Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-05-31
NEGRO SCHOOLS IN VIRGINIA.

A Norfolk letter in the Cincinnati Gazette,
gives an extended account of a negro school
established by Gen. Butler near Hampton,
Va. The writer says:
We found the school house, little re-
moved from the clusters of negro huts, and
took the school fairly by surprise. Passing
up long hall, wide enough for double rows
of desks in the center, with seats for about
ten or twelve boys in each, and an aisle on
either side, with benches for the class reel
tations against the walls, We came to an ele-
waited platform, from which led Oft In oppo-
site directions two other precisely similar
halls. The fourth, completing the cross, was
designed for girls, aud was yet unfinished
Down these three long halls were ranged
row after row of Clearly clad negro boys,
from the aye of six up to sixteen or seven
teen.
All seemed attentive; and though the
teachers complained thai the sudden en-
trance of visitors always led to more coniu-
sion than usual, there was certainly no more
than one would expect from any school Of
equal extent anywhere, or under any man
agement. The rolls contained the names OF
three hundred and seventy-tour pupils, OF
whom about two hundred were present.
These children had all been slaves, and
nearly all had accompanied their parents on
their escape from tho plantations of the Pc
ninsula, and of the upper counties OF North
Carolina to the Fortress. Their parents had
generally been field hands, and one noticed
among them very few faces not OF pure Airl-
can descent. Such masses OF little woolly
heads, such rows of shining worries, and fiat
noses and blubber lips, had never seen col
10 at s.iH nj tar-
ly unbearable. The teachers were all con-
valescent soldiers from the hospitals, moving
noiselessly about among the benches in their
hospital slippers and cheap calico wrappers,
as they themselves had often seen moving
about among their hospital cots the angels of
mercy from the North. Who shall say they
were not doing as benefcent a work, or that
the little negroes might not well follow them
with as longing and atlectionate gaze
Several classes were called up to exhibit
their proficiency. Doubtless the teachers
selected their best scholars for the test
think even Northern schools sometimes do
that-but there can be little opportunity for
deception in the reading Of an unlearned les
son in book, or in answers to questions in
mental arithmetic, propounded by the ysi-
tors themselves.
An advanced class, composed of the little
negro "monitors" who had been longest in
the school, was called up to the platform TO
read lesson in the Fourth Reader. One or
two of them read abominably; one or two
quite well, with an evident understanding OF
what was said. The best reader in the class
was the smallest boy, an ebony faced urchin,
whose head looked like six-pound shot,
coated with curled hair from a Mattress
The superintendent exhibited his manner OF
calling out the classes through the whole
school to recite, the military style in which
the boys were required TO march to their
places at the word of command, and the gen.
eral adherence to military forms, even in
such minutie as distributing states, removing
the stools for the monitors, returning books
TO their places, and the like.
Then came little address from the domi-
ME of our party, former South Carolina
lawyer and heavy stakeholder; and we finally
took our leave, the little urchins eagerly
handing up their states as we passed them TO
have us see their writing, and laboriously
tracing out in school-bOy characters their
oddly sounding names, to show us how readi-
ly they could write.