Raising Freedom's Child: Black Children and Visions of the Future After Slavery (American History and Culture Series)

338 Pages·2008·0.97 MB·English

by  Mary Niall Mitchell

Raising Freedom’s Child
American History and Culture
General Editors: Neil Foley, Kevin Gaines,
Martha Hodes, and Scott Sandage
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner Now?
Multicultural Conservatism in America
Angela D. Dillard
One Nation Underground: A History of the Fallout Shelter
Kenneth D. Rose
The Body Electric: How Strange Machines
Built the Modern American
Carolyn Thomas de la Peña
Black and Brown: African Americans and the
Mexican Revolution, 1910–1920
Gerald Horne
Impossible to Hold: Women and Culture in the 1960s
Edited by Avital H. Bloch and Lauri Umansky
Provincetown: From Pilgrim Landing to Gay Resort
Karen Christel Krahulik
A Feeling of Belonging: Asian American Women’s
Public Culture, 1930–1960
Shirley Jennifer Lim
Newark: A History of Race, Rights, and Riots in America
Kevin Mumford
Children’s Nature: The Rise of the American Summer Camp
Leslie Paris
Raising Freedom’s Child: Black Children and
Visions of the Future after Slavery
Mary Niall Mitchell
Raising
Freedom’s
Child
Black Children and Visions
of the Future after Slavery
Mary Niall Mitchell
a
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
Disclaimer: Some images in the printed version of this book are not available for
inclusion in the eBook.
new york university press
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
©2008by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mitchell, Mary Niall.
Raising freedom’s child : Black children and visions of the future
after slavery / Mary Niall Mitchell.
p. cm. — (American history and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-8147-5719-2(cl : alk. paper)
ISBN-10:0-8147-5719-7(cl : alk. paper)
1. Freedmen—Education—Southern States. 2. African Americans—
Education—Southern States—History—19th century. 3. Education
—Economic aspects—Southern States. 4. Children, Black. I. Title.
LC2802.S9M58 2008
371.829'96073075—dc22 2007044349
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my family

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction Portrait of Isaac and Rosa 1
1 Emigration A Good and Delicious Country 11
2 Reading Race Rosebloom and Pure White,
Or So It Seemed 51
3 Civilizing Missions Miss Harriet W. Murray,
Elsie, and Puss 91
4 Labor Tillie Bell’s Song 143
5 Schooling We Ought to Be One People 188
Conclusion Some Mighty Morning 231
Notes 233
Index 307
About the Author 324
vii

Acknowledgments
Because historians rely on documents, we also depend upon
the people who take care of them. I would like to thank archivists and
librarians at the following institutions for their caretaking and assis-
tance: Amistad Research Center, Tulane University; Dr. Charles Nolan
and the staff at the Archives of the Archdiocese of New Orleans; Elmer
Holmes Bobst Library and the Law Library, New York University; the
Brooklyn Public Library; Marie Windell, Florence Jumonville, and the
staff of Special Collections of Earl K. Long Library at the University of
New Orleans; Leslie Rowland and the Freedom and Southern Society
Project at the University of Maryland; Hill Memorial Library, Louisiana
State University; the Historical Society of Delaware; the Historic New
Orleans Collection and the Williams Research Center; Howard Tilton
Memorial Library, Special Collections and the Law School Library of
Tulane University; the Library of Congress; J. Edgar and Louise S.
Monroe Library, Loyola University, New Orleans; the National Ar-
chives, Washington, D.C., and its Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest
Regional Branches; the New Orleans Public Library and its Louisiana
Collection; the New-York Historical Society; the Sisters of the Society of
the Sacred Heart and their archives in St. Louis; the Sisters of the Holy
Family in New Orleans; the Southern Historical Collection, the Univer-
sity of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Strozier Library, Florida State Uni-
versity; Special Collections, Temple University Libraries; the Virginia
Historical Society; and the Cammie G. Henry Research Center, Watson
Memorial Library, Northwestern State University of Louisiana.
The photographs and other images used in this book have been re-
produced here with the help of a number of people who assisted with
reproductions and permissions. Many thanks to staff members and ar-
chivists at the following: the Denver Public Library; the Historic New
Orleans Collection; the Historical Society of Delaware; the Library
Company of Philadelphia; the Massachusetts Historical Society; the
ix