK MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY 1216 You Street, Northwest Washington, D. C. Agents Wanted THE JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY VOL. V-APRIL, 1920-No. 2 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEGRO PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM IN MISSOURI1 THE PERIOD FROM 1865 TO 1875 On Tuesday, the eleventh day of January, 1865, the Negro of Missouri awoke a slave; that night he retired a 1 This dissertation was in 1917 submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Literature of the University of Chicago, in candidacy for the degree of Master of Arts by Henry S. Williams. The following original sources were used in the preparation of this manuscript: Reports of Superintendent of the Public Schools of the State of Missouri, 1866-1917; Session Laws of the State of Missouri, 1866-1913; Reports of the U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1870-1916; U. S. Census Reports, 1860-1910; The Missouri Republican, 1866-1870; Journal of Education, Vols. I and II (St. Louis, Missouri, 1879); Revised Statutes of Missouri, 1879-1909; Proceedings and Occasional Papers of the Slater Fund (Baltimore, Maryland); Missouri Historical Society Collections, Vols. II and III; Asa E. Martin, Our Negro Population (Kansas City, Missouri, 1913); N. H. Parker, Missouri as it is in 1867 (Philadelphia, 1867); Am. Annual Cyclopedia, 1870-1877; Annual Reports of the Board of Education of St. Louis, 1867-1916; Annual Reports of the Board of Education, of Kansas City, 1870-1915. The secondary sources consulted follow: Lucian Carr, American Commonwealths, Missouri a Bone of Contention (Boston, 1894); C. R. Barnes, Switzler's Illustrated History of Missouri (St. Louis, 1889); W. B. Davis, and D. S. Durrie, An Illustrated History of Missouri (Cincinnati, Ohio); S. B. Harding, Life of George R. Smith (Sedalia, Missouri, 1904); W. E. B. DuBois, The Negro Common School (Atlanta, Georgia); C. L. Butt, History of Buchanan County (Chicago, 1915); H. A. Trexler, Slavery in Missouri, 1804-1865 (Baltimore, Maryland, 1914); C. G. Woodson, The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, (New York, 1915); History of Calloway County (St. Louis, 1884); History of Cole, Moniteau, Morgan, Benton, Miller, Maries, and Orange Counties, free man. His darkest hour had passed but before him loomed a great task, that of living up to the requirements of a man. His emancipators were confronted with the responsibility of preparing him for his new duties and for the proper use of suffrage which was to be granted him a few years later. Prior to 1865 the State had seen fit to prohibit the education3 of the slave because, although the educated slave was the more efficient, yet he was the more dangerous; as his training might aid him to make a better revolt against his position. But the qualities which were objectionable in the slave were necessary to the freed man, if he was to prove other than a menace to the State. His emancipators faced the education of the Negro fairly, and the same convention which had passed the Emancipation Act of 1865, drew up a new State constitution which was ratified the same year. This constitution provided for the establishment and the maintenance of free public schools for the instruction of all persons in the State who were between the ages of five and twenty-one. It further provided that all funds for the sup-port of the public schools should be appropriated in proportion to the number of children without regard to color. The legislature, which met the same year, passed a law5 which required that the township boards of education, and those in charge of the educational affairs in the cities and the incorporated villages of the State should establish and maintain one or more separate schools for the colored children of school age within their respective jurisdictions, provided the number of such children should exceed twenty. Missouri (Chicago, 1889); J. T. Shaff, History of St. Louis City and County (Philadelphia, 1885); R. A. Campbell, Campbell's Gazetteer of Missouri (St. Louis, 1875); Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis (New York, 1889); Missouri Historical Review, Vols. I, II, IV, VI, VII, and IX (Columbia, Missouri); The Negro Year Book (Tuskegee, Alabama, 1917). 2 Parker, N. H., Missouri as it is in 1867, p. 424. 3 Woodson, C. G., Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, p. 159-168. 4 Missouri State Convention of 1865, Art. IX. P. 177. Laws of State of Missouri, Adjourned Session 23d General Assembly, Persons over twenty-one were to be admitted to these schools. The same officers who were in charge of the educational interests of the white schools were to control the Negro schools. The length of the term and the other advantages to be enjoyed by these schools were to be the same as those enjoyed by the white schools of the same grade. This law further provided that if the average attendance for any month should drop below twelve the school might be closed for a period not to exceed six months. In districts where there were less than twenty Negro children, the money raised for their education was to be reserved by the boards of education in those districts and to be appropriated as the boards saw fit for the education of the Negro children upon whom the money had been raised. The same legislature passed an act authorizing towns, cities, and villages to organize for school purposes with special privileges. This act, however, provided that any town, city or village so incorporated should be required to establish one or more Negro schools according to the law. At this session of the legislature' there was enacted a law to compel the school authorities in each sub-district to prepare a school census of their respective jurisdictions which should enumerate separately and according to sex the white and the Negro children who were permanently resident within the sub-district. In case the directors failed to perform this duty the township clerk was to have the census taken and to recover from the directors by judicial proceedings the cost of the work. If we were to judge from the constitutional and the statutory laws of this period, we might conclude that the education of the Negro was very popular and that his needs were well taken care of. But before we can draw any conclusion we must study certain conditions. We must know something of the character of the men who were to enforce the law, of the desire of the Negroes for an education, of • Laws of the State of Missouri, op. cit., p. 191. 7 Ibid., p. 173. popular opinion concerning public education, and of the distribution of the Negro population. 8 The State Superintendents of this period were well trained men, and their reports show that they were faithful in the discharge of their duty. One of these superintendents, John Monteith," showed great zeal in the establishment and development of the Negro school system. He was born in the Western Reserve district of Ohio, a section noted for its strong anti-slavery sentiment. He belonged to a family of educators. His father was one of the first presidents of the University of Michigan. Monteith completed his education at Yale and served for a number of years as a minister in St. Louis. Upon becoming State Superintendent, he wrote in favor of Negro education a pamphlet which he sent to each of the county superintendents. His annual reports,10 to which we shall refer later, show the interest and the effort which this man put forth to develop the Negro schools of the State. The Negroes were not indifferent to the efforts which were put forth in their behalf. There is much evidence to show that they took an active part in the establishment11 and the maintenance of schools for their children. In those districts in which Negro schools were maintained and an honest effort was made to better the conditions of the Negroes, they responded heartily to their opportunities. The following quotations are typical of the reports which the superintendents in those counties were able to make in 1874: "In most of the townships a commendable interest is manifested in the support of Negro schools, which I am happy to report, is appreciated by the Negroes12 themselves. The schools have been well attended with considerable diligence manifested by the pupils." A. A. Neal, Superintendent of 8 Ira Divoll, see Schaff, Hist. of City and County of St. Louis, Vol. I, p. 843; R. D. Shannon, see Davis, W. B., Ill. Hist. of Mo., p. 587. 9 Ibid., p. 550. 10 Ann. Reports of Supt. of Pub. Schools, 1871-'72-'73-'74. |