History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880. Vol. 2 / Negroes as Slaves, as Soldiers, and as Citizens

by George Washington Williams

FOOTNOTES:

[116] I am preparing a History of the Reconstruction of the Late Confederate States, 1865-1880. Hence I shall not enter into a thorough treatment of the subject in this work. It will follow this work, and comprise two volumes.

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CHAPTER XXII.
THE RESULTS OF EMANCIPATION.

The Apparent Idleness of the Negro Sporadic rather than Generic.—He quietly settles down to Work.—The Government makes Ample Provisions for his Educational and Social Improvement.—The Marvellous Progress made by the People of the South in Education.—Earliest School for Freedmen at Fortress Monroe in 1861.—The Richmond Institute for Colored Youth.—The Unlimited Desire of the Negroes to obtain an Education.—General Order organizing a "Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands."—Gen. O. O. Howard appointed Commissioner of the Bureau.—Report of all the Receipts and Expenditures of the Freedmen's Bureau from 1865-1867.—An Act incorporating the Freedman's Bank and Trust Company.—The Business of the Company as shown From 1866-1871.—Financial Statement by the Trustees for 1872.—Failure of the Bank.—The Social and Financial Condition of the Colored People in the South.—The Negro rarely receives Justice in Southern Courts.—Treatment of Negroes as Convicts in Southern Prisons.—Increase of the Colored People from 1790-1880.—Negroes susceptible of the Highest Civilization.

[Return to Table of Contents]

SURELY some good did come out of Nazareth. The poor, deluded, misguided, confiding Negro finished his long holiday at last, and turning from the dream of "forty acres and a mule," settled down to the stubborn realities of his new life of duties, responsibilities, and privileges. His idleness was sporadic, not generic,—it was simply reaction. He had worked faithfully, incessantly for two centuries and a half; had enriched the South with the sweat of his brow; and in two wars had baptized the soil with his patriotic blood. And when the year of jubilee came he enjoyed himself right royally.

This disposition to frolic on the part of the Negro gave rise to grave concern among his friends, and was promptly accepted as conclusive proof of his unfitness for the duties of a freeman by his enemies. But he soon dispelled the fears of his friends and disarmed the prejudices of his foes.

As already shown there was no provision made for the education of the Negro before the war; every thing had been done to keep him in ignorance. To emancipate 4,000,000 of slaves and absorb them into the political life of the government without detriment to both was indeed a formidable undertaking. Republics gain their strength and perpetuity from the self-governing force in the people; and in order to be self-governing a people must be educated. Moreover, all good laws that are cheerfully obeyed are but the emphatic expression of public sentiment. Where the great majority of the people are kept in ignorance the tendency is toward the production of two other classes, aristocrats and political "Herders." The former seek to get as far from "the common herd" as possible, while the latter bid off the rights of the poor and ignorant to the highest bidder.

It was quite appropriate for the Government to make speedy provision for plying the mass of ignorant Negroes with school influences. And the liberality of the provision was equalled by the eagerness of the Negroes to learn. Nor should history fail to record that the establishment of schools for freedmen by the Government was the noblest, most sensible act it could have done. What the Negroes have accomplished through these schools is the marvel of the age.

On the 20th of May, 1865, Major-Gen. O. O. Howard was appointed Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau. He gave great attention to the subject of education; and after planting schools for the freedmen throughout a great portion of the South, in 1870—five years after the work was begun—he made a report. It was full of interest. In five years there were 4,239 schools established, 9,307 teachers employed, and 247,333 pupils instructed. In 1868 the average attendance was 89,396; but in 1870 it was 91,398, or 79¾ per cent. of the total number enrolled. The emancipated people sustained 1,324 schools themselves, and owned 592 school buildings. The Freedmen's Bureau furnished 654 buildings for school purposes. The wonderful progress they made from year to year, in scholarship, may be fairly judged by the following, corresponding with the half year in 1869:

	JULY, 1869.	JULY, 1870.
Advanced readers	43,746	43,540
Geography	36,992	39,321
Arithmetic	51,172	52,417
Writing	53,606	58,034
Higher branches	7,627	9,690

There were 74 high and normal schools, with 8,147 students; and 61 industrial schools, with 1,750 students in attendance. In doing this great work—for buildings, repairs, teachers, etc.,—$1,002,896.07 was expended. Of this sum the freedmen raised $200,000.00! This was conclusive proof that emancipation was no mistake. Slavery was a twofold cross of woe to the land. It did not only degrade the slave, but it blunted the sensibilities, and, by its terrible weight, carried down under the slimy rocks of society some of the best white people in the South. Like a cankerous malady its venom has touched almost every side of American life.

The white race is in a constant and almost overpowering relation to the other races upon this continent. It is the duty of this great totality of intellectual life and force, to supply adequate facilities for the education of the less intelligent and less fortunate. Of every ten thousand (10,000) inhabitants there are:

	WHITE.	COLORED.	CHINESE.	INDIANS.
In the States	8,711	1,269	15	5
In the Territories	8,711	1,017	158	114
In the whole Union	8,711	1,266	16	7

When we turn our attention to the Southern States, we shall find that the white people are in excess of the Colored as follows:

	MAJORITY.
Alabama	45,874
Arkansas	239,946
Delaware	79,427
Florida	4,368
Georgia	93,774
Kentucky	876,442
Maryland	430,106
Missouri	1,485,075
North Carolina	286,820
Tennessee	613,788
Texas	311,225
Virginia	199,248
West Virginia	406,043

while the Colored people are in excess in only three States, having over the whites the following majorities:

	MAJORITY.
Louisiana	2,145
South Carolina	126,147
Mississippi	61,305

This leaves the whites in these sixteen States in a majority of 4,882,539, over the Colored people. There are more than two whites to every Colored in the entire population in these States.

Group the States and territories into three geographical classes, and designate them as Northern, Pacific, and Southern. The first may comprise all the "free States," where slavery never existed; put in the second the three Pacific States and all the territories, except the District of Columbia; and in the third gather all the "slave States" and the District. Now then, in the Northern class, out of every 14 persons who can neither read nor write, 13 are white. In the Pacific class, out of every 23 who can neither read nor write, 20 are white. In the Southern class, out of every 42 who can neither read nor write, 15 are white. Thus it can be seen that the white illiterates of the United States outnumber those of all the other races together. It might be profitable to the gentlemen who, upon every convenient occasion, rail about "the deplorable ignorance of the blacks," to look up this question a little![117]

The Colored people have made wonderful progress in educational matters since the war. Take a few States for examples of what they are doing. In Georgia, in 1860, there were 458,540 slaves. In 1870 there were 87 private schools, 79 teachers with 3,021 pupils. Of other schools, more public in character, there were 221, with an attendance of 11,443 pupils. In 1876 the Colored school population of this State was 48,643, with 879 schools; and with 55,268 pupils in public and private schools in 1877.

In South Carolina, in 1874, there were 63,415 Colored children attending the public schools; in 1876 there were 70,802, or an increase of 7,387.

In Virginia, in 1870, there were 39,000 Colored pupils in the schools, which were few in number. In 1874 there were 54,941 pupils; in 1876 there were 62,178, or again of 7,237. In 1874 there were 539 teachers; in 1876 there were 636, or an increase of 97. In 1874 there were 1,064 schools for Colored youth; in 1876 there were 1,181, or an increase of 117.

In the District of Columbia, in 1871, there were 4,986 Colored children in 69 schools, with 71 teachers. In 1876, of Colored schools in the District, 62 were primary, 13 grammar, and 1 high, with an enrolment of 5,454.

The following statistics exhibit the wonderful progress the Colored people of the South have made during the brief period of their freedom in the department of education. These tables come as near showing the extent, the miraculous magnitude of the work, as is possible.

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS OF EDUCATION AT THE SOUTH.

Table showing comparative population and enrolment of the White and Colored races in the public schools of the recent slave States, with total annual expenditure for the same in 1879.

	White.			Colored.
States.	School population.	Enrolment.	Percentage of school population enrolled.	School population.	Enrolment.	Percentage of school population enrolled.	Total expenditure for both races.a
Alabama	214,098	106,950	50	162,551	67,635	42	$377,033
Arkansas	b174,253	b39,063	22	b62,348	b13,980	22	205,449
Delaware	31,849	23,830	75	3,800	2,842	75	223,638
Florida	c40,606	bc18,169	45	c42,001	bc18,795	45	c134,880
Georgia	c236,319	147,192	62	c197,125	79,435	40	465,748
Kentucky	d476,870	e208,500	48	d62,973	e19,107	30	e1,130,000
Louisiana	c141,130	44,052	31	c133,276	34,476	26	529,065
Maryland	f 213,669	138,029	65	f 63,591	27,457	43	1,551,558
Mississippi	156,434	105,957	68	205,936	111,796	54	641,548
Missouri	663,135	428,992	65	39,018	20,790	53	3,069,464
North Carolina	271,348	153,534	57	154,841	85,215	55	337,541
South Carolina	e83,813	58,368	70	e144,315	64,095	44	319,320
Tennessee	388,355	208,858	54	126,288	55,829	44	710,652
Texas	b160,482	c111,048	69	b47,842	c35,896	75	837,913
Virginia	280,849	72,306	26	202,852	35,768	18	570,389
West Virginia	198,844	132,751	67	7,279	3,775	52	709,071
District of Columbia c	26,426	16,085	61	c12,374	9,045	73	368,343
Total	3,758,480	2,013,684	. . .	1,668,410	685,942	. . .	12,181,602

a In Delaware and Kentucky the school tax collected from Colored citizens is the only State appropriation for the support of Colored schools; in Maryland there is a biennial appropriation by the Legislature; in the District of Columbia one third of the school moneys is set apart for Colored public schools; and in the other States mentioned above the school moneys are divided in proportion to the school population without regard to race.

b Estimated by the Bureau.

c In 1878.

d For whites the school age is 6-20; for Colored, 6-16.

e In 1877.

f Census of 1870.

Statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.

Name and class of institution.	Location.	Religious denomination.	Instructors.	Students.
NORMAL SCHOOLS.
Rust Normal Institute	Huntsville, Ala.	Meth.	3	235
State Normal School for Colored Students	Huntsville, Ala.	.	2	51
Lincoln Normal University	Marion, Ala.	.	a5	a225
Emerson Institute	Mobile, Ala.	Cong.	6	240
Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School	Selma, Ala.	Bapt.	6	250
Normal department of Talladega College	Talladega, Ala.	Cong.	6	95
State Normal School for Colored Students	Pine Bluff, Ark.	.	4	72
Normal department of Atlanta University	Atlanta, Ga.	Cong.	.	a176
Haven Normal School	Waynesboro', Ga.	Meth.	.	125
Normal department of Berea College	Berea, Ky.	Cong.	(b)	(b)
Normal department of New Orleans University	New Orleans, La.	Meth.	.	.
Normal department of Straight University	New Orleans, La.	Cong.	(b)	91
Peabody Normal School	New Orleans, La.	.	a2	a35
Baltimore Normal School for Colored Pupils	Baltimore, Md.	.	4	190
Centenary Biblical Institute	Baltimore, Md.	M. E.	a5	a75
Natchez Seminary	Natchez, Miss.	Bapt.	4	46
Tougaloo University and Normal School	Tougaloo, Miss.	Cong.	6	96
Lincoln Institute	Jefferson, Mo.	.	6	139
State Normal School for Colored Students	Fayetteville, N. C.	.	3	93
Bennett Seminary	Greensboro'. N. C.	Meth.	3	125
Lumberton Normal School	Lumberton, N. C.	.	2	51
St. Augustine's Normal School	Raleigh, N. C.	P. E.	4	81
Shaw University	Raleigh, N. C.	Bapt.	5	192
Institute for Colored Youth	Philadelphia, Pa.	Friends.	.	300
Avery Normal Institute	Charleston, S. C.	Cong.	8	322
Normal department of Brainerd Institute	Chester, S. C.	Presb.	3	50
Claflin University, normal department	Orangeburg, S. C.	M. E.	3	167
Fairfield Normal Institute	Winnsboro', S. C.	Presb.	.	390
The Warner Institute	Jonesborough, Tenn.	.	c4	c149
Knoxville College	Knoxville, Tenn.	Presb.	13	240
Freedman's Normal Institute	Maryville, Tenn.	Friends.	a4	a229
Le Moyne Normal Institute	Memphis, Tenn.	Cong.	.	a200
Central Tennessee College, normal department	Nashville, Tenn.	M. E.	a7 3	114
Nashville Normal and Theological Institute	Nashville, Tenn.	Bapt.	6	231
Normal department of Fisk University	Nashville, Tenn.	Cong.	5	215
Tillotson Collegiate and Normal Institute	Austin, Tex.	.	3	158
State Normal School of Texas for Colored Students	Prairie View, Tex.	.	3	49
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Instituted	Hampton, Va.	Cong.	e28	e320
St. Stephen's Normal School	Petersburg, Va.	P. E.	8	240
Miner Normal School	Washington, D. C.	.	5	19
Normal department of Howard University	Washington, D. C.	Non-sect.	2	95
Normal department of Wayland Seminary	Washington, D. C.	Bapt.	( f )	( f )
Total			181	6,171
INSTITUTIONS FOR SECONDARY INSTRUCTION.
Trinity School	Athens, Ala.	Cong.	2	162
Dadeville Seminary	Dadeville, Ala.	M. E.	.	.
Lowery's Industrial Academy	Hunstville, Ala.	.	.	.
Swayne School	Montgomery, Ala.	Cong.	6	470
Burrell School	Selma, Ala.	Cong.	5	448
Talladega College	Talladega, Ala.	Cong.	12	212
Walden Seminar	Little Rock, Ark.	M. E.	.	.
Cookman Institute	Jacksonville, Fla.	M. E.	a5	a140
Clark University	Atlanta, Ga.	M. E.	5	167
Storrs School	Atlanta, Ga.	Cong.	5	528

a In 1878.

b Included in university and college reports.

c For two years.

d In addition to the aid given by the American Missionary Association, this institute is aided from the income of Virginia's agricultural college land fund.

e For all departments.

f Reported under schools of theology.

Statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.—Continued.

Name and class of institution.	Location.	Religious denomination.	Instructors.	Students.
INSTITUTIONS FOR SECONDARY INSTRUCTION. —Continued.
Howard Normal Institute	Cuthbert, Ga.	Cong.	3	66
La Grange Seminary	La Grange, Ga.	M. E.	4	140
Lewis High School	Macon, Ga.	Cong.	2	110
Beach Institute	Savannah, Ga.	Cong.	6	338
St. Augustine's School	Savannah, Ga.	P. E.	.	.
Day School for Colored Children	New Orleans, La.	R. C.	.	80
St. Augustine's School	New Orleans, La.	R. C.	3	60
St. Mary's School for Colored Girls	New Orleans, La.	R. C.	.	60
St. Francis's Academy	Baltimore, Md.	R. C.	.	50
Meridian Academy	Meridian, Md.	M. E.	.	.
Natchez Seminary	Natchez, Miss.	Bapt.	4	45
Scotia Seminary	Concord, N. C.	Cong.	8	152
St. Augustine's School	New Berne, N. C.	P. E.	.	.
Estey Seminary	Raleigh, N. C.	Bapt.	.	.
Washington School	Raleigh, N. C.	Cong.	3	149
St. Barnabas School	Wilmington, N. C.	P. E.	.	a100
Williston Academy and Normal School	Wilmington, N. C.	Cong.	a6	a126
Albany Enterprise Academy	Albany, Ohio	Non-sect.	4	64
Polytechnic and Industrial Institute	Bluffton, S. C.	Non-sect.	8	265
High School for Colored Pupils	Charleston, S. C.	P. E.	.	.
Wallingford Academy	Charleston, S. C.	Presb.	6	261
Brainerd Institute	Chester, S. C.	Presb.	5	300
Benedict Institute	Columbia, S. C.	Bapt.	4	142
Brewer Normal School	Greenwood, S. C.	Cong.	a1	a58
West Tennessee Preparatory School	Mason, Tenn.	Meth.	2	76
Canfield School	Memphis, Tenn.	P. E.	.	.
West Texas Conference Seminary	Austin, Tex.	M. E.	.	.
Wiley University	Marshall, Tex.	M. E.	a3	a123
Thyne Institute	Chase City, Va.	U. Presb.	3	213
Richmond Institute	Richmond, Va.	Bapt.	3	92
St. Philip's Church School	Richmond, Va.	P. E.	2	100
St. Mary's School	Washington, D. C.	P. E.	.	.
Total			120	5,297
UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES.
Atlanta University	Atlanta, Ga.	Cong.	ab13	a71
Berea College	Berea. Ky.	Cong.	b12	b180
Leland University	New Orleans, La.	Bapt.	a6	ac91
New Orleans University	New Orleans, La.	M. E.	5	92
Straight University	New Orleans, La.	Cong.	b11	d260
Shaw University	Holly Springs,Miss.	M. E.	6	273
Alcorn University	Rodney, Miss.	Non-sect.	10	180
Biddle University	Charlotte, N.C.	Presb.	9	151
Wilberforce University	Wilberforce, Ohio	M. E.	15	b150
Lincoln University	Lincoln University, Pa.	Presb.	a9	a74
Claflin University and College of Agriculture	Orangeburg. S. C.	M. E.	10	165
Central Tennessee College	Nashville, Tenn.	M. E.	13	139
Fisk University	Nashville, Tenn.	Cong.	13	74
Agricultural and Mechanical College	Hempstead, Tex.	.	.	.
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute	Hampton, Va.	Cong.	(e)	(e)
Howard University f	Washington, D. C.	Non-sect.	5	f 33
Total			137	1,933

a In 1878.

b For all departments.

c These are preparatory.

d Normal students are here reckoned as preparatory.

e Reported with normal schools.

f This institution is open to both races, and the figures given are known to include some whites.

Statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.—Continued.

Name and class of institution.	Location.	Religious denomination.	Instructors.	Students.
SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY.
Alabama Baptist Normal and Theological School	Selma, Ala.	Bapt.	1	.
Theological department of Talladega College	Talladega, Ala.	Cong.	2	14
Institute for the Education of Colored Ministers	Tuscaloosa, Ala.	Presb.	.	.
Atlanta Baptist Seminary	Atlanta, Ga.	Bapt.	3	113
Theological department of Leland University	New Orleans, La.	Bapt.	a2	a55
Thomson biblical Institute (New Orleans University)	New Orleans, La.	M. E.	a1	a16
Theological department of Straight University	New Orleans, La.	Cong.	1	21
Centenary Bible Institute	Baltimore, Md.	Meth.	a6	a20
Theological department of Shaw University	Holly Springs,Miss.	Meth.	a2	a17
Natchez Seminary	Natchez, Miss.	Bapt.	2	31
Theological department of Biddle University	Charlotte. N. C.	Presb.	4	8
Bennett Seminary	Greensboro', N. C.	Meth.	2	6
Theological department of Shaw Univers'y	Raleigh, N. C.	Bapt.	2	59
Theological Seminary of Wilberforce University	Wilberforce, Ohio	M. E.	7	16
Theological department of Lincoln University	Lincoln University, Pa.	Presb.	a7	a22
Baker Theological Institute (Claflin University)	Orangeburg, S. C.	Meth.	2	28
Nashville Normal and Theological Institute	Nashville, Tenn.	Bapt.	6	50
Theological course in Fisk University	Nashville, Tenn.	Cong.	a2	a12
Theological department of Central Tennessee College	Nashville, Tenn.	M. E.	4	45
Richmond Institute	Richmond, Va.	Bapt.	10	86
Theological department of Howard University	Washington, D. C.	Non-sect.	4	50
Wayland Seminary	Washington, D. C.	Bapt.	b9	b84
Total			79	762
SCHOOLS OF LAW.
Law department of Straight University	New Orleans, La.	.	a4	a28
Law department of Shaw University	Holly Springs. Miss.	.	a1	a6
Law department of Howard University	Washington, D. C.	.	3	8
Total			8	42
SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE.
Medical department of New Orleans University	New Orleans. La	.	a5	a8
Medical department of Shaw University	Holly Springs, Miss.	.	a1	a4
Meharry medical department of Central Tennessee College	Nashville, Tenn.	.	9	22
Medical department of Howard Univers'y	Washington, D. C.	.	8	65
Total			23	99
SCHOOLS FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB AND THE BLIND.
Institution for the Colored Blind and Deaf-Mutes	Baltimore, Md.	.	1	30
North Carolina Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind (Colored department)	Raleigh, N. C.	.	ab15	a60
Total			16	120

a In 1878.

b For all departments.

Summary of statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.

	Public schools.		Normal schools.			Institutions for secondary instruction.
States	School population.	Enrolment.	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.
Alabama	162,551	67,635	6	28	1,096	6	25	1,292
Arkansas	62,348	13,986	1	4	72	1	.	.
Delaware	3,800	2,842	.	.	.	.	.	.
Florida	42,001	18,795	.	.	.	1	5	140
Georgia	197,125	79,435	2	.	301	7	25	1,349
Kentucky	62,973	19,107	1	.	.	.	.	.
Louisiana	133,276	34,476	3	2	126	3	3	200
Maryland	63,591	27,457	2	9	265	1	.	50
Mississippi	205,936	111,796	2	10	142	2	4	45
Missouri	39,018	20,700	1	6	139	.	.	.
North Carolina	154,841	85,215	5	17	542	6	17	527
Ohio	.	.	.	.	.	1	4	64
Pennsylvania	.	.	1	.	300	.	.	.
South Carolina	144,315	64,095	4	14	929	6	24	1,026
Tennessee	126,288	55,829	7	42	1,378	2	2	76
Texas	47,842	35,896	2	6	207	2	3	123
Virginia	202,852	35,768	2	36	560	3	8	405
West Virginia	7,279	3,775	.	.	.	.	.	.
District of Columbia	12,374	9,045	3	7	114	1	.	.
Total	1,668,410	685,942	42	181	6,171	42	120	5,297

Summary of statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.—Continued.

	Universities and colleges.			Schools of theology.			Schools of law.
States	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.
Alabama	.	.	.	3	3	14	.	.	.
Georgia	1	13	71	1	3	113	.	.	.
Kentucky	1	12	180	.	.	.	.	.	.
Louisiana	3	22	443	3	4	92	1	4	28
Maryland	.	.	.	1	6	29	.	.	.
Mississippi	2	16	453	2	4	48	1	1	6
North Carolina	1	9	151	3	8	73	.	.	.
Ohio	1	15	150	1	7	16	.	.	.
Pennsylvania	1	9	74	1	7	22	.	.	.
South Carolina	1	10	165	1	2	28	.	.	.
Tennessee	2	26	213	3	12	107	.	.	.
Texas	1	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
Virginia	1	.	.	1	10	86	.	.	.
District of Columbia	1	5	33	2	13	134	1	3	8
Total	16	137	1,933	22	79	762	3	8	42

Summary of statistics of institutions for the instruction of the Colored race for 1879.—Continued.

	Schools of medicine.			Schools for the deaf and dumb and the blind.
States	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Schools.	Teachers.	Pupils.
Louisiana	1	5	8	.	.	.
Maryland	.	.	.	1	1	30
Mississippi	1	1	4	.	.	.
North Carolina	.	.	.	1	15	90
Tennessee	1	9	22	.	.	.
District of Columbia	1	8	65	.	.	.
Total	4	23	99	2	16	120

Table showing the number of schools for the Colored race and enrolment in them by institutions without reference to States.

Class of institutions.	Schools.	Enrolment.
Public schools	a14,341	a585,942
Normal schools	42	6,171
Institutions for secondary instruction	42	5,297
Universities and colleges	16	1,933
Schools of theology	22	762
Schools of law	3	42
Schools of medicine	4	99
Schools for the deaf and dumb and the blind	2	120
Total	14,472	700,366

a To these should be added 417 schools, having an enrolment of 20,487 in reporting free States, making total number of Colored public schools 14,758, and total enrolment in them 706,429; this makes the total number of schools, as far as reported, 14,889, and total number of the Colored race under instruction in them 720,853. The Colored public schools of those States in which no separate reports are made, however, are not included; and the Colored pupils in white schools cannot be enumerated.

Virginia has done more intelligent and effective educational work than any other State in the South. The Hon. W. H. Ruffner has no equal in America as a superintendent of public instruction. He is the Horace Mann of the South.

It appears from the reports of the Freedmen's Bureau that the earliest school for freedmen was opened by the American Missionary Association at Fortress Monroe, September, 1861; and before the close of the war, Hampton and Norfolk were leading points where educational operations were conducted; but after the cessation of hostilities, teachers were sent from Northern States, and schools for freedmen were opened in all parts of the State.

The Colored normal school at Richmond, and the one at Hampton, were commenced in 1867 and 1868. Captain C. S. Schaeffer, Bureau officer at Christiansburg, commenced his remarkable efforts about the same time in Montgomery County.

School superintendents for each State were appointed by the Freedmen's Bureau, July 12, 1865, and a general superintendent, or "Inspector of Schools," was appointed in September, 1865. These superintendents were instructed "to work as much as possible in conjunction with State officers, who may have had school matters in charge, and to take cognizance of all that was being done to educate refugees and freedmen." In 1866 an act of Congress was passed enlarging the powers of the Bureau, and partially consolidating all the societies and agencies engaged in educational work among the freedmen. In this bill $521,000 were appropriated for carrying on the work, to which was to be added forfeitures of property owned by the Confederate Government. Up to January 1, 1868, over a million of dollars was expended for school purposes among the freedmen. In Virginia 12,450 pupils are reported for 1867. Mr. Manly, the Virginia superintendent, reports the following statistics for the year 1867-8: Schools, 230; teachers, 290; pupils enrolled, 14,300; in average attendance, 10,320; the cost as follows:

From Charity	$78,766
From the Freedmen	10,789
From the Bureau	42,844
	————
Total Cost	$132,399

The amount raised from freedmen was in the form of small tuition fees of from ten to fifty cents a month—a system approved by Mr. Manly.

In the final report to the Freedmen's Bureau, made July 1, 1870, the Virginia statistics are: Schools, 344; teachers, 412; pupils, 18,234; the average attendance, 78 per cent. This year the freedmen paid $12,286.50 for tuition. Mr. C. S. Schaeffer and Mr. Samuel H. Jones, who remained in Virginia as teachers—the former still at Christiansburg, and the latter, until very lately, at Danville—both acted as assistants to Mr. Manly. A considerable number of school-houses were built in Virginia by the Bureau, including the splendid normal and high school building in Richmond, erected and equipped at a cost of $25,000, and afterward turned over to the city. After the conclusion of his superintendency, Mr. Manly continued for several years to do valuable service as principal of this school.

"The Freedmen's Bureau ceased its educational operations in the summer of 1870, and in the autumn of that year our State public schools were opened. So that, counting from the beginning of the mission school at Hampton in 1861, there has been an unbroken succession of schools for freedmen in one region for nineteen years; and at a number of leading points in the State—such as Norfolk, Richmond, Petersburg, Danville, Charlottesville, Christiansburg, etc.—an unbroken line of schools for fourteen years and upwards. These efforts, however, of the Federal Government toward educating the rising generation of Colored people, could not have been designed as any thing more than an experiment, intended first to test and then to stimulate the appetite of those people for learning. And in this view they were entirely successful in both particulars; for the children flocked to the schools, attended well, made good progress in knowledge, and paid a surprising amount of money for tuition.

"But, considered as a serious attempt to educate the children of the freedmen, the movement was wholly inadequate, even when contrasted with the operations of our imperfect State system. The largest number enrolled in the schools supported by the combined efforts of the Bureau, the charitable societies, and the tuition fees, was 18,234, in 1870. The next year we had in our public schools considerably over double this number, and an annual increase ever since, always excepting those two dark years (tenebricosus and tenebricosissimus), 1878 and 1879."[118]

"Two institutions for the education of the Colored race, founded before the beginning of our school, system, are still in successful operation, but remain independent of our school system. One of them has some connection with the State by reason of the receipt of one-third of the proceeds of the Congressional land-grant for education. I refer to the well-known Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, and the Richmond Colored Institute. Nothing need be said in reference to the Hampton School, except that its numbers and usefulness are constantly increasing under the continued superintendence of the indomitable Gen. Armstrong. Its reports, which are published every year as State documents in connection with the Report of this department, are so accessible to all, that I will only repeat here the testimony often given, that in my opinion this is the most valuable of all the schools opened on this Continent for Colored people. Its most direct benefit is in furnishing to our State schools a much-needed annual contribution of teachers; and teachers so good and acceptable that the demand for them is always much greater than the supply.

"The Richmond Institute has more of a theological intent, but it also sends out many good teachers. As a school it has prospered steadily under the excellent management of the Rev. C. H. Corey, D.D.; and it will soon be accommodated in a large new and handsome building. Both these institutions receive their support chiefly from the North."[119]

It will be seen that the tables we give refer only to the work done in educating the Negro in the Southern States. Much has been done in the Northern States, but in quite a different manner. The work of education for the Negro at the South had to begin at the bottom. There were no schools at all for this people; and hence the work began with the alphabet. And there could be no classification of the scholars. All the way from six to sixty the pupils ranged in age; and even some who had given slavery a century of their existence—mothers and fathers in Israel—crowded the schools established for their race. Some ministers of the Gospel after a half century of preaching entered school to learn how to spell out the names of the twelve Apostles. Old women who had lived out their threescore years and ten prayed that they might live to spell out the Lord's prayer, while the modest request of many departing patriarchs was that they might recognize the Lord's name in print. The sacrifices they made for themselves and children challenged the admiration of even their former owners.

The unlettered Negroes of the South carried into the school-room an inborn love of music, an excellent memory, and a good taste for the elegant—almost grandiloquent—in speech, gorgeous in imagery, and energetic in narration; their apostrophe and simile were wonderful. Geography and history furnished great attractions, and they developed ability to master them. In mathematics they did not do so well, on account of the lack of training to think consecutively and methodically. It is a mistake to believe this a mental infirmity of the race; for a very large number of the students in college at the present time do as well in mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, mensuration, and conic sections as the white students of the same age; and some of them excel in mathematics.

The majority of the Colored students in the Southern schools qualify themselves to teach and preach; while the remainder go to law and medicine. Few educated Colored men ever return to agricultural life. There are two reasons for this: First, reaction. There is an erroneous idea among some of these young men that labor is dishonorable; that an educated man should never work with his hands. Second, some of them believe that a profession gives a man consequence. Such silly ideas should be abandoned—they must be abandoned! There is a great demand for educated farmers and laborers. It requires an intelligent man to conduct a farm successfully, to sell the products of his labor, and to buy the necessaries of life. No profession can furnish a man with brains, or provide him a garment of respectability. Every man must furnish brains and tact to make his calling and election sure in this world, as well as by faith in the world to come. Unfortunately there has been but little opportunity for Colored men or boys to get employment at the trades: but prejudice is gradually giving way to reason and common-sense; and the day is not distant when the Negro will have a free field in this country, and will then be responsible for what he is not that is good. The need of the hour is a varied employment for the Negro race on this continent. There is more need of educated mechanics, civil engineers, surveyors, printers, artificers, inventors, architects, builders, merchants, and bankers than there is demand for lawyers, physicians, or clergymen. Waiters, barbers, porters, boot-blacks, hack-drivers, grooms, and private valets find but little time for the expansion of their intellects. These places are not dishonorable; but what we say is, there is room at the top! An industrial school, something like Cooper Institute, situated between New York and Philadelphia, where Colored boys and girls could learn the trades that race prejudice denies them now, would be the grandest institution of modern times. It matters not how many million dollars are given toward the education of the Negro; so long as he is deprived of the privilege of learning and plying the trades and mechanic arts his education will injure rather than help him.[120] We would rather see a Negro boy build an engine than take the highest prize in Yale or Harvard.

It is quite difficult to get at a clear idea of what has been done in the Northern States toward the education of the Colored people. In nearly all the States on the borders of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers "Colored schools" still exist; and in many instances are kept alive through the spirit of the self-seeking of a few Colored persons who draw salaries in lieu of their continuance. They should be abolished, and will be, as surely as heat follows light and the rising of the sun. In the New England, Middle, and extreme Western States, with the exception of Kansas, separate schools do not exist. The doors of all colleges, founded and conducted by the white people in the North, are open to the Colored people who desire to avail themselves of an academic education. At the present time there are one hundred and sixty-nine Colored students in seventy white colleges in the Northern States; and the presidents say they are doing well.

The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands was established in the spring of 1865 to meet the state of affairs incident upon the closing scenes of the great civil war. The Act creating the Bureau was approved and became a law on the 3d of March, 1865. The Bureau was to be under the management of the War Department, and its officers were liable for the property placed in their hands under the revised regulations of the army. In May, 1865, the following order was issued from the War Department appointing Major-Gen. O. O. Howard Commissioner of the Bureau:

"[General Orders No. 91.]

"War Department, Adjutant General's Office, }
"Washington, May 12, 1865. }

"Order Organizing Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned
"Lands.

"I. By the direction of the President, Major General O. O. Howard is assigned to duty in the War Department as Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, under the act of Congress entitled 'An act to establish a bureau for the relief of freedmen and refugees,' to perform the duties and exercise all the rights, authority, and jurisdiction vested by the act of Congress in such Commissioner. General Howard will enter at once upon the duties of Commissioner specified in said act.

"II. The Quartermaster General will, without delay, assign and furnish suitable quarters and apartments for the said bureau.

"III. The Adjutant General will assign to the said bureau the number of competent clerks authorized by the act of Congress.

"By order of the President of the United States:

"E. D. Townsend,
"Assistant Adjutant General."

Gen. Howard entered upon the discharge of the vast, varied, and complicated duties of his office with his characteristic zeal, intelligence, and high Christian integrity. Hospitals were founded for the care of the sick, infirm, blind, deaf, and dumb. Rations were issued, clothing distributed, and lands apportioned to the needy and worthy.

From May 30, 1865, to November 20, 1865, inclusive, this Bureau furnished transportation for 1,946 freedmen, and issued to this class of persons in ten States, 1,030,100 rations.

"Congress, when it created the bureau, made no appropriation to defray its expenses; it has, however, received funds from miscellaneous sources, as the following report will show:

"In several of the States, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, and the District of Columbia, the interests of the freedmen were under the control of military officers assigned by the War Department previous to the organization of this bureau. Their accounts became naturally absorbed in the accounts of the bureau, and the following report embraces all the receipts and expenditures in all States now under control of the bureau since January 1, 1865:"

Receipts.

Amount on hand January 1, 1865, and received since, to October 31, 1865:

From freedmen's fund	$466,028 35
From retained bounties	115,236 49
For clothing, fuel, and subsistence	7,704 21
Farms	76,709 12
From rents of buildings	56,012 42
From rents of lands	125,521 00
From Quartermaster's department	12,200 00
From conscript fund	13,498 11
From schools (tax and tuition)	34,486 58
	—————
Total received	907,396 28
Expenditures.
Freedmen's fund	$8,009 14
Clothing, fuel, and subsistence	75,504 05
Farms	40,069 71
Household furniture	2,904 90
Rents of buildings	11,470 88
Labor (by freedmen and other employés)	237,097 62
Repairs of buildings	19,518 46
Contingent expenses	46,328 07
Rents of lands	300 00
Internal revenue	1,379 86
Conscript fund	6,515 37
Transportation	1,445 51
Schools	27,819 60
	—————
Total expended	478,363 17
Recapitulation.
Total amount received	$907,396 28
Total amount expended	478,363 17
	—————
Balance on hand October 31, 1865	429,033 11
Deduct the amount held as retained bounties	115,236 49
Balance on hand October 31, 1865, available
to meet liabilities	313,796 62[121]

It was the policy of the Government to help the freedmen on to their feet; to give them a start in the race of self-support and manhood. They received such assistance as was given them with thankful hearts, and were not long in placing themselves upon a safe foundation for their new existence. Out of a population of 350,000 in North Carolina only 5,000 were receiving aid from the Government in the fall of 1865. Each month witnessed a wonderful reduction of the rations issued to the freedmen. In the month of August, 1865, Gen. C. B. Fisk had reduced the number of freedmen receiving rations from 3,785 to 2,984, in Kentucky. In the same month, in Mississippi, Gen. Samuel Thomas, of the 64th U. S. C. I., had reduced the number of persons receiving rations to 669. In his report for 1865, Gen. Thomas said:

"The freedmen working land assigned them at Davis's Bend, Camp Hawley, near Vicksburg, De Soto Point, opposite, and at Washington, near Natchez, are all doing well. These crops are maturing fast; as harvest time approaches, I reduce the number of rations issued and compel them to rely on their own resources. At least 10,000 bales of cotton will be raised by these people, who are conducting cotton crops on their own account. Besides this cotton, they have gardens and corn enough to furnish bread for their families and food for their stock till harvest time returns. * * * A more industrious, energetic body of citizens does not exist than can be seen at the colonies now."

Speaking of the industry of the freed people Gen. Thomas added: "I have lately visited a large portion of the State, and find it in much better condition than I expected. In the eastern part fine crops of grain are growing; the negroes are at home working quietly; they have contracted with their old masters at fair wages; all seem to accept the change without a shock."

From June 1, 1865, to September 1, 1866, the Freedmen's Bureau issued to the freed people of the South 8,904,451½ rations, and was able to make the following financial showing of the Refugees' and Freedmen's fund. From November 1, 1865, to October 1, 1866, the receipts and expenditures were as follows:

Amount on hand November 1, 1865	$313,796 62
Received from various sources, as follows:
Freedmen's fund	$367,659 93
Clothing, fuel, and subsistence	2,074 55
Farms (sales of crops)	109,709 98
Rent of buildings	48,560 87
Rent of lands	113,641 78
Conscript funds	140 95
Transportation	1,053 50
Schools (taxes)	64,145 86
	——————
Total on hand and received	$1,020,784 04
Expenditures.
Freedmen's fund	$7,411 32
Clothing, fuel, and subsistence	13,870 93
Farms (fencing, seeds, tools, etc.)	7,210 66
Labor (by freedmen and other employés)	426,918 12
Rent of buildings (offices, etc.)	50,186 61
Repairs of buildings	1,957 47
Expenditures.—(Continued.)
Contingent expenses	74,295 77
Rent of lands (restored)	9,260 58
Quartermaster's department	11 26
Internal revenue (tax on salaries)	7,965 22
Conscript fund	1,664 01
Transportation	22,387 01
Schools	115,261 56
	—————
Total expended	$738,400 52
	—————
Balance on hand October 1, 1866	$282,383 52

In September, 1866, the Bureau had on hand:

Recapitulation.
Balance on hand of freedmen's fund	$282,383 52
Balance of District destitute fund	18,328 67
Balance of appropriation	6,856,259 30
	——————
Total	$7,156,971 49
Estimated amount due subsistence department	$297,000 00
Transportation reported unpaid	26,015 94
Transportation estimated due	20,000 00
Estimated amount due medical department	100,000 00
Estimated, amount due quartermaster's
department	200,000 00
	—————
	$643,015 94
	——————
Total balance for all purposes of expenditures	$6,513,955 55
	——————

But the estimate of Gen. Howard for funds to run the Bureau for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1867, only called for the sum of three million eight hundred and thirty-six thousand and three hundred dollars, as follows:

Salaries of assistant commissioners, sub-assistants, and agents	$147,500
Salaries of clerks	82,800
Stationery and printing	63,000
Quarters and fuel	200,000
Subsistence stores	1,500,000
Medical department	500,000
Transportation	800,000
School superintendents	25,000
Buildings for schools and asylums, including construction, rental, and repairs	500,000
Telegraphing and postage	18,000
	—————
	$3,836,300

This showed that the freed people were rapidly becoming self-sustaining, and that the aid rendered by the Government was used to a good purpose.

Soon after Colored Troops were mustered into the service of the Government a question arose as to some safe method by which these troops might save their pay against the days of peace and personal effort. The noble and wise Gen. Saxton answered the question and met the need of the hour by establishing a Military Savings Bank at Beaufort, South Carolina. Soldiers under his command were thus enabled to husband their funds. Gen. Butler followed in this good work, and established a similar one at Norfolk, Virginia. These banks did an excellent work, and so favorably impressed many of the friends of the Negro that a plan for a Freedman's Savings Bank and Trust Company was at once projected. Before the spring campaign of 1865 opened up, the plan was presented to Congress; a bill introduced creating such a bank, was passed and signed by President Lincoln on the 3d of March. The following is the Act:

"An Act To Incorporate the Freedman's Savings and Trust
"Company.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That Peter Cooper, William C. Bryant, A. A. Low, S. B. Chittenden, Charles H. Marshall, William A. Booth, Gerrit Smith, William A. Hall, William Allen, John Jay, Abraham Baldwin, A. S. Barnes, Hiram Barney, Seth B. Hunt, Samuel Holmes, Charles Collins, R. R. Graves, Walter S. Griffith, A. H. Wallis, D. S. Gregory, J. W. Alvord, George Whipple, A. S. Hatch, Walter T. Hatch, E. A. Lambert, W. G. Lambert, Roe Lockwood, R. H. Manning, R. W. Ropes, Albert Woodruff, and Thomas Denny, of New York; John M. Forbes, William Claflin, S. G. Howe, George L. Stearns, Edward Atkinson, A. A. Lawrence, and John M. S. Williams, of Massachusetts; Edward Harris and Thomas Davis, of Rhode Island; Stephen Colwell, J. Wheaton Smith, Francis E. Cope, Thomas Webster, B. S. Hunt, and Henry Samuel, of Pennsylvania; Edward Harwood, Adam Poe, Levi Coffin, J. M. Walden, of Ohio, and their successors, are constituted a body corporate in the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia, by the name of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, and by that name may sue and be sued in any court of the United States.

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the persons named in the first section of this act shall be the first Trustees of the Corporation, and all vacancies by death, resignation, or otherwise, in the office of Trustee shall be filled by the Board, by ballot, without unnecessary delay, and at least ten votes shall be necessary for the election of any Trustee. The Trustees shall hold a regular meeting, at least once in each month, to receive reports of their officers on the affairs of the Corporation, and to transact such business as may be necessary; and any Trustee omitting to attend the regular meetings of the Board for six months in succession, may thereupon be considered as having vacated his place, and a successor may be elected to fill the same.

"Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the business of the Corporation shall be managed and directed by the Board of Trustees, who shall elect from their number a President and two Vice-Presidents, and may appoint such other officers as they may see fit; nine of the Trustees, of whom the President or one of the Vice-Presidents shall be one, shall form a quorum for the transaction of business at any regular or adjourned meeting of the Board of Trustees; and the affirmative vote of at least seven members of the Board shall be requisite in making any order for, or authorizing the investment of, any moneys, or the sale or transfer of any stock or securities belonging to the Corporation, or the appointment of any officer receiving any salary therefrom.

"Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Board of Trustees of the Corporation shall have power, from time to time, to make and establish such By-Laws and regulations as they shall judge proper with regard to the elections of officers and their respective functions, and generally for the management of the affairs of the Corporation, provided such By-Laws and regulations are not repugnant to this act, or to the Constitution or laws of the United States.

"Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the general business and object of the Corporation hereby created shall be, to receive on deposit such sums of money as may, from time to time, be offered therefor, by or on behalf of persons heretofore held in slavery in the United States, or their descendants, and investing the same in the stocks, bonds, Treasury notes, or other securities of the United States.

"Sec. 6. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Trustees of the Corporation to invest, as soon as practicable, in the securities named in the next preceding section, all sums received by them beyond an available fund, not exceeding one third of the total amount of deposits with the Corporation, at the discretion of the Trustees, which available funds may be kept by the Trustees, to meet current payments of the Corporation, and may by them be left on deposit, at interest or otherwise, or in such available form as the Trustees may direct.

"Sec. 7. And be it further enacted, That the Corporation may, under such regulations as the Board of Trustees shall, from time to time, prescribe, receive any deposit hereby authorized to be received, upon such trusts and for such purposes, not contrary to the laws of the United States, as may be indicated in writing by the depositor, such writing to be subscribed by the depositor and acknowledged or proved before any officer in the civil or military service of the United States, the certificate of which acknowledgment or proof shall be endorsed on the writing; and the writing, so acknowledged or proved, shall accompany such deposit and be filed among the papers of the Corporation, and be carefully preserved therein, and may be read in evidence in any court or before any judicial officer of the United States, without further proof; and the certificate of acknowledgment or proof shall be prima facie evidence only of the due execution of such writing.

"Sec. 8. And be it further enacted, That all sums received on deposit shall be repaid to such depositor when required, at such time, with such interest, not exceeding seven per centum per annum, and under such regulations as the Board of Trustees shall, from time to time, prescribe, which regulations shall be posted up in some conspicuous place in the room where the business of the Corporation shall be transacted, but shall not be altered so as to affect any deposit previously made.

"Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all trusts upon which, and all purposes for which any deposit shall be made, and which shall be indicated in the writing to accompany such deposit, shall be faithfully performed by the Corporation, unless the performing of the same is rendered impossible.

"Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That when any depositor shall die, the funds remaining on deposit with the Corporation to his credit, and all accumulations thereof, shall belong and be paid to the personal representatives of such depositor, in case he shall have left a last will and testament, and in default of a last will and testament, or of any person qualifying under a last will and testament, competent to act as executor, the Corporation shall be entitled, in respect to the funds so remaining on deposit to the credit of any such depositor, to administration thereon in preference to all other persons, and letters or administration shall be granted to the Corporation accordingly in the manner prescribed by law in respect to granting of letters of administration, with the will annexed, and in cases of intestacy.

"Sec. 11. And be it further enacted, That in the case of the death of any depositor, whose deposit shall not be held upon any trust created pursuant to the provisions hereinbefore contained, or where it may prove impossible to execute such trust, it shall be the duty of the Corporation to make diligent efforts to ascertain and discover whether such deceased depositor has left a husband, wife, or children, surviving, and the Corporation shall keep a record of the efforts so made, and of the results thereof; and in case no person lawfully entitled thereto shall be discovered, or shall appear, or claim the funds remaining to the credit of such depositor before the expiration of two years from the death of such depositor, it shall be lawful for the Corporation to hold and invest such funds as a separate trust fund, to be applied, with the accumulations thereof, to the education and improvement of persons heretofore held in slavery, or their descendants, being inhabitants of the United States, in such manner and through such agencies as the Board of Trustees shall deem best calculated to effect that object; Provided, That if any depositor be not heard from within five years from the date of his last deposit, the Trustees shall advertise the same in some paper of general circulation in the State where the principal office of the Company is established, and also in the State where the depositor was last heard from; and if, within two years thereafter, such depositor shall not appear, nor a husband, wife, or child of such depositor, to claim his deposits, they shall be used by the Board of Trustees as hereinbefore provided for in this section.

"Sec. 12. And be it further enacted, That no President, Vice-President, Trustee, officer, or servant of the Corporation shall, directly or indirectly, borrow the funds of the Corporation or its deposits, or in any manner use the same, or any part thereof, except to pay necessary expenses, under the direction of the Board of Trustees. All certificates or other evidences of deposit made by the proper officers shall be as binding on the Corporation as if they were made under their common seal. It shall be the duty of the Trustees to regulate the rate of interest allowed to the depositors, so that they shall receive, as nearly as may be, a rateable proportion of all the profits of the Corporation, after deducting all necessary expenses; Provided, however, That the Trustees may allow to depositors to the amount of five hundred dollars or upward one per centum less than the amount allowed others; And provided, also, Whenever it shall appear that, after the payment of the usual interest to depositors, there is in the possession of the Corporation an excess of profits over the liabilities amounting to ten per centum upon the deposits, such excess shall be invested for the security of the depositors in the Corporation; and thereafter, at each annual examination of the affairs of the Corporation, any surplus over and above such ten per centum shall, in addition to the usual interest, be divided rateably among the depositors, in such manner as the Board of Trustees shall direct.

"Sec. 13. And be it further enacted, That whenever any deposits shall be made by any minor, the Trustees of the Corporation may, at their discretion, pay to such depositor such sum as may be due to him, although no guardian shall have been appointed for such minor, or the guardian of such minor shall not have authorized the drawing of the same; and the check, receipt, or acquittance of such minor shall be as valid as if the same were executed by a guardian of such minor, or the minor were of full age, if such deposit was made personally by such minor. And whenever any deposits shall have been made by married women, the Trustees may repay the same on their own receipts.

"Sec. 14. And be it further enacted, That the Trustees shall not directly or indirectly receive any payment or emolument for their services as such, except the President and Vice-President.

"Sec. 15. And be it further enacted, That the President, Vice-President, and subordinate officers and agents of the Corporation, shall respectively give such security for their fidelity and good conduct as the Board of Trustees may, from time to time, require, and the Board shall fix the salaries of such officers and agents.

"Sec. 16. And be it further enacted, That the books of the Corporation shall, at all times during the hours of business, be open for inspection and examination to such persons as Congress shall designate or appoint.

"Approved March 3, 1865."

Eleven of these banks were established in 1865, nine in 1866, three in 1868, one in 1869, and the remainder in 1870, after the charter had been amended as follows:

"An Act to Amend an Act Entitled 'An Act to Incorporate the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company,' Approved March Third, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-five.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Stales of America, in Congress assembled, That the fifth section of the Act entitled 'An Act to Incorporate the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company,' approved March third, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, be, and the same is hereby, amended by adding thereto at the end thereof the words following: 'and to the extent of one half in bonds or notes, secured by mortgage on real estate in double the value of the loan; and the corporation is also authorized hereby to hold and improve the real estate now owned by it in the city of Washington, to wit: the west half of lot number three; all of lots four, five, six, seven, and the south half of lot number eight, in square number two hundred and twenty-one, as laid out and recorded in the original plats or plan of said city: Provided, That said corporation shall not use the principal of any deposits made with it for the purpose of such improvement.'

"Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That Congress shall have the right to alter or repeal this amendment at any time.

"Approved May 6, 1870."

The company was organized on the 16th of May, 1865, and the trustees made their first report on the 8th of June, 1865. Deposits up to this date were $700, besides $7,956.38 transferred from the Military Savings Bank at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 3d of June. On the 1st of August the first branch office was opened at Washington, D. C., and on the 1st of September it had a balance due its depositors of $843.84.

Other branches were opened during the year at Louisville, Richmond, Nashville, Wilmington, Huntsville, Memphis, Mobile, and Vicksburg. December 14, 1865, the Military Bank at Beaufort, organized October 16, 1865, was, by order of General Saxton, transferred to this company, with its balance of $170,000. At the end of the first year, March 1, 1866, fourteen branch offices had been opened, and the balance due depositors was $199,283.42.

The total deposits made by freedmen in them, from their establishment up to July 1, 1870, was $16,960,336, of which over $2,000,000 still remained on deposit. The total amount of deposits in the Richmond branch up to that date was $318,913, and the balance undrawn $84,537. The average amount deposited by the various depositors was nearly $284. So far as the facts were obtained, it appeared that about seventy per cent. of the money drawn from these banks was invested in real estate and in business.

By the financial statement of the banking company, for August, 1871, it appears that in the thirty-four banks then in operation the deposits made during that month, which was considered "dull," amounted to $882,806.67, and that the total amount to the credit of the depositors was $3,058,232.81. In the Richmond branch, the deposits for that month were $17,790.60, and the total amount due depositors was $123,733.75; all of which was to the credit of Colored people, except $6,929.19. A branch shortly before had been established in Lynchburg, which showed a balance due depositors of $7,382.83.

The following table shows the business of the company for the years 1866-1871:

Table Showing the Relative Business of the Company for Each Fiscal Year.

For year ending March 1.	Total amount of deposits.	Total amount of drafts.	Balance due depositors.
1866	$305,167 00	$105,883 58	$199,283 42
1867	1,624,853 33	1,258,515 00	366,338 33
1868	3,582,378 36	2,944,079 36	638,299 00
1869	7,257,798 63	6,184,333 32	1,073,465 31
1870	12,605,781 95	10,948,775 20	1,657,006 75
1871	19,952,647 36	17,497,111 25	2,455,836 11
For year ending March 1.	Deposits each year.	Drafts each year.	Gain each year.
1866	$305,167 00	$105,883 58	$199,283 42
1867	1,319,686 33	1,152,631 42	167,054 91
1868	1,957,525 03	1,685,564 36	271,960 67
1869	3,675,420 27	3,240,253 96	435,166 31
1870	5,347,983 32	4,764,441 88	583,341 44
1871	7,347,165 41	6,548,336 05	798,829 36

The total amount of deposits received from the organization of the company to October 1, 1871—six years from the opening of the first branch—was	$25,977,435 48
Total drafts during the same period were	22,850,926 47
	——————
Leaving due depositors October 1, 1871	3,126,509 01
The total assets of company on same day amounted to	3,157,206 17
	——————
The interest paid during this time amounted to	180,565 35

In 1872 the trustees made the following interesting statement:

THE FREEDMAN'S SAVINGS AND TRUST COMPANY.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE MONTH OF AUGUST, 1872.

BRANCHES.	Deposits for the month.	Drafts for the month.	Total amount of Deposits.	Total amount of Drafts.	Balance due Depositors.
Atlanta, Georgia	$9,419 68	$11,242 30	$245,200 27	$223,020 17	$22,180 10
Augusta, Georgia	10,771 99	9,217 94	367,653 16	284,406 14	83,247 02
Baltimore, Maryland	29,755 52	18,644 57	1,278,042 32	996,371 98	281,670 34
Beaufort, South Carolina	189,600 74	184,924 40	2,993,873 30	2,944,441 88	49,431 42
Charleston, South Carolina	67,668 83	84,464 53	3,100,641 65	2,795,176 24	305,465 41
Columbus, Mississippi	2,426 15	4,364 34	132,036 46	121,776 67	10,259 79
Columbia, Tennessee	2,552 55	2,086 05	34,088 97	15,738 76	18,350 21
Huntsville, Alabama	7,343 50	10,127 61	416,617 72	364,382 51	52,235 21
Jacksonville, Florida	67,292 09	57,307 54	3,312,424 55	3,234,445 72	77,978 83
Lexington, Kentucky	14,383 85	11,221 13	238,680 22	188,308 76	50,371 46
Little Rock, Arkansas	7,871 27	9,506 37	172,392 10	154,914 42	17,477 68
Louisville, Kentucky	18,311 01	17,535 74	1,057,587 71	914,504 61	143,083 10
Lynchburg, Virginia	3,104 48	1,242 56	36,880 98	18,354 87	18,526 11
Macon, Georgia	6,808 98	7,061 52	197,050 01	156,308 75	40,741 26
Memphis, Tennessee	20,045 40	27,197 06	970,096 09	840,218 91	129,877 18
Mobile, Alabama	11,136 05	18,645 62	1,039,097 05	933,424 30	105,672 75
Montgomery, Alabama	8,522 90	8,679 60	238,106 08	213,861 71	24,244 37
Natchez, Mississippi	25,548 53	15,005 17	649,256 70	612,985 74	36,270 96
Nashville, Tennessee	15,731 46	17,098 58	739,691 88	625,166 40	114,525 48
New Berne, North Carolina	38,113 83	37,775 73	1,057,688 32	1,001,645 74	56,042 58
New Orleans, Louisiana	193,145 48	207,878 53	2,393,584 08	2,171,056 95	222,527 13
New York, New York	133,209 58	74,461 61	1,673,249 36	1,227,449 57	445,799 79
Norfolk, Virginia	16,771 88	17,757 38	1,048,762 05	916,047 59	132,714 46
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	11,451 12	9,887 49	357,924 89	278,641 10	79,283 79
Raleigh, North Carolina	5,663 28	4,660 18	231,685 82	202,032 44	29,653 38
Richmond, Virginia	64,112 51	53,900 72	1,082,152 71	912,933 45	169,219 26
Savannah, Georgia	30,951 23	27,066 33	1,031,173 38	893,321 30	137,852 02
Shreveport, Louisiana	20,688 72	21,105 59	299,428 39	264,707 78	34,720 61
St. Louis, Missouri	26,323 93	20,599 02	615,876 74	526,490 86	89,385 88
Tallahassee, Florida	4,589 45	4,526 75	361,614 57	329,618 33	31,996 24
Vicksburg, Mississippi	61,691 73	60,068 28	2,962,235 58	2,823,700 87	138,534 71
Washington, Dist. Colum'a	323,555 79	296,321 26	7,438,918 17	6,406,092 39	1,032,825 78
Wilmington, N'th Carolina	10,714 10	12,632 65	457,360 75	407,512 51	49,848 24
Alexandria, Virginia	1,929 91	685 80	14,091 77	1,626 35	12,465 42
	$1,461,207 52	$1,364,899 95	$38,245,163 80	$34,000,685 77	$4,244,478 03

Total amount of deposits for the month	$1,461,207 56
Total amount of drafts for the month	1,364,899 95
	——————
Gain for the month	96,307 61
	===========
Total amount of deposits	$38,245,163 80
Total amount of drafts	34,000,685,77
	——————
Total amount due depositors	$4,244,478 03
	===========

Total amount of deposits for the month	$1,461,207 56
Total amount of drafts for the month	1,364,899 95
	——————
Gain for the month	96,307 61
	===========
Total amount of deposits	$38,245,163 80
Total amount of drafts	34,000,685,77
	——————
Total amount due depositors	$4,244,478 03
	===========

This first experiment of the new citizen in saving his funds was working admirably. Each report was more cheering than the preceding one. The deposits were generally made by day laborers, house servants, farmers, mechanics, and washerwomen. Two facts were established, viz.: that the Negroes of the South were working; and that they were saving their earnings. Northern as well as Southern whites were agreeably surprised.

But bad management doomed the institution to irreparable ruin. The charter was violated in the establishment of branch banks; "persons who were never held in bondage and their descendants" were allowed to deposit funds in the bank; money was loaned upon valueless securities and meaningless collaterals, and in the fall of 1873, having been kept open for a long time on money borrowed on collateral securities belonging to its customers, the bank failed!

During the brief period of its existence about $57,000,000 had been deposited. The liabilities of the institution at the time of the failure, as corrected to date, were $3,037,483, of which $73,774.34 were special deposits and preferred claims. The number of open accounts at the time of the failure were 62,000. The nominal assets at the time of the failure were $2,693,093.20. And in the almost interminable list of over-drafts amounting to $55,567.63, there appeared but one solitary surety!

On the 20th of June, 1874, Congress passed an act permitting the very men who had destroyed the bank to nominate three Commissioners, who, upon the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, should wind up the affairs of this insolvent institution. Section 7 of the Act reads as follows:

"Sec. 7. That whenever it shall be deemed advisable by the trustees of said corporation to close up its entire business, then they shall select three competent men, not connected with the previous management of the institution and approved by the Secretary of the Treasury, to be known and styled commissioners, whose duty it shall be to take charge of all the property and effects of said Freedman's Savings and Trust Company, close up the principal and subordinate branches, collect from the branches all the deposits they have on hand, and proceed to collect all sums due said company, and dispose of all the property owned by said company, as speedily as the interests of the corporation require, and to distribute the proceeds among the creditors pro rata, according to their respective amounts; they shall make a pro rata dividend whenever they have funds enough to pay twenty per centum of the claims of depositors. Said commissioners, before they proceed to act, shall execute a joint bond to the United States, with good sureties, in the penal sum of one hundred thousand dollars, conditioned for the faithful discharge of their duties as commissioners aforesaid, and shall take an oath to faithfully and honestly perform their duties as such, which bonds shall be executed in presence of the Secretary of the Treasury, be approved by him, and by him safely kept; and whenever said trustees shall file with the Secretary of the Treasury a certified copy of the order appointing said commissioners, and they shall have executed the bonds and taken the oath aforesaid, then said commissioners shall be invested with the legal title to all of said property of said company, for the purposes of this act, and shall have full power and authority to sell the same, and make deeds of conveyance to any and all of the real estate sold by them to the purchasers. Said commissioners may employ such agents as are necessary to assist them in closing up said company, and pay them a reasonable compensation for their services out of the funds of said company; and the said commissioners shall retain out of said funds a reasonable compensation for their trouble, to be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Comptroller of the Currency, and not exceeding three thousand dollars each per annum. Said commissioners shall deposit all sums collected by them in the Treasury of the United States until they make a pro rata distribution of the same."

There are several legal questions that history would like to ask. 1. Did not the trustees of the Freedman's Savings Bank and Trust Company violate their charter in establishing branch banks? 2. Were not the trustees personally liable for receiving deposits from persons who were neither "heretofore held in slavery" nor the descendants of such persons? 3. Were not persons "heretofore held in slavery" and "their descendants" preferred creditors? 4. Had Congress the authority to go outside of the Federal bankruptcy laws and create such special machinery for the settlement of a collapsed bank? This matter may come before Congress in a new shape some time in the future.

The three commissioners, at a salary of $3,000 per annum, were charged with the settlement of the affairs of the bank. They were Jno. A. J. Creswell, Robert Purvis, and R. H. T. Leipold. Mr. Creswell was retained by the United States before the Alabama Claims Commission at a salary of $10,000 per annum; while Mr. Leipold was a lawyer with considerable practice. But neither one of these gentlemen ever entered a court on behalf of the company. In a little more than five years they used up out of the assets of the company, $40,000 for their salaries; paid for salaries to agents, $64,000, and $31,000 for attorneys' fees, aggregating $135,000—nearly one half of the amount distributed among depositors for the same length of time.

The more the commissioners examined, the greater the liabilities of the company grew. On the 1st of October, 1875, a dividend of 20 per cent. was declared; on the 1st of February, 1878, a dividend of 10 per cent. was declared; on the 21st of August, 1880, they declared another dividend of 10 per cent.; and on the 14th of April, 1881, a circular was sent out as a crumb of comfort to the anxious, defrauded, and outraged depositors. It is not enough for history to pronounce the failure of this bank an irreparable calamity to the Colored people of the South; it should be branded as a crime! There was no more necessity for the failure of this bank than for the failure of the United States Treasury. Its management was criminal; and Congress should yet seek out and punish the guilty; and the depositors should be indemnified out of the United States Treasury. Justice and equity demand it.

The failure of the Freedman's Bank worked great mischief among the Colored people in the South. But hardy, persistent, earnest, and hopeful, they turned again to the work of making and saving money. They have been more prudent than their circumstances, in some instances, would seem to warrant. In Georgia the Colored people have made wonderful progress in business matters.

Polls.	No. of Acres of Land.	Value of Land.	City or Town Property.	Amount of Money and Solvent Debts of all Kinds.	Household and Kitchen Furniture.
88,522	541,199	$1,348,758	$1,094,435	$73,253	$448,713

Horses, Mules, Hogs, Sheep, and Cattle.	Plantation and Mechanical Tools.	Value of all other Property, not before Enumerated, except Annual Crops, Provisions, etc.	Aggregate Value of Whole Property.	Total Amount of Tax Assessed on Polls and Property.
$1,704,230	$143,258	$369,751	$5,182,398	$106,660.39

Increase in number of acres since return of 1878	39,309
Increase in wealth since return of 1878	$57,523

In Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and in Maryland, Colored men have possessed themselves of excellent farms and moderate fortunes. In Baltimore a company of Colored men own a ship dock, and transact a large business. Some of the largest orange plantations in Florida are owned by Colored men. On most of the plantations, and in many of the large towns and cities Colored mechanics are quite numerous. The Montgomeries who own the plantation, once the property of Jefferson Davis, extending for miles along the Mississippi, are probably the best business men in the South. In Louisiana, P. P. Deslonde, A. Dubuclet, Hon. T. T. Allain, and State Senator Young are men who, although taking a lively interest in politics, have accumulated property and saved it.

There is nothing vicious in the character of the Southern Negro. He is gentle, affectionate, and faithful. If it has appeared, through false figures, that he is a criminal, there is room for satisfactory explanation. In 1870, out of a population, of persons of color, in all the States and Territories, of 4,880,009, there were only 9,400 who were receiving aid on the 1st of June, 1870; and only 8,056 in all the prisons of America. Nine tenths of these were South, and could neither read nor write.

During the Rebellion, when every white male from fifteen to seventy was out fighting to sustain the Confederacy—when the Southern Government was robbing the cradle and the grave for soldiers—the wives and children of the Confederates were committed to the care and keeping of their slaves. And what is the verdict of history? That these women were outraged and their children brained? No! But that during all those years of painful anxiety, of hope and fear, of fiery trial and severe privation, those faithful Negroes toiled, not only to support the wives and children of the men who were fighting to make slavery national and perpetual, but fed the entire rebel army, and never laid the weight of a finger upon the head of any of the women or children entrusted to their care! To this virtue of fidelity to their worst enemies they added still another, loyalty to the Union flag and escaping Union soldiers. All night long they would direct the lonely, famishing, fainting, and almost delirious Union soldier in a safe way, and then when the night and morning met they would point their pilgrim friends to the North Star, hide them and feed them during the day, and then return to the plantation to care for the loved ones of the men who starved Union soldiers and hunted them down with bloodhounds! This is the brightest gem that history can place upon the brow of the Negro; and in conferring it there is no one found to object.

Since the war the crime among Colored people is to be accounted for upon two grounds, viz.: ignorance, and a combination of circumstances over which they had no control. It was one thing for the Negro to understand the cruel laws of slavery, but when he found himself a freeman he was not able to know what was an infraction of the law. They did not know what in law constituted a tort, or a civil action from a sled. The violent passions pampered in slavery, the destruction of the home, the promiscuous mingling of the sexes, a conscience enfeebled by disuse, made them easy transgressors. The Negro is not a criminal generically; he is an accidental criminal. The judiciary and juries of the South are responsible for the alarming prison statistics which stand against the Negro. It takes generations for men to overcome their prejudices. With a white judge and a white jury a Negro is guilty the moment he makes his appearance in court. It is seldom that a Negro can get judgment against a white person under the most favorable circumstances. The Negroes who appear in courts are of the poorer and more ignorant class. They have no funds with which to employ counsel, and have but few intelligent lawyers to come to their rescue. In cases of theft, especially of poultry, pigs, sheep, fruit, etc., it is next to impossible to convince a white judge or jury that the defendant is not guilty. They reason that because the half-fed, overworked slave appropriated articles of food, as a freeman the Negro was not changed. They ascribed a general habit, growing out of trying circumstances, to the Negro as a slave that he soon learned to regard as morally wrong when a freeman.

But the most effective agency in filling Southern prisons with Negroes has been, and is, the chain-gang system—the farming out of convict labor. Just as great railway, oil, and telegraph companies in the North have been capable of controlling legislation, so the corporations at the South which take the prisoners of the State off of the hands of the Government, and then speculate upon the labor of the prisoners, are able to control both court and jury. It has been the practice, and is now, in some of the Southern States, to pronounce long sentences upon able-bodied young Colored men, whose offences, in a Northern court, could not be visited with more than a few months' confinement and a trifling fine. The object in giving Negro men a long term of years, is to make sure the tenure of the soulless corporations upon the convicts whose unhappy lot it is to fall into their iron grasp. In some of the Southern States a strong and healthy Negro convict brings thirty-seven cents a day to the State, while he earns a dollar for the corporations above his expenses. The convicts are cruelly treated—especially in Georgia and Kentucky;—their food is poor, their quarters miserable, and their morals next to the brute creation. In many of these camps men and women are compelled to sleep in the same bunks together, with chains upon their limbs, in a promiscuous manner too sickening and disgusting to mention. When a prisoner escapes he is hunted down by fiery dogs and cruel guards; and often the poor prisoner is torn to pieces by the dogs or beaten to death by the guards. No system of slavery was ever equal in its cruel and dehumanizing details to this convict system, which, taking advantage of race prejudice on the one hand and race ignorance on the other, with cupidity and avarice as its chief characteristics, has done more to curse the South than all things else since the war.

It was predicted by persons hostile to the rights and citizenship of the Negro, that a condition of freedom would not be in harmony with his character; that it would destroy him, and that he would destroy the country and party which tried to make him agree to a state of independent life; that having been used to the "kind treatment"(?) of his master he would find himself unequal to the responsibilities of freedom; and that his migratory disposition would lead him into a climate too cold for him, where he would be welcomed to an inhospitable grave.

It is true that a great many Negroes died during the first years of their new life. The joy of emancipation and the excitement that disturbed business swept the Negroes into the large cities. Like the shepherds who left their flocks on the plains and went into Bethlehem to see the promised redemption, these people sought the centres of excitement. The large cities were overrun with them. The demand for unskilled labor was not great. From mere spectators they became idlers, helpless and offensive to industrious society. Ignorant of sanitary laws, imprudent in their daily living, changing from the pure air and plain diet of farm life to the poisonous atmosphere and rich, fateful food of the city, many fell victims to the sudden change from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, and from the fleshpots, garlic, and onions of their Egyptian bondage to the milk and honey of the Canaan of their deliverance.

But this was in accordance with an immutable law of nature. Every year a large number of birds perish in an attempt to change their home; every spring-time many flowers die at their birth. The law of the survival of the fittest is impartial and inexorable. The Creator said centuries ago "the soul that sinneth shall surely die," and the law has remained until the present time. Those who sinned ignorantly or knowingly died the death; but those who obeyed the laws of health, of man, and of God, lived to be useful members of society.

But this was the exception to the rule. The Negro race in America is not dying out. The charge is false. The wish was father to the thought, while no doubt many honest people have been misled by false figures. Nearly all white communities at the South had more than enough of physicians; and science and culture were summoned to the aid of the white mother in the hour of childbirth. The record of births was preserved with pride and official accuracy; and thus there was a record upon which to calculate the increase. But, on the contary, among the Negroes there were no physicians and no record of births. The venerable system of midwifery prevailed. In burying their dead, however, this people were compelled to obtain a burial permit from the Board of Health. Thus the statistics were all on one side—all deaths and no births. Looking at these statistics it did seem that the race was dying out. But the Government steps in and takes the census every decade, and, thereby, the world is enabled, upon reliable figures, to estimate the increase or decrease of the Colored race. The subjoined table exhibits the increase of the Colored people for nine decades.

		Year.	Colored.	Colored gain per cent.
1st	census.	1790	757,208
2d	"	1800	1,002,037	32.3	1st	decade.
3d	"	1810	1,377,808	37.5	2d	"
4th	"	1820	1,771,656	28.6	3d	"
5th	"	1830	2,328,642	31.5	4th	"
6th	"	1840	2,873,648	23.4	5th	"
7th	"	1850	3,638,808	26.6	6th	"
8th	"	1860	4,441,830	22.1	7th	"
9th	"	1870	4,880,009	9.9[122]	8th	"
10th	"	1880	6,580,793	34.8	9th	"

So here is a remarkable fact, that from 757,208 in 1790 the Negro race has grown to be 6,580,793 in 1880! The theory that the race was dying out under the influences of civilization at a greater ratio than under the annihilating influences of slavery was at war with common-sense and the efficient laws of Christian society. Emancipation has taken the mother from field-work to house-work. The slave hut has been supplanted by a pleasant house; the mud floor is done away with; and now, with carpets on the floor, pictures on the wall, a better quality of food properly prepared, the influence of books and papers, and the blessings of a preached Gospel, the Negro mother is more prolific, and the mortality of her children reduced to a minimum. The Negro is not dying out. On the contrary he has shown the greatest recuperative powers, and against the white population of the United States as it stands to-day—if it were not fed by European immigrants,—within the next hundred years the Negroes would outnumber the whites 12,000,000! Or at an increase of 33-1/3 per cent. the Negro population in 1980 would be 117,000,000! providing the ratio of increase continues the same between the races.

And in addition to the fact that the Negro, like the Irishman, is prolific, is able to reproduce his species, it should be recorded that the Negro intellect is growing and expanding at a wonderful rate. The children of ten and twelve years of age are more apt to-day than those of the same age ten years ago. And the children of the next generation will have no superiors in any of the schools of the country.