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Hatnpton Nortnal and Agricultural
Institute. Hatnpton. Va.
GEN. .-\1'1 EL H \P.:UAK ARl'[STRO G founded
Hampton In titutc, April, 1 68. under the auspice of
tIlC • mcrican Mis ionar" A. sociation . •
He had becn for two year agcnt of the Freedmen's Bureau
on th Virginia P ninsula.
Born at Wailkuku, 1'1aui, Hawaii, January 30, 1839, he was
educat d in the Hawaiian public chools and at Williams College.
Ma . Graduating from Williams in June, 1862, he entered
the Union Army in Augu t, 1862, as captain in the One
Hundred and Twenty-Fifth New York Volunteers. He took
command of the Ninth nited tate colored troop in the fall
of 1863, and was mu tered out in November, 1865, as brevet
brigadier-general of volunteer.
In 'larch, 1866, he ucceeded Capt. C. B. "ilder, of Boston,
as officer of the Freedmen's Bureau, with headquarters at
Hampton, Va.
He was on hi toric ground. Close at hand the pioneer settlers
of America and the first slaves landed on this continent;
here Powhatan reigned; here the Inman was first met; here
the first Indian child was baptized; here freedom was fir t given
the slave by General Butler' famou "contraband" order;
in sight of thi hore the battle of the Manitar and Merrimac
aved the nion and revolutionized naval warfare; here General
'Grant ba ed the operation of hi final campaign.
In p aking of hi early experience at Hampton, General
Arm trong aid: I found an active, excellent educational work
going on under the merican Mi ionary As ociation of I ew
York. Thi ociety in 1862 had opened in the vicinity the first
chool for freedmen in the outh in charg of an ex- lave, Mr .
fary Peake. Ov r fifteen hundr d children were gathered
daily, om in old ho pital barrack'. The large t cla was held
in the Butler chool buildinO'. inc replaced by the John G.
Whittier choolhou e.
"loon felt the fitne s of thi hi toric and trategic spot
for a permanent and great educational work. The uggestion
\Va cordially received by thc American Missionary As ociation,
which authorized the purcha c, in June, 1867, of " Little Scotland,"
an e tate of one hundred and twenty-five acres on
Hampton River, looking out over Hampton Roads. ot ex-
3H
pecting to have charO'e, but <?nly to help, I was surprised one day
by a letter from Secretary E. P. Smith. of the American Mi _
ionary Association, tating that the man selected for the place
had declined, and a king me if I could take it. I replied' Yes.'
Till then mv own future had been blind; it had only been clear •
that there wa a work to be done for the ex-slave and where
and how it should be done."
GEN. SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG, LL.D.
Founder of Hampton Institute, Hampton. Va. Born, January 30. 1839,
died. May II, 1893.
General Arm trong continued at Hampton until his death,
lay 11, 1893. A grave in the chool cemetery marks, with its
William granite slab, and its Hawaiian tufa, the last resting
place of this frien~ of humanity, who clearly saw that" what
the colored people need is not Greek culture of the head, not
chiefly a knowledge of hi tory and literature, but enough training
of the brain to make them think well, control their lower desires,
and love their fellow-men, but mainly industrial training,
steadiness and mastery of trades, loving skillful use of hands
and eye and voice."
