The Impact of Slavery On the Education of Blacks In Orange County, North Carolina: 1619-1970

By Rosetta Austin Moore

Can integration break the oppression faced by Black Americans, or will it crystallize long-held images and send Blacks deeper into a spiral of dependency?

Rosetta Austin Moore, a longtime educator who taught in segregated and integrated schools, asks that question and many others in this extensive study of the education system for Blacks in North Carolina.

She traces the struggles of Blacks to survive and learn, beginning with their forced entry into the United States in 1619, drawing on primary documents, charts, illustrations, and a treasure trove of data in four appendixes.

The book reveals how a pattern of withholding information, denying access to educational opportunities, and subjecting a people to negative indoctrinations about their self-worth, their families, their race, and their place in society has damaged the Black community’s desire to reach for greater heights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Aug 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483433141

Book preview

The Impact of

SLAVERY

on the Education of

BLACKS

in Orange County, North Carolina

1619-1970

82_a_lulu.tif

ROSETTA AUSTIN MOORE

Copyright © 2015 Rosetta Austin Moore.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3313-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3314-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015909782

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 07/13/2015

Contents

Acknowledgments

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1

A Brief History Of Slavery In The United States

Slavery In The North And The Education Of Slaves

Education For Blacks In The Colonial South

Free Blacks

Federal Support Of Education Before And After Reconstruction

Black Colleges Established In The South

Land Grant Colleges (The Morrill Act Of 1890 For Black Colleges):

Chapter 2

Slavery And Education In North Carolina

Six Social Classes In North Carolina

Public Education For Whites In North Carolina Preceding The Civil War

The Civil War And Reconstruction Era

The Jim Crow Era (1878–1960)

Resistance To Black Public High Schools

Chapter 3

Orange County North Carolina: Formation Of The County And The Development Of Schools

Academies And Private Schools

Civil War Era

The Reconstruction Era

Freedmen’s Bureau

Black Churches Established In Orange County

The Role Of The Black Church In Education

The Occaneechi Indians In Orange County

Chapter 4

Free Public Education For All In Orange County

Superintendent James L. Currie’s Annual Report January 9, 1886

Superintendent James L. Currie’s Annual Report, December 5, 1887

Superintendent B. C. Patton’s Annual Report Orange County Schools, 1890

Supervisor John Thompson’s Report To The State Superintendent, December, 1899

Chapter 5

Education In Orange County In The 1900S

Reverend J. C. Hocutt’s Annual Superintendent’s Statistical Report, July 1, 1905

Superintendent Wingate Andrews’ 1910 Statistical Report

Superintendent Samuel P. Lockhart’s Statistical Report For 1912

Chapel Hill And Carrboro Area Schools (1890–1930)

Superintendent R. H. Claytor’s Statistical Report For 1917-1918

Consolidation Of Schools And Building New Schools

Rosenwald Schools In Orange County

1933 Organization Of Orange County Schools

1940–41 Black Faculty For Orange County Schools

Duties Of The Orange County District And School Committeemen

Duties Of The Orange County Advisory Committees

The Agriculture Department’s Advisory Committee At Central High In 1950

Negro Advisory Council Members Added In Districts Ii And Iii In 1951:

Orange County Schools Consolidated In 1963:

Superintendent G. Paul Carr’s Annual Report In 1969 (Selected Parts)

Orange County Superintendents

Orange County Boards Of Education

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ Superintendents:

Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System School Board Members (1909–1966)

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools’ Principals Of Segregated Schools*:

Northern Orange County And Chapel Hill-Carrboro’s First Black School Representatives

Central High School Activities

Desegregation Of The University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Chapter 6

Orange County’s Black Pioneers In Education (1872–1970)

Private And Public School Employees

Chapter 7

Public School Buildings In Orange County Before Integration

Chapter 8

Black Master Craftsmen In The Jim Crow Era

Chapter 9

Black Business Owners During The Jim Crow Era

Chapter 10

Agriculture In Orange County: The Black Farmers

Tillers Of The Soil: The Black Farmers

Summary And Conclusion

Epilogue

Appendix 1

Black Teachers In The Orange County School System 1939–1970 And Black Teachers In The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School System 1958–1959

Appendix 2

Do You Remember When…

Appendix 3

Us Censuses

1850 Us Federal Census—Slave Schedule

1860 Us Federal Census—Slave Schedule

Orange County Census Of 1800 Negro Freedmen

Orange County Census Of 1810 Negro Freedmen

Orange County Census Of 1820 Negro Freedman

1850 Census, Orange County, Hillsborough, North Carolina

1850 Census, Orange County North West Division Schedule I: Free Negro Inhabitants (Cedar Grove, Caldwell Area, Cheeks, And Efland)

1850 Census, Orange County, North Carolina, First District Schedule I: Free Negro Inhabitants (Efland, New Hope, Orange Grove, & Chapel Hill)

1860 Census, The Town Of Hillsborough, North Carolina

Appendix 4

A Slave Owner’s Will

Endnotes

Illustrations, Maps, & Photographs

About The Author

Acknowledgments

I am especially grateful to Superintendent Patrick Rhodes and the Orange County school system’s administrative associate, Patricia Coleman, for their support and help in allowing me to study the Orange County Schools Board of Education’s minutes from 1872 to 1970; and to Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools’ executive director of community relations, Jeffrey Nash, for allowing me to study the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education’s minutes and notes on the history of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City school system. Both school districts were especially helpful in referring me to their websites and the websites of the Public Schools of North Carolina State Board of Education / Department of Public Instruction for statistical profiles of the public schools of North Carolina.

Thank you to Clarence Mayo and Corine Daye-Mayo, Leo Allison, Nate Davis, David Mason, Doris Wilson, and R. D. and Euzelle Smith for your willingness to provide pictures and to give background information about northern Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro residents.

Thanks also to those who allowed me to interview them informally about the early schools in Orange County; your interest and respect for history will always be remembered: Virginia Watkins, Finley Parker Jr., Dorothy Johnson, Maria Whitted-Gerald, Jannifer English-McAdoo, Clarence Jack Payne, Elaine Parker, Gertrude Corbett-Askew, Claude Corbett, Bertha and Hardin Fuller, Alice Lunsford, Dr. Iris Thompson-Chapman, Doris Rogers, Constance Rainey-Wilson, and other unnamed participants.

I am grateful to Barbara Ilie, North Carolina Digital Newspapers project librarian at UNC; Holly Smith, African American materials specialist, Southern Historical Collection; and Jason E. Tomberlin, North Carolina research and instruction librarian, Wilson Special Collection Library, at the Wilson Library at UNC, for their guidance in securing materials and suitable photos; and to Susan Newrock, Chapel Hill Historical Society staff member, for her help in researching information.

To my son Thomas Carlton Moore, thank you for your technical assistance; to Betty Eidenier and Dr. Carolyn L. Connor, thanks for your support, encouragement, advice, and guidance in contacting resourceful people.

To my husband, Caleb U. Moore; my sons, Thomas and Gregory; my daughter-in-law, Shirley; and my grandchildren, Chiara, Zarina, and Jevon, thank you for your patience and confidence in me.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the teachers in Orange County, North Carolina—certified and uncertified—who taught for decades in homes, yards, barns, churches, and dilapidated and inadequate buildings before the school systems became fully integrated. Even though teaching standards for certification were low in the early years, these brave souls made great contributions to the field of education. The secret of their success was their ability to motivate their students to believe in themselves. They created the slogan Yes, you can long before politicians used the catchy phrase in their campaigns.

These teachers also volunteered to work with students in community organizations and churches and served as models of success for students who saw few successful images in their lives. They taught with passion and love for their students and instilled a respect for learning in them in spite of the limitations of opportunities.

Some of these teachers had to leave home after elementary or middle school to board with relatives or strangers in nearby towns or cities in order to attend a high school. Until the mid 1900s, North Carolina allowed its citizens to teach with a high school degree. However, after certification requirements became stricter, these teachers earned college degrees, and a few earned master’s degrees at such colleges as New York University, Columbia University, Syracuse University, and other universities in the North that accepted Black students. They attended these colleges at a great sacrifice to themselves and their parents. Afterward, they returned to Orange County to teach.

This book is dedicated to the pioneer teachers of Orange County: Fannie Chavious-Warner, Martha Chavious, Marinda Dunnigan-McPherson, Cynthia Whitted, Alice Whitted-Wilson, Ethel Stanfield, Ruth Stanfield-Torain, Rebecca Faribault-Ringer, Annie Miles-Fuller, Alethea Arrington-Burt, Alice Tate-McAdoo, Elizabeth Payton-Rainey, Hassie Vanhook Brooks-Gattis, Ossie Tate-Snipes, Jefferson Snipes, Frances Hargraves, Georgianna Walker-Whitted, Catherine Caldwell-Stanback, London Whitted, John Whitted, Anderson Whitted, Austin Whitted, Dr. Louis H. Hackney, Jessie O’Kelly, Amy Rogers, Carrie Jones, Jim Rogers, Margaret Battle, Margaret Freeland, Louise Lacy, Agnes Johnson-Whitted, Reverend Reeves, Rosa Holloway, Ethel Clark, Eva Lucretia, Eldora Wright, Novella Evans, Montford Lewis, Lottie Villines, Henry Groton, Lucy James, Wilson Caldwell, B. L. Bosman, Agnes Whitted, Robert Fitzgerald, Alner Greene, Sarah Caldwell, Frances Snipes, Pearl Caldwell, Jessie Benton, James Snipes, Earl Artis, Henry Groton, Beecher Coward, Richard Trangham, Annie S. Morton, Susie Perry, Clemetine Walker, Julia Foushee, and hundreds of others who served, but whose records of employment I could not find. (Since there were few written records of Black school personnel in Orange County available to the public before the 1940s, some names may be omitted.)

Special thanks are extended to the families of the teachers who were willing to share their knowledge of their educational experiences in Orange County.

Introduction

From the time the Black man was forced into the hull of a slave ship to the present time, writers have dissected, exploited, and capitalized on his tragic plight. There is little to tell today that is new. His story is well known, yet there are limited written accounts about the history of the Blacks’ educational experiences in Orange County, North Carolina, from the Colonial Era to the mislabeled separate but equal period.

Slavery has psychologically castrated the Black man by separating him from his family and tribes through the sale of his mates and children, depriving him of a surname, limiting his opportunities to make decisions, to take care of his family, and to legally govern his personal space and behavior, as well as denying him the right to learn to read and write, to own property, to vote, and to marry.

Ordinarily, Americans have depended on educational training to obtain upward mobility in society. The Black man, from the very beginning of his sojourn to this country, was forbidden to learn to read and write and was punished severely if he tried.

Even though the slaves did not speak the language of their slave masters or understand the languages of other slaves, a burning desire to learn and to be free caused them to undergo great hardships to meet their goals and to plant this seed for learning in their descendants.

Some of Orange County’s descendants of slaves and those who were freedmen have left a trail of successes against great odds. Much of their successes can be attributed to formal and informal educational training.

Some residents, however, are still dealing with the stigma and the psychological handicaps of Jim Crow laws and other racist laws, as well as inferior schooling.

To understand the educational experiences of the Blacks in Orange County, one must understand the concept of slavery in the United States; therefore, a brief history of slavery in the United States and in North Carolina is provided in chapter 1.

This book traces the Black man’s struggle to survive and learn, from the early days of his forced entry into this country in 1619, to North Carolina, and to Orange County, North Carolina, in order to demonstrate the effects of slavery on the education of Blacks in Orange County, North Carolina. The book also reveals how the patterns of withholding information; denying access to educational opportunities; and subjecting a people to negative indoctrinations about their self-worth, their families, their race, and their place in society can damage their descendants’ desires and ambitions to reach for greater heights hundreds of years in the future.

The book invites this question: Can integration break this mental chain of oppression, or will it crystallize those past images and send its Black subjects into a deeper spiral of dependency?

The book captures the spirit of hope and compassion generated by religious groups, freed Blacks, wealthy liberal Whites from the North, and a few liberal Whites from the South to forge ahead in spite of dangerous opposition and limited resources to give Blacks an opportunity to become educated and self-sufficient.

Special recognitions are given in the book to local Black educators and workers (craftsmen, builders, farmers, and so on) who labored so long in the world of work while dealing with discrimination and neglect in order to help their people rise to higher levels of competency in their personal and professional lives. They become ambassadors of change in the Black community.

Specific information about the education of Blacks in Orange County is taken from the Orange County Board of Education minutes from 1877 to 1970 and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education minutes from 1950 to 1970. In chapters 4 and 5, the author relied on the minutes of the Orange County Board of Education to show chronologically how Black students and Black teachers were incorporated into the Orange County public school system and how the Black community responded between 1872 and 1970. Other references are taken from interviews, yearbooks, funeral obituaries, newspapers, magazines, reference books, church programs and anniversary booklets, websites of the local school systems as well as state and national educational websites, and personal experiences and observations by the author.

Various references to ethnic and racial identities of Blacks have been used in this book in keeping with historical periods. The terms Negro, Afro-Americans, and Colored are used by some historians. The terms Black and White are capitalized to denote races.

CHAPTER 1

A Brief History of Slavery in the United States

Slavery has had a profound impact on the educational achievements and aspirations of Black people wherever slavery has been practiced in the United States. This is true both generally and specifically in Orange County, North Carolina.

To understand the educational experiences of Blacks in Orange County before and during the Jim Crow Era (1876–1965), it is important to consider the origins of slavery in America. The lack of accurate and thorough information about the issues of slavery in our school curricula and the reluctance of Black parents to teach Black history have caused generations of Black people to erase those unpleasant memories from their minds.

In his extensive research on slavery, John Hope Franklin revealed that the first Blacks in America came from Europe. Europeans explored the New World in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries after they had already explored Africa and traded beads, textiles, and so on, in exchange for human cargo. Franklin stated that as early as the fourteenth century, Europeans had begun to bring Africans into Europe as servants and eventually as slaves. This was accepted as a common practice in commerce.¹

By 1501, Spain lifted her ban on taking Blacks to the New World. There were at least thirty Blacks with Vasco Nunez de Balboa when he discovered the Pacific Ocean in 1513. The French had Black servants when they undertook their exploration of the New World. By 1540, the importation of Black slaves by the Portuguese, French, Dutch, Spanish, and English into the West Indies had enabled the expansion of the slave trade into North America and parts of South America.²

Africa, a continent with many nations, tribes, and languages, and covering roughly twelve million square miles, is nearly three times the size of Europe and nearly four times the size of the United States. It is generally divided into five sections: North Africa, West Africa, Equatorial Africa, East Africa, and South Africa.³ The majority of Blacks in America can trace their roots to the West Coast of Africa; a small percentage came from Mozambique and the island of Madagascar in faraway East Africa, and a few came from the Sudanese grasslands that border the Sahara.⁴

In their zeal to use servants to exploit the rich natural resources of the New World, the Europeans realized their need for more servants or slaves. Indian labor was not adequate. Some caught the diseases common among Europeans and then died, while others ran away. The colonists then turned to poorer Europeans. In the first half of the seventeenth century, landless Whites were brought over as volunteer indentured servants; others were prisoners working out their fines, and other White Europeans were kidnapped and sold into servitude. Sometimes these servants were treated just as harshly as the Black slaves.

The indentured servants worked for a period of seven years and then received their freedom and a tract of land—ten acres for men and six for women. Even so, the indentured servants sometimes ran away or sued their masters.

In 1619, twenty Blacks were taken to Jamestown, Virginia. These Blacks were considered indentured servants. They were listed on the census counts of 1623 and 1624; some were still listed as late as 1651. They were assigned land in the same way as White indentured servants, and they were allowed to marry and to be baptized.⁵

Reading historians’ accounts of how Africans were used as early as 1501 as explorers and as indentured servants who earned their freedom reveals that these Blacks were quite capable of becoming valuable, legitimate citizens in any country; however, greed and exploitation became a way of life for the Europeans and Americans as the need for labor grew. Opportunities for economic expansion and academic growth were blocked.

As the importation of slaves became more progressive in the colonies, and as the Englishmen realized that the Blacks could be purchased and their terms of servitude could be for life, they began to treat them as slaves without any legal rights. As the need for slave labor and the profitability of slave labor became increasingly apparent to them, statutory recognition of slavery was enacted in 1661. Laws applying to the Black population grew at a fast pace, and the slave trade grew so quickly that the Blacks soon outnumbered the Whites in many communities. Other colonies began to follow Virginia in passing laws restricting the rights of Blacks.

Easy to identify by the color of their skin, alienated from their country and kindred, and subjected to extreme discipline, Blacks became vulnerable to enslavement.⁶

The legal conversion of a Black into chattel may be traced to Virginia, where the statutes and court decisions on slavery were more numerous than in any other colony. The slave trade became extremely profitable.

In the beginning, more males than females were slaves. The Black freedmen and slaves began to marry or to cohabit and have children with White female indentured servants. This practice was generally accepted before the revolts and insurrections of the Blacks. As the shortage of White labor in the plantation colonies led to Black labor, the shortage of White artisans led to the use of slaves; therefore, the plantation owners began to train slaves in handicraft trades. The plantation required woodworkers (sawyers and carpenters), leather workers (tanners and shoemakers), cloth workers (spinners, weavers, and tailors), and building trade workers (bricklayers, painters, and plasterers).

Slavery in the North and the Education of Slaves

Slaves in the North were usually used for handyman-type work. Some became skilled in occupations such as printing, goldsmithing and silversmithing, rope making, and carpentry. They helped to build New England ships that engaged in fishing, whaling, and trading. Many slave women became proficient in spinning, knitting, and weaving. Slave mechanics were so numerous in early America that White artisans viewed them as rivals and tried to have them barred from the skilled occupations in New York and Philadelphia. Others in the colonial North worked as house servants, butlers, valets, coachmen, cooks, maids, or laundresses.

In the Middle Colonies and the New England Colonies, the Dutch, Swedes, and Germans cultivated their farms with such meticulous care that they did not desire slaves. New England colonies had no laws against teaching slaves to read and write. Some occupations to which slaves were assigned, such as store clerking and printing, required a degree of literacy. Religion was also a reason the New Englanders wanted their slaves to learn to read and write.⁷

Some Blacks in the North were highly skilled in crafts and trades. Former slaveholders and northern merchants who desired cheap labor taught Blacks these skills. They were employed in a variety of occupations and paid less than their White coworkers; therefore, competition with White workers rather than the threat of being enslaved as chattel posed a problem for former slaves in the North. Blacks were easy to identify and were usually given few opportunities to work after opposition was expressed in various ways by their White coworkers.

Northerners, especially religious groups, were interested in educating the Blacks. The Christianization of the Blacks proceeded as the first step in their American education. Cotton Mather, a writer and teacher, took time to instruct Blacks. In 1717, he began an evening school for American Indians.

The Quakers made the most conscientious effort to improve conditions for slaves. They took steps to abolish slavery, and some leaders, such as George Fox, urged owners of slaves to give religious instruction to them. In 1700, William Penn proved instrumental in getting a monthly meeting established for Blacks. During this time, many colonists were educating their slaves and free Blacks.

Efforts in the northern colonies to educate Blacks were numerous. Paul Cuffee, a prosperous Black, set up a school in Massachusetts in the eighteenth century. A catechizing school was founded for Blacks in New York City at Trinity Church in 1704. Anthony Benezet ran an evening school for Blacks in his home in Philadelphia in 1750 for twenty years.

In 1776, the Philadelphia Quakers decided to put an end to slaveholding. They founded the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, whose members included Benjamin Franklin, William Pitt, Noah Webster, and Thomas Paine. Their aims were to establish schools for Blacks and to abolish slavery.

New Jersey began educating Black children in 1777. Soon there were several schools for Blacks in New Jersey towns. Philadelphia, which began Black education in 1787, founded seven schools for Blacks.

The Manumission Society established the first school for Blacks in New York City in 1787. By 1820, the school had over five hundred children. In 1798, a White teacher established a separate school for Black children in the home of Primus Hall, a prominent Boston Black.⁸

Education for Blacks in the Colonial South

Southerners believed that education would destroy slavery; therefore, they made every effort to stifle any attempts to teach the slaves. Sometimes they would allow Black religious groups to read the scriptures, but they prohibited instructions in writing.

Many religious organizations sought to educate slaves. In 1740, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts sought to raise the standards of living for both Whites and Blacks in the South. The missionaries of this organization provided opportunities for their slaves to be converted. They suggested that slaves be given time to study the scriptures and to learn to read and write.

In New Orleans, Catholic missionaries attempted to teach Blacks and American Indians in 1727 and established a school for Blacks in 1741. The French and the Spanish were more active in trying to educate the slaves than the English.⁹

In