Mar 25, 2021 - Sale 2562

Sale 2562 - Lot 208

Price Realized: $ 531
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(EDUCATION.) Michael E. Strieby and James Powell. The Quitman School: The Burning and the Rebuilding. 4 pages, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, on one folding sheet; minor wear, folds. New York: American Missionary Association, December 1885
Set Alert for Similar Items

Additional Details

An account of a "school for the colored people" opened in an old hotel downtown Quitman, GA by northern missionaries. Even as the building was prepared for students, the staff endured a steady stream of abuse from the locals, including bullets fired through the principal's window at night. The school managed to open in early October 1885. On 17 November, it was set on fire. Although located one block from the local fire department, no effort was made to save the building, only to protect the neighboring buildings from falling cinders. No lives were lost, but the staff and students fled town. In a final insult, the principal was charged with arson.

This article was later published in the January 1886 issue of The American Missionary, pages 2 to 6. OCLC lists only one other example of this leaflet printing, at Harvard.