[Footnote 1: STATISTICS OF THE FREE COLORED POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES IN 1860
STATE Population| ATTENDING SCHOOL | ADULTS UNABLE TO READ +----- +----- +------ +-------- +------- +---- -- Males | Males Females | Females Total | Total ---------------- +-------- +----- +------- +------- +------- +------- +------ Alabama 2,690 48 65 114 192 263 455 Arkansas 144 3 2 5 10 13 23 California 4,086 69 84 153 497 207 704 Connecticut 8,627 737 641 1,378 181 164 345 Delaware 19,829 122 128 250 3,056 3,452 6,508 Florida 932 3 6 9 48 72 120 Georgia 3,500 3 4 7 255 318 573 Illinois 7,628 264 347 611 632 695 1,327 Indiana 11,428 570 552 1,122 869 904 1,773 Iowa 1,069 77 61 138 92 77 169 Kansas 625 8 6 14 25 38 63 Kentucky 10,684 102 107 209 1,113 1,350 2,463 Louisiana 18,647 153 122 275 485 717 1,202 Maine 1,327 148 144 292 25 21 46 Maryland 83,942 687 668 1,355 9,904 11,795 21,699 Massachusetts 9,602 800 815 1,615 291 368 659 Michigan 6,797 555 550 1,105 558 486 1,044 Minnesota 259 8 10 18 6 6 12 Mississippi 773 0 2 2 50 60 110 Missouri 3,572 76 79 155 371 514 885 New Hampshire 494 49 31 80 15 19 34 New Jersey 25,318 1,413 1,328 2,741 1,720 2,085 3,805 New York 49,005 2,955 2,739 5,694 2,653 3,260 5,913 North Carolina 30,463 75 58 133 3,067 3,782 6,849 Ohio 36,673 2,857 2,814 5,671 2,995 3,191 6,186 Oregon 128 0 0 2 7 5 12 Pennsylvania 56,949 3,882 3,691 7,573 3,893 5,466 9,359 Rhode Island 3,952 276 256 532 119 141 260 South Carolina 9,914 158 207 365 633 783 1,416 Tennessee 7,300 28 24 52 743 952 1,695 Texas 355 4 7 11 25 37 62 Vermont 709 65 50 115 27 20 47 Virginia 58,042 21 20 41 5,489 6,008 12,397 Wisconsin 1,171 62 50 112 53 45 98
Colorado 46 No returns Dakota 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 District Columbia 11,131 315 363 678 1,131 2,224 3,375 Nebraska 67 1 1 2 6 7 13 Nevada 45 0 0 0 6 1 7 New Mexico 85 0 0 0 12 15 27 Utah 30 0 0 0 0 0 0 Washington 30 0 0 0 1 0 1
Total 488,070 16,594 16,035 32,629 41,275 50,461 91,736
See Seventh Census of the United States, vol. 1.]
How the problem of educating these people on free soil was solved can be understood only by keeping in mind the factors of the migration. Some of these Negroes had unusual capabilities. Many of them had in slavery either acquired the rudiments of education or developed sufficient skill to outwit the most determined pursuers. Owing so much to mental power, no man was more effective than the successful fugitive in instilling into the minds of his people the value of education. Not a few of this type readily added to their attainments to equip themselves for the best service. Some of them, like Reverend Josiah Henson, William Wells Brown, and Frederick Douglass, became leaders, devoting their time not only to the cause of abolition, but also to the enlightenment of the colored people. Moreover, the free Negroes migrating to the North were even more effective than the fugitive slaves in advancing the cause of education.[1] A larger number of the former had picked up useful knowledge. In fact, the prohibition of the education of the free people of color in the South was one of the reasons they could so readily leave their native homes.[2] The free blacks then going to the Northwest Territory proved to be decidedly helpful to their benefactors in providing colored churches and schools with educated workers, who otherwise would have been brought from the East at much expense.