Education of the Negro in the Military Department of the South, 1861-1965
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Education of the Negro in the military department of the South, 1861-1965 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Mount, Helen Frances, 1914- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 26/09/2021 05:28:32 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/317883 EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO IN THE MILITARY DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH, 1861-1865 by Helen F . Mount A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 19 6 5 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This thesis has been submitted in partial fulfill ment of requirements for an advanced degree at The University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library» Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission^ provided that accurate acknowl edgment of source is made o Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his judgment the proposed use of the material is in the inter ests of scholarshipo In all other instances 9 however, permission must be obtained from the author <, SIGNED: APPROVAL BY THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: Professor of History TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT . iv CHAPTER I. PERIOD OF UNION CONFUSION, NOVEMBER, 1860- MAY, l86l .... ......... 1 II. THE CONTRABAND PERIOD . ........... 10 111. THE NEGRO AND FEDERAL GUARDIANSHIP . 30 IV. EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN IN THE DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA ......... 42 V. THE GREAT EXPERIMENT AT PORT ROYAL IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH ........... 66 VI. EATON AND EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY ............. 94 VII. EDUCATION OF FREEDMEN IN THE DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF .................. 117 VIII. THE EDUCATION OF THE FREEDMEN IN THE UNION ARMY 00000000....0000.0.0 13 5 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ............... 149 ABSTRACT The Civil War created a vast number of freed people of coloro The policy of the Federal government regarding the Negro held in slavery in the States rebelling against the Union evolved as the War progressed. The United States Army undertook the humanitarian task of educating the illiterate freedmen for participation as citizens in a free society. This thesis proposes that the first system of free education for Negroes in the South was that created by the Union Army during the Civil War, and that this system furnished both the impetus and pattern for free public education in the South following the War. c The development of the attitudes and policies of the United States Government is traced from the Constitu tional recognition of slavery to the acknowledgment of the Negro as an emancipated person. Research for this informa tion centered in the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, House and Senate Executive Records, the Congres sional Globe, writings and speeches of President Lincoln, and various secondary materials. Information pertaining to the educational system set up by the Union Army was gathered from annual and quarterly reports of numerous benevolent societies of the iv V North, reports and orders of the War Department found in the Records of the Rebellion, official documents from the various Congressional records, first-hand accounts of teachers and supervisors, plus selected secondary sources ® CHAPTER I PERIOD OF UNION CONFUSION, NOVEMBER, 1860-MAY, l86l A long history of controversy over slavery and civil rights preceded the election of i860« Abolition of slavery by state action had ceased at the northern boundaries of Maryland and Virginia in the years following the Revolution and had never been renewed« Instead^ the power of the slave-holders in the government had steadily increased through the years; the defense of slavery as a beneficent institution had become more vocal; and the constitutional authority of the Congress to restrict or control slavery had been challenged increasingly by devotees of the doctrine of state rights* Meanwhile, the opposition to slavery and the defense of the prerogatives of the Federal Government had likewise intensified through the years. By the time of the i860 presidential election, antislavery people controlled the Republican party. They demanded the exclusion of slav ery from the territories. The inevitable direction of public policy would be toward abolition of slavery and toward nationalism. In ever increasing numbers the champions of slavery and decentralization had demanded some sort of political machinery which would permit them to protect slavery in the Union and had endorsed immediate independence for the slave states if a Republican President should be elected. Lincoln was elected, and in February, l86l, at Montgomery, Alabama, representatives of seven slave states, whose conventions had passed acts of seces sion, formed the Confederate States of America. The preservation of the Union was paramount. President James Buchanan, sympathetic to the South, had four months to serve after Lincolnf s election. He was determined to do nothing to provoke war. In his annual message to Congress in December, i860, he recommended the passage of a constitutional amendment to recognize the South’s right of property in slaves, the duty of the Federal Government to protect this right in all common territories, the validity of the Fugitive Slave Law, and the nullification of state laws which interfered with the 1 recovery of slaves. Further conciliatory actions to avoid war were taken by legislative bodies and individuals. Vermont, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts modified their personal liberty laws. In some areas abolitionist meetings were barred by police action. Newspaper editors avoided the controversial issue of slavery, and religious leaders ^Message from the President, December k , i860, House Journal, 36 Cong., 2 Sess® (l860-6l), pp. 21-22; James Buchanan, Mr. Buchanan1s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion (New York, I866), pp. 131-32° pleaded for the people of the nation to be calm and patient ® ^ In Congress, Senator Crittenden of Kentucky intro duced an amendment to restore and extend the old Missouri Compromise line and to prevent Congress from interfering with slavery in any state or in the District of Columbia, These measures, written into the Constitution, would not be subject to future amendment, 3 Both Houses of Congress appointed committees to consider ways and means for a peaceful settlement of the difficulties between the North 4 and South, Forty years of compromise had not been enough» No one seemed willing to face up to a final settlement of the basic issue, No one except President-elect Lincoln seemed to realize that compromise would mark the end of constitutional government• The President-elect refused the requests of party politicians and partisan groups to speak or write during these troubled months, He could not apologize to the South for being elected. The Republican Party Platform and the speeches he had delivered before his election fully 2 Benjamin Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro (New York, 1962), p. 6l. ^Congressional Globe, 36 Cong,, 2 Sess» (l860-6l), p o ll4* ^Ibid, , p . 63 ; Buchanan, Mr, Buchanan's Administra tion, pp, 134-33 ; Hous e J ournal, 3*5 Cong.', 2 Sess, (i860- 6l), p „ 380 5 expressed his views. Lincoln was adamantly against the extension of slavery as proposed in the Crittenden Amend ment 5 andhe urged Senator Lyman Trumbull and Representa tive William Kellogg«, in almost identical terms, to stand firm against compromise on this question. uThe tug has to come and better now than Lat er» Congress, in a last desperate effort, passed a completely worthless amendment two days before Lincoln1s inauguration which would have prevented that body from ever interfering with the domestic institutions of any state, including state laws concerning persons held to service or labor. Seven states of the deep South already had seceded from the Union, and Lincoln, knowing certainly that it could never be ratified, signed this amendment the day after the Union forces had surrendered Fort Sumter to the 7 Confederacy. In his Inaugural Address, Lincoln assured the eight slave states which still remained loyal that the new administration had no intention of endangering the property, peace, and security of any section of the country. The 5 Abraham Lincoln to John A . Gilmer, December 1 5 ? i860, Roy P. Easier (ed.), The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (9 vols., New Brunswick, 1953)? IV? p p . 151-52• 6 Abraham Lincoln to William Kellogg, December 11, i860, ibid., p. 150. ^Quarles, Lincoln and the Negro, p. 6 3 ; Senate Journal, 36 Cong., 2 Sess. (I86O-6I), pp. 381-8 2 . Fugitive Slave Law would be enforced because it was the 8 law® Constitutionally, the slave was property and the new President had vowed to uphold the Union, the Constitution, and the laws® Historians have questioned whether or not Lincoln, at this juncture, desired war. In his Inaugural address he did not state that the Union was intended to be perpetual; he omitted from his address any declaration of intent to coerce the Southern states to remain in the Union. However, the seceded states regarded such coercion as a certainty, and the firing on Fort Sumter followed. Lincolnf s assumption of executive office only compounded confusion in the North. The Republicans were not in the majority, and some leaders of the party seemed to have little confidence in the President® Antislavery leaders were angry about Lincoln’s postponement of a positive program to advance the welfare of free Negroes and to emancipate the slaves.