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Tishomingo County Historical Research Project No. 2231,

Assignment: 10

Canvassers: Avie Lou Lomenick and Iness Tucker

(Transcribed by Cindy Whirley Nelson)

During the period of slavery, little was done to educate the negro. As soon as he gained his freedom, he began on an educational program. Through the efforts of educated negros, much is being done about their education. Education soon showed that the best instruments of the negro were men of his own race, who understood his temperament and needs. The percentage of illiteracy is decreasing fast. Within recent years, the negro schools have devoted most of their efforts to training their students to take a part in the agricultural and industrial development of the county. As a result of such methods not only have the negro developed greater efficiency and self-reliance, but the oppositions, which was stubborn, that the first educators of the negro had to encounter, as subsided also. The status of the negro is now more encouraging than it has been at any previous time since the war.

Reference: The World Book

Traders were not allowed to sell slaves over fifteen years old without registering with proper authority certificates stating that they had not been guilty of any crimes in the state from which they were bought. Slaves were forbidden not only to keep weapons or ammunition without having permission to do so from a justice of the people, given at the request of their masters, but to take part in riots or unlawful assemblies or to go at large and hide as free men or hire themselves out. Trading with slaves without permission from their master was forbidden. Slaves were not allowed to leave the tenements of their masters without having passes to show that they were away with the consent of the proper authorities. A slave who was found at the distance of eight miles without a pass or had "lain out more than two days from the service of his master was considered a "runaway", and was returned to his master or committed to jail. Masters were not allowed to inflict cruel or unusual punishments on their slaves under a penalty of not more than five hundred dollars. The testimony of slaves was admitted in the courts of the state. No master was allowed to free a slave without the consent of the legislature, and this could be given only when the slave had performed some act of great merit for his master, or had rendered some distinguished service for the State. The legal punishment of slaves was usually by the infliction of stripes. It must be remembered that at this time the pillory, the whipping post, and the branding iron had not been abolished throughout the world, and corporal punishment was frequently inflicted upon people of the white as well as the colored race. The maximum number of lashes was thirty-nine.