in any public discourse from the bar, the bench, the stage, the pulpit, or in any place whatsoever, or whoever shall make use of language in private discourse or conversation, or of signs or actions having a tendency to produce discontent among the free colored population of this State, or to excite insubordination among the slaves therein, or whoever shall knowingly be instrumental in bringing into the State any paper, pamphlet, or book having such tendency, shall, upon conviction thereof, suffer imprisonment at hard labor not less than three nor more than twentyone years, or death, at the discretion of the Court. Similar laws were formerly in all the Southern States. If slavery was divine in origin and approval, then the enforced ignorance of the enslaved, and the heavy penalty, even to death, for making a sign that would have a tendency to make the slave unhappy, were both logically correct. The South so thought. The appalling illiteracy of the sixteen Southern States is therefore the result of, first, the aristocratic or class idea that education among whites was only for the few who could pay for it and would need it in their so-called higher walks of life; and, secondly, the enforced ignorance of the Negro population to insure the permanency of the institution which enslaved him. The Illiteracy Tables of the census of 1890 have not yet been published, so that the figures given are those of 1880. It is hoped that the showing for 1890 will indicate that the illiterate masses in the South are diminishing in number. From 1870 to 1880 the number of illiterate voters and persons ten years of age and over increased. The increase of population had been greater than the multiplication of educational facilities. It is hoped that the showing for the past ten years will be better; but at best we cannot expect more than that the rising tide of ignorance has been stayed. It is unnecessary to give detailed statistics. These are accessible to all through the Census Bureau at Washington. A few specimen statements will suffice. According to the census of 1880 there were 6,240,000 persons ten years of age and over who could not write in the United States. One third of the nation's population was in the South, but instead of only one third of the ignorance of the nation being there it had three fourths, or 4,700,000 illiterates. Taking the South as a whole, forty per cent. could not write-that is, out of every five people 3-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VIII. two could not write. In several of the States fully fifty per cent. of the people ten years of age and over could not write their names. Among the white people of the South the per cent. of illit eracy was twenty. That means that every fifth white person in the South as a whole could not write. Leaving off Missouri, Maryland, and one or two other border States, the per cent. comes up to twenty-five, or one in four, which is a fair average among the white people of the central Southern States. Georgia had 110,000 people of this class who could not write. Kentucky had, by the census of 1880, 106,000, and North Carolina 96,000, white persons of the age of twenty-one and over who could not write. Tennessee had 72,000 men who could not write. These are specimen figures among the white people of very large sections of the South. The illiteracy statistics for 1890 have not yet been published by the Census Bureau, so we cannot speak definitely on the point as to whether the number of illiterates in the South has increased or diminished during the past ten years, but from 1870 to 1880 the number did increase. In Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arkansas there were 30,000 more white boys and girls who could not read in 1880 than in 1870. In Alabama, in the same time, was a net gain of illiterate white men and women of 11,743; in Tennessee there was a gain of 12,196; in Georgia of 9,274; and in Kentucky of 18,172. Among the Negroes seventy-five per cent. could not write. That meant three out of four. It must be remembered that statistical figures on the subject of intelligence among people always make a better showing than really exists. Many would report themselves as being able to read and write who could barely scrawl their names with a pen or recognize them in print, and yet who would have no ability to write an intelligent letter or to master the contents of a primary treatise upon even the most practical subject. As to voters, the South had, in 1880, 1,353,967 who could not read their ballots. Of this number about half a million were white people. The whole of the North, with twice the population, had one third as many ignorant voters. Of the voters in the South one third could not, in 1880, write their names. The following figures give the problem as applied to voters in 1880, and also give a comparison with 1870. It is devoutly to be hoped that the comparison of 1890 will show improvement. Number of males in the late slave-holding States twenty-one years of age and upward who could not read and write in 1870 and 1880: Number of white in 1870.. 317,371 850,032 Number of white in 1880.. 410,550 Number of colored in 1880 944,424 Number of illiterates of voting age in the late slave-holding States in 1870... 1,167,303 Of the same in 1880... 1,354,974 187,671 93,279 94,392 Increase of illiterate voters in the South from 1870 to 1880.. Total number of males of voting age in the South in 1880... 4,154,125 1,354,974 32.3 per cent. of the voters of the South are illiterate. Of the illiterates 69.7 per cent, are colored, and 30.3 per cent. are whites. These figures show that ignorant voters in the South increased from 1870 to 1880 nearly two hundred thousand! This is more in number than the votes cast in over twenty States at the last presidential election. Here we have the startling fact that more than two thirds of the ignorant voters of the whole nation are found in the midst of one third of our population. Other statistics show that the illiterate voters in each of the eight States having the largest Negro population exceeded in number the majority of the votes ever cast in those States at any election. In one State the illiterate voters constituted a majority of the total voting population of the commonwealth. The difficulties which confronted the South in her educational problem twenty-six years ago were tremendous, and should be carefully considered, and, as far as possible, appreciated, when studying what has been done. The demoralization following the war was wide-spread and awful. The destruction. of slavery revolutionized the labor system. Commercial methods had all to be changed. In fact, the whole social fabric had to be recast. From being the dominant factor in the national government the South lay prostrate, overwhelmed by military defeat. Her old educational centers had nearly all been either destroyed or greatly crippled. Educational funds had gone down in the universal crash. The poverty of the South at the close of the war can never be fully appreciated by the outside world. And it is well to remember here that the more ignorant a population is the less wealth it acquires. With the increase of the illiterate population of the South for generations its capacity for the accumulation of wealth diminished, so that it came to pass that in that section of the country where there was the most imperative demand for educational facilities the people were the least qualified financially to provide them, even if they desired to do so. In New England, with only seven per cent. of illiteracy in 1880, the average wealth of each inhabitant was $1,040. Even in the new West, with seven per cent. of illiteracy, the average wealth was $700 to each inhabitant. On the other hand, take the whole South, with forty-five per cent. of illiteracy, and the average wealth of each inhabitant was only $400. In New York, with a small per cent. of illiteracy, the average wealth is $1,500 per capita, while in South Carolina, with fifty-seven per cent. of her people who cannot write, the average wealth is only $300, or one fifth as much as that of New York. The loose change in the savings-banks of Massachusetts-$100,000,000-would buy one third of the taxable realty of the State of Georgia. Then, again, it is to be remembered that the opposition to free public schools even for the whites was wide-spread, and when it was suggested that public schools must be established for the freedmen the opposition was intense, and at times violent. Concerning the education of the Negro, at first the great mass of Southern whites did not believe that he could be educated at all, and if he could he ought not to be, or, if he could and ought to be, then the people who had freed him should do it. These and other difficulties which might be named were the legitimate outcome of forces which began operating generations before the war, and some of which were intensified during and subsequent to that struggle. It is easy to criticise those who differ from us, but the experience of twenty-two years in the South has confirmed me in the belief that scarcely, if ever, has any people been called to confront so many or more difficult problems than those which confronted the Southern white people at the close of the war. The chief forces operating to solve the problem of education in the South since the war are, first, the national government; second, Northern patriotic philanthropy; third, Southern church and private institutions; and, fourth, public free schools. President Grant, in his message announcing the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, said: I would call upon Congress to take all measures within its constitutional power to promote and encourage popular education throughout the country; and I call upon the people every-where to see to it that all who possess and exercise political rights shall have an opportunity to acquire knowledge which will make their share in the government a blessing and not a curse. These words well expressed the best thought of the nation toward our illiterate millions, especially the freedmen and neglected whites of the South. The first practical movement by the general government was the organization of the Freedmen's Bureau, which expended during the few years of its existence $5,000,000, chiefly in the inauguration of educational work among that class. It was most unfortunate when, yielding largely to the intense opposition in the South to Negro education, the national authorities allowed this arm of power to be broken. It was a greater national blunder that provision for an efficient public school system was not made one of the requirements in the reconstruction of each State. The same right which justified the general government in going beyond the constitution, and dictating terms of citizenship to the returning States, ought to have been exercised in requiring that free public schools should be provided, so that the newly enfranchised illiterate citizens, both white and black, and their children, could have opportunities for at least a common school education. The attempt to secure national aid to common schools was, unfortunately, defeated. The plan was for the general government to give temporary aid in public school work, the fund to be distributed in proportion to the number of illiterates in each State. The scheme was patriotic, constitutional, and had the precedent of large gifts in lands and money in the past to the States from the general treasury for educational purposes. Had it succeeded the blunder in reconstruction would, in part, have been overcome. The forces opposed or indifferent to the education of the masses, including the Negro, prevailed in |