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[[stamp]] THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES [[/stamp]]

Montgomery Apr. 30th 1866

[[strikethrough]] General Swayne [[/strikethrough]]

I have the honor to lay before you a communication which is designed to be not so much a report of my labors, for the past week as a presentation of facts which have come under my observation and have travelled from place to place in the State accompanied with such suggestions as have occurred to my mind in view of the present condition of affairs.

One year has now just passed since the first colored school was opened in Alabama. It is true, indeed, that schools [[strikethrough]] previous [[/strikethrough]] at intervals have been taught at Huntsville for a longer period than our year. But it has hardly been a year yet since the entire State was open to educational efforts among the blacks. The present then is a suitable time to put together the fragmentation and disconnected efforts in the state and get at, if we can, the results accomplished.

One year ago, the teacher to the freedmen, found as he entered the State, a race without books or any knowledge of them, [[strikethrough]] books [[/strikethrough]] without teachers or means to hire them without school buildings or any way by which to rent them. At every [[strikethrough]] way [[/strikethrough]] step he encountered [[strikethrough]] the most [[/strikethrough]] bitter [[strikethrough]] and malignant [[/strikethrough]] prejudice to his work.

[[strikethrough]] To-day flourishing schools are taught in the state both north & Southern portions of the state in the vicinity of Huntsville: in the extreme Southern portion [[/strikethrough]]

To-day [[strikethrough]] six [[/strikethrough]] schools are in successful operation in Huntsville, Stevenson, Athens, Tuscumbia, Florance [[Florence]] [[strikethrough]] in [[/strikethrough]] Mobile in Montgomery [[strikethrough]] in [[/strikethrough]] Selma, Demopolis, Gainesville, Wetumpka, [[Tuskegee]] Talledega  Greenville & Tuskegee. These places are the centers of influence in the State & [[strikethrough]] from them [[/strikethrough]] and in them upwards of two thousand and five hundred pupils are taught.

But these Statements fail to put a true exhibition

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Reopened to insert a word that was missing, and fix a spelling error.