GENERAL ARMSTRONG--HIS PREDECESSORS AND COLLABORATORS--PIONEERS
OF THE NEW ERA
When in 1868, some years after the close of the Civil War, General
Armstrong proceeded to give practical expression to his idea of founding
a normal and industrial institute for the coloured races, which are
found within the boundaries of the great American Republic, the new era
of education for such peoples, which had been made possible by the
emancipation of the slaves in the Southern States, was fast coming on.
Of course, General Armstrong was not the original pioneer in such
service; but it may probably come to pass that he will be the best
remembered on account of his having trained such a distinguished pupil
as Booker Washington. But for years prior to his making the acquaintance
of this Virginian boy, the work carried on by the General must have won
for him some considerable amount of popularity; otherwise, what was
being done would hardly have become a matter of conversation between
miners in a coal-mine. Had that talk not taken place, the institution at
Tuskegee might possibly not have been quite what it is to-day.
What has been effected, and what is still being done, is seen to be all
very wonderful when it is compared with the state of things, as well as
the kind of popular sentiment which formerly existed, not only in the
South, but even in the Northern States. There was a time when public
prejudice made it impossible, or almost impossible, to educate coloured
pupils at all whether they were free or otherwise. Such far-reaching
institutions as General Armstrong founded at Hampton, and, still more
notably, the one which his pupil and disciple has planted and built up
with a masterly hand at Tuskegee, are nothing less than signs of the
times, which indicate to the American people, and to the world, that a
mighty revolution has taken place, and is still working out its
beneficent purposes.
Some time ago an article in _Scribner's Magazine_ revived the memories
which cluster around the name of Prudence Crandall, of Windham County,
Connecticut. Who was this woman? In a volume of autobiographical
recollections and reminiscences published in 1887, Laura S. Haviland
thus answers this question:--
"She opened a school in Canterbury Green for girls, and was patronised
by the best families, not only of that town, but of other counties and
states. Among those who sought advantages of her school was a coloured
girl. But Prudence was too thorough a Quaker to regard the request of
bitter prejudice on the part of her other patrons to dismiss her
coloured pupil. But she did not wait for them to execute their threat to
withdraw their children. She sent them home. Then she advertised her
school as a boarding-school for young ladies of colour. The people felt
insulted, and held indignation meetings and appointed committees to
remonstrate with her. But she stood to her principles regardless of
their remonstrance. The excitement in that town ran high. A town meeting
was called to devise means to remove the nuisance.... Miss Crandall
opened her school against the protest of an indignant populace. Another
town meeting was called at which it was resolved, 'That the
establishment of a rendezvous, falsely denominated a school, was
designed by its projectors as the theatre to promulgate their disgusting
theory of amalgamation, and their pernicious sentiments of subverting
the Union. These pupils were to have been congregated here from all
quarters under the false pretence of educating them, but really to
scatter firebrands, arrows and death among brethren of our own blood.'"
In the darkest days the above would appear to reflect the popular
sentiment in regard to negro education even in the Northern States,
although there were still thousands of persons to be found who had no
manner of sympathy with such views. Neither the teacher nor her coloured
pupils were allowed to attend the ordinary religious service at the
Congregational Church; her parents were forbidden to visit Miss
Crandall; she was threatened with arrest as a criminal; her windows and
doors were destroyed with crowbars, and the house was set on fire. The
school had to be given up; but the example of the heroic teacher had not
been in vain. As Laura Haviland remarks, "her name became a household
word in thousands of Northern homes." A similar revolution for the
better will surely be brought about in the Southern States also, and is
even now in progress. We can hardly doubt that after some further
progress has been made there will be nothing within their power that the
good old families of the South will not do for the negroes when they
find that the coloured race is amenable to civilising influences, and
that commercially they will well repay for all the money and trouble
that may be expended upon them. At the outset of this reformation this
must have been the hope of General Armstrong; and it would seem to be
that of Booker Washington at Tuskegee to-day.
In some instances the pioneer teachers had to carry on their service
amid the lowest depths of squalor and wretchedness, even more repellent
than ragged-school work in the worst quarters of a great town. Thus, Mrs
Haviland, in her autobiography, tells how Dr Emily P. Newcomb, who was
said to come of a family of educators, bravely founded a station at
Kansas City, and herself superintended the work:--
"At this point there is massed a large population of exceedingly
ignorant, destitute and superstitious people of every colour and
condition--men, women and children--crowded together in rickety hovels,
where stagnant water stood the year round, the very air impregnated with
the heavy sickening odour of the packing-houses. No tongue or pen can
describe the wretchedness that existed in that locality, known and
appropriately designated as Hell's Half Acre, which embraced a large
area on either side of the State line. At that time no mission work had
been attempted or suggested for the elevation of this seething mass by
either Church or State."
For bravery in her work and devotion, we find Emily Newcomb, M.D.,
compared to a general on the battlefield. From such a woman's working
experience, as well as from that of others who were like-minded, we can
in some measure estimate the magnitude of the work which required to be
done. The suddenness of their emancipation, and the consequent
disorganisation of their social life, could not but involve a good deal
of suffering. In regard to the general condition of the coloured people
at the time in question, Mr F. J. Loudin says: "They were homeless,
penniless, ignorant, improvident--unprepared in every way for the
dangers as well as the duties of freedom. Self-reliance they had never
had the opportunity to learn, and, suddenly left to shift for
themselves, they were at the mercy of the knaves who were everywhere so
ready to cheat them out of their honest earnings." They were a people
who were too often despised on the one hand, and yet as often showing
extraordinary traits of character on the other. There were gems of the
first water among them; and now and then an individual, showing in one
person the best attributes of both races, came to the front. It became
more and more evident that the chief kind of aid which these people
wanted was being taught how to help themselves. One of the mettle of
Booker Washington could push his way upward, braving and overcoming
obstacles and difficulties such as might well have cowed a youth who
possessed the courage and perseverance of a dozen men; but he was one of
a thousand, one who was destined to become a pioneer who would make the
way plainer and easier for those who followed after. However low down
they might be, the coloured race showed no disposition to remain where
they were; all along the line were seen signs of advancement. As
regarded the proportion who attended religious worship, and who were
Church communicants, the negroes compared favourably with the whites.
Persons who carefully took notice of the different phases of the new
reformation in progress were often having some new surprise. Thus, the
manner in which the funds were raised for the building and endowment of
Fisk University seems almost to belong to the region of romance, as is
proved from this opening passage in the popular volume which contains
the narrative:--
"The story of the Jubilee Singers seems almost as little like a chapter
from real life as the legend of the daring Argonauts who sailed with
Jason on that famous voyage after the Golden Fleece. It is the story of
a little company of emancipated slaves who set out to secure, by their
singing, the fabulous sum of twenty thousand dollars for the
impoverished and unknown school in which they were students. The world
was as unfamiliar to these untravelled free people as were the countries
through which the Argonauts had to pass; the social prejudices that
confronted them were as terrible to meet as fire-breathing bulls or the
warriors that sprang from the land sown with dragons' teeth; and no seas
were ever more tempestuous than the stormy experiences that for a time
tested their faith and courage. They were at times without the money to
buy needed clothing. Yet in less than three years they returned,
bringing back with them nearly one hundred thousand dollars. They had
been turned away from hotels and driven out of railway waiting-rooms
because of their colour. But they had been received with honour by the
President of the United States; they had sung their slave-songs before
the Queen of Great Britain, and they had gathered, as invited guests,
about the breakfast-table of her Prime Minister. Their success was as
remarkable as their mission was unique."
The University for coloured students, on behalf of which these efforts
were made, is situated at Nashville, a town which, on account of the
number and quality of its educational institutions, has come to be
called the Athens of the South. Its first students consisted of those
who had actually been slaves; and the earnestness of most of the
students had to bear the test of having to earn their own livelihood
while receiving their education. Outside aid was given in the hope that
an endowment would be provided. The college, including its Jubilee Hall
and Livingstone Hall, occupies a healthy site, and has grounds of
twenty-five acres. The negroes are in a minority at Nashville; but it is
there that one may profitably study their characteristic traits and
capacities, and thus form some tolerably correct estimate of what the
vast national gain would be if the entire coloured race were raised by
adequate education and industrial training.
In aiming at what he does in founding and carrying on his great
institution at Tuskegee, is Booker Washington warranted by the past
successes of those who have worked to raise and train negroes for the
best service of which they are capable, in harbouring the sanguine
anticipations he does for more perfect achievements in the future? As he
is happily only one, though the chief, worker among many, it will be
necessary, while proceeding with our story, to give convincing testimony
from outsiders concerning the reasonableness and practicableness of his
aims and hopes. In giving some interesting and striking illustrations by
way of proof that he is no visionary, but a cool-headed, hard-working
calculator who well knows that the capital he is working with will yield
a high percentage, we may have to tell of what is in progress in
Nashville itself.