Description
The cover of The Freedmens Spelling Book (1865-1866), a textbook supplied by the American Tract Society in Boston, depicts a newly emancipated African American student writing the word freedom on a blackboard. The society produced a series of educational books for use in the South with the following stated purpose: This is designed to be the first of a series of books for the use of the Freedmen in their schools, families, &c. While it teaches to read and write, the series will aim to communicate also religious and moral truth, and such instruction in civil and social duties as is needed by them in the new circumstances in which they are placed.
