Volume II Part 26 (1/2)
Was.h.i.+ngton is a woman of native refinement, and has an excellent apt.i.tude for teaching, as well as a good education. Her schools have always been conducted with system and superior judgment, giving universal satisfaction, the number of her pupils being limited only by the size of her room. In 1858, she moved to the bas.e.m.e.nt of the Baptist Church, corner of Nineteenth and I streets, to secure larger accommodations, and there she had a school of more than sixty scholars for several years.
A FREE CATHOLIC COLORED SCHOOL.
A free school was established in 1858, and maintained by the St.
Vincent de Paul Society, an a.s.sociation of Colored Catholics, in connection with St. Matthew's Church. It was organized under the direction of Father Walter, and kept in the Smothers school-house for two years, and was subsequently for one season maintained on a smaller scale in a house on L Street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, west, till the a.s.sociation failed to give it the requisite pecuniary support after the war broke out. This school has already been mentioned.
OTHER SCHOOLS.
In 1843, Elizabeth Smith commenced a school for small children on the island in Was.h.i.+ngton, and subsequently taught on Capitol Hill. In 1860, she was the a.s.sistant of Rev. Wm. H. Hunter, who had a large school in Zion Wesley Church, Georgetown, of which he was the pastor.
She afterward took the school into her own charge for a period, and taught among the contrabands in various places during the war.
About 1850, Isabella Briscoe opened a school on Montgomery Street, near Mount Zion Church, Georgetown. She was well educated, and one of the best Colored teachers in the district before the Rebellion. Her school was always well patronized, and she continued teaching in the district up to 1868.
Charlotte Beams had a large school for a number of years, as early as 1850, in a building next to Galbraith Chapel, I Street, north, between Fourth and Fifth, west. It was exclusively a girls' school in its later years. The teacher was a pupil of Enoch Ambush, who a.s.sisted her in establis.h.i.+ng her school.
A year or two later, Rev. James Shorter had a large school in the Israel Bethel Church, and Miss Jackson taught another good school on Capitol Hill about the same time. The above-mentioned were all Colored teachers.
Among the excellent schools broken up at the opening of the war, was that of Mrs. Charlotte Gordon, Colored, on Eighth Street, in the northern section of the city. It was in successful operation several years, and the number in attendance sometimes reached one hundred and fifty. Mrs. Gordon was a.s.sisted by her daughter.
In 1841, David Brown commenced teaching on D Street, south, between First and Second streets, island, and continued in the business till 1858, at which period he was placed in charge of the large Catholic free school in the Smothers house, as has been stated.[65]
Here is a picture that every Negro in the country may contemplate with satisfaction and pride. In the stronghold of slavery, under the shadow of the legalized inst.i.tution of slavery, within earshot of the slave-auctioneer's hammer, amid distressing circ.u.mstances, poverty, and proscription, three unlettered ex-slaves, upon the threshold of the nineteenth century, sowed the seed of education for the Negro race in the District of Columbia, from which an abundant harvest has been gathered, and will be gathered till the end of time!
What the Negro has done to educate himself, the trials and hateful laws that have hampered him during the long period anterior to 1860, cannot fail to awaken feelings of regret and admiration among the people of both sections and two continents.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] Recollections of the Anti-Slavery Conflict, by Rev. Samuel J.
May.
[59] Barnard, p. 337.
[60] Barnard, p. 339.
[61] Barnard, pp. 205, 206.
[62] Barnard, p. 357.
[63] Barnard, pp. 364-366.
[64] Barnard, pp. 377, 378.
[65] Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1871.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHN BROWN--HERO AND MARTYR.