CHAPTER XXIX.
HAMPTON INSTITUTE, HAMPTON, VA.
The Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute first opened its doors for the reception of the freedmen in April, 1868. Of its beginning and purpose, General Armstrong, its founder and for twenty-five years its principal, writes:
"Two and a half years' service with the Negro soldiers (after a year as Captain and Major in the 125th New York Volunteers), as Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the Ninth and Eighth Regiments of U. S. Colored Troops, convinced me of the excellent qualities and capacities of the freedmen. Their quick response to good treatment and to discipline was a constant surprise. Their tidiness, devotion to their duty and their leaders, their dash and daring in battle, and ambition to improve—often studying their spelling books under fire—showed that slavery was a false, though doubtless, for the time being, an educative condition, and that they deserved as good a chance as any people.
"In March, 1866, I was placed by General O. O. Howard, Commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau, in charge of ten counties in Eastern Virginia, with headquarters at Hampton, the great 'contraband' camp, to manage Negro affairs and adjust, if possible, the relation of the races.
HAMPTON ROADS, FROM PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE.
"I soon felt the fitness of this historic and strategic spot for a permanent and great educational work. The suggestion was cordially received by the American Missionary Association, which authorized the purchase, in June, 1867, of 'Little Scotland,' an estate of 125 acres on Hampton River, looking out over Hampton Roads. Not expecting to have charge, but only to help, I was surprised, one day, by a letter from Secretary E. P. Smith, of the A. M. A., stating that the man selected for the place had declined, and asking me if I could take it. I replied, 'Yes.' Till then my own future had been blind; it had only been clear that there was a work to be done for the ex-slaves and where and how it should be done.