ions of the Negroes,
but they did not confine themselves to this, because schoolhouses as
well as churches were burned by them, and many innocent persons were
made to suffer. During this period not a few coloured people lost their
lives.

As a young man, the acts of these lawless bands made a great impression
upon me. I saw one open battle take place at Malden between some of the
coloured and white people. There must have been not far from a hundred
persons engaged on each side; many on both sides were seriously injured,
among them General Lewis Ruffner, the husband of my friend Mrs. Viola
Ruffner. General Ruffner tried to defend the coloured people, and
for this he was knocked down and so seriously wounded that he never
completely recovered. It seemed to me as I watched this struggle between
members of the two races, that there was no hope for our people in this
country. The "Ku Klux" period was, I think, the darkest part of the
Reconstruction days.

I have referred to this unpleasant part of the history of the South
simply for the purpose of calling attention to the great change that has
taken place since the days of the "Ku Klux." To-day there are no such
organizations in the South, and the fact that such ever existed is
almost forgotten by both races. There are few places in the South now
where public sentiment would permit such organizations to exist.

Chapter V. The Reconstruction Period

The years from 1867 to 1878 I think may be called the period of
Reconstruction. This included the time that I spent as a student at
Hampton and as a teacher in West Virginia. During the whole of the
Reconstruction period two ideas were constantly agitating in the minds
of the coloured people, or, at least, in the minds of a large part of
the race. One of these was the craze for Greek and Latin learning, and
the other was a desire to hold office.

It could not have been expected that a people who had spent generations
in slavery, and before that generations in the darkest heathenism, could
at first form any proper conception of what an education meant. In every
part of the South, during the Reconstruction period, schools, both
day and night, were filled to overflowing with people of all ages and
conditions, some being as far along in age as sixty and seventy
years. The ambition to secure an education was most praiseworthy and
encouraging. The idea, however, was too prevalent that, as soon as one
secured a little educatio