USA > North Carolina > History of North Carolina: The Federal Period 1783-1860, Volume II > Part 29
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
continue, only to be repaid by exactions and derision? Are we helpless, or are we indifferent to the wants of our house- hold? Could we not, as a state, and should we not, transfer the employment now given to others, to those of our own state? Have we no labor that would be glad of employment, no fuel or timber to spare, no worthy young men for our employees, no commerce to foster and encourage?"
The other appeal was to the sectional struggle then brew- ing. "Now that the Southern cloud, long portending revolu- tion, is ready to burst with vehemence and tear up sovereign- ties to their foundation, shall it be said that the call of 200,000 of our citizens is unseasonable, when asking aid to dissever their past connections and secure to them the full benefits of their natural allegiance? * The storm now impend- ing proclaims that they must be looked to, and no longer be permitted to wander into strange folds. We must all be one, and be all united in interest, in feeling, and commerce. Can Georgia coolly vote a million for muskets, and North Car- olina hesitate to loan as much to reclaim, in the hour of peril, so large a portion of her people and her territory from do- minion that in a month may be entirely foreign ?- to reclaim her sons and her daughters, and bind them by indissoluble bonds into her own family ?- to identify their interests, their feelings, and their sentiments with their own ?- and to add to her own wealth, her strength and greatness, in case she must resume her sovereignty and take her stand amidst the nations of the earth?"
The Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherfordton, the Atlan- tic and North Carolina, and the Western North Carolina were the large undertakings during the decade from 1850 to 1860. But activity was not confined to these. A host of minor roads were chartered but not constructed. Some of these foreshadowed development of the post-bellum period. To connect Fayetteville and the coalfields of Chatham a pri- vate road was undertaken; this was rechartered as the West- ern Railroad and was loaned $200,000 by the state in 1858, for which a mortgage was taken. In 1860 it was authorized to build an extension to Greensboro, and in the same year the Wilmington and Weldon, formerly the Wilmington and
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Raleigh, was authorized to build a branch from Wilmington to Fayetteville. Thus was initiated the present line from Greensboro to Wilmington, completed after the Civil War. Lines were also chartered to connect Greensboro and Leaks- ville, and High Point with Winston and Danbury, which are also suggestive of later development. Further west a road was chartered in 1856 to connect Lenoir with the Western North Carolina, realized later in the Carolina and North Western. East of Greensboro the University Railroad, to connect Chapel Hill with the North Carolina Railroad, was chartered in 1860. The same year the Chatham Railroad, to connect the coal fields with Raleigh, was incorporated and was given a state subscription of $200,000; while to reach the coal fields from South Carolina the Cheraw and Coalfields had been chartered in 1856. Thus was projectecd the present stem of the Seaboard Air Line south of Raleigh. Further east the Albemarle and Suffolk, to connect Suffolk, Virginia, with Edenton, and the Southern Air Line, to connect Wash- ington and Wilmington, were chartered in 1856, very sug- gestive of the present Norfolk Southern. Among other roads chartered were the Williamston and Tarboro, the Greenville and Goldsboro, the Washington and Leaksville, the Warsaw and Fayetteville. Thus a network of railways connecting all sections and bringing the people into closer contact with markets and with one another was projected. The revival of railway activity after 1865 was a logical sequence of ante- bellum interests.
The railroad was not the only means of transportation prompted by individuals and aided by the state. The plank road was popular for a decade after 1848. It was constructed by laying three or four sleepers or stringers in parallel, close to the ground, and then covering them with boards three or four inches thick. Such a road was thought to be cheaper than "the road of iron," and was therefore introduced in certain sections where sufficient capital and state aid could not be secured for railways. Fayetteville was the most prom- inent terminus for plank roads. In 1848 the Fayetteville and Western Plank Road Company was incorporated to connect Fayetteville and Salisbury. It was capitalized at $200,000,
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
with authority to increase to $300,000, and the state sub- scribed three-fifths. Two years later the Fayetteville and Centre Plank Road was chartered to extend from Fayetteville to Stanly County and the state in 1854 extended aid by a bond issue of $50,000; likewise the Fayetteville and Warsaw, to bring Fayetteville in touch with Warsaw, on the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad, and the Fayetteville and Northern to connect Fayetteville and Raleigh were chartered in 1854, the former receiving state aid to the amount of $10,000. Evi- dently it was anticipated that plank roads would bring to Fayetteville a volume of business that railways brought else- where. In fact the possibilities of the plank road made a wide appeal. Practically every town with a large population and ambitious trade hoped to become a terminus for one or more of these lines. Charlotte, Salisbury, Asheville, Wilmington, Oxford, and Concord were termini of roads incorporated in 1850, and in 1852 more than a score of new lines were char- tered. Concerning the construction and service of these roads, little is known. The Fayetteville and Western was built from Fayetteville through Carthage, Ashboro, thence to High Point and Winston, instead of to Salisbury, and the state stock amounted to $120,000. The state also subscribed $30,000 to the stock of the Fayetteville and Albemarle. Divi- dends were paid for a few years by the Fayetteville and Western and then the profits declined.
Contemporary with the construction of the later railroads and the plank road movement came a revival of the early schemes for canal and river navigation. In 1848 a subscrip- tion of $25,000 was made to the stock of the Tar River Naviga- tion Company, and an additional subscription of $15,000 was later made in 1854. In 1848, also, $40,000 were subscribed to the Neuse River Navigation Company, to which an additional subscription of $80,000 was added in 1852. In 1854 the Yad- kin Navigation Company was granted aid to the amount of $5,000. In 1854 $20,000 were subscribed to the New River Navigation Company. These appropriations, like those be- fore 1830, were practically fruitless. The improvement of the Tar River was undertaken without proper understanding of the difficulties, and with no fixed determination to finish the
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
work. By 1858 the Neuse Navigation Company was insolvent, but the Cape Fear and Deep River Company to which $300,000 were subscribed, a mortgage being taken, did succeed in mak- ing navigable the Cape Fear from Fayetteville to the coal region of Chatham County; west of the coal fields, nothing was accomplished; in 1858, to protect its interest, the state purchased the property and the company under a foreclosure sale.
A new venture was the construction of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, to connect the extreme northeastern coun- ties with Suffolk, Virginia. As early as 1807 such a work had been a part of Gallatin's plans for inland water ways. In 1854 the legislature chartered a corporation to undertake the canal and authorized the endorsement of its bonds to the extent of $250,000. In 1856, the bonds not having been sold, the endorsement was withdrawn, and an immediate subscrip- tion of $250,000 to the stock was ordered, to be followed by another subscription of $100,000 when navigation should be opened the entire length of the canal. This was accomplished by 1859, and the additional subscription was paid in. The route of the canal was from North River, a tributary of Albe- inarle Sound, to Currituck Sound, thence up the North Land- ing River, thence westwardly through an excavated channel to Elizabeth River in the vicinity of Norfolk.
Evidently by 1860 the state was facing an economic trans- formation. Agriculture was still the leading occupation but better methods and increased production were an actuality. Manufacturing and mining were close competitors for new thought and effort. Railroads, plankroads and canals were bringing the people into better communication with markets, and the various sections of the state into closer contact. In- dustrially a new sense of statehood was at hand, which coin- cided with. the new sense of social values revealed in the common school system and the asylums.
Vol. II-23
CHAPTER XVIII
ACADEMIES AND HIGHER EDUCATION
Between 1783 and 1860 intellectual life in North Carolina underwent a transformation as notable as the changes in po- litical and economic organization. Its manifestations are found in the rise of private schools and colleges, the expansion of the press, the foundation of professional societies, the gene- sis of literature, and the advent of a certain pride in the pos- sibilities of life in North Carolina.
The real index of educational interest was not the public school but the academy. The collapse of the restrictions on the incorporation of schools, maintained by the British Gov- ernment during the colonial period, was followed by the grant of charters to academies by the legislature. In 1777 the noted Queen's Museum was incorporated as Liberty Hall Academy ; in 1779 Science Hall at Hillsboro and Granville Hall in Gran- ville County received charters; likewise Smith Academy at Edenton in 1782. With the return of peace in 1783 incorpor- ation of academies increased, the number chartered from then until 1860 being 321. Practically every county in the state had one or more of these institutions. Their location and dates of incorporation by counties were as follows:
County
No. of Academies
Years of Incorporation
Alamance
1
1850
Anson
10
1791, 1800, 1802, 1821, 1822, 1822, 1829, 1833, 1842, 1854
Ashe
1
1860
Beaufort
6
1808, 1822, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1860
Bertie
8
1806, 1807, 1823, 1825, 1832, 1850,
1850, 1850
Bladen
3
1797, 1810, 1850
Brunswick
1
1798
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
No. of Academies
Years of Incorporation
Buncombe
3
1805, 1818, 1834
Burke
3
1783, 1828, 1858
Cabarrus
2
1810, 1812
Camden
3
1810, 1819, 1830
Carteret
4
1807, 1810, 1823, 1842
Caswell
4
1802, 1805, 1818, 1847
Chatham
8
1786, 1797, 1817, 1818, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1854
Cherokee
1
1858
Chowan
2
1800, 1833
Cleveland
2
1848, 1848
Craven
2
1798, 1812
Cumberland
10
1799, 1809, 1830, 1831, 1831, 1832, 1832, 1847, 1854, 1854
Currituck
2
1789, 1835
Davidson
5
1823, 1825, 1833, 1854, 1854
Davie
1
1826
Duplin
8
1785, 1801, 1813, 1814, 1825, 1828, 1834, 1842
Edgecombe
15
1793, 1813, 1822, 1823, 1823, 1824, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1830, 1835, 1842, 1847, 1850
Franklin
10
1786, 1802, 1814, 1821, 1842, 1847, 1847, 1847, 1850, 1854
Gaston
1
1848
Gates
3
1820, 1832, 1832
Granville
9
1799, 1810, 1811, 1813, 1835, 1842, 1854, 1860, 1860
Greene
5
1805, 1812, 1813, 1825, 1835
Guilford
8
1798, 1809, 1816, 1823, 1833, 1833, 1835, 1854
Halifax
7
1809, 1810, 1814, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1846
Haywood
2
1809,1860
Hertford
6
1797, 1809, 1830, 1847, 1848, 1848
Hyde
1
1814
Iredell
7
1814, 1821, 1822, 1834, 1844, 1848, 1854
Johnston
3
1819, 1821, 1848
Jones
3
1807, 1818, 1854
Lenoir
6
1785, 1802, 1817, 1828, 1842, 1850
Lincoln
2
1813, 1821
Martin
3
1816, 1830, 1850
Mecklenburg
4
1811, 1821, 1821, 1834
Montgomery
4
1797, 1818, 1819, 1824
Moore
5
1799, 1805, 1809, 1811, 1833
Nash
6
1817, 1818, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1832
New Hanover
8
1783, 1804, 1833, 1834, 1847, 1850, 1850, 1854
355
County
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
County
No. of Academies
Years of Incorporation
Northampton
1
1833
Onslow
7
1783, 1783, 1791, 1809, 1810, 1824, 1850
Orange
10
1784, 1814, 1818, 1819, 1824, 1829, 1838, 1850, 1852, 1860
Pasquotank
4
1804, 1807, 1809, 1820
Perquimans
6
1806, 1816, 1817, 1820, 1830, 1831
Person
1
1833
Pitt
6
1786, 1814, 1830, 1830, 1831, 1848
Randolph
7
1798, 1824, 1828, 1838, 1842, 1850, 1854
Richmond
5
1788, 1789, 1804, 1809, 1829
Robeson
13
1793, 1793, 1806, 1808, 1812, 1819, 1823, 1826, 1831, 1833, 1848, 1848, 1850
Rockingham
4
1801, 1819, 1819, 1825
Rowan
4
1784, 1798, 1806, 1838
Rutherford
2
1806, 1838
Sampson
5
1821, 1825, 1827, 1834, 1850
Stokes
5
1809, 1824, 1832, 1833, 1834
Surry
2
1818, 1833
Tyrrel
2
1819, 1842
Wake
12
1801, 1818, 1824, 1826, 1827, 1829, 1830, 1832, 1833, 1848, 1854, 1854
Warren
5
1786, 1820, 1822, 1833, 1842
Washington (Tenn.) .
1
1783
Washington
1
1810
Wayne
6
1810, 1813, 1818, 1832, 1846, 1848
Wilkes
3
1805, 1810, 1819
The academies, while varying one from another in detail, had certain general characteristics. In their curricula empha- sis was placed on the classics, mathematics, and formal Eng- lish. In addition "ornamental subjects" such as music, paint- ing, and needlework were offered in the female departments, and sometimes in the male departments bookkeeping, natural philosophy, and astronomy. Some institutions went no fur- ther in their curricula than the modern high school; others, notably Newbern Academy, duplicated two years of college work and offered courses in logic and moral philosophy. Nearly every institution also required religious instruction based on compulsory church attendance, the Catechism, and textbooks on religion. In government and discipline the au-
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
thority of the trustees was strictly applied. They prescribed the curriculum, enacted rules of conduct for the students, de- fined the rights of the masters, conducted public examinations, and even administered discipline. Teachers were recruited from various sources ; the clergy, especially those of the Pres- byterian Church, furnished a large proportion; likewise the University. A common type was the roving master who rarely taught more than a few seasons at one place. Salaries varied from $400 to $1,000. Income was derived from tuition fees and, until prohibited by law in 1825, from lotteries. Lan- castrian methods were employed in academies at Fayetteville, Raleigh, Newbern, and in Mecklenburg County, between 1814 and 1825.
Two variations from the academy were the military and the manual labor schools. The impetus for the former seems to have been the war spirit that pervaded the nation during the controversy of the United States with France and Eng- land between 1803 and 1812. In 1810 Archibald Murphy con- ducted schools for the training of the militia in Stokes and ad- joining counties. Similar work was undertaken by Mr. Wren in Northampton and other eastern counties. Summer schools of military training were advertised during 1812 at Chapel Hill, Raleigh, and Louisburg. The first military academy was that of D. H. Bingham, a graduate of Partridge Military School, Connecticut, established at Williamsboro, Granville County, under the name of Southern Military School. It was later removed to Littleton, then Oxford, and finally to Raleigh, where it collapsed. Similar schools were also established at Fayetteville, Wilmington, and Raleigh before 1840. How- ever the martial spirit in education was not so strong in North Carolina as in the neighboring states and the early military schools did not flourish. But in the last decade before 1860 the idea of military training received a new impetus. The North Carolina Military Academy at Charlotte was chartered in 1858 and the Hillsborough Military Academy in 1859; each had a curriculum higher than that of the average academy.
The manual labor school reflected the Pestalozzi-Fellen- burg ideal, popularized in the United States by Theodore D. Weld. Its underlying theory was that mental training alone
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
made the student effeminate, undermined morals, and created a false sentiment that labor with the hands is degrading. A practical argument was the opportunity for the student to become self-supporting. The earliest type of this institution was established at Fayetteville. It was chartered in 1833 as the Donaldson Academy and Manual Labor School. A subscription of $14,000 was raised in the community and tlie school opened in 1834. The principal was Rev. Simeon Colton, a Presbyterian minister who had taught in a similar institu- tion in Amherst, Massachusetts. After a few years the man- ual labor feature was abandoned. In 1833 the Greensborough Manual Labor School was chartered under the auspices of the Presbytery of Orange.
Manual labor was also a feature of the early days of David- son and Wake Forest colleges. A description of student labor at the latter institution has been preserved in the following letter :
Brother Meredith .- Taking it for granted that you would be pleased to learn some of the particulars of our operations here, I have taken it upon myself to give you a brief detail of our internal movements, and I might say, external movements; for never was a set of fellows kept so constantly on the go. I will begin at the dawn of day, when the loud peals of the bell arouse us from our sweet repose. We are allowed about fifteen minutes to dress ourselves and wash, when the bell summons us to prayers. At this second sound of the bell, the whole plantation seems alive with moving bodies; a stream of students is seen pouring in from every direction-some, while on the way, adjusting the deficiencies of their dress, which they had not time fully to arrange while in their rooms-some with vests with wrong side out-some with eyes half open-and all in haste to reach the chapel in time to answer to their names. Prayers being over, just as the sun raises his head from behind the distant forest, the Virgil class to which I belong, commences recitation. Other classes are reciting at the same time. At half past seven, the bell rings for breakfast; a few minutes after which, study hour com- mences. Every one is now kept up at the top of his speed; some in recitation, and others preparing for recitation, until 12 o'clock, when the bell announces the dinner hour; and almost immediately after this we start at the same mental race. This is kept up through all the classes until three o'clock, when the bell rings long and loud for the toils of the field. While the bell is ringing the students assemble in the grove in front of the dwelling house ;- some with axes, some with grubbing hoes, some with weeding hoes, and some empty handed, all in a thick crowd. You must now imagine that you see
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
Mr. Wait in one place, Mr. Armstrong in another, and Mr. Dockery in another. Mr. Dockery, though a student, frequently takes the lead of one company. Now the roll is called, when as their names are called off, the students take their appropriate stations around their respective leaders, axes with axes, hoes with hoes, and then we start, each one following his chief. Those with axes make for the woods, where they fell the sturdy oaks and divide them into rails; the grubbers take the field, and sweat with heavy blows over the roots and shrubs that have been encroaching upon their clear land. Those with weeding hoes find much variety in their employment ; sometimes they cut down cornstalks, sometimes they take up leaves, and now you may see them in the barn yard piling up manure. We students engage in everything here, that an honest farmer is not ashamed to do. If we should draw back from anything that is called work, we should feel that we had disgraced ourselves.
Those who are empty handed make up the fences, and harden their shoulders under heavy rails. The fact is we are always busy- always ready for recitation and always ready for work. We are cheerful and happy-merry in a joke and hard to beat in a hearty laugh. We are sometimes tired when we quit work, but never so bad off that we cannot outstrip a common fellow when the supper bell rings. I am attached to the mauling corps and know but little about the other companies. Mr. Wait leads our company-when we reach the woods our coats are laid off, and we set to with a good will and hard blows. Our chief sets the example :
"Nec non Aeneas opera inter talia primus Hortatur socios, paribusque ascingitur armis."
Blistered hands we consider here scars of honor, and we show them with as much pride as Marius exhibited his scars to the won- dering multitude. That you may form some idea of our execution, I will state that two of our corps yesterday mauled one hundred and twenty-seven rails in two hours and a half, and that the fence corps, led on by Mr. Armstrong, in two evenings, made a fence and staked it near a half mile in length, and most of the rails were carried on the shoulders at least three hundred yards. You now see that we are not afraid of hard work. A little bell calls us from the field-we enter the chapel for prayers, and immediately after take supper. We now have about half an hour for amusement, when the bell again calls to study, etc.1
Neither at Wake Forest nor at Davidson did the manual · labor plan meet expectations. The young men "felt that they had come to college rather to learn how to escape the dusty toil of the fields and not to have the chain of hard labor riveted on them. Their experience proved that three hours of rough
1 Quoted from Coon; North Carolina Schools and Academies, p. 208. "Mr. Wait" was president of the institution.
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HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
farm work in the morning begot such fatigue and drowsiness as disqualified them for afternoon study, and the afternoon toil was even worse for their studies. Between faithful labor and hard study life became a burden, the temper soured and the freshness and elasticity of youth was crushed." Nor was the manual labor plan a success financially. At Wake Forest in 1835 the average earning of each student was $4.04. At Davidson "some of the students who professed skill in the use of tools were allowed to labor in mechanical pursuits, especially carpentry, while the remainder were divided into three grades, as to proficiency and strength, and two or more classes, as to time of labor on farm, garden, or clearings. The first or stronger grade was to receive a reduction of three dol- lars a month on board bills, and the second grade a reduction of two dollars and forty cents a month, while the feebler grade got a reduction of only one dollar and eighty cents per month, for three hours of labor a day." In 1840 the hours of labor were reduced from three to two a day, and the remuneration re- ceived a corresponding reduction. In 1841 still another change was made according to which each student was to receive an al- lottment of one half acre of ground, or more if he were am- bitious in that line, to be cultivated at his own expense and discretion, but only in hours of recreation. It is not surpris- ing therefore that the manual labor plan was abandoned at Wake Forest in 1838 and at Davidson in 1841.
Originality in education was not found in the academies or the common schools but in the University of North Carolina, the second state university to be chartered in the South and the first to open its doors. Its inception may be traced to the forty-first article of the state constitution of 1776, the last clause of which provided that "all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities." No record exists as to the purpose or concept that inspired this statement. It may have been simply to guarantee the right of incorporation, denied by the Crown except to insti- tutions dominated by the church of England, or it may have been to establish an institution supported by the state. Not until 1789 was any action taken. Then, largely through the efforts of William R. Davie, were incorporated the Trustees
361
HISTORY OF NORTH CAROLINA
of the University of North Carolina, with the right to choose their own successors. Their duty was to collect funds for the institution, select a president and faculty and to make laws and regulations for its government, provided such were not contrary to "the unalienable liberty of the citizens or the law of the state." The site of the institution was not to be within five miles of the seat of government or of any of the court towns, and the state treasurer was to hold all funds collected, on which six per cent interest was to be paid. As an induce- ment to benefactors, those contributing £10 were entitled to have one student educated free, and the public hall of the library and four of the colleges should be called by the names of one or another of the six persons who should within four years contribute the largest sums for the University. To the institution went the name of the state, but there was no appro- priation except the schedule of arrears due from sheriffs and other officers prior to 1783, and also escheats. Among the original trustees were Samuel Johnston, James Iredell and Alfred Moore, the latter two soon to become judges of the Supreme Court of the United States; John Stokes, first Federal District Judge of North Carolina, and John Sit- greaves, his successor; four members of the Federal Conven- tion, Williamson, Blount, Spaight, and Davie; the first three state judges, Spencer, Ashe, and John Williams; one clergy- man, Rev. Samuel E. McCorkle; Willie Jones, the anti- federalist, and McClaine, his federalist opponent; Joseph Winston, the military hero; James Hogg, a wealthy mer- chant; and John Hay, the eminent lawyer.
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