Hampton Institute, 1868 to 1885. Its Work for Two Races.
The Battle For Equal Education:
Reports From The Hampton Institute
[Education]. Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute. Annual Reports for the Academic and Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1882. Hampton, VA: Normal School Steam Press Print, 1882.
8vo.; sewn wrappers; two-inch closed tear, not affecting cover text; partially detached.
Together with:
Hampton Institute, 1868 to 1885. Its Work For Two Races. Hampton, VA: Normal School Press Print, 1885.
Thin 8vo.; yellow sewn wrappers; partially detached, some pages starting, but intact.
First editions of two early annual reports issued by the Hampton Institute, the Virginia-based institution that educated “colored” students of both genders and included, from its inception, many women in its administration and faculty. The Hampton Institute was a vocational school established in the South during Reconstruction by well-meaning liberal Northerners. Its intent was to arm its students—primarily of African- American or American-Indian heritage—with useful skills that would make them employable in the post-war society. The curriculum included the traditional “three R’s,” along with home economics for its many female students.
In these reports we get a feel for the Hampton mission, its attitudes towards its students, and the daily life of the school. The earlier publication prints detailed reports about the workings of the school, many written by its female teachers; sadly, even the best-intentioned of educators fall victim to the internalized racism and sexism of their era. The “Acting Lady Principal,” a Miss. J.E. Davis, writes for instance of her students that “girls, as a rule, do neater and more accurate work than boys, but the latter are generally brighter” and that “degree of color apparently makes no difference. One with a dark skin may be the brightest pupil in the class, while a ‘bright’ one may be very dull.” She goes on to say, however, that in making any racial comparison,
several things must be borne in mind. If it were possible to find a class of white children whose ancestors had been held in bondage for hundreds of years; who could not boast of even one generation of educated people behind them; who had always lived in the country, where there were few educated or refining influences; and who had been to school to inferior teachers....then it would be fair to compare one of our classes with such a class...But such a class it would be impossible to find, so that comparison is out of the question. (p. 11)
Another teacher blames the sorry state of Native American education, and the occasional lack of ambition on the part of her Indian students, on the depressing life faced by women in Indian society:
...The success of the education of our Indians turns on the conditions, which await them on their return to their homes. We believe in their ability to stand in an ordinarily healthful moral atmosphere. The false conditions of life which exist in an Indian agency, the difficulty of obtaining healthful sympathy, or wise restraint, make their task of stemming the current of savage-life an almost superhuman one. The girls have no foot-hold on which to attempt to breast it. The boys have their trades, and can separate themselves from their old homes and their camp life. There is absolutely no position of dignity to which an Indian girl can look forward, after three years' training, with any reasonable confidence. There is nothing for her but to enjoy or suffer the present as best she may. (p. 35)
The second publication, issued three years later, prints reports by two Hampton teachers, Helen W. Ludlow and Elaine Goodale, who made a tour to visit Hampton alums in their regional settings. Each finds some success stories, and some failures. In the first article Miss Ludlow reports on “Hampton’s Indian Students at Home”—she visits a “young housekeeper” living on a Yankton Reservation:
‘she was your prize scholar at Hampton
Print Inquire
