The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil WarWoodson, Carter Godwin
History
The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War
Woodson, Carter Godwin
African Americans -- Education
society under obligation to him, or society will honor him only as a
stranger and sojourner. _How_ shall this be done? In this manner; use
every means, strain every nerve to master some important mechanical
art. At present, the facilities for doing so are few--institutions of
learning are more readily opened to you than the work-shop; but the
Lord helps them who will help themselves, and we have no doubt that
new facilities will be presented as we press forward.
If the alternative were presented to us of learning a trade or of
getting an education, we would learn the trade, for the reason, that
with the trade we could get the education while with the education we
could not get the trade. What we, as a people, most need, is the means
for our own elevation.--An educated colored man, in the United States,
unless he has within him the heart of a hero, and is willing to engage
in a lifelong battle for his rights, as a man, finds few inducements
to remain in this country. He is isolated in the land of his
birth--debarred by his color from congenial association with whites;
he is equally cast out by the ignorance of the _blacks_. The remedy
for this must comprehend the elevation of the masses; and this can
only be done by putting the mechanic arts within the reach of colored
men.
We have now stated pretty strongly the case of our colored countrymen;
perhaps some will say, _too_ strongly, but we know whereof we affirm.
In view of this state of things, we appeal to the abolitionists.
What Boss anti-slavery mechanic will take a black boy into his
wheelwright's shop, his blacksmith's shop, his joiner's shop, his
cabinet shop? Here is something _practical_; where are the whites
and where are the blacks that will respond to it? Where are the
antislavery milliners and seamstresses that will take colored girls
and teach them trades, by which they can obtain an honorable living?
The fact that we have made good cooks, good waiters, good barbers, and
white-washers, induces the belief that we may excel in higher branches
of industry. _One thing is certain; we must find new methods of
obtaining a livelihood, for the old ones are failing us very fast_.
We, therefore, call upon the intelligent and thinking ones amongst
us, to urge upon the colored people within their reach, in all
seriousness, the duty and the necessity of giving their children
useful and lucrative trades, by which they may commence the battle
of life with weapons, commensurate with the exigencies of
conflict.--_African Repository_, vol. xxix., pp. 136, 137.
EDUCATION OF COLORED PEOPLE
(_Written by a highly respectable gentleman of the South in_ 1854)
Several years ago I saw in the _Repository_, copied from the
_Colonization Herald_, a proposal to establish a college for the
education of young colored men in this country. Since that time I have
neither seen nor heard anything more of it, and I should be glad to
hear whether the proposed plan was ever carried into execution.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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