PBA Galleries

22 pp. (8vo) plain white wrappers.

Black troops were not often paid the bounties legally owed to them at the end of the Civil War (on the racist assumption that, as ex-slaves, they were not competent to handle money.) Fifteen years after the War, a bill was introduced in Congress to put these unpaid funds to good use – supporting the first Negro colleges in America – the Hampton Institute in Virginia, Howard University in Washington, D.C., Fisk University in Nashville, Atlanta University in Georgia and Straight University in New Orleans. Making the eloquent case in favor funding Black high education as “a remedy for the imminent danger from ignorant voters” was made by Rev. Painter, best-known in Washington as an advocate for Indian rights, and Samuel Champman Armstrong (1839-1893), a commanding officer of Colored Troops during the War who became founder and first principal of Hampton (and the inspiring mentor of Booker T. Washington). A rare imprint. Only Yale and 3 other American institutions have copies of the original.