The Schofield Normal and Industrial School in Aiken, South Carolina has been added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network. The school was important in the training of Black teachers during the Reconstruction Era. Today it is used as an integrated public middle school.
Martha Schofield was a Pennsylvania Quaker from Bucks County who provided most of the funding for the school from its founding until 1912. Martha Schofield was a “Hicksite” Quaker,” an adherent of Long Islander Elijah Hicks who campaigned after the American Revolution to bring the Society of Friends into the abolitionist camp. She taught at Purchase, New York before the Civil War. During the war she volunteered at at army hospital Darby Road in West Philadelphia.
In 1865 she joined the newly established Freedmen’s Bureau as an educator. While most white Northern teachers only lasted months or a few years, she dedicate the rest of her working life to the education of Black children and adults. During her first two years with the Bureau, she taught at schools on the islands off South Carolina. In 1868 she headed inland to Aiken to found the school that now bears her name.
Some Pennsylvania Quakers also contributed to the school. A guide to records of the school can be accessed here.
According to the National Park Service:
The Schofield Normal and Industrial School in Aiken was founded in 1871 by Martha Schofield, a Pennsylvania Quaker, to educate formerly enslaved African Americans. Freed people received training at this site and went on to teach throughout rural areas of the state. The Schofield School served as a public high school for Black students during segregation, and today is a public middle school. The original bell tower on the Sumter Street campus still stands and is accompanied by a historical marker.
More info on Schofield Normal and Industrial School.
The photo below (Mike Stroud) is of the preserved original cupola of the Schofield Normal School in front of modern Schofield Middle School.
Feature photo is of the original 1868 Schofield Freemen’s School building with students at recess.
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