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receive them; but in these cases, they had their own table and rooms. These ladies who have thus submitted to inconvenience ought to be credited with self-denial and public spirit.

"It is pleasing to know that southern people have, in some cases, defended the teachers from these charges, and contended for their right to teach without molestation. We have met with such friends, especially at Port Gibson, Rodney, and Aberdeen. The Vicksburg Herald has allowed a correspondent, a southern man, to speak well of their teacher at Port Gibson."

Much opposition is still met in this State. While a few persons have been favorable, the majority have shown an unwillingness to have the colored people taught. It is said that no single town is an exception to this remark. We give a few facts-

"The Mayor and Selectmen of Aberdeen fairly and honorably sought to protect the teachers; but such was the popular enmity, that their landlady found it necessary to give them notice to quit her house. A colored teacher was arrested on a false and frivilous charge, and one of the newspapers agitated the community with the accusation that "patriotic songs" were sung in the schools!

"Brandon has but one white man willing to stand up for the right of the colored people to be taught.
"A missionary agent was prosecuted there for theft, while taking away military huts by permission of the Department Commander, with which he was constructing a school-house. He was also violently assaulted, and struck with a cane, by a member of the Town Council, and shamefully berated while a smiling crowd looked on. His only crime was the building of the schoolhouse, being a quiet, respectable, and educated gentleman."

These things occurred about the last time Lieut. BLANDING was assassinated at this place. The two young ladies who are teaching at Brandon, with courage greater than that of a soldier, remain at their post.

"At Jackson the schools have been taught by a most respectable and exemplary band from the Society of Friends. Governor SHARKEY seemed inclined to favor them, allowing them to build school-houses on some land belonging to the State; but, after he went out of office, the new State officers compelled the removal of the buildings. The newspapers have often spoken in a most contemptuous manner of the teachers, and without the

slightest reason therefor, except that they were teaching the freedmen."

"At Okolona an aged Episcopal clergyman, twenty years a resident of the south, had four shots fired at him because he was engaged in a colored school, and I have never heard that the civil authorities took any notice of the fact."

Notwithstanding these outrages, there is no doubt that prejudice against the education of the freed people is wearing away."

Efforts are being made by citizens, in various places, to establish Sunday schools. In this we cannot but rejoice, and to aid the movement, as far as possible, the Superintendent of Education has opened communication with the Bible Society, and the publishers of Sunday school books, in order to assist these benevolent citizens in their work. Most of the instruction, however, given in these schools will be oral, and they will generally be after the pattern of those existing in the time of slavery. It is not believed, therefore, that these efforts render the establishment of ordinary schools unnecessary; while the hope is, that they will do much good, and in the end greatly aid in fostering the prevalent desire for education. The acknowledgement that the negro must be educated somehow, by somebody, is a great step forward.

The prospect is good for the erection, in a number of important localities, of additional buildings, suitable for schools during next winter, and as the funds of the Aid Societies will be adequate to pay only a portion of the expenses, it is in contemplation that, so far as possible, the schools of the State shall be, in the future, self-supporting.

There are high-schools at Vicksburg, and Natchez, and others will soon be called for.

LOUISIANA.
Circumstances beyond the control of this Bureau have turned the tide of prosperity which we reported as true of the schools, in Louisiana six months ago.

The school-tax levied upon the white population, under the military administration of General BANKS, and which had produced a regular and very large income, was suspended Nov. 7, 1865. This at once cut off nearly all means of support. The teachers, however, did not leave at once; nor were the schools closed for some time after. Hopes were entertained by all the friends of the freedmen that some other equally efficient method would

Transcription Notes:
Do not indicate font style, italicized, bolded, or underlined words. There is also no need to indicate the difference between handwritten and pre-printed or typed text on a document. https://transcription.si.edu/instructions-freedmens-bureau