From the very
beginning the colored people partly supported their schools. Without
the cooeperation of the refugees the large private schools at London,
Chatham, and Windsor could not have succeeded. The school at Chatham
was conducted by Alfred Whipper,[1] a colored man, that at Windsor by
Mary E. Bibb, the wife of Henry Bibb,[2] the founder of the Refugees'
Home Settlement, and that at Sandwich by Mary Ann Shadd, of
Delaware.[3] Moreover, the majority of these colonists showed
increasing interest in this work of social uplift.[4] Foregoing their
economic opportunities many of the refugees congregated in towns of
educational facilities. A large number of them left their first abodes
to settle near Dresden and Dawn because of the advantages offered
by the Manual Labor Institute. Besides, the Negroes organized "True
Bands" which effected among other things the improvement of schools
and the increase of their attendance[5].
[Footnote 1: Drew, _A North-side View of Slavery_, p. 236.]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 322.]
[Footnote 3: Delany, _The Condition of the Colored People_, etc.,
131.]
[Footnote 4: Howe, _The Refugees from Slavery_, pp.
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