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"Education is a companion which no misfortune can depress, no crime
can destroy, no enemy can alienate, no despotism can enslave. At home, a friend, abroad an introduction. In solitude, a solace, and in society, an
ornament. It hastens vice, it guides virtue; it gives, at once, grace and government to genius. Without it, what is man? A splendid slave, a reasoning savage."
Joseph Addison
EDUCATION
A characteristic of the American people is their love for education.
Fostered by public sentiment, there has since grown up a magnificent system of schools, maintained by both taxation and the private sector.
If it be true that the citizen of these United States is to truly be free, in
their own conscience, thought, expression, action, independent of all extraneous and impertinent authorities; free to investigate for himself,
form conclusions, and act upon convictions, it follows that there must be provided some system of training that shall call into fullest exercise of all
those powers of the mind which are essential toward freedom. Such system has been provided in the public schools, where the course of
study is designed toward familiarizing the pupil with the rudiments of education, by putting that pupil into possession of powers of mind, accustoming to a sound thinking and independent utterance, while
developing moral conceptions and awakening active consciences as preparing for a career of freedom that will be more likely to open to that pupil.
The free school system is the buttress of our liberties, the bulwark against the waves of ignorance. It is the nursery of manhood and womanhood; the training place of citizenship; the
home of independence. Out from free schools spring excellence of character and preparation for civic duty. To destroy our free school system is to strike a deadly blow at the very roots of the tree of
liberty. No system of private or parochial schools will ever compare with the public school as an agency of a universal education.
Educational system was not established in the South until after the close
of the Civil War, 1865. It is notably true that most of the great universities and colleges of the country (such as Harvard, Brown, and Yale); by far
the greater number of theological schools too; and almost all of the great technical schools, are found in Northern States. The great publishing
houses are in the North, so are most prosperous, widely circulated, and influential newspapers. It would be very surprising, therefore, if it should
be maintained that the South is in any respect on the same line with the North in matters of education.
These facts are stated simply with a view of showing their bearing upon
the question of the education of Blacks. While they were held in bondage and treated as chattels, they were by the very necessity of the system of
slavery, deprived of any educational advantages. They were taught to work, became somewhat skilled in lower forms of industrial occupation,
and acquired habits of industry, enforced by the lash, which have been of incalculable service to them. Here and there one by stealth learned to
read and write, but the great mass of them could do neither, and were kept in the grossest kind of ignorance. In many Southern States, it was
made a crime to teach a slave his letters. It is not surprising; therefore, that when the efforts of the war liberated millions of slaves they should
enter into the competitive struggle of life sadly handicapped.
Even their preachers, in most cases, were grossly ignorant, unable to
read a word of the Bible which they were attempting to expound, and their existed among them no class of men who had any proper conception or
any suitable preparation for intelligent leadership. Behind the emancipated Blacks, set free by the proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, there stretched a dark and dismal bondage of years, unilluminated by
except the feeblest rays of light. As they emerged from this dense darkness of ignorance, superstition, and petty vices, they were dazed and
terrorized by the new responsibilities of freedom so suddenly thrust upon them. The war made them free, with little or no preparation for freedom;
the Constitution conferred upon them citizenship, while as yet they had no training for it and no instruction as to what it meant. Separated by
color and by prejudice against them, born of slavery, they withdrew from the white congregations, organized churches of their own, and installed
pastors, men who were untrained, uneducated, inexperienced, and incompetent. Thrust into political life with no knowledge of civics, training
or experience in public affairs, blindly following the lead either of designing white men or untrained and incompetent black men very naturally fell, into many a foolish and hurtful act.
Those wonderful steps in the onward march of human events, there has
been conceded to the blacks in this country their freedom, citizenship, manhood, equality before the law, all of which can never be retraced. The
edict of emancipation is as irrevocable as the Declaration of Independence. While the rights of citizenship may be abridged, modified temporarily, rendered inoperative, but permanently withdrawn or
overthrown --- never.
A nation can no more escape the consequences of its own action than can the individual: "Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap."
The American people having established upon this continent a republic, a
government of the people, having as its cornerstone the equality of man, and the sacred right of majority to rule. By persuasions, entreaties,
financial, social, political, it has peopled the North with millions from Europe, and by force and fraud populated the South with yet millions from
Africa. Upon all these people has been conferred the inalienable and priceless boon of American citizenship. Incorporating all alike into its
body politic, into its national life, no longer separate peoples--Swedes, English, Irish, French, Germans, and Africans---but Americans.
With rising generations of black children yet to become, "native and to the
manner born;" sons of freedom, never having known bondage; born into the inherited rights of an American citizenship; with a just pride in their
ancestral history, speaking a common language, professing a common Christianity; thoroughly American in spirit, habits, tastes, hopes, aspirations.
Some may shut their eyes to facts, but facts remain; some may attempt
to ignore it, but it will not be ignored; some may even repent history that established it, but repentance does not in the very slightest degree
modify facts. The black branch having been engrafted into the national stock so that the very lifeblood of America flows through its veins. It would
be impossible severing the branch without not only marring the symmetry, but also endangering the very life of the national stock.
Blacks preparation for citizenship when it was initially thus upon the
public's attention demanded careful thought and prompt radical treatment. Blacks, from the nature of the case, were utterly incapable of grappling
with the problem; while Southern white folk could not be expected to throw to the winds all their traditions and preconceptions, admitting at
once their former slaves into political fellowship, recognizing them as fellow-citizens entitled, like themselves, to all rights of citizenship and education.
An education that without, blacks could neither have appreciated many
of the privileges nor been able to meet many of the responsibilities of their changed status. It is a matter for congratulation with many blacks in their
having shown as much interest in the cause of education as some have throughout time, having been as receptive and appreciative of many of the
efforts made in their behalf by others, having made the progress as a result of God's goodness and grace. Hallelujah!
Much to the credit of Northern men who during a period of reconstruction,
established public schooling in the South, securing political pre-eminence there as well; it too is especially noteworthy that most influential schools
for blacks (those schools which have been greatest factors in promoting black's education) were too established mainly by Northern benevolence,
because the North has believed so profoundly in education, many Northerners initially made large contributions for establishment of schools
specifically aimed toward the training of black citizens. For this purpose the Friends initially gave one million dollars; the Presbyterians, one
million, two hundred and fifty thousand; the Baptists, over three million; the Methodists, six million; the Congregationalists, twelve million. Many more private individuals and churches not named here also gave largely to these efforts.
Shaw University, at Raleigh, NC - originally was founded to teach freedmen theology and Biblical interpretation.
Spelman Seminary, at Atlanta, GA - where two Boston women began teaching 11 black women, mostly ex-slaves, in an Atlanta church basement.
Atlanta University, at Atlanta, GA - was once the oldest graduate institution serving a predominantly African American student body.
Fisk University, at Nashville, TN - its first students ranged in age from seven to seventy, but shared common experiences of slavery and
poverty--and an extraordinary thirst for learning.
These and other similar schools, having done for black education since the American Civil War what schools like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, and other institutions, had already wrought during the North's even earlier years in history.
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