They had any amount of spirit, but an evident lack of
understanding as to the meaning of this new education. They failed
to unite the qualifications for both the industrial and academic
instruction. It was the fault that we find to-day in our industrial
schools. Those who were responsible for the literary training knew
little of and cared still less for the work in mechanic arts, and
those who were employed to teach trades seldom had sufficient
education to impart what they knew. The students, too, in their
efforts to pursue these uncorrelated courses seldom succeeded in
making much advance in either. We have no evidence that many Negroes
were equipped for higher service in the manual labor schools.
Statistics of 1850 and 1860 show that there was an increase in the
number of colored mechanics, especially in Philadelphia, Cincinnati,
Columbus, the Western Reserve, and Canada.[1] But this was probably
due to the decreasing prejudice of the local white mechanics toward
the Negro artisans fleeing from the South rather than to formal
industrial training.[2]
[Footnote 1: Clarke, _Present Condition of the Free People of Color of
the United States_, 1859, pp.
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