an academy for
colored girls, and a teacher was engaged. But these noble efforts put
forth so near the border States soon provoked firm opposition from
the proslavery element. Some of the students had gone so far in the
manifestation of their zeal that the institution was embarrassed by
the charge of promoting the social equality of the races.[2] Rather
than remain in Cincinnati under restrictions, the reform element of
the institution moved to the more congenial Western Reserve where a
nucleus of youth and their instructors had assumed the name of Oberlin
College. This school did so much for the education of Negroes before
the Civil War that it was often spoken of as an institution for the
education of the people of color.

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p. 43.]

[Footnote 2: _First Annual Report of the American Anti-Slavery
Society_, p. 43.]

Interest in the higher education of the neglected race, however, was
not confined to a particular commonwealth. Institutions of other
States were directing their attention to this task. Among others were
a school in New York City founded by a clergyman to offer Negroes an
opportunity to study the classics,[1] New York Central College at
McGrawville, Oneida Institute conducted by Beriah Green at Whitesboro,
Thetford Academy of Vermont, and Union Literary Institute in the
center of the communities of freedmen transplanted to Indiana. Many
other of our best institutions were opening their doors to students of
African descent. By 1852 colored students had attended the Institute
at Easton, Pennsylvania; the Normal School of Albany, New York;
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Rutland College, Vermont; Jefferson
College, Pennsylvania; Athens College, Athens, Ohio; Franklin College,
New Athens, Ohio; and Hanover College near Madison, Indiana. Negroes
had taken courses at the Medical School of the University of New York;
the Castleton Medical School in Vermont; the Berkshire Medical School,
Pittsfield, Massachusetts; the Rush Medical School in Chicago; the
Eclectic Medical School of Philadelphia; the Homeopathic College of
Cleveland; and the Medical School of Harvard University. Colored
preachers had been educated in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg,
Pennsylvania; the Dartmouth Theological School; and the Theological
Seminary of Charleston, South Carolina.[2]

[Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 530.]

[Footnote 2: These facts are taken from M.R. Delany's _The Condition,
Elevatio