hibiting the immigration of such persons into
that State not much account of them was taken until 1853. Then the
legislature amended the law authorizing the establishment of schools
in townships so as to provide that in all enumerations the children
of color should not be taken, that the property of the blacks and
mulattoes should not be taxed for school purposes, and that their
children should not derive any benefit from the common schools of that
State.[4] This provision had really been incorporated into the former
law, but was omitted by oversight on the part of the engrossing
clerk.[5]

[Footnote 1: Boone, _History of Ed. in Indiana_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 2: _Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana_, 1837,
p. 15.]

[Footnote 3: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

[Footnote 4: _Laws of a General Nature of the State of Indiana_, 1855,
p. 161.]

[Footnote 5: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

A resolution of the House instructing the educational committee to
report a bill for the establishment of schools for the education of
the colored children of the State was overwhelmingly defeated in 1853.
Explaining their position the opponents said that it was held "to be
better for the weaker party that no privilege be extended to them,"
as the tendency to such "might be to induce the vain belief that the
prejudice of the dominant race could ever be so mollified as to break
down the rugged barriers that must forever exist between their social
relations." The friends of the blacks believed that by elevating them
the sense of their degradation would be keener, and so the greater
would be their anxiety to seek another country, where with the spirit
of men they "might breathe fresh air of social as well as political
liberty."[1] This argument, however, availed little. Before the Civil
War the Negroes of Indiana received help in acquiring knowledge from
no source but private and mission schools.

[Footnote 1: Boone, _History of Education in Indiana_, p. 237.]

In Illinois the situation was better than in Indiana, but far from
encouraging. The constitution of 1847 restricted the benefits of the
school law to white children, stipulating the word white throughout
the act so as to make clear the intention of the legislators.[1] It
seemed to some that, in excluding the colored children from the public
schools, the law contemplated the establishment of separate schools
in that it provided