Among the more intimate records of the students at the University of South Carolina during Reconstruction are letters written by USC student C. C. Scott. The letter spans the period from 1873 to 1916.
The first letter is an August 1872 letter from Cornelius to his father Tobias. At the time, Cornelius was 17 years old. He had graduated from the Avery Institute in Charleston a year earlier. He had spent the previous year studying at Claflin University in the town of Orangeburg, SC. He was still living in Orangeburg at the time of his letter.
In his letter, Cornelius asks his father about "Wm. Dart," "Paul," and "Alonzo." These people are William M. Dart, Paul J. Mishow, and Alonzo G. Townsend. They had started attending Howard's (College) Preparatory Department the previous year. Like Cornelius, all three were from Charleston, and presumably Cornelius's family was on friendly terms with them.
Cornelius mentions to his father that he received correspondence from "Mr. Cardozo." This is a reference to Frances L. Cardozo, an African American from Charleston who played a prominent role in South Carolina's Reconstruction government. At the time of Cornelius' letter, Cardozo held the position of Professor of Latin at Howard University and was a trustee at the University of South Carolina.
The final person mentioned in Cornelius' letter is "Sister Mattie." This is likely his sister Martha Eleanor Scott.
Orangeburg S. C.
Aug 6'' 72
My Dear Father:
I was very happy at [receiving?] your letter a few hours ago and now hasten an immediate reply. I am sorry that you are so unsuccessful with your fans. I hope you will sell them before you return [home?]. Did you mean that Wm Dart and Paul and also Alonzo are out at Saratoga? What are they doing? Tell Dart I was just going to post this letter to him at Howard University. I am not making money enough to support me now so I am going home as soon as I can make it [convenient]. Perhaps at the end of this week but at any rate within two weeks. I heard from Mr. Cardozo that other day. Please tell me what are the arrangements for me to go. Sister Mattie is still here and well. She is going home at the end of this week. I don't believe I have made over twenty dollars since I have been here. My chief reason for coming home so soon is to take a little rest and prepare myself for Howard.
Write soon to your ever affectionate son,
Cornelius C. Scott
Cornelius's next letter was written two months later, on October 10, 1872. Cornelius had just moved to Washington D.C. and started to attend Howard.
His letter begins by describing his boat trip from Charleston to D.C. In describing the trip, he mentions having a conversation with the purser who says, "[he] is for Grant and Wilson." This is a reference to the presidential election. That year U. S. Grant was running for reelection. Henry Wilson was chosen as his Vice Presidential candidate after incumbent Vice President Schuyler Colfax had chosen not to run for reelection.
Cornelius describes being greeted by "the boys and especially Wm Dart and Paul" upon arriving at Howard. He then goes on to name several additional "boys": "Townsend," "John and Joe Morris," and "Stewart." These people are respectively William M. Dart, Paul J. Mishow, Alonzo G. Townsend, John M. Morris, Joseph W. Morris, and T. McCants Stewart. William, Paul, and Alonzo were Black Charlestonians mentioned in Cornelius' first letter. These were all African-Americans from Charleston that likely knew John and Joseph Morris and McCants were African-Americans from Charleston. McCants and Joseph had matriculated at Howard two years earlier, in 1870, while John entered the next year.
Cornelius also mentions meeting "Conyers" at Howard. This is James H. Conyers, another African-American from Charleston. Unlike the others Cornelius mentions, James was not a Howard student. Instead, he was attending the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD. James had passed the academy's entrance exams and had been sworn in as a midshipman on September 24, 1872, about two weeks before Cornelius was writing his letter.
James was the first African-American student at the Naval Academy and was subject to much abuse. The day after Cornelius wrote his letter (on October 11), James was assaulted by other Academy students. While walking marching with other midshipmen, he was kicked and punched by a group of several students that included Academy's boxing champion George Goodfellow. The incident was reported in newspapers and investigated by Academy officials. James's assailants were dismissed from the Academy, but James continued to be subject to hazing. At the end of the year, he failed his academic examinations. He was allowed to return in October 1873 to retake the exams. However, he was still found to be deficient and dismissed.
Cornelius also mentions meeting a "Mr. Bland." This is another African-American Charlestonian at Howard: A. Mushington Bland. Mr. Bland was attending Howard's Law school.
Later, when discussing Howard University students, Cornelius mentions three Chinese students: Fung Afoo, Chou Awak, and Leon (or Leong) Sing. All three were Cantonese and from the Guangdong. Siu-Leung Lee suggested to the author that the given names are Anglicizations of 方亞富, 蔡亞華, and 梁亞成 respectively. All three had come to the U.S. for work. They had come to Howard in 1869 after receiving scholarships from the American Missionary Association. The Association funded their studies shortly after voting in favor of expanding their missionary work to include Chinese nationals. (Originally, the Association had focused on missionary work serving African-Americans.)
Cornelius also mentions two Native Americans students: "an Indian young man a student a little boy plucked up on the plains by Gen Howard" and "an Indian young miss." The "Indian young miss" was Minnie Tappan. Born Emmunuska, Minnie was a Cheyenne Indian who was originally from Colorado. She had been orphaned in 1864 when U. S. army troops killed her parents in the Sand Creed Massacre. After the massacre, she was claimed as a "mascot" by soldiers, taken to Central City, CO, and nicknamed Minnehaha (after a fictional character a Longfellow poem). In Central City, she lived with a White family for 3 years, although during this period, the Cheyenne unsuccessfully petitioned for her return. In the summer of 1867, Cheyenne chiefs negotiated with a commission created by Congress, the Indian Peace Commission. These negotiations resulted in Medicine Lodge Treaty. After the treaty was signed, Commission members tried to return Minnie to the Cheyenne. However, she refused to go and instead was adopted by Samuel F. Tappan, a commission member. Samuel renamed her Minnie Tappan and brought her back to live with his family in Boston, MA. Around 1871, after Samuel moved his family to Washington D.C., Minnie matriculated at Howard University. Samuel likely helped arrange her studies at Howard as he enjoyed positive relations with the school. He had been active in the abolition movement, and two of his cousins were founders of the Americans Missionary Association, a strong supporter of Howard.
It is not entirely clear who the "Indian young man" is. Cornelius says that the student was "plucked up on the plains" by General O. O. Howard (at the time, President of Howard University). General Howard had recently traveled to modern Arizona to negotiate with a group of Apache, so this may be a reference to a student he me on that trip.
There are three students who Scott would likely have referred to as "Indian young men": Alson Douglas Bemo, Charles Robertson, and Philip Sheridan Larribee (or Labaree). Alson was from Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma), and was living in Marshalltown around this time. His father was a Seminole, and his mother Creek. Charles was a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe in Olympia, WA. Philip was a member of the Arapaho Wind River Reservation (in Wyoming Territory).
The African student is probably Jeremiah M. Mali. In Howard Univeristy records, Jeremiah is listed as coming from "Unkomasi, Africa" and "Natal, Africa." This likely means that he was from the area around the Umkomazi River in the British Colony of Natal in south-eastern Africa. This area is now the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Jeremiah was likely a member of the Zulu people and had come to the U.S. under sponsorship by a missionary society.
Jeremiah was not the only African student at Howard. Also attending the university was Charles H. Gardner, a student from Cape Coast Castle (in modern Ghana). However, Charles was studying for law and thus would have had less interaction with Cornelius.
There were also two students from Liberia attending Howard: Georgiana Amos and James M. Priest. James was originally from Kentucky and had emigrated to Liberia in 1843. He started attending Howard shortly after serving as Liberia's Vice President. Nothing further is known about Georgiana, although it is likely that she had also immigrated to Liberia from the United States.
Besides other students he met at Howard, Cornelius mentions Mr. and Ms. Warren. This couple is Mortimer Warren and his Elizabeth. Mortimer was an educator from Connecticut and was serving as principal for the Avery Normal Institute at the time of the letter. Mortimer likely knew Cornelius from his time as a student.
Howard University
Washington D. C.
Oct 10'', 1872
My Dear Parents:
The other letter I wrote was merely to acquaint you of my arrival.
Now, I shall give you the particulars beginning from the time I left home till the present.
I began to feel sick just after we got past Fort Sumter. Just as we began crossing the bar, about half past two oclock, I was called into dinner, of which I always got a plenty during my sojourn on the boat. Just as I went into dinner the boat began reeling and tossing from side to side so that we could hardly remain in our seats at the table.
I began feeling rather unwell so that I left the table and stood at the side of the boat till about three oclock where I gave three successive cheers for New York and emptied all my dinner into the waters of the wide Atlantic whose waters are nearly as black as ink
I was there seasick in earnest but did not go to my berth (which was just hot as a bake oven.) until about five oclock.
I could not eat any supper that night on account of feeling so bad. The next morning I washed my mouth and drank some cool water which made me call for New York again three times. I was so weak that I was about "played out."
So I put on my cloak and took a stool or chair forward and sat down in the sun for I had the chills.
The waiter then told me that breakfast was ready but I told him I was unable to eat anything. The purser insisted on my drinking a cup of coffee which I accordingly did but hardly had I handed the cup back when I went to the side of the boat once more to pay my tribute to New York which I did in an indescribable and yet ludicrous manner.
I heaved about five times and the two last times a good deal of life came from me and then I felt relieved.
From the time we left Charleston till we entered the Chesapeake Bay (Saturday afternoon) we had a rough time that young lady (who was the only passenger aboard except an Irishman who came as deck passenger, and myself) never left her berth from the time she went in until we entered the bay.
Two of the firemen and even the steward, was sick.
The only word the captain said to me was whether I was ever to sea before and I told him no.
The purser, (who is for Grant and Wilson) and I had quite a conversation and he was very polite to me. Also the steward, waiter and the cook. We were about eighteen hours on the Chesapeake and landed at Baltimore about half past seven.
It cost me one dollar to go from there to Washington Depot and one dollar and twenty cents from Baltimore to Washington where I arrived about half past ten and then took the railway for Howard University.
My trunk was brought up by the express company, a distance of a mile or two, for fifty cents.
The person gave me a ticket on which was marked the number of my [trunk?]. I did not receive my trunk til the Monday following. I was quite surprised to meet Conyers here, who was waiting for his money to come. He left here last Saturday for the academy.
I met with a warm reception from the boys and especially Wm Dart and Paul.
Townsend and Paul room together. John and Joe Morris, Stewart by himself, Dart by himself and I by myself. We have ninety nine rooms and nearly every one is occupied. I am on the first floor back room, No 10, one of the coolest in the building. The place is called Clark Hall. Money was given by a Mr. Clark to build it.
Then there is the University Building where we go to recite our lessons beside[s] the two buildings there is Miner Hall where the young ladies live and also where the boarding hall is. It contains thirteen tables with about twelve at each and about eight or ten waiters. The board is three dollars per week in advance and washing fifty cents per week in advance. Soon we will have to pay for gass [recte "gas"?] bill, room rent, fuel, tuition + e. I have now exactly fifteen dollars. I have paid about four dollars for books. There is a Greek Lexicon at a second hand bookstore (where I buy nearly all my books) for three dollars and a half. The cost price is six dollars. I could not buy it as I did not have the money. There are a great many books I shall want soon such as the "History of Greece," "Shakspeare's [sic] works," Byrons works and various other useful books.
We have young men of intelligence here whose desire is to gain knowledge, and who are asking for it with their whole hearts. I joined a literary society composed of the senior and middle classes of the Preparatory department, last Friday night and was elected as Secretary of the board of directory by a majority of (9) nine to (five) 5 for my opponent. I expect to join the Young Men's Christian association very soon. I received a letter from Mrs. Warren a few days ago stating that Mr. Warren was sick but hoped he would soon be better and that he would soon be better and that he would try and send twenty five (25) dollars sometime this week. I have received the letter you alluded to.
I have seen but very little of Washington as yet but hope to tell you more about it at some other time. I gave the shrimps to Mr. Bland. He is well. I am a little behind my class in Greek but hope to [catch?] up with them soon.
Tell all my friends howde for me as I have not time to name them all and I haven't anytime to write them now.
Tell Merton I will write him very soon and tell him we are reading Cicero's Oration against Cataline and the first three books of Xenophon's Anabasis. Ask sister Mattie did she do as I asked her. My best regard to Mrs. Benford, Brown, Price, Potter Thomas, Smith, [Simklar?], Myers, Misses Vaughn, Wagg and all their families.
Please see if my letter is in the office for me.
There are three Chinese here, Leon Sing, Chou Awak and Fung Afoo. Fund is very sociable, polite and funny. Sing is also very sociable, and good natured. We were playing football the other evening and in running at the ball we came in contact with each other and I being the heavier knocked him down: he just jumped up and went on playing and said nothing about it. We have also an Indian young man a student a little boy plucked up on the plains by Gen Howard. Also an Indian young miss, a student, and an African.
I know this letter will tire you all. My love to [Wifie?], [Nena?], Sister Fena, [Sowha?] [Sister?], [Sister Mattie], Mr. Carr, and all others.
Tell him shall read Plutarch's Lives very soon. At present I shall devote my spare time to Shakspeare and Dickens,
Now for the military affairs: my suit will cost twenty eight dollars, but I have a coat engaged from a student, perfectly good for seven dollars. Cost between 15 and 18 dollars new: the pants cost about 8 and the cap about two. So you see how much money it will take but I try to buy everything as cheap as possible. Please send the money as soon as possible. We have a library where we can get books to read.
Your Aff Son,
Cornelius C. Scott
Written across the top of the second-to-last page of the letter is what appears to be a daily schedule.
Bugle sound for reveille 5.30
Roll call 6 am
Inspection 6.35 15 am
Breakfast 7 am
roll call for dinner 12 am
Roll call for supper 4.45 pm
[areal?] 5 pm
Roll call 9 pm
[?] off
the gas 101/2pm
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