ABSTRACT
The rise of freed blacks' schooling opportunities in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War (1865-1870) is a well-documented episode of American history. Numerous historians have poignantly illustrated how the various freedmen aid and benevolent associations, the Freedmen's Bureau, and assenting Southern whites assisted Southem blacks in establishing and maintaining a sporadic system of grassroots schools until public schooling became a formal reality throughout the South. 1 So successful were these early postbellum grassroots educational initiatives that it is difficult to conjecture the rise of statewide public schooling in the postwar South without the steadfast efforts of this mostly foreign-born education movement. Still, this recognition should not overshadow the fact that it was freed blacks' intense enthusiasm and eagerness toward acquiring the rudiments of learning that created the demand for these learning institutions and inevitably determined the varying successes of these collective efforts.
