The Freedmen's Aid Society was founded in 1859 during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

by the American Missionary Association (AMA), a group supported chiefly by the

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

churches in the North. It organized a supply of teachers from the North and provided housing for them, to set up and teach in schools in the South for freedmen and their children. The AMA founded a total of more than 500 schools and colleges for freedmen in the South after the war,Clara Merritt DeBoer, "Blacks and the American Missionary Association"
, United Church of Christ, 1973, accessed 12 Jan 2009 so that freedmen could be educated as teachers, nurses and other professionals. The work of the Society accelerated with the end of the war and the beginning of the

Reconstruction era The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...

. Education for freedmen was seen as a top priority among both blacks and whites. The Society was supported by a variety of religious groups and denominations, and it began work in the South three months after organizing. By the end of the first year, it had recruited 52 instructors. The teachers instructed more than 5,000 students in 59 schools. The schools were open to men, women, and children in the South. By the turn of the century, blacks had raised their rate of literacy by an amazing amount; it was a major success story since the end of the war. By then the Democratic-dominated state legislatures had imposed racial segregation and were underfunding black schools and other facilities. Leadership and control of the Freedmen's Aid Society has been attributed to both the Congregational and the

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

churches.Freedmen's Aid Society Records
1866-1932, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Atlanta University Center. Accessed October 18, 2012. The Methodist version of the Society's history states that it was founded in 1866. It was "directed by a Board of Managers who were elected by the (Methodist) General Conference." In 1920 it was reorganized and renamed the Board of Education for Negroes, and in 1939 absorbed into the Board of Education of the Methodist Church.

Notable people

Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (June 27, 1824 – November 19, 1904) was an American writer, reformer, and philanthropist. She was born on Beacon Hill, Boston, June 27, 1824; and was educated in private schools in Boston. Cheney served as secretary ...

Anna Fisher Beiler Anna Fisher Beiler (February 25, 1848 – April 1, 1904) was a British-born American Christian missionary and newspaper editor, who engaged in temperance, missionary, and philanthropic work. Associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, she serv ...

* Richard S. Rust

References

History of education in the United States Religious organizations based in the United States Reconstruction Era History of the Southern United States American Missionary Association 1861 establishments in the United States American freedmen {{US-org-stub

Notable people

See also

References