The Muse
Newsletter of the Slater Memorial Museum Winter 2009
John Fox Slater: An American Legacy By Vivian F. Zoë
American Industrialist In 2009, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will mark 100 years since its founding: to recognize the centennial, the Norwich Chapter will honor the life and work of John Fox Slater. John F. Slater (18151884) was the son of John Slater, Samuel Slater’s brother and partner. Samuel is broadly recognized as the man who brought the Industrial Revolution to the U.S. by creating the first American textile mill in the 18th century. He developed several mills and “Mill Villages” in Rhode Island and his nephew, John Fox Slater, helped to bring that industry west to Norwich and Jewett City. John F. Slater, born in Slatersville, Rhode Island, was educated in Plainfield, Connecticut and later, at Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts. The first recorded public provision for the Plainfield, Connecticut, schools was made in 1707, and in 1722, the first schoolhouse was built. By 1766 a committee, John F. Slater (1815-1884), Alexander Emmons, n.d.
appointed to create school districts, had increased the number of teachers and schools. The town’s leadership was dedicated to the goal of establishing a classical program. In 1770 they formed an association, which improved their resources, making it possible to erect a large brick schoolhouse and to recruit more qualified teachers. Through a 1776 bequest from Isaac Coit, the proponents of education in Plainfield organized a classical department in 1778. Because coastal towns were subject to British invasion, colleges and academies had been generally suspended during the Revolutionary War. However, the more remote and inland, Plainfield offered a safe refuge. Many promising boys from affluent families in the immediate region, as well as students from distant states, were sent to Plainfield Academy where they boarded with local families. In 1825 a new handsome stone building replaced the first academy building. Attendance for many years held at about a hundred students of whom nearly one-half pursued classical studies. In later years, attendance diminished as a direct result of the institution of new high schools in adjoining towns, including Norwich Free Academy. Plainfield’s attendance in 1845 was about 75: by 1860, after NFA’s founding in 1854, Plainfield’s attendance had dropped to about 50. Wilbraham & Monson Academy was established by the merger of two early nineteenth-century academies: Monson Academy, founded in 1804, in Monson, Massachusetts, and Wesleyan Academy, (Continued on page 3)
A Message from the Director With Winter truly upon us and the holidays breathing their rushed winds, the Slater is as busy as ever. Our McCloy Exhibition and Sale has been immensely successful, but because he was so prolific and generous, there is still a chance to find just the right piece for your wall or that special gift. As we hurtle toward 2009, the Slater has been asked to help the NAACP celebrate its centennial with an exhibition of artwork inspired by the life and work of John Fox Slater. We consider this both a great honor and an opportunity to learn more about the man ourselves. This lead to my ruminations on what might have driven the elder Slater to make a gift of $1 million in 1882, just two years before his death to ensure the education of Black students for generations to come. It’s been a pleasure to investigate this fascinating topic. I hope you enjoy the result. I wish you the best in the coming year.
Upcoming Exhibitions, Programs and Events January 16 - January 30, 2009 Reception: January 16 2:00 - 4:00 pm
John Fox Slater and Historical Black Colleges: Giving for Equity - an exhibition of artwork and research by area high school students. Dr. Lenwood G. Davis, Winston-Salem State University (ret.) will speak and sign his books, including I Have a Dream: The Life and Times of Martin Luther King, Jr. Presented in conjunction with the Norwich Chapter of the NAACP.
Sunday, February 22, 2009 Reception: 1:00 - 3:00 pm Awards: 2:00 pm
65th Annual Connecticut Artist Juried Exhibition Opening Reception and Award Ceremony
The Muse is published up to four times yearly for the members of The Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum. The museum is located at 108 Crescent Street, Norwich, CT 06360. It is part of The Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich, CT 06360. Museum main telephone number: (860) 887-2506. Visit us on the web at www.slatermuseum.org. Museum Director – Vivian F. Zoë Newsletter editor – Geoff Serra Contributing authors: Vivian Zoë, Leigh Smead and Patricia Flahive Photographers: Leigh Smead, Vivian Zoë The president of the Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum: Patricia Flahive The Norwich Free Academy Board of Trustees: Steven L. Bokoff ’72, Chair Jeremy D. Booty ‘74 Richard DesRoches * Abby I. Dolliver ‘71 Lee-Ann Gomes ‘82, Treasurer Thomas M. Griffin ‘70, Secretary Thomas Hammond ‘75 Theodore N. Phillips ’74 Robert A. Staley ’68 Dr. Mark E. Tramontozzi ’76 David A. Whitehead ’78, Vice Chair *Museum collections committee The Norwich Free Academy does not discriminate in its educational programs, services or employment on the basis of race, religion, gender, national origin, color, handicapping condition, age, marital status or sexual orientation. This is in accordance with Title VI, Title VII, Title IX and other civil rights or discrimination issues; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.
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John Fox Slater died in Norwich in May 1884, at a time when NFA had on its “campus” only one building – its original. William presented Slater Memorial Hall to the Academy to memorialize his father. In 1882 John Fox Slater incorporated the John F. Slater Fund with $1,000,000 of his own money, for “the uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the Southern states, and their posterity, by conferring on them the benefits of Christian education.” The original trustees of the Slater Fund included William A. Slater and Rutherford B. Hayes, who had recently completed his service as U.S. President. Hayes had vetoed bills repealing civil rights enforcement four times before finally signing one that satisfied his requirement for black civil rights for former slaves and free African Americans.
Wilbraham Academy in the 19th century, courtesy of Wilbraham & Monson Academy
founded in 1817, in New Market, New Hampshire. Wesleyan Academy moved to Wilbraham in 1825, and became Wilbraham Academy in 1912. Wilbraham Academy and Monson Academy merged in 1971. Wesleyan Academy was the first coeducational boarding school in the country, and in 1847 Monson Academy became the first American school to enroll Chinese students. Soon afterward, students from Thailand began to attend Wilbraham Academy. Alumni Memorial Chapel on Wilbraham’s campus was part of the Underground Railroad, and the Academy began to enroll students of color before the Civil War.
Also recruited to serve on the Fund’s board were Lyme, Connecticut, Native and Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court, Morrison R. Waite, and Hartford Native, William E. Dodge, a founder of Phelps, Dodge & Company. Phelps, Dodge initially operated an importexport trade business shipping American-grown cotton to England in exchange for minerals but later became a powerhouse mining company. Mr. Slater. no doubt, had become acquainted with Dodge as a result of his company’s use of shipping and its connection to cotton production in the South. Mr. Slater’s company, J & W. Slater, throughout the 19th century had been brokering the shipment of cotton from the South to the North and, presumably, to England. When Dodge died, his son, William E. Dodge, Jr., took his place and they were both succeeded on the board by Dodge’s grandson Cleveland H. Dodge. Like Dodge, another abolitionist and member of the board was Episcopal Priest Phillips Brooks, a great-great grandson of the founder of Phillips Andover Academy. Also joining the board was Norwich native Daniel C. Gilman, who in 1875 became the first president of Johns Hopkins University. Morris K. Jesup, a selfmade man who took an active interest in the welfare of young men
After graduation from Wilbraham, at seventeen John F. Slater entered the family business in Hopeville, Connecticut, taking charge in 1836. Like his father and Uncle, he owned textile mills in partnership with his brother, William S. Slater. In 1873, his brother took over the Slatersville Mills, and he assumed sole ownership of the mills at Jewett City. American Philanthropist In 1842 John Fox Slater moved to Norwich and helped to endow and found the Norwich Free Academy (NFA). Perhaps this philanthropy was spurred by fond memories of his days at Wilbraham or by enlightened self-interest. His son, William Albert Slater (1857-1919), who was barely a toddler when NFA opened its doors, would soon need a fine education. Indeed, William would go from NFA to Harvard in 1873. It is also interesting to note that like John F. Slater’s alma mater, Wilbraham Academy, in the 1870’s through 1881, NFA was host to Chinese Students through the Qing Dynasty’s Chinese Educational Mission led by Yale-educated Yung Wing. It was during these years that John Fox Slater, having relinquished the management of his mills to son William, may have formulated his ideas about a philanthropic legacy.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 - 1893)
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and contributed generously to Williams College and other institutions serving youth, added to the board roster. Through prudent investment, by 1909 the fund had increased to more than $1,500,000, despite issuing disbursements. The fund has been of immeasurable assistance to the “historically Black colleges” which in many cases grew out of industrial schools in the South. In some cases the Slater Fund contributed directly to the school boards of Southern cities. The Fund’s largest beneficiaries were the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute of Virginia, the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute of Alabama, Spelman Seminary in Georgia, Claflin University, South Carolina, and Fisk University in Tennessee. “Normal” schools were so named because they purported to establish “norms” or standards for teaching; their purpose was to train teachers for the country’s public schools. The Slater Normal and Industrial school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, founded in 1892 and named after John Fox Slater, has become the Winston Salem State University.
Emancipation Oak, Hampton VA
mulattos to read or write, a law which had cut her own education short years earlier. Several years later, President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was read to local freedmen under the same historic tree, still located on the campus and which also serves as a symbol of the modern City of Hampton.
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in southeastern Virginia became and remains today, Hampton University. During the Civil War, Union held Fort Monroe at the mouth of the Hampton Roads became a haven for fugitive slaves. Fort commander General Benjamin F. Butler, to protect them from return to slave owners, deemed them “contraband of war.” As large numbers arrived seeking status as contrabands, they built the Grand Contraband Camp nearby from materials reclaimed from the ruins of Hampton, which had been burned by retreating Confederates.
Former Union Brigadier General Samuel L Armstrong was Hampton’s first principal. Under his guidance, a Hampton education became renowned as one combining “cultural uplift with moral and manual training.” Among Hampton’s earliest students was Booker Taliaferro Washington, who arrived from West Virginia in 1872 at the age of 16. He was freed from slavery as a child and through education, rose to be appointed, on Armstrong’s recommendation, to lead another new normal school, which eventually became the Tuskegee Institute, also a beneficiary of the John F. Slater Fund. Washington became an educator, orator, fund-raiser, nationally prominent spokesman and leader for African Americans. He was successful in building relationships with Slater and other philanthropists who contributed to Tuskegee and for Southern public schools for black children. He worked to end legal barriers to desegregation and disenfranchisement and built Tuskegee into a substantial school.
In Hampton, Virginia, under what is now called the Emancipation Oak, on September 17, 1861, Mary Smith Peake (1823-1862), the mulatto daughter of a free black woman, taught the first classes, in defiance of a Virginia law against teaching slaves, free blacks and
In 1881, Lewis Adams, founded the Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Mary Smith Peale (1823-1862)
History Class at Tuskegee, 1901
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Friends of Slater Museum Active Members as of November 2008 Please note: We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list. If we inadvertently omitted your name, we apologize. Please let us know by calling 860-425-5563.
LIFE MEMBERS Dr. Sultan Ahamed Ron Aliano Nina Barclay Dr. June Bradlaw * Robert Allyn Brand Valerie K. Foran Carter Mr. & Mrs. Leo Christmas Mary Jane & Charles M. Gilman Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Gualtieri Mr. & Mrs. David R. Hinkle Mr. & Mrs. Wally Lamb Sheldon & Marcelle Levine Edwin O. Lomerson III Stanley M. Lucas David H. & Cathy Meiklem Jonathan S. Rickard Grace Sears * Jean Stencel Celine Sullivan Sheila K. Tabakoff Elizabeth A. Theve Dr. Patricia C. Thevenet Dr. & Mrs. Anthony Tramontozzi Paul Zimmerman * BENEFACTORS Louis Burzycki Shirley M. Sontheimer SUSTAINORS Mr. & Mrs. Thomas L. Cummings Mr. & Mrs. Martin Shapiro PATRONS Elizabeth & William J. Abell Helen M. Champe Carol B. Connor Dr. Wayne F. & Geraldine O. Diederich John Frazer Mary Fuller Karin & Laurent T. Genard, Jr. Margot & Denison N. Gibbs Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Isenberg Carol & Michael Lahan Mildred P. Lescoe Gigi H. & Arthur Liverant Mr. & Mrs. Martin Rutchik Mr. & Mrs. Gary Schnip
Anne J. Sharpe Helen & Gurdon Slosberg Richard G. Treadway, Sr. Dr. & Mrs.* Felix T. Trommer John A. Wolkowski CONTRIBUTORS Dr. & Mrs. Donald Amaro Dr. & Mrs. Tom P. Bell Cora Lee Boulware Mr. & Mrs. Alton P. Button John Carter Barbara Castagnaro Dr. Larry & Elaine Coletti Paul R. Duevel Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm Edgar, Jr. Marcia & Richard Erickson George T. Finn John R. Fix Patricia & John & Flahive Mr. & Mrs. Michael J. Gallagher Jeffrey R. Godley Dr. Leonard & Joan E. Greene Muriel B. Jacobson Dr. Morris E. Katz Ruth S. Kirsch Melody & Donald Leary Deborah Lee George Lee, Jr. Frank T. Novack Rev. & Mrs. John E. Post Evelyn Putman John M. Rogers, Jr. Elizabeth D. Sager Mrs. Lawrence V. Sarni Lottie B. Scott Elizabeth & Geoffery Serra Mr. & Mrs. William B. White Sheryl & Nathan Wolfman Joseph R. Wolter FAMILIES Dr. & Mrs. Michael Betten Barbara & Ralph Bergman Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Blinderman Sandra Ann Bosko Corinna & J. Steele Brown Mr. & Mrs. Michael Brown Dr. & Mrs. S. Pearce Browning III Rosemary & Paul Brulotte Joanna Case & Les Olin
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William Champagne Sue & Walter Chojnacki Mr. & Mrs. Richard R. Clairwood Dr. Robert & Linda Crootof Richard DesRoches Mr. & Mrs. William Dolliver Frances J. Donnelly Mr. & Mrs. Edward J. Donovan Nancy & James J. Dutton, Jr. M. Torrey & David G. Fenton Caroleen Frey & Gordon Kyle Jean M. & Evan Gilman Cyrus D. Gilman Lee Ann Gomes & Curtis Simmons Dr. & Mrs. Albert Gosselin Katherine & Richard Haffey Richard C. Hamar Rachel & Thomas Harasimowicz Gladys L. Haynes Donna L. & Michael E. Jewell Suzanne & Norman Jordan, Jr. Drs. M. E. & Joan Kadish Carol H. Kelleher Lisa Kanter & Eugene Schweig Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Kroll Ann & Arthur Lathrop Mr. &. Mrs. Timothy Love Agnes & John E. Luby Mr. & Mrs. Franklin May Nancy & John Paul Mereen Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Methot Michael E. Minzy Marie E. & Charles F. Noyes Dr. & Mrs. Michael T. Phillips Mr. & Mrs. Popinchalk Mr. & Mrs. Paul Rak W. Wynn Riley Dr. J. David & Chris Sawyer Marian & Jerome Silverstein Mary Jo & John Sisco Mr. & Mrs. Steven Slosberg Dr. & Mrs. Harold A. Soloff Michele & Harvey Snitkin Susan Spak Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Stockton Selma & Harry Swatsburg Mr. & Mrs. Richard Uguccioni Liz Van & John Pratt George Ververis
Karen & Douglas Welch Marianna Wilcox INDIVIDUALS Carol A. Adams Kathleen Driscoll Amatangelo Valerie Andrews Elizabeth Baldwin Bernard B. Bartick William E. Bartol Mara G. Beckwith Eric Beit Mr. & Mrs. Steven Bokoff Jean Brown Hazel Brown Frank Buckley Olive J. Buddington Jeffrey Buebendorf Kathy Burley Lois Burnham Brad Burns Foster Caddell Connie Capacchione Jacqueline Caron Laurie Chapman James Clark Thomas E. Clements, Jr. Michael Colonese Barbara Cordell Caroline Couture Kathleen Cummings Jeremy Davis Sadie Davidson DeVore Nancy DiTullio Christina Dominijanni Gerard Doudera Michael Driscoll Geraldine Exley Thomas M. Foley, Jr. Joanne Forson Susan Frankenbach Larry Goldman Nancy L. Gordon Deborah A. Griffith Sandra Grillo Mary-Anne Hall Lloyd Hinchey Margot Johnstone Bernadette Kalinowski Christine Karpinski Merrill Keeley D. William Kelleher Carol H. Kelleher
Elizabeth H. Kelly Brian W. Korsu Elin B. Larson Elyssa Lathrop Benjamin Lathrop Kathleen Lavallee Nancy MacBride Janet MacKay Katherine H. Mann J. Roger Marien Julian P. Metzger Jessie Michalowski Brian Mignault Patricia Miller Eleanor J. Miller Mitchell Mishkin Mary R. Miskiewicz Karen Rand Mitchell Warren Mocek Gary Palmer Elizabeth Pite Patricia Podurgiel Manisha Prakash Kenneth Przybysz Ilene Reiner Katherine B. Richardson Charles Rossoll Joseph Ruffo James Sawyer Bett Schissler Katherine E. Schmitt Elizabeth Hundt Scott Will Sikorski Robert Staley Sean Sullivan Wilma Sullivan Barbara Sumner John A. Tarka Matt Turpin Michele Gill Tycz Rachna Walia Charlie Whitty Suzanne Wierzbinski Mary Wilson SENIORS Mr. & Mrs. Gary Adams Margaret M. Aldrich Kathleen Arnold Lindsay Aromin Priscilla & David W. Baillie Genevieve Bergendahl Elaine Berman Mary Ann Biziewski Douglas Bjorn Mr. & Mrs. Rufus Blanshard Mr. & Mrs. Armand Bouley Angelo B. Brocchi Barbara Brown Julie C. Buehler
Xenia & Kenneth Bujnowski Colette Butterick Raymond I. Champy Carol A. Cieslukowski Mr. & Mrs. James Coleman Dr. Thomas J. Cook Wanda Cornell David A. Corsini Roger Crossgrove Marilyn Cruthers Alice E. Cubanski Joseph J. Czapski Maurica D’Aquila Sara G. Dembrow Hannah Desio Janice Dibattista-Allen Ms. H. Jane Dibble Nancy E. Dubin Harriet K. & Frank M. Falcone John & Marianna Fells Margaret Francis Florence & Eugene H. Frank Anita Friedland Jack Friedstein Lester Frye Diana Gill Beverly S. Gordon Rhoda Gorfain Albert Gualtieri Ruth D. Gunn Donald G. Gunn Antoinette F. Gwiazdowski Sara Haroun Luciana Heineman Florence L. Hill Margie Hnatiuk Joan T. & William J. Hoyle Olive D. Isakson Careen Jennings Dorothy Bosch Keller Maryann Kouyoumjian Assunta D’Elia Kozel Joy S. Leary Valerie J. Leger Agnes B. Lotring Erna Luering Alexandra Malone Charlotte Mariani Emily Markiewicz Maureen C. Martin Dr. Thomas J. Masterson Helen M. McGuire Darlene McNaughton Patricia Mereen Josephine & John Merrill Mr. & Mrs. Robert Mohr Nancy L. Neiman-Hoffman Pam J. Nelson
Diane A. Norman Frances Ogulnick Sara O’Hearn Sarah B. Palmer Anne Bingham Pierson, M.D. Rev. Dr. Wayne D. Pokorny Nancy Davis Pratviel Jacqueline Princevalle Elaine Prokesch Edward Rogalski Betty A. Rokowski Robert Saunders Leo P. Savoie Gloria Sessions Carolyn Shattuck Paul E. Shelley Matthew M. Sheridan Alberta Sherman Mariea D. Spencer Poul Sterregaard Elaine Sylvia
Joseph L. Torchia Burriss G. Wilson Tekla Wirhun Barbara L. & Donald L. Zuccardy Dr. Leonard Zuckerbraun STUDENTS Joseph Dellaquila Blaney W. Harris Bushra F. Karim Erika Lamb Deirdre Lucas William J. Miller Rebecca Sajkowicz Mildred Savage Shih-Po Sun Teresa L. Winter * Deceased
A New Exhibition of Photographs to be Unveiled at Otis Library An exhibition of black and white photographs of members of the Mohegan tribe, which date from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, will be exhibited at the Otis Library Community Room beginning December 11, 2008. Duplicates of the original photographs were initially purchased by the Slater Memorial Museum in the 1980’s from the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York City. The original collection is now housed in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. The photographs include early images of Courtland Fowler, who was once the chairman of the Mohegan Tribal Council, members of the Tantaquidgeon family and other luminaries of the tribe. John Quidgeon, photo taken by Frank Speck, 1915
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Dr. Washington used Tuskegee to develop a network of wealthy philanthropists including Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller and John Fox Slater. On the one hand, Washington was criticized for including manual training and work in Tuskegee’s curriculum. On the other, he used his wealthy patrons to covertly fund and arrange legal representation in legal opposition to disenfranchising provisions of state constitutions. In 1915, Washington died at 59 of congestive heart failure, purportedly aggravated by overwork. At his death, Tuskegee’s endowment exceeded $1.5 million. In 1881 Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles founded Spelman College as Atlanta’s Baptist Female Seminary. The school’s classes first assembled in the basement of Friendship Baptist Church. By 1882, two more teachers commissioned by the Woman’s American Baptist Home Mission Society joined the “basement school.” In 1883, Packard and Giles were introduced to John D. Rockefeller who initially pledged $250, making it possible for the school to move to wooden buildings on its present site on nine acres and to open a “Model School” to train student teachers. Rockefeller’s initial pledge was succeeded by much more substantial support, and the school bears his wife’s maiden name. Her parents had been long time anti-slavery activists, and she had been educated in the Quaker tradition.
Hampton Bricklaying Class, 1899
Teachers, which later became Tuskegee Institute and then Tuskegee University, with the mission of educating a newly freed people for self-sufficiency. One of the most famous teachers at Tuskegee was George Washington Carver, whose name is synonymous with innovative research into Southern farming methods and crops. Tuskegee and Tuskegee Institute were also home to the famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen, the first squadron of African-American pilots in the U. S. Military. The school was the dream of Adams, a former slave and George W. Campbell, a former slave owner. Adams could read, write and speak several languages despite having no formal education. He was an experienced tinsmith, harness- and shoe-maker. He was especially concerned that, without an education, recently freed slaves would not be able to support themselves. Campbell had become a merchant and a banker and though he had little experience with educational institutions, he had ideas similar to Adams’.
In 1884, the college’s name was changed to Spelman Seminary in honor of abolitionists Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry Spelman. In 1887, the first group of graduates received high school diplomas. It was not until 1885 that Spelman engaged Sophia Jones, M.D., the first black female to join the faculty, and shortly thereafter, its nurse-training department was established. By 1888, Spelman was incorporated under a Board of Trustees and was chartered by the State of Georgia with Henry L. Morehouse as its first Board president.
Through astute politicking, Adams was able to secure African American votes in exchange for legislation authorizing funds for Tuskegee Normal School. Adams, Thomas Dyer, and M.B. Swanson formed Tuskegee’s first board of commissioners. They wrote to Hampton Institute, asking for a recommendation for to head their new school, and, although whites had always held such positions, 25-year-old Booker T. Washington was named to the post.
Dr. Simon Green Atkins (1863-1934) was the founder and first president of the Slater Industrial Institute. Atkins was born
Under Washington’s leadership, the new normal school opened on July 4, 1881, in space borrowed from a church. The following year, Washington bought the grounds of a former plantation, on which the campus is still located. Students, many of whom earned all or part of their expenses by working on campus, constructed the buildings. The school was a living example of Washington’s dedication to the concept of self-reliance.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
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Slater Industrial Academy and State Normal School began planning for a hospital and training program for nurses in 1899. It was dedicated on May 14, 1902, as a part of Slater Industrial Academy’s ninth commencement program. In addition to funding educational institutions, the John F. Slater Fund contributed the resources Dr. Simon Green Atkins, for scholarship and (1863-1934) publication in the field of social research that was intended to create educational opportunities for African Americans. An introduction to one such piece explains “These reports published by the John F. Slater Fund and written by the geographer Henry Gannett offer valuable information on the social and economic status of Southern African Americans on the eve of the twentieth century. The fund’s trustees sponsored papers such as these to report on developments in the region.”
Top Image: Junior Farm Management, Tuskegee Normal School, 1940
in Haywood, North Carolina, to farmers and former slaves, two years before the ending of legalized slavery. An excellent student, he exhibited an early passion for education. After a short time as a teacher, Atkins enrolled at St. Augustine’s Normal Collegiate Institute in Raleigh in 1880 and following graduation returned to Haywood to teach. Recognizing Atkins’ aptitude and competence as a teacher, the President of Livingstone College in Salisbury, N.C., in 1884 invited him to lead the College’s grammar school department.
One such publication was Statistics of the Negroes in the United States by Henry Gannett (Baltimore, 1894). Considered the Father of Government Mapmaking, Gannett was Chief Geographer for the U. S. Geological Survey and later for the U.S. Census. The book was described at the time as “A brief, lean, but detailed statistical history of the slave trade and diaspora of African Americans.
In 1890 the city of Winston offered Atkins the job of principal at the Depot Street School. In addition to his work as teacher and administrator, Atkins worked to start a college for African-Americans and to develop the community of Columbian Heights. Slater Industrial Academy later became Slater Industrial and Normal School (1895), Winston-Salem Teachers College (1925), Winston-Salem State College (1963), and after 1972, Winston-Salem State University.
Under the heading “Illiteracy and Education,” Gannett asserts, “Of the progress of the negro race in education, the statistics are by no means as full and comprehensive as is desirable. Such as we possess, however, go to indicate a remarkably rapid progress of the race in the elements of education. During the prevalence of slavery this race was kept in ignorance. Indeed, generally throughout
From 1904 to 1911, Atkins served as Secretary of Education for the African American Episcopal Zion Church and was church secretary for twenty years. He traveled extensively throughout the United States and represented the AME Zion Church at international ecumenical conferences in London (1901 and 1921) and Toronto (1911). Atkins was married in 1889 to Oleona Pegram of New Bern, North Carolina, and they had nine children, one of whom, Francis L. Atkins, succeeded his father as President of Winston-Salem Teachers College in 1934. Simon Green Atkins also developed Slater Hospital, the first hospital for African-Americans residing in WinstonSalem. Because obtaining adequate health care was difficult for African-Americans in the Jim Crow era,
Slater Industrial and Normal School Graduates, 1891
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the south it was held as a crime to teach the negroes to read and write, and naturally when they became freemen only a trifling proportion of them were acquainted with these elements of education. In 1870, five years after they became free, the records of the census show that only two-tenths of all the negroes over ten years of age in the country could write. Ten years later the proportion had increased to three-tenths of the whole number, and in 1890, only a generation after they were emancipated, not less than 43 out of every hundred negroes, of ten years of age and over, were able to read and write. These figures show a remarkably rapid progress in elementary education.”
We may never know what drove him, but his legacy lives on, having produced and producing today, scholars and leaders who still must overcome huge obstacles to becoming educated and reach their fullest potential. Looking beyond the obvious familial affection, one can see why John Fox Slater would be honored by William A. Slater and by NFA with a building named for him. It is easy to understand why the Norwich Chapter of the NAACP has chosen to honor John Fox Slater during its centennial celebrations. Today, NFA stands as a paean to the value of education as a universal equalizer and Slater Memorial Hall, a tribute to John Fox Slater. Sources consulted: _________”College and University Endowments Over $250-Million, 2007,” Chronicle of Higher Education, 28. __________ National Park Service “Hampton Institute” National Historic Landmark Summary Listing, Inventory, 11/4/08. Bayles, Richard M. History of Windham County, Connecticut, New York: W.W. Preston, 1889. Hadley, Wade; Horton, Doris, and Strowd, Nell. Chatham County: 17711971, 1971. “Hampton University Admissions,” available: www. hamptonu.edu .11/4/08. Henry, Philip, Speas, Carol, Eds. The Heritage of Blacks in North Carolina, Vol. I, 1990. Franklin, Fabian The Life of Daniel Coit Gilman, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1910. Lamb, Robert W. Editor, Our Twin Cities of the Nineteenth Century: Norfolk and Portsmouth, Their Past, Present and Future, Norfolk, VA: Barcroft, . 1887–8 Powell, William S. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979. Rettig. Polly M. and Bradford, S. S., Daniel Coit Gilman Summer Home “Over Edge,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination: , 3/8/76. Stimpert, James. Johns Hopkins University, “Frequently Asked Questions,” available: http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_ about_hopkins/about_jhu/frequently_asked_ questions/index.cfm, 11/408 Forsyth County, North Carolina. “Digital Forsyth” available: http://www.digitalforsyth.org/
Gannett continues, “In 1860 the number of negroes who were enrolled in the schools of the south was absolutely trifling. Since the abolition of slavery the number has increased with the greatest rapidity. …. The proportion of negro school children increased at a far more rapid rate than that of the white school children …Only one generation has elapsed since the slaves were freed. To raise a people from slavery to civilization is a matter, not of years, but of many generations. The progress which the race has made in this generation in industry, morality, and education is a source of the highest gratification to all friends of the race, to all excepting those who expected a miraculous conversion” Certainly, John Fox Slater’s money and influence had a part in this rapid progress. What inspired John Fox Slater, close to the end of his life, to pour a million dollars into researching and educating freed slaves and their descendants? Certainly there were needs “at home” in Norwich. Could he have had the prescience to see that education would not only raise a single people, but their neighbors as well? Did he anticipate that streams of former slaves and their families would head to the industrialized North to work in the mills and factories? Or was it guilt over the years he and his family enjoyed the proceeds from their toil in the cotton fields of the South?
Slater Hospital
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Coming soon to the Slater Museum 66TH ANNUAL CONNECTICUT ARTISTS EXHIBITION February 22 - April 2, 2009 CALL TO ARTISTS - The prospectus for the 66th Annual CT Artists Exhibition is now available online. Artists may submit work February 7 & 8, 2009. Full details at www.slatermuseum.org Artist Ron Cruzan will be the juror for the 66th Annual CT Artists Exhibition, which will feature paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculpture, graphics and photography by resident artists of Connecticut. All are welcome to attend the opening reception and awards ceremony Sunday, February 22, 2009 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. Tibetan Boy by Christopher Zhang, 2008 Award Winner Slater Memorial Museum Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Closed to the public on Mondays and holidays Visitors may park in designated visitor parking spaces or any empty parking place on campus. Parking is difficult between 1:30 and 2:15 p.m. during school days due to the school buses. The museum’s main telephone number is (860) 887-2506. A recording will provide information on current exhibitions, days of operation, directions, admission fees and access to staff voice mailboxes. Visit us on the web at: www.slatermuseum.org