To Educate a Race

Lacey Desper Response Paper #3 5/4/2014

“To Educate a Race”

Essay Analysis Paper

A. Thesis and Structure1. Thesis: During the time of the Civil War and immediately after the thoughts of education was the central focus of African Americans after the Emancipation act .The values of Church and morality were the center of their community and virtues and reflected itself in their school, social life and every day activities. Especially, within the activities of Fayetteville North Carolina.

2. Structure: This essay mostly kept its focus on Fayetteville North Carolina, discussing the education network for African Americans that sprang up after the Emancipation; describing in detail the circumstances that allowed the school to thrive and be created in Fayetteville. Expanding on the associations with northern charities like the AMA, AME and AMEZ and their aid with the building of a literary and teaching institute. Expounding the work of Robert Harris and David Dickerson and their achievements and accomplishing a network of schools and teacher training for North Carolina within the African American Community.

B. Qualitative and Quantitative Support:

The essay starts with explaining the beginning of a move to start a state funded school within the Fayetteville North Carolina area a state colored normal school as they called it. Legislation passed in 1877 that offered $2000 to purchase a building for the institution (279.) In April of 1877 more than 30 Africans met from over 15 counties to meet with the American Methodist Episcopal Zion or AMEZ to discuss the building of the school. The mayor and state superintendent were impressed and thought Fayetteville was the perfect site to start such a school. Fayetteville was determined to be the perfect location for the school because its already long standing affiliation with the AMA and the Freedman’s Bureau within the African Community even before the Emancipation Proclamation had been decreed. There is evidence that there were blacks already involved in clandestine education within the slave population and John Hope Franklin stated that there was a large desire within this particular population for education. There is even evidence that a number of whites had set up a school for free blacks in 1850 (280.)

It was Reverend David Dickerson in 1865 that got the ball rolling on the schools in Fayetteville. He was charged with meeting with the Mayor, Freedman’s and white elite to discuss and arrange the agreement of the school. It was noted that by 1860 the school had 272 students and had already employed two more assistant teachers. When David Dickerson died of Dysentery in April of 1866 it was then the campaign to get Robert Harris elected the new superintendent started (283-284.)

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The first things Robert Harris did up on being given the position of Superintendent at the school in Fayetteville were to name his younger brother Cicero his assistant. He then divided the school into two schools Phillips Elementary school and Sumner Secondary school and separated students according to their Educational Attainment (254.) The large success of Robert and Cicero Harris is astonishing considering the little experience in education that they had received previous to applying for the state colored school. Robert Harris was cited saying “I have no experience in teaching except in privately teaching slaves in the south where I lived in the South (280.)”

While, the white community seemingly was on board with the education in Fayetteville it would seem there were other motivations. In a press article it was note that the white community should want the Africans to be educated and they should want to have a hand in what was being taught to the in their schools. It was stated by an article in the press a bit later that “no Negro felt any injustice and no white man felt annoyed or troubled with the offices interference, which has occasioned elsewhere so much complaint (285.)”

Though while there was harmony within Fayetteville it is easy to see how easy that peace can be disturbed. During the civil war General Sherman occupied Fayetteville in March of 86. He issued the Special Field Order # 28 and decreed that all of the railroad property shops, factories, tanneries, and all mills except what was needed to sufficiently sustain the population of the area be destroyed to thwart the Confederate Army (281.) Every black house was raided of supplies and any African American found wearing decent clothing was asked to immediately switch clothing with the Union Soldiers. It was a interaction with the North that removed faith within the African American Community; causing recognition they were going to have to build their future themselves. This distrust reared itself after the Emancipation and the refusal to take any charity from white organizations to begin building their communities.

After General Sherman left he whites used this opportunity to attempt a coup and reestablish power over the African American population. They began by reinstating portions of the antebellum slave code. They reinstated public whippings and denied African Americans the right to gather in a church together and denied the write of African Americans to walk with a cane within city limits (282.) The African Americans in this community abruptly put a hold on these proceedings by threating to have a garrison of Union Black soldiers stationed at Fayetteville. The white population immediately compromised and stated that a Freedman’s Agent could be brought in to resolve any further disputes. While, there were issues in Fayetteville and there were still race relations issues it would seem that they were much better off than other parts of the south.

The church became the center of the African American Community after the Emancipation with many charities including the AMA, AME, and AMEZ all attempting to exert aid and get

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congregation members out of the south. While, the AMA was the most popular it was the AMEZ that gained ground and support in Fayetteville. The church became involved in christenings, marriages, education, non-church related events. Education was deemed officially the number one priority so that each individual could read the bible and have constant access to it (282.)

After Robert Harris got his teaching philosophy’s, church and community involvement all wrapped into one package the school started to thrive; at one point boasting that more than 600 students were attending the school. Robert Harris appealed to have the school transformed from a summer school to an all year school citing that the need for the school as inescapably connected to the community and church. Close ties between the church and the school resulted in a few extra programs being developed including the Temperance Almanac and the Band of Hope. The Temperance Almanac was a book discussing the evils of overindulgence and the Band of Hope was an oath taken to swear off liquor, tobacco and swearing. It was noted that at one point more than 136 people had joined the Band of Hope (285.) Robert Harris was an intelligent man and new that the school existed by the grace of the white elite in power and politics. It was noted that he generally kept his voice out of politics and resoundingly not once did the schools become under fire or in bad influence with the politicians of the region. His largest accomplishment to the school was his ability to obtain a building to house both sides of the school. His most astounding accomplishment was his ability to train other teachers. While, this training resulted from a lack of resources being sent from the Freedman’s Agency his ability to train teachers inevitably expanded. He not only ended up supplying teachers to his own school but to all the counties around him. It was noted that he was supplying to teachers to up to 15 schools at one point in time. This school district still exists today it was renamed the Fayetteville state teachers college in 1939 then became the Fayetteville State College in 1963 and finally joined its school with University of North Carolina in 1969 (288.)

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C. Connections/ Contradictions/Extensions The book confirmed and revisited a few of the issues that were shortly visited in the

essay. The book notates that Family and Church became number one in the community. It briefly stopped on the fact that the African Americans started establishing its own church and left white churches by, explaining the mad rush to start to get congregation members to the AME and AMEX

The book also expanded on more reasons why African Americans felt the need to know how to read. The essay mentioned the primary focus being to read the bible, but the book notates on the need to prepare to take part in the economic marketplace. It also touches upon a few black only colleges that were established in Tennessee and in the Nations capital.

The essay never really explained what the Freedman’s Bureau really was neither did the text it just referenced it a bunch. I looked in the back of the book and found that it was a Reconstruction agency established in 1865 to protect the rights of slaves and they were mainly tasked with education and landowning. While, the essay did not do much on the means of landowning it was mentioned more than a few times in this context in the book. Though according to the book the only area in which the Freedman’s Bureau was actually successful was in the realm of education and health care. The book sites that they established nearly 3,000 schools in the south. This was their most notable achievement for the five years they were in action during the Reconstruction period.

D. Evaluation: This essay is a great resemblance of the quest for knowledge that is known within the United States. While, we may not be the most intelligent nation and may not have the highest test scores. We are always pushing ourselves for more knowledge and broader general access. While, early schools do not resemble the schools today it might be noted that the school system we see today might all be resembled off the school system created by Robert Harris. I saw a note in the article that basically stated he had a school district created before the state governments even started establishing school districts. This essay shed a lot of light on how hard the African Americans worked to integrate and overcome a system that was still stacked against them even after the Emancipation. It was a read that I think any person who is attaining High Education should have knowledge of. It’s a memory of a past when education was not for all. This was the beginning of a long battle that would last well into the middle 90’s for Equal Rights education opportunities.

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E. Primary Sources: a. A letter “To my Old Master,” c. 1865This letter was a response from a letter sent out by what I can only assume was a request to return back to a farm or to be a former Masters employee. The letter is written explaining the new situation that they are living in and that the children are being educated and that they are receiving fair wages. The ex-slave Jordon lays down his requirements to return home. Including, past wages, proof they will stay free of nonviolence, and asking about the education system for the children where he lives. This letter shows how important education had become for the freed slaves it had even started to become a condition for relocation. It also showed the beginning gain in strength within the community a African American actually requesting what he was due.

b. The Knights of the White Camelia, 1868This article or oath goes far to show the beginning of what even be considered the KKK in the southern territories of the United States. It shows that while the war was over, they were still attempting to maintain White Control over the population. I don’t think this kind of thing would have been anything to rare in the south after the civil war; even the article mentioned that the press suggested that the whites take an interest in the black’s education in order to be in control of what was being taught.

c. “We Are Literally Slaves.” 1912This letter or essay it does not discern to what kind of content it was originally affixed to. Is a very good portrait of how the slaves were still slaves, or for better terms wage slaves. There was very little difference in the change between being a slave and free except you now occurred the charges for clothes, medical situations, food and shelter; which was all used up by the meager wages they received having to work two jobs to get buy. It would seem for the lower class things have not really changed much; it’s just a bit more spread out across the races these days.

F. Question: What

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Documents

To Educate a Race