Mr. Adams
was a mechanic, and had learned the trades of shoemaking, harness-
making, and tinsmithing during the days of slavery. He had never been
to school a day in his life, but in some way he had learned to read
and write while a slave. From the first, these two men saw clearly
what my plan of education was, sympathized with me, and supported me
in every effort. In the days which were darkest financially for the
school, Mr. Campbell was never appealed to when he was not willing to
extend all the aid in his power. I do not know two men, one an ex-
slaveholder, one an ex-slave, whose advice and judgment I would feel
more like following in everything which concerns the life and
development of the school at Tuskegee than those of these two men.
I have always felt that Mr. Adams, in a large degree, derived his
unusual power of mind from the training given his hands in the process
of mastering well three trades during the days of slavery. If one
goes to-day into any Southern town, and asks for the leading and most
reliable coloured man in the community, I believe that in five cases
out of ten he will be directed to a Negro who learned a trade during
the days of slavery.
On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported
for admission.
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