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Education on the Underground Railroad: a Case Study of Three Communities in New York State (1820-1870)

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Education on the Underground Railroad: a Case Study of Three Communities in New York State (1820-1870) Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE 12-2013 Education on the Underground Railroad: A Case Study of Three Communities in New York State (1820-1870) Lenora April Harris Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons, and the History Commons Recommended Citation Harris, Lenora April, "Education on the Underground Railroad: A Case Study of Three Communities in New York State (1820-1870)" (2013). Dissertations - ALL. 30. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/30 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT In the mid-nineteenth century a compulsory education system was emerging that allowed all children to attend public schools in northern states. This dissertation investigates school attendance rates among African American children in New York State from 1850–1870 by examining household patterns and educational access for African American school-age children in three communities: Sandy Ground, Syracuse, and Watertown. These communities were selected because of their involvement in the Underground Railroad. I employed a combination of educational and social history methods, qualitative and quantitative. An analysis of federal census reports, state superintendent reports, city directories, area maps, and property records for the years 1820–1870 yielded comparative data on households, African American and European American, in which African American school-age children resided. The nature of schooling and the manner in which the household and community advocated for school attendance during this period are also described and compared. Between the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850 and the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870, advocates were preparing African Americans for full citizenship (suffrage rights, educational access, and homeownership) in these three communities and throughout New York State. Using Pearson’s correlational coefficient, the data reveal that before the U.S. Civil War there was a significant correlation between African American school-age children’s attendance in school, the head of household’s literacy, and the head of household homeownership. In Sandy Ground the significance level was .05; in Syracuse the significance level was .05; and in Watertown the significance level was .01. This study reveals that African American children in the communities under study, whether they attended school or not, had access to literate adults. The dominant discourse on African American education in the United States is oftentimes told through the lens of post–Civil War emancipation in the South. In New York State, slavery was abolished in 1827, and the children identified in this study were the first generation of free-born African Americans in the state. EDUCATION ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: A CASE STUDY ON THE INTERSECTION OF CHURCH, COMMUNITY, AND EDUCATION IN NEW YORK STATE (1820–1870) By April L. Harris B.A., Sonoma State University, 1998 M.A., Sonoma State University, 2000 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Foundations of Education in the Graduate School of Syracuse University December 2013 Copyright 2013 April L. Harris All Rights Reserved ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I give thanks to God, foremost and always, for guidance through the process, for being my light and my staff; and for providing me the opportunity to research the history of African American education, community, life, and families. To identify all of the individuals who have encouraged and supported me, those I have chosen to call “family,” would be impossible because they are numerous. I would like to acknowledge my son. Jeremy Bryce, thank you for being my companion through my educational undertaking. To my spirit sisters, the inspiration you gave me and continue to provide is priceless. R. Deborah Davis, Janet Morgan, Huei Lin, Stephanie Waterman, Alanda Bolden, and Angela Williams were witnesses as I found my way through my research, and have been an indelible part of my identity in the halls of academia. This circle of sisters also aided me in keeping my feet firmly planted in the present. I would also like to acknowledge the rest of my dissertation family. First, my advisor, Joan N. Burstyn, the simple words “thank you” can never reflect the gratitude owed. The time spent under your direction while working on the Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project allowed me the opportunity to learn from a forward thinking educator, honored historian, and humanitarian. To have you as my dissertation chair has been one of my life honors. Next I would like to acknowledge the other scholars who guided me through the process. I had the great fortune to have Judith Wellman serve on my committee. Her knowledge of New York States’ Underground Railroad history is unsurpassed. Her guidance has been invaluable. Mario Rios Perez provided me with new perspectives on v educational historiography and its relationship to the social construction of race and schooling. To Mary Beth Hinton, your willingness to come on board so late in the process has served as another blessing. I thank you, too. I would like to thank Dr. Gerald Grant for the opportunity to revisit Hamilton High with him and also for the confidence he granted when I interviewed community members who shared their recollections with me of that transitional period in Syracuse’s history. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. John Briggs, my original dissertation chair. His encouragement to examine students’ education status in correlation with census demographics helped to lay my research foundation; may he rest in peace. In looking at the redefinition of family in our adult lives, I have learned that we are blessed with three families in our earthly journey: the one we are born into, the one made up of the people we choose to define as “family,” and our collective human family. Thank you, Patti Davis, for introducing me to this concept and for teaching me how to live it. This work I dedicate to my families. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgments................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. vii CHAPTER ONE ...........................................................................................................................1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose and Plan of the Dissertation ........................................................................................ 5 CHAPTER TWO: ECOLOGY OF CULTURAL IDENTITY ...................................................9 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Recontextualizing the Underground Railroad................................................................................. 15 Historic Demography of African American Households ............................................................. 19 Education for African Americans in New York State ..........................................................29 Community-Sponsored Education........................................................................................................ 30 African American Abolitionist Educators.......................................................................................... 41 Community Advocacy for Equal Education ...................................................................................... 48 Occupation and Education ....................................................................................................................... 52 Summary of Findings.....................................................................................................................55 CHAPTER THREE: LEGACY OF SLAVERY........................................................................ 57 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................57 Research Methods and Theoretical Approach......................................................................61 Data Collection and Analysis ......................................................................................................66 Contributions of This Research .................................................................................................73 Summary of Findings.....................................................................................................................76 CHAPTER FOUR: EDUCATION IN AN AGRARIAN COMMUNITY............................... 78 Introduction .....................................................................................................................................78 The Longest Inhabited African American Settlement in the United States.................79 Economic Development on Staten Island.........................................................................................
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