Tim Elder

History 424

Blog Entry 2

April 26, 2013

Education of The Freedmen

After the civil war, roughly four million slaves were made free, This was though the Emancipation Proclamation and also the 14^th amendment. Majority of these former slaves had no form of education prior to the Reconstruction period. During Reconstruction many schools opened up to teach the African American population in the south. These schools were often had teachers from the northern states.  These teachers were often were women moving to the south to run these schools. The schools were set up in some cases for just the Black population, or sometimes for both the white and black population.

Some of the schools that were founded were founded by several of religious groups. This was done in an attempt to convert the former slaves to their religious domination, while educating them in the secular subjects such as English, math and etc. The source that I am using is an annual report for one of these various religious groups. In this annual report it states that in four years they have trained hundreds of teachers, opened dozens of schools. These schools have been opened in a number of states including but not limited to Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama. With a total number of fifty-eight schools opened in these states.

The author of this annual report remarks how much progress was made, as their students months prior were treated as cattle, and sold off to others. To being in a classroom, and beginning their education, in majority of these schools in was not just the children of the former slaves that went to the schools, but in was also the older generations going also. The former slaves wanted to learn as much as possible as it had been illegal previously for them to learn.  As these schools opened up a flood of the former slaves came to the doors to begin their education.

At the time of this report over five thousand former slaves had been educated in the first year in the fifty-eight schools.  This number had steadily grown over the four years to an astounding number of ten thousand in the fourth year. The fourth year was the only year the number of students did not grow from the previous year. With the four years of these schools being opened a total of over thirty thousand in the four years of operation. The goal of these schools in roughly four years is to be turned over to the state level, rather than the religious sponsored.

This report continues on to the need of colleges. As majority of the of schools that this group has founded in the four years, if not all, but most of them have been elementary schools, and possibly a couple high schools as we would think of them today.  A secondary education system was the next focus as many in the black population began to begin a political career, or possibly a business career.  A few of the first colleges for the black population was the Ventral Tennessee College and Berea College and several others in a number of southern states.

In conclusion this religious group has focused in on the Black population shortly after the Civil War, during the Reconstruction period. In an effort to educate these former slaves, and give an opportunity for a better life than one on the plantation. As stated earlier over thirty thousand former slaves had gone through these schools and that several colleges were beginning to open up and begin giving a secondary education to thousands also.

Freedmen's Aid Society, Annual Report of the Freedmen's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Cornell University Library, New York. 1868.