They wished to read the Bible, to be preachers, to be as the old master and not have to work.

Day and night and Sunday they crowded the schools.
According to an observer,* "not only are individuals seen at study, and under the most untoward circumstances, but in very many places I have found what I will call 'native schools,' often rude and very imperfect, but there they are, a group, perhaps, of all ages, trying to learn.

Some young man, some woman, or old preacher, in cellar, or shed, or corner of a Negro meeting-house, with the alphabet in hand, or a town spelling-book, is their teacher.

All are full of enthusiasm with the new knowledge the book is imparting to them." * J.W.Alvord, Superintendent of Schools for the Freedmen's Bureau, 1866.
Not only did the Negroes want schooling, but both the North and the South proposed to give it to them.

Neither side was actuated entirely by altruistic motives.