These people feared the result of
education would be that the Negroes would leave the farms, and that it
would be difficult to secure them for domestic service.
The white people who questioned the wisdom of starting this new
school had in their minds pictures of what was called an educated
Negro, with a high hat, imitation gold eye-glasses, a showy walking-
stick, kid gloves, fancy boots, and what not -- in a word, a man who
was determined to live by his wits. It was difficult for these people
to see how education would produce any other kind of a coloured man.
In the midst of all the difficulties which I encountered in
getting the little school started, and since then through a period of
nineteen years, there are two men among all the many friends of the
school in Tuskegee upon whom I have depended constantly for advice and
guidance; and the success of the undertaking is largely due to these
men, from whom I have never sought anything in vain. I mention them
simply as types. One is a white man and an ex-slaveholder, Mr. George
W. Campbell; the other is a black man and an ex-slave, Mr. Lewis
Adams. These were the men who wrote to General Armstrong for a
teacher.
Mr. Campbell is a merchant and banker, and had had little
experience in dealing with matters pertaining to education.
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