RESEARCH AND RESOURCE

Mary A. Burwell

Mary A. Burwell was an only child, born in Mecklenburg County, Virginia, of freed slave parents who were living in “humble circumstances”.  A visiting uncle who was impressed with her disposition asked for her to live with him and promised to have her educated in the city schools of Raleigh.  She was enrolled at Washington School when she was eight years old.

She then entered Shaw University, graduating after completing the remainder of the high school (called Normal Department – a three-year program), with a diploma from the Estey Seminary course. She was a student of Dr. Scruggs.

After graduating, she taught for several years in the public schools.  She then taught at the “colored” Oxford Orphanage, knowing that it was heavily in debt and she would receive no pay.

The orphanage consisted of one wood building with three rooms and housed eight children.  She trained the children for concerts and after a year took them...

Blacks were interspersed among whites throughout the city, free Blacks tended to live in small enclaves reflecting segregation along racial and economic lines. Slaves were often hired out to others and could "live out" in areas of the city with families of free Blacks as well as white laborers.

Free Blacks were clustered around the city, generally occupying the cheaper tracts of land beyond the city limits, "the less desirable bottomland closer to downtown, and especially the narrow streets that bordered the railroad related industries." In areas where there was economic advancement, black leaders and middle class grew and so would churches, schools, and substantial homes. "By the 1890's, 50% of the population was Black and mature and solidly segregated neighborhoods nearly encircled the city. White attitudes were considered 'racial claustrophobia', feeling that the city was under siege by displaced Blacks.

The institutions that grew depended on the Black community for their...