51

Freedmen's Aid Society in 1878 amounted to only eighteen dollars. Relatively substantial amounts were received each year from student

fees: June 1876, $7Q.45 in rent and tuition; May l877, $133.l7 in tui- tion and donations; l879, $20l.00 in tuition; and l880, $l83.50 in tui-

52

tion. In order to encourage and teach financial independence, the seminary tried to collect as much as possible through tuition. Due to the competition of rival schools offering “almost free education,“ how- ever, Bennett was not able to demand complete fees, about $25.00 a year, from all students. At the same time, the Society recognized that few young people could save enough from their very low wages to pay the en- tire costs of education.53 The purpose of Bennett Seminary, along with thirteen other Freedmen's Aid Society schools in l876, was to train preachers and

54

teachers for effective work among their own race. In 1878 a report

indiCated that all of the students were not coming with these two aims

in mind.55 Thayer commented in 1880 on some of the typical false moti-

vations: “We already have too many, who simply come because their par-

ents send them, or because they think it will make them more respectable

———-———_—

5'N.

2

5 Freedmen's Aid Society, Ninth Annual Re ort, 1876, p. 23; Tenth Annual Report, 1877, p. 48; Twelfth Annual Report, l879, p. 7#; and Thirteenth Annual Report, l880, p. 29.

C. Conference, Minutes, l878, p. 13.

53Freedmen's Aid Society, Twelfth Annual Report, 1879, p. 39. 54

General Conference, M. E. C., Journal, l876, p. 308.

55N. C. Conference, Minutes, l878, p. ll.