White Miles..., 139 Free Black Females
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SCHOOLS OF THE COLORED POPULATION. PERIOD I.--1O1-1861. The struggles of the colored people of tilh District of Columbia, in securing for themselves thli means of education, furnish a1 very instructive chapter in the history of schools. Their courage and resolution were such, in the midst of their own great ignorance and strenuous opposition from without, that a permanent record becomes an act of justice to them. In the language of Jefferson to Banneker, tile black astronomer, it is ia publication to which their "whole color hlas a right for their justification against thle doubts which have been entertained of them." 'Though poor, proscribed anId unlettered, they founded, in their lumble way, an institution for the education of their children within less tlian two years after tile first school- house of whites was luilt in lie city. T'lie sentiment against the eduention of the colored classes wasViiucli less rigorous in tih( early history of the capital than it was a third of it century later. Tlie free colored people were sometimes even encouraged, to a limited extent, in their efforts to pick upl some fragments of knowledge. They were taught in tile Sunday schools and evening schools occasionally, and respectable mulatto families were in many cases allowtel to attend, with white children, the private schools and academies. There are scores of colofcd mlen and women still living in this District wilo are decently educated, and who iovcer went to any but white schools. Th'ler are also wilite men and women still alive here, wlih wnilt to school in this city and in Georgetown withl colored children and felt no offence. Anltlher fact important to be considered is that the colored people, wio first settled in Wash- ington, constituted a very superior class of their race. Many of them were favorite family servants, whlo came here with congressmen front the south, and with the families of other p,11tlie ,ftlicers, and vwlo by long and faithful service had secured, by gift, purchase, or oth. erwvise, their freedom. Others were superior mechanics, house servants, and enterprising in vAritlis callings, wlho obtained their freedom by their own persevering industry. Some, ilso, lhatl received their freedom before coming to this city, and of these there was one fitmily, to be rfrriclel to hereafter, which came. from Mount Vernon. Still the number of those who cold read, even of the very best class of colored people, was very small. 'riEFIr5'1Tr SCHIOOL AND SCh.OO1. IOUSE. Tlhe first school-louse in this District, built expressly for the education of colored children, was erected by three nien who hliad been born and reared as slaves in Maryland and Virginia. Tltair inmes were George Bell, Nicholas Franklin and Moses Liverpool. It was a good one- story fraine building, and stood upon a lot directly opposite to and west of the house in which tile Imotlier of laniel Carroll, of Duddington. then resided, and where the Providence Ios- pital IInow stands. It was built about the year 1t07, and i school, under a white teacher, Mr. Lowe, was opened there as soon as it was finished. It was a full school, and continued several years, after which, for a time, the house was used as a dwelling. The following is a summary from the census of Washington taken in 1807, the year in which this colored schiul-house was built: White miles ......................., 139 Free black females ................. 153 White females .................... 2, 009 Free mulatto males ................. 95 Male slaves .............. .... 409 Free mulatto females ............... 120 "emlale ..................... .. slaves 479 Total white ..................... 4,148 Male non-resident slaves ........... 55 Total free colored .................. 494 Female non-resident slaves .......... 61 Total slaves .............. 1,004 Free black males ....... ............ 126 Total colored ......... .......... ,498 It is seen from these figures that when this school was put into operation there wits a pop. ulation of 494 souls only to represent it that being the number of free colored persons. Oni thle 195 196 SCHOOLS OF THE COLORED POPULATION. other hand, with a population of more than 4,000, the white residents had the year beforebuilt but two public school-houses for white scholars, one in the eastern and the other in the west- ern section of the city, though there were three or four small private schools. The three men who built the school-house had at that time just emerged from the condition of slaves, and knew not a letter of the alphabet. Franklin and Liverpool were caulkers by trade, hav- ing come from the sea-coast in the lower part of Virginia, and were at work in the Navy Yard. How they secured their freedom is not clearly known, though tile tradition is that Franklin, experiencing religion, was made free by his master, who was a member of the Methodist church, the discipline of which at that time admitted no slave to membership.* These two men worked at their trade all their lives, raised up their families with all the education their means would afford, and their grandchildren are now among the respectable colored people of this city. TIE BELL AND BROWNING FAMILIES. George B11ll was the leading spirit in this remarkable educational enterprise, and was conspicuous in all efforts 'for the benefit of his race in this community. He was, the slave of Anthony Addison, who owned a large estate upon the borders of the District beyond the Eastern Branch, and his wife, Sophia Browning, belonged to the Bell family, on the Patuxent. When the commissioners were surveying the District in 1791 they received their meatls from their cabin across the Eastern Branch, and the wife used often to describe the appearance of Benjamin Banneker, the celebrated mathematician and astronomer, who wuis oiW of the surveying party by invitation of the commissioners. She had a market gar. denl and used to attend the Alexandria market every market day, though she had a family of three sons and a daughter. In this manner she saved four hundred dollars without the knowledge of her owner, who was Mrs. Rachel Pratt, (Bell,) the mother of Governor Pratt, of Maryland. This money was intrusted to a Methodist preacher, who bought tle hus- band's freedom with it, and shortly afterwards, while the wife was dangerously sick, her freedom was bought for five pounds Maryland currency by the husband. These purclhases were effected about six years before the building of the school-house. Two of tile sons. born in slavery, the father purchased it few years later; the third was accidentally killed in Wiashington, and the daughter they could not buy, her mistress declining peremptorily to relinquish her, but making her free by her will at her decease, which occurred many )ears later in Georgetown. These children belonged, as did the mother, to Mrs. Pratt. The two boys were purchased "running"- while on the foot as runaways-the one for $750 and the other for .;450. Tlhe first free-born child, widow Harriet Dunlap, a woman of much iltel- ligence and singular clearness of memory, born inl103, is still living and resides here, as do also Margaret, who was freed by Mrs. Pratt, and the two younger sons. The two sons that were purchased were both lost at sea. Mrs. Dunlap, and her next sister, Elizabeth, ulter the Bell school, as it may be called, closed, went for brief periods successively to schools taught by Hlenry Potter, an Englishman, by Anne Maria Hall, and Mrs. Maria I aley. ''There "ere several colored children in Mrs. Hnley's school, and some complaints being made to the teacher, who was an Irish lady, the two Bell girls were sent to the school in Baltimore, taught by Rlev. Daniel Coker, who subsequently, as a colored Methodist missionary, became coinslicuously known throughout the Christian world by his wise and courageous work in the first emigration to Liberia. They remained at this school two years and a half, from 1812 to 1815. George Bell died in 1843, at the age of 82 years, and his wife some years later, at the age of 8(;. They left all their children not only with a good education but also in comfortable pecuuiary circumstances. The mother was a woman of superior cliaractcr, au w-ere all the family. One sister was the wife of the late Rev. John V. Cook, and * The Methodist Discipline as amuended iu 1784 prescribed among other rules the following two: First. Every member of our Society who has slaves in his possession shall, within twelvo months after notice given to him by the assistant, legally execute an instrument whereby ho emancipates and sets free every slave in his possession. Second. No person holding slauvs shall in future be admitted into our Society or to the Lord's Supper, till be previously complies with these rules concerning slavery. SCHOOLS OF THE COLORED POPULATION. 197 another was Mrs. Alethia Tanner, whose force of character and philanthropy gave her remarkable prominence here and elsewhere among her race, and commanded the respect of all who knew her. All of the Browning family belonged to Mrs. Rachel Pratt. Mrs. Tanner commenced her remarkable career by the purchase of her own freedom for $1,400. -The last payment of $275 was made June 29, 1810, and her manumission papers from Mrs. Rachel Pratt bear date July 10, 1810. In 1826 she purchased her oldersister, Laurena Cook, and five of the Cook children, four sons and a daughter. One of these sons, then sixteen years old, was afterwards known and respected for more than a quarter of a century by all classes in this community as an able and enlightened school teacher and clergyman.