As fast as ever the Northern armies cleared the way, benevolent and devoted teachers sent down by the different churches followed, and imparted to those who had never had a chance before the elements of English education, teaching them to read, write and figure, and many other useful things besides that accompany civilization and enlightenment. The American Mission Association took the lead, but the different churches and societies sent down their full quotas, and those volunteer teachers did a splendid and most devoted work. And yet there was some risk to run in this business, now being tried for the first time, because the war was still going on, and sometimes the Southern arms regained the territory they had lost, which brought the teachers into danger on one hand, and the colored people on the other. It had always been the policy of the Southern law-makers to keep the slaves in darkness, and even the rank and file of the white people themselves were purposely kept in a condition little better than the slaves. The planters kept teachers in their own grand halls, or sent their sons and daughters away from home for education. It was made a crime for a slave to be found with a book in his possession, or for anybody to teach him, whether he was white or a free person of color. A white man taught even the celebrated Bishop Daniel E. Payne in a cellar at Charleston, S. C., of which city the bishop was a native. In short, the laws of slavery warred upon nature, and even on God himself. The whole system was a system of murder, robbery and adultery. Every human right was broken down; but as the Northern armies cleared the way the teachers and their colored pupils rushed in at once. On the 3rd of March, 1865, Congress launched the Freedman’s Bureau upon the country for the purpose of assisting the freedman in any and every way just as soon as they were set free from slavery, and required the help of the national government. The Freedman’s Bureau took education under its fostering care, and did a good work during the few years that it lasted, 1865 to 1872. The devoted teachers from the North had even begun to follow the very armies themselves as early as the year 1862, and we find them then on the Lower Mississippi. The colored soldiers took to their lessons well, and owing to their great thirst for learning, they learned with an eagerness and rapidity that filled their willing teachers with the greatest surprise. And throughout the freed zones did not only young girls and boys thus drink in—yea, literally swallow up instruction, but smart men and women sixty and seventy years of age and over learned to write, read, spell and cipher with a gusto and an enthusiasm that was most inspiring!