University of Virginia Library

Reminiscencences of my
Life and Work among the
Freedmen of
Charlottesville Virginia
>From March 1st 1866
To July 1st 1875
Vol. 1

Chapter First

The New England Freedmens Aid Society
was organized Feb. 7th 1862, having its
headquarters in Room 8 Studio Building Tremont St. Boston Mass.

Hon. John A. Andrew, the famous war
governor of Massachusetts was the first President,
and the Society numbered among its members
some of the noted people of the time. Miss
Hannah E. Stevenson was Secretary of the Teachers
Committee when I received my commission as
teacher. Other members whose names were well
and widely known were Wm. Lloyd Garrison
the famous abolitionist, Mrs. Ednah D. Cheney
Lucretia Crocker, Thomas W. Higginson, Rev.
John Parkman, Hon. Martin Brimmer, and
many others whose names were regularly
published in the "Freedmens Record" a
small magazine, issued (at first) monthly,
and later on at irregular intervals for a time
until finally its publication was dropped.

Auxiliary Branch Societies were organized

in various towns throughout New England. Each
Branch Society raising the sum of 500.00 yearly had a
special teacher assigned to it, with whom the
secretary of such society entered into correspondence
upon matters relating to his or her school – (It
was usually her as women teachers far outnumbered
the men). Each teacher was expected to write, at
least one letter, and make out a report of the
school, every month to the parent Society in
Boston, and a monthly letter to the Branch Society
and it was frequently necessary to write two or three
in place of one. For a time also they were
expected to report monthly to the Freedmen's
Bureau in Washington. In fact no Freedmens
teacher ever had to seek far for an occasion to
write a letter to somebody or for somebody.

The main Society paid the salaries of the
teachers and their travelling expenses to and from their schools every year.

Buildings for school purposes were
usually furnished by the War Department or
Freedmen's Bureau. .taking any suitable
building that had been used for Confederate

hospitals or other Confederate purposes. These
buildings were used until means could be
procured to erect better ones. Money for this
purpose was raised in various ways. Contributions
from individuals and from Freedmen's Bureau
and funds raised by the Freedmen themselves, all
helped to swell the amount required, so that
after a few years fairly comfortable and convenient
buildings were erected in many of the larger
cities and towns. Later on when the Societies
and Bureau had closed their work the war
impoverished towns of the South found these
buildings a great help in starting the schools
required by their new constitutions.

After a few years the Freedmens Aid Society
became a part of a national organization called
The Freedmens Union Commission, and other
changes took place, from time to time in
that association as well as in the Freedmens
Bureau.

As fast as the people of the Confederate
States showed a disposition to accept the situation
and co-operate with the friends of education in
the North, the Society gradually withdrew its

teachers from the field, leaving the local school
boards to take up and carry on the work they had
begun — until finally in the late seventies the
entire work was dropped as far as organized northern
aid was concerned. The schools, well equipped
with necessary furniture and other articles, were,
from that time, continued and carried on under
the auspices of the people of the South. In many
instances the native colored teachers were adopted
with the schools. This explanation will help to
make the situation clear to any one, who, although
having heard of the Freedmen's schools never
knew how they originated or were supported.

During the nine and a half years
that I labored among these people, I met with many
and varied experiences of a curious, interesting
terrifying or comical nature, and have thought
it might not be amiss to put such of these experiences as I can now recall, on paper, for
future reference or the possible entertainment of other persons, and will begin with my journey
to and first appearance in Charlottesville
omitting all events this side the Potomac.