A Freedman's Fight for Education

On March 3, 1865, nine months before the ratification of the thirteenth amendment and official end to slavery, the U.S. Congress passed a bill to formally create the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

Commonly called the Freedmen's Bureau, this agency deemed by some historians as the first federal welfare agency, was given the task of assisting the more than 4 million newly freed slaves in their transition from the plantation to freedom.

And, to carry out this enormous task, local Freedmen’s Bureau offices were opened across the south, including right in our backyard with the bureau’s Brooksville office.

Through the available records, correspondents, and reports from the Brooksville Freedmen’s Bureau office we catch a vivid glimpse of the new life and great achievements that emerged for the area’s African-Americans during the often tumultuous times of Reconstruction.

But, aside from their freedom, nothing was more significant then their right to obtain a proper education.

The Bureau’s Local Office Opens

In July 1865, a set of comprehensive regulations was established by the Freedmen’s Bureau.

These regulations created a new system under which the freedmen and former plantations owners would now live—in unity.

These regulations included provisions that provided the Freedmen with education, rations, health care, labor contracts, and assistance in legal cases where it seemed the former slaves were being unjustly prosecuted.

According to bureau reports, in late November 1865, Colonel Thomas W. Osborne, U.S. Commander in Tallahassee, officially turned over the important duties of the bureau to the local probate judges, writing in a letter,

“Under the circumstances this was the best I could do.  I consulted with General Foster & Gov. Mann in reference to it and as the troops were being rapidly withdrawn, I could see no better way to accomplish our main object.”

In Hernando County, which included today's , the bureau duties were handed to Probate Judge Perry G. Wall, who, at the time, was seeking a seat as the Hernando County delegate to the state’s Constitutional Convention.

Paid $100 a month for his services as the bureau’s civil agent, Judge Wall immediately went to work notifying the freedmen of the changes that were to come.

In a letter to Colonel Osborne, Judge Wall wrote,

“I proceeded to make it known to the colored people of this county, my agency in the Bureau and such a system for hiring out labor for the coming year, as I deemed most promotive of their interest… they must—and especially those with families—make contracts with the planters having farms, either for states wages or as a share of the crop.

The Colored people here pretty generally seemed very much pleased with my instructions.”

According to “Era of Rebuilding”, locally, the freedmen contracted for $1.50 per day or $20 to $30 per month.

By 1867, the achievements of local African-Americans in their new lives began to manifest as rule under the Freedman’s Bureau progressed.

From the Fields to the Schoolhouse

By the spring and summer of 1867, activities among the freedmen showed some significant changes.

According to a bureau report, on May 31, 1867, the bureau’s sub assistant commissioner, William G. Vance wrote,

“The freedmen for the most part are working well and in Hernando County the crops are now in a fine looking condition and I think are doing well...”

And, while the freedmen were advancing the areas of employment, their struggles in receiving a proper education continued.

By May 1867, the bureau’s first and only school in the area, the Brooksville Freedmen School, had closed its doors on account of the agent not being able to procure assistance from the state and the teacher, a white woman, Mrs. Hagler, not receiving pay.

Two months later, the school reopened with about 20 scholars and a new teacher, Morgan Chapman, and was reportedly doing as well as could be expected, given the lack of support.

However, according to bureau reports, by July 15, 1867, the lack of funds caused the school to close once and for all—Morgan Chapman left and went back to Jacksonville.

The freedmen bitterly complained that school taxes had been paid, but they couldn’t derive any benefits from it.

So, in early 1868, with support from the Bureau in renting a building, another freedmen school opened

Its teacher, the Rev. James H. Roberts, was a minister in the A.M.E. church and a disabled Army veteran, having served with the U.S. Colored Troops during the Civil War.

By May 1868, the freedmen finally brokered a deal with the bureau to purchase their own lot and building, which had a capacity to house 50 to 70 students-- the first permanent home of the Brooksville Colored School.

According to land records, for $100, this land was purchased from Aaron Taylor Frierson, son-in-law to Brooksville bureau agent Perry G. Wall.

However, on July 25, 1868, a bill was signed into law which required the withdrawal of most bureau offices from the states.

According to the Economic History Association, the functions of the bureau were stopped except those related to education and land claims

Finally, due to lack of appropriations, the activities of the bureau ceased once and for all in March 1871.

But, much of what was established by the agency continued and only grew after local activities ceased.

By 1872, Hernando County School Superintendent Thomas Coogler reported,

“We have but one school at this place (Brooksville) and it is a colored one. It is the largest and best attended in the county. The second term of this school had just ended, the number of scholars having been seventy-two.”

A year before Pasco County was sliced from the southern section of Hernando County in 1887, Hernando County boasted 81 schools that occupied 60 acres of property.

Of these 81 schools, 4 were African-American—none of which were located in what became Pasco County.

Pasco County didn’t receive its first African-American school until 1888 after the black residents of Dade City made a formal petition before the school board.

By 1894, Pasco County had four African-American schools all of which were located on the east side of the county.

From the 18th century struggles of Reconstruction, African-Americans moved into the Civil Rights Era of the 20th century which finally did away with the segregated school.