Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-06-13
Education at the South.

Education at the South.
The education of the freedman consti-
tutes the very marrow of the Southern prob
lem of to-day. Hence the interest with
which the public mind seizes upon any in
formation bearing upon that important sub
ject. Mr.. Z. V. Smalley, the highly intelli
gent Southern correspondent of the New
York Tribune, has been looking into this
subject in the state of Georgia, and pub
fishes the results of his observation. Mr..
Smaley adds to his superior powers of obser-
walton the additional fact of anti-slavery
antecedents which gives additional weight to
his testimony. His letter was drawn out by
a writer in the Boston Transcript, of the
Wendell Phillips school, who declared that
the colored schools of the state were a
sham and a pretence," proving that " the
old STAKEHOLDER means to keep his foot on
the neck of the black man." In reply, Mr..
Smaley declares that " the dominant public
sentiment among the whites of Georgia is
Enthusiastically in favor of giving the children
of both races an equal opportunity of &C
quiring common school education. The
school system is no longer hated importa-
ton brought by the carpet-baggers it ha'
its roots firmly fixed in the conviction of tn
intelligent governing classes, ana it is conse-
quently secure of permanence and develop
ment." d" If" says Mr. Smalley, there ex,
lists no desire on the part of the white PEG
pie of Georgia to educate the negroes, why
are over one thousand two hundred school
maintained for their benefit, and why ar,
nearly sixty thousand colored children re-
ceiving education in that state ? Tht
whites have had full control of affairs Their,
for over six years. Why do they tax them
selves to keep up schools for the negroes
ninety-nine out of one hundred of whom
pay no property-tax whatever 1t appears
to me that taking the bare figures alone, they
lead to the conclusion that the old slave.
holders do not desire to keep the blacks in
ignorance. Without any compulsion except
that of their own convictions of justice and
good public policy they have, it appears, pro
vided for the education of nearly third Of
the colored children of school age"
That smaller proportion of negro thar
of white children attend school is to be &C
counted for not so much by the indifference
or opposition of the white people to the ed
ucation of the blacks as by the condition Of
the blacks themselves. Much of the enthu
siastic interest they displayed in learning t.
read and write when schools were first es
tablished has oozed away leaving large mum
bers of the least intelligent wholly inditfer
ent as to the advantages of sending thei
children to school. A knowledge of the low
mental and moral condition of the averag,
plantation negro makes it seem only natura
that he should not be an active promoter o
the cause of education. Thousands of whit
people, North as well as South, of far create
intelligence, are almost as much open to thi
reproach as he is. Many negroes will no
provide their children with clothes in whicl
they could go to school, 1t is no uncommon
sight in Georgia to see black boys and girl,
six, seven, or eight years old, clad only il
ragged shirts. The negro is everywhere tn
farm laborer, and as soon as his children &c
old enough to handle a line they are of valu
to him in the field, and he thinks his Gro
more important than all the learning of tn
schools. The youngest children are sent t
school, but those of ten years old and owe
are kept at home whenever there is anythin
for them to do. Teachers of colored schoo
complain of the difficulty of securing punctui
attendance from the pupils. Colored peopl
cannot be brought to appreciate the impo
lance of regularity and method in anything
and their children are kept out of school fC
the most trifiing causes.
This is sad state of things, of cours
but to urge it as reason for longer in
posing army rule upon the South is to s.
reason and common-sense at defiance. Cor
mon schools are not to be grated on the i
situations of the South by the bayonet, b.
by moral forces which require time al
patience for their operation.