School History of North Carolina Part 32

6. General Jackson and the Democratic party had opposed the distribution of the proceeds from the sale of national public lands as a fixed rule in the policy of the government, but in his last administration many millions of dollars had acc.u.mulated in the Federal treasury, for which the general government had no immediate use. In 1837 this fund was divided out to all the States except Virginia (that Commonwealth refusing her share).

North Carolina's proportion amounted to one and a half million dollars.

7. This fund, together with the amounts realized from the sale of swamp lands belonging to the State, and certain shares of bank stock, also the property of North Carolina, was set aside and invested for the benefit of the public schools of the State, and was known as the "School Fund."

8. It was not until the year 1840 that any effective legislation was had for the establishment of the free educational system. By an act of the Legislature of 1836, the Governor and three others, by him to be appointed, were const.i.tuted the "Literary Board."

In 1839 an act was pa.s.sed to divide the counties into school districts. It left to each county the option of schools or no schools. It showed considerable advance in popular wisdom, that all but one of the counties decided to have schools and to be taxed for the election of such buildings as were necessary in the work.

[NOTE--The Presidential campaign of 1840 was an unusually exciting one. The Whig nominee, William Henry Harrison, was charged by his opponents as having lived in a "log cabin," with nothing to drink but "hard cider." His friends made good use of these charges. "Hard Cider" became a political watchword, and in the numerous Whig processions a "log cabin" on wheels occupied the most prominent and honored position. The "Log cabin Campaign"

will long be remembered. President Harrison died within one month after his inauguration. His last words were, "The principles of the government; I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more."]

9. Not in the General a.s.sembly alone was the subject of education receiving unusual attention. The Baptists, in 1826, established a high school on the farm of Colonel Calvin Jones, in Wake county. A little later it was changed in name and became Wake Forest College. The Presbyterians, in 1838, founded Davidson College, in Mecklenburg. These denominational inst.i.tutions became n.o.ble adjuncts to the University in affording opportunities for liberal culture in our own borders.

10. Thus, at last, the "old-field schools" were superseded as better inst.i.tutions took their place. The old-fashioned country teacher, who pa.s.sed from house to house for subsistence, and was wholly dependent upon the feelings or caprices of one or two employers, gradually disappeared as academies and common schools multiplied.

11. The Bingham School in Orange, the Lovejoy School in Raleigh, the Bobbitt School in Franklin, the Caldwell Inst.i.tute in Greensboro, Trinity College near Raleigh, the Donaldson Academy in Fayetteville, and numerous other excellent male academies greatly added to the number of well-informed and useful men.

1842.

12. The Salem Seminary, so widely renowned for the host of cultured women sent out to every portion of the South, at last found a worthy rival in St. Mary's School. This inst.i.tution was established at Raleigh, in 1842, under the patronage of Bishop Ives and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Rev. Dr.

Aldert Smedes, who soon presided over its fortunes, was singularly fitted for such place; for in no other inst.i.tution in America was intellectual training more largely supplemented by the moral and social graces. These popular inst.i.tutions were soon reinforced by the excellent Methodist Female College at Greensboro.

13. Presbyterian's, a few years later, had a first-rate school for the education of their daughters in "Edgeworth," a n.o.ble seminary established by Governor Morehead at Greensboro.

QUESTIONS.

1. What is this chapter about? What laws has been enacted concert concerning education?

2. Why had incorporation been refused to the "Queen's Museum"?

3. What is said of the schools at Charlotte and Davidson?

4. What clause was in the first State Const.i.tution? How had the intent of this clause been carried out?

5. What were some of the views in regard to popular education?

What men had advocated the provisions of the Const.i.tution?

6. What addition to the School Fund did North Carolina receive in 1837?

7. How was the fund further increased?

8. Can you mention the legislation at this period affecting school matters?

9. What denominational schools were founded about this time?

10. What is said of the "old-field schools"?

11. Where were the leading male schools, and what is said of the usefulness?

12. What female schools are mentioned? What is said of St.

Mary's School? What is said of other schools?

CHAPTER XLIX.

SLAVERY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

A. D. 1842 TO 1844.

1. When the year of our Lord 1842 had come, peace and prosperity were in all portions of North Carolina. Society was still divided into three cla.s.ses. These were: the white people, the slaves and the free negroes. The latter cla.s.s had originated by manumission, and were numerous in some of the eastern counties.

They had lost the right of suffrage by the action of the State Convention of 1835.

2. This action on the part of the Convention was due in some degree, doubtless, to the constant agitation of the slavery question, though by no means due to that alone; but to the further fact, as well, that during the time they voted by sufferance they had plainly demonstrated their utter unfitness to appreciate or exercise the great right of suffrage.

3. As a cla.s.s they were unthrifty and dishonest, and each year becoming more useless as members of the community; their a.s.sociation with the slaves was regarded as an evil to be avoided if possible; therefore, they were discriminated against in the legislation of the period. Virginia and Ohio had both enacted statutes which forbade them access to their borders. North Carolina provided by law that in case of their removal from the State they lost their residence, and were forbidden to return.

4. The right of the States to pa.s.s such laws for the protection of their slave property cannot be denied, unless the right of property in slaves be also denied. Nor can they properly be called unjust. The right of property in their slaves the people of North Carolina regarded as settled by the Const.i.tution of the State and that of the United States. Theorists might speculate whether African slavery was consistent with the American Declaration of Independence as they pleased, but the right of property in slaves was undisputably recognized and secured in the fundamental laws of the land. As to the moral question involved, if any such there was, the Southern slave-owner regarded it as one between himself and his G.o.d, and not between himself and his Northern brother.

5. As a matter of course, slavery and intellectual culture are incompatible, and education was therefore denied the slaves. The right to testify in the courts against a white man, and even the right to defend himself from the a.s.saults of white men, except in defence of life in the last extremity, were also necessarily denied him. These restrictions were necessary to the maintenance of the legal relations between the dominant and subject races.

6. Of course there were those who studied the slavery problem from every possible standpoint, except the const.i.tutional legality of it. That, at least, was fixed. Some doubted the morality of it and others questioned the policy of it, and it is quite possible, had time and opportunity for gradual manumission and exportation offered, North Carolina would have been a free State, in the course of events, of her own accord.

7. The Northern States had sold their slaves rather than free them under their acts of manumission. It was not possible for this to be further repeated by the Commonwealths still retaining the inst.i.tution; so in a blind ignorance of the future and in utter hopelessness of any practicable solution of their difficulty, except in remaining as they were, the statesmen of the South contented themselves with a simple policy of resistance to change.

1844.

8. Among the white people of North Carolina were found all who partic.i.p.ated in the conduct of public affairs. The means of popular education had been too recently adopted to show effects upon the community. The labors of a few wise men were just being crowned with success, and the children of the poor were receiving the rudiments of education in every portion of the State.

9. In religion, the great ma.s.s of the people belonged to country churches. These rural congregations, as a general thing, met on one Sat.u.r.day and the succeeding Sabbath of each month, to attend the preaching of a minister who often served other churches as pastor the remaining Sundays. Beyond the Sunday schools and annual protracted meetings, there were no other religious observances except occasional funerals and prayer meetings at private houses.

10. The b.a.l.l.s and horse-races of former days in the eastern counties had, in a large measure, ceased. In the growth of the Methodist and Baptist Churches in that section, such amus.e.m.e.nts had been so discouraged that festivities of this kind became rare. In the western sections of North Carolina they had never been countenanced by the Presbyterians.

11. The summers became more or less marked by great a.s.semblages in the protracted or "camp-meetings." They were, to the devout, seasons of religious devotion, but to the young and thoughtless, opportunities for courtship and social enjoyment.

QUESTIONS.

1. What three cla.s.ses of society existed in North Carolina in 1842?

2. What action was taken by the Convention of 1835 in regard to free negroes?

3. What is said of this cla.s.s of our population?

4. How did our people view the question of slavery?

5. What privileges were denied the slaves? Why?

6. What would probably have been the final result in North Carolina?