USA > North Carolina > Chowan County > Economic and social history of Chowan County, North Carolina, 1880-1915 > Part 12
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1 By reference to table 17, p. 283, it will be seen that during the five school years 1909-10-1913-14, the average annual expenditure for new buildings and repairs was $2330 and $136 for white and colored, re- spectively.
According to an interview with the superintendent in November 1916, since his statement to me in 1914, the following additional construction had been undertaken: for white children, one one-room and two two- room modern buildings completed, and one two-room and two three- room modern building in process of construction; for colored, one one- room modern building erected (the first and only modern building in the county for colored), and one three-room building enlarged and re- modeled so as to approach rather near state specifications. During 1916 Edenton put up for its white children a modern school-building, which, when completely equipped, will have cost in the neighborhood of $30,000.
2 These facts were furnished by the county superintendent in April 1915.
3 Facts regarding the seats were taken from the state superintendent's Biennial Report for 1912-13 and 1913-14, which gives the conditions existing at the close of the school year 1913-14.
4 Cf. table 17, p. 283.
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CHOW AN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
[170
$1.83 per head in 1880 to $18.21 per head in 1914, and for colored the increase was from 21 cents per head in 1880 to $3.48 per head in 1914.1
EXPENDITURES
Not only has the value of the school property increased several times over since 1880, but the same is true for " total expenditures." During the period of 1880-3 the average annual per-capita expenditure for the total school population was $1.65. For the five-year period 1909-10-1913-14 the average was $4.89.1 The increase, however, seems to have been largely devoted to the white children. The item of expense for teaching is given separately in both periods and so can be compared. For teaching whites, the average annual expenditure per head of the white school-population for 1880-3 was $1.35, and for the colored the corresponding figure was $1.28. During the five school years 1909-10- 1913-14 the average annual expenditure was $5.46 and $1.37 for white and colored respectively. In other words, while the expenditure per head of the white school-popula- tion for teaching white children for the latter period was more than four times annually what it was for the former, that for the colored hardly increased at all. Reduced to percentages, the increase for whites was 304.4 per cent per head and for colored, 7 per cent.
TEACHERS
Training .- The degree of fitness possessed by the teachers is considerably higher now than in the eighties. During the five-year period 1909-10- 1913-14, of the public school teachers of the county, 30.6 per cent of the white and 13.4 per cent of the colored held college diplomas, while 66.9
1 Cf. table 20, p. 286.
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FORMAL EDUCATION IN 1915
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per cent of the white and 82.4 per cent of the colored had had " normal training."1 It should be added, however, that the normal schools not only do high school work but many even do grade work, and that a number of the teach- ers have had only a few months even of this. Furthermore, the attendance at either a two-weeks teachers' county in- stitute or a four-weeks' summer school (required of each teacher every two years) is reckoned as "normal training." It is thus seen that the phrase, "normal training," is not very definite and frequently means very little. As the county superintendent recently expressed it, "It [normal training] is a rather uncertain quantity." Notwithstand- ing the improvement noted in the quality of the teachers, most of them are still sadly lacking in any special training for teaching; many have not had more than the equivalent of a four-year high-school course, and some not even that.2
Feminization .- Formerly much of the teaching was done by men, but this is no longer the case. From 1909 to 1914 all white teachers in the county, except the city superintend- ent and one rural teacher, were women. Since 1914, aside from the city superintendent, they have all been women. For the most of these latter, teaching is merely a method of marking time while waiting for the matrimonial car. Not expecting to follow very long the teaching of the chil- dren of the public for a livelihood, they quite naturally pre- fer " tending " a good " prospect " to " boning" for special training in public school work. The colored schools still have a few male teachers, but here also, the women are gradually replacing the men.
1 Calculations made from data found in Biennial Reports, op. cit.
2 In his Biennial Report for 1912-13 and 1913-14, p. 25, the state su- perintendent says, "I am profoundly convinced that efficient teaching and efficient supervision are the most pressing needs of our public schools at this time."
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CHOW AN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA [172
Salaries .- The rate of pay for white teachers has been considerably increased since the eighties. Their average monthly salary in the rural schools for 1913-14 was $39, an increase of 62.6 per cent over that (23.98) for the period 1881-4. In some of the local-tax districts the in- crease was still more. The pay of colored teachers has in- creased very little, their average monthly salaries in 1913- 14 being only $25.43, as against $22.04 during 1881-4, an increase of but 15.4 per cent. The regulation salary for the white rural teacher holding a first-grade certificate is $40 a month, while for the same grade colored teacher it is only $27.50. The white and colored teachers with second-grade certificates receive $30 and $22.50 respec- tively.1 The average amount paid to each rural teacher for the school year 1913-14 was $237.90 to the white and $128.48 to the colored. The average annual salary paid to teachers during the five-year period 1909-10-1913-14 was $186.77 to the white and $103.89 to the colored.2
INSTRUCTION
Task of Teachers .- Uniformity of books is now required, and so the teacher is able to place all the pupils of the same grade and subject in one class. The number of subjects she may be called upon to teach, however, has about trebled,3 and in 1914 twenty-two of the thirty-four rural schools -
1 Cf. p. 160, and table 21, p. 287, for salaries. The percentage in- crease is calculated from the salaries at the two different periods.
2 Calculations made from data found in the Biennial Reports, op. cit.
3 " It [the law] requires .... the teaching of thirteen subjects in the one-teacher schools. It is absolutely impossible for one teacher, with as many children as are to be found in the average rural school in seven grades, to do thoro work in so many subjects." State Super- intendent J. Y. Joyner, in his Biennial Report for the years 1912-13 and 1913-14, part i, p. 31.
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FORMAL EDUCATION IN 1915
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were still one-teacher establishments 1 holding from twenty- five to thirty-five recitations daily. Such institutions of learning can be called graded schools only by courtesy.
Short-sightedness .- One great drawback has been and continues to be the multiplicity of school districts. For the whites there are twenty,2 including Edenton, and this in a county with an area of only 178 square miles, more than 13 per cent of which is swamp in which no one lives. Thus, on an average each school serves a territory of less than nine square miles, including the swamps. Each individual wants the school located just across the road from him, and if he cannot have a fairly good school of two or three teachers right at his door, he frequently fights for the little one-room school. An additional half-mile or mile nearer the school means far more to him than does the quality of the school.
Length of Term .- During the five-year period 1909-10- 1913-14 the average rural school term in the regular dis- tricts was about twenty weeks for whites and eighteen for colored. In the local-tax districts the terms were two or three weeks longer. Thus far, however, the majority of the local-tax proceeds has gone for better equipment and higher- priced teachers.
Attendance .- In any case, probably more significant than the length of the term is the number in attendance. Taking the whole county, for the whites, during the period 1909-10 -1913-14 the annual average of the percentages which the average attendance formed of the school population was
1 Biennial Report, op. cit., part ii, pp. 155 and 158. In October 1916, the county superintendent informed me that for the school year then about to begin, nine of the eighteen white rural schools and seven of the fifteen colored would start with two or more teachers.
2 Since this was written, two white districts have consolidated, making one less.
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CHOW AN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA [174
48.9, as against 29.7 for the period 1881-4. The corres- ponding figures for the colored were 43.6 and 37.6. In the rural schools the average attendance for the five-year period 1909-10-1913-14 was only 2.1 per cent less for colored than for whites, but in Edenton the difference was much greater. Here were found the highest for white (55.6), and the lowest for colored (35.4). The poor showing for the colored, however, is at least partially, if not entirely, accounted for by the fact that several of them were at- tending some one of the three colored private schools.1 For the later period the attendance was better for both races than at any time before, and yet during this period, on an average, less than three-fourths of the school population was enrolled, and less than one-half in regular attendance.2
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
Edenton has three colored denominational schools, whose total enrollment for 1914-15 was 220.3 Some thirty or forty per cent of the pupils, however, come from counties other than Chowan. One of these schools does work of such quality that its graduates are able to get first-grade certifi- cates in the county.
There are no regularly taught private schools for whites. Occasionally some woman will run a little " pay " school for small children when the public school is not in session.
LITERACY
Since the dispelling of ignorance is the principal avowed aim of the public-school system, the degree to which this
1 According to the superintendent of one of these schools, the three had enrolled in 1914-15 about 40 pupils (some 30 per cent of the total negro school-population) from the graded-school district of Edenton.
2 Cf. table 19, p. 285.
3 Enrollment furnished in April 1915 by the principal of one of the schools.
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FORMAL EDUCATION IN 1915
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has been effected may be taken as a certain measure of its efficiency. The one great trouble, however, in applying this criterion, is that there are statistics covering neither the amount of ignorance existing in 1880, nor the extent to which it has since been dissipated. The only thing bearing on this point at all concerning which we have statistics, is illiter- acy. This itself is very unsatisfactory, since the test of liter- acy-the ability barely to read and write, which, according to the Bureau of the U. S. Census, places one on the literacy side of the fence-in no way indicates the amount of formal training. This test simply establishes a minimum; those who have had the equivalent of the first two or three pri- mary grades are classed with those who have completed a university course.1 This test, however, is of value in that it shows the number below the minimum, and by comparison of different periods, the trend of the population as regards literacy.
The first U. S. Census report on illiteracy by counties was for 1900, and so the only facts which indicate the direction and rate of change are those brought out by a comparison of the opposite ends of one decade only. In 1900 prac- tically two-fifths (39.6 per cent) of the native males of voting age were classed as illiterate. Ten years later this proportion had decreased to slightly more than one-fourth (26.I per cent). Among the total native population ten years old and over, illiteracy declined from 37.6 per cent in 1900 to 18.6 per cent in 1910, a drop of almost 50 per cent. For the colored of this age-group, the fall was from 51 per cent in 1900 to 25.5 per cent in 1910, a fall of exactly 50 per cent. Of the
1 " In general the 'literate' population in this report should be un- derstood as including all persons who have had even the slightest amount of schooling, while the illiterates represent persons who have had no schooling whatever." U. S. Census report for 1910, vol. i, p. 1185.
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CHOWAN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA [176
group ten to twenty years old, inclusive, only 4.9 per cent in 1910 were classed as illiterate.1 The only gratify- ing thing about the foregoing figures is that they show. that the dark cloud of illiteracy is being gradually rolled back. The facts, however, that one of every four of the adult native males and one of every six of all natives ten years old and over are unable to read and write, pro- claim rather loudly the inefficiency of the county's public school system in the past; and the fact that in 1910 prac- tically one out of every twenty in the group from ten to twenty years old, was unable to communicate with his fellow human beings except by personal intercourse, would seem to indicate that something was very seriously lacking somewhere, even quite recently. It should be remembered, however, that the few rural local-tax districts have all been established since 1909, and that the few modern buildings in the county have been erected since the same date. These developments clearly indicate an awakening interest in the public-schools on the part of the people whom the schools are intended to serve, and we may confidently expect the next decennial census to show the percentage of illiteracy among those from ten to twenty years old to be considerably lower than it was in 1910.
READING
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In closing this chapter a word should be said in regard to the reading now being done. The three factors-poor lights, the inability of any but a small per cent to read with ease and understanding, and the scarcity of anything attrac- tive to read-chiefly responsible for the small amount of reading in the eighties, have been greatly changed. Though the light in a great number of the homes is
1 For the statistical facts of this paragraph, cf. table 22, p. 287.
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FORMAL EDUCATION IN 1915
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still poor, it is vastly better than it was; and in many it is comparatively good. The percentage of those able to read with both pleasure and profit to themselves has increased probably fivefold, while the amount of reading matter has increased probably an hundredfold. Not only has the num- ber of school text-books increased considerably, but in the summer of 1914 no less than nineteen of the twenty public schools for whites and ten of the sixteen for colored had small libraries of well-selected books of their own.1 With possibly one or two exceptions, these had all been installed since 1909. Notwithstanding the progress made, however, aside from school-books, hymn-books, and Bibles, at least eighty per cent of the homes still are almost, if not alto- gether, destitute of books. There is also a great dearth of standard magazines. These go into not over five per cent of the homes.
The amount of reading now done is probably a hundred times what it was three and a half decades ago. Much (per- haps the greater part) of this increase, however, has been in newspaper reading. With the increased means of know- ing the outside world and the increased ability of taking ad- vantage of these means, there has grown up an increased desire to know what is going on nationally and internation- ally, as well as locally. To satisfy this desire, resort is usu- ally had to the newspapers. The majority of home owners and some tenants are now regular subscribers to one or more papers. The accompanying list gives the newspapers with the largest circulation in the county.
1 Information furnished by the county superintendent.
178 CHOWAN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA
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NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION 1 IN CHOWAN COUNTY, N. C., DURING THE FIRST QUARTER OF 1915
Circulation
Publication
Location
Character
Daily
Semi- weekly
Weekly
Advance
E. City, N. C ... |General
5
Albermarle Observer.
Edenton, N. C ..
394
Biblical Recorder .. ..
Raleigh, N. C ..
Denominational
77
Christian Advocate
.. |Raleigh, N. C ..
38
Independent. .
E. City, N. C .. .
General
105
Ledger-Dispatch
Norfolk, Va ....
"
43
News & Observer.
Raleigh, N. C ..
47
Progressive Farmer ..
Raleigh, N. C ..
Agricultural
228
Virginian-Pilot.
Norfolk, Va .
General
332
212
Totals
422
217
842
1 The circulation of these publications was furnished by their respective man- agers. A few other newspapers have a very small circulation here, but statistics cannot be given, as the managers who were written to failed to reply.
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CHAPTER XVI SOCIAL CUSTOMS
VISITING IN THE EIGHTIES
THE country people of Chowan were great visitors. It was customary to load up the whole family (anywhere from four to ten persons), drive over to a neighboring family, and there spend the entire day, without having previously given any notice of the intended visit. The favorite day for such all-day visits was Sunday, so on Sundays most families usually made ready for company even though they were expecting no one in particular. Three or four times the amount of such things as cakes and pies necessary for the immediate family were generally prepared the day be- fore. The other foods were largely prepared after the visitors arrived.
If it was a fine day and one wanted to go visiting, he arose before daylight,1 had an early breakfast, and got off soon after sunrise, lest someone should come to visit him and catch him home before he could get away; or lest the people he intended to visit should themselves go visiting before he arrived. He stayed all day, generally for supper as well as for dinner, enjoying the best his host could give, and fre- quently far better than he was really able to afford. Some people liked company so well and entertained so lavishly and much, that they nearly "broke themselves up." It was
1 Early stirring was necessary for a woman who had breakfast to cook, four or five children to wash and dress, and herself to "fix up," before starting.
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CHOW AN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA [180
nothing extraordinary for some families to have from ten to twelve persons for both dinner and supper of a Sunday, which in turn meant from two to six extra horses to feed.
VISITING IN 1915
Friends and relatives still drop in on each other un- announced, but more and more is it becoming the custom to inform one's prospective host of an intended visit. And while visiting still continues, the amount done is greatly reduced. This is doubtless largely due to the more widely spread ability to read, and the far greater supply of reading- matter. Now, one does not even have to go from home for the neighborhood gossip, since this is furnished by the county weekly. Thus, under present conditions many can get more information by staying at home than they can by visiting. As for social intercourse, there are abundant op- portunities for that at public gatherings, of which there are many more now than formerly.
GANGS IN THE EIGHTIES
Gang Defined .- Whenever a farmer had a piece of work which was too great for his own force to tackle effectively, he had a generally recognized right, provided he himself was of the neighborly sort, to call for free assistance from as many of his neighbors as were necessary to its accomplish- ment. A group of people thus brought together was known as a "gang." The essential distinction between such a gathering and any other body of people laboring together, was that a member of a gang expected no financial reward. By helping his neighbors he simply retained their good wishes and sustained his own right to call upon them for aid on similar occasions. The only direct expense upon the person having a gang was the cost of the food and drink, it being customary for him to furnish plenty of liquors-
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SOCIAL CUSTOMS
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of which both sexes and all ages freely partook-and plenty of something good to eat. It was in setting the table on such occasions that good housewives had an opportunity to prove their quality. These were the times when they made, upheld, or lost their reputation of being the "right sort."
Log-rolling. - Log-rollings offered the best opportunity of any of the gang meetings for one to try out his skill and strength against others of his neighborhood, and were especi- ally attractive to the young and the physically vigorous. The logs were not really " rolled," but toted-picked up on five- foot hand sticks, two men to the stick, and carried. When a mań wanted to demonstrate his physical superiority over another, he challenged the other to tote with him. If his challenge was accepted, when they got under a heavy turn each would try to lift so much from his end of the stick that the other could not " come " (lift his end), or if he did come, would eventually be either pulled down, or made to drop it. When a fellow could not come up with his end, or was pulled down, he was said to be " mashed."
Hog-killing .- At all big gangs a few of the neighboring women generally were asked to come over and help cook and serve.1 At hog-killings, however, women as well as men were needed to work, and hence were asked. They ""rid the chitlings " (stripped the fat from the entrails), helped wash them (the washing was often done at some running branch where, if the weather was cold, the ice had to be broken in order to get to the water), then turned and rewashed in warm water those that were to be used as casings for the sausage meat.
About the only time men and women were ever weighed was at hog-killings. After the hogs were all dressed and weighed, each man would hang on to the balance hook and
1 This was necessary, especially if there were no girls in the family, since comparatively few families in the rural districts had any servants.
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CHOWAN COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA [182
have himself weighed. Then the women would be called out. Not being supposed to be able to hang on, as did the men, a rope swing would be attached to the balance hook and the women were weighed sitting in this swing.
General Attitude Towards Gangs .- The chief gangs were house-movings, log-rollings, brick-settings, and hog-killings. Few people objected to going to legitimate gangs-gangs such as those just mentioned. In fact, a person felt some- what snubbed and piqued if all those around him were asked to a gang and he was not. It meant, in substance, that the fellow having the gang felt more or less unfriendly towards him and hence cared to have no more dealings with him for the time being. A gang, however, to cut a man's wood, or to maul his rails-except in special cases, for instance where he had had a long spell of sickness - was not considered legitimate, and hence was looked upon with disfavor. Such gangs were not customary, and it was felt that anyone hav- ing them was simply trying to get out of doing his work himself.
Gangs, while called together to do some piece of work, were, nevertheless, quite enjoyable. They were looked upon as a variety of outing, or picnic to which the great majority of people, if not exceedingly busy with their own work, were fond of going. They were truly social functions which af- forded much real, wholesome pleasure and diversion. This is evidenced by the local expression, " hog-killing time." To say to a host or hostess, on taking leave, " I've had a hog- killing time " means " I have been most delightfully enter- tained, and have enjoyed myself immensely." Why should gangs not be enjoyable occasions? The conditions to make them so approached the ideal-a social crowd, an oppor- tunity to match one's skill and strength with that of his fellows; enough work to create a good appetite and stimu- late a vigorous digestion, the best things to eat and drink
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SOCIAL CUSTOMS
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which the section afforded, always some, frequently not a few of the fairer sex, the feeling that one was doing his duty by his neighbors, and the knowledge that his aid was in reality aid being stored up against the time when he him- self should have need of the combined efforts of several.
GANGS IN 1915
Gangs now are largely a thing of the past. Most of the timber has been cut, and it if had not been, no one would think of heaping it up and burning it, since there is a market for it. Now, when one is going to clear a piece of land, he first hauls off the mill timber, if any, and then cuts the smaller stuff up for fire-wood; so there are no more logs to roll.
Bricks are no longer made around through the country where they happen to be needed, but instead are now shipped in by people who follow brick-making as a business, and who set their own bricks as they make them. So there are no more brick-settings to go to.
House-moving gangs have also become far less frequent. In the first place, now, when a person is going to build, he usually does more planning than was customary years ago, hence is not so likely to find within a few years that his buildings need to be rearranged. This makes far less moving necessary than formerly. In the second place, many of those who have houses to move, now hire it done by some one who is equipped for such work.
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