"In 1866, everybody that was less than sixteen years old in South
Carolina had to go to school. The little fellows that had been slaves
had to go to school, and they got some education. You will hardly find
an old man from South Carolina around my age who can't read and write.
There was one hundred sixty pupils in my school. All boys. I never went
to a mixed school--a school where they had boys and girls both.
"The first school I attended was in Ebenezer. I went to high school in
Macklenburg. Miss Sallie Good and Miss Mattie Train, Elias Hill, and
David G. Wallace--all of these were my teachers. They were all white
except Elias Hill. He was the only colored teacher in that section of
the country--at that time.
"When I finished high school, I went to Biddle University. Biddle was
a boys' school. It was in Charlotte, North Carolina. They had a girls'
school in Concord, North Carolina. Biddle is still running, but it has
another name. Dr. Mattoon was president of Biddle then and Dr. Darling
was president of the girls' school.