Among the first steps taken by freedpeople, after reuniting with their family or securing their freedom and safety, was to learn to read and write. Numerous “Freedmen’s Schools” were established throughout Union-occupied territory in the South.

In the spring of 1864 in the camp of the 11th Louisiana Infantry, African Descent at Vicksburg, new officer Lt. Marshall Mills reported favorably about the educational efforts underway in his regiment. After the white officers, Mills among them, studied their tactics in a nearby schoolhouse, two white women from the North taught Black schoolchildren and many grown men in the regiment. Mills was impressed at the soldiers’ devotion to their studies. In to the evening they could be seen studying their books and practicing their writing.

Such schools continued for the remainder of the war, and well afterward. An example of one of these schools at Vicksburg was profiled in Harper’s Weekly on June 26, 1866.

Most of these schools were taught by white women who came from the North, including a Mrs. Green, shown above.

A more comprehensive account of some of these schools and teachers (with sources) can be found in a lengthy yet detailed post: “The First Fruits of a New System: Freedmen’s Schools at Vicksburg“. One should be cautioned that most of these accounts, because of when they were written (in the 1860s) may contain offensive language or stereotypes. Nevertheless, they demonstrate a time when freedpeople hungered to obtain a basic education, recognizing literacy as one component to ensure and defend their freedoms.

This Juneteenth, as we celebrate, let’s pause to consider the condition of those freedpeople – what they had already endured, what was necessary for them to secure their freedom – and the ways and tools in which they did so.