The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1870-03-26
Educatton of the Freedmen.

what is 10 be done with the four millions of
human beings in the Southern States, educated to
a life of slavery. dependence and vice, thus sud
denly made, not only free, but free Americans
the uroudest title that any descendant of Adam
can claim ? 1t was considered a dangerous thing
to entrust the late chattel, now made a man, with
the ballot; and so it was. But, so far, the negro
has nobly indicated himself, and shown that if
he is allowed a chance, he is ambitious enough to
place himself on a square footing with his white
brother. in the socialand political relations OF life.
Already in the American Congress, we see two
legislators, colored men, sent there from the Sec
ton that but a few years ago laid it down as an
immutable axiom that 8 the negro has no rights
which the white man is bound to respect 1t is,
nevertheless, undeniably true that the negro
character of the South, after the long years of
neral degradation which was the natural result
of the slave system, must be educated up to the
proper standard to make him know and appreciate
and carefully use his new-found privileges. This
was, so to speak, the great job which the
people of the North found upon their hands at
the close of the war. And nobly have they met
it. Thousands of devoted self-sacriicing men and
women have Iabored among the blacks as school
teachers, and with great success. But the task
of raising the black to the needed level is q her
culean one, and will require the persistent efforts
of philanthropists for more than one generation
before Ethiopia can " stretch out her hands to
God =" as is her right.
1t is pleasing for US Hawaiianh, in this connec-
ton, whose boast it is that we are - Fifteenth
Amendment - meD-no distinction as to race or
color-to know that one Of Hawaii's sons is a
prominent leader in this great work of educating
the freedmen. Samuel c.. Armstrong, a son of
the late DIR. Armstrong, Minister of Public ~Instruc-
ton, leaving the islands about the commencement
of the war, entered the service on the side of the
Union, and served with great distinction. He
was brevetted Brigadier- General for his gallantry
and bravery. When the war was over, laying
down his sword. he became a school master, and
is now the principal of the Freedmen's normal
school at Hampton, Virginia, a picture of which
noble institution now lies before US. During the
war he commanded a regiment of colored men,
and often led them to victory. Now he essays to
lead the colored race to learning.
In Boston, in the latter part of January last,
a meeting was held at Music Hall, of the friends
VI ~ III eAO SOhIA, ~ WILL a OIL 80 dh0
intelligent audience were present. The meeting
was presided over by Hon. Josiah Quincy, and a
number of distinguished persons were on the plat
form. But the principal speaker of the evening
was General Armstrong, who spoke at some length
on 90 the needs of the South to-day" He said
that the first of these was teachers, and then farm
ers. The negro, to succeed as a citizen, must be-
come a farmer on q small scale, and must therefore
accept principles of cultivation entirely different
from what he has been brought up to. A system
of cultivation which depended upon exhausting
the soil and then abandoning it, would not, he
said, do for small farmers, yet it was the only one
which the negro had an opportunity for learning.
He therefore needed education in this almost as
much as in any respect. One of the great obsta-
cles to the rise of the negro was his improvidence.
At the Hampton Institute each of the scholars
was presented with q bill every month, showing
how much he had earned, and how much he owed.
This was a powerful education to thrift, and
would do much toward destroying this worst
habit OF the negro. Manual labor schools, of
which that at Hampton was a fair specimen, were
better than free schools for the education of the
negro. Z" AT Hampton " says the General, 9 two
U II III SluueulS paul III DOdru DllISs dllu
half earned enough at the rate Of ten cents an
hour, to clothe. themselves respectfully and pay
for their books. The labor system in Hampton
peculiar in its separation of study from work,
SO that they do not interfere with each other.
students were divided into five squads, one
of which was in the field each day of the week,
and all turned cut Saturday. The industrial room
for girls was one of the most important features of
the Hampton work. 1t furnished profitable en-
ployment for girls, and enables them to receive
money from the institute at the end of the month,
rather than owe anything. The garments made
Ire sold to students of this and other schools, at
The cost of material and making. The girls were
to cut and make clothes, to use tie sewing
nachiue, and TO wash and iron. The aim of the
was to teach the students how to labor
md how to live. There were now seventy-fve
in attendance at the Hampton Normal
md Agricultural Institute, of whom f~fty-four
we're b~oarders, paying so a month apiece for all
hey received. Nearly all of the students had
,een slaves, and most of them had been in the
lie believed that the quiet, faithful work
teachers in the South did more in the way of
genuine reconstruction than Congress had Zone
With all its power a single teacher was worth
more than a company of United States soldiers.
Thirteen of the undergraduates of the school were
low engaged in teaching six hundred children.
rhese teachers go into the neighboring counties
nd States, and in the rural districts are boarded
nd lodged by the people, who contribute ten
ents a week for each child that is taught, and
be Freedmen's Bureau supplies SO a month
y way of salary. In three years, if the present
lans can be carried out, there will have gradua-
ed 100 young men and women, who Will proba-
ly teach between thirty and forty thousand chill
rem. In carrying forward this work, Southern
id was not to be looked. for, Virginia was bur-
ened with too large a debt, and would not help
she could. The Southern people were essen
ALLY what they always had been, and the North
lust furnish the necessary means to advance the
reat work which had been 50 successfully begun"
At the close of the meeting it was stated that
be cost of the school buildings at Hampton was
AS 900, of which the Government OF the United
tates had given $50, 900, and it was expected
nat the balance OF SIS, 900 would be raised in
Notice was given that Gen. Jas.