Studies in the South

VII.

EDUCATION.

THE various churches and religious organizations in the Southern States all appeared to be deeply interested in the work of popular education, and their leading men were evidently studying the problems and difficulties connected with the subject with serious attention. Most of these religious bodies have schools and colleges of various grades under their supervision. I visited many of these, and I think that their work, when compared with that of institutions of learning of similar rank in the Northern States, must be pronounced fairly good, and decidedly creditable to the communities which sustain them. Education is not so general in the South as in New England, but it is regarded with more respect, and its possession confers greater distinction. The education obtained at the best Southern colleges has long been noticeably solid and genuine in quality, and I thought the young men at these institutions appeared to be rather more vigorous than the students in our foremost Northern colleges or universities, — to have greater intellectual and personal force. Perhaps this is owing to the fact that usually, in the South, only boys that evince superior ability are sent to college. There are comparatively few rich men in the Southern States, and, in consequence, not so many young men as at the North are sent to the best schools merely because their parents are possessed of great wealth.

The educational work already accomplished in the South by the American Missionary Association is of a high character, and it deserves all possible recognition and assistance. The best Southern people everywhere spoke of it gratefully and enthusiastically. At the Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Virginia; Talladega College, in Alabama ; Tugaloo University, Mississippi ; Tillotson Normal School, Austin, Texas, and at several other colleges and normal schools which I saw, though the money endowments are scanty compared with the amounts which are needed, the endowments in personal qualities and character, as represented by the teachers, are of a remarkably high order. This is necessary, for the work of educating the colored people of the South requires the best teachers that can be obtained.

In many of these institutions the boys learn something of various trades or mechanical occupations, and of farming ; and the girls are taught sewing, cooking, and the care of a house. I examined a great number of the negro common and high schools, which are taught by graduates and students of the colleges and normal schools which I have named, and I think it wonderful that so many of these negro teachers are successful. They have to struggle against many disadvantages, but nearly all whom I saw had the confidence and respect of the leading white citizens where they were at work. There were a few fools among them, of course, but a great majority appeared to be serious and sensible young men and women.

DIFFERENT SCHOOL SYSTEMS.

One feature divides the state school systems of the South into two classes. The States of the first class have each but one school fund for both races, and in these no distinction is made between white and black children in the distribution of this fund. Of this class the State of Virginia is a good representative. Each State of the other class has two separate school funds, one for white and the other for black children. Of this class the State of Kentucky is a good representative. The white people of Virginia, of course, pay much the larger part of the taxes which are levied for educational purposes in that State, but this does not affect the apportionment of the school fund. The State does as much for a black child as for a white one in the matter of aid from the public treasury for purposes of education. During the year which closed just before my visit to the South, the number of schools in Virginia was almost doubled; the school attendance was more than double that of the preceding year, and was greater by about fifteen thousand pupils than in any previous year. Over two hundred new school-houses were built, and nearly one hundred thousand dollars added to the value of the school property of the State. The total expenditure for all school purposes for the year was about one million dollars. There were nearly five thousand schools in operation. This number should be greatly increased, of course, as there were then eighty-seven white children for each white school in the State, and one hundred and ninety-one colored children for each colored school. This shows that for a very large number of children of each race no school facilities had, up to that time, been provided.

A very successful Teachers’ Institute for white teachers had just been held at the University of Virginia. Four hundred and sixty-seven teachers attended it, of whom three hundred and twelve were women. The Colored Normal Institute was held at Lynchburg at the same time, and was attended by two hundred and forty colored teachers, of whom one hundred and teu were women. Dr. W. H. Ruffner, then State Superintendent of Public Instruction, said of this Colored Teachers’ Institute, “ None who witnessed any considerable part of the proceedings could doubt either the capacity or the desire of the negro for intellectual, and especially, in this case, for professional improvement. There is no social or governmental purpose for which money could be more wisely spent than in the systematic training of colored teachers for colored schools.” Public education was at that time advancing in Virginia, and the expansion and improvement of the schools had a substantial basis in the character of the men who then directed these activities of the commonwealth ; but since then the operation of “ the spoils system,” connected with the peculiar political movement of the day, has affected the educational interests of the State unfavorably.

The State of Kentucky appropriates the taxes received from colored persons and the fines collected from them to the support of colored schools, not considering it just to tax white people for the education of negro children. As there is comparatively little wealth in the possession of the colored people of Kentucky, their school fund is by no means adequate to their needs. The Virginia plan is far better for both races, and for all the interests of the commonwealth, and Kentucky would do well to adopt it, even if it does go beyond the requirements of strict justice and involve some degree of generosity. In Georgia the law gives authority to local school boards to levy taxes and organize schools, and in some places a very remarkable degree of public spirit has been developed among the people in regard to education ; the expenditures for school purposes are wonderfully large, and as the system is wisely managed the results are of the most gratifying character. Other States are doing well, but in most of them much remains to be done in the preparation of plans, and the discussion of methods for the expansion and better endowment and organization of public education.

HELP FROM THE NATIONAL TREASURY.

Before leaving the subject of the educational interests and needs of the Southern States, I wish to suggest that the most important problem connected with these interests at present relates to the method of raising revenues for school purposes, or to the source from which such revenues are to be obtained. As I have already noted, there is in the South a strong and very general sentiment in favor of “ a national system of education.” By this phrase is meant a system which shall provide for the support of the public schools in the Southern States, or in all the States, by appropriations from the national treasury. Many Southern politicians are in favor of the creation of a “ Department of Education ” as a branch of the national government, of equal rank and authority with the departments already existing, and desire that this department shall have the direction and care of the public schools of the whole country. The advocates of this plan urge that there would be great advantages in the uniformity of methods of instruction and organization which would result from the adoption of a national system, with a single head and central authority exercising general control. The subject readily lends itself to speech-making purposes, and I learned, while in the South, that it is possible to make a strong and popular presentation of this plan in public address.

Other Southern men, more moderate in their views, propose that the national government shall undertake the education of the colored race only, leaving the interests of the white people to be provided for by the state governments. But it would seem that the training of white children should be regarded as not less important than that of the blacks, and there is a large class of white people in the South whose available resources for educational purposes are even more slender than those of the negroes. No reason has yet been brought forward in support of the idea of educating the blacks at the cost of the national government, and under its direction, which would not be equally cogent if used in favor of the education of the “poor whites” by the same system. Their need of instruction is as great as that of the blacks, and, whatever may be the peculiar obligations of the nation in regard to the colored people, it can scarcely be our duty, I suppose, to make any discrimination against the white people of our country, or any portion of them, or to adopt measures of national policy which would have the effect of making Anglo-Saxon lineage comparatively a disadvantage and misfortune. But such would be the practical bearing and consequences of creating a system of national education for the black people of the Southern States, and excluding the white population of the same States from participation in its benefits. If the supervision and support of the common schools of the country by the national government would insure superior facilities or opportunities for those who might receive instruction in these national schools, surely no class should be excluded on account of difference of race or color, or of any condition of inferiority or misfortune.

Such a system or method of education would tend strongly to perpetuate race distinctions, as its most characteristic and essential feature would be the discrimination between whites and blacks ; and it would hinder and tend to prevent the political amalgamation or assimilation of the two races in the South. This blending of the two races into one political community, so that the color or race line shall no longer form the boundary between political parties, is most important and desirable for all concerned.

BENEFITS OF SELF-HELP.

The feeling and conviction, on the part of the white people of the South, that the elevation of the negro race is indispensable to the safety of society, and that their present condition of ignorance and debasement is full of danger for both races, is a most wholesome and necessary sentiment. Nothing should be done to release these white people from their proper duties and responsibilities connected with the education of the negroes, and their moral guidance and control. The whites and blacks together form the political community or society in the Southern States, however they may be separated by social or other distinctions. The people of the two races jointly and equally, in proportion to their numbers, constitute the state in our political system ; and it is in every way best for all the interests concerned that they should learn to bear the burdens and perform the work of the state or civilized community together, learning thus the importance of coöperation for the accomplishment of the great objects of civilized life, and developing mutual respect, sympathy, and confidence. As education is in our couutry one of the functions of the state, it is better for the people of these Southern communities to attend to the organization and direction of the activities connected with this function, and to bear their necessary cost, even though it may involve some temporary inconvenience, than to shift the responsibility and expense for such objects to the nation at large.

A system of national education for the blacks, or the appropriation of national revenues for their education, would be a source of evil and injury to both races and to the nation. I do not think that the poverty of the Southern people is so great as to render national aid for educational purposes indispensable or really desirable. Such destitution or paucity of resources as now exists in some of the Southern States need not be permanent, and is not likely to be so. There is already a marked and steady increase in the wealth of many of these States ; and, on the other hand, a degree of self-sacrifice for the sake of objects really valuable is an improving and civilizing influence of which the Southern people should not be deprived.

The advantages of education will be valued more highly if they are obtained by the provident foresight and public spirit of the local communities, than if they are derived from gifts bestowed by the national government; and much better use will naturally be made of them. It is important to develop a spirit of self-help and independence among the black people, and to avoid anything that would incline them to look to the national government for interference in their behalf, or for special fostering or protection of the interests of their class. It would be easy to injure and degrade many of the colored people by creating conditions which would have the effect of leading them to expect the interposition of the national government, for their assistance, in every experience of hardship or difficulty. Their chief dangers and calamities are likely to be produced by their own indolence and want of self-restraint, and they should not be encouraged to expect, from any source but their own efforts to improve their condition, relief from suffering which is the natural consequence of vice.

WHAT KIND OF EDUCATION ?

It appears to be generally assumed, by those who urge the necessity of national aid for Southern schools, that all the difficulties and dangers of the present condition of the South are due to the lack of education there, and that they would be entirely (or almost wholly) removed by the influence and effect of the culture that would result from the giving of such aid. But this notion is not likely to be adopted by any one who has much acquaintance with the intellectual and social conditions now existing among the Southern people, or who has seriously considered the limitations of popular education and its results in the Northern communities in which it has had most complete development and most efficient operation. The education most needed at the South, and especially by the colored people, is industrial and moral training; and the public schools of this country do not, at present, give to the children and young people taught in them much training or culture of either of these kinds. It is of course desirable that the children of negroes should be taught to read and write, and to keep accounts for themselves; but it is still more important that they should be trained to labor, and be aided to obtain such elementary moral equipment as will help efficiently to prevent their sinking to the criminal or pauper class.

There are so many “ branches of knowledge ” in the course of study in our public schools almost everywhere in the Northern States that the pupils are hurried from one study or exercise to another during all the hours of the school day, and there is very little time for thought regarding even the lessons themselves, and still less for any kind of moral instruction. It is the custom to eulogize our system of commonschool education, without limit or discrimination. It is perhaps one of the best things in our possession, but it is curiously unmoral; that is, it is almost entirely intellectual, and makes little account of moral instruction or development. The teaching in our Northern schools tends very generally to produce in the pupils a dislike of manual labor, and a disposition to regard those who live by it as an inferior class. The strongest social influences, particularly those which are dominant in most Northern churches, reinforce these sentiments and tendencies, and nearly all the teachers in the public schools represent and embody them in large degree, as they have either “ risen out of the laboring class,” or are endeavoring to escape from the necessity of manual toil.

But a great deal of manual labor is necessary, and if it is to be performed only by inferior persons it seems foolish to give our serfs an education that will either make them restless and discontented in their degraded condition, or will cause them to “ rise out of it,” and leave it altogether. In the latter case, some of the superior people might be compelled to work with their hands. Our public-school education is a great source of discontent among the working people. It “ Americanizes ” the children of the ignorant, toilsome Irish immigrant so successfully that they feel that they are entitled to higher prizes than fall to the lot of those who work with their hands.

Such education would be of slight practical value to most negroes. They would learn more of what they most need to know by being trained to work than could be acquired by them in our best public schools. Good Sunday-school instruction, the plain teaching of the essential principles and fundamental precepts of New Testament morality, as they are adapted to use in the conduct of life by seriousness and what is called “ common sense ” on the part of the instructor, is better suited to supply the education required by the condition and interests of the negro than any other agency with which I am acquainted. The peculiar adaptation of judicious training to the state of the negro which is called for by his present situation and character consists in the free and constant play of personal influence, and the vital personal relations which should be established between the teacher and his pupils. In our public schools the personal influence of the teacher is reduced almost to a minimum. The teacher has become, in many instances, chiefly a machine for conducting recitations, and represents forces which are mechanical rather than vital.

NO REASON FOR A “ CRAZE.”

I conclude that such education as the advocates of “ national aid” — especially the Northern advocates of this plan — have in mind would not greatly benefit the negroes nor any other class in the South. Young colored men will not necessarily be improved by being able to read a partisan newspaper, nor the girls of their race by the perusal of worthless and vulgar stories, written by men and women destitute of culture or discipline of any kind. There is no necessity for haste in the adoption of important measures either of national or state legislation in reference to this subject. Much time will be required to prepare any new plan or system, if its practical development and effect are to be wholesome and beneficial. The need of the Southern States, or of the negroes in them, for public-school education is not desperate. If there is anything desperate in the present condition of the South, any terrible peril which threatens important national interests, it will not be removed or averted by such education as is given in the public schools of the Northern States. The pressure for haste in the adoption of a system of national education for the negroes comes mostly from politicians, and from persons who think that a “ crusade ” is the best method of progress. The vehement rhetoric which they employ in the endeavor to start a popular clamor, which shall “demand” the enactment of such laws as they desire for this end, and their impatient denunciation of those who oppose the project as “ moss-backs, fogies, and Bourbons,” appear to indicate a degree of distrust on the part of the advocates of this plan regarding the effect of deliberate inquiry, a fear that it might not be favorable to their wishes. There should be much discussion before the adoption of any measure providing for changes of such importance in the relations of the national government to the institutions and functions of the separate States.

If, as a result of such discussion, it is decided that the nation shall undertake or provide for the education of the negroes, the instruction and training given them should by all means be chiefly practical, technical, and industrial, rather than literary. After the studies belonging to the primary or elementary grades in the schools, or along with them, should be given such instruction and drill as will best prepare the pupils for the most common mechanical occupations and for agricultural labor. The improvement of the quality of Southern labor is one of the most important objects that can engage the attention and efforts of intelligent citizens of the Southern States at present, and it is also a matter of vital interest to the capitalists of the whole country. The laborer himself should of course be improved by education; but as all knowledge is not of equal value to a man who must make his living by the labor of his hands, his education should be adapted to the conditions of his life, and should aid him more efficiently to perform the particular duties which circumstances will require of him.

THE PERSONAL EFFORTS OF SOUTHERN WOMEN.

Among the most important features of the educational work now going on in the South is one which, from its nature, can have little public recognition. I refer to the personal missionary efforts of the women of the leading white families for the improvement of the common people of both races in their own communities. In many places, where the men are discouraged and depressed by the greatness of the work which needs to be done for the people around them, the feebleness of their resources, and the unfavorable conditions under which all such efforts must be made, there are a few women who feel that something must be done, and who are circulating every scrap of reading matter that they can obtain ; are advising, instructing, and encouraging the colored girls whenever they can obtain any hold upon them ; are trying to inspire and strengthen the young men of both races to resist the evil influences about them; and are, in short, reconstructing society by the old, slow, best method of personal effort and influence. I have rarely found anywhere earnestness greater than theirs, or a clearer sense of the dangers to society from ignorance and immorality. The appalling magnitude of the evils against which they contend, and the pathetic slenderness of their means of warfare, would deeply impress any thoughtful person who could observe and measure them, as I had opportunity to do in many places.

In several towns and country neighborhoods these women are forming reading circles and clubs, and trying to prepare the way for the establishment of small public libraries. No doubt much reading matter could be sent to them, if I could give the names of persons to whom it should be directed. But that is not yet practicable. Such publicity would, in many instances, very seriously cripple this good work, or indeed render it impossible. Such work must be, especially in the South, under existing conditions, private and personal, in the earlier stages of its development. But every person who has opportunity to send reading matter to any one in the South who will receive and distribute it ought to do so, as in this respect the destitution is very great almost everywhere, except in the larger towns and cities. “ Anything to read ” which is not mischievous or utterly worthless, books or magazines, will be acceptable and useful. But it is not usually worth while to send old school-books. They can scarcely be of much use anywhere. I find that many of them have been sent to the South, apparently to get them out of the way, or perhaps with a vague notion that things worthless elsewhere might be valuable in that benighted region.

LETTERS FROM THESE LADIES.

Since my return from the South, a few earnest and patriotic men and women in New England and other portions of our country have sent me considerable sums of money, amounting to several hundred dollars in all, to be used for the assistance of the Southern women referred to above, who are striving, against such odds, to create centres or points of light around which a new civilization may be developed. It has all been distributed, and most of it was devoted to the purchase of a few books for each worker and her clients, choosing such works as were specially adapted to the peculiar conditions prevailing in different parts of the South, and only books of superior literary worth. Such fields of work are the last places in the world to which poor or trashy reading matter should be sent.

The letters received from these ladies, in acknowledgment of gifts of books from Northern well-wishers, are all much alike. The following, from a lady in Louisiana, fairly represents their general characteristics, and I print it as an expression of the feelings and spirit of the class of Southern women to which the writer belongs : —

-, -, LA., January 5, 1882.

DEAR SIR, — The books which you sent reached us safely, and I wish to express, in some small measure, our grateful thanks for your kindness, and for the assistance which your generous friends have given us.

My sister, Miss G. (whom you saw when here), and I make equal use of the books among our people here and in her neighborhood on - Bayou. You ask me to tell you something of what you kindly call our work, and of its beginning. We have talked it over, and at first we thought we could not tell how it began. In fact, it began in the “ slavery days,” long before the war. When we were little girls, our mother always went around to the cabins of the old and sick negroes on the plantation every Saturday, and she often took us with her in the carriage. We learned a little about nursing. Our place was destroyed in 1863, and our dear mother died soon after. Our father, though an old man, was killed in battle, as was one brother. The other died in a prison camp at Elmira, New York.

I was married as soon as the war closed, and my husband and I came back to the desolate plantation. The negroes had been scattered, but soon returned. We were broken-hearted, and my sister and I began to go about among the negroes ; at first to try to escape from our distraction, and then to see if we could find any women or girls to help us in the house. Our greatest difficulty was that the old ways of living had been broken up, and none of us knew exactly how to adapt ourselves to the new state of things, which was not yet fully developed.

Finally, my sister said the negroes must be taught. It seemed like trying to make a new world, but she said we might as well begin, and we did. My husband laughed at us, but helped us all he could. Most of the negroes about here can read now, and many can write, and we have sent two young men and one girl to the normal school to be teachers. We drill and scold and punish them, old and young, and help them to have picnics and settle their quarrels, and — do everything.

I am afraid this is very vague. But really, what we do is so vague that it is hard to see what it is ; yet I suppose it has changed the negroes a good deal. They behave better and they know more than in the old times. But they are not so happy. They are not so free from care. The new knowledge often seems to be a weight and a trouble to them. But of course we must go on, though we often feel that we do not know just what or how much it is best to teach them.

In answer to your inquiries about the influences and value of different books, we have found that, while almost anything is of use, good books are the best, even for the most ignorant. We make much use of poetry. Many of Mr. Longfellow’s poems, and of Mr. Lowell’s, please the negroes, both old and young ; and Mr. Matthew Arnold’s Selection of Wordsworth’s poetry is a good religious book for us.

Mrs. Whitney’s stories are much liked, as are Mr. George Macdonald’s Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood and At the Back of the North Wind. Mr. Edward Clodd’s Childhood of the World, and Colonel Higginson’s Young Folks’ History of the United States, are very good. We could profitably use additional copies of all these. But your selections have been so useful that we do not wish to ask for particular books. We are very grateful indeed for your offer to send another parcel. If it should contain anything not suitable here, we can send it to our friends in Tensas Parish, who are working under difficulties greater even than ours.

It would not seem becoming to have our names published, or communicated to strangers ; but if it can be done without this, we should like to have our thanks given to the kind ladies who sent us the books. With best wishes for them and for you, I am, dear sir, very gratefully and sincerely yours,

ALICE E-.

A lady near Eutaw, in Alabama, writes : —

“ The books are all admirable, and will be most helpful for our people. As to what we most need, nothing would do so much good to the negroes as some simple little books, or chapters, to teach practical religion or morality. Few can imagine how much elementary work is needed here, or how very elementary it must be. You will not suspect me of contempt for the race — though others might — when I say that teaching these young negroes is like trying to make a new human race out of animals. We have to begin at the first of everything. I wish some of your literary people would write some little books, or lessons, explaining how and why it is wrong and bad to steal, for instance, how it does harm to lie, the bad results of laziness, and such things, on grounds connected with character and life in this world. It is not best to depend too much on ideas of punishment and reward in another world, in teaching the negroes, though of course these ideas have great force with them. But we cannot afford to use them every day ; they would soon be in great degree worn out.

“ Negroes generally feel badly to be found out in stealing or lying. They do not like to be scolded. But few of them can understand why it would not be a gain to a poor man to steal five dollars, if he could do it without being found out. It is often very hard to know how to begin with such people. It seems as if they had no moral faculties to be developed; as if they would have to be created. Many of them have a strong love of approbation, and I acknowledge that I govern or influence them more by means of this trait than in any other way. They do things to please me. I sometimes hear the mothers saying to their girls, ‘ Bettah look out what you’s ’bout. Miss Leila be ’shamed o’ you.’ Some of my friends think it is not right to appeal to such motives to have them do better, but I try everything that I can think of. Only last week I threatened to whip an old man because he took some of my Sunday-school boys away fishing on Sunday morning. I could not have hurt him much, but he threw up his hands in terror, and exclaimed, ‘ Oh, Miss Leila, I mos’ rudder go to jail dan have you tech me wid a straw.’ Then I said, ‘Uncle Steve, you’re the worst nigger on this creek, and you ’ll break my heart. Here I ’m trying to make these boys decent and good for something, and you ’re always putting brush in my road.’ ‘ W’at kin I do fo’ you, Miss Leila ? ’ in the most abject manner. ‘ Come to Sunday-school, and help me with those boys.’ ‘ Can’t larn me nuffin ; I’s too old.’ ‘ But you come and help me.’ And he came last Sunday, much to the wonder of the school and of the whole neighborhood, and it was quite a victory.”

FOR NEW ENGLAND WRITERS.

These passages are from letters written in response to requests of mine that the ladies would tell me something of their methods of work. The wish that “some of the New England literary people ” would write and publish simple lessons or manuals for such instruction in morality as is needed by negroes who have learned to read, or for the use of their teachers, appears in several of these letters. (Southern people estimate very highly the powers of New England writers ; they have more regard and admiration for literary work or performances, as such, than is common in the Northern States, where there is greater familiarity with such matters.) If any of our thoughtful young people are inclined to effort in the direction indicated, they may feel assured that anything really suited for the purpose above described would be of great value in the education of the colored people of the South, and would probably be found to be an advance upon the books or lessons now in use in Northern Sunday-schools, where, also, in many places, there is great need of suitable apparatus for the most elementary moral instruction.

But I have counseled these Southern teachers to depend mainly upon themselves for helps or instruments of this kind, and have suggested to them that if they will habitually take notes, or keep some record, of what they say to those whom they teach, so as to be able to recall the main points or ideas which they employ, and something of the illustrations and familiar forms of expression which they find it necessary to use in order to make their teaching intelligible or impressive, they will in a year or two find themselves in possession of a great deal of the very best material for such books or lessons as they desire for their work. No possible degree of literary ability, or, I should think, even of genius, would qualify any person for writing such guides or manuals, without some measure of actual experience in training the ignorant and undeveloped.

I will present but one additional extract. A lady in Kemper County, Mississippi, has very recently written me a letter, which I should like to quote in full. In speaking of the black people she says, “ Their religion seems dreadful, in some ways, to intelligent people. It is dreadful in its wretched superstitions, and passionate impulses, and excitements. But I am convinced that our work with them must be, not to get them out of their religion, but to put better things into their religion. They need to learn how to be religious on ‘ business principles,’ if I may use the phrase without danger of misapprehension, how to act rightly in worldly affairs, — that is their great need, — and still be religious in a true sense. There ought to be some little books to instruct those who are the brightest among them, so that we can make teachers of them for their own race. Do you think something of the kind could be prepared by any one whom you know ? Of course it would not do to be learned or philosophical. I have wondered sometimes if parables would not be good.”

Who will write some parables ? It is proper to add here that the best writings that I have yet seen for the instruction of the common people in practical affairs, and generally in the conduct of life, have been produced at the South. They have been issued as a series of Sanitary Tracts for the People, and were prepared by two ladies connected with the Normal and Agricultural Institute for the education of negroes and Indians, at Hampton, Virginia. The executive committee of the American Social Science Association, at a meeting held June 8, 1878, Professor Pierce in the chair, unanimously adopted a resolution expressing a most favorable judgment of the character of these tracts, and of the effort “ to spread among the people of Virginia, and of the South in general, a knowledge of sanitary science popularly set forth.” There is great need in the South, as there is in the factory towns of New England, of books and papers which shall be more particularly and directly addressed to the working people, and more vitally adapted to the conditions, interests, and duties of their life, than those to which these classes now have access.

MIXED SCHOOLS FOR THE TWO RACES.

There is one important feature or division of the subject of education in the Southern States which I have not yet brought forward in these studies ; that is, the question of separate or mixed schools for the two races. The sentiment, feeling, and judgment of the Southern people are at present strongly and almost universally opposed to the idea of educating white and black children, or young people, in the same schools. But a change in this matter is already in progress. After attentively studying the subject everywhere, I am convinced that there will soon be mixed schools, for white and colored children, in many parts of the South. There are already a few such schools, and the effect of considerations of convenience, cheapness, and practical efficiency are likely, I think, to cause a rapid increase in their number. I look for a decided revolution in Southern thought and feeling within twenty years in regard to this subject. A few of the most intelligent and far-seeing among Southern leaders — some of the foremost “ Bourbons ” — say that mixed schools are “ sure to come,” and they are not disturbed by the prospect.

I insert here a letter received a few weeks ago from the president of an important Southern institution of learning, to whom I had addressed some inquiries relating to this question. It will serve to show what has already been done in one instance, in the association of the two races in the same school. The strongest tendencies of the time appear to confirm the judgment thus expressed by a distinguished teacher, regarding the probable course of development of the relations between the white people and the negroes in education.

--,March 15, 1882.

DEAR SIR, — Our school before the war was a white school for both sexes, and sometimes numbered a hundred pupils. It was an anti-slavery school, and, after John Brown’s raid, was broken up by a committee of sixty-five men, sent by a county convention.

The school was revived soon after the war, and for several months the students were all white. Three or four colored youth then asked admission, and were admitted, and half the white students left the same day. Other colored students came in and filled the vacancy. Those who had left nearly all returned within two years.

For over fifteen years we have had both sexes and both races meeting without distinction in church, chapel, classes, dining-room, choir, band, literary societies, reading-rooms, Young Men’s and Young Women’s Christian Association, and other places.

It took a little time to get everything adjusted, and there was a little friction at first, but no serious difficulty has ever occurred ; and none whatever during the last eight years.

The ratio of white to colored students has been, for the whole time, about two to three. A few times there have been as many white as colored students.

They often meet in social gatherings of from one to three hundred, white and colored, without friction and without embarrassment. Some of our brightest and most interesting students are colored.

There has never been an engagement of marriage between two of different colors. Occasionally, a white young man escorts a bright colored young lady to a lecture. We have absolutely no knowledge of color in our school regulations.

Mixed schools will come, but slowly, and will commence in country places, where there are few colored children. In the cities the higher schools will first mix. The change cannot come suddenly, and it is not desirable that it should.

One district in an adjoining county, not being allowed by law to admit colored children, built a new school-house, and all went there together.

Columbus, Ohio, has within a year abandoned its last colored school. The constitution and laws of the United States will settle the matter soon enough. I am yours respectfully,

INTELLECTUAL POWERS OF THE BLACKS.

The question of the capacity of the colored people to receive education is one of great interest. It is of course still uncertain whether many of them will be found capable of acquiring a high degree of intellectual culture, and considerable time will be required for the solution of this problem. It does not appear to me probable that the race in general will prove to be possessed of sufficient intellectual fibre and tenacity to enable them to endure the labor and discipline upon which a varied and complex culture depends. It will be very strange, considering their antecedents and their present environment, if the colored people do not show themselves manifestly inferior to the whites. I think that the sanguine friends of the black people may be disappointed by the results of their education, because, as it seems to me, they expect too much of a generation which has no intellectual past behind it. But it is possible that the disappointment really awaits those who are less hopeful. The negro has not failed where he has had a fair trial. He was successful as a slave. The race was developed and benefited by slavery in this country, instead of being corrupted and ruined by it, and this may indicate the possession of qualities which will render it capable of a high degree of civilization ; but it is more probable that its most important characteristics are such as fit it for a subordinate position. In such a relation to a stronger race, the black people would be likely to evince great tenacity and power of endurance under conditions of depression and misfortune. But it is a question whether the race is possessed of qualities which will render it in a high degree vital and efficient in its relations to the actual environment here in America.

Negroes have greater imitative ability than the whites, and they acquire the rudiments of knowledge with a readiness which is often wonderful ; but I doubt their possessing capacity for sustained and complex intellectual exertion. Yet they have more of sentiment, fire, and passion in their nature than the white people, and these elements may greatly increase the vigor and efficiency of their intellectual endowment.

It appears to be certain that they have a superior equipment for oratory. It is said of many of their public speakers in the Southern States, politicians and preachers, that they will attempt to speak on any subject and upon any occasion, without preparation or previous acquaintance with the matter in hand ; and that even with such odds against them they often succeed in saying something effectively, — in persuading or strongly influencing their auditors by fluency, pathos, humor, and beauty of expression. Eloquence seems to be natural for many of them, and I heard several colored men described as among the best public speakers in the South by cultivated white antagonists. But I do not think this aptness for oratory on the part of the negroes is likely to be of much value to them or to the country. Popular oratory and eloquence have not been highly serviceable during recent years as aids to progress in intelligence or morality in the Northern States of this country. They have been used in the interest of flippancy and coarseness, and in a manner rather to prevent than to promote discussion and serious thought. Oratory has its uses when great issues are clearly made and understood, — when men are to be roused from apathy to enthusiasm in a great cause. But at present there is no “ great cause.” The people of the country need light. We want wisdom, direction, that we may deal successfully with the problems of the time, and thoughtfulness and serious discussion are more desirable for us than enthusiasm and eloquent oratory. It might be better for the country if our people cared less for eloquence; and if we were entirely destitute of orators for a few years, it would probably not be a great misfortune to the nation. It seems not unlikely that the South may again become distinguished for oratory, and that it may develop new power in poetry and other forms of art; and it is possible that the black race may be represented in this Renaissance.

The opportunities of education and development should of course be equally accessible to all races and classes in our country. There should be no proscription, no favoritism. But the question of what education should be for the working people of America is a very important one. So far from its having been decided, it has not yet been seriously entertained. That which they now receive in our public schools is mischievously inadequate. One of its defects is that it does not have in view in any definite manner the essential conditions or specific requirements of the life of the men who labor with their hands. The negroes of the South should have something better.