We consider the settlement of Mr. Draper in the Republic as an event of no little importance.  It seemed necessary that there should be one regularly educated lawyer in a community of several thousand people, in a Republic of freemen.  True, there are many very intelligent, well informed men now in the practice of law in Liberia, but they have not been educated to the profession, and we believe, no one makes that his exclusive business.  We doubt not that they will welcome Mr. Draper as one of their fraternity.  To our Liberia friends we commend him as a well-educated, intelligent man, of good habits and principles; one in whom they may place the fullest confidence, and we bespeak for him, at their hands, kind considerations and patronage.

STATE OF MARYLAND,

CITY OF BALTIMORE,

October 29, 1857.

Upon the application of Charles Gilman, Esq., of the Baltimore Bar, I have examined Edward G. Draper, a young man of color, who has been reading law under the direction of Mr. Gilman, with the view of pursuing its practice in Liberia, Africa.  And I have found him most intelligent and well informed in his answers to the questions propounded by me, and qualified in all respects to be admitted to the Bar in Maryland, if he was a free white citizen of this State.  Mr. Gilman, in whom I have the highest confidence, has also testified to his good moral character.

This certificate is therefore furnished to him by me, with a view to promote his establishment and success in Liberia at the Bar there.

Z. COLLINS LEE,

Judge of Superior Court, Balt., Md.

African Repository, vol. xxxiv., pp. 26 and 27.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

There is no helpful bibliography on the early education of the American Negro.  A few books treating the recent problems of education in this country give facts about the enlightenment of the colored people before their general emancipation, but the investigator has to depend on promiscuous sources for adequate information of this kind.  With the exception of a survey of the Legal Status of the Colored Population in Respect to Schools and Education in the Different States, published in the Report of the United States Commissioner of Education in 1871, there has been no attempt at a general treatment of this phase of our history.  This treatise, however, is too brief to inculcate an appreciation of the extensive efforts to enlighten the ante-bellum Negro.

Considered as a local problem this question has received more attention.  A few writers have undertaken to sketch the movement to educate the colored people of certain communities before the Civil War.  Their objective point, however, has been rather to treat of later periods.  The books mentioned below give some information with respect to the period treated in this monograph.