If one goes to-day into any Southern town, and asks for the leading and most reliable coloured man in the community, I believe that in five cases out of ten he will be directed to a Negro who learned a trade during the days of slavery.
On the morning that the school opened, thirty students reported for admission.

I was the only teacher.

The students were about equally divided between the sexes.

Most of them lived in Macon County, the county in which Tuskegee is situated, and of which it is the county-seat.

A great many more students wanted to enter the school, but it had been decided to receive only those who were above fifteen years of age, and who had previously received some education.