It is impossible to secure complete statistics of the railroad bond issues of counties and towns. Some issues were made in ignorance, without authority of law, others were made under the provisions of a general law. Naturally, the counties that suffered most were those of the Black Belt under carpet-bag control. The following is a summary of the issues made under special acts:—
| County or Town | Date | Amount | Road Aided | Authority | Vote |
| Barbour | —— | —— | Vicksburg and Brunswick | Act, Dec. 31, 1868 | —— |
| Chambers | —— | $150,000 | East Alabama and Cincinnati | Act, Dec. 31, 1868 | —— |
| Dallas | —— | 140,000 | New Orleans and Selma | Act, Dec. 31, 1868 | —— |
| Greene | 1869 | 80,000 | Selma, Marion, and Memphis | Act, Mar. 3, 1870 | 1011 to 550 |
| Hale | 1869 | 60,000 | Selma, Marion, and Memphis | Act, Mar. 3, 1870 | 2260 to 301 |
| Lee | —— | 275,000 | East Alabama and Cincinnati | Act, Dec. 31, 1868 | —— |
| Madison | 1873 | 130,000 | Memphis and Charleston | Act, Mar. 27, 1873 | Also earlier |
| Pickens | 1869 | 100,000 | Selma, Marion, and Memphis | Act, Mar. 3, 1870 | 1212 to 607 |
| Randolph | —— | 100,000 | ———— | Act, Dec. 31, 1868 | —— |
| Tallapoosa | —— | 125,000 | ———— | ———— | —— |
| Eutaw | 1869 | 20,000 | Selma, Marion, and Memphis | Act, Mar. 2, 1870 | 98 to 35 |
| Greensboro | 1869 | 15,000 | Selma, Marion, and Memphis | Act, Mar. 3, 1870 | 164 to 1 |
| Mobile | 1871 | 1,000,000 | Mobile and Northwestern | Act, Mar. 8, 1871 | —— |
| Mobile | 1873 | 200,000 | ———— | Act, Mar. 7, 1873 | —— |
| Opelika | —— | 25,000 | East Alabama and Cincinnati | ———— | —— |
| Prattville | 1872 | 50,000 | South and North Alabama | Act, Jan. 23, 1872 | —— |
| Troy | 1868 | 75,000 | Mobile and Girard | Act, Oct. 8, 1868 | —— |
CHAPTER XIX
RECONSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS
School System before Reconstruction
The public school system of the state of Alabama was organized in 1854, and was an expansion of the Mobile system, which was partly native and partly modelled on the New York-New England systems.[1707] By 1856 it was in good working order. The school fund for 1855 was $237,515.00; for 1856, $267,694.41, and the number of children in attendance was 100,279, which was about one-fourth of the white population. For 1857 the fund amounted to $281,874.41; for 1858, $564,210.46, with an attendance of 98,274 children.[1708] The schools were not wholly free, since those parents who were able to do so paid part of the tuition.[1709] In 1860 there were also 206 academies, with an enrolment of 10,778 pupils, and in the state colleges there were 2120 students.
In spite of the war the system managed to exist until 1864, and some schools were still open in 1865, at the time of surrender. Few of the private schools and colleges survived until that time, and the majority of the school buildings of all kinds were either destroyed during the war, or after its close were placed in the hands of the Freedmen’s Bureau or of the army. The State Medical College was used for a negro primary school for three years, and was not given up until the reconstructionists came into power. An attempt in 1865 was made to reopen the University, although the buildings had been burned by the Federals in 1865. The trustees met, elected a president and two professors, but on the day appointed for the opening (in October) only one student appeared.[1710]
During the summer and fall of 1865 and during the next year the various religious denominations of the state and mass-meetings of citizens declared that the changed civil relations of the races made negro education a necessity. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established and anticipated much of the work planned by the churches and by southern leaders, but the methods employed by the alien teachers caused many whites to become prejudiced against negro education.[1711]