Читать книгу The Choctaw Freedmen and the Story of Oak Hill Industrial Academy - Robert Elliott Flickinger - Страница 45

In 1860 the number of Negroes that were in a state of slavery was 3,930,760. In 1910 their number in the southern states had increased to 9,000,000; and in the northern states to 1,078,000.

The Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln was issued January 1, 1863, but it was preceded by a preliminary one on September 22, 1862, that gave the public a notice of 100 days of the coming event.

The Act of Emancipation that severed the relation binding them to their masters, left them in a very forlorn and deplorable condition. They were homeless and penniless in a country, that had been rendered more or less desolate, by the ravages of war and bloodshed. No provision had ever been made for the spread of intelligence among them. It has been estimated that only about five per cent of them at that time could read and write. Their homeless and illiterate condition rendered them comparatively helpless and dependent.

In 1885 the number of voters enrolled among the Freedmen was 1,420,000 and of these as many as 1,065,000 were then unable to read and write. These illiterate voters then represented the balance of power in eight southern states and one sixth of the national electoral vote. This was a matter of vital importance to the nation as well as the states.

In 1900 the percentage of the Freedmen that could read and write had been increased to 55.5 per cent and in 1910 to 69.3 per cent.

At this latter date however only 56.3 per cent of their children, of a school age, were enrolled as attending school, which left more than one million yet to be provided for.