Hampton University

“ At the Normal and Agricultural Institute, Hampton, Va., at Talladega College, in Alabama, Tougaloo University, Mississippi, Tillotson Normal School, Austin, Texas, and in several other colleges and normal schools which I have visited, though the money endowment of the schools is scanty compared with the amounts which are needed, the endowments in personal qualities and character, as represented by the teachers, are of a remarkably high order. ”

“ So widespread has been the feeling of the dignity and worth of the work done in this great cause at Hampton, that it has taken form in an association bearing the name of the founder of the school, and known as the Armstrong Association. Its whole purpose is to support the industrial education of the negro and, incidentally, of the Indian. It aims to be national, not sectional, and should prove a strong bond between North and South. It does not propose to contribute a cent toward philanthropy or charity at the South. Hampton Institute is no more a charitable institution than Yale or Harvard. ”

“ When I was a student at this institution I was taught that Ponce de Leon spent years in search of a fountain of perpetual youth. In my opinion there is no spot in America where one can more nearly renew his youth and strengthen his faith in the wisdom and perpetuity of our institutions than at Hampton.
“To the students who are to go out from the Hampton institute today to begin what I hope are to be careers of usefulness, I wish to say: I hope that you will learn to be even tempered, self-controlled and hopeful. ”

“ This language may seem extravagant, but, if any one is inclined to regard it so, let him visit the school next May, and he will appreciate the self-restraint of one who says no more than what has just been said.
The Hampton Institute has settled two or three questions very satisfactorily.
From the experience of this Institution, it is plain that it is quite possible to combine industrial with intellectual and religious education without injury to any one of these branches of knowledge. Nothing is more prominent to a superficial observation than the industrial side of Hampton. ”

“ The trustees were in session on Wednesday, the 22d, on which day also was held the first meeting of the graduates of Hampton Institute. There were assembled in the beautiful “Whittier Chapel,” on the upper floor of Virginia Hall, a large representation of the 277 who had gone out, most of them as teachers of their race. Of that whole number, not a complaint has been made. They have become good and useful citizens, maintaining the high moral tone of Hampton, and evidencing that growth in character which is the best witness to the existence of a true life within. ”

“ The Hampton Institute is becoming more known and appreciated in Virginia and the neighboring States. Its alumni are occupying positions of practical usefulness, and discharge the high duties of good citizens well and faithfully. [203] Virginians believe that Principal Armstrong is emphatically the right man in the right place, and that, with General Marshall, Miss Mackie and others on his staff, he will push forward the good work in which they are engaged, and will continue to merit and receive the grateful appreciation of the people of the commonwealth. ”

“ I have spoken of my own experience in entering the Hampton Institute. Perhaps few, if any, had anything like the same experience that I had, but about the same period there were hundreds who found their way to Hampton and other institutions after experiencing something of the same difficulties that I went through. The young men and women were determined to secure an education at any cost.
The sweeping of the recitation-room in the manner that I did it seems to have paved the way for me to get through Hampton. Miss Mary F. Mackie, the head teacher, offered me a position as janitor. ”

“ It was such combined mental, moral and industrial education which the late General Armstrong set out to give at the Hampton Institute when he established that school thirty years ago. The Hampton Institute has continued along the lines laid down by its great founder, and now each year an increasing number of similar schools are being established in the South, for the people of both races. ”

“ At Hampton I received a warm welcome from teachers and students. I found that during my absence from Hampton the institute each year had been getting closer to the real needs and conditions of our people; that the industrial teaching, as well as that of the academic department, had greatly improved. The plan of the school was not modelled after that of any other institution then in existence, but every improvement was made under the magnificent leadership of General Armstrong solely with the view of meeting and helping the needs of our people as they presented themselves at the time. ”

“ During the thirty-six years of its history, Hampton has sent into the world about 1,200 graduates and 5,000 undergraduates, many of whom have taken with them the spark that has started many other Hamptons, large and small, among the Negroes of the South and the Indians of the West. Hampton's success, and indeed the success of any institution, depends not so much upon the scholastic attainments of its pupils as upon the work that those who have received its instruction accomplish. ”

“ An associate editor of one of our largest dailies, a widely influential man, commended, not simply by its excellence, but by way of contrast, the work done at Hampton, not because in the pursuit of its own aims it left the work of higher education to other schools, but because it taught its negro pupils to work, and did not make fools of them by teaching them Latin and Greek, and this, not because he is opposed to higher education for any one, but because such an education unfitted the negro for his place. ”

“ These evening classes were to be a kind of preparatory school for such as might afterwards attend the day school of the Institute, and the conditions of their receiving two hours' nightly instruction were sufficiently onerous to deter any from coming forward but the most determined enthusiasts. A long, hard day's work had to be fulfilled before they could think of joining their class. It is no wonder that such scholars are now doing well in the world. The school is still continued at Hampton, but the scholars have increased from tens to hundreds. ”

“ Such a home is a beacon-light in the community to diffuse intelligence and the spirit of order and progress. That is what Hampton is doing. It is building homes and schools all through the South. What a cloud of witnesses we should have, could we summon those seven hundred graduates, each one bringing the implements of his trade—the carpenter with his saw, the blacksmith with his hammer, the harnessmaker with his knife, the farmer with his hoe! What a long line there would be of the graduates alone! ”

“ I felt that I had reached the promised land, and I resolved to let no obstacle prevent me from putting forth the highest effort to fit myself to accomplish the most good in the world.
As soon as possible after reaching the grounds of the Hampton Institute, I presented myself before the head teacher for assignment to a class. Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of clothing, I did not, of course, make a very favourable impression upon her, and I could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about the wisdom of admitting me as a student. ”

“ Hampton stands, above all, for industrial education. The institutions at Petersburg, Nashville, and Atlanta are all working for the education of the colored race. Some of them have technical schools, but it is at Hampton alone that industrial training and manual labor form the keystone of the educational arch. The students here are taught not only to work, but to be proud of working; and when the higher education is earned it is worth more because it is founded on the solid basis of hand work. ”

“ So much insisted on is this duty of missionary work of instruction in the Black Belt and other strongholds of ignorance in the South, that the teachers say that the graduates whom they meet in New York and other Northern cities occupying positions of ease and profit are so ashamed of shirking their duties that they cross the street and strive to avoid encountering their old instructors, whose just expectations they have thus disappointed.
Every institution, some one has said, is the shadow of one man, and Hampton is the shadow of General Armstrong. ”

“ He said: “For many years after the beginning of this institution, we were accustomed in this part of the country to speak of the Hampton school as an experiment; to-day, by the help of Almighty God, we can say that Hampton school is a magnificent success.” He spoke of the work that was being done for the colored race, of the manly characters that were being developed by the school training. He referred to the Indians, and especially to the speech which one of them had made. ”

“ At Hampton it was a standing rule that, while the institution would be responsible for securing some one to pay the tuition for the students, the men and women themselves must provide for their own board, books, clothing, and room wholly by work, or partly by work and partly in cash. At the institution at which I now was, I found that a large portion of the students by some means had their personal expenses paid for them. At Hampton the student was constantly making the effort through the industries to help himself, and that very effort was of immense value in character-building. ”

“ SELF HELP FOR YOUTH “While at Hampton I resolved, if God permitted me to finish the course of study, I would enter the far South, the black belt of the Gulf States, and give my life in providing as best I could the same kind of chance or self-help for the youth of my race that I found ready for me when I went to Hampton, and, so, in 1881, I left Hampton and went to Tuskegee and started the Normal and Industrial Institute.” ”

“ Armstrong, Hampton Institute, with its broad lands, its large and commodious buildings, its steam-engine and multiplied mechanical employments, gives educational and industrial training to its large company of students, graduating about fifty pupils each year, ninety per cent. of whom go into the State [Pg 235] as teachers, carrying with them, into the school, the Sunday-school, the prayer-meeting and the church a healthful Christian influence; while the noble old state of Virginia responds to the effort by a gift of $10,000 a year for the support of the school. ”

“ I derived a great deal of benefit from the studies which I pursued, and I came into contact with some strong men and women. At the institution I attended there was no industrial training given to the students, and I had an opportunity of comparing the influence of an institution with no industrial training with that of one like the Hampton Institute, that emphasizes the industries. At this school I found the students, in most cases, had more money, were better dressed, wore the latest style of all manner of clothing, and in some cases were more brilliant mentally. ”

“ The effect of the whole, threaded by winding roads, shaded by trees, and interspersed with gardens and shrubs, is picturesque and practically convenient. The main value of Hampton, however, is found in what is done within these buildings—the teaching, the industries, the making of character. ”

“ I have set forth the general aspects of Industrial Education and its relations to a missionary work like that of the American Missionary Association. I wish now to set forth, briefly, the practical possibilities and the present undertakings of the Association in this line.
Among all the industrial schools of this continent, Hampton Institute stands easily first in the amount of invested capital, or plant, and in the variety and extent of its operations. It is, moreover, unique ”

“ The working ideals of Hampton are to-day higher than those of Yale and Harvard. It may be questioned whether any professed preacher has done so much to develop the best modern type of religion; centered in daily work, reaching out into all human service, and consciously inspired by the divine life. It would not be extravagant to say that in the little group—perhaps half a dozen in all—whom America has contributed to the world's first rank of great men, not one stands higher in heroic manhood and far-reaching service than Samuel Armstrong. ”

“ I resolved at once to go to that school, although I had no idea where it was, or how many miles away, or how I was going to reach it; I remembered only that I was on fire constantly with one ambition, and that was to go to Hampton. This thought was with me day and night.
After hearing of the Hampton Institute, I continued to work for a few months longer in the coal-mine. While at work there, I heard of a vacant position in the household of General Lewis Ruffner, the owner of the salt-furnace and coal-mine. Mrs. Viola Ruffner, the wife of General Ruffner, was a "Yankee" woman from Vermont. ”

“ General Armstrong had found out that there was quite a number of young coloured men and women who were intensely in earnest in wishing to get an education, but who were prevented from entering Hampton Institute because they were too poor to be able pay any portion of the cost of their board, or even to supply themselves with books. ”

“ Hampton, though a dozen years older, the pioneer in industrial education, equally well equipped, quite as well conducted, doing as great a work in the elevation of the races it represents, and holding just as important a place in the scheme of modern education, is not so interesting or so wonderful, because its conception and execution are the product of Aryan thought and Aryan ingenuity. New ideas, new discoveries, new inventions and organizations, new methods and new institutions, have been conspicuous among the white race for a thou [94] sand years. ”