Chapter XII: Negro School Laws (2)

"At 1 o'clock the general, with the company invited for the
occasion, visited the African free school, on Mulberry Street.
This school embraces about 500 scholars; about 450 were present
on this occasion, and they are certainly the best disciplined and
most interesting school of children we have ever witnessed. As
the general was conducted to a seat, Mr. Ketchum adverted to the
fact that as long ago as 1788 the general had been elected a
member of the institution (Manumission Society) at the same time
with Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, of England. The general
perfectly remembered the circumstances, and mentioned
particularly the letter he had received on that occasion from the
Hon. John Jay, then president of the society. One of the pupils,
Master James M. Smith, aged eleven years, then stepped forward
and gracefully delivered the following address:

"'GENERAL LAFAYETTE: In behalf of myself and fellow-schoolmates
may I be permitted to express our sincere and respectful
gratitude to you for the condescension you have manifested this
day in visiting this institution, which is one of the noblest
specimens of New York philanthropy. Here, sir, you behold
hundreds of the poor children of Africa sharing with those of a
lighter hue in the blessings of education; and while it will be
our pleasure to remember the great deeds you have done for
America, it will be our delight also to cherish the memory of
General Lafayette as a friend to African emancipation, and as a
member of this institution.'

"To which the general replied, in his own characteristic style,
'I thank you, my dear child.'

"Several of the pupils underwent short examinations, and one of
them explained the use of the globes and answered many questions
in geography."

PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN.

These schools continued to flourish under the same management, and with an attendance varying from 600 in 1824 to 862 in 1832, in the latter part of which year the Manumission Society, whose schools were not in part supported by the public fund, applied to the Public School Society for a committee of conference to effect a union. It was felt by the trustees that on many accounts it was better that the two sets of schools should remain separate, but, fearing further diversion of the school fund, it was desirable that the number of societies participating should be as small as possible, and arrangements were accordingly made for a transfer of the schools and property of the elder society. After some delay, in consequence of legislative action being found necessary to give a title to their real estate, on the 2d of May, 1834, the transfer was effected, all their schools and school property passing into the hands of the New York Public School Society, at an appraised valuation of $12,130.22.

The aggregate register of these schools at the time of the transfer was nearly 1,400, with an average attendance of about one half that number. They were placed in charge of a committee with powers similar to the committee on primary schools, but their administration was not satisfactory, and it was soon found that the schools had greatly diminished in numbers, efficiency, and usefulness. A committee of inquiry was appointed, and reported that, in consequence of the great anti-slavery riots and attacks on Colored people, many families had removed from the city, and of those that remained many kept their children at home; they knew the Manumission Society as their special friends, but knew nothing of the Public School Society; the reduction of all the schools but one to the grade of primary had given great offence; also the discharge of teachers long employed, and the discontinuance of rewards, and taking home of spelling books; strong prejudices had grown up against the Public School Society. The committee recommended a prompt assimilation of the Colored schools to the white; the establishment of two or more upper schools in a new building; a normal school for Colored monitors; and the appointment of a Colored man as school agent, at $150 a year. The school on Mulberry Street at this time, 1835, was designated Colored Grammar School No. 1. A. Libolt was principal, and registered 317 pupils; there were also six primaries, located in different parts of the city, with an aggregate attendance of 925 pupils.

In 1836 a new school building was completed in Laurens Street, opened with 210 pupils, R. F. Wake (colored), principal, and was designated Colored Grammar School No. 2. Other means were taken to improve the schools, and to induce the Colored people to patronize them; the principal of No. 1, Mr. Libolt, was replaced by Mr. John Peterson, colored, a sufficient assurance of whose ability and success we have in the fact that he has been continued in the position ever since. A "Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children" was organized, and established two additional schools, one in Thomas Street, and one in Centre, and a marked improvement was manifest; but it required a long time to restore the confidence and interest felt before the transfer, and even up to 1848 the aggregate attendance in all the Colored schools was only 1,375 pupils.

In the winter of 1852 the first evening schools for Colored pupils were opened; one for males and one for females, and were attended by 379 pupils. In the year 1853 the Colored schools, with all the schools and school property of the Public School Society, were transferred to the "Board of Education of the City and County of New York," and still further improvements were made in them; a normal school for Colored teachers was established, with Mr. John Peterson, principal, and the schools were graded in the same manner as those for white children. Colored Grammar School No. 3, was opened at 78 West Fortieth Street, Miss Caroline W. Simpson, principal, and in the ensuing year three others were added; No. 4 in One Hundred and Twentieth Street (Harlem), Miss Nancy Thompson, principal; No. 5, at 101 Hudson Street, P. W. Williams, principal; and No. 6, at 1,167 Broadway, Prince Leveridge, principal. Grammar Schools Nos. 2, 3, and 4, had primary departments attached, and there were also at this time three separate primary schools, and the aggregate attendance in all was 2,047. Since then the attendance in these schools has not varied much from these figures. The schools themselves have been altered and modified from time to time, as their necessity seemed to indicate; though under the general management of the Board of Education, they have been in the care of the school officers of the wards in which they are located, and while in some cases they received the proper attention, in others they were either wholly, or in part, neglected. A recent act has placed them directly in charge of the Board of Education, who have appointed a special committee to look after their interests, and measures are being taken by them which will give this class of schools every opportunity and convenience possessed by any other, and, it is hoped, will also improve the grade of its scholarship.[63]

NORTH CAROLINA

suffered her free persons of color to maintain schools until 1835, when they were abolished by law. During the period referred to, the Colored schools were taught by white teachers, but after 1835 the few teachers who taught Colored children in private houses were Colored persons. The public-school system of North Carolina provided that no descendant from Negro ancestors, to the fourth generation inclusive, should enjoy the benefit thereof.

OHIO.

The first schools for Colored children in Ohio were established at Cincinnati in 1820, by Colored men. These schools were not kept up regularly. A white gentleman named Wing, who taught a night school near the corner of Vine and Sixth Streets, admitted Colored pupils into his school. Owen T. B. Nickens, a public-spirited and intelligent Colored man, did much to establish schools for the Colored people.

In 1835 a school for Colored children was opened in the Baptist Church on Western Row. It was taught at different periods by Messrs. Barbour, E. Fairchild, W. Robinson, and Augustus Wattles; and by the following-named ladies: Misses Bishop, Matthews, Lowe, and Mrs. Merrell. Although excellent teachers as well as upright ladies and gentlemen, they were subjected to great persecutions. They were unable to secure board, because the spirit of the whites would not countenance the teachers of Negro schools, and they spelled the word with two g's. And at times the teachers were compelled to close the school on account of the violence of the populace. The salaries of the teachers were paid partly by an educational society of white philanthropists, and partly by such Colored persons as had means. Of the latter class were John Woodson, John Liverpool, Baker Jones, Dinnis Hill, Joseph Fowler, and William O'Hara.

In 1844, the Rev. Hiram S. Gilmore, founded the "Cincinnati High School" for Colored youth. Mr. Gilmore was a man rich in sentiments of humanity, and endowed plenteously with executive ability and this world's goods. All these he consecrated to the elevation and education of the Colored people.

This school-house was located at the east end of Harrison Street, and was in every sense a model building, comprising five rooms, a chapel, a gymnasium, and spacious grounds. The pupils increased yearly, and the character of the school made many friends for the cause. The following persons taught in this school: Joseph H. Moore, Thomas L. Boucher, David P. Lowe, Dr. A. L. Childs, and W. F. Colburn. Dr. Childs became principal of the school in 1848.

In 1849, the Legislature passed an act establishing schools for Colored children, to be maintained at the public expense. In 1850, a board of Colored trustees was elected, teachers employed, and buildings hired. The schools were put in operation. The law of 1849 provided that so much of the funds belonging to the city of Cincinnati as would fall to the Colored youth, by a _per capita_ division, should be held subject to the order of the Colored trustees. But their order was not honored by the city treasurer, upon the ground that under the constitution of the State only electors could hold office; that Colored men were not electors, and, therefore, could not hold office. After three months the Colored schools were closed, and the teachers went out without their salaries.

John I. Gaines, an intelligent and fearless Colored leader, made a statement of the case to a public meeting of the Colored people of Cincinnati, and urged the employment of counsel to try the case in the courts. Money was raised, and Flamen Ball, Sr., was secured to make an application for _mandamus_. The case was finally carried to the Supreme Court and won by the Colored people.

In 1851, the schools were opened again; but the rooms were small and wretchedly appointed, and the trustees unable to provide better ones. Without notice the Colored trustees were deposed. The management of the Colored schools was vested in a board of trustees and school visitors, who were also in charge of the schools for the white children. This board, under a new law, had authority to appoint six Colored men who were to manage the Colored schools with the exception of the school fund. This greatly angered the leading Colored men, and, therefore, they refused to endorse this new management.

The law was altered in 1856, giving the Colored people the right to elect, by ballot, their own trustees.

In 1858, Nicholas Longworth built the first school-house for the Colored people, and gave them the building on a lease of fourteen years, in which time they were to pay for it--$14,000. In 1859, a large building was erected on Court Street.

Oberlin College opened its doors to Colored students from the moment of its existence in 1833, and they have never been closed at any time since. It was here that the incomparable Finney, with the fierceness of John Baptist, the gentleness of John the Evangelist, the logic of Paul, and the eloquence of Isaiah, pleaded the cause of the American slave, and gave instruction to all who sat at his feet regardless of color or race. George B. Vashon, William Howard Day, John Mercer Langston, and many other Colored men graduated from Oberlin College before any of the other leading colleges of the country had consented to give Colored men a classical education.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Anthony Benezet established, in 1750, the first school for Colored people in this State, and taught it himself without money and without price. He solicited funds for the erection of a school-house for the Colored children, and of their intellectual capacities said: "I can with truth and sincerity declare that I have found among the negroes as great variety of talents as among a like number of whites, and I am bold to assert that the notion entertained by some, that the blacks are inferior in their capacity, is a vulgar prejudice, founded on the pride or ignorance of their lordly masters, who have kept their slaves at such a distance as to be unable to form a right judgment of them."

He died on the 3d of May, 1784, universally beloved and sincerely mourned, especially by the Negro population of Pennsylvania, for whose education he had done so much. The following clause in his will illustrates his character in respect to public instruction:

"I give my above said house and lot, or ground-rent proceeding
from it, and the rest and residue of my estate which shall remain
undisposed of after my wife's decease, both real and personal, to
the public school of Philadelphia, founded by charter, and to
their successors forever, in trust, that they shall sell my house
and lot on perpetual ground-rent forever, if the same be not
already sold by my executors, as before mentioned, and that as
speedily as may be they receive and take as much of my personal
estate as may be remaining, and therewith purchase a yearly
ground-rent, or ground-rents, and with the income of such
ground-rent proceeding from the sale of my real estate, hire and
employ a religious-minded person, or persons, to teach a number
of negro, mulatto, or Indian children to read, write, arithmetic,
plain accounts, needle-work, etc. And it is my particular desire,
founded on the experience I have had in that service, that in the
choice of such tutors, special care may be had to prefer an
industrious, careful person of true piety, who may be or become
suitably qualified, who would undertake the service from a
principle of charity, to one more highly learned, not equally
disposed; this I desire may be carefully attended to, sensible
that from the number of pupils of all ages, the irregularity of
attendance their situation subjects them to will not admit of
that particular inspection in their improvement usual in other
schools, but that the real well-doing of the scholars will very
much depend upon the master making a special conscience of doing
his duty; and shall likewise defray such other necessary expense
as may occur in that service; and as the said remaining income of
my estate, after my wife's decease, will not be sufficient to
defray the whole expense necessary for the support of such a
school, it is my request that the overseers of the said public
school shall join in the care and expense of such school, or
schools, for the education of negro, mulatto, or Indian children,
with any committee which may be appointed by the monthly meetings
of Friends in Philadelphia, or with any other body of benevolent
persons who may join in raising money and employing it for the
education and care of such children; my desire being that as
such a school is now set up, it may be forever maintained in this
city."

Just before his death he addressed the following note to the "overseers of the school for the instruction of the black people."

"My friend, Joseph Clark, having frequently observed to me his
desire, in case of my inability of continuing the care of the
negro school, of succeeding me in that service, notwithstanding
he now has a more advantageous school, by the desire of doing
good to the black people makes him overlook these pecuniary
advantages, I much wish the overseers of the school would take
his desires under their peculiar notice and give him such due
encouragement as may be proper, it being a matter of the greatest
consequence to that school that the master be a person who makes
it a principle to do his duty."

The noble friends were early in the field as the champions of education for the Negroes. It was Anthony Benezet, who, on the 26th of January, 1770, secured the appointment of a committee by the monthly meeting of the Friends, "to consider on the instruction of negro and mulatto children in reading, writing, and other useful learning suitable to their capacity and circumstances." On the 30th of May, 1770, a special committee of Friends sought to employ an instructor "to teach, not more at one time than thirty children, in the first rudiments of school learning and in sewing and knitting." Moles Paterson was first employed at a salary of £80 a year, and an additional sum of £11 for one half of the rent of his dwelling-house. Instruction was free to the poor; but those who were able to pay were required to do so "at the rate of 10s. a quarter for those who write, and 7s. 6d. for others."

In 1784, William Waring was placed in charge of the larger children, at a salary of £100; and Sarah Dougherty, of the younger children and girls, in teaching spelling, reading, sewing, etc., at a salary of £50. In 1787, aid was received from David Barclay, of London, in behalf of a committee for managing a donation for the relief of Friends in America; and the sum of £500 was thus obtained, which, with the fund derived from the estate of Benezet, and £300 from Thomas Shirley, a Colored man, was appropriated to the erection of a school-house. In 1819 a committee of "women Friends," to have exclusive charge of the admission of girls and the general superintendence of the girls' school, was associated with the overseers in the charge of the school. In 1830, in order to relieve the day school of some of the male adults who had been in the habit of attending, an evening school for the purpose of instructing such persons gratuitously was opened, and has been continued to the present time. In 1844, a lot was secured on Locust Street, extending along Shield's Alley, now Aurora Street, on which a new house was erected in 1847, the expense of which was paid for in part from the proceeds of the sale of a lot bequeathed by John Pemberton. Additional accommodations were made to this building, from time to time, as room was demanded by new classes of pupils.

In 1849, a statistical return of the condition of the people of color in the city and districts of Philadelphia shows that there were then one grammar school, with 463 pupils; two public primary schools, with 339; and an infant school, under the charge of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, of 70 pupils, in Clifton Street: a ragged and a moral-reform school, with 81 pupils. In West Philadelphia there was also a public school, with 67 pupils; and, in all, there were about 20 private schools, with 300 pupils; making an aggregate of more than 1,300 children receiving an education.

In 1859, according to Bacon's "Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia," there were 1,031 Colored children in public schools, 748 in charity schools of various kinds, 211 in benevolent and reformatory schools, and 331 in private schools, making an aggregate of 2,321 pupils; besides four evening schools, one for adult males, one for females, and one for young apprentices. There were 19 Sunday-schools connected with the congregations of the Colored people, and conducted by their own teachers, containing 1,667 pupils, and four Sunday-schools gathered as mission schools by members of white congregations, with 215 pupils. There was also a "Public Library and Reading-room" connected with the "Institute for Colored Youth," established in 1853, having about 1,300 volumes; besides three other small libraries in different parts of the city. The same pamphlet shows that there were 1,700 of the Colored population engaged in different trades and occupations, representing every department of industry.[64]

In 1794, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society established a school for children of the people of color, and in 1809 erected a school building at a cost of four thousand dollars, which they designated as "Clarkson Hall," in 1815. In 1813, a board of education was organized consisting of thirteen persons, with a visiting committee of three, whose duty it was to visit the schools once each week. In 1818, the school board, in their report, speak very kindly and encouragingly of the Clarkson Schools, which, they say, "furnish a decided refutation of the charge that the mental endowments of the descendants of Africa are inferior to those possessed by their white brethren. We can assert, without fear of contradiction, that the pupils of this seminary will sustain a fair comparison with those of any other institution in which the same elementary branches are taught."

In 1820, an effort was made to have the authorities of the white schools provide for the education of the Colored children as well as the whites, because the laws of the State required the education of all the youth. The comptrollers of the public schools confessed that the law provided for the education of "poor and indigent children," and that it extended to those of persons of color. Accordingly, in 1822, a school for the education of indigent persons of color of both sexes, was opened in Lombard Street, Philadelphia. In 1841, a primary school was opened in the same building. In 1833, the "Unclassified School" in Coates Street, and at frequent intervals after this several schools of the same grade, were started in West Philadelphia.

In 1837, by the will of Richard Humphreys, who died in 1832, an "Institute for Colored Youth" was started. The sum of ten thousand dollars was devised to certain trustees who were to pay it over to some society that might be disposed to establish a school for the education of the "descendants of the African race in school learning in the various branches of the mechanic arts and trade, and in agriculture." Thirty members of the society of Friends formed themselves into an association for the purpose of carrying out the wishes and plans of Mr. Humphreys. In the preamble of the constitution they adopted, their ideas and plans were thus set forth:

"We believe that the most successful method of elevating the
moral and intellectual character of the descendants of Africa, as
well as of improving their social condition, is to extend to them
the benefits of a good education, and to instruct them in the
knowledge of some useful trade or business, whereby they may be
enabled to obtain a comfortable livelihood by their own industry;
and through these means to prepare them for fulfilling the
various duties of domestic and social life with reputation and
fidelity, as good citizens and pious men."

In order to carry out the feature of agricultural and mechanic arts, the association purchased a farm in Bristol township, Philadelphia County, in 1839, where boys of the Colored race were taught farming, shoemaking, and other useful trades. The incorporation of the institution was secured in 1842, and in 1844 another friend dying--Jonathan Zane--added a handsome sum to the treasury, which, with several small legacies, made $18,000 for this enterprise. But in 1846 the work came to a standstill; the farm with its equipments was sold, and for six years very little was done, except through a night school.

In 1851, a lot for a school building was purchased on Lombard Street, and a building erected, and the school opened in the autumn of 1852, for boys, under the care of Charles L. Reason, an accomplished young Colored teacher from New York. A girls' school was opened the same year, and, under Mr. Reason's excellent instruction, many worthy and competent teachers and leaders of the Negro race came forth.

Avery College, at Allegheny City, was founded by the Rev. Charles Avery, a native of New York, but for the greater part of a long and useful life adorned by the noblest virtues, a resident of Pennsylvania. By will he left $300,000 for the christianization of the African race; $150,000 to be used in Africa, and $150,000 in America. He left $25,000 as an endowment fund for Avery College.

At a stated meeting during the session of the Presbytery at New Castle, Pa., October 5, 1853, it was resolved that "there shall be established within our bounds, and under our supervision, an institution, to be called the Ashum Institute, for the scientific, classical, and theological education of colored youth of the male sex."

Accordingly, J. M. Dickey, A. Hamilton, R. P. Dubois, ministers; and Samuel J. Dickey and John M. Kelton, ruling elders, were appointed a committee to perfect the idea. They were to solicit and receive funds, secure a charter from the State of Pennsylvania, and erect suitable buildings for the institute. On the 14th of November, 1853, they purchased thirty acres of land at the cost of $1,250. At the session of the Legislature in 1854, a charter was granted establishing "at or near a place called Hinsonville, in the county of Chester, an institution of learning for the scientific, classical, and theological education of colored youth of the male sex, by the name and style of Ashum Institute." The trustees were John M. Dickey, Alfred Hamilton, Robert P. Dubois, James Latta, John B. Spottswood, James M. Crowell, Samuel J. Dickey, John M. Kelton, and William Wilson.

By the provisions of the charter the trustees were empowered "to procure the endowment of the institute, not exceeding the sum of $100,000; to confer such literary degrees and academic honors as are usually granted by colleges"; and it was required that "the institute shall be open to the admission of colored pupils of the male sex, of all religious denominations, who exhibit a fair moral character, and are willing to yield a ready obedience to the general regulations prescribed for the conduct of the pupils and the government of the institute."

The institute was formally dedicated on the 31st of December, 1856. It is now known as Lincoln University.

RHODE ISLAND

conferred the right of elective franchise upon her Colored citizens by her constitution in 1843, and ever since equal privileges have been afforded them. In 1828 the Colored people of Providence petitioned for a separate school, but it was finally abolished by an act of the Legislature.

SOUTH CAROLINA

took the lead in legislating against the instruction of the Colored race, as she subsequently took the lead in seceding from the Union. In 1740, while yet a British province, the Legislature passed the following law:

"Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them
to be employed in writing, may be attended with inconveniences,
_Be it enacted_, That all and every person and persons
whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach, or cause any slave or
slaves to be taught, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe
in any manner of writing whatever, hereafter taught to write,
every such person or persons shall for every such offense forfeit
the sum of £100 current money."

In 1800 the State Assembly passed an act, embracing free Colored people as well as slaves in its shameful provisions, enacting "that assemblies of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, whether composed of all or any such description of persons, or of all or any of the same and a proportion of white persons, met together for the purpose of _mental_ instruction in a confined or secret place, or with the gates or doors of such place barred, bolted, or locked, so as to prevent the free ingress to and from the same," are declared to be unlawful meetings; the officers dispersing such unlawful assemblages being authorized to "inflict such corporal punishment, not exceeding twenty lashes, upon such slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, and mestizoes, as they may judge necessary for deterring them from the like unlawful assemblage in future." Another section of the same act declares, "that it shall not be lawful for any number of slaves, free negroes, mulattoes, or mestizoes, even in company with white persons, to meet together and assemble for the purpose of mental instruction or religious worship before the rising of the sun or after the going down of the same." This section was so oppressive, that in 1803, in answer to petitions from certain religious societies, an amending act was passed forbidding any person before 9 o'clock in the evening "to break into a place of meeting wherever shall be assembled the members of any religious society of the State, provided a majority of them shall be white persons, or other to disturb their devotions unless a warrant has been procured from a magistrate, if at the time of the meeting there should be a magistrate within three miles of the place; if not, the act of 1800 is to remain in full force."

On the 17th of December, 1834, definite action was taken against the education of free Colored persons as well as slaves. The first section is given:

"SECTION 1. If any person shall hereafter teach any slave to read
or write, or shall aid or assist in teaching any slave to read or
write, or cause or procure any slave to be taught to read or
write, such person, if a free white person, upon conviction
thereof shall, for each and every offense against, this act, be
fined not exceeding $100 and imprisonment not more than six
months; or, if a free person of color, shall be whipped not
exceeding fifty lashes, and fined not exceeding $50, at the
discretion of the court of magistrates and freeholders before
which such free person of color is tried; and if a slave, to be
whipped, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding fifty
lashes, the informer to be entitled to one-half the fine and to
be a competent witness. And if any free person of color or slave
shall keep any school or other place of instruction for teaching
any slave or free person of color to read or write, such free
person of color or slave shall be liable to the same fine,
imprisonment, and corporal punishment as by this act are imposed
and inflicted on free persons of color and slaves for teaching
slaves to write."

The second section forbids, under pain of severe penalties, the employment of any Colored persons as "clerks or salesmen in or about any shop, store, or house used for trading."

TENNESSEE

passed a law in 1838 establishing a system of common schools by which the scholars were designated as "white children over the age of six years and under sixteen." In 1840 an act was passed in which no discrimination against color appeared. It simply provided that "all children between the ages of six and twenty-one years shall have the privilege of attending the public schools." And while there was never afterward any law prohibiting the education of Colored children, the schools were used exclusively by the whites.

TEXAS

never put any legislation on her statute-books withholding the blessings of the schools from the Negro, for the reason, doubtless, that she banished all free persons of color, and worked her slaves so hard that they had no hunger for books when night came.

VIRGINIA,

under Sir William Berkeley, was not a strong patron of education for the masses. For the slave there was little opportunity to learn, as he was only allowed part of Saturday to rest, and kept under the closest surveillance on the Sabbath day. The free persons of color were regarded with suspicion, and little chance was given them to cultivate their minds.

On the 2d of March, 1819, an act was passed prohibiting "all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes, or mulattoes, mixing and associating with such slaves, at any meeting-house or houses, or any other place or places, in the night, or at any school or schools for teaching them reading and writing either in the day or night." But notwithstanding this law, schools for free persons of color were kept up until the Nat. Turner insurrection in 1831, when, on the 7th of April following, the subjoined act was passed:

"SEC. 4. _And be it enacted_, That all meetings of free negroes
or mulattoes at any school-house, church, meeting-house, or other
place, for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or
night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered
an unlawful assembly; and any justice of the county or
corporation wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own
knowledge, or on the information of others of such unlawful
assemblage or meeting, shall issue his warrant directed to any
sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the
house or houses where such unlawful assemblage or meeting may be,
for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such free negroes
or mulattoes, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender
or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not
exceeding 26 lashes.

"SEC. 5. _And be it enacted_, That if any person or persons
assemble with free negroes or mulattoes at any school-house,
church, meeting-house, or other place, for the purpose of
instructing such free negroes or mulattoes to read or write, such
persons or persons shall, on conviction thereof, be fined in a
sum not exceeding $50, and, moreover, may be imprisoned, at the
discretion of a jury, not exceeding two months.

"SEC. 6. _And be it enacted_, That if any white person, for pay
or compensation, shall assemble with any slaves for the purpose
of teaching, and shall teach any slave to read or write, such
person, or any white person or persons contracting with such
teacher so to act, who shall offend as aforesaid, shall, for each
offense, be fined, at the discretion of a jury, in a sum not less
than $10, nor exceeding $100, to be recovered on an information
or indictment."

This law was rigidly enforced, and in 1851, Mrs. Margaret Douglass, a white lady from South Carolina, was cast into the Norfolk jail for violating its provisions.

West Virginia was not admitted into the Union until 1863. Wisconsin, Vermont, New Hampshire, and New Jersey did not prohibit the education of their Colored children.

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

presents a more pleasing and instructive field for the examination of the curious student of history.

In 1807, the first school-house for the use of Colored pupils was erected in Washington, D. C., by three Colored men, named George Bell, Nicholas Franklin, and Moses Liverpool. Not one of this trio of Negro educators knew a letter of the alphabet; but having lived as slaves in Virginia, they had learned to appreciate the opinion that learning was of great price. They secured a white teacher, named Lowe, and put their school in operation.

At this time the entire population of free persons amounted to 494 souls. After a brief period the school subsided, but was reorganized again in 1818. The announcement of the opening of the school was printed in the "National Intelligencer" on the 29th of August, 1818.

"_A School_,

Founded by an association of free people of color, of the city of
Washington, called the 'Resolute Beneficial Society,' situate
near the Eastern Public School and the dwelling of Mrs. Fenwick,
is now open for the reception of children of free people of color
and others, that ladies or gentlemen may think proper to send to
be instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar,
or other branches of education apposite to their capacities, by a
steady, active, and experienced teacher, whose attention is
wholly devoted to the purposes described. It is presumed that
free colored families will embrace the advantages thus presented
to them, either by subscribing to the funds of the society, or by
sending their children to the school. An improvement of the
intellect and morals of colored youth being the objects of this
institution, the patronage of benevolent ladies, and gentlemen,
by donation or subscription, is humbly solicited in aid of the
fund, the demands thereon being heavy and the means at present
much too limited. For the satisfaction of the public, the
constitution and articles of association are printed and
published. And to avoid disagreeable occurrences, no writings are
to be done by the teacher for a slave, neither directly nor
indirectly, to serve the purpose of a slave on any account
whatever. Further particulars may be known by applying to any of
the undersigned officers.

"WILLIAM COSTIN, _President_.
"GEORGE HICKS, _Vice-President_.
"JAMES HARRIS, _Secretary_.
"GEORGE BELL, _Treasurer_.
"ARCHIBALD JOHNSON, _Marshal_.
"FRED. LEWIS, _Chairman of the Committee_.
"ISAAC JOHNSON,} _Committee_.
"SCIPIO BEENS, }

"N. B.--An evening school will commence on the premises on the
first Monday of October, and continue throughout the season.

"[Symbol: Right pointing hand.] The managers of Sunday-schools in
the eastern district are thus most dutifully informed that on
Sabbath-days the school-house belonging to this society, if
required for the tuition of colored youth, will be uniformly at
their service.

_August 29, 3t._"

This school was first taught by a Mr. Pierpont, of Massachusetts, a relative of the poet, and after several years was succeeded by a Colored man named John Adams, the first teacher of his race in the District of Columbia. The average attendance of this school was about sixty-five or seventy.

MR. HENRY POTTER'S SCHOOL.

The third school for Colored children in Washington was established by Mr. Henry Potter, an Englishman, who opened his school about 1809, in a brick building which then stood on the southeast corner of F and Seventh streets, opposite the block where the post-office building now stands. He continued there for several years and had a large school, moving subsequently to what was then known as Clark's Row on Thirteenth Street, west, between G and H streets, north.

MRS. HALL'S SCHOOL.

During this period Mrs. Anne Maria Hall started a school on Capitol Hill, between the old Capitol and Carroll Row, on First Street, east. After continuing there with a full school for some ten years, she moved to a building which stood on what is now the vacant portion of the Casparis House lot on A Street, close to the Capitol. Some years later she went to the First Bethel Church, and after a year or two she moved to a house still standing on E Street, north, between Eleventh and Twelfth, west, and there taught many years. She was a Colored woman from Prince George's County, Maryland, and had a respectable education, which she obtained at schools with white children in Alexandria. Her husband died early, leaving her with children to support, and she betook herself to the work of a teacher, which she loved, and in which, for not less than twenty-five years, she met with uniform success. Her schools were all quite large, and the many who remember her as their teacher speak of her with great respect.

MRS. MARY BILLING'S SCHOOL.

Of the early teachers of Colored schools in this district there is no one whose name is mentioned with more gratitude and respect by the intelligent Colored residents than that of Mrs. Mary Billing, who established the first Colored school that was gathered in Georgetown. She was an English woman; her husband, Joseph Billing, a cabinet-maker, coming from England in 1800, settled with his family that year in Washington, and dying in 1807, left his wife with three children. She was well educated, a capable and good woman, and immediately commenced teaching to support her family. At first, it is believed, she was connected with the Corporation School of Georgetown. It was while in a white school certainly that her attention was arrested by the wants of the Colored children, whom she was accustomed to receive into her schools, till the opposition became so marked that she decided to make her school exclusively Colored. She was a woman of strong religious convictions, and being English, with none of the ideas peculiar to slave society, when she saw the peculiar destitution of the Colored children in the community around her, she resolved to give her life to the class who seemed most to need her services. She established a Colored school about 1810, in a brick house still standing on Dunbarton Street, opposite the Methodist church, between Congress and High streets, remaining there till the winter of 1820-'21, when she came to Washington and opened a school in the house on H Street, near the Foundry Church, then owned by Daniel Jones, a Colored man, and still owned and occupied by a member of that family. She died in 1826, in the fiftieth year of her age. She continued her school till failing health, a year or so before her death, compelled its relinquishment. Her school was always large, it being patronized in Georgetown as well as afterward by the best Colored families of Washington, many of whom sent their children to her from Capitol Hill and the vicinity of the Navy Yard. Most of the better-educated Colored men and women now living, who were school children in her time, received the best portion of their education from her, and they all speak of her with a deep and tender sense of obligation. Henry Potter succeeded her in the Georgetown school, and after him Mr. Shay, an Englishman, who subsequently came to Washington and for many years had a large Colored school in a brick building known as the Round Tops, in the western part of the city, near the Circle, and still later removing to the old Western Academy building, corner of I and Seventeenth streets. He was there till about 1830, when he was convicted of assisting a slave to his freedom, and sent a term to the penitentiary. Mrs. Billing had a night school in which she was greatly assisted by Mr. Monroe, a government clerk and a Presbyterian elder, whose devout and benevolent character is still remembered in the churches. Mrs. Billing had scholars from Bladensburg and the surrounding country, who came into Georgetown and boarded with her and with others. About the time when Mrs. Billing relinquished her school in 1822 or 1823, what may be properly called

THE SMOTHERS SCHOOL-HOUSE,

was built by Henry Smothers on the corner of Fourteenth and H streets, not far from the Treasury building. Smothers had a small dwelling-house on this corner, and built his school-house on the rear of the same lot. He had been long a pupil of Mrs. Billing, and had subsequently taught a school on Washington Street, opposite the Union Hotel in Georgetown. He opened his school in Washington in the old corporation school-house, built in 1806, but some years before this period abandoned as a public school-house. It was known as the Western Academy, and is still standing and used as a school-house on the corner of I and Nineteenth streets, west. When his school-house on Fourteenth and H streets was finished, his school went into the new quarters. This school was very large, numbering always more than a hundred and often as high as a hundred and fifty scholars. He taught here about two years, and was succeeded by John W. Prout about the year 1825. Prout was a man of ability. In 1831, May 4, there was a meeting, says the "National Intelligencer" of that date, of "the colored citizens, large and very respectable, in the African Methodist Episcopal Church," to consider the question of emigrating to Liberia. John W. Prout was chosen to preside over the assemblage, and the article in the "Intelligencer" represents him as making "a speech of decided force and well adapted to the occasion, in support of a set of resolutions which he had drafted, and which set forth views adverse to leaving the soil that had given them birth, their true and veritable home, _without the benefits of education_." The school under Prout was governed by a board of trustees and was organized as

A FREE SCHOOL,

and so continued two or three years. The number of scholars was very large, averaging a hundred and fifty. Mrs. Anne Maria Hall was the assistant teacher. It relied mainly for support upon subscription, twelve and a half cents a month only being expected from each pupil, and this amount was not compulsory. The school was free to all Colored children, without money or price, and so continued two or three years, when failing of voluntary pecuniary support (it never wanted scholars), it became a regular tuition school. The school under Mr. Prout was called the "Columbian Institute," the name being suggested by John McLeod, the famous Irish school-master, who was a warm friend of this institution after visiting and commending the scholars and teachers, and who named his new building, in 1835, the Columbian Academy. The days of thick darkness to the Colored people were approaching. The Nat. Turner insurrection in Southampton County, Virginia, which occurred in August, 1831, spread terror everywhere in slave communities. In this district, immediately upon that terrible occurrence, the Colored children, who had in very large numbers been received into the Sabbath-schools in the white churches, were all turned out of those schools. This event, though seeming to be a fiery affliction, proved a blessing in disguise. It aroused the energies of the Colored people, taught them self-reliance, and they organized forthwith Sabbath-schools of their own. It was in the Smothers school-house that they formed their first Sunday-school, about the year 1832, and here they continued their very large school for several years, the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church ultimately springing from the school organization. It is important to state in this connection that

THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL,

always an extremely important means of education for Colored people in the days of slavery, was emphatically so in the gloomy times now upon them. It was the Sabbath-school that taught the great mass of the free people of color about all the school knowledge that was allowed them in those days, and hence the consternation which came upon them when they found themselves excluded from the schools of the white churches. Lindsay Muse, who has been the messenger for eighteen Secretaries of the Navy, successively, during fifty-four years, from 1828 to the present time, John Brown, Benjamin M. McCoy, Mr. Smallwood, Mrs. Charlotte Norris, afterward wife of Rev. Eli Nugent, and Siby McCoy, are the only survivors of the resolute little band of Colored men and women who gathered with and guided that Sunday-school. They had, in the successor of Mr. Prout, a man after their own heart,

JOHN F. COOK,

who came into charge of this school in August, 1834, about eight years after his aunt, Alethia Tanner, had purchased his freedom. He learned the shoemaker's trade in his boyhood, and worked diligently, after the purchase of his freedom, to make some return to his aunt for the purchase-money. About the time of his becoming of age, he dislocated his shoulder, which compelled him to seek other employment, and in 1831, the year of his majority, he obtained the place of assistant messenger in the Land Office. Hon. John Wilson, now Third Auditor of the Treasury, was the messenger, and was Cook's firm friend till the day of his death. Cook had been a short time at school under the instruction of Smothers and Prout, but when he entered the Land Office his education was at most only the ability to stumble along a little in a primary reading-book. He, however, now gave himself in all his leisure moments, early and late, to study. Mr. Wilson remembers his indefatigable application, and affirms that it was a matter of astonishment at the time, and that he has seen nothing in all his observations to surpass and scarcely to equal it. He was soon able to write a good hand, and was employed with his pen in clerical work by the sanction of the commissioner, Elisha Hayward, who was much attached to him. Cook was now beginning to look forward to the life of a teacher, which, with the ministry, was the only work not menial in its nature then open to an educated Colored man. At the end of three years he resigned his place in the Land Office, and entered upon the work which he laid down only with his life. It was then that he gave himself wholly to study and the business of education, working with all his might; his school numbering quite a hundred scholars in the winter and a hundred and fifty in the summer. He had been in his work one year when the storm which had been, for some years, under the discussion of the slavery question, gathering over the country at large, burst upon this district.

THE SNOW RIOT,

or "Snow storm," as it has been commonly called, which occurred in September, 1835, is an event that stands vividly in the memory of all Colored people who lived in this community at that time. Benjamin Snow, a smart Colored man, keeping a restaurant on the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, was reported to have made some remark of a bravado kind derogatory to the wives of white mechanics; whereupon this class, or those assuming to represent them, made a descent upon his establishment, destroying all his effects. Snow himself, who denied using the offensive language, with difficulty escaped unharmed, through the management of white friends, taking refuge in Canada, where he still resides. The military was promptly called to the rescue, at the head of which was General Walter Jones, the eminent lawyer, who characterized the rioters, greatly to their indignation, as "a set of ragamuffins," and his action was thoroughly sanctioned by the city authorities.

At the same time, also, there was a fierce excitement among the mechanics at the Navy Yard, growing out of the fact that a large quantity of copper bolts being missed from the yard and found to have been carried out in the dinner-pails by the hands, the commandant had forbid eating dinners in the yard. This order was interpreted as an insult to the white mechanics, and threats were made of an assault on the yard, which was put in a thorough state of defence by the commandant. The rioters swept through the city, ransacking the houses of the prominent Colored men and women, ostensibly in search of anti-slavery papers and documents, the most of the gang impelled undoubtedly by hostility to the Negro race and by motives of plunder. Nearly all the Colored school-houses were partially demolished and the furniture totally destroyed, and in several cases they were completely ruined. Some private houses were also torn down or burnt. The Colored schools were nearly all broken up, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the Colored churches were saved from destruction, as their Sabbath-schools were regarded, and correctly regarded, as the means through which the Colored people, at that time, procured much of their education.

The rioters sought, especially, for John F. Cook, who, however, had seasonably taken from the stable the horse of his friend, Mr. Hayward, the Commissioner of the Land Office, an anti-slavery man, and fled precipitately from the city. They marched to his school-house, destroyed all the books and furniture, and partially destroyed the building. Mrs. Smothers, who owned both the school-house and the dwelling adjoining the lots, was sick in her house at the time, but an alderman, Mr. Edward Dyer, with great courage and nobleness of spirit, stood between the house and the mob for her protection, declaring that he would defend her house from molestation with all the means he could command. They left the house unharmed, and it is still standing on the premises. Mr. Cook went to Columbia, Pennsylvania, opened a school there, and did not venture back to his home till the autumn of 1836. At the time the riot broke out, General Jackson was absent in Virginia. He returned in the midst of the tumult, and immediately issuing orders in his bold, uncompromising manner to the authorities to see the laws respected at all events, the violence was promptly subdued. It was, nevertheless, a very dark time for the Colored people. The timid class did not for a year or two dare to send their children to school, and the whole mass of the Colored people dwelt in fear day and night. In August, 1836, Mr. Cook returned from Pennsylvania and reopened his school, which under him had, in 1834, received the name of

UNION SEMINARY.

During his year's absence he was in charge of a free Colored public school in Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which he surrendered to the care of Benjamin M. McCoy when he came back to his home, Mr. McCoy going there to fill out his engagement.