LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., January 14, 1892.

SIR: I have the honor to present herewith for publication as a circular of information a work on the subject of the Southern Women in the Recent Educational Movement in the South. It has been prepared by Rev. Dr. A. D. Mayo, who has traveled through the various sections of the South for some twelve years, visiting educational institutions of all kinds, and acquainting himself with the labors and results of the various educational forces. A circular letter has been sent to various authorities soliciting information, and the replies received have been very numerous and satisfactory.

This treatise includes the work of the Southern schools for the education of girls; secondly, the work of Northern and Southern women in the superior schools for colored youth; and thirdly, the common school. It is a notice of the labors of many noble women. Inasmuch as education in our time is coming more and more largely into the hands of the women, the phase herein treated is becoming more significant every year. The body of the treatise relates to the foundation and management of that class of schools which exercises a molding effect on the entire elementary education; for the secondary schools of the South are doing most of the work of educating the teachers. In the case of the colored schools one may say that the secondary schools educate also the preachers who are doing the best work.

Of Dr. Mayo it is not necessary to speak, as he is well known to the literary world and to the educational world as a thoughtful writer on the subject of the social questions branching out from education as a center. He is skillful in literary style of presentation and has himself been for a long time a great power for the uplifting of the teacher and the school. It gives me pleasure, therefore, to transmit for publication this circular of information.

Very respectfully,

Hon. JOHN W. NOBLE,

Secretary of the Interior, Washington, D. C.

W. T. HARRIS.

SOUTHERN WOMEN IN THE RECENT EDUCATIONAL MOVE

MENT IN THE SOUTH.

INTRODUCTION.

Early in January, 1891, the United States Commissioner of Education, Dr. William T. Harris, caused the following circular letter from the United States Bureau of Education to be widely distributed through the Southern States of the Union. In this document, as here repeated, the original intention of the author of the present circular of information was fully set forth.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., January 5, 1891.

DEAR SIR: A circular of information is now in course of preparation, entitleduthern Women in the Recent Educational Movement in the South," by Rev. A. D. Mayo. The object of this publication is to direct attention to the services, especially in the recent elementary and secondary education of Southern children and youth during the past twenty-five years, rendered by the women of our Southern States, who as teachers and friends of this educational movement deserve the approbation of the American people.

This circular will treat of the schooling of Southern children and youth in all varieties of institutions under the direction of Southern women; of schools for the special instruction of girls of all descriptions; of the service of Northern women, especially in the instruction of the colored people; of the growth of recent Southern literature, by female writers; noting the development of associations of women for the promotion of literature, music, and art, with special emphasis on the branch of industrial education bearing upon domestic economy; and whatever social movements may be interesting as an indication of the interest and activity of Southern women in the general intellectual, moral, and religious uplifting of the present gen eration.

It is earnestly desired that all persons who may receive this letter will at once signify their interest in its object by contributing information bearing upon any portion of this work. All communications should be sent to this Bureau. Hoping for an early response to this request, I remain,

Respectfully, yours,

WM. T. HARRIS,

Commissioner.

CHARACTER OF INFORMATION DESIRED.

1. Catalogues of all private, corporate, and denominational schools for girls, accompanied with any documents that will throw light on the history of such institutions. 2. Reports of local public schools and State institutions, either for girls or coeducational.

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3. Information concerning libraries.

4. Literary associations and arrangements for industrial and art education.

5. Reminiscences of prominent female seminaries, celebrated teachers, and educational methods in such institutions previous to 1860.

6. Information concerning the activity of women in the temperance reformation and Sunday-school work.

7. Contributions of fact, or suggestions concerning the preparation of the circular are respectfully solicited.

In response to this invitation, there have been received at the United States Bureau of Education some two hundred catalogues of schools established for the education of white girls in the sixteen Southern States; also an almost complete list of the catalogues of the more important institutions for the training of colored youth, especially those established and managed by the educational boards of the various Protestant Christian denominations in the Northern States. From the schools of the Catholic Church no returns were received. Our own observation, during the past twelve years of a ministry of education in the South, including every State, enabled us to make a considerable addition to this collection of documents. We are aware that these printed sources of information furnish no very reliable basis for an undertaking so broad as outlined in the circular letter of the Bureau. Only such a personal acquaintance with a large number of these seminaries as we have been able to form, during the past twelve years, has enabled us to speak of the system of education for girls represented by this collection of documents with the intelligence and discrimination that gives any value to our undertaking. Whatever of truth in this description, or wisdom in the accompanying suggestions concerning educational affairs in the South, may be found in the present essay is largely due to the unusual opportunity enjoyed by the author for the careful study of the schools, and a friendly and often intimate acquaintance with their managers and instructors and the educational authori ties of all these States.

But it soon became evident that our original plan, as set forth in the circular letter, was quite impracticable. No information was received on any topic outside the ordinary line of school work. And although we had gone through all the States of the South during the past twelve years with an eye open to the observation of these matters, yet it seemed unwise, in a period so unique, amid the rapid transition of social customs, to even attempt a simple statement of the rapidly growing influence of Southern women in the various directions indicated in the circular letter. All that could be done in this direction was to treat the general educational question in connection with the environment supplied by the present state of Southern affairs; especially as modified by the Woman's Movement, which is such a notable feature of the present life of all these States.

It therefore became necessary to somewhat change the original plan of this circular of information. On further reflection, it seemed that

an honest and careful delineation of the entire realm of educational life represented by the schools for girls in the South, with the peculiar relation of Southern women thereto, as these matters have appeared to the author, would be the most valuable contribution to the cause of Southern education possible under the circumstances. The great need of our American schools is that this entire realm of the national life should be brought out from the mirage of personal, ecclesiastical, local, provincial, and patriotic laudation, by which our educational estab lishments are at once magnified to the world and obscured from the truthful judgment of a fair-minded and progressive educational public. The educational affairs of the South, o wing to causes apparent to all, are in special need of this treatment. We have honestly endeavored to tell what we have seen; not as the representative of any pedagogic theory, but as a friend of universal education, equally interested in the work of the teachers and the welfare of the children in every portion of the Republic; more desirous of giving hearty encouragement to sincere and capable effort, and bearing generous testimony to what has been achieved, than to emphasize defects that can only be outgrown by a gradual development of what is already well begun.

This circular is therefore little more than a somewhat elaborate review of what we have seen and learned in the twelve years wholly given to a ministry of education in the South, which has included every variety of school, both races, and all classes, in its observations and labors; with the study of all available literature, educational, historical, and social, bearing on this central theme.

As the educational public of the South, so far, has not seriously considered the higher education of woman, either in the woman's college, the annex, or the coeducational university, and the coöperation of women as instructors and managers in this department is very limited, there has been only such reference to this portion of the school life of the South as the arrangements already existing would justify.

The three main divisions of this essay are, first: Southern schools for the education of girls; second, the work of Northern and Southern women in the superior schools for colored youth; third, the common school. In all these departments of educational activity the women of the South are every year becoming more broadly and vitally interested, and here must we look for the most important manifestation of the influence of woman, through education, upon the unfolding social status of this portion of the country.

In furtherance of the general purpose of the circular it has been deemed advisable, at the suggestion of the United States Commissioner of Education, to include in an appendix several essays, originally prepared as lectures or magazine articles, bearing upon the subject of education in the South. All of these are either now out of print as fugitive pamphlets, or hitherto unpublished. These were all addressed to a Northern public, with the hope of giving more intelligent and en