Before the war 10 women graduated, as far as we have been able to ascertain; from 1861 to 1869, 36; from 1880 to 1889, 76; 1890 to 1898, 119.

The rapid increase of college-bred women in later years is noticeable, and the present tendency is toward a still larger proportion of women. Twenty-three per cent of the college students of Howard, Atlanta, Fisk, and Shaw were women in the school year of 1898-99. The economic stress will probably force more of the young men into work before they get through college and leave a larger chance for the training of daughters. A tendency in this direction is noticeable in all the colleges, and if it results in more highly trained mothers it will result in great good. Of 100 college-bred women reporting their conjugal condition, onehalf had been married, against nearly 70 per cent of the men.

EARLY TRAINING.

There is little in the matter of early training that lends itself to statistical statement, but there is much of human interest. A number of typical lives are therefore appended which show in a general way the sort of childhood and youth through which these college-bred negroes have passed. First as to the men:

Men.

"My early life was spent in the schools of the American Missionary Association. I attended Beach Institute and finally Atlanta University."

"I attended the public schools in Augusta, Ga., and sold papers, brushed boots, and worked in tobacco factories. While in college I taught school in summer time."

"Born in Springfield, Mass., where I attended the public schools, and acted as driver and hotel waiter. I attended Fisk University and during vacations taught school, worked in a sawmill, waited on table, and acted as Pullman porter.

"My parents were old and poor and I worked my way through school and helped to support them by manual labor."

"I came to Texas with my parents about 1876, and attended the Galveston public schools. I then went to college, assisted in part by my parents and in part by my own efforts. The expenses of the last two years were paid by a scholarship which I won by examination."

"I spent most of my youth with my uncle, a merchant in Florence, S. C., where I attended the public school, which was poor. I afterwards worked five years on my father's farm, and finally went to college.'

“I attended public schools in Virginia, working in white families morning and night for my board. I then worked my way through a normal course, and finally through Hillsdale College."

"I was a farmer before going to school. My church conference sent me to school. My parents were poor and my mother died when I was but 4 years old."

"I came to Kansas when 9 years old and lived on a farm until I was 20, neither seeing or hearing from any of my relations during that time. In 1871 I went to Oberlin and began work in Ray's Third Part Arithmetic."

"I was born a slave in Prince Edward County. Va. I worked as a farmer and waiter and then went to Hampton Institute. After leaving Hampton I helped my parents a few years and then entered Shaw."

"I sold papers and went to school when a boy; I learned the brick-mason's trade of my father. After graduating from the high school I worked in the printing office of a colored paper, thus earning enough to go to college.'

"I was born in Calvert County, Md., being one of 7 children.

We lived

at first in the log cabin which my father had built in slavery times. Soon we moved away from there and settled on a farm which my father commenced buying on shares. I went to school, worked on. the farm, and taught school until I was 22, when I entered Lincoln."

"I was born in Crawford County, Ga. My father moved to Macon, then to Jones County, then back to Crawford County, then to the town of Forsyth, and finally to the State of Mississippi. I finally left home at the age of 16 and roamed about for two and a half years. I saved some money by work on a railroad and started to school."

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'My parents, having been slaves, were poor. I was the fifth of 10 children, and the task of educating all of us was a serious one for the family. My parents made every sacrifice, and at 9 years of age I was helping by selling papers on the streets of Pittsburg, and colored papers among the negroes on Saturday. After completing the common schools I worked as elevator boy and bootblack, and finally at the age of 15 was enabled to enter the engineering course of the Western University of Pennsylvania."

"I was born in a stable; my father died when I was 2 years old. I blacked boots and sold sulphur water to educate myself until I was 18."

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'My mother and father took me from Alabama to Mississippi, where my father joined the Union Army at Corinth, leaving me with my mother, brother, and sister. We went to Cairo, Ill., and then to Island No. 10. There mother and brother died and my sister sent me to Helena, Ark., in charge of an aunt. My father died during the siege of Vicksburg, and I was sent to the orphanage in Helena, which afterwards became Southland College."

"My father died when I was 5 and my mother when I was 12, leaving me an orphan in the West Indies. At 14 I left home with a white man from Massachusetts. I went to school one year in Massachusetts, then shipped as a sailor and stayed on the sea ten years, and finally returning, started to school again."

"I was born in Alton, Ill., in 1864. In 1871 we moved to Mississippi, and happening to visit my grandfather at Wilberforce, Ohio, I begged him to let me stay there and enter school. He consented, and by housework, taking care of horses, and his help I got through school.”

"I was born of slave parents who could neither read nor write. I had but five months' regular schooling until I was 17 years of age. Then I worked my way through a normal school in South Carolina, and thus gained a certificate to teach and helped myself on further in school.”

"Father died about my ninth birthday, so I attended the public schools and worked on the farm to assist mother earn a livelihood for herself and the four children. Late in my teens, after three months' day labor upon the farm, railroad, wood chopping, etc., I entered Alcorn with the sum of $20.50. By working there I was enabled to remain in school six years, the last five of which I secured work as a teacher in Wilkerson County. The money I obtained was used by myself, my two brothers, and a sister in common, as from time to time each joined me in college. Mother would accept very little of our earnings for herself, lest we might be deprived of an education."

"I was born and reared on my aged mother's farm near Thomastown, Miss. I began going to a country school at 12 years of age, having learned my A B C's under Uncle York Moss, at his Sunday school, where we used Webster's Blueback. My chances for attending even a country school were meager, for I had to help on the farm. Attending two and four months in the year, I got far enough advanced by the time I was 16 to teach a little and use my earnings in entering, first, Tougaloo and then Alcorn.”

"I was reared on a farm and was 16 before I knew my letters and 21 before I spent a month in school."

"In early life I lived with my parents, who were ex-slaves and took great pride in working hard to educate their children. I attended the first Yankee schools established in Savannah. As soon as I could read, write, and figure a little I started a private afternoon school at my home, which I taught,"

"I was born a slave. Soon after the fall of Port Royal, S. C., in 1861, three of us escaped from Charleston to Beaufort, and joined the Union forces. We were taken on the U. S. gunboat Unadilla. There I was attached to a lieutenant in the Forty-eighth New York Regiment of Volunteers, and remained with him until he was wounded before Fort Wagner. I then went North, attended night school in Portland, Me., and finally entered Howard University.”

"I was the fifth child in a family of eleven. My father was a poor farmer and did not believe in education, so my training was neglected until I was able to work and help myself."

"I was born a slave and taken North to an orphanage by Quakers after the war, both my parents being dead. Afterwards I was sent to New Jersey, and then worked on a Pennsylvania farm until I went to Lincoln."

"My father was set free prior to the war and purchased my mother. He died when I was 8, leaving a little home and $300 in gold. My mother was an invalid and we had to work at whatever came to hand, going to school from three to five months a year. At the age of 15 I stopped school and labored and taught a threemonths' school at $25 a month. Finally I entered Roger Williams University, working my way through and helping mother."

"Twelve years of my life was spent as a slave. I worked at driving cows, carrying dinner to the field hands, and running rabbits. My master owned 300 negroes, so that boys were not put in the field until they were 18. When I was freed I did not know a letter, but I worked my way through Webster's Blueback' speller."

"I was born the slave of Jefferson Davis's brother and attended contraband schools before the close of the war.'

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Mine was the usual life of a boy whose folks were comfortably circumstanced. School was the chief occupation. At 16 I went to sea as a cabin boy, and on returning entered Lincoln."

"I was raised partly on a Mississippi plantation and partly in and near New Orleans. For about two years I was with the Union Army as servant to an officer in a Vermont regiment. I went with him to Vermont, where I attended school and finally entered Dartmouth College."

"I had very little early training, and was apprenticed at the calker's trade from 12 to 16. At the age of 18 I joined the Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, and was finally discharged on account of wounds. I then entered the preparatory department at Lincoln."

"Lived in Lebanon, Tenn., until 11 years old, when I joined a company of colored men and went to West Tennessee. I kept books and cooked for the company. I moved the whole family at last to West Tennessee, and bought and paid for a farm by raising cotton and teaching school. I then entered Fisk University, and by teaching and farming during vacations supported myself and two sisters in school."

"The greater portion of my early life was spent in East Tennessee, whither I had been brought away from my parents when only 5 years of age. My master kept me as errand boy about his store and house until the close of the war. By this time, under the tutelage of the white children of the family, I had learned to read. In the summer of 1865 I started out without a cent of money to try my own fortune in the world, working at anything I could find to do. I made considerable money, attended public schools, and finally entered Fisk University."

"Soon after the war my father built a log schoolhouse on a spot given him by his former master. I went to school seven months before my father died, after which I was compelled to go to work to support my widowed mother. At the age of 20 I entered school again."

"Born of a good woman in Mississippi, I left home while the war was raging and went to Alabama. There I finally went into the service of an ex-Confederate general, who sent me to the Burrell School, an institution fostered by the American Missionary Association. Afterwards I went to Tougaloo and Roger Williams."

"I lost my mother when I was only 1 year old. I was then sold as a slave to an aged French couple, who treated me as their child. Then, in 1862, I was sold again, taken to Texas, resold, and finally, when free, returned to New Orleans in 1869. I found my father dead, and so I went North and stayed there until I entered Fisk in 1876. I had had but little schooling up to this time-only what I had picked up at a night school and at an eight-months' free school in Texas."

"I was born in Raleigh, N. C., and emancipated in Pennsylvania in 1830. I went to school and learned the three R's and afterwards went to Ohio and entered Oberlin, working at my trade of gunmaker all through the course. I studied, because I found knowledge was power; I also found that I was a born mechanic. I never had the idea that education would elevate me into any profession whatsoever. My trade occupied my whole mind and thought."

"I was born of slave parents and worked when young in a tobacco factory. I was taught to read by an ex-Confederate soldier. I entered school right after the surrender of Lee and remained till I finished the college course.'

"I had the advantage of a father who had a good education, for his time. He was free and able to conduct his business in Augusta, Ga., during slavery time. I quit school and served two years at a trade. A Northern teacher offered to help me finish my education and my parents gave me my time."

"My earliest recollections are of slavery, the perturbed conditions at the beginning and end of the war, the struggle of mother and grandmother under the new conditions, and the assumption of the support of the family by myself at the age of 10 years."

"My parents moved to Providence, R. I., when I was very young. I attended school about five years and night school one winter. Then I learned the barber's trade. During the winter of 1890-91 I decided to prepare myself for work among my people in the South and entered Livingstone College."

"My mother and I were sold away from my father, who lived in South Carolina, and taken first to Mississippi, and then to Banks County, Ga. Here, when I was 6 years of age, my master started me at work in a stable, with the purpose of making me learn the care of horses and become his carriage driver. I was freed in 1865, and then my mother and I walked to Newberry, S. C. (110 miles), and found father again. We were very poor and my parents had to hire me out for a year. Then they decided to send me to school and I went very irregularly from 1866 to 1874. I gained at last a State scholarship in the South Carolina College, but the Republicans, after two years, were forced out of power and the college closed to them. Finally I entered the Atlanta University."

"I was born in Buffalo, N. Y., in 1867, the son of the sexton of a large city church. I passed through the common and high schools of the city, and at the same time worked as office boy and waiter. In 1879 I came South to enter college and prepare for teaching.

2

"About the close of the war Confederate soldiers stole me from my parents in South Carolina and took me to Georgia. Iran away to Tennessee, where I worked as janitor in a white school and studied at night by the aid of the principal, who was very friendly. He afterwards sent me to Howard University.'

"I was born in Richmond, Va., and when 3 years of age was sold with my mother, sister, and brother away from my father and taken to South Carolina. We have never seen father since. My new mistress taught me the alphabet, and after emancipation paid my expenses through school and college."

"I worked my way through college. I was the oldest of eight children, with father bitterly opposed to education, although he had a commanding_mind_and had heard lectures at the University of Virginia before the war. Have been practically the head of the family for over 12 years, and assisted and encouraged all the children to educate themselves. Five of them went or are going to school."

"My mother died when I was but 2 years old, and I was left to the care of my mother's mistress, who, though a slaveholder, cared for me as though I was her own child, until emancipation, when my father took charge of me and placed me in school under Northern teachers sent South by the Presbyterian board of education."

"I was reared on a farm; then became meat cook on a steamboat during vacation. I served two years and five months as first sergeant Company C, Fifty-fifth Massachusetts Volunteers, during the civil war, and was injured twice, at James Island and Honey Hill engagements. I made out contracts between ex-slaves and former masters in South Carolina in the Freedman's Bureau, under Gen. O. O. Howard, after being disabled."

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Until 15 years old I stayed with my grandparents, and followed the occupation of my grandfather, a gardener. From 15 till 17 I clerked in a colored grocer's store; from 17 till 19 I worked in a colored restaurant, giving my earnings to my grandparents, for they cared for my wants and gave me what little school training I had. My parents were dead. In my 20th year I taught a five months' district school, with the proceeds of which I began a course of study at Wilberforce University."

"My early life, until I was 6 years old, was spent on a large plantation. At that age, father having secured a little home of his own, consisting of 3 acres of land and a log house, I with the family was carried thither. At the age of 10 I entered my first school, where I learned to read and write. The school was a Presbyterian school. During the summer I worked on a farm which father rented. At the age of 12 we moved to Lexington, N. C. I still attended school in winter and worked in a brickyard in summer. At the age of 14 my school days stopped until I was 19 years old. I did hotel work during the intervening years, and taught a three months' country school. At the age of 19 I entered college.'

"My early life was spent as most poor boys, at work. I have served in every capacity from a dinner boy to a clerk. Have clothed myself since I reached my 14th year, beginning with earning 25 cents a week, and in two years I commanded a salary of $6 per week. At 18 I was head clerk for a produce firm that did a business of $10,000 a year. This was at Nashville, Tenn.'

"I was born on a farm near Chillicothe, Ohio, November 15, 1825. At the age of 4 years I was taken with my parents to Jackson County, where there was a community of colored people; they had settled in close proximity in order to educate their children, because they were debarred from attending the public schools with white children. I attended a select school until 14 years of age.'

'My first school-teacher was Mr. Turner, who was the colored Congressman from Alabama. His school was destroyed by Kuklux while I was attending it. Next attended Freedman's Bureau school and Swayne school in Montgomery, Ala. I attended Storr's, in Atlanta, and taught school when 15 years old; entered Atlanta University in 1874. Taught school during vacations.'

"Born in Yazoo County, Miss., 6 miles from Yazoo City. I was taught my letters by my father. He died in 1866, and left mother with nine children, six sons and three daughters, three younger than myself. Desiring her children to have educational advantages, mother removed to Vicksburg in December, 1866. Here I entered the United Presbyterian mission school. I attended five years, sometimes day school and sometimes night school, as circumstances permitted, being largely dependent upon myself for support. I often had to hire out to earn money with which to purchase books and clothes, but when I hired out in the day I attended school at night. I taught school 1871-72. Was paying and collecting teller in Vicksburg branch of the Freedman's Savings Bank 1873-1875. Taught school 1875-76. Entered preparatory department of Oberlin September, 1876; admitted to college 1879. Matriculated at Dennison University in 1880, graduating in 1884. Though a slave I always had love for books and craved learning, in which I was much stimulated by mother, who, though unable to render me any financial assistance, gave all moral and prayerful help.”

"Father was in good circumstances, so my opportunities for advancement were as fair as those of the average colored boy. I attended the public school of my native town until 17 years of age, then I went to Straight University, New Orleans, La., graduating from the classical course in 1881. My home surroundings were favorable to success. I had an excellent father, who is still living; my mother, whose memory I can not too greatly reverence, has been dead for many years. Their teachings, example, and influence have molded my character. Whatever success I have had I owe to them."