Part 12 (2/2)

In northern cities like Philadelphia and New York, where benevolent organizations provided an adequate number of colored schools, the free blacks did not develop so roes of these cities, however, cannot be considered exceptions to the rule Many of those of Philadelphia were of the most ambitious kind, men who had purchased their freedoence to delude their would-be captors and conquer the institution of slavery Settled in this community, the thrifty class accumulated wealth which they often used, not only to defray the expenses of educating their own children, but to provide educational facilities for the poor children of color

Gradually developing the power to help theanized a society which in 1804 opened a school with John Trumbull as teacher[1] About the same time the African Episcopalians founded a colored school at their church[2] A colored ave three hundred pounds of the required funds to build the first colored schoolhouse in Philadelphia[3] In 1830 one fourth of the twelve hundred colored children in the schools of that city paid for their instruction, whereas only two hundred and fifty were attending the public schools in 1825[4] The fact that so to share the responsibility of enlightening their people caused a larger number of philanthropists to come to the rescue of those who had to depend on charity Furthermore, of the many achievements claimed for the colored schools of Philadelphia none were considered nificant than that they produced teachers qualified to carry on this work Eleven of the sixteen colored schools in Philadelphia in 1822 were taught by teachers of African descent In 1830 the systeroes[5]

[Footnote 1: Turner, _The Negro in Pennsylvania_, p 129]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 130]

[Footnote 3: _Special Report of the US Cos of the American Convention_, etc, 1825, p

13]

[Footnote 5: _Proceedings of the Am Convention_, etc, 1830, p8; and Wickersham, _History of Education in Pennsylvania_, p 253]

The statistics of later years sho successful these early efforts had been By 1849 the colored schools of Philadelphia had developed to the extent that they see to the _Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of Colored People in and about Philadelphia_, published that year, there were 1643 children of color attending well-regulated schools The larger institutions were anizations of which the Society of Friends and the Pennsylvania Abolition Society were thethese institutions, however, the intelligent colored anized a syste clubs, one of which had a library of 1400 volu in the colored families and industrial schools of Philadelphia h these instructors restricted their work to the teaching of the rudiments of education, they did roes who cae numbers when conditions became intolerable for the free people of color in the slave States The statistics of the following decade show unusual progress In the year 1859 there were in the colored public schools of Philadelphia, 1031 pupils; in the charity schools, 748; in the benevolent schools, 211; in private schools, 331; in all, 2321, whereas in 1849 there were only 1643[2]

[Footnote 1: About the middle of the nineteenth century colored schools of various kinds arose in Philadelphia With a view to giving Negroes industrial training their friends opened ”The School for the Destitute” at the House of Industry in 1848 Three years later Sarah Luciana was teaching a school of seventy youths at this House of Industry, and the Sheppard School, another industrial institution, was in operation in 1850 in a building bearing the same name In 1849 arose the ”Corn Street Unclassified School” of forty-seven children in charge of Sarah L Peltz ”The Holanized in 1854 Other institutions of various purposes were ”The House of Refuge,” ”The Orphans' Shelter,” and ”The Home for Colored Children” See Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, 1859

A in private schools of Philadelphia were Soloe, John Marshall, John Ross, Jonathan Tudas, and David Ware Ann Bishop, Virginia Blake, Alass, Rebecca Hailstock, Earet Johnson, Martha Richards, Dinah S in families See _Statistical Inquiry_, etc, 1849, p 19; and Bacon, _Statistics of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, 1859]

[Footnote 2: _Statistical Inquiry into the Condition of the Colored People of Philadelphia_, in 1859]

Situated like those of Philadelphia, the free blacks of New York City did not have to maintain their own schools This was especially true after 1832 when the colored people had qualified themselves to take over the schools of the New York Manuot rid of all the white teachers, even Andrews, the principal, who had for years directed this systeroes therenumber of colored teachers, who had availed themselves of the opportunities afforded by the benevolent schools The stigh free schools stiroes to have their children instructed either in private institutions kept by friendly white teachers or by teachers of their own color[1] In 1812 a society of the free people of color was organized to raise a fund, the interest of which was to sustain a free school for orphan children[2] This society succeeded later in establishi+ng andtwo schools At this time there were in New York City three other colored schools, the teachers of which received their compensation from those who patronized them[3]

[Footnote 1: See the Address of the As of the Am Convention_, etc, 1812, p 7

Certain colored woanized to procure and make for destitute persons of color See Andrews, _History of the New York African Free Schools_, p 58]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 58]

Whether from lack of interest in their welfare on the part of the public, or froroes to share their own burdens, the colored people of Rhode Island were endeavoring to provide for the education of their children during the first decades of the last century _The Newport Mercury_ of March 26, 1808, announced that the African Benevolent Society had opened there a school kept by Newport Gardner, as to instruct all colored people ”inclined to attend”

The records of the place show that this school was in operation eight years later[1]

[Footnote 1: Stockwell, _History of Ed in RI_, p 30]

In Boston, where were found land communities, the colored people themselves maintained a separate school after the revolutionary era In the towns of Salem, Nantucket, New Bedford, and Lowell the colored schools failed to ress after the first quarter of the nineteenth century on account of the more liberal construction of the lahich provided for democratic education This the free blacks were forced to advocate for the reason that the see a dual systelect, and sometimes the extinction of the separate schools Furtherroes of some of these toere too scarce or the movement to furnish them special facilities of education started too late to escape the attacks of the abolitionists

Seeing their an to attack caste in public education

In the eastern cities where colored school systems thereafter continued, the as not always successful The influx of fugitives in the rough so liberal co for an undesirable class The friends of the Negroes, however, receivedthe two decades ie in the attitude of northern cities toward the uplift of the colored refugees Catholics, Protestants, and abolitionists often united their roes, although these friends of the oppressed could not always agree on other important schemes Even the colonizationists, the object of attack from the ardent antislavery element, considerably aided the cause They educated for work in Liberia a nuood schools, demonstrated the capacity of the colored people More important factors than the colonizationists were the free people of color Brought into the rapidly growing urban coan to accumulate sufficient wealth to provide permanent schools of their own Many of these were later assimilated by the systems of northern cities when their separate schools were disestablished

CHAPTER VII

THE REACTION