*On this date, in 1846, the American Missionary Association (AMA) was founded. The AMA was the first organization to teach, train, and educate Southern slaves in a credible and organized manner.
The AMA was both a missionary and abolitionist society, focusing more on education for freed slaves after the start of the American Civil War. On September 17, 1861, they opened their first school on the grounds of the Chesapeake Female College across the Hampton River in Virginia. In just a few years, the AMA opened schools in North Carolina, Morehead, Roanoke Island, and Beaufort. Samuel Cornish was instrumental in its beginning.
By 1868, the AMA had over five hundred teachers and missionaries nationwide and near the border states. Their teachers often lived and worked with black families yet failed to recognize and encourage the richness of Black culture.
The AMA’s most positive contribution that has stood the test of time has been the many Black colleges and Universities it helped establish. The list includes Fisk University, Berea College, Atlanta University, Talladega College, LeMoyne Institute, and Straight University (now Dillard University).
Christian Reconstruction: the American Missionary Association and Southern Blacks, 1861-1890
By: Joe Martin Richardson
University of Georgia Press, ©1986.
ISBN: 0820308161
