28 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



less than eleven per cent of the whole number, and only 70,000 more 

 than was reported by the Freedman's Bureau in 1867, and 66,000 more 

 than the number it reported the previous year, 1869. Prejudice was 

 very stubborn, and the ignorance of 250 years of imbruting servitude 

 was still an impervious crust. The brave men and women who op- 

 posed to this dreadful array the light of their love of humanity, the 

 strength of a keen and alert intelligence, and their hope, looked about 

 them, many of them with breaking hearts. No missionaries to China 

 or Africa ever suffered as did these pioneers in the cause now fostered, 

 encouraged, and supported by the States that at first rejected them. 

 They were looked upon as part of the machinery by which negro rule 

 was to be perpetuated, and they were shunned as intelligent aiders 

 and abettors of mischief and ruin. Besides this, the Freedman's Bureau 

 was regarded as obnoxious in its workings and its tendencies. Under 

 these circumstances it was to be expected that very discouraging re- 

 ports would be made, and we are not surprised, therefore, to learn that 

 Delaware had in 1870 made no provision for the education of negro 

 children ; that in Maryland the negro children w^ere utterly ignored, 

 save in Baltimore ; Kentiicky practically ignored the colored children ; 

 West Virginia seemed to be contemplating the destruction of its com- 

 mon-school system ; Virginia was struggling through ignorance of 

 what free schools should be to the establishment of a system ; North 

 Carolina was still in a hopeless condition ; and Tennessee, save in 

 Memphis and Nashville, and the counties of Davidson, Greene, and 

 Montgomery, had no schools for whites or blacks. This is a very black 

 picture, but it was not without its relief. Missouri had a free-school 

 system firmly established ; Arkansas, encountering the obstacles com- 

 mon to the regions where slavery had been abolished, had secured a 

 greater success than a majority of the Southern States ; South Carolina, 

 with the largest percentage of illiteracy, was confident of final success ; 

 Florida, in spite of some drawbacks, presented more reasons for antici- 

 pating the general prevalence of free schools ; but Alabama, after 

 giving the most flattering promises, was debating the question of 

 advancing or retreating ; Mississippi, although commencing late, was 

 progressing steadily and efficiently in the establishment of a system of 

 free schools, notwithstanding the great and bitter opposition, appoint- 

 ing county superintendents, collecting the school-tax, and building 

 school-houses ; Louisiana's report was most unsatisfactory ; Georgia 

 had just passed a school law, but must wait a year for funds before 

 commencing operations ; in Texas things looked hopeless, there was 

 no school legislation, and the entire population was left to grow up in 

 ignorance, save as private enterprise threw a ray of light upon the 

 general darkness. The District of Columbia alone made an exhibit 

 that was encouraging, and that was relatively as good as that made by 

 the white children. In public and private schools there were 4,613 

 colored children out of a total school population of 10,494. This was 



