- Title
- Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
-
-
- Date
- 1910
-
-
- Creator
- ["Hartshorn, W. N. (William Newton), 1843-1920."]
-
- Place
- ["North Carolina, United States"]
-
Era of progress and promise, 1863-1910 : the religious, moral, and educational development of the American Negro since his emancipation
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Talladega College. Talladega. Ala.
Rev. J. M. P. Metcalf, President
IN Talladega, a town of upper Alabama, near the pictur¬
esque bills of the Blue Ridge, an imposing brick building
was erected in 1854, by the slaves, as a high school for
the sons of their masters. During the war it was used as a
prison for the Federal soldiers, and in 1867 was purchased by
the American Missionary Association (Congregational) as a
school building for the race whose labor had erected it and
whose freedom was due to the army who furnished the prison¬
ers. This was the beginning of Talladega College, the first
chartered school in Alabama opened to the colored people of
that state.
The slave carpenter who sawed the first plank for the building,
sighing because his children would never have a chance for
education like the children of his master, lived to see three of his
children receive diplomas from Talladega, pursuing advanced
studies in a recitation room containing a window pane on which,
in 1862, a Northern soldier had cut the words, “ Prisoners of
War." Two of the children of the former slave carpenter are
teachers in the institution, and the third surrendered a position
as teacher to become the wife of a minister who was trained in
the same school.
Remarkable Changes in a Generation
The remarkable changes, both in human opinions and in
social conditions, within a single generation, find illustration in
an incident which includes both: When, in 1861, the newlv
*
organized Confederate States government called for volunteers
to aid in maintaining its existence, no more hearty response was
made than by the pupils of the Boys' High School located on one
of Talladega’s suburban hills. Among those who volunteered
was a young man, eighteen years of age, known then as “ Joe ”
Johnston. He was soon sent to the front, and, after serving
through the war, he was mustered out bearing a captain’s com¬
mission.
Years passed, the white boys’ high school building had changed
hands and had become the Swayne Hall of Talladega College
for Negroes, and just a third of a century after the close of the
Civil War, Alabama’s chief executive was Capt. Joseph F. Johns¬
ton, governor of the state.
In 1808 another call for volunteers came to that same school
building. It was from Governor Johnston, and was sent in the
name of the government of the United States to the boys of the
Negro college, inviting them to enlist in the Third Alabama
Regiment, and, if necessary, to fight for the liberty of
Cuba. Some thirty of them responded, and all who were
mustered in brought honor to their race and to the country
which called them.
The Present Talladega College
Talladega forty-two years ago had a single building and 140
pupils, scarcely one of whom could read. The present Talla¬
dega College has 20 buildings clustered about the original cam¬
pus; a large farm and property which, with endowments, is
worth $400,000; 35 professors and instructors. It has an
annual attendance of more than six hundred students in its
several departments — preparatory, normal, college, theological,
music — and conducts departments of wood working, iron and
printing, an agricultural department with a farm of 800 acres,
and nurse training, cooking and sewing work.
The school for forty-two years lias both developed the colored
people and developed with them. In 1868 a church was organ¬
ized, and a department of theology with 18 members but three
years out of slavery. Now, ten churches in Alabama are the
outgrowth of this first Congregational church. Talladega was
the first boarding school for the freedmen in Alabama, and
said to be the first in the United States to introduce among
them industrial training.
Eminent Graduates of Talladega
Among the graduates are the presidents of three colleges in
Alabama, Florida and Texas; the dean of a theological
seminary in Atlanta, and principals of city schools in Mont¬
gomery, luskegee, Girard, Ala., Dallas and Forney, Tex.
During 1008 fifty-five graduates of Talladega were employed in
the churches and schools of the American Missionary Associa¬
tion in nine of the Southern states.
The annual requirements for the expenses of the college
are $20,000. Two thirds of this amount is secured from
the American Missionary Association, and the remainder
from tuition, ineome from endowment funds, and individual
contributions.
138
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