A.M.A. Monthly School Report of Edmonia Highgate, Darlington, March 1865
- Title
- A.M.A. Monthly School Report of Edmonia Highgate, Darlington, March 1865
- Date
- 03-00-65
- Creator
-
Edmonia Highgate
- Description
- Teacher Edmonia Highgate reports 40 students enrolled and offers comments on the situation of the school. She writes that the church in which the school is taught has been threatened with burning by local whites, who she describes as "very ignorant" and uneducated. The children of soldiers are in need of clothing. The students have a "keen relish" for learning.
- Related Financial Supporters
- American Missionary Association
- Transcript
-
MONTHLY REPORT.
Monthly Report of Darlington School for the month of March 1865
Location of the School – In Hosanna Church, Darlington, Md.
When established – March 13th 1865
Its teacher, or teachers – E G Highgate
No. of days kept – Fifteen
No. of sessions – Thirty
No. of different pupils – Forty
Largest No. present at any session – Thirty-three
Average attendance for the month – Twenty-five
Whole No. of Males – Fourteen Boys
Whole No. of Females – Fifteen Females
No. over 16 years of age – Three
No. under 6 of age – Two
No. of pupils who read and spell – Thirty six
No. who study mental arithmetic – Eighteen
No. who pursue written arithmetic - “
No. who study geography – Four
No. who write – Seven
Is singing taught in school? It is
No. who attend to needlework -
No. of whites -
Do the mulattoes show any more capacity than the blacks?
Do the colored scholars show equal capacity with the whites? They bid fare to do so
Darlington is a little country borough in the eastern part of Maryland. The colored people here are many of them thrifty farmers on a small scale. When it was announced that Mr Noyes was coming from Baltimore to organize a school for them, men and women, as well as children left their work and assembled at their little chapel to meet him. This church, the secessionists have threatened to burn down because there is a school taught in it. The people feared that these miscreants might do as they said. These fears may be well grounded for one year ago a church owned by colored people was burned for the same reason. The whites in this community are very ignorant. Indeed some of them cannot read and those who can possess but little available intelligence. The freed people appreciate the educational priviledge offered them. They evince this by sending their children from three to four miles to this school. The numbers would be larger but for the fact that the children of some soldiers families are so sadly in need of clothes. Oh the keen relish which these children have for knowledge is proof positive that they have within themselves germs of future citizenship! The adults and children enjoy our Sunday School and it will undoubtedly be the means of bring an abiding light to these hillside homes. We trace an Allwise Father’s hand in these dawning opportunities and endevor to show the people that God is always good although “His ways are past finding out.”
E G Highgate
Part of A.M.A. Monthly School Report of Edmonia Highgate, Darlington, March 1865