%images;]>LCRBMRP-T1611Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute : founded by General S.C. Armstrong in 1868 : Hampton, Virginia : H.B. Frissell, principal.: a machine-readable transcription.Collection: African-American Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1820-1920; American Memory, Library of Congress.Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.

Washington, 1994.

Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.

This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.

For more information about this text and this American Memory collection, refer to accompanying matter.

07-034852/r922Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1860-1920, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress.Copyright status not determined.
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Hampton Normal and Industrial InstituteThenandNowatHamptonInstitute1868--19020002HamptonNormal and AgriculturalInstituteFounded by General S.C. Armstrong in 1868Hampton, VirginiaH.B. FRISSELLPrincipal

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Hampton Institute Press 1902

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What the Negro [and Indian] needs at once is elementary and industrial education and moral development. The race will succeed or fail as it shall devote itself with energy to agriculture and the mechanic arts or avoid those pursuits, and its teachers must be inspired with the spirit of hard work and acquainted with the ways that lead to material success. General Armstrong.

Tents Occupied by Hampton Students During the Winter of 1872--73

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FoundationOn 30th of May, 1865, a young officer of Hawaiian birth, Colonel S.C. Armstrong of the Eighth United States Colored Troops, en route to Texas to watch Maximilian in his attempted conquest of Mexico, wrote as follows from the deck of the transport Illinois lying in Hampton Roads: "Before me the "Old Flag" floats over the famous Fortress Monroe where Jeff Davis is a prisoner. Directly in front of me lies "Hampton Hospital," a very imposing structure. Besides the officers in the main building here, there are some 5,000 soldiers in hospital tents and wooden wards." Three years after this, in April, 1868, the same young officer was changing some of these very hospital wards into schoolrooms for the children of the ex--slaves whose freedom he had helped to gain in his three years of active service in the Civil War.

Led, by early training in a missionary home in the Sandwich Islands and by his experience as commander of Negro regiments and as officer of the Freedmen's Bureau, to believe in industrial education as the best means of developing manhood in a backward race, he made self--help the corner--stone of the Hampton School, inaugurating an industrial system, "for the sake, not only of self--support and intelligent labor, but also for the sake of character."

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Hampton Institute in 1902

ControlStarted under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, Hampton Institute was chartered in 1870 by special act of the General Assembly of Virginia, thus becoming independent of any church organization. It is not a government, state, or denominational school, but is a private corporation controlled by a board of seventeen trustees, representing different sections of the country and seven religious denominations, no one of which has a majority. The school is non-sectarian, but strongly Christian, one of its chief aims being the development of a missionary spirit in its students.

In 1868

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The more important matters of finance are referred to the Executive Committee of the Board, and all endowment funds are cared for by an Investment Committee. All moneys from legacies are placed in the endowment, or, in rare cases when unrestricted, used for permanent improvements. A board of Curators is appointed by the Governor of Virginia to report to the state on the use of $10,000, interest on one-third of the Land Scrip Fund of Virginia, appropriated to the school toward the agricultural and military training of its students.

In 1876

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Academic Hall Built in 1870. Burned 1879

DevelopmentIn 1868, the school roll showed a total of fifty-two students--thirty young men, twenty-two young women--who had accepted the opportunity offered at Hampton to learn "how to live, how to labor and how to teach others."

The first large building erected was Academic Hall, begun in 1869. Its top floor was a boy's dormitory, which soon became so crowded that tents were pitched near the shore to accommodate the overflow. The industries consisted of farming, brick-making and household work. The church services were held in Bethesda Chapel in the National Cemetery, a small frame building put up by convalescent soldiers.

Bethesda Chapel In this chapel President Garfield made his last speech, in June 1881

At the present time (1902) the number of students enrolled is over one thousand; eighteen different industries are taught, and the school plant comprises fifty-five buildings, including, besides dormitories and school buildings, a library, church, hospital, gymnasium, a saw and planing 00099mill, various shops, a well-equipped trade school, and a building for domestic science and agriculture. The school has developed along agricultural and mechanical lines and has also raised the standard its academic work, introducing all branches of manual training and establishing a normal course of two years which is required before a teacher's certificate is granted.

Memorial Church Dedicated, May, 1885

Academic HallBuilt in 1880

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NeedsThis marvelous development has been made possible generosity of many friends. While it is realized that the industrial system is an expensive one, yet, in the words of the Founder, General Armstrong, "to destroy it would change the character of the institution

Looking East from Academic Hall in 1876

and its results, and place it beyond the reach of the most needy and deserving class of pupils." The school's endowment fund is less than half as large as is needed and legacies toward its completion are solicited. Large gifts may be applied in many ways--to general expenses, the equipment of buildings and 001111departments, or to permanent scholarships. These scholarships, which provide for tuition only, are given to all worthy students to aid them in their efforts at self-help. These are solicited from friends, and the pupil thus benefited writes a letter of acknowledgment to the person or society aiding him.

Looking East from Academic Hall in 1902

A permanent academic scholarship is $2,000"industrial""800An annual academic""70"industrial""30Gifts of money or material are most welcome.

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A Newly Arrived Indian Party (1881)

A Newly Arrived Indian Party (1897)

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IndiansIndians were first admitted in 1878, when Colonel Richard H. Pratt, U.S.A., brought fifteen prisoners of war from St. Augustine to Hampton and remained one year, bringing, in the meantime, other Indians from the West. So successful was this experiment in industrial education for the Indian, that the Carlisle Government School was established, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, formerly devoted to fighting the Indians, are now given by Congress for the training of their children in industrial schools.

One hundred and twenty Indians, representing about twenty tribes, are sent every year to Hampton by the general government, which pays $167 annually for each one, thus supplying their board and clothing but not their tuition.

Of the Indians educated at Hampton, carefully kept records show that ninety per cent. have done well after their return to the reservations. Many of these have engaged in farming or stock-raising; others are working at their trades; and all are exerting an influence on the side of civilization.

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AgricultureFrom its earliest days, Hampton has given its students practical instruction in agriculture. Within the last five years, however, it has been made the central subject of the school's cirriculum, and all students of both sexes are now taught its various branches before they complete the course.

A large building for domestic science and agriculture was opened in May, 1898, and the agricultural department is now well equipped for class-room, laboratory, farm engineering, dairying and greenhouse work. Twenty acres of the Home Farm are set aside for an experiment garden, two acres for a model farm, cared for by students to show how a family may be supported on its products. On the Hemenway Farm, students care for a large quantity and variety of stock and learn to market farm products.

The young women as well as the young men, are taught dairying, poultry-raising and garden making, and an effort is made to inspire all the students with a love for country life.

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The School Barns in 1870

The School Barns in 1902

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The Farm Blacksmith Shop in 1883

The TradesThe school shops, where trades were at first taught by the apprentice system, were, in November, 1898, unified and enlarged by the opening of the Armstrong Slater Memorial Trade School, where about one hundred and sixty students receive instruction yearly in carpentry, painting, blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, bricklaying, plastering, shoe and harness making, tailoring, tinsmithing, steam engineering or machine work.

Courses in physics and mechanical drawing adapted to the trades are given to all trade students. The 001717

The Trade-School Blacksmith Shop in 1902

productive industries are closely related to the technical shops of the Trade School; and the general plan adopted in teaching trades is to follow technical instruction by giving students practice in such commercial work as will enable them to apply the principles studied, and to learn, so far as possible, the market value of their labor. By this method it is believed that tradesmen will not only be fitted to teach others but to do practical work at their trades after leaving school, a belief justified by the fact that of the students who have taken trades since 1885, seventy per cent, are either teaching them or working at them.

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The Sawmill in 1879

The Huntington Industrial Works (1901)

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Productive Industries

In addition to the commercial shops allied with the Trade School, the productive industries include a steam saw and planing mill--the Huntington Industrial Works; two large farms for market gardening, diarying and stock-raising; a printing office, which besides printing the Southern Workman, a monthly illustrated magazine founded by General Armstrong in 1872, and other school literature,does much of the job work of the neighbour; the sewing,weaving, basket and pottery making departments; and a housekeeping department which includes the sewing, cooking and general housework of the institution. In the productive industries students have a chance to earn a part of the cost of their board and clothing, and at the same time learn something of the standards demanded by the world's markets.

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Virginia Hall in process of erection in 1873

This building was "sung up "by the Hampton Singers, who were in the field for two years and a half, giving during that time, 500 concerts in 18 states and in Canada. Just in front of Virginia Hall are the hospital wards used by the school for seven years. The house at the left was at this time the Principal's House and Teachers' Home.

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The Principal's House, and Virginia and Cleveland Halls in 1902

"The condition of woman is the gauge of civilization. Upon the Negro girl rests most heavily all the sad past: in her is the hope of the future of her race."

General Armstrong.

"The work of fitting colored girls for family life and Christian work is full of encouragement. Their educators everywhere testify to the rapid development of womanly qualities wherever they have a fair choice." General Armstrong.

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A Cooking Class in 1880

Home Training for GirlsOne of Hampton's chief aims is to train its girls to be good homemakers. In June, 1873, was laid the corner stone of Virginia Hall, a girls' dormitory built to supercede the old hospital wards. This building was occupied in 1875 and was greatly enlarged in 1900 by the addition of Cleveland Hall. These dormitories, with two others, accommodate about three hundread girls and their teachers. The greater part of the daily housework required in these buildings, and all the laundry 002323work for the institution is done by the young women, who receive instruction also in various home industries in the Domestic Science Building opened in 1898. Beside the ordinary courses in sewing, cooking, sloyd, weaving, dressmaking and upholstery, each young woman is taught something of papering, glazing, painting, whitewashing and ordinary repairing, as well as dairying, poultry-raising and market gardening.

A Cooking Class in the Domestic Science Building in 1900

002424ResultsIn 1871, the first class was graduated from Hampton Institute. It numbered nine, none of whom have made a bad record. All became teachers and more than one hundred of their pupils also became teachers. Among them was Henry Clay Payne who, in his little district school in West Virginia, first inspired in Booker T. Washington a desire for an education. Including the class of 1871, the school has graduated 1101 students who have taught over 150,000 children in the South and West. With two exceptions, every Virginia city has a Hampton graduate in charge of its colored graded school, and many are principals of schools in other states. At least 5000 under-graduates also, have gone out and have shown by their lives the value of the industrial training they have received. Many of these young people, of both races, have opened shops; many are successful farmers; still others are engaged in various business enterprises; while a limited number have taken advanced course and fitted themselves for professional careers. Hundreds are property owners living useful and upright lives in obscure country places where such examples are most needed.

Among the industrial and manual-training schools where Hampton tradesmen are teaching their trades are those at Tuskegee, Calhoun and Mt. Meigs in Alabama; at Kittrell in N. C.; at Lawrenceville, Hanover, Richmond, Cappahosic, Norfolk, Lynchburg and Newport News in Virginia; at St. Helena, S. C.; in Baltimore and Washington; Kansas City, Mo., Indianapolis, Indiana, and on the various Indian reservations,

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THE BUTLER SCHOOL (1875) Built by General Butler during the war

THE WHITTIER SCHOOL (1902) This school replaced "The Butler" as a practice school for the Institute

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The following memoranda were found among General Armstrong's private papers and were left with his will to be opened after his death. Those of his friends who have seen them have found them so characteristic and full of his spirit that it was thought best not to withhold them from a wider circle.

MEMORANDANow when all is bright, the family together, and there is nothing to alarm and very much to be thankful for, it is well to look ahead and, perhaps, to say the things that I should wish known should I suddenly die.

I wish to be buried in the school graveyard, among the students, where one of them would have been put had he died next.

I wish no monument or fuss whatever over my grave; only a simple headstone--no text or sentiment inscribed; only my name and date. I wish the simplest funeral service, without sermon or attempt at oratory--a soldier's funeral.

I hope there will be enough friends to see that the work of the school shall continue. Unless some shall make sacrifice for it, it cannot go on.

A work that requires no sacrifice does not count for much in fulfilling God's plans. But what is commonly called sacrifice is the best, happiest use of one's self and 002727one's resources--the best investment of time, strength and means. He who makes no such sacrifice is most to be pitied. He is a heathen, because he knows nothing of God.

In the school the great thing is not to quarrel; to pull all together, to refrain from hasty, unwise words and actions; to unselfishly and wisely seek the best good of all; and to get rid of workers whose temperaments are unfortunate--whose heads are not level, no matter how much knowledge or culture they may have. Cantankerousness is worse than heterodoxy.

I wish no effort at a biography of myself made. Good friends might get up a pretty good story, but it would not be the whole truth. The truth of a life usually lies deep down--we hardly know ourselves--God only does. I trust his mercy. The shorter one's creed the better. "Simply to thy cross I cling" is enough for me.

I am most thankful for my parents, my Hawaiian home, for war experiences and college days at Williams; and for life and work at Hampton. Hampton has blessed me in so many ways: along with it have come the choicest people of this country for my friends and helpers, and then such a grand chance to do something directly for those set free by the war, and, indirectly, for those who were conquered; and Indian work has been another great privilege.

Few men had had the chance that I have had. I never gave up or sacrificed anything in my life--have been, seemingly, guided in everything.

Prayer is the greatest thing in the world. It keeps us near to God--my own prayer has been most weak, wavering, inconstant, yet it has been the best thing I have ever done. I think this is a universal truth--what comfort is there in any but the broadest truth?

I am most curious to get a glimpse of the next world. How will it seem? Perfectly fair and perfectly natural, no doubt. We ought not to fear death. It is friendly.

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The only pain that comes at the thought of it is for my true, faithful wife, and blessed, dear children. But they will be brave about it all, and, in the end, stronger. They are my greatest comfort.

Hampton must not go down. See to it, you who are true to the black and red children of the land, and to just ideas of education.

The loyalty of my old soldiers, and of my students, has been an unspeakable comfort.

It pays to follow one's best light-to put God and country first; ourselves afterwards.

Taps has just sounded.

HAMPTON, VA. S. C. ARMSTRONG.NEW YEAR'S EVE, 1890.

TAPS.OFFICERS OF THE SCHOOLH. B. Frissell, Principal.Alexander Purves, Treas. Rev. H. B. Turner, Chaplain

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BOARD OF TRUSTEESPRESIDENTRobert C. Ogden, Firm of John Wanamaker, New York.VICE PRESIDENTSRev. Alexander McKenzie, D. d., 12 Garden St., Cambridge, Mass. Col. Thomas Tabb, Hampton, Va.SECRETARYH. B. Frissell, Hampton, Va.George Foster Peabody, 27 and 29 Pine St., New York.Rev. Charles H. Parkhurst, D. D., 133 East 35th St., New York.Rt. Rev. W. N. McVickar, S. T. D., 22 Charles Field St., Providence, R. I.Rev. Francis G. Peabody, D. D..,13 Kirkland Street.Cambridge, Mass.Rev. D. H. Greer, D.D. 342 Madison Ave., New York.Charles E. Bigelow, 91 Chambers St., New York.Arthur Curtiss James, 11 Cliff Street, New York.Wm. Jay Schieffelin, Ph.D., 170 William St., New York.Hon. L. L. Lewis, Richmond, Va.Alexander Purves, Hampton, Va.Rev. James W. Cooper, D. D., New Britain, Conn.W. W. Frazier, 250 S. 18th St., Phildelphia, Pa.Archer M. Huntington, 2 E. 57th St., New York.

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STATE CURATORSN. W. Nock, Onancock,I. H. Christian, Wilcox Wharf.F. F. Causey, HamptonGeo A. Melvin, PortsmouthJ. C. Carter, HoustonW. P. Burrell, Richmond.

INVESTMENT COMMITTEERobert C. Ogden, New York.George Foster Peabody, New York.Charles E. Bigelow, New York.Arthur Curtiss James, New York.Wm. J. Schieffelin, New York.

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FORM OF BEQUESTI give and devise to the Trustees of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute at Hampton, Va., the sum of dollars, payable, etc.