Part 6 (1/2)

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, 1797, p 41]

The regular tutors referred to above were largely indentured servants who then constituted probably the majority of the teachers of the colonies[1] In 1773 Jonathan Boucher said that two thirds of the teachers of Maryland belonged to this class[2] The contact of Negroes with these servants is significant In the absence of rigid caste distinctions they associated with the slaves and the barrier between them was so inconsiderable that laws had to be passed to prevent the enation of the races The blacks acquired e from servant teachers and sometimes assisted them

[Footnote 1: See the descriptions of indentured servants in the advertisees 82-84; and Boucher, _A View of the Causes_, etc, p 39]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, pp 39 and 40]

Attention was directed also to the fact that neither literary nor religious education prepared the Negroes for a life of usefulness

Heeding the advice of Kosciuszko, Madison and Jefferson, the advocates of the education of the Negroes endeavored to give the as their peculiar needs dericultural sections the first duty of the teacher of the blacks was to show the from the soil This was the final test of their preparation for ee plantations where roes were trained as ers Many of those who showed aptitude were liberated and encouraged to produce for theiven small parcels of land for the cultivation of which they were allowed soricultural training was that many of the slaves thus favored a their spare ti crops of their own[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 196]

The advocates of useful education for the degraded race hadin the mechanic arts Such instruction, however, was not then a new thing to the blacks of the South, for they had from time immemorial been the trustworthy artisans of that section The aiive theent workmen and develop in them the power to plan for theely menial servants, adequate industrial education was deemed necessary for those ere to be liberated[1] Almost every Northern colored school of any consequence then offered courses in the handicrafts In 1784 the Quakers of Philadelphia e[2] Anthony Benezet provided in his will that in the school to be established by his benefaction the girls should be taught needlework[3] The teachers who took upon themselves the iarded industrial training as one of their important tasks[4]

[Footnote 1: See the _Address of the Am Conv of Abolition Societies_, 1794; _ibid_, 1795; _ibid_, 1797 _et passim_]

[Footnote 2: Wickersham, _History of Ed in Pa_, p 249]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1869, p 375]

[Footnote 4: Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p 20]

None urged this duty upon the directors of these schools anizations In 1794 the Aroes be instructed in ”those mechanic arts which will keep them most constantly employed and, of course, which will less subject them to idleness and debauchery, and thus prepare theood citizens of the United States”[1] Speaking repeatedly on this wise the Convention requested the colored people to let it be their special care to have their children not only to work at useful trades but also to till the soil[2] The early abolitionists believed that this was the only way the freedmen could learn to support themselves[3]

In connection with their schools the antislavery leaders had an Indenturing Committee to find positions for colored students who had the advantages of industrial education[4] In some co them out as apprentices to machinists and artisans until they learned a trade

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, 1794, p 14]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, 1795, p 29; _ibid_, 1797, pp 12, 13, and 31]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, 1797, p 31]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid_, 1818, p 9]

Two early efforts to carry out this policy are worthy of notice here

These were the endeavors of Anthony Benezet and Thaddeus Kosciuszko

Benezet was typical of those e of their conviction, not only taught colored people, but gladly appropriated property to their education Benezet died in 1784, leaving considerable wealth to be devoted to the purpose of educating Indians and Negroes His will provided that as the estate on the death of his ould not be sufficient entirely to support a school, the Overseers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia should join with a committee appointed by the Society of Friends, and other benevolent persons, in the care and maintenance of an institution such as he had planned Finally in 1787 the efforts of Benezet reached their culmination in the construction of a schoolhouse, with additional funds obtained from David Barclay of London and Thomas Sidney, a colored man of Philadelphia The pupils of this school were to study reading, writing, arith[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Co the Negroes' claieneral, was not unlike Benezet None of the revolutionary leaders were more moved with compassion for the colored people than this warrior He saw in education the powerful leverage which would place thehts ofour independence, Kosciuszko acquired here valuable property which he endeavored to devote to the enlightenment of the slaves He authorized Thomas Jefferson, his executor, to e the the them instructed for their new condition in the duties of morality” The instructors were to provide for theoodthe theood order of society, and whatsoever ht make them useful and happy”[1] Clearly as this was set forth the executor failed to discharge this duty enjoined upon his to obtain possession of the estate, which, so far as the author knoas never used for the purpose for which it was intended

[Footnote 1: _African Repository_, vol xi, pp 294-295]

In view of these nus we are compelled to inquire exactly what these educators accoh it is impossible to measure the results of their early efforts, various records of the eighteenth century prove that there was lessening objection to the instruction of slaves and practically none to the enlightenroes in considerable nurounded in the rudiments of education They had reached the point of constituting thecommunities; they were qualified to be tradesuished ers[1] Many ere favorably circu In exceptional cases, some were employed not only as teachers and preachers to their people, but as instructors of the white race[2]

[Footnote 1: Georgia and South Carolina had to pass laws to prevent Negroes froht thereby becoest of Public Statute Laws of SC_, vol ii, p 243; and Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia_, p 438]

[Footnote 2: Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p 74;to the condition of the colored people of North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee now in the hands of Dr JE Moorland]