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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