[118] See the annual reports of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Virginia. There were more than 18,234 Colored children in the schools of this State in 1870.
[119] Annual Report of the Hon. W. H. Ruffner, for 1874.
[120] For an account of the John F. Slater Bequest of $1,000.000 for the education of the freedmen, see the Appendix to this volume.
[121] See report of the Commissioner.
[122] There is no disguising the fact that the ninth census was incorrect. No doubt it was the worst we have ever had.
CHAPTER XXIII.
REPRESENTATIVE COLORED MEN.
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.—The Legal Destruction of Slavery and a Constitutional Prohibition.—Fifteenth Amendment granting Manhood Suffrage to the American Negro.—President Grant's Special Message upon the Subject.—Universal Rejoicing among the Colored People.—The Negro in the United States Senate and House of Representatives.—the Negro in the Diplomatic Service of the Country.—Frederick Douglass.—His Birth, Enslavement, Escape To the North, and Life as a Freeman.—Becomes an Anti-slavery Orator.—Goes to Great Britain.—Returns to America.—Establishes the "North Star."—His Eloquence, Influence, and Brilliant Career.—Richard Theodore Greener.—His Early Life, Education, and Successful Literary Career.—John P. Green.—His Early Struggles to obtain an Education.—A Successful Orator, Lawyer, and Useful Legislator.—Other Representative Colored Men.—Representative Colored Women.