THE FUTURE OF THE NEGRO IN THE SOUTH. 41 



labor and drudgery, instead of being an example to the former slave 

 women, only affords a gratification to their spite and malevolence. 



The freedman imagined that whatever superiority white people 

 have over the blacks is owing to education ; and as Eve was induced to 

 think that if she and Adam should eat of the forbidden fruit they 

 would be as gods, so the ordinary African thought if his child could 

 only read, write, and cipher, he would be in every way the equal of 

 the Caucasian. He was utterly unable to discriminate between a man 

 with only capacity to fill with infinite labor a postal card and one who 

 could reason out the law of gravity or define the principles of elec- 

 tricity. With this glorified idea on the subject of education, their en- 

 thusiastic desire for schools is not surprising. Their only idea of the 

 difference between Prospero and Caliban was, that one could read and 

 write and the other could not. 



However absurd these views were, and however great the disap- 

 pointment which follows, the result is good. If the entire race could 

 read, write, and cipher, it would be an excellent thing. An utterly 

 uneducated man, unless he chances to be of extraordinary acuteness, is 

 at the mercy of one who is learned ; the latter may assert that twice 

 twenty are fifty, and the ignorant man, unable to disprove the asser- 

 tion, submits. Enough education to enable a laboring-man to calcu- 

 late the amount of his wages, and to verify the entries and summing 

 of his pass-book, is necessary to prevent his being cheated by unscru- 

 pulous men. A vast number of the colored people are now educated 

 to that extent, with great advantage to the better u^nderstanding be- 

 tween employer and employe. If the latter can comprehend simple 

 accounts, there will be little difficulty in the settlement of his wages ; 

 but it is difficult to explain figures to the ignorant man, who, in most 

 cases, imagines himself defrauded, simply because he can not compre- 

 hend. Persons who have to do with working-men, white or black, 

 will readily agree that there is tenfold more trouble in adjusting 

 accounts with those who are illiterate than with those who have even 

 rudimental education. 



The opportunities of the blacks for obtaining education in the South 

 are abundant, greater, indeed, in many places than those in reach of 

 the whites. In the State wherein the writer resides, each county is 

 divided into school districts of convenient size, each with self-contained 

 power of subdivision, under certain conditions : these districts are 

 autonomous under general State laws ; they decide for themselves, by 

 popular vote, the amount of tax they are willing to pay respectively 

 for the purpose of education, which tax is collected by the revenue 

 collector as other taxes are ; they elect each three directors to manage 

 the scholastic affairs and funds, selection of teachers, etc. In vast 

 numbers of these districts the blacks largely outnumber the whites, 

 and elect not only magistrates, constables, etc., but also school directors, 

 and in school matters the white element is utterly disregarded, except 



