Aid Commission, and the National Freedmen's Aid Association. The first colored school in Vicksburg was started in 1863 by the United Brethren in the basement of a Methodist church.

The American Missionary Association was the chief body, apart from the Government, in the great enterprise of meeting the needs of the negroes. It did not relinquish its philanthropic work because army officers and the Federal Government were working along the same line. Up to 1866 its receipts were swollen by "the aid of the Free Will Baptists, the Wesleyans, the Congregationalists, and friends in Great Britain." From Great Britain it is estimated that "a million of dollars in money and clothing were contributed through various channels for the freedmen.” The third decade of the association, 1867–1876, was a marked era in its financial history. The Freedmen's Bureau turned over a large sum, which could be expended only in buildings. A Congressional report says that between December, 1866, and May, 1870, the association received $243,753.22. Since the association took on a more distinctive and separate denominational character, because of the withdrawal of other denominations into organizations of their own, it, along with its church work, has prosecuted, with unabated energy and marked success, its educational work among the negroes. It has now under its control or support

Some of these schools are not specially for negroes. It would be unjust not to give the association much credit for Atlanta University and for Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute, which are not included in the above recapitulation, as the latter stands easily first among all the institutions designed for negro development, both for influence and usefulness. During the war and for a time afterwards the school work of the association was necessarily primary and transitional, but it grew into larger proportions, with higher standards, and its normal and industrial work deserves special mention and commendation. From 1860 to October 1, 1893, its expenditures in the South for freedmen, directly and indirectly, including church extension as well as education, have been $11,610,000.

VI. In 1866 was organized the Freedmen's Aid and Southern Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Under that compact, powerful, well-disciplined, enthusiastic organization more than $6,000,000 have been expended in the work of education of negroes. Dr. Hartzell said before the World's Congress in Chicago that Wilberforce University, at Xenia, Ohio, was established in 1857 as a college for colored people, and "continues to be the chief educational center of African Methodism in the United States." He reports, as under various branches of Methodism, 65 institutions of learning for colored people, 388 teachers, 10,100 students, $1,905,150 of property, and $652,500 of endowment. Among these is Meharry Medical College, of high standard and excellent discipline, with dental and pharmaceutical departments as well as medical. Near 200 students have been graduated. The school of mechanic arts in Central Tennessee College, under the management of Professor Sedgwick, has a fine outfit, and has turned out telescopes and other instruments which command a ready and remunerative market in this and other countries.

VII. On April 16, 1862, slavery was abolished in the District of Columbia. By November 13,000 refugees had collected at Washington, Alexandria, Hampton, and Norfolk. Under an unparalleled exigency, instant action was necessary. The lack of educational privileges led Christian societies to engage in educational work—at least in the rudiments of learning-for the benefit of these people, who were eager to be instructed. Even where education had not previously been a part of the functions of certain organizations, the imperative need of the liberated left no option as to duty. With the assistance of the Baptist Free Mission Society and of the Baptist Home Mission Society, schools were established in Alexandria as early as January 1, 1862, and were multiplied through succeeding years. After Appomatox the Baptist Home Mission Society was formally and deliberately committed to the education of the blacks, giving itself largely to the training of teachers and

preachers. In May, 1892, the society had under its management 24 schools with 216 instructors, 4,861 pupils, of whom 1,756 were preparing to teach, school property worth $750,000 and endowment funds of $156,000. Probably not less than 50,000 have attended the various schools. Since 1860 $2,451,859.56 have been expended for the benefit of the negroes. The superintendent of education says: "The aggregate amount appropriated for the salaries of teachers from the time the society commenced its work until January, 1883, was: District of Columbia, $59,243.57; Virginia, $65,254.44; North Carolina, $41,788.90; South Carolina, $29,683.71; Florida, $3,161.16; Georgia, $26,963.21; Alabama, $4,960.37; Mississippi, $6,611.05; Louisiana, $39,168.25; Texas, $2,272.18; Arkansas, $150; Tennessee, $57,898.86;' Kentucky, $1,092.54; Missouri, $300. The following gives the aggregate amount appropriated for teachers and for all other purposes, such as land, buildings, etc., from January, 1883, to January, 1893: District of Columbia, $103,110.01; Virginia, $193,974.08; North Carolina, $142,861.95; South Carolina, $137,157.79; Florida, $55,923.96; Georgia, $311,061.48; Alabama, $35,405.86; Mississippi, $86,019. 0; Louisiana, $33,720.93; Texas, $131,225.27; Arkansas, $13,206.20; Tennessee, $164,514.05; Kentucky, $19,798.56; Missouri, $6,543.13. Until January, 1883, the appropriations for teachers and for lands, buildings, etc., were kept as separate items. I have already given the appropriations for the teachers up to that date. For grounds and buildings 121,119.50 were appropriated." In connection with the Spelman Seminary and the male school in Atlanta, there has been established, under intelligent and discriminating rules, a first-class training department for teachers. A new, commodious structure, well adapted to the purpose, costing $55,000, was opened in December. At Spelman there is an admirable training school for nurses, where the pupils have hospital practice. Shaw University, at Raleigh, has the flourishing Leonard Medical School and a well-equipped pharmacy.

VIII. The Presbyterian Church at the North in May, 1865, adopted a deliverance in favor of special efforts in behalf of the "lately enslaved African race." From the twenty-eighth annual report of the Board of Missions for Freedmen it appears that, besides building churches, special exertions have been put forth in establishing parochial schools, in planting academies and seminaries, in equipping and supporting a large and growing university." The report mentions 15 schools-3 in North Carolina, 4 in South Carolina, 3 in Arkansas, and 1 in each of the States of Texas, Mississippi, Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee. One million two hundred and eighty thousand dollars have been spent. "In the high schools and parochial schools we have (May, 1893) 10,520 students, who are being daily molded under Presbyterian educational influence." The United Presbyterian Church reports for May, 1893, an enrollment in schools of 2,558. The Southern Presbyterians have a theological seminary in Birmingham, Ala., which was first opened in Tuscaloosa in 1877. IX. The Episcopal Church, through the Commission on Church Work among the Colored People, during the seven years of its existence (1887-1893) has expended $272,068, but the expenditure is fairly apportioned between ministerial and teaching purposes. The schools are parochial, "with an element of industrial training," and are located in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama; but the "reports" do not give the number of teachers and scholars. The Friends have Some well-conducted schools, notably the Schofield in Aiken, S. C. They have sustained over 100 schools and have spent $1,004,129. In the mission work of the Roman Catholic Church among the negroes school work and church work are so blended that it has been very difficult to make a clear separation. Schools exist in Baltimore, Washington, and all the Southern States, but with how many teachers and pupils and at what cost the report of the commission for 1893 does not show. A few extracts are given. "We need," says one, "all the help possible to cope with the public schools of Washington. In fact, our school facilities are poor, and unless we can do something to invite children to our Catholic schools many of them will lose their faith." Another person writes: "Next year we shall have to exert all the influence in our power to hold our school. Within two doors of our school a large public-school building is being erected; this new public-school building will draw pupils away from the Catholic school unless the latter be made equally efficient in its work."

X. On February 6, 1867, George Peabody gave to certain gentlemen $2,000,000 in trust, to be used for the promotion and encouragement of intellectual, moral, or industrial education among the young of the more destitute portions of the Southwestern States of our Union." This gift embraced both races, and Dr. Barnas Sears was fortunately selected as the general agent, to whom was committed practically the administration of the trust. In his first report he remarked that in many of the cities aided by the fund provision was made for the children of both races, but said that as the subject of making equal provision for the education of both races was occupying public attention, he thought it the safer and wiser course not to set up schools on a precarious foundation, but to confine help to public schools and make efforts in all suitable ways to improve or have established State systems of education. Still,

in some localities aid was judiciously given, and the United States superintendent of education for the negroes in North Carolina gave testimony that but for the Peabody aid many of the colored schools would be closed. "Our superintendents have aided largely in distributing the Peabody fund in nearly all the States." "Great good has thereby been accomplished at very little added expense." The Peabody fund bent its energies and directed its policy toward securing the establishment of State systems of education which should make adequate and permanent provision for universal education. State authorities would have more power and general influence than individuals or denominational or private corporations. They represent the whole people, are held to a strict accountability, protected "from the charge of sectarianism and from the liability of being overreached by interested parties. State systems, besides, have a continuous life and are founded on the just principle that property is taxable for the maintenance of general education. The fund now acts exclusively with State systems, and continues support to the negroes more efficiently through such agencies.

XI. Congress, by land grants since 1860, has furnished to the Southern States substantial aid in the work of agricultural and mechanical education. On March 2, 1867, the Bureau of Education was established for the collection and diffusion of informa tion. This limited sphere of work has been so interpreted and cultivated that the Burean, under its able Commissioners, especially under the leadership of that most accomplished American educator, Dr. W. T. Harris, has become one of the most efficient and intelligent educational agencies on the continent. To the general survey of the educational field and comparative exhibits of the position of the United States and other enlightened countries have been added discussions by specialists and papers on the various phases of educational life produced by the incorporation of diverse races into our national life or citizenship. The annual reports and circulars of information contain a vast mass of facts and studies in reference to the colored people, and a digest and collaboration of them would give the most complete history that could be prepared.

The Bureau and the Peabody education fund have been most helpful allies in mak ing suggestions in relation to legislation in school matters, and giving, in intelligible, practical form, the experiences of other States, home and foreign, in devising and perfecting educational systems. All the States of the South, as soon as they recov ered their governments, put in operation systems of public schools which gave equal opportunities and privileges to both races. It would be singularly unjust not to consider the difficulties-social, political, and pecuniary-which embarrassed the South in the efforts to inaugurate free education. It required unusual heroism to adapt to the new conditions, but she was equal in fidelity and energy to what was demanded for the reconstruction of society and civil institutions. The complete enfranchisement of the negroes and their new political relations, as the result of the war and the new amendments to the Constitution, necessitated an entire reorganization of the systems of public education. To realize what has been accomplished is difficult at best-impossible, unless we estimate sufficiently the obstacles and compare the facilities of to-day with the ignorance and bondage of a generation ago, when some statutes made it an indictable offense to teach a slave or free person of color. Comparisons with densely populated sections are misleading, for in the South the sparseness and poverty of the population are almost a preventive of good schools. Still the results have been marvelous. Out of 448 cities in the United States with a population each of 8,000 and over, only 73 are in the South. Of 28 with a popula tion from 100,000 to 1,500,000, only 2 (St. Louis being excluded) are in the South. Of 96, with a population between 25,000 and 100,000, 17 are in the South. The urban population is comparatively small, and agriculture is the chief occupation. Of 858,000 negroes in Georgia, 130,000 are in cities and towns and 728,000 in the country; in Mississippi, urban colored population 42,000, rural 700,000; in South Carolina, urban 74,000, rural 615,000; in North Carolina, urban 66,000 against 498,000 rural; in Alabama, 65,000 against 613,000; in Louisiana, 93,000 against 466,000. The schools for colored children are maintained on an average 89.2 days in a year, and for white children 98.6, but the preponderance of the white over the black race in towns and cities helps in part to explain the difference. While the colored popula tion supplies less than its due proportion of pupils to the public schools, and the regularity of attendance is less than with the white, yet the difference in length of school term in schools for white and schools for black children is trifling. In the same grades the wages of teachers are about the same. The annual State school revenue is apportioned impartially among white and black children, so much per capita to each child. In the rural districts the colored people are dependent chiefly upon the State apportionment, which is by law devoted mainly to the payment of teachers' salaries. Hence, the schoolhouses and other conveniences in the country for the negroes are inferior, but in the cities the appropriation for schools is general and is allotted to white and colored, according to the needs of each. A small proportion of the school fund comes from colored sources. All the States do not

discriminate in assessments of taxable property, but in Georgia, where the ownership is ascertained, the negroes returned in 1892 $14,869,575 of taxable property against $148,884,959 returned by white owners. The amount of property listed for taxation in North Carolina in 1891 was, by white citizens, $234,109,568; by colored citizens, $8,018,446. To an inquiry for official data, the auditor of the State of Virginia says: "The taxes collected in 1891 from white citizens were $2,991,646.24 and from the colored $163,175.67. The amount paid for public schools for whites, $588,564.87; for negroes, $309,364.15. Add $15,000 for colored normal and $80,000 for colored lunatic asylum. Apportioning the criminal expenses between the white and the colored people in the ratio of convicts of each race received into the penitentiary in 1891, and it shows hat the criminal expenses put upon the State annually by the whites are $55,749.57 and by the negroes $204,018.99."

Of the desire of the colored people for education the proof is conclusive, and of their capacity to receive mental culture there is not the shade of a reason to support an adverse hypothesis. The Bureau of Education furnishes the following suggestive table: Sixteen former slave States and the District of Columbia.

In 1890-91 there were 79,962 white teachers and 24,150 colored. To the enrollment in common schools should be added 30,000 colored children who are in normal or secondary schools. The amount expended for education of negroes is not stated separately, but Dr. W. T. Harris estimates that there must have been nearly $75,000,000 expended by the Southern States in addition to what has been contributed by missionary and philanthropic sources. In Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabaina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas annual grants are made for the support of colored normal and industrial schools.

The negroes must rely very largely upon the public schools for their education, and so they should. They are and will continue to be the most efficient factors for uplifting the race. The States, at immense sacrifice, with impartial liberality, have taxed themselves for a population which contributes very little to the State revennes, and nothing could be done more prejudicial to the educational interests of the colored people than to indulge in any hostility or indifference to or neglect of these free schools. Denominations and individuals can do nothing more harmful to the race than to foster opposition to the public schools.

"In view

XII. A potential agency in enlightening public opinion and in working out the problem of the education of the negro has been the John F. Slater fund. of the apprehensions felt by all thoughtful persons," when the duties and privileges of citizenship were suddenly thrust upon millions of lately emancipated slaves, Mr. Slater conceived the purpose of giving a large sum of money to their proper education. After deliberate reflection and much conference, he selected a board of trust and placed in their hands $1,000,000. This unique gift, originating wholly with himself, and elaborated in his own mind in most of its details, was for "the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern States and their posterity, by conferring on them the blessings of Christian education." "Not only for their own sake, but also for the sake of our common country," he sought to provide "the means of such education as shall tend to make them good men and good citizens," associating the instruction of the mind "with training in just notions of duty toward God and man, in the light of the Holy Scriptures." Leaving to the corporation the largest discretion and liberty in the prosecution of the general object, as described in his letter of trust, he yet indicated as "lines of operation adapted to the condition of things" the encouragement of "institutions as are most effectually useful in promoting the training of teachers." The trust was to be administered in no partisan, sectional, or sectarian spirit, but in the interest of a generous patriotism and

an enlightened Christian spirit." Soon after organization the trustees expressed very strongly their judgment that the scholars should be "trained in some mannal occupation, simultaneously with their mental and moral instruction," and aid was confined to such institutions as gave "instruction in trades and other manual occupations," that the pupils might obtain an intelligent mastery of the indispensable elements of industrial success. So repeated have been similar declarations on the part of the trustees and the general agents that manual training, or education in industries, may be regarded as an unalterable policy; but only such institutions were to be aided as were, "with good reason, believed to be on a permanent basis." Mr. Slater explained "Christian education," as used in his letter of gift, to be teaching, "leavened with a predominant and salutary Christian influence," such as was found in "the common school teaching of Massachusetts and Connecticut," and that there was 66 no need of limiting the gifts of the fund to denominational institutions." Since the first appropriation near fifty different institutions have been aided, in sums ranging from $500 to $5,000. As required by the founder, neither principal nor income is expended for land or buildings. For a few years aid was given in buying machinery or apparatus, but now the income is applied almost exclusively to paying the salaries of teachers engaged in the normal or industrial work. The number of aided institutions has been lessened, with the view of concentrating and making more effective the aid and of improving the instruction in normal and industrial work. The table appended presents a summary of the appropriations which have been made from year to year.

Cash disbursed by John F. Slater fund as appropriations for educational institutions.

[By Henry Gannett, of the United States Geological Survey.]

The statistics of occupations used in this paper are from the census of 1890, and represent the status of the race on June 1 of that year. The census takes cognizance only of "gainful" occupations, excluding from its lists housewives, school children, men of leisure, etc. Its schedules deal only with wage earners, those directly engaged in earning their living.

GENERAL STATISTICS.

In 1890, out of a total population of 62,622,250, 22,753,884 persons, or 34.6 per cent, were engaged in gaintui occupations. Of the negroes, including all of mixed negro blood, numbering 7,470,040, 3,073,123, or 41.1 per cent were engaged in gainful occupations. The proportion was much greater than with the total population, This total population, however, was composed of several diverse elements, including, besides the negroes themselves, the foreign born (of which a large proportion were adult males), and the native whites. The following table presents the proportions of each of these elements which were engaged in gainful occupations:

Per cent.

34.6

35.5

31.6

55.2

41.1

The diagram No. 1 sets forth these figures in graphic form. The total area of the square represents the population. This is subdivided by horizontal lines into rectangles representing the various elements of the population, and the shaded part of each rectangle represents the proportions engaged in gainful occupations.

The proportion was greatest among the foreign born because of the large proportion of adults, and particularly of males, among this element. Next to that, the proportion was greatest among the negroes, being much greater than among the whites collectively, and still greater than among the native whites.