Volume II Part 22 (1/2)
Melancthon Smith, Jno. Bleeker, James Cogswell, Lawrence Embree, Thomas Burling, Willett Leaman, Jno. Lawrence, Jacob Leaman, White Mattock, Mathew Clarkson, Nathaniel Lawrence, Jno. Murray, Jr.
Their school, located in Cliff Street, between Beekman and Ferry, was opened in 1786, taught by Cornelius Davis, attended by about forty pupils of both s.e.xes, and appears, from their book of minutes, to have been satisfactorily conducted. In the year 1791 a female teacher was added to instruct the girls in needle-work, the expected advantages of which measure were soon realized and highly gratifying to the society.
In 1808 the society was incorporated, and in the preamble it is recorded that ”a free school for the education of such persons as have been liberated from bondage, that they may hereafter become useful members of the community,” has been established. It may be proper here to remark that the good cause in which the friends of this school were engaged, was far from being a popular one. The prejudices of a large portion of the community were against it; the means in the hands of the trustees were often very inadequate, and many seasons of discouragement were witnessed; but they were met by men who, trusting in the Divine support, were resolved neither to relax their exertions nor to retire from the field.
Through the s.p.a.ce of about twenty years they struggled on; the number of scholars varying from forty to sixty, until the year 1809, when the Lancasterian, or monitorial, system of instruction was introduced (this being the second school in the United States to adopt the plan), under a new teacher, E. J. c.o.x, and a very favorable change was produced, the number of pupils, and the efficiency of their instruction being largely increased.
Soon after this, however, in January, 1814, their school-house was destroyed by fire, which checked the progress of the school for a time, as no room could be obtained large enough to accommodate the whole number of pupils. A small room in Doyer Street was temporarily hired, to keep the school together till further arrangements could be made, and an appeal was made to the liberality of the citizens and to the corporation of the city, which resulted in obtaining from the latter a grant of two lots of ground in William. Street, on which to build a new school-house; and in January, 1815, a commodious brick building, to accommodate 200 pupils, was finished on this lot, and the school was resumed with fresh vigor and increasing interest. In a few months the room became so crowded that it was found necessary to engage a separate room, next to the school, to accommodate such of the pupils as were to be taught sewing. This branch had been for many years discontinued, but was now resumed under the direction of Miss Lucy Turpen, a young lady whose amiable disposition and faithful discharge of her duties rendered her greatly esteemed both by her pupils and the trustees. This young lady, after serving the board for several years, removed with her parents to Ohio, and her place was supplied by Miss Mary Lincrum, who was succeeded by Miss Eliza J. c.o.x, and the latter by Miss Mary Ann c.o.x, and she by Miss Carolina Roe, under each of whom the school continued to sustain a high character for order and usefulness.
The school in William Street increasing in numbers, another building was found necessary, and was built on a lot of ground 50 by 100 feet square, on Mulberry Street, between Grand and Hester streets, to accommodate five hundred pupils, and was completed and occupied, with C. C. Andrews for teacher, in May, 1820.
General Lafayette visited this school September 10, 1824, an abridged account of which is copied from the ”Commercial Advertiser” of that date:
VISIT OF LAFAYETTE TO THE AFRICAN SCHOOL IN 1824.
”At 1 o'clock the general, with the company invited for the occasion, visited the African free school, on Mulberry Street.
This school embraces about 500 scholars; about 450 were present on this occasion, and they are certainly the best disciplined and most interesting school of children we have ever witnessed. As the general was conducted to a seat, Mr. Ketchum adverted to the fact that as long ago as 1788 the general had been elected a member of the inst.i.tution (Manumission Society) at the same time with Granville Sharp and Thomas Clarkson, of England. The general perfectly remembered the circ.u.mstances, and mentioned particularly the letter he had received on that occasion from the Hon. John Jay, then president of the society. One of the pupils, Master James M. Smith, aged eleven years, then stepped forward and gracefully delivered the following address:
”'GENERAL LAFAYETTE: In behalf of myself and fellow-schoolmates may I be permitted to express our sincere and respectful grat.i.tude to you for the condescension you have manifested this day in visiting this inst.i.tution, which is one of the n.o.blest specimens of New York philanthropy. Here, sir, you behold hundreds of the poor children of Africa sharing with those of a lighter hue in the blessings of education; and while it will be our pleasure to remember the great deeds you have done for America, it will be our delight also to cherish the memory of General Lafayette as a friend to African emanc.i.p.ation, and as a member of this inst.i.tution.'
”To which the general replied, in his own characteristic style, 'I thank you, my dear child.'
”Several of the pupils underwent short examinations, and one of them explained the use of the globes and answered many questions in geography.”
PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN.
These schools continued to flourish under the same management, and with an attendance varying from 600 in 1824 to 862 in 1832, in the latter part of which year the Manumission Society, whose schools were not in part supported by the public fund, applied to the Public School Society for a committee of conference to effect a union. It was felt by the trustees that on many accounts it was better that the two sets of schools should remain separate, but, fearing further diversion of the school fund, it was desirable that the number of societies partic.i.p.ating should be as small as possible, and arrangements were accordingly made for a transfer of the schools and property of the elder society. After some delay, in consequence of legislative action being found necessary to give a t.i.tle to their real estate, on the 2d of May, 1834, the transfer was effected, all their schools and school property pa.s.sing into the hands of the New York Public School Society, at an appraised valuation of $12,130.22.
The aggregate register of these schools at the time of the transfer was nearly 1,400, with an average attendance of about one half that number. They were placed in charge of a committee with powers similar to the committee on primary schools, but their administration was not satisfactory, and it was soon found that the schools had greatly diminished in numbers, efficiency, and usefulness. A committee of inquiry was appointed, and reported that, in consequence of the great anti-slavery riots and attacks on Colored people, many families had removed from the city, and of those that remained many kept their children at home; they knew the Manumission Society as their special friends, but knew nothing of the Public School Society; the reduction of all the schools but one to the grade of primary had given great offence; also the discharge of teachers long employed, and the discontinuance of rewards, and taking home of spelling books; strong prejudices had grown up against the Public School Society. The committee recommended a prompt a.s.similation of the Colored schools to the white; the establishment of two or more upper schools in a new building; a normal school for Colored monitors; and the appointment of a Colored man as school agent, at $150 a year. The school on Mulberry Street at this time, 1835, was designated Colored Grammar School No.
1. A. Libolt was princ.i.p.al, and registered 317 pupils; there were also six primaries, located in different parts of the city, with an aggregate attendance of 925 pupils.
In 1836 a new school building was completed in Laurens Street, opened with 210 pupils, R. F. Wake (colored), princ.i.p.al, and was designated Colored Grammar School No. 2. Other means were taken to improve the schools, and to induce the Colored people to patronize them; the princ.i.p.al of No. 1, Mr. Libolt, was replaced by Mr. John Peterson, colored, a sufficient a.s.surance of whose ability and success we have in the fact that he has been continued in the position ever since. A ”Society for the Promotion of Education among Colored Children” was organized, and established two additional schools, one in Thomas Street, and one in Centre, and a marked improvement was manifest; but it required a long time to restore the confidence and interest felt before the transfer, and even up to 1848 the aggregate attendance in all the Colored schools was only 1,375 pupils.
In the winter of 1852 the first evening schools for Colored pupils were opened; one for males and one for females, and were attended by 379 pupils. In the year 1853 the Colored schools, with all the schools and school property of the Public School Society, were transferred to the ”Board of Education of the City and County of New York,” and still further improvements were made in them; a normal school for Colored teachers was established, with Mr. John Peterson, princ.i.p.al, and the schools were graded in the same manner as those for white children.
Colored Grammar School No. 3, was opened at 78 West Fortieth Street, Miss Caroline W. Simpson, princ.i.p.al, and in the ensuing year three others were added; No. 4 in One Hundred and Twentieth Street (Harlem), Miss Nancy Thompson, princ.i.p.al; No. 5, at 101 Hudson Street, P. W.
Williams, princ.i.p.al; and No. 6, at 1,167 Broadway, Prince Leveridge, princ.i.p.al. Grammar Schools Nos. 2, 3, and 4, had primary departments attached, and there were also at this time three separate primary schools, and the aggregate attendance in all was 2,047. Since then the attendance in these schools has not varied much from these figures.
The schools themselves have been altered and modified from time to time, as their necessity seemed to indicate; though under the general management of the Board of Education, they have been in the care of the school officers of the wards in which they are located, and while in some cases they received the proper attention, in others they were either wholly, or in part, neglected. A recent act has placed them directly in charge of the Board of Education, who have appointed a special committee to look after their interests, and measures are being taken by them which will give this cla.s.s of schools every opportunity and convenience possessed by any other, and, it is hoped, will also improve the grade of its scholars.h.i.+p.[63]
NORTH CAROLINA
suffered her free persons of color to maintain schools until 1835, when they were abolished by law. During the period referred to, the Colored schools were taught by white teachers, but after 1835 the few teachers who taught Colored children in private houses were Colored persons. The public-school system of North Carolina provided that no descendant from Negro ancestors, to the fourth generation inclusive, should enjoy the benefit thereof.
OHIO.
The first schools for Colored children in Ohio were established at Cincinnati in 1820, by Colored men. These schools were not kept up regularly. A white gentleman named Wing, who taught a night school near the corner of Vine and Sixth Streets, admitted Colored pupils into his school. Owen T. B. Nickens, a public-spirited and intelligent Colored man, did much to establish schools for the Colored people.
In 1835 a school for Colored children was opened in the Baptist Church on Western Row. It was taught at different periods by Messrs. Barbour, E. Fairchild, W. Robinson, and Augustus Wattles; and by the following-named ladies: Misses Bishop, Matthews, Lowe, and Mrs.
Merrell. Although excellent teachers as well as upright ladies and gentlemen, they were subjected to great persecutions. They were unable to secure board, because the spirit of the whites would not countenance the teachers of Negro schools, and they spelled the word with two g's. And at times the teachers were compelled to close the school on account of the violence of the populace. The salaries of the teachers were paid partly by an educational society of white philanthropists, and partly by such Colored persons as had means. Of the latter cla.s.s were John Woodson, John Liverpool, Baker Jones, Dinnis Hill, Joseph Fowler, and William O'Hara.