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The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861
A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United Statesfrom the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War
By
C.G. Woodson.
1919
About two years ago the author decided to set forth in a small volumethe leading facts of the development of Negro education, thinking thathe would have to deal largely with the movement since the Civil War.In looking over documents for material to furnish a background forrecent achievements in this field, he discovered that he would writea much more interesting book should he confine himself to theante-bellum period. In fact, the accounts of the successful strivingsof Negroes for enlightenment under most adverse circumstances readlike beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age.
Interesting as is this phase of the history of the American Negro, ithas as a field of profitable research attracted only M.B. Goodwin, whopublished in the Special Report of the United States Commissionerof Education of 1871 an exhaustive History of the Schools for theColored Population in the District of Columbia. In that same documentwas included a survey of the Legal Status of the Colored Populationin Respect to Schools and Education in the Different States. Butalthough the author of the latter collected a mass of valuablematerial, his report is neither comprehensive nor thorough. Otherpublications touching this subject have dealt either with certainlocalities or special phases.
Yet evident as may be the failure of scholars to treat this neglectedaspect of our history, the author of this dissertation is far frompresuming that he has exhausted the subject. With the hope of vitallyinteresting some young master mind in this large task, the undersignedhas endeavored to narrate in brief how benevolent teachers of bothraces strove to give the ante-bellum Negroes the education throughwhich many of them gained freedom in its highest and best sense.
The author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. J.E.
Moorland, International Secretary of the Young Men's Christian
Association, for valuable information concerning the Negroes of Ohio.
C.G. Woodson.
Washington, D.C. June 11, 1919.
I.—Introduction
II.—Religion with Letters
III.—Education as a Right of Man
IV.—Actual Education
V.—Better Beginnings
VI.—Educating the Urban Negro
VII.—The Reaction
VIII.—Religion without Letters
IX.—Learning in Spite of Opposition
X.—Educating Negroes Transplanted to Free Soil
XI.—Higher Education
XII.—Vocational Training
XIII.—Education at Public Expense
Appendix: Documents
Bibliography
Index
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861
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