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but we have not been able to gather any information concerning them.

During the summer months, schools were opened in Maryland taught by the pupils from different normal schools.  The arrangement was found to be of double benefit, giving the pupils an opportunity of attending school at a season of the year when they were not so generally occupied, the crops not having yet matured, and at the same time giving the young, the teachers their necessary schooling in the duties of teachers.

The regular sessions of the schools were commenced about the 1st of Oct., in accordance with the usual custom.  The average daily attendances at the schools as will be seen by the statistical report who that they opened very light, and up to the time of the close of this report very few of them had increased to what could be called a fair or paying attendance.

My judgement is that the schools will do better in the country villages, if they be not opened before the 1st of January.  About the 1st of Oct. the entire population became busy harvesting the crops and very little attention can be given to the schools.

In November the corn is being taken care of and the children are all expected to help.

In December the Christmas holidays so much thought of by all, both young and old, break into the month and keep a great many away from the schools.

After the 1st of January everyone seems to be ready and anxious to commence school.  I would respectfully suggest that a summer session, say from the 1st of June till the 1st of September would be much more effective for good.  [[?]] is thought best to have but one continuous session, then commence it, at the 1st of January and run until the 1st of September or October.

On assuming my present position, I found a great [[underlined]] many [[/underlined]] applications in Delaware and Maryland for aid to build school houses, and they will receive careful attention.

Much has been done in both these States, but these are yet benighted counties and many places where the freedmen were so terrified by the whites, it 

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the time when active exertions were being made by other sections, that they did not make their petition heard, and were either overlooked or neglected.  They are now straining every nerve to catch up with their more favored brethren.  But they are very poor and owing to the almost total failure of their crops last year are very destitute of ready money.

The sentiments of the whites is daily growing better.  Prejudices are dying out, and there are no schools in my District, now, where a colored teacher could not safely teach.  It is still impossible however to put any white teacher in schools outside of the large cities.

In Delaware the school building at Slaughter Neck was burned by some drunken white men, and although evidence sufficient to show probable cause of guilt against them was submitted to the States Attorney and the attention of the Governor was personally called to the matter;  yet nothing was done to bring the parties to justice.  The colored people aided by the [[underlined]] Delaware Association [[/underlined]] for the Moral Improvement of Col'd People, set to work immediately to rebuild the house and from this Bureau.  The Delaware Association is in good working order and has taken charge of and furnished teachers for all the schools in that state, and the schools are in good condition, and will compare favorably with those of any state north or south.

Maryland is more backward.  The Baltimore Association never seems to have worked systematically, or to have been at all assured of its position.

I have not seen a report from the Association for two years, and cannot learn that it has done anything but disburse the charities of northern societies.  It started in October of this year, with 65 schools under its charge.  The remaining schools in Maryland are supplied with teachers by the [[underlined]] Pennsylvania and New York Branches [[/underlined]] of the [[underlined]] Amer. Freedmen's Union Commission, [[/underlined]] who are under my immediate charge, and a few by the [[underlined]] Presbyterian Homes Mission. [[/underlined]]

Some twenty schools are yet without teachers, and my efforts are being directed to filling