ABSTRACT

In higher walks of life too, the coloured women have made progress. "The principal of the Coloured High School in Philadelphia was born a slave in the District of Columbia; but in early life she was taken North, and she resolved to get knowledge. When about fifteen years old, she obtained a situation as a house servant, with the privilege of going every other day to receive instruction. Poverty was in her way, but instead of making it a stumbling block, she converted it into a stepping stone. She lived in one place about six years, and received seven dollars a month. A coloured lady presented her a scholarship, and she entered Oberlin as a pupil. When she was sufficiently advanced, Oberlin was brave enough to accord her a place as a teacher in the preparatory department of the college, a position she was enabled to maintain with credit to herself and honour to her race. At present she is principal of the coloured High School of Philadelphia, a position which she has held for several years, graduating almost every year a number of pupils, a part of whom are scattered abroad

14 Coloured Women of America. [ EnlrlilbwDlDan" Be"le'll', J anulll7 16th, J 87L 8S teachers in different parts of the country. Nearly all the coloured teachers in Washington are girls and women, a large percentage of whom were educated in the distl'ictof Columbia. Noris it only in the ranks of teachers that coloured women are content to remain. Some years since, two coloured women were studying in the Law School of Howard University. One of them, Miss Charlotte Ray, a member of thiS body, has since graduated, being,I believe, the first coloured woman in the country who has ever gained the distinction of being a graduated lawyer. Others have gone into medicine and have been practising in different States of the Union. In the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, two coloured women were last year pm'suing their studies as Matriculants, while a young woman, the daughter of a former fugitive slave, has held the position of an assistant resident physician in one of the hospitals. Miss Cole, of Philadelphia, held for some time tlie position of phvsician in the State Orphan Asylum in South Carolina .•

" In literature and art we have not accomplished much, although we have a few among us who have tried literature: Miss Foster has written for the Atlantic Monthly, and Mrs. Mary Shadd Cary for years edited a paper called the Provincial Freeman, and another coloured woman has written several stories, poems, and sketches, which have appeared in different periodicals. In art. we have Miss Edmonia Lewis, who is, I believe, allied on one side to the negro race. She exhibited several pieces of statuary, among which is Cleopatra, at the Centennial."