Newbern, N. C, July 27th, 1863.
It is not yet a week since Mr. Doolittle opened the school
of which Miss Ropes and myself have charge, and to-day we had 258 pupils in
attendance, and managed to give to each a morsel of the food for which they are
so hungry. The avidity with which they grasp at the least shadow of knowledge
is intensely interesting. Once supplied with a book, and the work of school government
is at an end. One of my “1st class,” aged 25, can read with a good deal of
readiness, and the only book he had ever seen until yesterday, is a fragment of
an old dictionary; and when I put into his hands a “Third Reader” (Wilson's
Series) the strong man wept for joy. In our school the ages range from 5 to 45,
and as far as I can judge at present, they will soon leave white pupils far
behind.
Every hour spent with them is a fresh surprise, and a new
cause for gratitude that I am here. I suffer no inconvenience from the climate,
and have but one regret in connection with being here, and that is that I have
not a whole fresh life to give to this noble work.
B. L. C.
SOURCE: New-England Educational Commission for
Freedmen, Extracts from Letters of Teachers and Superintendents of the
New-England Educational Commission for Freedmen, Fourth Series, January 1, 1864,
p. 7
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