Freed persons; Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877); Southern States -- Politics and government -- 1865-1950
On motion of Mr. Manlove, the following resolution was adopted:
_Resolved_, That a committee of two be appointed to receive proposals to
publish the proceedings of the city council to the third Monday in March
next, and also inquire on what terms the city printing can be done, and
report to next meeting of this council.
The mayor appointed Messrs. Manlove and Bender on said committee.
On motion of Mr. Bender, the board adjourned till Thursday evening,
August 10, at six o'clock.
T.J. RANDOLPH, _Mayor_.
No. 37.
FREEDMEN'S BUREAU, STATE OF MISSISSIPPI,
_Office State Superintendent of Education,
Vicksburg, Miss., September_ 28, 1865.
General: At the request of Colonel Thomas, I beg your attention to a few
considerations touching the turning over of the care of the freedmen in
Mississippi to the State authorities, so far as the transfer bears upon
the religious and educational privileges of the colored people. Perhaps
no one who has been less engaged in caring for the education and the
moral interests of these people can fully appreciate the facts that I
intend to lay before you, or understand them as having the intensity of
meaning that I see in them.
I have seen a good deal of the people of Mississippi, and have purposely
sounded them as to their feelings with regard to the effort to educate
the blacks. The general feeling is that of strong opposition to it. Only
one person resident in Mississippi before the rebellion has expressed
himself to me as in favor of it, and he did not propose to do anything to
aid it; and, to show how much his favor was worth, he said he regretted
that he was not able to prevent the negroes from having shouting
meetings, and that he would keep them from going off the plantation to
meeting now if he could, as he formerly did. Aside from this gentleman,
every native Mississippian and Irishman with whom I have conversed
opposes the instruction of freedmen. Some disguise their opposition by
affected contemptuous disbelief of the negro's capacity. All the facts
that we can give them, however rich and suggestive, are received with
sneering incredulity and the assurance that they know the negroes better
than we do. A little persistence in giving this class of men facts
disproving their assertions usually makes them angry, and leads them to
declare that if the negroes can learn, the greater the damage that will
be done them, for the education will do them no good, and will spoil
them. Others take this last-mentioned ground at first, and say that a
learned negro is a nuisance; for, while he is ignorant, stupid, and
loutish, he may be compelled to labor; but as soon as he comes to know
something the white people cannot make so profitable use of him.
Some manifest great spite when this subject is mentioned. They say we are
trying to make the negro equal with them. Many do not hesitate to say
that he ought to be kept uneducated in order that he may not be superior
to ignorant white men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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