After generations of oppression the dawn of freedom brought with it a social upheaval. The freedmen now proceeded to taste the forbidden fruit and the people who brought learning to them they received with open arms.[87] The Yankee school master was not only to the freedmen a teacher but his deliverer from bondage. Happily in the enthusiasm of the "late children of oppression" for learning they proved themselves to be not objects of charity but actual supporters and promoters of the educational movement.
It was a principle of some of the societies to open no new school unless a fair proportion of its expenses could be met by the parents of the pupils.[88] There were made various arrangements by which the freedmen could help sustain the schools. In some instances they boarded the teachers and met the incidental expenses of the school while the societies paid the salaries and traveling expenses. In this way nearly one-half of the cost was sustained by them and in some instances nearly two-thirds of it.[89] As the foregoing tables have helped to show in part, in some cases the freedmen met the entire expenses, bought the lot, erected the school house, and paid the salary of the teacher.
During 1866, Tomlinson reported five houses had been built by them and others were under the course of erection. These were located at the following places:
| Kingstree | size 20 x 37 ft. |
| Darlington | size 30 x 72 ft. |
| Florence | size 35 x 45 ft. |
| Timmonsville | size 14 x 24 ft. |
| Marion | size 20 x 50 ft. |
During 1867 twenty-three school houses were reported to have been built by the freedmen aided by the Freedmen's Bureau and northern societies. For the support of school teachers this year they contributed $12,200. This with $5,000 for school houses made an aggregate of $17,200.[90] The school houses were placed in the hands of trustees selected from among themselves and were to be held permanently for school purposes.[91]
The means by which the freedmen offered their support was not always in cash but in kind. During the early years following the war there was a scarcity of money in circulation. The employers of the blacks, the planters, were themselves unable always to pay in cash, and as a substitute a system of barter grew up.[92] Directing attention to this situation and the general question of self-help, Governor Andrews of Massachusetts, president of the New England Society, sent out the following circular to the freedmen of the South: "The North must furnish money and teachers—the noblest of her sons and daughters to teach your sons and daughters. We ask you to provide for them, wherever possible, school houses and subsistence. Every dollar you thus save us will help to send you another teacher ... you can supply the teachers' homes with corn, eggs, chickens, milk and many other necessary articles.... Work an extra hour to sustain and promote your schools."[93] The value of such labor averaged only about eight dollars a month, but Governor Andrews' recommendation was carried out in so many cases that much good was thereby accomplished.
The campaign of education for the freedmen was temporary in character and was so regarded by the Freedmen's Bureau and the societies. It was merely an effort to place the ex-slaves on their own feet and afterwards it was their task. In line with this policy the Freedmen's Bureau and the military authorities seized every opportunity of instituting self-government among them, especially where they were congregated in large numbers. Such a case was Mitchelville.
Sherman's field order 15 called for the laying aside of a vast stretch of territory exclusively for the freedmen. In the same manner in 1864 the military officers at Hilton Head laid out a village for them near the officers' camps and introduced measures of self-government. The village was called Mitchelville in honor of General Ormsby Mitchell who had been like a father to the multitude of fifteen hundred or more occupying the village. The place was regularly organized with a Mayor and Common Council, Marshal, Recorder and Treasurer, all black, and all elected by Negroes, except the Mayor and Treasurer. Among the powers of the Common Council, which concern us here, was the compulsory provision that "every child between the ages of six and fifteen years ... shall attend school daily, while they are in session, excepting only in cases of sickness ... and the parents and guardians will be held responsible that said children so attend school, under the penalty of being punished at the discretion of the Council of Administration."[94] We may or may not call this South Carolina's first compulsory school law.
With a view to training teachers from among themselves the northern teachers seized every opportunity to pick out a bright student who would ultimately assume full responsibility. Accordingly, the schools were taught by persons of both races. In addition those Negroes who already had some learning were pressed into service. This arrangement had its obvious disadvantages as well as advantages. The Negro teacher understood the environment and the character and nature of the pupils to a far greater extent than the northern coworker; but, as could be expected, the native teacher was lacking in preparation. As one of the northern journals expressed the situation, the "men and women from the North carry much more than their education. They carry their race, moral training, their faculty, their character, influence of civilization, their ideas, sentiments and principles that characterize northern society."[95] Occasionally native white teachers were employed, but not always to the satisfaction of either the Yankee teachers or their pupils.