It may safely be concluded, therefore, that a great many more Negroes were able to read and write in the period just preceding the Civil War than was generally thought to be the case, either in the South or the North. Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the intellectual enlightenment which was beginning to have so many expressions in the earlier years of the century grew on and steadily became wider in its quiet pervasiveness, notwithstanding the many adverse conditions with which it had to contend.
If the estimate is correct that some ten per cent. of the adult Negroes at the time of the war had the rudiments of education, or if even only five per cent. of the Freedmen had this knowledge, the task of the hour for the teachers was quite different from what has usually been supposed. To bring the chance for an education to a people of whom five out of every hundred have the habit of learning is another thing from dealing with those who have none of them taken even the first steps. It is all the difference between taking them at the lowest stage and meeting them after they have mastered the earlier lessons. It must have meant very much to the teachers if there were a few of their pupils who were above the primary grade. This goes far to explain the demand that came so soon for secondary schools and those of a more advanced grade. There were some of the pupils whose education had begun long before these teachers saw them; had begun in their old slave environment and with their own parents or some fellow slave, or perhaps their master’s children, for teachers, and so they were the more ready for new privileges.
It may well be supposed that these men and women of greater intelligence, as soon as opportunities began to open, were especially ambitious for the superior education of their children and that the pupils of most promise in all the schools were largely drawn from their ranks. This is the ready explanation of the swift development of these schools and of the necessity for classes above the primary grade. Here, too, is the explanation of certain unlooked for manifestations of a scholarly spirit and intellectual aptitude that early surprised the teachers. Actually their pupils, many of them, had a good deal more back of them than they ever imagined. They were of parentage that was by no means to be despised. They had been tenderly watched over from infancy and received a careful training in manners and behavior. As servants in their master’s house they had been daily observers of the life going on there; breathing its atmosphere of elevation; seeing the able men and cultivated women that were entertained at its table; listening often to superior conversation, and catching many a strong impression to stay with them.
The colored men who escaped into the Union lines were of a different type. They were hungry, ragged, ignorant, confused by their wretched plight and begging for protection. The first necessity was food, shelter, clothing; in some cases immediate medical attendance; and the pitiable creatures were to be counted by hundreds and thousands. The appeal that went up to the people of the North, was not altogether unlike that which has come from the stricken and homeless sufferers in the European war. And the response at that time was similar to the generous relief provided for the people of Belgium, Serbia and Poland.
But in one respect the need of the these Negroes was peculiar. They were escaped slaves, and it was decided that they were not to be returned to slavery; so it was a question, not merely of present relief; but of how they could be provided for permanently. Something had to be done that they might be prepared to take care of themselves eventually and make an honest living. In the new life of independence they were entering they had everything to learn; therefore they had to be taught. In a word, those who were dealing with them had about the same problem to handle that the old Virginia settlers had when the first cargo of Negroes was landed there from Africa. These sorry creatures must be taught to behave; to mind what they were about; to work and do their work well; to use good English and to play the part of men. It was the teacher’s job and a hard job for any who were bold enough to try it.
But the teachers were forthcoming; hundreds of them; cultivated, and high-minded. They could see no way to make these fugitive slaves into decent, law-abiding, industrious people, but to give them a new character, a changed life. They must be led into an intelligent religion that should govern the whole round of their conduct. And for this they must be brought to the Bible. Therefore they must learn how to read it at the very start. And so they went to teaching grown up men and women their letters. Perhaps it looks odd to us; but there was good sense in it. This was the way of opening the Bible to these groping men; the way of leading them to an intelligent acquaintance with Jesus Christ, the hope of lost men always and everywhere.
It was a noble service. There were aspects of sublimity about it; and any who are disposed to belittle it or to speak lightly of the results that flowed from it show that they do not understand the tremendous interests at stake in that critical hour of the Nation’s life; that hour of destiny, too, for these many thousand Negroes “scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd” and faint-hearted for a friendly voice and some word of encouragement.
While such efforts were made to teach the Negroes to read, those engaged in this work did not by any means stop here; they set about every sort of teaching that might be of practical use. They did their best to improve the habits of the people; influencing them to be cleanly and orderly; calling them to promptness and regularity in their attendance on appointed exercises; giving the men work to do of various kinds and looking out to see that it was done properly; showing the women how to cook their food so as not to spoil it, how to mend and make garments and to be good housekeepers. The Boston Educational Commission in 1862 laid it down as a foremost object to bring about the “industrial improvement” of the Negroes, and it was in the very make-up of these thrifty New England men and women, and those from other parts of the North, to be a vital force in behalf of general efficiency wherever they took up a work like this.
EDUCATION AS A SOLDIER.
The training which the Negroes received during the Civil War as soldiers should not be overlooked. It represents his first opportunity for real manhood training in an effective way. The training of the military camp is no less important than the training of the school-room in the development of good habits and manners.