' A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH CAROLINA. 



537 



A comparison of illiteracy by ages between the census of 1870 and that 

 of 1880, is subjoined. 



White Illiteracy. 



Total increase of illiterate whites, 4,610, relative increase, 8.4 per cent. 



Total increase of white population, 101,438, relative increase, 35.4 per 

 cent. 



The population has increased over four times as fast as the illiteracy. 

 TJiis is a sign of progress.. 



Colored Illiteracy. 



Total increase in illiterate colored, 74,907, relative increase, 31 percent. 

 Total increase in colored population, 188,518, relative increase, 44 per 

 cent. 



The population has increased about IJ times as rapidly as illiteracy. 

 This, at least, shows that illiteracy is not on the increase. 

 xVgain, the census of ISSO, gives the following 



Colored persons ivho could write, and those who could not, 1880. 



There were, in 1880, therefore, 84,679 colored persons of ten years of 

 age, and over, who had some acquaintance with the art of reading and 

 writing. AVith the exception of a few " free persons of color," these repre- 

 sent the progress of fifteen years, between 1865 and 1880, or of ten years 

 of free schools, of which five or six were, in an educational sense, " years 

 35 



