December 3, 1853 — Second anniversary of the founding of the School for Colored Girls, Washington DC

DEAR FRIENDS, —

We come to you with no array of logic, but with words of simple truth. Will you hear us, and then “prove all things, and hold fast that which is good?”

The Second Anniversary of the “Colored Girls’ School,” opened in the city of Washington, D.C., December 3d, 1851, has arrived, and it is thought best, by those interested in its success, to present to your consideration some facts connected with its establishment. Two years have been allowed to pass, that we might ourselves become fully satisfied with the feasibility of the plan and the probability of its permanency and usefulness, and we are now prepared to speak with a confidence that must be acceptable to all who sincerely pray — “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.”

The first promptings to this effort, to educate the free colored population of the country, were suggested by a Southern Christian, who unequivocally asserted that this was the truest and safest method of relieving the country of those vexed questions which disturb its peace and agitate its leading minds.

In this city alone, may be found a population of more than 8000 free colored people, not prohibited by any law from obtaining a complete education, and there may be nearly 2000 children of suitable age to attend school.

Two years ago the Colored Girls’ School opened with six children; the number increased to fifteen during the first month, and during the second to forty, which has been the average number since; the school having been limited to this number from the impossibility of securing larger rooms.

There were previously five or six private schools in the District taught by colored men, from which some of these girls professed to have graduated, i.e. learned all their instructors could teach them. But they were unable to apply the knowledge they had acquired to any practical use. While professing to be able to read well, they had no proper understanding of what they read; while professing to understand grammar, they rarely spoke or wrote good English; while professing to have advanced through practical arithmetic, they could neither read nor write numbers accurately, nor keep accounts with any correctness. These graduates were from fifteen to seventeen years of age, and unfortunately, some of them very uncultivated in mind and manners; and their pride was so shocked when they were thrown into classes with children who were acquiring first principles, that every one, the pupil as well as the last, left school after six months or a year, and all returned to their various avocations, quite unwilling to assume the responsibility of teaching, though they had entered the school with the full understanding, that it was established to educate a class of girls particularly for that profession.

Fortunately, a younger and more morally healthful class remained, and were soon joined by others of similar ages, habits and impressible minds. These, with few changes, now compose the very interesting school each day assembled, pursuing the various studies calculated to enlighten their minds, refine their tastes, cultivate proper habits, and develop all their powers for usefulness and happiness. Their earnestness after knowledge, have thus far advanced nobly, and some of them, by the manifestation of superior talents, more than answer the expectations of their teachers. They cheerfully respond to every effort made on their behalf, and seem to appreciate the privileges afforded them for acquiring such an education as shall render them independent in the duties that devolve on them in future life. We can give no pledges for the future, but the present promise is, that when these girls are mature, many of them will become teachers, and by their refinement and good morals exert such an influence upon their associates, as shall relieve the world of much degradation and consequent misery.

Having been a teacher of white children for twenty years, I may be allowed an opinion respecting the capacity of these colored children, and I do unequivocally assert, that I find no difference of native talent, where similar advantages are enjoyed, between Anglo-Saxon and Afro-Americans. Indeed, if we accept the historical testimony of Hon. Edward Everett, in his address before the American Colonization Society, delivered at Washington, D. C., Jan. 18th, 1853, we must conclude, that the ancestors of Europeans were at one time not very unlike the Africans, for he says: “It is only ten centuries since the Anglo-Saxons, to whose race we are so fond of claiming kindred, were as barbarous and uncivilized as many of the African tribes.” Then may we not with much propriety inquire, why should their descendants in America be found so very dissimilar?

Again, admitting Dr. Orville Dewey’s still broader basis of reasoning, which proves that the colored races possess all human attributes, and are therefore entitled to all lawful and proper means of development, if not in as high degree, yet fundamentally the same as ourselves, — God having so constituted us that it becomes a duty to seek the highest good of our better nature, — we may most emphatically ask why the colored people of America, and particularly those of Washington, D.C., (one half of whom are three-fourths white,) may not have schools, free schools, the same as any other class of citizens? and why, since the city refuses to recognize them as a part of the public, and grants them no privileges, except those of being taxed without a representation, and punished for violating laws which they have no voice in enacting, why should not the nation’s legislators nobly bestow upon this faithful class of laborers, the means of an appropriate education? Faithful they unquestionably are, and comprising, as they do, nearly one fourth the resident population of this District, why should such a suffering mass appear unworthy the notice of Congress? Miss [Dorothea] Dix nobly pleads for the criminal and insane — but we plead for the workers, upon whom the personal comfort of all so much depends, that they may be saved from crime or insanity by the removal of those fearful maladies — ignorance and want. Our country has funds enough to bestow for the relief of all her poor, and may she first be just, then generous!

While good men send forth ship-loads of bread to feed the famishing of other lands, and the country sends full equipments of ships, money and men to bear home the oppressed of other nations; why not remember the sufferers at home whom the Pharaohs of injustice require “to make bricks without straw?” These suffer for want of soul-food! for enlightenment of mind! such as a Christian nation should be careful to bestow, ere it require strict obedience to its laws!

Friends, these hard-handed workers will in time become physically strong — and, if left in ignorance, no wise counsel can stay the tide, should they rise in their might and desperation, to roll back the flood of power that deprives them of privileges, which, ignorant as they are, they know to be the “inalienable right” of every honest person who treads American soil. This you have taught them without schools, and now they must be enlightened, and awakened to a full consciousness of things as they are; of the difficulties to be met, and of the best mode of disposing of them.

They should be imbued with a high order of Christianity, (which may God grant,) and with principles of love and peace; for, after much reflection, we are sure that nothing less than proper instruction, accompanied by justice to these people, can ward off the evils shrouded in the future, and which surely await us, if we refuse to listen to the voice of reason and the direction of the Divine Teacher, “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

Shall the colored people of Washington be allowed the instruction necessary to enlighten their minds, awaken their consciences and purify their lives?

We fear some will answer “no,” but there are others who will say “yes,” and to these we earnestly look for aid.

Friends, you are no longer without a precedent. The Colored Girls’ School has enjoyed uninterrupted continuance and success during two years, with no earthly dependence save the will of a single individual, an entire stranger in the community to both white and colored, with only such aids as could be obtained from a few individuals; and no accommodations except the small inconvenient rooms which very limited means would afford.

But God, the Father of us all, kindly watched over those whom He had sent, so that both scholars and teachers have been preserved in safety, and “not a sparrow permitted to fall to the ground without His notice.”

The majesty of righteousness has surrounded the school, and a power unseen has guarded all its ways, so that many “scorners have passed by on the other side,” and the universal testimony, where truth prevails over penurious strife, has been that “this is right.”

What has been accomplished by human agency, has involved some personal sacrifice, much stern toil and deprivation, and all the aid kind friends have been willing to bestow. But means to perfect the establishment are still requisite, for there is a multitude to be taught, and few comparatively can read or secure the means to pay for learning. It is literally a missionary field, as truly as any where light and truth are required to instruct and relieve suffering humanity.

Parents often come, saying, “will you take my daughter into your school? I cannot read even the Bible, but I want her taught, so that she can read it to me.”

It has often been necessary to reply “there is no more room. I cannot find space for another scholar at present, and you must wait awhile.” “But,” they urge, “my daughter is just now the age to be in school, and soon she must be at work to earn her living, and help her parents educate the other children.” One father came, bringing a fine looking child, about nine years old, fairer than many who claim pure Anglo-Saxon origin, and presented her to me, saying, “will you educate my daughter? I have so many children I can hardly feed and clothe them, much less give them learning, but I want this one taught; and if you will educate her you may have her.” The answer was, “yes, I will teach her, if you will not prevent her being a teacher or a missionary.” There are constantly in attendance a number of such promising beneficiaries, sometimes amounting to ten. This takes all the charity-pence from the teachers’ pockets, for they are entirely dependent on a low tuition for support. It is fixed at $15 per annum; books, &c. being furnished gratuitously, which, in a city of vast expense like this, where “each one seeks his own, and not the things of another,” is too low a price to afford even necessary comforts to the school, much less to the teachers who entirely guard against any discomfort to the pupils.

Publishers and other friends have done good service, by their contributions of papers, periodicals and books. A library of about 500 volumes has been collected, contributed principally by publishers in New York and Boston, and Friends in Philadelphia, which with the 12 weekly and semi-weekly papers, 20 monthlies and semi-monthlies now sent to the school, afford means of acquiring general information, never previously granted to the colored people of Washington. All these aid the teachers much in awakening intelligent thoughts in the minds of the pupils, as have also the lectures on History, Drawing, Analysis, Philosophy and Astronomy, delivered by kind friends in Washington, for all of which we return many, many thanks, expressive of our full appreciation of these favors, and also our desire for their continuance.

Partial sets of class books have repeatedly been given to the school, but the classes have so far exceeded the number contributed that it has been necessary to expend from $5 to $25 at different times to complete the sets.

From the fact that the school was visited during the first four months of 1853, by more than one hundred persons, from various parts of the country, and by some many times, we hope a healthful influence may be widely disseminated and prove beneficial to other localities beside Washington.

The rent of rooms is at present $9 per month, fuel from $10 to $12 per month during the winter, board $12, assistant teacher the meagre sum of $16; the expenses being sometimes more than the income, so that often nothing is left to replenish the ever-wasting wardrobes. Could each one of the forty pupils pay promptly $1.50 per month, the current expenses might be met, but some promising ones cannot pay at all; some can pay only a part, and some necessarily put far away the paying day, so that there would often be great scarcity did not “the Lord provide” by the careful hand of his children, whom He teacheth to “remember the poor when they cry, the fatherless and him that hath none to help him.” We would at this time considerately inquire, can we be sustained in our efforts to perfect an Institution of learning here, adequate to the wants of the people, worthy the enlightened spirit of the age, and embodying those religious principles and moral teachings, which, by their fruits, shall be found to purify the heart, rendering it “first pure, then peaceable?”

We have endeavored to lay before you the school with all its interests; the efforts already made on its behalf; the successful results; the difficulties yet to be met, and the hopes of the future; and since it appears that in this incipient stage, the school can scarcely sustain its own internal workings, and that we must depend upon the friends of the cause to secure for us a permanent place, and erect suitable buildings adapted to the wants of the school, our appeal is designed for this purpose — earnestly praying “our Father in heaven” to enlarge the hearts of his children to a prompt and full answering.

Source: The School for Colored Girls, Washington, D.C., (Philadelphia: Merrihew & Thompson, Printers, 1854), pp. 3-9.