Part 7 (2/2)

Durham ”I learned more from him than he could expect from me,” was the comment of the Philadelphian upon a conversation in which he had thought to appear as instructor of the younger physician[2]

[Footnote 1: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol i, p 223]

[Footnote 2: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc, p 17]

Most pro these brainy persons of color were Phyllis Wheatley and Benjaht from Africa in 1761 and put to service in the household of John Wheatley of Boston There, without any training but that which she obtained from her master's fauage fluently, and to read the reat inclination for Latin and e Led to writing by curiosity, she was by 1765 possessed of a style which enabled her to count a her correspondents some of the most influential men of her time Phyllis Wheatley's title to faeneral attainments as a scholar but rather on her ability to write poetry Her poems seemed to have such rare merit that ination, enlightened enius The publishers were so ht reassurance as to the authenticity of the poems from such persons as Ja at her works, the modern critic would readily say that she was not a poetess, just as the student of political econoht college freshman who has studied introductory economics can write a treatise as scientific as the _Wealth of Nations_ The student of history, however,to the standards of her time, Phyllis Wheatley was an exceptionally intellectual person

[Footnote 1: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc, p 18; Wright, _Poems of Phyllis Wheatley_, Introduction]

The other distinguished Negro, Benjamin Banneker, was born in Baltie of Ellicott Mills Banneker was sent to school in the neighborhood, where he learned reading, writing, and arith, he applied his s intellectual, cultivated the power of observation, and developed a retentive memory

These acquirements finally made him tower above all other American scientists of his time with the possible exception of Benjamin Franklin In conformity with his desire to do and create, his tendency was towardthe only timepieces in the vicinity, he made in 1770 the first clockthe attention of the scientific world Learning these things, the owner of Ellicott Mills becaenius, lent hi these volumes were treatises on astronomy, which Banneker soon mastered without any instruction[2] Soon he could calculate eclipses of sun andof each star with an accuracy almost unknown to Ah Goddard and Angell of Baltimore the publication of the first almanac produced in this country Jefferson received from Banneker a copy, for which he wrote the author a letter of thanks It appears that Jefferson had soenius, but the fact that the philosopher invited Banneker to visit hi reputation of the Negro e his opinion as to the extent of Banneker's attainments and the value of his contributions to ton, _Jefferson's Works_, vol v, p 429]

[Footnote 2: Baldwin, _Observations_, etc, p 16]

[Footnote 3: Washi+ngton, _Jefferson's Works_, vol v, p 429]

So favorable did the aspect of things becoroes, that persons observing the conditions then obtaining in this country thought that the victory for the despised race had been won Traveling in 1783 in the colony of Virginia, where the slave trade had been abolished and schools for the education of freedmen established, Johann Schoepf felt that the institution was doo Pennsylvania five years later, Brissot de Warville reported that there existed then a country where the blacks were allowed to have souls, and to be endoith an understanding capable of being fore, and where they were not regarded as beasts of burden in order that theirthem as such He was pleased that the colored people by their virtue and understanding belied the caluainst them, and that in that community one perceived no difference between ”the memory of a black head whose hair is craped by nature, and that of the white one craped by art”[2]

[Footnote 1: Schoepf, _Travels in the Confederation_, p 149]

[Footnote 2: Brissot de Warville, _New Travels_, vol I, p 220]

CHAPTER V

BETTER BEGINNINGS

Sketching the second half of the eighteenth century, we have observed how the struggle for the rights ofattention to those of low estate, and sweeping away the iious freedom, anizations We have also learned that this upheaval left the slaves the objects of piety for the sympathetic, the concern of workers in behalf of social uplift, a class offered instruction as a prerequisite to eroes became tolerable, benevolent persons volunteered to instruct them, and some schools maintained for the education of white students were thrown open to those of African blood It was the day of better beginnings In fact, it was the heyday of victory for the ante-bellueous; never was it thus again until the whole race was emancipated Now the question which naturally arises here is, to what extent were such efforts general? Were these beginnings sufficiently extensive to secure adequate enlightene number of colored people? Was interest in the education of this class so widely manifested thereafter as to cause the movement to endure? A brief account of these efforts in the various States will answer these questions

In the Northern and Middle States an increasing nuermane the question as to what consideration should be shown to the colored people[1] A general adressive coainst the race, but on account of the feeling that the past of the colored people having been different fro with their situation To ht it best to provide for them ”special,”

”individual,” or ”unclassified” schools adapted to their condition[2]

In inated not with the white race, but with the people of color theister_, vol xvi, pp 241-243 and vol

xxiii, p 23]

[Footnote 2: See _The Proceedings of the Aroes had al of their enslavement some chance for mental, moral, and spiritual improvement, but the revolutionary eneral effort to elevate the people of color through the influence of the school and church In 1770 the Rhode Island Quakers were endeavoring to give young Negroes such an education as becomes Christians In 1773 Newport had a colored school, yland, with a handso and writing Providence did not exhibit such activity until the nineteenth century Having a larger black population than any other city in New England, Boston was the center of these endeavors In 1798 a separate school for colored children, under the charge of Elisha Sylvester, a white man, was established in that city in the house of Pri[1] Two years later sixty-six free blacks of that city petitioned the school committee for a separate school, but the citizens in a special town rant this request[2] Undaunted by this refusal, the patrons of the special school established in the house of Prie as instructors, until 1806[3] The school was thenHouse in Belknap Street where it remained until 1835 when, with funds contributed by Abiel Sro education in New England was marked in 1820, when the city of Boston opened its first primary school for the education of colored children[4]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 357]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 357]

[Footnote 3: Next to be instructor of this institution was Prince Saunders, as brought to Boston by Dr Channing and Caleb Binghaht up in the family of a Vermont lawyer, and experienced as a diplomatic official of Emperor Christopher of Hayti, Prince Saunders was able to do ht in this school was John B Russwore, and, later, Governor of the Colony of Cape Palmas in Southern Liberia See _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 357; and _African Repository_, vol ii, p 271]

[Footnote 4: _Special Rep of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 357]