eople outnumber the white.

Before going to Tuskegee I had expected to find there a building and
all the necessary apparatus ready for me to begin teaching. To my
disappointment, I found nothing of the kind. I did find, though, that
which no costly building and apparatus can supply,--hundreds of hungry,
earnest souls who wanted to secure knowledge.

Tuskegee seemed an ideal place for the school. It was in the midst of
the great bulk of the Negro population, and was rather secluded, being
five miles from the main line of railroad, with which it was connected
by a short line. During the days of slavery, and since, the town had
been a centre for the education of the white people. This was an added
advantage, for the reason that I found the white people possessing
a degree of culture and education that is not surpassed by many
localities. While the coloured people were ignorant, they had not, as a
rule, degraded and weakened their bodies by vices such as are common to
the lower class of people in the large cities. In general, I found the
relations between the two races pleasant. For example, the largest, and
I think at that time the only hardware store in the town was owned and
operated jointly by a coloured man and a white man. This copartnership
continued until the death of the white partner.

I found that about a year previous to my going to Tuskegee some of the
coloured people who had heard something of the work of education being
done at Hampton had applied to the state Legislature, through their
representatives, for a small appropriation to be used in starting a
normal school in Tuskegee. This request the Legislature had complied
with to the extent of granting an annual appropriation of two thousand
dollars. I soon learned, however, that this money could be used only for
the payment of the salaries of the instructors, and that there was no
provision for securing land, buildings, or apparatus. The task before me
did not seem a very encouraging one. It seemed much like making bricks
without straw. The coloured people were overjoyed, and were constantly
offering their services in any way in which they could be of assistance
in getting the school started.

My first task was to find a place in which to open the school. After
looking the town over with some care, the most suitable place that could
be secured seemed to be a rather dilapidated shanty near the coloured
Methodist church, together with the church itself as a