Part 26 (1/2)

[Footnote 2: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p 34; and Monroe, _Cyclopaedia of Education_, vol iv, p 406]

This as more successful in the State of New York There, too, the cause was championed by the abolitionists[1] After the eroes in that commonwealth by 1827 the New York Antislavery Society devoted more time to the elevation of the free people of color The rapid rise of the laboring classes in this swiftly growing city made it evident to their benefactors that they had to be speedily equipped for competition hite mechanics or be doomed to follow roes anything like the opportunity for industrial training, however, was Gerrit S sufficient wealth to carry out the plan In 1834 he established in Madison County, New York, an institution known as the Peterboro Manual Labor School The working at trades was provided not altogether to teach the mechanic arts, but to enable the students to support the school As a coht, and board furnished by the founder, the student was expected to labor four hours daily at soricultural or mechanical employment ”important to his education”[3] The faculty estie of about 12-1/2 cents for each student

[Footnote 1: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p 25]

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

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, vol x, p 312]

Efforts were then being made for the establishment of another institution near Philadelphia These endeavors culminated in the above-mentioned benefaction of Richard Humphreys, by the will of whom 10,000 was devised to establish a school for the purpose of instructing ”descendants of the African race in school learning in the various branches of the riculture”[1] In 1839 anized an association to establish a school such as Humphreys had planned

The founders believed that ”thethe moral and intellectual character of the descendants of Africa, as well as of i their social condition, is to extend to theood education, and to instruct thee of some useful trade or business, whereby they may be enabled to obtain a coh thesethe various duties of doood citizens and pious s practical the association purchased in 1839 a piece of land in Bristol townshi+p, Philadelphia County, where they offered boys instruction in far, and other useful trades Their endeavors, so far as training in the mechanic arts was concerned, proved to be a failure

In 1846, therefore, the ricultural, and manual labor experiment The trustees then sold the farm and stock, apprenticed theschool Thinking mainly of classical education thereafter, the trustees of the fund finally established the Institute for Colored Youth of which we have spoken elsewhere

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the US Com of Ed_, 1871, p 379]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, 1871, p 379]

Some of the philanthropists who promoted the practical education of the colored people were found in the Negro settlements of the Northwest Their first successful attempt in that section was the establishment of the E of this institution was due ustus Wattles as instru freedmen to leave Cincinnati and settle in this county about 1835[1]

Wattles traveled in alhborhood of the State and laid before them the benefits of permanent homes and the education for their children On his first journey he organized, with the assistance of abolitionists, twenty-five schools for colored children Interested thereafter in providing a head for this system he purchased for himself ninety acres of land in Mercer County to establish a manual labor institution He sustained a school on it at his own expense, till the 11th of November, 1842 Wattles then visited Philadelphia where he became acquainted with the trustees of the late Samuel Emlen, a Friend of New Jersey He had left by his will 20,000 ”for the support and education in school learning and riculture of boys of African and Indian descent whose parents would give such youths to the Institute”[2] The means of the two philanthropists were united The trustees purchased a farm and appointed Wattles as superintendent of the establish it Eroes had sufficient interest in education to support a number of elementary schools, this institution once had considerable influence[3] It was removed to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in 1858 and then to Warminster in the same county in 1873

[Footnote 1: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p 355]

[Footnote 2: Howe, _Ohio Historical Collections_, p 356]

[Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Education in Pa_, p 254]

Another school of this type was founded in the Northwest This was the Union Literary Institute of Spartanburg, Indiana The institution owes its origin to a group of bold, antislavery men who ”in the heat of the abolition excitero They soon had opposition froress of the institution But thanks to the indefatigable Ebenezer Tucker, its first principal, the ”nigger School” weathered the storm The Institute, however, was founded to educate both races Its charter required that no distinction should be ly, although the student body was fro of the school partly white, the board of trustees represented denominations of both races Accessible statistics do not show that colored persons ever constituted more than one-third of the students[2] It was one of thecontinued after the Civil War, carrying out to sons of its founders As the plan to continue it as a private institution proved later to be ied into a public school[3]

[Footnote 1: Boone, _The History of Education in Indiana_, p 77]

[Footnote 2: According to the _Report of the United States Commissioner of Education_ in 1893 the colored students then constituted about one-third of those then registered at this institution See p 1944 of this report]

[Footnote 3: Records of the United States Bureau of Education]

Scarcely less popular was the British and American Manual Labor Institute of the colored settlements in Upper Canada This school was projected by Rev Hiraanization was not undertaken until 1842 The refugees were then called together to decide upon the expenditure of 1500 collected in England by James C Fuller, a Quaker They decided to establish at Dawn ”a ht those eleraht in addition the practice of soirls could be instructed in those domestic arts which are the proper occupation and ornament of their sex”[1] A tract of three hundred acres of land was purchased, a few buildings were constructed, and pupils were soon aders endeavored toby the employment of the students for certain portions of the ti of this kind attracted to Dresden and Dawn sufficient refugees to make these prosperous settlements Rev Hiraan with fourteen ”boarding scholars” when there were no more than fifty colored persons in all the vicinity In 1852 when the population of this community had increased to five hundred there were sixty students attending the school Indian and white children were also ad later in number from fifty-six to one hundred and sixteen[3] This institution becaroes of Canada Travelersfor the prosperity and good ees[4] Unfortunately, however, after the year 1855 when the school reached its zenith, it began to decline on account of bad feeling probably resulting froement

[Footnote 1: Henson, _Life of Josiah Henson_, pp 73, 74]

[Footnote 2: Henson, _Life of Josiah Henson_, p 115]