nstitution in general. She innocently requested permission to teach
the slaves of the planter whose daughters she was then instructing.
When told that such was a criminal offense against the laws of
Mississippi and that she should "go North and teach the 'Niggers,'"
Miss Miner with an intrepid spirit resolved then and there that she
_would_ go North and teach them. Out of this unpleasant experience
developed the determination to found a Normal School for girls of
color in the city of Washington.

Returning North, Miss Miner found other difficulties than poor health
confronting her in her efforts to establish a school for the Negro
youth in the District of Columbia. Funds had to be raised, pro-slavery
opposition had to be overcome, and public sentiment had to be changed
at least to indifference. Each of these in itself was sufficiently
colossal to try the strength, physical and moral, of the ablest
anti-slavery agitators of that day. It was at the time of the passage
of that infamous Fugitive Slave Law, when freedmen and runaways like
William Parker, Jerry McHenry and Joshua Glover were knocked down,
beaten, bound and cast into prison; when abolitionists were
incarcerated for their anti-slavery propaganda and giving aid to the
fugitives; when even our valiant Frederick Douglass admitted himself
too timid to support any such project as that undertaken by Miss Miner
in the city of Washington.[2] It was in times such as these that this
fearless and resolute little woman, with an enthusiasm that seemingly
glistened in her penetrating eyes, determined to give her life to the
cause of alleviating suffering, dispelling ignorance, and liberating
the oppressed Americans in body and mind.

With the small sum of one hundred dollars that she had secured from
Mrs. Ednah Thomas,[3] of Philadelphia, a member of the Society of
Friends, Miss Miner started out upon her great work in behalf of the
Negro children of the District of Columbia. Her thrift prompted her to
solicit funds of various and peculiar sorts. Donations of old papers,
books, weights, measures and other castaway material were transformed
by this real teacher into valuable material for the instruction of her
undeveloped pupils.

Funds of the material sort were not the only difficulties that beset
her road of progress, for pro-slavery opposition assailed Miss Miner
from every side.[4] Such propaganda as the following appeared in the
_National Intelligencer_, a Washington