Publication: THE FREEDMEN'S RECORD (THE FREEDMEN'S JOURNAL)
Date: MAY 1, 1867
M.G. KimballTitle: THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NEW-ENGLAND BRANCH OF THE FREEDMEN’S
BRANCH OF THE FREEDMEN’S
UNION COMMISSION.
THE Annual Meeting of the New-England
Branch of the Freedmen’s Union Commission
was holden at the Old South Chapel,
in Freeman Place, on Friday, April 5,
1867, at half-past three, P.M.
In the absence of the President of the Society the chair was taken by Mr. Edward Atkinson, a Vice-President.
The Recording Secretary being absent
Wm. Endicott, Jr., was chosen Secretary
Mrs. E. D. Cheney presented the Report of the Teachers’ Committee, which was accepted.
Mr. E. L. Pierce, in behalf of the Executive Committee, presented the Annual Report of the Government of the Commission, which was accepted.
Mr. F. W. G. May presented the Report of the Committee on Clothing and Supplies, which was accepted.
Mr. E. W. Hooper presented the Treasurer’s Report, which was accepted.
These several reports were ordered to be printed in the next number of the Record.
A Committee to nominate officers for the ensuing year was then appointed, consisting of Prof. Child, Mrs. Emma C. Rogers, and Mr. E. W. Hooper.
The Committee reported the following list, and the persons named were elected to the several offices for the year ensuing.
[The names of the officers will be found on the last page of the Record.]
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TEACHERS.
PRESENTED BY MRS. E. D. CHENEY.
In presenting their Fifth Annual Report, the Teachers’ Committee feel that they can congratulate themselves and you on the admirable condition and success of the schools during the past year. The only cause of regret is the lessening of their number, owing to the exhausted condition of the treasury.
Instead of a hundred and eighty teachers and ten thousand pupils, as reported last year, we have had about one hundred and thirty teachers and over eight thousand pupils. The only cause for this contraction of the work is the pecuniary one,—we have not dared to make engagements with more teachers than we could feel confident of the means of paying.
I will not further encroach upon the province of the treasurer in laying before you a statement of the present need of an immediate increase of our funds. I will only say that the Teachers’ Committee have consulted economy as strictly as they deemed consistent with honor and sound policy, and have cut off every expense, however desirable, which was not actually necessary for the existence and usefulness of the schools. We hope that the results which we can show will be a powerful stimulus to increased exertion in the future.
We have, since the summer vacation, given up nearly all schools on plantations or in very small towns, and confined ourselves mainly to those large centres of population where the influence of a good school will radiate over a large extent.
We have had more systematic and thorough help from the Freedmen’s Bureau than ever before. Its noble head, Gen. Howard, has the cause of education very near his heart, and has entreated us never to abandon a school that we can possibly support, but always to appeal to the Bureau for assistance and protection in every emergency.
We have made greater demands upon the people of the South than ever before. In some cases the freedmen have formed regular societies to provide for the schools; in others they pay the board of the teacher; in most places they furnish fuel, lights, and repairs for the school-house. Miss Gardner writes us that when they could not get wood drawn to the school-house, her boys took a load and brought it on their own shoulders.
Of the one hundred and thirty teachers employed in the schools during the year, seventy-one or more than one-half, were in the service last year. The advantages resulting from this circumstance are obvious. The Committee are acquainted with the teachers, know their value, and to what situations they are best adapted. The teachers understand their work, and are, to some extent, familiar with their pupils.
The schools were organized early in the season, and have continued with very few changes.
Our policy of employing Southern teachers, both white and colored, under the superintendence of experienced Northern ones, has been continued and extended. Several of these teachers are serving their second year in our schools, and are said to be very valuable assistants. They are, by no means, equal to the average of Northern teachers, but it is extremely important that they should be trained to carry on the work in the future.
The influence of thus employing them, on the disposition of the people around, is very happy. Mr. Whittemore speaks of it in his district, and Mr. Tomlinson says, through the influence of Mr. Shrewsbury, a teacher, he obtained the town hall for a meeting of colored people, and some leading white citizens attended it.
Although it does not strictly belong to the Teachers’ Committee, I wish to speak of the influence which our newspaper, “The Teachers’ Record,” has exerted. It is sent to every teacher, who reads with great interest the letters of her fellow-workers in other places, perhaps, if she has changed her location, the account of the work at her own old school. A generous emulation is thus kept up, and the methods employed by one suggest improvements to another. The children often take it home, and thus their parents hear what is doing for them, and understand the larger aims of the society in educating them. Even their white neighbors often see “The Record,” and curiosity stimulates them to read about what the Yankees are doing. At home it spreads information of our work, and is a link between the Central Society and its branches.
On the first day of June a convention of the Teachers’ Committees of the various branches of the Commision was called to consider the condition of the schools, their needs, and the best measures for improving their condition. This meeting took place in Boston. Delegates were present from the New-York, Baltimore, and New-England Societies, from the American Freedmen’s Union Commission, and from the New-Hampshire and Rhode Island State Societies. We gathered much strength and light from a comparison of our mutual experience, and a uniform policy in regard to many important points was agreed upon.
A letter of instruction to teachers was suggested at this meeting. After a comparison with the drafts of other committees, we had one printed, which has been furnished to every teacher with her commission.
The union of white and black children in our schools has been a point of interest to us ever since our junction with the Union Commission. Our principle has been, and it is urgently enforced on every teacher, to open the doors to pupils of all races and complexions, and to treat them with perfect equality. We have never been sanguine, however, that the whites would speedily or in large numbers avail themselves of the privilege. Something has been done, however, and every white child in our schools helps to break through the wall of prejudice which separates the races.
We have in Muirkirk, Md., fourteen whites; in Warrenton, Va., ten, white according to the law of Virginia; Alexandria, five; Columbus, Ga., two; Roanoke Island, two; Raleigh, five; total, thirty-eight.
Mrs. Hawkes, Port Orange, in Florida, has a family of white children.
Before giving a detailed account of the present state of the schools, I will speak of a few changes which took place before or during the summer vacation.
The Freedmen’s Rest, at Hilton Head, was established to receive the freedmen who followed our armies, and who reached that point hungry, destitute, and sick. Since the peace the influx of freedmen at this point was nearly stopped, and we considered the establishment to be no longer needed. Mr. Gilbert Pillsbury was therefore directed to settle up the accounts and dispose of the property of the Home.
When our Society united with the Union Commission, we took from them two schools in Richmond, situated in the Laboratory Buildings, a little distance from the city, and consisting entirely of white pupils, with the engagement to carry them on for the rest of the school year. We, of course, required these schools to conform to the new rule of the Society, which allowed no distinction of color. Practically, however, no blacks had applied.
The schools continued under the same teachers until May, when it was alleged that the locality was exceedingly unhealthy for a residence there. We directed the schools to be closed a month earlier than the others in Richmond, unless suitable provision could be made for both schools and teachers in healthier places, which was found impracticable without great trouble and expense.
Many parties in Richmond and elsewhere were very desirous of keeping these schools open for whites only, and finally an amicable arrangement was entered into by which they were transferred to the care of The Soldiers’ Memorial Society. One of the teachers, Mr. Hovey, remains in our employ, and has been appointed to the care of our material interests in Richmond.
The other white school was in Raleigh. The teacher was employed at a salary of a thousand dollars per year. He had no larger school and did no better work than the teachers to whom we were paying thirty-five dollars per month. Under these circumstances we declined to re-engage him, and all the schools in Raleigh were put on the same footing of equality for blacks and whites.
Mr. Tomlinson, the active Superintendent of Education for South Carolina, was very anxious that we should continue the schools there, as far as possible, through the summer, and especially that the Morris Street school, in Charleston, should not be closed, as we should be in danger of losing the building. At his request, Mrs. Hawkes took charge of the school during Mr. Sumner’s vacation, and carried it on, with native assistants, much to his satisfaction.
We shall be strongly urged to keep some teachers in the field during the summer. The children, ill-clad and poor as they are, can go to school better than in the bad winter weather, and are less busy than in the spring and autumn. It is for our subscribers to say whether we can do so the present year. Some teachers are usually desirous to stay. This need of summer schools makes the preparation of Southern, and especially of colored teachers for the work, very important.
Mr. Eberhart, the efficient Superintendent of Education in Georgia, also asked us to continue the schools there during the summer. We accordingly allowed him a hundred dollars per month to pay native teachers. Miss Knight remained at Edisto through the summer.
Two of our valued teachers were taken from their labors before the vacation, and nearly at the same time. Miss Helen Learned, to whose unwearied efforts the sewing-schools of Baltimore owe their success, was suddenly seized with severe illness in the midst of her labors, and came home only to breathe out her pure and holy spirit in the arms of her friends.
Miss Sarah Keyes, a noble woman, whose early anti-slavery training bore rich fruit in her life of devotion to the freedmen, was as suddenly stricken down. She was unable to come home, but was tenderly cared for by her fellow-teachers, and her soul went heavenward from the scene of her faithful labors.
Since the vacation we have had no death among our teachers, and their health, so far as we may judge from their letters, has been better than in former years.
Mr. Pratt was retained until the first of August, in Virginia, to visit the different places where we wished to establish schools, to make arrangements for school-houses, and to exhort and encourage the people to labor for their own education. At Charlottesville a Freedmen’s Mutual Improvement Society was formed, which continues to do good service.
A few acts of aggression on the part of the former rebels gave us anxiety in the spring. The school-house in Warrenton, Va., was attacked by a mob on the 6th of April. A Superintendent of the Commission was fortunately there, and he was obliged to ask military protection for the school and its teacher.
The school-house in Smithfield, N.C., was burned in April, and the Second Baptist Church in Richmond. In August Mr. Simms wrote us a painful account of the murder of Mr. Whitfield, one of the colored teachers employed by him for us in Savannah.
We are happy to say that we have suffered much less from this aggressive spirit this school-season than formerly. The general testimony of our teachers is that the conduct of the Southern white people is more friendly than heretofore, and that they begin to show some degree of interest in the cause of education.*
* We regret to say that the very night before this report was read, Mr. Sydney Busbee’s schoolhouse at Snow Hill, N.C., was burned to the ground by a lawless band of “Regulators.” He writes us that Mr. Fiske, the Superintendent of the Bureau, immediately on his report to him, sent an officer to investigate the case, and will afford him ample protection, so that he hopes to begin his school again very soon.
I will now proceed to a brief statement of the present condition of our schools. We have one hundred and twenty-four teachers in our employ in schools, and they teach about eight thousand pupils. The number varies a little from month to month, but it does not fall short of this amount.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
We have here the same school which has been under our charge from its commencement, in connection with the trustees of the Colored School Fund. The trustees have put up a good plain but comfortable school-house. We send four teachers, who each take a separate room,—the whole being under the charge of Miss Annie M. Smith as principal. The school is carefully graded, according to the attainments of the pupils. We have good reports of the condition of the school. We hope another year, however, that the beneficent legislation of Congress will obviate the necessity of our maintaining any schools in the National District.
Miss Harriette Carter continues her labors for the poor of Washington. She reports that owing to the appropriation of Congress there has been much less destitution and suffering this year than last. She employs about fifty women in sewing, and instructs forty or fifty children in sewing and braiding straw. Miss Peirce, one of the teachers in the day-school, has given her much assistance, and she has had many volunteer teachers who have aided her in her difficult task.
We have in Washington five teachers, two schools, and two hundred and fifty-one pupils.
MARYLAND.
We have kept up the work in Maryland as heretofore in connection with the Baltimore Society. We furnish them twenty-nine teachers, whose salary and transportation we pay. The work goes on here steadily and successfully. Our teachers have given satisfaction to the Baltimore Society, and are gratified with the result of their labors. The schools are entirely under the supervision of the Baltimore Association, and are carefully graded according to the progress of the pupils. The Society aim to bring their schools up to the highest standard of New-England excellence, and the testimony to their success is universal. The colored people have contributed largely to their support. In Baltimore each pupil brings a small weekly fee, and in the counties they take care of the school-houses, and pay the board of the teacher.
The Baltimore Society say they must depend upon us this year for help, but they hope that next year the city government will adopt the schools into a well-established system for all. The work in the counties will have to be supported by benevolent associations some time longer, until “My Maryland” is wholly regenerated.
We have also furnished a teacher to the Ladies’ Association of Baltimore for their sewing-schools. Miss Frances M. Ellis has taken charge of this work in the place of the lamented Helen Learned, and she carries into it the same earnest spirit and untiring zeal which distinguished her at Readville and at Norfolk.
We have in Maryland sixteen schools, twenty-eight teachers, and two thousand three hundred and thirty pupils.
VIRGINIA.
Our schools in Richmond have gone on so quietly and prosperously this winter that their history may be told in a few words. Most of the teachers are long-tried veterans, and have their old schools again.
The occupancy of the Bakery Building, furnished us by the Bureau for a Teachers’ Home, has prevented the necessity of living at a distance from the schools, and the family home has been comfortable and harmonious. When we considered the exhausting nature of the teacher’s labors we felt it to be wise, where so many are gathered together, to spare the anxiety and fatigue of housekeeping, and have therefore sent out one person to take the entire charge of the Home. She has been ably assisted by Mr. Hovey, formerly of the Union Commission, who teaches one of the schools, and also takes charge of our material interests in Richmond.
Miss Canedy has taken especial pains to advance her best pupils, and has sixteen who will be fitted to enter a normal class or school at the close of this year.
Besides the regular school-work we have an industrial school, which was first established by the Refugees’ Aid Society. Miss Jane S. Woolsey, who holds our commission without salary, has charge of it. She is assisted by Miss Foster, the nominee of the Somerville Society, and by Miss Abby Francis, whose hereditary devotion to the cause of the negro shows itself in every manner of good work done without price for the Freedmen. This school has been very successful, and has come as near the desired aim of self-support as we believe to be possible. The monthly receipts for work done balance the current monthly expenses, exclusive of salaries and the original expense incurred in starting the school.
The school at Alexandria is continued at the earnest request of the Bureau officer there. Mrs. Smith and her daughter are faithful workers, but they have had great difficulties to contend with in the extreme poverty and unsettled condition of the people. The temporary importance of Alexandria as a depot during the war has passed away, and work is very much needed. We hope that the exercise of the right of suffrage will infuse new life into the people, and that the labors of their teachers will bear rich fruit.
Charlottesville is a bright spot. The same brave spirits are at work here as last year, and the good results of their continuous labor are very evident. Miss Anna Gardner has taken especial pains in leading her best scholars on rapidly and thoroughly, and will have at the close of this year about thirty ready to enter a normal class, and be fitted for teachers. She has prepared a diploma signifying their fitness for teaching, which she purposes to give to all who deserve it. She is aided by Mrs. Isabella Gibbins, a noble colored woman, who has improved her own education under her care, and who is now both studying and teaching.
Miss Carkin is as brave and faithful in her school. We could not ask for a more honest worker. Another school is taught by Paul Lewis, a young colored man, who has been a pupil in Miss Gardner’s school, and who has refused tempting offers of higher pay elsewhere, to devote himself to the education of himself and his people. His salary is paid by our noble friend Miss Abby Francis.
At Gordonsville, Louisa Court House, Culpepper, Orange, and Warrenton, we have good schools under the general charge of Mr. John W. Pratt, who established most of them this year.
We have in Virginia twenty-six teachers, seventeen schools, and one thousand six hundred and eighty-nine pupils.
NORTH CAROLINA.
In North Carolina we have confined our work mainly to Raleigh and a few old established points. Other societies are working in other parts of the State.
We aimed to make a thorough provision for the children of the State Capital, hoping a good influence would radiate from it.
The schools have been generally well conducted, and we hope to have a number of pupils fitted to enter normal classes.
Mrs. Leland began a school on a plantation in Salisbury, to which the agent had earnestly invited her. After a few months of very hard labor she was obliged to leave, as the owner refused to allow a school on the estate. She has taken Miss Bates’ school in Raleigh. Miss Bates has gone to a plantation.
Miss Jones is at Tarboro’, and stout-hearted Miss Kimball pursues her solitary work at Roanoke Island.
Sidney Busbee, a young colored man, who was taught in our schools, and very highly recommended by Mr. Leland, has a good school at Snow Hill. The people themselves furnish the school-house, the fuel, and the teacher’s board.
We have in North Carolina six schools, nine teachers, and six hundred and twenty-five pupils.
SOUTH CAROLINA.
Our largest work has been in South Carolina. The Palmetto and the Old Bay States have had many a bitter contest, and many a friendly meeting. We hope they will have one more battle of generous rivalry in the cause of education, and may contend for superiority in schools as eagerly as they have done in arms.
We have such hearty co-operation and entire sympathy in our work from our long-tried friend Mr. Reuben Tomlinson, Superintendent of Education, that it seemed wise to put as much of our force as possible where it would be so well directed.
In Charleston we have one large school— the Morris Street—under the charge of Mr. Arthur Sumner. He has had three Northern teachers as assistants, and twelve Southern. Of the latter three are colored.
What a powerful influence such a school must exert. Here are colored and white Southern and Northern teachers working in harmony together. They have an average of over eight hundred pupils, and every visitor testifies to the good order and excellence of the school.
Would a regiment of soldiers do more to promote order in the present, and to pave the way for true union in the future, than such a school?
Mr. Whittemore, formerly a chaplain in the army, has taken charge of the Eastern District of South Carolina. He has proved himself so energetic and faithful in his work that we have strengthened his hands as much as possible. We have sent him seven Northern teachers, and have allowed him to engage the assistance of nineteen Southern teachers. These schools are placed in the large towns of Darlington, Camden, Summerville, Sumter, &c., in the eastern part of the State, where Mr. Whittemore can superintend them all. Mr. Tomlinson has lately visited the district, and has sent us a very full and satisfactory report of the state of the schools.
Almost without exception the teachers are faithful to their work, and the schools are rapidly improving in discipline and methods of teaching. A full share of the success of these schools is owing to the energy and efficiency of Mr. Whittemore.
In spite of the disastrous commencement of their journey, the courage of Miss Botume and Miss Langford did not fail, and they have returned to their work at Beaufort with fresh zeal, and have been steadily devoted to it all winter. Mr. Chapin writes us that they are emphatically the right people in the right place, and are doing great good.
In consequence of the changes of ownership and the unsettled condition of Edisto Island, we have withdrawn all our teachers from there but Miss Knight. She remained through the summer, but was so unwell that she was obliged to suspend her school for one or two months in the autumn. This, and the great difficulty of procuring a house for her school and a house for herself, have hindered her work very much, but she now writes us that the people have offered to pay the rent of the school-house, that she can retain her own home, and her school is going on very well. Mr. Tomlinson speaks very highly of her work.
We have in South Carolina twenty-eight schools, forty-four teachers, and three thousand three hundred and sixteen pupils.
GEORGIA.
Mr. Banfield returned to Columbus early in the autumn to lay the foundation of the work there, although he felt that personal considerations would prevent his remaining through the school-season. He returned in March, and gave us a very interesting account of the schools, and of the condition of the colored people. Nowhere have we more regretted the narrowness of our resources than here, where the people are so ready to co-operate with us to the extent of their means. But in spite of the earnest entreaty of the Superintendent of Education, Mr. Eberhart, we felt that we could send only one teacher with Mr. Banfield. We selected Miss Fowler, an experienced teacher, for his assistant. The people of Columbus, however, determined that their children should be taught, and with the encouragment and aid of Mr. Banfield they have formed a Freedmen’s Aid Society, and pledged themselves to the support of two teachers, whom we have accordingly sent them. We selected two among our applicants who we felt would consider this a post of special honor, and be most anxious to give to these brave people an ample return for their sacrifices. Mr. Banfield speaks of the teachers in the highest terms, and says the schools are in admirable order and doing a great work. Mr. Eberhart also employs three native teachers at our expense in Americus and Talbolton. We have in Georgia four schools, six teachers, and four hundred and thirty-six pupils.
In Florida Mrs. Hawkes is displaying her usual energy and ability in conducting a school among the freedmen who are immigrating there in great numbers, although under great difficulties. The people have suffered very much for food and clothing, and have not yet been in a condition to do much for the schools. But Florida is less wedded to old slave-holding customs than some other States, and if a large emigration should flow thither, it is very important that the teacher should go with it, especially as there is an evident interest on the part of the State Authorities on this subject. Number of pupils not reported.
Our last monthly reports give us seventy-four schools, one hundred and twenty-five teachers, and eight thousand six hundred and forty-seven pupils.
Small as the number of our schools and pupils seems in comparison with the mass of Southern ignorance, nothing is little which contains within itself the germs of life. We believe that our schools have this fructifying power. They do not foster a love of indolence and dependence in the freedman, but stimulate him to exertion and self-support. We have thirty-three colored teachers at work. It is difficult to estimate those who are prepared for normal classes, but there cannot be less than fifty, and this is probably much below the number. Every one of these is a proof of the capacity of the negro to reach a high standard of education, and to become a teacher of his own people.
At the close of five years of constant relation with the schools, our testimony is unchanged as to the character of the race. We still find them to be “intensely human.” They are still in a low state of cultivation, with many of the charms and defects of childhood. They are impulsive and affectionate. The peculiar charm of the negro nature is in the feminine virtues, in intense faith, in lively religious emotion, in eager thirst for knowledge, in a pervading sense of beauty; yet, when occasion calls, they have not failed in heroic courage, and above all, in the crowning grace of manhood, steady self-control. They call forth the warm interest and sympathy of all who labor for them, and, in their own simple gratitude, they almost deify their benefactors. One of our teachers from Washington writes lately, “Now the desire of their hearts is to Congress. I said to my junior class, Do you live in a kingdom? Yes, miss. And who is the king? Congress, was the prompt reply. A divinity student who had been North said, on his return, Ah, brethren, Boston is heaven! In Boston, people took me by the hand, and I felt that I was a man like unto a white man; but as we turned Southward the cloud began to gather, and at Washington I was put out in a mud-puddle like a vagabond.”
And yet, strange as you may deem it, the negro is far from perfect. He will be idle when there is no motive to work. He will take advantage of indiscriminate charity, and prefer “drawing” rations and clothes to earning them. A circus will be crowded when it is hard to collect the school-money. Is it strange? Yet there is every thing to encourage us to labor for them. It is at once a privilege and a necessity, for in their hands rests the future of the country.
If you ask us to continue the work for another year, we shall seek to improve it in details, but our policy will be mainly a continuation of our present system. We shall aim at—
1. A systematic organization and grading of the schools.
2. Thorough training of all pupils in the elementary branches.
3. A careful preparation of the best pupils for normal classes.
4. Normal instruction and the employment of pupils in teaching as far as possible.
5. Engaging Southern white and colored teachers in the work.
6. Enlisting the co-operation of the people in the work of supporting the schools to a still greater extent.
7. Keeping carefully in view our ultimate object of paving the way for a free school system at the South, sustained by their own people, of and for all classes and races.
Shall we pause in our work and withdraw any teachers from the fold? Will you not rather urge us to greater fidelity in the use of the great opportunity offered to us, and see to it that we are generously supplied with the means. More important than any theory of reconstruction is the education of the masses—which is regeneration itself.
