Finding this request
reasonable, the School Society decided to take the necessary steps to
comply with it. As such an agreement would have no standing at law
the matter was recommended to the legislature of the State, which
authorized the establishment in that commonwealth of several separate
schools for persons of color.[1] This arrangement, however, soon
proved unsatisfactory. Because of the small number of Negroes in
Connecticut towns, they found their pro rata inadequate to the
maintenance of separate schools. No buildings were provided for them,
such schools as they had were not properly supervised, the teachers
were poorly paid, and with the exception of a little help from a few
philanthropists, the white citizens failed to aid the cause. In 1846,
therefore, the pastor of the colored Congregational Church sent to the
School Society of Hartford a memorial calling attention to the fact
that for lack of means the colored schools had been unable to secure
suitable quarters and competent teachers. Consequently the education
of their children had been exceedingly irregular, deficient, and
onerous. The School Society had done nothing for these institutions
but to turn over to them every year their small share of the public
fund.
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