The working at trades was provided not altogether to teach the
mechanic arts, but to enable the students to support themselves while
attending school. As a compensation for instruction, books, room,
fuel, light, and board furnished by the founder, the student was
expected to labor four hours daily at some agricultural or mechanical
employment "important to his education."[3] The faculty estimated the
four hours of labor as worth on an average of about 12-1/2 cents for
each student.
[Footnote 1: _Minutes and Proceedings of the Third Annual Convention
for the Improvement of the Free People of Color_, p. 25.]
[Footnote 2: _African Repository_, vol. x., p. 312.]
[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, vol. x., p. 312.]
Efforts were then being made for the establishment of another
institution near Philadelphia. These endeavors culminated in the
above-mentioned benefaction of Richard Humphreys, by the will of
whom $10,000 was devised to establish a school for the purpose of
instructing "descendants of the African race in school learning in
the various branches of the mechanical arts and trades and
agriculture."[1] In 1839 members of the Society of Friends organized
an association to establish a school such as Humphreys had planned.
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