awakened there," might be "free to assert itself
unhindered by real or imagined opposition."[2] There were no such
schools in 1830, but by 1838 philanthropists had established the first
mission among the Canadian refugees.[3] The English Colonial Church
and School Society organized schools at London, Amherstburg, and
Colchester. Certain religious organizations of the United States sent
ten or more teachers to these settlements.[4] In 1839 these workers
were conducting four schools while Rev. Hiram Wilson, their inspector,
probably had several other institutions under his supervision.[5] In
1844 Levi Coffin found a large school at Isaac Rice's mission at Fort
Maiden or Amherstburg.[6] Rice had toiled among these people six
years, receiving very little financial aid, and suffering unusual
hardships.[7] Mr. E. Child, a graduate of Oneida Institute, was later
added to the corps of mission teachers.[8] In 1852 Mrs. Laura S.
Haviland was secured to teach the school of the colony of "Refugees'
Home," where the colored people had built a structure "for school and
meeting purposes."[9] On Sundays the schoolhouses and churches were
crowded by eager seekers, many of whom lived miles away. Among these
earnest students a traveler saw an aged couple more than eighty
years old.[10] These elementary schools broke the way for a higher
institution at Dawn, known as the Manual Labor Institute.

[Footnote 1: Drew, _A North-side View of Slavery_, pp. 118, 147, 235,
341, and 342.]

[Footnote 2: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 229.]

[Footnote 3: _Father Henson's Story of His Own Life_, p. 209.]

[Footnote 4: _First Annual Report of the Anti-slavery Society of
Canada_, 1852, p. 22.]

[Footnote 5: Siebert, _The Underground Railroad_, p. 199.]

[Footnote 6: "While at this place we made our headquarters at Isaac J.
Rice's missionary buildings, where he had a large school for colored
children. He had labored here among the colored people, mostly
fugitives, for six years. He was a devoted, self-denying worker, had
received very little pecuniary help, and had suffered many privations.
He was well situated in Ohio as pastor of a Presbyterian Church, and
had fine prospects before him, but believed that the Lord called him
to this field of missionary labor among the fugitive slaves, who
came here by hundreds and by thousands, poor, destitute, ignorant,
suffering from all the evil influences of slavery. We entered into
deep sympathy with