The following table shows the attendance at the two high schools since 1875:

The following curriculum is in use in the Boys' High School:

Junior year.-Algebra, natural philosophy, physiology, Latin (begun), and language.

Middle year.-Algebra, geometry, rhetoric, chemistry, Cæsar.

Senior year.-English literature, mensuration, trigonometry, physical geography, bookkeeping, arithmetic, Virgil, and science of government.

The course of study in the Girls' High School agrees with the above except in the omission of chemistry and mensuration.

EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE.

Efforts to educate the Negro in Delaware date from the beginning of the eighteenth century, when the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel encouraged the missionaries to instruct slaves in the catechism. Such feeble efforts were neither successful nor enduring. Before 1846 efforts had been made by the colored people to educate their children, but as late as 1866 there were only seven schools for colored people in the State: Three at Wilmington, two at Camden, one at Odessa, and one at Newport. In December of that year, and shortly after the establishment of the Freedmen's Bureau at Washington, several philanthropic gentlemen met at the house of William S. Hilles, an influential citizen of Wilmington, for the purpose of discussing plans for the improvement of these schools and for the promotion of the education of colored people. Two weeks later, December 27, 1866, a public meeting was held in the Wilmington Institute, at which addresses were made describing the work done by the association crganized in Baltimore a

The writer is indebted to Henry C. Conrad, Esq., for many years actuary of the colored schools of Delaware, for the facts which follow.

few weeks before. Francis T. King and Dr. James Carey Thomas, eminent citizens of Baltimore, rendered valuable assistance in starting the movement, which terminated in the organization, on January 3, 1867, of the "Delaware Association for the Moral Improvement and Education of the Colored People."

The association at once undertook to accumulate a fund from which to pay the salaries of teachers. Contributions were solicited and received. The Freedmen's Bureau donated sufficient lumber to erect several schoolhouses. Rev. John G. Furey was appointed to superintend the work, and at the end of the first six months the number of schools had increased to 15; 7 in New Castle County, 4 in Kent, and 4 in Sussex; and more than 700 pupils had been enrolled. At first the teacher was paid a monthly salary from the funds of the association, while the colored people in the vicinity of the school were expected to furnish him with board and pay the incidental current expenses of the school. This they did by means of weekly payments of tuition by the pupils.

The agent of the association, who is termed the actuary, superintended the erection of buildings, appointed teachers to the several schools, and superintended the conduct of the schools. In 1875 there were 28 schools outside of Wilmington, and in that city the board of public education had taken the colored schools under their control. During the preceding eight years the association, by the help of the colored people, had supported these schools unaided by the State.

The general assembly of 1875 passed an act providing for the taxing of colored people for the support of their own schools. The funds thus accumulated were paid to the association and by it distributed equally among the several schools. The amount proved sufficient to meet only about one-third of the expenses, so that it rested upon the colored people to raise the remaining two-thirds by personal contributions and subscriptions from friends. From 1875 to 1881 they bore the entire burden of supporting their own schools, for the income of the association had diminished so that it barely sufficed to meet the expenses of the home office.

In 1881 the general assembly passed an act appropriating $2,400 annually from the State treasury to be distributed pro rata among the colored schools of each county. In 1883 this sum was increased to $5,000, and the State superintendent of public schools was at the same time given a general supervision over colored schools. The general assembly in 1887 increased the annual appropriation to $6,000, and gave to the county superintendents control and supervision of the colored schools in their respective counties. The appropriation was increased in 1891 to $9,000.

The first actuary of the colored schools was Rev. J. G. Furey, who rendered the cause valuable service. The labors of his successor,

Samuel Woolman, were likewise fruitful. Abbie C. Peckham was actuary from 1868 to 1874. She was succeeded by Mary S. Casperson, who in turn was followed by Mrs. Kate Irvine. In 1876 Henry C. Conrad was elected actuary.1

He found 29 schools in operation, with a total enrollment of 1,197. The following table is taken from Mr. Conrad's biennial report for the period ending December 30, 1890:

The school term varies in length from three to eight months, but the average term in 1888 was four and one-half months.

The colored teachers hold under their own direction annual institutes, which have proved helpful to the cause. Pains have been taken to secure colored teachers well qualified for the work. The Biblical Institute at Baltimore, Md., Lincoln University, in Chester County, Pa., and the "Institute for Colored Youth" at Philadelphia, Pa., have furnished excellent teachers. Teachers have also been sent forth by the colored schools themselves.

1 Henry C. Conrad was born in Bridesburg, Pa., April 25, 1852. In 1856 he remove with his father to Wilmington, where he has since resided. He was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1873 and the following year was admitted to the Delaware bar. He took an active part in politics, and in 1879 was appointed United States commissioner and supervisor of elections, and was elected a member of the board of education. In 1880 he became editor of the Morning News, in the establishment of which he was largely instrumental, and made it the leading Republican newspaper in the State. Two years later he abandoned editorship and resumed his law practice, which now claims all his attention. In 1881 Mr. Conrad was president of the board of education, and in the following year of the city council. In 1885 he was the choice of the Republican party for mayor of the city of Wilmington.

Mr. Conrad has long been an active member of the Delaware Historical Society. He has frequently addressed historical, educational, and press associations, and has contributed papers of permanent historical and genealogical value to the literature of his State. Mr. Conrad's brochure on "The Press of Delaware" will be found in the Appendix. "Thones Kunders," Mr. Conrad's latest production, is an excellent bit of genealogical work.

The actuary reports that in his visits to the schools he has found the pupils, "almost without exception, orderly, respectful to their teachers, applying themselves diligently to study while in their seats, and, as a rule, prompt and correct in the answers given to questions addressed to them during recitations." The actuary, who knows more about the colored schools of Delaware than any other living man, throws considerable light upon the much-mooted question of "mixed schools" in Delaware. He remarks:

I have never found any disposition among the colored people to desire their children educated in the same school building with white children, or to claim “mixed schools," as has so often been asserted. On the contrary, I believe the overwhelming and practically unanimous sentiment among colored people is emphatically in favor of separate and distinct schools for their own children.

Whatever advance has been made in the education of the Delaware Negro during the last seventeen years is largely due to the unremunerated but untiring efforts of Henry C. Conrad. The colored people have expressed their appreciation of his services and their regard for his personality in costly testimonials, and to him they continue to look for inspiration and encouragement.

The following laws relating to schools for colored persons are in force in Delaware: 1

The levy courts in the several counties of this State are required to levy annually, in the month of April, a tax of 30 cents in the hundred dollars, and so pro rata, on the assessments of the real and personal property and poll of colored persons, as they stand upon the assessment lists of the several hundreds, which tax is to be set apart as a distinct fund for the maintenance of schools for colored youth in the State.

All moneys collected under this act are to be paid, as other taxes, to the county treasurer in each county, to be kept by him as a separate fund, and to be paid by him to the treasurer of the "Delaware Association for the Education of Colored People."

The fund arising from the provisions of this act and paid to said association is to go to the support and maintenance of schools for colored youth throughout the State, and to be distributed by the said association. The treasurer of said associa-. tion is to give bond to the State of Delaware, in the penal sum of $2,000, for the faithful application of the moneys received under this act.

To these should be added those already noted above.

1 1 Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1885-'86, p. 71.

CHAPTER XI.

A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN

DELAWARE.

This is the first attempt to write a history of education in Delaware. The writer has therefore resorted to original sources. His ambition is to produce a comprehensive and accurate work in order that readers and future writers may consult it with confidence. To this end he has sometimes sacrified style and order that the sources may speak for themselves. If he has sometimes failed, he believes the failure is due to the want of materials.

Delaware was visited from end to end, and almost every educator and friend to education in the State was consulted. The libraries of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Wilmington were ransacked. Even the excellent collection of Americana in the library of the Wisconsin State Historical Society at Madison, Wis., contributed materials. Special mention should be made of those great storehouses of sources, the Peabody Library, of Baltimore; the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, at Philadel phia, which contains the Charlemagne Tower collection of Colonial Laws; the library of the Historical Society of Delaware, at Wilmington; and the library of the National Bureau of Education. The greatest aid has been received from the records of the early settlers, the State records, the minutes of educational institutions, catalogues, pamphlets, reports, and interviews with prominent inen.

To name all to whom the writer is indebted would unduly prolong this chapter. But he would be ungracious and ungrateful not to mention Henry C. Conrad, actuary of the colored schools, and Stephen B. Weeks, PH. D., of North Carolina, to both of whom the writer is deeply indebted for much information and advice; Hon. Joseph P. Comegys, the lamented chief justice of Delaware, and Hon. George P. Fisher, ex-First Auditor of the Treasury at Washington, both of whom supplied facts concerning schools in Dover; Frederick D. Stone, librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, who gave information concerning early education; A. N. Raub, PH. D., president of Delaware College; George G. Evans, esq., Dr. William H. Purnell, and Prof. Charles S. Conwell, all of whom contributed facts to the sketch of Delaware College; D. W. Harlan, superintendent of Wilmington public schools; W. L. Gooding, PH. D., principal of Wilmington Conference Academy;