Part 24 (2/2)

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the United States Com of Ed_, 1871, p 382]

An equally successful plan of workers in the West resulted in the founding of the first higher institution to be controlled by Negroes

Having for soe for the preparation of teachers and preachers, the Cincinnati Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in session in 1855 appointed Rev John F Wright as general agent to execute this design

Addressing theht and his associates solicited froents then made the purchase pay known as the healthy summer resort near Xenia, Ohio[1] That same year the institution was incorporated as Wilberforce University Fro of the mulatto children of southern slaveholders[2] When these were kept away, however, by the operations of the Civil War, the institution declined so rapidly that it had to be closed for a season Thereafter the trustees appealed again to the African Methodist Episcopal Church which in 1856 had declined the invitation to cooperate with the founders The colored Methodists had adhered to their decision to operate Union Seminary, a manual labor school, which they had started near Columbus, Ohio[3] The proposition was accepted, however, in 1862 For the amount of the debt of 10,000 which the institution had incurred while passing through the crisis, Rev Daniel A Payne and his associates secured the transfer of the property to the African Methodist Episcopal Church These new directors hoped to develop a first-class university, offering courses in law,speedily reor, but was checked in its progress by an incendiary, who burned thean emancipation celebration at Xenia, April 14, 1865 With the amount of insurance received and donations from friends, the trustees were able to construct awhich still marks the site of these early labors[4]

[Footnote 1: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol ii, p 113]

[Footnote 2: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, pp

372-373]

[Footnote 3: _History of Greene County, Ohio_, chapter on Wilberforce; and _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 373]

[Footnote 4: _The Non-Slaveholder_, vol ii, p 113]

A brighter day for the higher education of the colored people at ho the forties The abolitionists were then aggressively deroes Men ”condescended” to reason together about slavery and the treatment of the colored people The northern people ceased to think that they had nothing to do with these problems When these questions were openly discussed in the schools of the North, students and teachers gradually became converted to the doctrine of equality in education This revolution was instituted by President CB Storrs, of Western Reserve College, then at Hudson, Ohio His doctrine in regard to the training of theyouth under the responsibilities of ed the free discussion of all iroes for enlightenave rise to a spirit of inquiry which permeated the whole school The victory, however, was not easy After a long struggle the ument in favor of fair play for colored youth This institution had two colored students as early as 1834[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society_, p 42]

Northern institutions of learning were then reaching the third stage in their participation in the solution of the Negro problem At first they had to be converted even to allow a free discussion of the question; next the students on being convinced that slavery was a sin, sought to elevate the blacks thus degraded; and finally these workers, who had been accusto colored people, reached the conclusion that they should be ad with the whites Geneva College, then at Northfield, Ohio, now at Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, was being moved in this manner[1]

[Footnote 1: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-slavery Society_, 1834 p 43]

Lane Seminary, however, is the best exaes of this revolution This institution was peculiar in that the idea of establishi+ng it originated with a southerner, a ely by funds of southern Presbyterians, was located in Cincinnati about a mile from slave territory, and was attended by students froht of free discussion swept the country many of the proslavery students were converted to abolition To southerners it seemed that the seminary had resolved itself into a society for the elevation of the free blacks Students established Sabbath-schools, organized Bible classes, and provided lectures for Negroes ambitious to do advanced work Measures were taken to establish an acadeed But these noble efforts put forth so near the border States soon provoked firm opposition froone so far in the manifestation of their zeal that the institution was e the social equality of the races[2] Rather than remain in Cincinnati under restrictions, the reforenial Western Reserve where a nucleus of youth and their instructors had assue This school did so roes before the Civil War that it was often spoken of as an institution for the education of the people of color

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_, p 43]

[Footnote 2: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery Society_, p 43]

Interest in the higher education of the neglected race, however, was not confined to a particular co their attention to this task Ayroes an opportunity to study the classics,[1] New York Central College at McGrawville, Oneida Institute conducted by Beriah Green at Whitesboro, Thetford Academy of Vermont, and Union Literary Institute in the center of the communities of freedmen transplanted to Indiana Many other of our best institutions were opening their doors to students of African descent By 1852 colored students had attended the Institute at Easton, Pennsylvania; the Nore, Brunswick, Maine; Rutland College, Vere, Athens, Ohio; Franklin College, New Athens, Ohio; and Hanover College near Madison, Indiana Negroes had taken courses at the Medical School of the University of New York; the Castleton Medical School in Vermont; the Berkshi+re Medical School, Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the Rush Medical School in Chicago; the Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia; the Hoe of Cleveland; and the Medical School of Harvard University Colored preachers had been educated in the Theological Seical School; and the Theological Seminary of Charleston, South Carolina[2]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p 530]

[Footnote 2: These facts are taken froration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States Practically Considered_, published in 1852; the _Reports of the Antislavery and Colonization Societies_, and _The African Repository_]

Proe in the attitude toward the education of the free blacks was Gerrit Sreatest philanthropists of his tiher institutions by extending aid to such as would open their doors to persons of color In this way he beca it from 3,000 to 4,000 in cash and 3,000 acres of land in Vermont Because of the hospitality of Oberlin to colored students he gave the institution large suinia valued at 50,000 New York Central College which opened its doors alike to both races obtained froentleman proceeded on the presumption that it is the duty of the white people to elevate the colored and that the education of large nuraded classes[2] He wanted the either a coo out from our institutions well educated for any work to which they ht be called in this country or abroad[3] He himself established a colored school at Peterboro, New York As this institution offered both industrial and literary courses we shall have occasion tointerest in the higher education of Negroes was that these unfortunates hadthey had Many had by their creative power shohat they could do in business,[4]

soenius of the un to rank as successful lawyers,[6] not a few had becoro preachers wereto the spiritual needs of their people[8] SR Ward, a scholar of some note, was for a few years the pastor of a white church at Courtlandville, New York Robert Morris had been honored by the appointistrate by the Governor of Massachusetts, and in New Hampshi+re another islature[9]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 367]

[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol x, p 312]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 312]

[Footnote 4: Alas, John P Bell, Augustus Washi+ngton, Alexander S Thomas, Henry Boyd, PH Ray, and LT Wilcox]