History of the Negro Race in America Volume II Part 56

It will be seen that the tables we give refer only to the work done in educating the Negro in the Southern States. Much has been done in the Northern States, but in quite a different manner. The work of education for the Negro at the South had to begin at the bottom. There were no schools at all for this people; and hence the work began with the alphabet. And there could be no cla.s.sification of the scholars.

All the way from six to sixty the pupils ranged in age; and even some who had given slavery a century of their existence--mothers and fathers in Israel--crowded the schools established for their race.

Some ministers of the Gospel after a half century of preaching entered school to learn how to spell out the names of the twelve Apostles. Old women who had lived out their threescore years and ten prayed that they might live to spell out the Lord's prayer, while the modest request of many departing patriarchs was that they might recognize the Lord's name in print. The sacrifices they made for themselves and children challenged the admiration of even their former owners.

The unlettered Negroes of the South carried into the school-room an inborn love of music, an excellent memory, and a good taste for the elegant--almost grandiloquent--in speech, gorgeous in imagery, and energetic in narration; their apostrophe and simile were wonderful.

Geography and history furnished great attractions, and they developed ability to master them. In mathematics they did not do so well, on account of the lack of training to think consecutively and methodically. It is a mistake to believe this a mental infirmity of the race; for a very large number of the students in college at the present time do as well in mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, and conic sections as the white students of the same age; and some of them excel in mathematics.

The majority of the Colored students in the Southern schools qualify themselves to teach and preach; while the remainder go to law and medicine. Few educated Colored men ever return to agricultural life.

There are two reasons for this: First, reaction. There is an erroneous idea among some of these young men that labor is dishonorable; that an educated man should never work with his hands. Second, some of them believe that a profession gives a man consequence. Such silly ideas should be abandoned--they must be abandoned! There is a great demand for educated farmers and laborers. It requires an intelligent man to conduct a farm successfully, to sell the products of his labor, and to buy the necessaries of life. No profession can furnish a man with brains, or provide him a garment of respectability. Every man must furnish brains and tact to make his calling and election sure in this world, as well as by faith in the world to come. Unfortunately there has been but little opportunity for Colored men or boys to get employment at the trades: but prejudice is gradually giving way to reason and common-sense; and the day is not distant when the Negro will have a free field in this country, and will then be responsible for what he is not that is good. The need of the hour is a varied employment for the Negro race on this continent. There is more need of educated mechanics, civil engineers, surveyors, printers, artificers, inventors, architects, builders, merchants, and bankers than there is demand for lawyers, physicians, or clergymen. Waiters, barbers, porters, boot-blacks, hack-drivers, grooms, and private valets find but little time for the expansion of their intellects. These places are not dishonorable; but what we say is, _there is room at the top_!

An industrial school, something like Cooper Inst.i.tute, situated between New York and Philadelphia, where Colored boys and girls could learn the trades that race prejudice denies them now, would be the grandest inst.i.tution of modern times. It matters not how many million dollars are given toward the education of the Negro; so long as he is deprived of the privilege of learning and plying the trades and mechanic arts his education will injure rather than help him.[120] We would rather see a Negro boy build an engine than take the highest prize in Yale or Harvard.

It is quite difficult to get at a clear idea of what has been done in the Northern States toward the education of the Colored people. In nearly all the States on the borders of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers "Colored schools" still exist; and in many instances are kept alive through the spirit of the self-seeking of a few Colored persons who draw salaries in lieu of their continuance. They should be abolished, and will be, as surely as heat follows light and the rising of the sun. In the New England, Middle, and extreme Western States, with the exception of Kansas, separate schools do not exist. The doors of all colleges, founded and conducted by the white people in the North, are open to the Colored people who desire to avail themselves of an academic education. At the present time there are one hundred and sixty-nine Colored students in seventy white colleges in the Northern States; and the presidents say they are doing well.

_The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands_ was established in the spring of 1865 to meet the state of affairs incident upon the closing scenes of the great civil war. The Act creating the Bureau was approved and became a law on the 3d of March, 1865. The Bureau was to be under the management of the War Department, and its officers were liable for the property placed in their hands under the revised regulations of the army. In May, 1865, the following order was issued from the War Department appointing Major-Gen. O. O.

Howard Commissioner of the Bureau:

"[GENERAL ORDERS NO. 91.]

"WAR DEPARTMENT, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, } "WAs.h.i.+NGTON, May 12, 1865. }

"Order Organizing Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned "Lands.

"I. By the direction of the President, Major General O. O. Howard is a.s.signed to duty in the War Department as Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, under the act of Congress ent.i.tled 'An act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees,' to perform the duties and exercise all the rights, authority, and jurisdiction vested by the act of Congress in such Commissioner. General Howard will enter at once upon the duties of Commissioner specified in said act.

"II. The Quartermaster General will, without delay, a.s.sign and furnish suitable quarters and apartments for the said bureau.

"III. The Adjutant General will a.s.sign to the said bureau the number of competent clerks authorized by the act of Congress.

"By order of the President of the United States:

"E. D. Townsend, "_a.s.sistant Adjutant General_."

Gen. Howard entered upon the discharge of the vast, varied, and complicated duties of his office with his characteristic zeal, intelligence, and high Christian integrity. Hospitals were founded for the care of the sick, infirm, blind, deaf, and dumb. Rations were issued, clothing distributed, and lands apportioned to the needy and worthy.

From May 30, 1865, to November 20, 1865, inclusive, this Bureau furnished transportation for 1,946 freedmen, and issued to this cla.s.s of persons in ten States, 1,030,100 rations.

"Congress, when it created the bureau, made no appropriation to defray its expenses; it has, however, received funds from miscellaneous sources, as the following report will show:

"In several of the States, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and the District of Columbia, the interests of the freedmen were under the control of military officers a.s.signed by the War Department previous to the organization of this bureau.

Their accounts became naturally absorbed in the accounts of the bureau, and the following report embraces all the receipts and expenditures in all States now under control of the bureau since January 1, 1865:"

RECEIPTS.

Amount on hand January 1, 1865, and received since, to October 31, 1865:

From freedmen's fund $466,028 35 From retained bounties 115,236 49 For clothing, fuel, and subsistence 7,704 21 Farms 76,709 12 From rents of buildings 56,012 42 From rents of lands 125,521 00 From Quartermaster's department 12,200 00 From conscript fund 13,498 11 From schools (tax and tuition) 34,486 58 ---------- Total received 907,396 28

EXPENDITURES.

Freedmen's fund $8,009 14 Clothing, fuel, and subsistence 75,504 05 Farms 40,069 71 Household furniture 2,904 90 Rents of buildings 11,470 88 Labor (by freedmen and other employes) 237,097 62 Repairs of buildings 19,518 46 Contingent expenses 46,328 07 Rents of lands 300 00 Internal revenue 1,379 86 Conscript fund 6,515 37 Transportation 1,445 51 Schools 27,819 60 ---------- Total expended 478,363 17

RECAPITULATION.

Total amount received $907,396 28 Total amount expended 478,363 17 ----------- Balance on hand October 31, 1865 429,033 11 Deduct the amount held as retained bounties 115,236 49

Balance on hand October 31, 1865, available to meet liabilities 313,796 62[121]

It was the policy of the Government to help the freedmen on to their feet; to give them a start in the race of self-support and manhood.

They received such a.s.sistance as was given them with thankful hearts, and were not long in placing themselves upon a safe foundation for their new existence. Out of a population of 350,000 in North Carolina only 5,000 were receiving aid from the Government in the fall of 1865.

Each month witnessed a wonderful reduction of the rations issued to the freedmen. In the month of August, 1865, Gen. C. B. Fisk had reduced the number of freedmen receiving rations from 3,785 to 2,984, in Kentucky. In the same month, in Mississippi, Gen. Samuel Thomas, of the 64th U. S. C. I., had reduced the number of persons receiving rations to 669. In his report for 1865, Gen. Thomas said:

"The freedmen working land a.s.signed them at Davis's Bend, Camp Hawley, near Vicksburg, De Soto Point, opposite, and at Was.h.i.+ngton, near Natchez, are all doing well. These crops are maturing fast; as harvest time approaches, I reduce the number of rations issued and compel them to rely on their own resources. At least 10,000 bales of cotton will be raised by these people, who are conducting cotton crops on their own account. Besides this cotton, they have gardens and corn enough to furnish bread for their families and food for their stock till harvest time returns. * * * A more industrious, energetic body of citizens does not exist than can be seen at the colonies now."

Speaking of the industry of the freed people Gen. Thomas added: "I have lately visited a large portion of the State, and find it in much better condition than I expected. In the eastern part fine crops of grain are growing; the negroes are at home working quietly; they have contracted with their old masters at fair wages; all seem to accept the change without a shock."

From June 1, 1865, to September 1, 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau issued to the freed people of the South 8,904,451 rations, and was able to make the following financial showing of the Refugees' and Freedmen's fund. From November 1, 1865, to October 1, 1866, the receipts and expenditures were as follows:

Amount on hand November 1, 1865 $313,796 62

Received from various sources, as follows:

Freedmen's fund $367,659 93 Clothing, fuel, and subsistence 2,074 55 Farms (sales of crops) 109,709 98 Rent of buildings 48,560 87 Rent of lands 113,641 78 Conscript funds 140 95 Transportation 1,053 50 Schools (taxes) 64,145 86 ------------- Total on hand and received $1,020,784 04

EXPENDITURES.

Freedmen's fund $7,411 32 Clothing, fuel, and subsistence 13,870 93 Farms (fencing, seeds, tools, etc.) 7,210 66 Labor (by freedmen and other employes) 426,918 12 Rent of buildings (offices, etc.) 50,186 61 Repairs of buildings 1,957 47

EXPENDITURES.--(_Continued._)

Contingent expenses 74,295 77 Rent of lands (restored) 9,260 58 Quartermaster's department 11 26 Internal revenue (tax on salaries) 7,965 22 Conscript fund 1,664 01 Transportation 22,387 01 Schools 115,261 56 ----------- Total expended $738,400 52 ----------- Balance on hand October 1, 1866 $282,383 52

In September, 1866, the Bureau had on hand:

RECAPITULATION.

Balance on hand of freedmen's fund $282,383 52 Balance of District dest.i.tute fund 18,328 67 Balance of appropriation 6,856,259 30 ------------- Total $7,156,971 49

Estimated amount due subsistence department $297,000 00 Transportation reported unpaid 26,015 94 Transportation estimated due 20,000 00 Estimated amount due medical department 100,000 00 Estimated, amount due quartermaster's department 200,000 00 ----------- $643,015 94 ------------- Total balance for all purposes of expenditures $6,513,955 55 -------------

But the estimate of Gen. Howard for funds to run the Bureau for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1867, only called for the sum of three million eight hundred and thirty-six thousand and three hundred dollars, as follows:

Salaries of a.s.sistant commissioners, sub-a.s.sistants, and agents $147,500 Salaries of clerks 82,800 Stationery and printing 63,000 Quarters and fuel 200,000 Subsistence stores 1,500,000 Medical department 500,000 Transportation 800,000 School superintendents 25,000 Buildings for schools and asylums, including construction, rental, and repairs 500,000 Telegraphing and postage 18,000 ---------- $3,836,300

This showed that the freed people were rapidly becoming self-sustaining, and that the aid rendered by the Government was used to a good purpose.

Soon after Colored Troops were mustered into the service of the Government a question arose as to some safe method by which these troops might save their pay against the days of peace and personal effort. The n.o.ble and wise Gen. Saxton answered the question and met the need of the hour by establis.h.i.+ng a Military Savings Bank at Beaufort, South Carolina. Soldiers under his command were thus enabled to husband their funds. Gen. Butler followed in this good work, and established a similar one at Norfolk, Virginia. These banks did an excellent work, and so favorably impressed many of the friends of the Negro that a plan for a Freedman's Savings Bank and Trust Company was at once projected. Before the spring campaign of 1865 opened up, the plan was presented to Congress; a bill introduced creating such a bank, was pa.s.sed and signed by President Lincoln on the 3d of March.

The following is the Act: