The Journal of Negro History Volume V Part 39

I have known intimately Gen. Samuel Smalls and his family in Beaufort, S.C. and Miss Olive Rainey and her mother, daughter and wife of Joseph H. Rainey; Miss Mamie Hayne of S.C. daughter of Henry E. Hayne.

One daughter of Gen. Smalls still lives in the paternal home in Beaufort, where are the books and personal possessions of her distinguished father. She was companion and house-keeper for him in his late years; she is doubtless able to furnish much valuable information.

Brothers of Henry E. Hayne still live, though they do not identify themselves with the Negro race. The daughter does, however, and has friends of her father's generation who could help in building up a Hayne's history.

Among the relatives is the mother of my husband and a large family of relatives, the older ones of whom lived thro'

Reconstruction Days in South Carolina.

Miss Rainey and her mother live in Springfield, Ma.s.sachusetts.

My own family on the maternal side is descended from George Houston, member of the Alabama Legislature 1868-70.

I have long felt that the last opportunity to collect data concerning this interesting period in our history, is while this present generation lives; the next generation will have no interest in it.

If I can a.s.sist you in collecting facts from these people who knew intimately the men of whom you write, I should be glad to do so.

I feel that the best way to do this would be for you to send me a set of questionnaires which I might send to these friends with letters.

I am trying thro' the Department of Archives and History of Alabama and the Congressional Library to locate material which will illuminate the life of George Houston.

If what I have written is of interest to you, then I am glad that I have written. And can I be of a.s.sistance, I shall be glad to make further contribution if possible.

Sincerely, (Signed) HELEN JAMES CHISHOLM, MRS. FRANK P. CHISHOLM.

CORRESPONDENCE

The following letter written primarily to correct certain errors has been productive of much good in bringing to light a number of facts which the public should know:

140 COTTAGE STREET, NEW HAVEN, CONN., February 23, 1920.

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON, 1216 You Street, Washington.

_My dear Dr. Woodson:_

I find the latest number of your _Journal_ most interesting and permanently valuable, like those that have preceded. I think that the publication is gaining a position in its particular field which promises to make it an accepted authority on historical questions. This makes it the more essential for manifest errors to be carefully guarded against and eliminated from contributed articles.

I observe on page 5 the designation "Tillston College" of The American Missionary a.s.sociation; the correct name is Tillotson College, for the inst.i.tution at Austin, Texas. The footnote gives _Brawley_ as authority. I do not have this book at hand but have a suspicion that the erroneous spelling is found there also.

Another statement in the same article which seems to me erroneous in a more serious matter is found at the bottom of page 4, where it is a.s.sumed that in 1863 "only 5 per cent of the Negro population was literate." In your book on _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ you have stated very solid reasons for believing 10 per cent to be about the right estimate. This accords also with the U.S. Census figures of 1870, set forth in a table of which I sent you a copy. Is it not a matter of vital significance to our American history which of these statements is to be accepted? Yesterday I saw posted on the wall of a New Haven church the statement of _5 per cent_. It used to be considered allowable to make wild statements on this subject when presenting the claims of Southern education. Indeed I have known the statement to be made in such a connection, that _none_ of the Negroes could read or write before the war. I yield to no one in my estimate of the importance of the work of Northern teachers and Northern schools in the education of the colored people. But their value is not magnified by such exaggerated and reckless over-statement. Rather is it brought under serious question and damaging suspicion.

You have done and are still doing most valuable work in the interest of historical accuracy, and to clear away the fogs of misconstruction and misapprehension concerning the Negro people which have prevailed for at least a hundred years. I could wish that you might see your way as an editor to insist on alteration in a ma.n.u.script containing such a misstatement, or at least add an editorial comment on the point.

Wishing for your _Journal_ continued and increasing circulation and popular support, I remain,

Faithfully, yours, G. S. d.i.c.kERMAN.

The editor made the following reply:

February 28 1920.

DR. G. S. d.i.c.kERMAN, 140 Cottage Street, New Haven, Conn.

_My dear Dr. d.i.c.kerman:_

I have your interesting letter in which you make a strong plea for accuracy in the writing of history that the Negro may receive justice at the hands of those represented as treating the records of the race scientifically. You insist that, prior to the emanc.i.p.ation of the race, more than five per cent of the Negro population was literate, and refer to my _Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ to support you in that statement. You must observe, however, that I maintain that ten per cent of the adult Negroes had the rudiments of education. It might, therefore, be possible for some one to prove that less than ten per cent of the whole Negro population was at that time able to read and write.

Thanking you for your interest in this work, I am

Yours very truly, C. G. WOODSON, _Director_.

The tables to which Dr. d.i.c.kerman refers were sent to the editor with a letter, both of which follow:

140 COTTAGE STREET, NEW HAVEN, CONN., July 14, 1917.

DR. CARTER G. WOODSON, 1216 You Street, N.W.

Washington, D.C.

_Dear Dr. Woodson:_

In preparing a chapter on The History of Negro Education for Dr.

Jones, of the Phelps Stokes Foundation, I made a study of the Ninth Census and prepared a table of figures which I suggested for publication in a foot note. But my ma.n.u.script was so long that it was thought best to eliminate about a third of it and this table with much besides.

I have therefore thrown this Census study into form for publication in an article by itself. If you like you may have it for _Journal of Negro History_. Of course the Census is not infallible and the Ninth Census has been especially charged with inaccuracy. But it certainly has some meaning, and I think the confirmation of your conclusions is worth noticing.

If you do not wish to use the article please return it to the above address.

Very truly yours, G. S. d.i.c.kERMAN.

THE NINTH CENSUS ON NEGRO ILLITERACY

The treatise of Dr. Carter G.o.dwin Woodson on _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ offers an impressive array of evidence to show that there were many more Negroes than have usually been supposed who had some literary knowledge while still under slavery. Other evidence bearing on a subject of so great importance cannot but have interest for historians of that period.

Some of the statistics in the United States Census of 1870 are in point: Figures are there given for the colored men of voting age, that is for those over 21, who were unable to read and write.

There are also given the total numbers of colored men of voting age in the several States. Subtracting the former from the latter will then give the number of those able to read and write. The results appear in the table presented below:

COLORED MALES 21 YEARS OF AGE AND UPWARD IN 1870; WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR ABILITY TO WRITE

=====================+===========+===========+=========+========== | | Unable to | Able to | Per Cent | Total | Write | Write | Able ---------------------+-----------+-----------+---------+---------- United States | 1,032,475 | 862,243 | 170,232 | 16.5 Southern States | 932,612 | 820,670 | 111,942 | 12.0 All other states | 99,863 | 41,573 | 58,290 | 58.4 ---------------------+-----------+-----------+---------+---------- Alabama | 97,823 | 91,017 | 6,806 | 6.9 Arkansas | 26,789 | 23,681 | 3,108 | 11.6 District of Columbia | 10,143 | 7,599 | 2,544 | 25.1 Florida | 18,842 | 16,806 | 2,036 | 10.8 Georgia | 107,962 | 100,551 | 7,411 | 6.9 Kentucky | 44,322 | 37,889 | 6,432 | 14.5 Louisiana | 86,911 | 76,612 | 10,301 | 11.7 Maryland | 39,123 | 27,123 | 11,997 | 30.6 Mississippi | 89,920 | 80,810 | 9,116 | 10.1 Missouri | 23,886 | 18,002 | 5,880 | 24.6 North Carolina | 78,012 | 68,669 | 9,350 | 12.0 South Carolina | 85,475 | 70,830 | 14,645 | 17.1 Tennessee | 64,131 | 55,938 | 8,193 | 12.8 Texas | 51,575 | 47,235 | 4,340 | 8.4 Virginia | 107,691 | 97,908 | 9,783 | 9.1 ---------------------+-----------+-----------+---------+----------

This Census gives the figures for women of color over 21 years of age who were unable to write; but not the whole number of women of color over 21. If however we a.s.sume the proportion of all Negro males to all Negro females to hold the same for those over 21 we arrive at the conclusion that the whole number of women of color over 21 was 1,072,847 for the United States; of whom 946,332 were unable to write and 126,515 were able. That is, in 1870, there were approximately 126,515 women of color of 21 years of age and upward who were able to read and write. This number added to the 170,232, found for the number of literate men, gives a total of 296,747 Negroes of 21 years of age and upward who were able to read and write; which is 14 per cent of the whole number. There must have been a considerable increase between 1863 and 1870, but one can hardly suppose it to have been over 4 per cent, or 84,212, which substantiates the estimate of about 10 per cent of the Negroes as able to read and write at the date of emanc.i.p.ation. We may suppose that the number of those who were able to read, but did not add to this the accomplishment of writing, must have been much larger.

The existence of so large a body of Negroes who already had the rudiments of an education goes far to account for the rapid growth of schools as soon as the Negroes were made free, and especially for that eagerness that was shown for advanced learning which made an almost immediate demand for secondary schools and colleges at the more important centers of population throughout the South.