0 CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSIONS

The early history of Bennett College in Greensboro, North Caron line is significant in that it provides some commentary on the relig= ious, social, and educational conditions related to Negroes in North Carolina during a period of more than fifty years following the Civil War. The experiences at Bennett College reflect a pattern of devel= opments which emerged in other comparable institutions of that time,

One conclusion to be drawn concerning the past period is that the Northern Methodists were much more active in ”evangelizing and edu— cating“ the freedmen of North Carolina than were the Southern Methodn ists. The Southern Methodists of North Carolina established some mis= sions among the Negroes but these were primarily to care for the older Negro members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who did not want to join the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church or any other inde» pendent Negro Methodist denominations. The Southern Methodists of

North Carolina established no schools for freedmen, for their poverty

prohibited the organization of schools beyond those already in operam

tion at the time of the Civil war. The more fundamental reason for this educational inactivity among Negroes, however, may have been a lack of conviction that educational efforts on behalf of the freedmen were a part of their Christian duty, for no expressions of interest in Bennett College and other freedmen's schools were found in the records of the North Carolina Southern Methodists which were consulted. The Northern Methodists, on the other hand, felt religious convictions to

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