BlackHistoryData.com · Volume 1 · Chapter 09
The First 10 Freedmen Schools — Cities, Grades & Curriculum
“An African Anywhere is an African Everywhere” · By Furqan Shabazz Mujahideen
Before the Freedmen’s Bureau existed, before the Civil War even ended, Black people were already building schools. The first freedmen school opened in September 1861 — three and a half years before emancipation — started by a formerly enslaved woman who woke up one morning, realized her enslavers had fled, and opened a school within weeks. This is the documented story of the first ten cities where freed and enslaved people built the foundation of Black education in America.
Sept 1861
First freedmen school opened — 3.5 years before emancipation
4,000+
Schools opened by 1870 — just 5 years after emancipation
247,333
Students enrolled by 1870
4:3
Ratio of Black teachers to white teachers by 1876
5%→30%
Black literacy rate in just 12 years — fastest growth of any group in US history
School #1 — September 1861
Alexandria, Virginia
Columbia Street School · The Very First
Founded by
Mary Chase — a formerly enslaved woman who woke to find her enslavers had fled Alexandria as Union forces arrived. Within weeks she had opened the Columbia Street School with 25 formerly enslaved pupils. She did not wait for permission, funding, or official sanction. She simply started teaching.
Grades / Levels
All ages simultaneously — children alongside adults. No formal grade levels existed yet. Instruction went from complete illiteracy (alphabet, phonics) through basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Basic arithmetic · Bible passages · Spelling. Night sessions for adults who worked during the day.
Why it matters
The first documented freedmen school in American history — started by a Black woman, for Black people, before any white organization had arrived. The community did not wait to be given education. They created it themselves.
School #2 — September 1861
Hampton / Fort Monroe, Virginia
Mary Peake’s School · “The Brown Cottage”
Founded by
Mary S. Peake — a free Black woman who had been secretly teaching enslaved and free Black people in Hampton for years before the war, at personal risk. When Union forces arrived she taught openly under a large oak tree (later called the Emancipation Oak) and then in the Brown Cottage.
Grades / Levels
Primary level — complete beginners to early readers. Adults and children together. Day school for children; evening school for adults who labored during the day.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Christianity · Moral instruction. Peake was known for her emphasis on dignity and self-respect alongside literacy.
Why it matters
The Emancipation Oak where Peake taught still stands at Hampton University today. The school she founded became the foundation of what is now Hampton University — one of America’s most important HBCUs. Her school directly produced an institution that has educated Black Americans for 160 years.
School #3 — 1861
Norfolk, Virginia
Mission Schools · Multiple locations
Founded by
Multiple simultaneous efforts — Northern missionary societies (American Missionary Association) arrived alongside Union forces. Local free Black communities also organized their own schools independently at the same time.
Grades / Levels
Primary through intermediate. Norfolk’s larger urban population allowed for slightly more organized instruction — separating children by ability level even in these early years.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Geography · Bible. Some Norfolk schools added basic history and civics — teaching formerly enslaved people about their new rights as citizens.
Why it matters
Norfolk demonstrated that Black education could be organized simultaneously by both the community itself AND Northern missionary allies — the two streams working in parallel that defined the entire Reconstruction education movement.
School #4 — 1861–1862
Port Royal, South Carolina
Port Royal Experiment Schools
Founded by
General Edward L. Pierce oversaw the Port Royal Experiment — a massive federal effort to prove that formerly enslaved people could live and work in freedom. Charlotte Forten Grimké, a free Black teacher from Philadelphia, came to Port Royal and documented her teaching experience in a journal that became one of the most important records of freedmen education.
Grades / Levels
All levels — from complete illiteracy to advanced reading. The Gullah Geechee population of the Sea Islands had extremely low literacy rates. Schools started at absolute basics and worked upward.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Singing (spirituals preserved and taught alongside academics) · Geography · History. Charlotte Forten also taught students about Africa and their heritage — remarkably progressive for the era.
Why it matters
Directly connected to our Colleton County / Ruffin, SC research. The Sea Islands of South Carolina — the most African population in America (83% African ancestry) — received their first formal education here. This is the community whose ancestors were brought through Charleston’s slave ports.
School #5 — January 1865
Savannah, Georgia
Formerly clandestine schools opened publicly
Founded by
Literate Black men and women who had been running secret schools during slavery immediately opened them publicly when Sherman’s Union forces occupied Savannah in December 1864. These were not new schools — they were existing underground schools finally able to operate in daylight. The community had been educating itself in secret for years.
Grades / Levels
The secret schools had already created a small foundation of literate Black teachers. New schools ranged from complete beginners through intermediate reading and writing.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Bible · Geography · Basic history. The Savannah schools were notable for their speed — they were fully operational within days of Union occupation because the community was already organized.
Why it matters
Savannah proves that Black education did not begin with emancipation — it had been happening underground throughout slavery. The freedmen schools were not a beginning but a coming out of hiding.
School #6 — June 1865
Richmond, Virginia
Chimborazo School · Former Confederate Hospital Site
Founded by
Established at the eastern end of Richmond at Chimborazo — on the very site where the largest Confederate hospital in the world had operated just weeks before. Over 300 students enrolled by November 1865. The register for October 1868 showed students ranging in age from 4 to 29 — the full community learning together.
Grades / Levels
All ages 4–29+ in the same school simultaneously. No formal grade structure yet — grouped by ability. Primary (alphabet through sentences) · Intermediate (paragraphs, basic math) · Advanced reading and writing.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Geography · Bible · Basic American history and civics. The diversity of ages in the same classroom — a 4-year-old beside a 29-year-old — was a defining feature of all freedmen schools.
Why it matters
The symbolism is extraordinary — a school for freed Black people built on the ruins of the Confederate medical complex that had served the army fighting to keep them enslaved. Freedom literally occupying the space of slavery.
School #7 — October 1865
New Orleans, Louisiana
Abraham Lincoln School · Former University of Louisiana
Founded by
The Freedmen’s Bureau opened the Abraham Lincoln School in a building formerly occupied by the University of Louisiana. With a faculty of 14 teachers, it enrolled more than 800 freedmen when it opened — one of the largest single freedmen schools in the country.
Grades / Levels
The Lincoln School was large enough to operate multiple levels: Primary (beginners) · Intermediate · Advanced · Normal (teacher training). New Orleans’s larger free Black Creole population meant some students arrived with prior education and could be placed in higher levels immediately.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Grammar · Geography · History · Music. The Normal level trained teachers who would then go teach in smaller communities throughout Louisiana.
Why it matters
800 students on opening day demonstrates the scale of hunger for education. A building that had housed a white university now held 800 formerly enslaved people learning to read — one of the most powerful images of Reconstruction.
School #8 — 1865
Harpers Ferry, West Virginia
Lockwood House School · Former Arsenal
Founded by
The Free Will Baptist Home Mission Society converted the Lockwood House — part of the federal arsenal that John Brown had raided in 1859 — into a freedmen school. The same building that Brown had seized hoping to arm enslaved people for a mass uprising now educated their children. Despite its large size it was soon unable to accommodate all the enthusiastic students who arrived.
Grades / Levels
Primary through Normal (teacher training). The school quickly expanded because demand overwhelmed capacity. Eventually became the foundation of Storer College — an HBCU that operated until 1955.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Bible · History · Teacher training in the Normal department.
Why it matters
John Brown raided this exact building in 1859 hoping to spark a slave uprising. Six years later it housed a school for the people he had tried to free. History folding back on itself in the most powerful possible way.
School #9 — 1866
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Howard High School · First Free Public School in the County
Founded by
Originally established to assist formerly enslaved people in the contraband camps of Chattanooga. Built in a former Confederate medical facility in 1866. Became the first free public school in Hamilton County — meaning formerly enslaved Black people got a free public school before white people in the same county did.
Grades / Levels
Primary through high school level — one of the few early freedmen schools to actually reach secondary level instruction. Named Howard High School after General Oliver O. Howard, head of the Freedmen’s Bureau.
What was taught
Primary: Reading, writing, arithmetic. Secondary: Grammar · Geography · History · Algebra · Latin · Moral philosophy. The high school curriculum matched what white secondary schools of the era offered — deliberately equal, not inferior.
Why it matters
The first free public school in its county was built for Black people. This demolishes the myth that Black education lagged behind white education due to any lack of ambition — when given equal access, Black schools matched white schools immediately.
School #10 — Late 1865 / 1867
Gainesville, Florida
Union Academy · Built by the Community Itself
Founded by
Two white female teachers from New England arrived and initially taught 60 Black students in an unfinished church without windows or doors. The white community ostracized the teachers and white boys harassed the classes. The Black community responded by building their own proper schoolhouse with volunteer labor. Community members donated materials and built the building themselves.
Grades / Levels
Primary through intermediate. The school grew rapidly despite community resistance — eventually becoming Union Academy, a landmark institution of Black education in Florida.
What was taught
Reading · Writing · Arithmetic · Geography · Bible · Civics. The hostile environment forced the school to be self-sufficient — the community built everything, funded everything, and defended everything themselves.
Why it matters
Documents that white hostility to Black education did not end with emancipation — it continued violently into Reconstruction. And documents that the Black community built their education anyway, with their own hands, when white institutions refused to help or actively obstructed them.
What Grades Were Taught — The Complete Curriculum Structure
Freedmen schools were not organized by numbered grades — they taught everyone at once · Ages 4 to 60+ in the same classroom
| Level | Modern Equivalent | Ages Typically Served | Subjects Taught | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| THE THREE MAIN INSTRUCTIONAL LEVELS | ||||
| Primary Level | Grades 1–4 equivalent | All ages — children AND adults who had never learned. A 4-year-old and a 60-year-old might sit side by side. | Alphabet · Phonics · Spelling · Basic reading (sentences and short paragraphs) · Counting · Basic addition and subtraction · Bible passages · Personal hygiene and basic health | Most students spent 6 months to 2 years at this level depending on age and prior exposure |
| Intermediate Level | Grades 5–8 equivalent | Primarily children 10–16, but adults who progressed rapidly also reached this level | Advanced reading (full books, newspapers) · Writing compositions · Grammar · Arithmetic (multiplication, division, fractions) · Geography · American history · U.S. Constitution and citizenship rights · Letter writing | 1–3 years; fewer students reached this level in the early years |
| Normal / Advanced Level | Grades 9–12 equivalent + teacher training | Young adults 15–25 who showed academic promise and were being trained as teachers | Greek · Latin · Higher mathematics · Algebra · Rhetoric · Logic · Moral philosophy · History of Africa and the diaspora (in some schools) · Teaching methodology · Classroom management | 2–4 years; graduates went on to teach in surrounding communities — multiplying the impact of each teacher trained |
| SPECIAL PROGRAMS | ||||
| Night Schools for Adults | Adult literacy / GED equivalent | Adults 20–70+ who worked during the day; operated after dark specifically for the working adult population | Same as Primary level — reading, writing, basic arithmetic — delivered in 2–3 hour evening sessions after full days of field or domestic labor | Year-round; Booker T. Washington documented that “none were too old” — elderly people attended alongside their grandchildren |
| Industrial / Vocational Track | Vocational education equivalent | All ages; especially young men preparing for skilled trades | Carpentry · Blacksmithing · Farming techniques · Sewing · Cooking · Domestic management · Frugality · Financial literacy · “The duties and privileges of freedom” — civic education teaching formerly enslaved people about their new legal rights and responsibilities | Ran alongside academic instruction; especially emphasized at Tuskegee (Booker T. Washington) and Hampton (General Armstrong) |
| Sunday Schools | Religious education | All ages; Sunday was the traditional day off | Bible reading and memorization · Christian doctrine · Moral instruction · Basic literacy using Biblical texts as the reading material. Sunday Schools had been the primary site of clandestine Black literacy during slavery — they continued after emancipation as both religious and academic institutions. | Weekly; often the first educational institution a community established before a formal weekday school was built |
Who Taught — The Teachers of the First Freedmen Schools
Between 1861 and 1876, Black teachers outnumbered white teachers 4 to 3 · The community built its own teaching corps from scratch
| Teacher Type | Who They Were | % of Total Teachers | Key Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Black teachers from the North | Educated free Black women and men — many from Philadelphia, Boston, and New York — who traveled South specifically to teach | ~30% (largest single group) | Charlotte Forten Grimké (Port Royal, SC); Susie King Taylor (Savannah, GA); Frances Ellen Watkins Harper |
| Self-taught formerly enslaved people | Formerly enslaved people who had learned to read secretly during slavery — the 5% who were literate at emancipation became the first teachers of the other 95% | ~25% | Mary Chase (Alexandria, VA) — the woman who opened the very first school; dozens of unnamed formerly enslaved teachers throughout the South |
| Northern white missionary women | White women from Northern missionary societies — primarily the American Missionary Association — who came South specifically to teach | ~25% | Teachers in Gainesville, FL (who faced community harassment); teachers throughout Virginia and the Carolinas |
| Northern white men (missionary/military) | Male teachers from missionary societies; some Freedmen’s Bureau officers who also taught; some Union Army veterans who stayed South | ~20% | General Samuel Armstrong (founded Hampton Institute); various Freedmen’s Bureau agents |
“It was a whole race trying to go to school. Few were too young, and none too old, to make the attempt to learn. As fast as any kind of teachers could be secured, not only were day-schools filled, but night-schools as well. The great ambition of the older people was to try to learn to read the Bible before they died.”
— Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901)
“Between 1861 and 1876, African American teachers outnumbered Northern white teachers by a ratio of 4 to 3. The community paid monthly tuition fees, raised funds for teachers’ room and board, purchased lots for schoolhouses, and donated the material and labor to build schoolhouses.”
— National Park Service — African Americans and Education During Reconstruction
Sources: National Museum of African American History and Culture — Emancipation and Education · American Civil War Museum — Education During Reconstruction · PBS American Experience — Schools During Reconstruction · NPS — African Americans and Education During Reconstruction · Library of Congress — Education in Enslaved Communities (2022) · Encyclopedia Virginia — Literacy and Education of the Enslaved · Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery (1901) · Charlotte Forten Grimké, Journal (1864) · LDHI Library, College of Charleston · Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp (1902) · Howard High School / Hamilton County records · Union Academy / Gainesville FL historical records.