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THE COLOR LINE IN OHIO PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 1829-1890 DISSERTATION Presented In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By LEONARD ERNEST ERICKSON, B. A., M. A, ****** The Ohio State University I359 Approved Adviser College of Education ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is not the work of the author alone, of course, but represents the contributions of many persons. While it is impossible perhaps to mention every­ one who has helped, certain officials and other persons are especially prominent in my memory for their encouragement and assistance during the course of my research. I would like to express my appreciation for the aid I have received from the clerks of the school boards at Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, and Warren, and from the Superintendent of Schools at Athens. In a similar manner I am indebted for the courtesies extended to me by the librarians at the Western Reserve Historical Society, the Ohio State Library, the Ohio Supreme Court Library, Wilberforce University, and Drake University. I am especially grateful to certain librarians for the patience and literally hours of service, even beyond the high level customary in that profession. They are Mr. Russell Dozer of the Ohio State University; Mrs. Alice P. Hook of the Historical and Philosophical Society; and Mrs. Elizabeth R. Martin, Miss Prances Goudy, Mrs, Marion Bates, and Mr. George Kirk of the Ohio Historical Society. ii Ill Much of the time for the research Involved In this study was made possible by a very generous fellowship granted for the year 1956 -1 9 5 7, for which I am Indebted to the Graduate School of the Ohio State University. I would like to express my special thanks to the members of my reading committee. Professors Francis P. Welsenburger and Alan F. Griffin,for their careful and scholarly examlntlon of the first draft of this dissertation which has spared me numer­ ous pitfalls of error and crudities of style. I am also grateful to Dr. James Rodabaugh of the Ohio Historical Society for his helpful suggestions and for extending to me the benefit of his past research In Negro history. And finally, I am most Indebted to my adviser. Professor Robert B. Sutton, for his encouragement and aid In formulating and carrying out this study, for his patient and scholarly criticism of the several chapters, and for his numerous suggestions for Improvement In the manner of presentation. TABLE OP CONTENTS Chapter Page INTRODUCTION . ....................................... 1 I. EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE NEGRO IN O H I O ........... 13 II. COMING OP ABOLITIONISM TO O H I O .......... 35 III. OHIO'S NEGRO SCHOOLS TO 1 8 4 9 ..................... 54 IV. POLITICS AND CIVIL RIGHTS (1829-1849) 117 V. NEGRO EDUCATION DURING THE PERIOD OP SEGREGATION .................................. 191 VI. POLITICS AND CIVIL RIGHTS, 1850-188? ........... 297 VII. M^EDIATE REACTION TO THE ARNETT L A W ............ 372 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION................................ 4l5 APPENDIX.............................................. 433 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................... 451 AUTOBIOGRAPHY........................................ 468 Iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Locations of Negro Schools 1837-1843 . 83 2. Votes in House on Motions to Repeal the Black Laws and to Provide Negro Schools . 135 3. Votes in Senate on Motions to Repeal the Black Laws and to Provide Negro Schools . 137 4. Statistics for Colored Schools in Ohio . 216 5. Length of School Year of Ohio Common Schools (1855-1886) ................................. 234 6. Salaries of Ohio Common School Teachers, by Race and Sex (1855-1869) ............ 236 LIST OP MAPS Maps Page I. Democratic Votes in Ohio House on Civil Rights Measures 1837-1848 .......... 142 II. Democratic Votes in Ohio Senate on Civil Rights Measures 1837-1848 ............ 143 III. V/hig Votes in Ohio House on Civil Rights Measures 1837-1848 , 144 IV. Whig Votes in Ohio Senate on Civil Rights Measures 1837-1848 . 145 V. Vote in Ohio House on School Law of 1848 146 VI. Vote in Ohio Senate on School Law of 1848 147 VII. Vote in Ohio House on Act of 1849 to Repeal Black Laws and to Provide Negro Schools 148 VIII. Vote in Ohio Senate on Act of 1849 to Repeal Black Laws and to Provide Negro Schools 149 IX. Counties Continuously Reporting Colored Schools, 1853-1887 . 221 Vi INTRODUCTION The concern of this study, as the title indicates, will be the education of the Ohio Negro, but before we turn to the study.itself, a word of introduction might prove useful to acquaint the reader with the broad outlines of the connecting thread through our narrative, the agi­ tation, primarily political agitation, by the Negro and friends of the Negro to achieve equality of educational opportunity, m describing such agitation it will be necessary to examine other aspects of his civil status as well, for the Negro in early Ohio, we shall see, was not limited merely in educational opportunity; rather, such a restriction was but one of a more inclusive set of limi­ tations which together spelled out a position of second- class citizenship. Depending upon the time, agitation for a better civil position for the Negro might emphasize one limitation more than another, but as it turned out when a gain was made in one respect, accompanying gqlns were made in education, or a new position of power was achieved from which further gains could be more easily achieved. As a background for our narrative the first chapter will describe the restricted civil status of the Negro in the early days of Ohio history. Coming as he often did from the South, frequently as a recently-released slave, 1 2 the colored man was linked with servility and generally was held in contempt by his fellow whites as being an inferior creature capable of filling only the lower strata of society. This disposition to reject the Negro and to con­ sider him unfit for political as well as social association with whites was manifested early in Ohio history, at the time of the formation of the first constitution for the state in l802, when the Negro was barred from the franchise. This was merely the first step. The voting restriction was soon extended by a series of "Black Laws" by which Negro migration ta Ohio was severely limited, and by which his testimony was forbidden in cases where a white person was a party. Subsequently, when a tax-supported school system was begun, the Negro, in a similar fashion, was excluded from the public schools. These were the principal limi­ tations on the civil status of the Negro in early Nine­ teenth Century Ohio, limitations which relegated him, as we have said, to a position of second-class citizenship. Before these restrictions were finally swept away almost a half-century of history had passed, a history of uneven agitation which saw periods of inactivity, per­ suasion, intense political activity, and even civil war. The opening phase of our story about agitation to remove these restrictions begins with the coming of the militant abolitionist reformers. Chapter II will treat the 3 establishment of this movement in Ohio. Its primary concern, of course, was the slave in the South, or the fugitive slave who had escaped to the North, but the abolitionist was interested in the well-being and ele­ vation of the free Negro in his midst as well, for if the colored man at his side could be improved, such elevation would serve to refute the contention of apologists for slavery that the Negro was naturally an inferior being and subject to depravity and servility when he lived in an environment of whites. The Black Laws and the edu­ cational restriction, of course, interfered with the program of the abolitionists because the exclusion law, if enforced, would prevent benevolent slave owners from manumitting their slaves in Ohio, since the Negroes could not defend themselves in court against whites, and since with no schools they would be kept in a condition of ignorance. Education, we shall see, was a consideration of these reformers, but was a consideration which was linked by their agitation to other civil rights matters. At the time abolitionists were working for and achieved repeal of the Black Laws, they also gave some effort to securing educational benefits for the Negroes as well, (The right to vote, while part of the abolitionist program, necessitated a constitutional amendment, and thus was not achieved until some years later with the Fifteenth Amend­ ment . ) 4 For the first few years after the organization of the state Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in I8 3 5, abolitionists in Ohio relied chiefly on such moral persuasion as could be effected through petitions and resolutions. Then, as con­ verts to their position were gained, it became possible fcr them to exert more and more pressure upon the General Assembly for the desired reforms. The politics involved in securing the repeal of the Black Laws and the school exclusion law are interesting because activities on the national level seem to have played an important role in determining actitudes towards the abolitionist's program of reform. Consistently throughout practically all of the period of agitation over the Black Laws (1835-1849) the most uncompromising foe of Negro rights had been the Demo­ cratic party, and a large part of its antagonism seems to have been prompted by a desire for political rapport with fellow party members in the slave-holding South. Slave holders, of course, could logically view repeal of the Black Laws as an abolitionist victory, and of course such repeal would serve to make Ohio more appealing to potential runaway slaves. On the other hand, for some time the pros­ pects for relief through rival Whig votes were not much better since many a Whig merchant was more concerned with his trade with the South than with Negro rights, and, in addition, VJhigs, conservative by nature as they often were.

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