208 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MON1HLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



to the school-fund. In Dorchester, South Caro- 

 lina, a free school was established in 1724 by an 

 act of the Colonial Assembly. But as the pop- 

 ulation increased, the educational condition of 

 most of the Southern colonies became desperate- 

 ly bad, notwithstanding the efforts of the Society 

 for the Propagation of the Gospel, which con- 

 tinued to send out schoolmasters, and notwith- 

 standing the numerous " charity schools " which 

 were founded by private liberality. 



In New England itself the Revolutionary War 

 had a disastrous effect on popular education. 

 Sixty years ago the schoolbouses were mean and 

 inconvenient ; the school - apparatus was defec- 

 tive ; the teachers were in many cases ill prepared 

 for their duties ; the educational methods were 

 slovenly and antiquated. A few years later, in 

 the time of Andrew Jackson, the New-England- 

 ers began to be alarmed by the ignorance of the 

 population in the great cities. Thousands and 

 tens of thousands of illiterate immigrants were 

 pouring in upon them from every country in Eu- 

 rope, and even their own children were being 

 badly taught. But the framework of an admi- 

 rable organization of popular schools had been 

 created for them by their fathers, and, stung by 

 the consciousness of having neglected too long 

 the work which the founders of New Eugland 

 had so nobly begun, they gave themselves, with 

 magnificent zeal and energy, to the development 

 of all the resources of the system. Their zeal 

 was contagious ; and their success has provoked 

 imitation throughout the rest of the country. 

 The " Yankee schoolmarm," as Mr. Parton calls 

 her, is now to be found all over the States. The 

 recent triumphs of this irresistible lady have been 

 very sudden and very remarkable. 



Before the civil war the common-school sys- 

 tem had hardly made any way in the South. Dr. 

 Fraser was informed that the only exceptions 

 were "a tolerably complete organization for the 

 city of Charleston, South Carolina, and another 

 for the State of Louisiana." x When I was in 

 Richmond I found that the building used by Jef- 

 ferson Davis as his headquarters during the 

 Southern rebellion was occupied by a common 

 school organized on the New England model. 

 Within a hundred yards of it there was a free 

 high-school for colored people. The vice-prin- 

 cipal of the high-school was a shrewd, keen, ac- 

 complished lady from Massachusetts. She said 

 that the municipal authorities of Richmond were 

 doing their very best to provide school accommoda- 



1 Dr. Frnpcr's "Report on the Common-School Sys- 

 tem of the United States," etc., p. 11. 



tion for all the children in the city, and to make 

 the education as good as it was in Boston. She 

 could give them no higher praise. I told her 

 that I had just been visiting a common school for 

 colored children, which was most inconveniently 

 crowded, the accommodation being so inadequate 

 to the wants of the district that the master was 

 obliged to arrange for the younger children to at- 

 tend only half-time — one set coming in the morn- 

 ing and the other in the afternoon. She replied 

 very fairly that the common-school system had 

 not been in operation more than seven years, and 

 that the losses sustained by the city during the 

 war made it hard for the people to bear heavy 

 taxation, but that the loyalty, intelligence, and 

 energy, with which the authorities were trying to 

 overtake lost time, were admirable. She said 

 that the city had come to take great pride in its 

 schools, and that the success which had been 

 achieved in so limited a time was remarkable. 

 Still harping on the crowded colored school which 

 I had just left, I asked whether the Education 

 Board dealt quite fairly with the colored children. 

 " Are the buildings for the colored children as 

 good as the buildings for the white children ? " 

 " The board wishes the accommodation to be 

 precisely the same for both." " Is the organiza- 

 tion of the two sets of schools the same?" 

 " Precisely the same." " Is the course of educa- 

 tion the same ? " " Exactly." " Is the school- 

 apparatus the same ? " " It is." To apply a 

 crucial test, I inquired whether the salaries paid 

 to teachers in the colored schools were equal to 

 the salaries paid to teachers holding the same 

 rank in the schools for the white children. Two 

 or three of the assistants were standing near her 

 when I asked this question, and they all seemed 

 infinitely amused at my simplicity. The vice- 

 principal herself laughed heartily, aud exclaimed, 

 in tones of astonishment, "Do you think we 

 should accept lower salaries than are given to 

 teachers in the other schools ? " As I saw the 

 look of humorous amazement on her keen, vig- 

 orous face, I am bound to acknowledge that I 

 thought it very unlikely. She went on to say : 

 " I came South just after the war, and with all 

 the prejudices of a Massachusetts woman against 

 Southerners, slavery, and rebellion ; but I should 

 not be doing justice to the Richmond people if I 

 did not tell you that they are working the school 

 system with perfect fairness as between the white 

 and the colored people, and are doing their ut- 

 most to give a thoroughly good education to all 

 the children." The arrangements of the school 

 in which this conversation took place — the cool, 



