![\"census\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-204pinsker\/files\/2019\/11\/1870-census.jpg\")
<\/a>1870 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>1880 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/a>1900 United States Federal Census, Ancestry.<\/p><\/div>\n
Thanks to the work of Professor Pinsker, I was provided with a list of relevant primary and secondary sources about Black communities in Carlisle in the late 19th century. My first step, therefore, was to read these sources in order to find more direction when I arrived at the Historical Society. In hindsight, this work would have been better done on campus, during the hours that the Historical Society was closed, but I didn\u2019t have that foresight. Instead, I read over these contextual documents in the Historical Society library, which left me with less time to search in the library itself. That\u2019s a mistake I\u2019ll certainly learn from.<\/p>\n
I found a lot of important information in the contextual readings. The 1896 article; \u201cNegroes Under Northern Conditions\u201d by Guy Carleton Lee, was greatly useful in creating a general understanding of the education system in Carlisle. In this source, I read an introduction to the separate school system created for Black children.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Guy Carleton Lee, \u201cNegroes Under Northern Conditions,\u201d Gunton’s Magazine 10 (January 1896): p. 60)<\/p><\/div>\n
The author, Guy Carleton Lee, cited records of the Carlisle School Board. I was quick to jot that down and figured the Historical Society would have some resources from the School Board.<\/p>\n
This being my third research attempt on the Spradleys, I knew better than to expect to find an exact record of Shirley, William, Elizabeth, or Emma. But I knew I could at least paint a picture of their time, enough to suppose the conditions they encountered.<\/p>\n
Specifically, after conversations with Professor Pinsker, I wanted to know when the separate schools were created, and if there had ever been integrated classes pre-official integration. This topic veered off from the Spradleys and towards the story of the Youngs; the story of fellow janitor Robert Young\u2019s fight to have his son (Robert G. Young) admitted to Dickinson in the 1880s. Newspaper articles reporting on the case had interestingly identified Robert G.’s classes as being integrated, which directly conflicted with the widely understood timeline of integration. If I could answer this question as well, I\u2019d be pleased.<\/p>\n
I used the Historical Society\u2019s Past Perfect search database next. The database was slow, especially compared to Ancestry and the Dickinson Archives, so this was another opportunity to be careful budgeting my time. I searched \u201ccolored school\u201d, \u201cschool board\u201d, \u201cCarlisle schools\u201d, and \u201cBlack school.\u201d From those searches, I found a good amount of sources.<\/p>\n
The first thing that caught my eye was \u201cCarlisle School System Records, 1836-1935.\u201d This was the perfect, primary source material I was looking for to describe the schools and maybe even list the students. Next, I found the \u201cDevelopment of Colored Education,\u201d another source developed by the Carlisle School System. I found a large number of secondary sources that recounted the Carlisle schools, including Thomas Vale\u2019s \u201cA Century of Progress\u201d (c. 1934) and \u201cMary E. Brown vs Carlisle School Board\u201d by David Strausbaugh (c.1985.)<\/p>\n
Satisfied with my results, I requested the items and went through them one by one. By reading all the sources, I was able to construct a rough timeline of the school system.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Timeline, created by James van Kuilenburg.<\/p><\/div>\n
I learned that the \u201ccolored school\u201d was founded in 1836, along with the rest of the school system. As the need grew, additional schools were opened in 1864, 1878, 1882, and 1892.\u00a0 [1]<\/strong><\/p>\n I had hoped to find some building plans or photos included in the school board\u2019s notes, but unfortunately, I had no such luck. I used PastPerfect again, using similar search terms, but the photos that turned up were few. I spent a lot of time trying to download the images to my computer, so that I could retain their quality, but too late into the process, realized that was a poor use of my time.<\/p>\n Courtesy of the Cumberland Historical Society.<\/p><\/div>\n Generally, I learned a lot about the culture around these \u201ccolored schools\u201d because of their marked absence from many documents. These schools, in every way, were afterthoughts in budgeting and public memory keeping.<\/p>\n The most useful source I found was \u201cDevelopment of Colored Education,\u201d an abridged version of the school board\u2019s notes. This collection of notes specified the exact dates schools were founded, but rarely their full addresses or building details. The most exciting part of this source was absolutely the list of student graduates (from the regular schools and the \u201ccolored\u201d ones.) Once I realized I could find the Spradley children among these names, I became very excited.<\/p>\n \u201cCarlisle School System Records, 1836-1935,” Cumberland County Historical Society.<\/p><\/div>\n While I understood the \u201ccolored schools\u201d were much smaller than the mainstream ones, I was still surprised at how few graduates were produced. Guy Carleton Lee attributed this to a \u201clack of parental co-operation\u201d, or in other words, Black parents were too busy at work to help their children in school. [2]<\/strong> I can\u2019t say whether or not this was true, but unfortunately, it seems the Spradley children may have been part of this trend of failing to graduate.<\/p>\n Doing some simple math, I found roughly the years I could expect the Spradley children to be enrolled. As of the 1870 census, Elizabeth and William had been recently enrolled, and Shirley was literate by age 22 in 1900. This was a window of 30 years, but even so, there were no traces of any of them.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>