The
Muse
Newsletter of the Slater Memorial Museum
Winter 2009
John Fox Slater: An American Legacy
By Vivian F. Zoë
American Industrialist
In 2009, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) will
mark 100 years since its founding: to recognize the
centennial, the Norwich Chapter will honor the life
and work of John Fox Slater. John F. Slater (18151884) was the son of John Slater, Samuel Slater’s
brother and partner. Samuel is broadly recognized
as the man who brought the Industrial Revolution to
the U.S. by creating the first American textile mill
in the 18th century. He developed several mills and
“Mill Villages” in Rhode Island and his nephew,
John Fox Slater, helped to bring that industry west
to Norwich and Jewett City.
John F. Slater, born in Slatersville, Rhode Island,
was educated in Plainfield, Connecticut and later,
at Wilbraham Academy in Massachusetts. The
first recorded public provision for the Plainfield,
Connecticut,
schools was
made
in
1707, and in
1722, the first
schoolhouse
was
built.
By 1766 a
committee,
John F. Slater
(1815-1884),
Alexander
Emmons, n.d.
appointed to create school districts, had increased
the number of teachers and schools.
The
town’s leadership was dedicated to the goal of
establishing a classical program. In 1770 they
formed an association, which improved their
resources, making it possible to erect a large brick
schoolhouse and to recruit more qualified teachers.
Through a 1776 bequest from Isaac Coit, the
proponents of education in Plainfield organized
a classical department in 1778. Because coastal
towns were subject to British invasion, colleges
and academies had been generally suspended
during the Revolutionary War. However, the more
remote and inland, Plainfield offered a safe refuge.
Many promising boys from affluent families in the
immediate region, as well as students from distant
states, were sent to Plainfield Academy where they
boarded with local families.
In 1825 a new handsome stone building replaced
the first academy building. Attendance for many
years held at about a hundred students of whom
nearly one-half pursued classical studies. In
later years, attendance diminished as a direct
result of the institution of new high schools
in adjoining towns, including Norwich Free
Academy. Plainfield’s attendance in 1845 was
about 75: by 1860, after NFA’s founding in 1854,
Plainfield’s attendance had dropped to about 50.
Wilbraham & Monson Academy was established
by the merger of two early nineteenth-century
academies: Monson Academy, founded in 1804, in
Monson, Massachusetts, and Wesleyan Academy,
(Continued on page 3)
A Message from the Director
With Winter truly upon us and the holidays breathing their rushed
winds, the Slater is as busy as ever. Our McCloy Exhibition and
Sale has been immensely successful, but because he was so prolific
and generous, there is still a chance to find just the right piece for
your wall or that special gift. As we hurtle toward 2009, the Slater
has been asked to help the NAACP celebrate its centennial with an
exhibition of artwork inspired by the life and work of John Fox Slater.
We consider this both a great honor and an opportunity to learn more
about the man ourselves. This lead to my ruminations on what might
have driven the elder Slater to make a gift of $1 million in 1882, just
two years before his death to ensure the education of Black students
for generations to come. It’s been a pleasure to investigate this
fascinating topic. I hope you enjoy the result. I wish you the best in the coming year.
Upcoming Exhibitions, Programs and Events
January 16 - January 30, 2009
Reception: January 16
2:00 - 4:00 pm
John Fox Slater and Historical Black Colleges: Giving for Equity - an exhibition of artwork and research by area high
school students. Dr. Lenwood G. Davis, Winston-Salem State
University (ret.) will speak and sign his books, including I Have a Dream: The Life and Times of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Presented in conjunction with the Norwich Chapter of the NAACP.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Reception: 1:00 - 3:00 pm Awards: 2:00 pm
65th Annual Connecticut Artist Juried Exhibition Opening
Reception and Award Ceremony
The Muse is published up to four times yearly for the members of The Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum. The museum is located
at 108 Crescent Street, Norwich, CT 06360. It is part of The Norwich Free Academy, 305 Broadway, Norwich, CT 06360. Museum
main telephone number: (860) 887-2506. Visit us on the web at www.slatermuseum.org.
Museum Director – Vivian F. Zoë
Newsletter editor – Geoff Serra
Contributing authors: Vivian Zoë, Leigh Smead and Patricia Flahive
Photographers: Leigh Smead, Vivian Zoë
The president of the Friends of the Slater Memorial Museum: Patricia Flahive
The Norwich Free Academy Board of Trustees:
Steven L. Bokoff ’72, Chair
Jeremy D. Booty ‘74
Richard DesRoches *
Abby I. Dolliver ‘71
Lee-Ann Gomes ‘82, Treasurer
Thomas M. Griffin ‘70, Secretary
Thomas Hammond ‘75
Theodore N. Phillips ’74
Robert A. Staley ’68
Dr. Mark E. Tramontozzi ’76
David A. Whitehead ’78, Vice Chair
*Museum collections committee
The Norwich Free Academy does not discriminate in its educational programs, services or employment on the basis of race, religion,
gender, national origin, color, handicapping condition, age, marital status or sexual orientation. This is in accordance with Title VI,
Title VII, Title IX and other civil rights or discrimination issues; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 as amended and the
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1991.
2
(Continued from page 1)
John Fox Slater died in Norwich in May 1884, at a time
when NFA had on its “campus” only one building – its
original. William presented Slater Memorial Hall to the
Academy to memorialize his father.
In 1882 John Fox Slater incorporated the John F. Slater
Fund with $1,000,000 of his own money, for “the
uplifting of the lately emancipated population of the
Southern states, and their posterity, by conferring on
them the benefits of Christian education.” The original
trustees of the Slater Fund included William A. Slater
and Rutherford B. Hayes, who had recently completed
his service as U.S. President. Hayes had vetoed bills
repealing civil rights enforcement four times before
finally signing one that satisfied his requirement for
black civil rights for former slaves and free African
Americans.
Wilbraham Academy in the 19th century, courtesy of
Wilbraham & Monson Academy
founded in 1817, in New Market, New Hampshire.
Wesleyan Academy moved to Wilbraham in 1825,
and became Wilbraham Academy in 1912. Wilbraham
Academy and Monson Academy merged in 1971.
Wesleyan Academy was the first coeducational boarding
school in the country, and in 1847 Monson Academy
became the first American school to enroll Chinese
students. Soon afterward, students from Thailand began
to attend Wilbraham Academy. Alumni Memorial Chapel
on Wilbraham’s campus was part of the Underground
Railroad, and the Academy began to enroll students of
color before the Civil War.
Also recruited to serve on the Fund’s board were
Lyme, Connecticut, Native and Chief Justice of the U.
S. Supreme Court, Morrison R. Waite, and Hartford
Native, William E. Dodge, a founder of Phelps, Dodge &
Company. Phelps, Dodge initially operated an importexport trade business shipping American-grown cotton
to England in exchange for minerals but later became
a powerhouse mining company. Mr. Slater. no doubt,
had become acquainted with Dodge as a result of his
company’s use of shipping and its connection to cotton
production in the South. Mr. Slater’s company, J & W.
Slater, throughout the 19th century had been brokering
the shipment of cotton from the South to the North and,
presumably, to England. When Dodge died, his son,
William E. Dodge, Jr., took his place and they were both
succeeded on the board by Dodge’s grandson Cleveland
H. Dodge. Like Dodge, another abolitionist and member
of the board was Episcopal Priest Phillips Brooks, a
great-great grandson of
the founder of Phillips
Andover
Academy.
Also joining the board
was Norwich native
Daniel C. Gilman, who
in 1875 became the
first president of Johns
Hopkins University.
Morris K. Jesup, a selfmade man who took an
active interest in the
welfare of young men
After graduation from Wilbraham, at seventeen John
F. Slater entered the family business in Hopeville,
Connecticut, taking charge in 1836. Like his father and
Uncle, he owned textile mills in partnership with his
brother, William S. Slater. In 1873, his brother took over
the Slatersville Mills, and he assumed sole ownership of
the mills at Jewett City.
American Philanthropist
In 1842 John Fox Slater moved to Norwich and helped
to endow and found the Norwich Free Academy (NFA).
Perhaps this philanthropy was spurred by fond memories
of his days at Wilbraham or by enlightened self-interest.
His son, William Albert Slater (1857-1919), who was
barely a toddler when NFA opened its doors, would
soon need a fine education. Indeed, William would go
from NFA to Harvard in 1873.
It is also interesting to note that like John F. Slater’s
alma mater, Wilbraham Academy, in the 1870’s through
1881, NFA was host to Chinese Students through the
Qing Dynasty’s Chinese Educational Mission led by
Yale-educated Yung Wing. It was during these years that
John Fox Slater, having relinquished the management of
his mills to son William, may have formulated his ideas
about a philanthropic legacy.
Rutherford B. Hayes
(1822 - 1893)
3
and contributed generously to Williams College and other
institutions serving youth, added to the board roster.
Through prudent investment, by 1909 the fund had
increased to more than $1,500,000, despite issuing
disbursements. The fund has been of immeasurable
assistance to the “historically Black colleges” which in
many cases grew out of industrial schools in the South.
In some cases the Slater Fund contributed directly
to the school boards of Southern cities. The Fund’s
largest beneficiaries were the Hampton Normal and
Agricultural Institute of Virginia, the Tuskegee Normal
and Industrial Institute of Alabama, Spelman Seminary
in Georgia, Claflin University, South Carolina, and Fisk
University in Tennessee. “Normal” schools were so
named because they purported to establish “norms” or
standards for teaching; their purpose was to train teachers
for the country’s public schools. The Slater Normal and
Industrial school in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,
founded in 1892 and named after John Fox Slater, has
become the Winston Salem State University.
Emancipation Oak, Hampton VA
mulattos to read or write, a law which had cut her own
education short years earlier. Several years later, President
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was read
to local freedmen under the same historic tree, still located
on the campus and which also serves as a symbol of the
modern City of Hampton.
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in southeastern
Virginia became and remains today, Hampton University.
During the Civil War, Union held Fort Monroe at the
mouth of the Hampton Roads became a haven for fugitive
slaves. Fort commander General Benjamin F. Butler, to
protect them from return to slave owners, deemed them
“contraband of war.” As large numbers arrived seeking
status as contrabands, they built the Grand Contraband
Camp nearby from materials reclaimed from the ruins
of Hampton, which had been burned by retreating
Confederates.
Former Union Brigadier General Samuel L Armstrong was
Hampton’s first principal. Under his guidance, a Hampton
education became renowned as one combining “cultural
uplift with moral and manual training.” Among Hampton’s
earliest students was Booker Taliaferro Washington, who
arrived from West Virginia in 1872 at the age of 16. He
was freed from slavery as a child and through education,
rose to be appointed, on Armstrong’s recommendation, to
lead another new normal school, which eventually became
the Tuskegee Institute, also a beneficiary of the John F.
Slater Fund. Washington became an educator, orator,
fund-raiser, nationally prominent spokesman and leader
for African Americans. He was successful in building
relationships with Slater and other philanthropists who
contributed to Tuskegee and for Southern public schools
for black children.
He worked to end
legal barriers to
desegregation and
disenfranchisement
and built Tuskegee
into a substantial
school.
In Hampton, Virginia, under what is now called the
Emancipation Oak, on September 17, 1861, Mary
Smith Peake (1823-1862), the mulatto daughter of a
free black woman, taught the first classes, in defiance of
a Virginia law against teaching slaves, free blacks and
In 1881, Lewis
Adams, founded the
Tuskegee Normal
School for Colored
Mary Smith
Peale (1823-1862)
History Class at Tuskegee, 1901
4
(Continued on page 7)
Friends of Slater Museum
Active Members as of November 2008
Please note: We have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this list.
If we inadvertently omitted your name, we apologize. Please let us know by calling 860-425-5563.
LIFE MEMBERS
Dr. Sultan Ahamed
Ron Aliano
Nina Barclay
Dr. June Bradlaw *
Robert Allyn Brand
Valerie K. Foran Carter
Mr. & Mrs. Leo Christmas
Mary Jane & Charles M.
Gilman
Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Gualtieri
Mr. & Mrs. David R. Hinkle
Mr. & Mrs. Wally Lamb
Sheldon & Marcelle Levine
Edwin O. Lomerson III
Stanley M. Lucas
David H. & Cathy Meiklem
Jonathan S. Rickard
Grace Sears *
Jean Stencel
Celine Sullivan
Sheila K. Tabakoff
Elizabeth A. Theve
Dr. Patricia C. Thevenet
Dr. & Mrs. Anthony
Tramontozzi
Paul Zimmerman *
BENEFACTORS
Louis Burzycki
Shirley M. Sontheimer
SUSTAINORS
Mr. & Mrs. Thomas L.
Cummings
Mr. & Mrs. Martin Shapiro
PATRONS
Elizabeth & William J. Abell
Helen M. Champe
Carol B. Connor
Dr. Wayne F. & Geraldine O.
Diederich
John Frazer
Mary Fuller
Karin & Laurent T. Genard, Jr.
Margot & Denison N. Gibbs
Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Isenberg
Carol & Michael Lahan
Mildred P. Lescoe
Gigi H. & Arthur Liverant
Mr. & Mrs. Martin Rutchik
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Schnip
Anne J. Sharpe
Helen & Gurdon Slosberg
Richard G. Treadway, Sr.
Dr. & Mrs.* Felix T. Trommer
John A. Wolkowski
CONTRIBUTORS
Dr. & Mrs. Donald Amaro
Dr. & Mrs. Tom P. Bell
Cora Lee Boulware
Mr. & Mrs. Alton P. Button
John Carter
Barbara Castagnaro
Dr. Larry & Elaine Coletti
Paul R. Duevel
Dr. & Mrs. Malcolm Edgar, Jr.
Marcia & Richard Erickson
George T. Finn
John R. Fix
Patricia & John & Flahive
Mr. & Mrs. Michael J.
Gallagher
Jeffrey R. Godley
Dr. Leonard & Joan E. Greene
Muriel B. Jacobson
Dr. Morris E. Katz
Ruth S. Kirsch
Melody & Donald Leary
Deborah Lee
George Lee, Jr.
Frank T. Novack
Rev. & Mrs. John E. Post
Evelyn Putman
John M. Rogers, Jr.
Elizabeth D. Sager
Mrs. Lawrence V. Sarni
Lottie B. Scott
Elizabeth & Geoffery Serra
Mr. & Mrs. William B. White
Sheryl & Nathan Wolfman
Joseph R. Wolter
FAMILIES
Dr. & Mrs. Michael Betten
Barbara & Ralph Bergman
Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Blinderman
Sandra Ann Bosko
Corinna & J. Steele Brown
Mr. & Mrs. Michael Brown
Dr. & Mrs. S. Pearce
Browning III
Rosemary & Paul Brulotte
Joanna Case & Les Olin
5
William Champagne
Sue & Walter Chojnacki
Mr. & Mrs. Richard R.
Clairwood
Dr. Robert & Linda Crootof
Richard DesRoches
Mr. & Mrs. William Dolliver
Frances J. Donnelly
Mr. & Mrs. Edward J.
Donovan
Nancy & James J. Dutton, Jr.
M. Torrey & David G. Fenton
Caroleen Frey & Gordon Kyle
Jean M. & Evan Gilman
Cyrus D. Gilman
Lee Ann Gomes & Curtis
Simmons
Dr. & Mrs. Albert Gosselin
Katherine & Richard Haffey
Richard C. Hamar
Rachel & Thomas
Harasimowicz
Gladys L. Haynes
Donna L. & Michael E. Jewell
Suzanne & Norman Jordan, Jr.
Drs. M. E. & Joan Kadish
Carol H. Kelleher
Lisa Kanter & Eugene
Schweig
Mr. & Mrs. Charles L. Kroll
Ann & Arthur Lathrop
Mr. &. Mrs. Timothy Love
Agnes & John E. Luby
Mr. & Mrs. Franklin May
Nancy & John Paul Mereen
Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Methot
Michael E. Minzy
Marie E. & Charles F. Noyes
Dr. & Mrs. Michael T. Phillips
Mr. & Mrs. Popinchalk
Mr. & Mrs. Paul Rak
W. Wynn Riley
Dr. J. David & Chris Sawyer
Marian & Jerome Silverstein
Mary Jo & John Sisco
Mr. & Mrs. Steven Slosberg
Dr. & Mrs. Harold A. Soloff
Michele & Harvey Snitkin
Susan Spak
Mr. & Mrs. Andrew Stockton
Selma & Harry Swatsburg
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Uguccioni
Liz Van & John Pratt
George Ververis
Karen & Douglas Welch
Marianna Wilcox
INDIVIDUALS
Carol A. Adams
Kathleen Driscoll
Amatangelo
Valerie Andrews
Elizabeth Baldwin
Bernard B. Bartick
William E. Bartol
Mara G. Beckwith
Eric Beit
Mr. & Mrs. Steven Bokoff
Jean Brown
Hazel Brown
Frank Buckley
Olive J. Buddington
Jeffrey Buebendorf
Kathy Burley
Lois Burnham
Brad Burns
Foster Caddell
Connie Capacchione
Jacqueline Caron
Laurie Chapman
James Clark
Thomas E. Clements, Jr.
Michael Colonese
Barbara Cordell
Caroline Couture
Kathleen Cummings
Jeremy Davis
Sadie Davidson DeVore
Nancy DiTullio
Christina Dominijanni
Gerard Doudera
Michael Driscoll
Geraldine Exley
Thomas M. Foley, Jr.
Joanne Forson
Susan Frankenbach
Larry Goldman
Nancy L. Gordon
Deborah A. Griffith
Sandra Grillo
Mary-Anne Hall
Lloyd Hinchey
Margot Johnstone
Bernadette Kalinowski
Christine Karpinski
Merrill Keeley
D. William Kelleher
Carol H. Kelleher
Elizabeth H. Kelly
Brian W. Korsu
Elin B. Larson
Elyssa Lathrop
Benjamin Lathrop
Kathleen Lavallee
Nancy MacBride
Janet MacKay
Katherine H. Mann
J. Roger Marien
Julian P. Metzger
Jessie Michalowski
Brian Mignault
Patricia Miller
Eleanor J. Miller
Mitchell Mishkin
Mary R. Miskiewicz
Karen Rand Mitchell
Warren Mocek
Gary Palmer
Elizabeth Pite
Patricia Podurgiel
Manisha Prakash
Kenneth Przybysz
Ilene Reiner
Katherine B. Richardson
Charles Rossoll
Joseph Ruffo
James Sawyer
Bett Schissler
Katherine E. Schmitt
Elizabeth Hundt Scott
Will Sikorski
Robert Staley
Sean Sullivan
Wilma Sullivan
Barbara Sumner
John A. Tarka
Matt Turpin
Michele Gill Tycz
Rachna Walia
Charlie Whitty
Suzanne Wierzbinski
Mary Wilson
SENIORS
Mr. & Mrs. Gary Adams
Margaret M. Aldrich
Kathleen Arnold
Lindsay Aromin
Priscilla & David W. Baillie
Genevieve Bergendahl
Elaine Berman
Mary Ann Biziewski
Douglas Bjorn
Mr. & Mrs. Rufus Blanshard
Mr. & Mrs. Armand Bouley
Angelo B. Brocchi
Barbara Brown
Julie C. Buehler
Xenia & Kenneth
Bujnowski
Colette Butterick
Raymond I. Champy
Carol A. Cieslukowski
Mr. & Mrs. James Coleman
Dr. Thomas J. Cook
Wanda Cornell
David A. Corsini
Roger Crossgrove
Marilyn Cruthers
Alice E. Cubanski
Joseph J. Czapski
Maurica D’Aquila
Sara G. Dembrow
Hannah Desio
Janice Dibattista-Allen
Ms. H. Jane Dibble
Nancy E. Dubin
Harriet K. & Frank M.
Falcone
John & Marianna Fells
Margaret Francis
Florence & Eugene H. Frank
Anita Friedland
Jack Friedstein
Lester Frye
Diana Gill
Beverly S. Gordon
Rhoda Gorfain
Albert Gualtieri
Ruth D. Gunn
Donald G. Gunn
Antoinette F. Gwiazdowski
Sara Haroun
Luciana Heineman
Florence L. Hill
Margie Hnatiuk
Joan T. & William J. Hoyle
Olive D. Isakson
Careen Jennings
Dorothy Bosch Keller
Maryann Kouyoumjian
Assunta D’Elia Kozel
Joy S. Leary
Valerie J. Leger
Agnes B. Lotring
Erna Luering
Alexandra Malone
Charlotte Mariani
Emily Markiewicz
Maureen C. Martin
Dr. Thomas J. Masterson
Helen M. McGuire
Darlene McNaughton
Patricia Mereen
Josephine & John Merrill
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Mohr
Nancy L. Neiman-Hoffman
Pam J. Nelson
Diane A. Norman
Frances Ogulnick
Sara O’Hearn
Sarah B. Palmer
Anne Bingham Pierson, M.D.
Rev. Dr. Wayne D. Pokorny
Nancy Davis Pratviel
Jacqueline Princevalle
Elaine Prokesch
Edward Rogalski
Betty A. Rokowski
Robert Saunders
Leo P. Savoie
Gloria Sessions
Carolyn Shattuck
Paul E. Shelley
Matthew M. Sheridan
Alberta Sherman
Mariea D. Spencer
Poul Sterregaard
Elaine Sylvia
Joseph L. Torchia
Burriss G. Wilson
Tekla Wirhun
Barbara L. & Donald L.
Zuccardy
Dr. Leonard Zuckerbraun
STUDENTS
Joseph Dellaquila
Blaney W. Harris
Bushra F. Karim
Erika Lamb
Deirdre Lucas
William J. Miller
Rebecca Sajkowicz
Mildred Savage
Shih-Po Sun
Teresa L. Winter
* Deceased
A New Exhibition of Photographs to be
Unveiled at Otis Library
An exhibition of black and white photographs of
members of the Mohegan tribe, which date from the
late 19th to early 20th centuries, will be exhibited at
the Otis Library Community Room beginning December 11, 2008. Duplicates of the original photographs were initially purchased by the Slater Memorial Museum in the 1980’s from the Museum of
the American Indian, Heye Foundation in New York
City. The original collection is now housed in the
Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C. The photographs include early images of Courtland Fowler,
who was once
the chairman
of the Mohegan Tribal
Council,
members of
the Tantaquidgeon family
and other luminaries of the
tribe.
John Quidgeon,
photo taken by
Frank Speck,
1915
6
(Continued from page 4)
Dr. Washington used Tuskegee to develop a network of
wealthy philanthropists including Andrew Carnegie, John
D. Rockefeller and John Fox Slater. On the one hand,
Washington was criticized for including manual training
and work in Tuskegee’s curriculum. On the other, he used
his wealthy patrons to covertly fund and arrange legal
representation in legal opposition to disenfranchising
provisions of state constitutions. In 1915, Washington died
at 59 of congestive heart failure, purportedly aggravated
by overwork. At his death, Tuskegee’s endowment
exceeded $1.5 million.
In 1881 Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles founded
Spelman College as Atlanta’s Baptist Female Seminary.
The school’s classes first assembled in the basement of
Friendship Baptist Church. By 1882, two more teachers
commissioned by the Woman’s American Baptist Home
Mission Society joined the “basement school.” In 1883,
Packard and Giles were introduced to John D. Rockefeller
who initially pledged $250, making it possible for the
school to move to wooden buildings on its present site on
nine acres and to open a “Model School” to train student
teachers. Rockefeller’s initial pledge was succeeded by
much more substantial support, and the school bears his
wife’s maiden name. Her parents had been long time
anti-slavery activists, and she had been educated in the
Quaker tradition.
Hampton Bricklaying Class, 1899
Teachers, which later became Tuskegee Institute and then
Tuskegee University, with the mission of educating a
newly freed people for self-sufficiency. One of the most
famous teachers at Tuskegee was George Washington
Carver, whose name is synonymous with innovative
research into Southern farming methods and crops.
Tuskegee and Tuskegee Institute were also home to the
famed World War II Tuskegee Airmen, the first squadron
of African-American pilots in the U. S. Military.
The school was the dream of Adams, a former slave and
George W. Campbell, a former slave owner. Adams could
read, write and speak several languages despite having
no formal education. He was an experienced tinsmith,
harness- and shoe-maker. He was especially concerned
that, without an education, recently freed slaves would
not be able to support themselves. Campbell had
become a merchant and a banker and though he had little
experience with educational institutions, he had ideas
similar to Adams’.
In 1884, the college’s name was changed to Spelman
Seminary in honor of abolitionists Laura Spelman
Rockefeller and her parents, Harvey Buel and Lucy Henry
Spelman. In 1887, the first group of graduates received
high school diplomas. It was not until 1885 that Spelman
engaged Sophia Jones, M.D., the first black female to
join the faculty, and shortly thereafter, its nurse-training
department was established. By 1888, Spelman was
incorporated under a Board of Trustees and was chartered
by the State of
Georgia with Henry
L.
Morehouse
as its first Board
president.
Through astute politicking, Adams was able to secure
African American votes in exchange for legislation
authorizing funds for Tuskegee Normal School. Adams,
Thomas Dyer, and M.B. Swanson formed Tuskegee’s
first board of commissioners. They wrote to Hampton
Institute, asking for a recommendation for to head their
new school, and, although whites had always held such
positions, 25-year-old Booker T. Washington was named
to the post.
Dr. Simon Green
Atkins (1863-1934)
was the founder
and first president
of
the
Slater
Industrial Institute.
Atkins was born
Under Washington’s leadership, the new normal school
opened on July 4, 1881, in space borrowed from a church.
The following year, Washington bought the grounds of a
former plantation, on which the campus is still located.
Students, many of whom earned all or part of their expenses
by working on campus, constructed the buildings. The
school was a living example of Washington’s dedication
to the concept of self-reliance.
Booker T.
Washington
(1856-1915)
75
Slater Industrial Academy
and State Normal School
began planning for a
hospital
and
training
program for nurses in 1899.
It was dedicated on May
14, 1902, as a part of Slater
Industrial Academy’s ninth
commencement program.
In addition to funding
educational institutions,
the John F. Slater Fund
contributed the resources
Dr. Simon Green Atkins,
for
scholarship
and
(1863-1934)
publication in the field
of social research that was intended to create
educational opportunities for African Americans. An
introduction to one such piece explains “These reports
published by the John F. Slater Fund and written by the
geographer Henry Gannett offer valuable information
on the social and economic status of Southern African
Americans on the eve of the twentieth century. The
fund’s trustees sponsored papers such as these to report
on developments in the region.”
Top Image: Junior Farm Management, Tuskegee Normal
School, 1940
in Haywood, North Carolina, to farmers and former
slaves, two years before the ending of legalized slavery.
An excellent student, he exhibited an early passion for
education. After a short time as a teacher, Atkins enrolled
at St. Augustine’s Normal Collegiate Institute in Raleigh
in 1880 and following graduation returned to Haywood
to teach. Recognizing Atkins’ aptitude and competence
as a teacher, the President of Livingstone College in
Salisbury, N.C., in 1884 invited him to lead the College’s
grammar school department.
One such publication was Statistics of the Negroes in
the United States by Henry Gannett (Baltimore, 1894).
Considered the Father of Government Mapmaking,
Gannett was Chief Geographer for the U. S. Geological
Survey and later for the U.S. Census. The book was
described at the time as “A brief, lean, but detailed
statistical history of the slave trade and diaspora of
African Americans.
In 1890 the city of Winston offered Atkins the job of
principal at the Depot Street School. In addition to his
work as teacher and administrator, Atkins worked to
start a college for African-Americans and to develop
the community of Columbian Heights. Slater Industrial
Academy later became Slater Industrial and Normal
School (1895), Winston-Salem Teachers College (1925),
Winston-Salem State College (1963), and after 1972,
Winston-Salem State University.
Under the heading “Illiteracy and Education,” Gannett
asserts, “Of the progress of the negro race in education,
the statistics are by no means as full and comprehensive as
is desirable. Such as we possess, however, go to indicate
a remarkably rapid progress of the race in the elements
of education. During the prevalence of slavery this race
was kept in ignorance. Indeed, generally throughout
From 1904 to 1911, Atkins served as Secretary of
Education for the African American Episcopal Zion
Church and was church secretary for twenty years. He
traveled extensively throughout the United States and
represented the AME Zion Church at international
ecumenical conferences in London (1901 and 1921) and
Toronto (1911). Atkins was married in 1889 to Oleona
Pegram of New Bern, North Carolina, and they had nine
children, one of whom, Francis L. Atkins, succeeded his
father as President of Winston-Salem Teachers College
in 1934.
Simon Green Atkins also developed Slater Hospital, the
first hospital for African-Americans residing in WinstonSalem. Because obtaining adequate health care was
difficult for African-Americans in the Jim Crow era,
Slater Industrial and Normal School Graduates, 1891
86
the south it was held as a crime to teach the negroes to
read and write, and naturally when they became freemen
only a trifling proportion of them were acquainted with
these elements of education. In 1870, five years after
they became free, the records of the census show that
only two-tenths of all the negroes over ten years of age
in the country could write. Ten years later the proportion
had increased to three-tenths of the whole number, and
in 1890, only a generation after they were emancipated,
not less than 43 out of every hundred negroes, of ten
years of age and over, were able to read and write. These
figures show a remarkably rapid progress in elementary
education.”
We may never know what drove him, but his legacy
lives on, having produced and producing today, scholars
and leaders who still must overcome huge obstacles
to becoming educated and reach their fullest potential.
Looking beyond the obvious familial affection, one can
see why John Fox Slater would be honored by William
A. Slater and by NFA with a building named for him. It
is easy to understand why the Norwich Chapter of the
NAACP has chosen to honor John Fox Slater during its
centennial celebrations. Today, NFA stands as a paean to
the value of education as a universal equalizer and Slater
Memorial Hall, a tribute to John Fox Slater.
Sources consulted:
_________”College and University Endowments Over
$250-Million, 2007,” Chronicle
of Higher Education, 28.
__________ National Park Service “Hampton Institute”
National Historic Landmark
Summary Listing, Inventory, 11/4/08.
Bayles, Richard M. History of Windham County, Connecticut,
New York: W.W. Preston,
1889.
Hadley, Wade; Horton, Doris, and Strowd, Nell. Chatham
County: 17711971, 1971.
“Hampton University Admissions,” available: www.
hamptonu.edu .11/4/08.
Henry, Philip, Speas, Carol, Eds. The Heritage of Blacks in
North Carolina, Vol. I,
1990.
Franklin, Fabian The Life of Daniel Coit Gilman, New York:
Dodd, Mead and Company,
1910.
Lamb, Robert W. Editor, Our Twin Cities of the Nineteenth
Century: Norfolk and Portsmouth, Their Past, Present and
Future, Norfolk, VA: Barcroft,
. 1887–8
Powell, William S. Dictionary of North Carolina Biography,
Chapel Hill: University of
North Carolina Press, 1979.
Rettig. Polly M. and Bradford, S. S., Daniel Coit Gilman
Summer Home “Over
Edge,” National Register of Historic Places
Nomination:
, 3/8/76.
Stimpert, James. Johns Hopkins University, “Frequently
Asked Questions,” available:
http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_
about_hopkins/about_jhu/frequently_asked_
questions/index.cfm, 11/408
Forsyth County, North Carolina. “Digital Forsyth”
available:
http://www.digitalforsyth.org/
Gannett continues, “In 1860 the number of negroes who
were enrolled in the schools of the south was absolutely
trifling. Since the abolition of slavery the number has
increased with the greatest rapidity. …. The proportion
of negro school children increased at a far more rapid
rate than that of the white school children …Only one
generation has elapsed since the slaves were freed. To
raise a people from slavery to civilization is a matter, not
of years, but of many generations. The progress which
the race has made in this generation in industry, morality,
and education is a source of the highest gratification to all
friends of the race, to all excepting those who expected a
miraculous conversion”
Certainly, John Fox Slater’s money and influence had
a part in this rapid progress. What inspired John Fox
Slater, close to the end of his life, to pour a million
dollars into researching and educating freed slaves and
their descendants? Certainly there were needs “at home”
in Norwich. Could he have had the prescience to see
that education would not only raise a single people, but
their neighbors as well? Did he anticipate that streams
of former slaves and their families would head to the
industrialized North to work in the mills and factories? Or
was it guilt over the years he and his family enjoyed the
proceeds from their toil in the cotton fields of the South?
Slater Hospital
97
Coming soon to the Slater Museum
66TH ANNUAL CONNECTICUT ARTISTS EXHIBITION
February 22 - April 2, 2009
CALL TO ARTISTS - The prospectus for the 66th Annual CT Artists
Exhibition is now available online. Artists may submit work February 7 & 8, 2009. Full details at www.slatermuseum.org
Artist Ron Cruzan will be the juror for the 66th Annual CT Artists Exhibition, which will feature paintings, drawings, mixed media, sculpture, graphics and photography by resident artists of Connecticut. All
are welcome to attend the opening reception and awards ceremony
Sunday, February 22, 2009 from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Tibetan Boy by Christopher Zhang, 2008 Award Winner
Slater Memorial Museum Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Closed to the public on Mondays and holidays
Visitors may park in designated visitor parking spaces or any empty parking place on campus. Parking is difficult between
1:30 and 2:15 p.m. during school days due to the school buses.
The museum’s main telephone number is (860) 887-2506. A recording will provide information on current exhibitions, days of
operation, directions, admission fees and access to staff voice mailboxes. Visit us on the web at:
www.slatermuseum.org