Methodists in the State did very little on a practical level towards education of freedmen. No mention of colleges for freedmen appears in the records examined. A likely reason for this does appear, however, in the Appendix to the 1866 Journal of the North Carolina Annual Con- Ference. A recently quoted resolution of the General Conference reported “financial prostration,“ urged support for existing education institutions, and suggested "not to establish new ones unless in cases

62

of the most obvious propriety." There is also no evidence that day

schools for freedmen existed, even th0ugh the 1866 Journal of the Annu- al Conference centained a remark that such schools were recommended by the General Conference.63 The onlyntangible contribution of the North Carolina Southern Methodists to the education of freedmen, according to available evidence, was a spontaneous collection in 1876 of $75.00 to aid in educating ministers of the ColOred Methodist Episcopal Church.64 Negro denominations, as well as the predominantly white Northern and Southern denominations, were also working to educate freed members of their race. Two of these denominations did outstanding work in North Carolinao Negro Baptists first joined into a convention in 1867 during a meeting at Goldsboro. Their purposes were evident from the title: 65

The Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of North Carolina.

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62North Carolina Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Journal, 1866, iv (appendix).

63Ibid.

6L”Ibid., 1876, p. 19° The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (C. M. E. Church) was organized December 15, 1870, as an independent body. It was originally a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church, SOLJth. See Thrift, op. 313., pc 285.

65Whitted, 33. 513., p. 34.