Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute

a school for negroes and Indians at Hampton, Virginia. It is considered in many ways a type of what such a school should be. It was opened in 1868 by the American Missionary Association. Its charter of incorporation, granted by the state of Virginia in 1870, provides for the management by a board of seventeen trustees empowered to fill vacancies. Property to the extent of $800,000 may be held free of taxation.

The school was opened with two teachers and fifteen students in old army barracks. There are now 80 or more instructors, 55 buildings, a library of 12,000 volumes, 185 acres of garden and farm land, and 600 acres of grazing land. The Institute has had appropriations from the Government Indian funds, a grant of agricultural land from the state of Virginia, private gifts, and aid from the Peabody and Slater funds. The endowment now amounts to $1,100,000, affording an income of $170,000.

In addition to textbook work the girls are taught cooking, sewing, the care of a house, and such trades as are open to women. The boys learn shopwork of various kinds. They are trained not only to become teachers, but carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, electrical engineers, and the like. Improved methods of gardening, field work, and the care of stock are taught on the farm. Students are charged ten dollars a month for board, and, so far as possible, are given an opportunity to pay in labor. Over 1,000 students, chiefly negroes, but including a number of Indians from Oklahoma and the Sioux reservations, are in attendance. Military drill is conducted under an officer detailed for the purpose. The school has done much to infuse a spirit of thrift and industry among the negroes and to provide instructors for colored schools. The most distinguished graduate is Booker T. Washington, of the class of '75.

See Negro