SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE  
"What Oberlin Has Been to 
the Negro"

What Oberlin Has Been to the Negro

The debt of gratitude which I owe Oberlin
is two fold, for I am a woman and a negro -
In the few minutes allotted to me, it would be impossible 
to give even a faint idea of what Oberlin
College has been to me as a woman, but when
I think of attempting to tell you what Oberlin has been
to me as a colored woman, the magnitude of the task staggers me -
It is impossible for any [mortal man]human being to compare
with his mind the height and depth and breadth
of Oberlin's beneficent influence upon a race doomed
to the darkness of ignorance for more than two
hundred years in this country; whose cry for the
light of knowledge was answered in one section
by laws which made it a crime them to to read and
in another by a soulless prejudice and a relentless 
injustice which as a rule closed the doors of schools and
universities in the face of [every] any black man [and] or woman
who knocked at them for admission.
To the women and Negroes of this country Oberlin
became [as] in 1833 an oasis of opportunity [in the ministry] amid
a desert of mental repression and proscription which
blighted the prospects and blasted the hopes
of both,


[2-]
It is accounted [a great] an unspeakable blessing to the world
when any discovery which benefits mankind
is made. The greatest honors which can be conferred 
upon the discoverer seems in comparison 
with his benefaction, insignificant and
small– What words from mortal lips can fittingly 
sing the praise of that God fearing band of
men and women by whom Oberlin was founded
who discovered that in the American slave -
ignorant and degraded as he was - lay qualities
of intellect and graces of heart out of which it
was possible to make a man. Conceive, if you
can at this advanced day, of a people who are enslaved were utterly 
ignorant of their [own] powers, who have no hope
that the opportunity of improving their minds will
ever come either to the[se] great masses held in bondage 
or to the fortunate few who are free, who would have
no faith in their capacity to acquire knowledge and
measure up to the full stature of manhood and
womanhood, even if such an opportunity should
come. Then [*Over*] [fancy what it must mean to such
an oppressed and hopeless [race] people to learn that
there are men and women who believe that they have been endowed
by God with intellectual gifts equal to those
possessed by other races, and that they have

[*belonging to the race when enslaved them 
of the dominant race who ? is intellectually that ? the slave
? endowed by God an intellect ?*]

Then

Then fancy what it must mean to 
such an oppressed and hopeless people 
that there are men and women of the dominant 
race who believe so firmly that even 
the slave has been endued by God with
intellect that they have.



3
established one institution in the land of his oppression 
where it is possible for him to acquire knowledge [cultivate their
minds] and aspire to the highest culture of
which he is capable. [*Over*] [The faith which Oberlin
displayed in the ability & the worth of the oppressed race [to
acquire knowledge] and the blessed results of
that faith at a time when the [according to] various philosophers
and the wise ethnologists of the North as well as
of the South, pronounced the black man was [considered] incapable of
mental improvement just lifted the Negro
in the estimation of the American public from the low level of the brute to the dignity
of a man.] It is only when one recalls the
violent opposition which Oberlin College encountered
that he can comprehend how abiding must have 
been the faith of its founders in the capacity
of the enslaved race and the oppressed sex, how 
[great] keen was their sense of justice and how sublime 
their trust in God. [when] In the face of traditions, custom, [spite of sentiment,
motive, law and tradition] in [the face] spite of threats denunciation and
and ridicule, in a bleak and barren wilderness , these
good men and women dared to plant this college 
whose principles and whose policy were at least in several particularly at least diametrically 
opposed to those adopted and pursued by 
any other institution in the world.
However glowing might be my words of praise

There is no doubt that the faith which 
Oberlin displayed in the ability and the worth 
of the oppressed race, coupled with the blessed
results of that faith, did more than any thing
else and effect that change of public opinion
by which the black man was lifted
from the low level of the brute to the dignity
of a man. 



4
x (and I was sent here when a child from the South and
remained here till I graduated from the classical course of the college)

however [warm] hot from the heart they might come
they would would be too cold and lifeless to
express [the] my gratitude to the men and women
to whom as a woman I am so deeply indebted and who sacrificed so much in the name and
for the sake of my oppressed and persecuted
people.
Oberlins benefaction to humanity [woman and
the Negro] consists not alone in the fact that
she was the first institution in this country
which was just, broad and benevolent enough
to open its doors to Negroes and to women
on an equal footing with men, but it consists
also in the spirit of justice & sympathy which was manifest from the first in everything
relating to the two classes of students who
were particularly benefitted by her experiment in
education. [which was tried for the first time
since the world began.] As far as I can speak
from personal [knowledge] experience and observation
about the very atmosphere of Oberlin has always been
a benediction to the Negro. Here he has breathed
the pure air of liberty equality and fraternity which [always] can only
circulate[s] in those rare and heavenly spheres
in which dwell men and women who show by deed as well as by word that they believe
in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of man. [It meant a grreat deal to the] Oberlin did much for the
Negro, of course, when [she showed] by opening her doors to


5
She proclaimed to the world 
him that she believed he was capable of mental development 
and worthy of the best effort she could put forth in 
his behalf
Negro [to learn that] at the feet of he was endowed with the 
mental and spiritual qualities characteristic of 
a man, but she [strengthened] encouraged and 
comforted him when she made him more to feel that there were 
representatives of the downcast race who were broad and benevolent enough [would] take him to their hearts as a brother. 
But it is as impossible to estimate by a critical analysis [no small
[??atical} calculation] the value of Oberlin's magnanimity 
to the Negro, particularly where she 
stood alone in offering him an opportunity 
for education and culture, as it is to compute 
[the worth] in words or dollars and cents the worth of 
any other priceless blessing.
What the City of Refuge was to the 
pursued and terror-stricken fugitive centuries 
ago, that was Oberlin to the Negro in those 
dark days when he was hounded by men 
who[se] would mad with the desire to [hold] keep him [a slave and
make] a brute, and haunted by fears that the 
low estimate placed upon him by his master 
and his foes might be alas too true.
In the view of the Oberlin's great benefaction to the 
Negro, it is a [comfort of inspiration] pleasure to [see] know what 
representatives of the race who have studied 
here have reflected upon their alma mater 


6
to whom they owe so much. Wherever they go 
in whatever field of labor they are found the 
colored graduates of Oberlin as, a rule 
strenuous in their efforts to discharge their 
obligations creditably. All over the country our 
graduates and students have won an  enviable 
reputation for themselves. Those who come 
in close contact with them declare that they have 
have [thoroughly] imbibed the Oberlin idea 
which, being interpreted, means that they are 
thorough, conscientious and reliable in whatever 
vocation they pursue. They act as though 
they had a mission in the world. Oberlin 
graduates who are teachers for instance, are not 
satisfied to educate the head alone but strive 
to cultivate the hearts of their pupils as well. 
[In] Though it is not possible for Negroes 
in this country to pay Oberlin College the 
debt of gratitude they owe, it must be a 
source of gratification to her faculty and her 
friends to know that her sons and daughters 
of a dusky hue are doing all in their power 
to live up to the principles which she has enunciated, 
the precepts she has taught. [and the
example]
If it is possible for departed

4-
however hot from the heart my expressions of
gratitude to the men and women who sacrificed
so much in the name and for the sake of my opposed
and persecuted people, they would be too cold and
lifeless



7
spirits to see the fruits of their labor in the 
other world, how great must be the joy how
effable the happiness of those sainted men
and women by whom Oberlin was founded 
[and] was so richly rewarded, who are with us in the flesh no more whose faith and whose efforts have 
been crowned with such a glorious success.
Though many of the noble band of heroes
and heroines who sacrificed so much for principle 
and right are with us no more in the flesh
may the spirit of justice and brotherly love with which
permeated and actuated them rest and abide 
with those upon whom their mantle falls 
and the best institutions  in the country now open their doors
to all students without regard to race or color.
Slavery is dead, it is true but the demon of injustice 
which once prompted men to deprive their poor
weak brothers of their inalienable rights still lives
and thrives. Almost insuperable obstacles
which block the path of Negroes to places and
positions to which their ability and training entitle
them show how strong and rampant still is the
prejudice against an unfortunate and persecuted race.
[Negro youth never needed a] May Oberlin be synonymous with justice and 
fair plan in the future as she has been in the past.
May the day never dawn when the men and
women who hold the destiny of Oberlin College
in their hands swerve from the eternal principles

8
of equal rights and justice to all by which 
its noble founders consecrated it and by which [founders of this institution]
lived and died. May my dear alma mater
which I [and all] together with every member of my race love with all the
ardor and intensity of his soul to which I
am so deeply indebted for instruction and inspiration
received during my youth, was stronger and
stronger, became more and more a power for
good and a tower of strength and grew better
and better into the perfect day --

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.