Yardley Warner was a Quaker abolitionist who worked to establish schools for freed slaves after the Civil War. He walked 900 miles from Pennsylvania to Tennessee to help educate newly freed African Americans. Warner raised money and established over 20 primary schools for black children across Tennessee and other Southern states. The most significant was the Maryville Freedman's Institute, which trained black teachers and had over 200 students by 1889. Warner spent the last 20 years of his life establishing schools to provide education to African Americans.

1. Learning from the Past;
Looking to the Future:
A discussion on work for racial justice
Yardley Warner: Quaker
Contributions to Education
in East Tennessee Post-Civil War
By Joan VanSickle Sloan
For Wilmington Yearly Meeting – July 23, 2015

2. Friends Established Education for
both Black & White Students.
Friendsville Academy –
1857-1975: both black &
white students in later years
Pride Mansion became Friends
Normal School to train white
teachers
Dr. Jeptha Davis Garner worked to establish primary
schools for white children, establishing 15 in East
Tennessee.

3. Yardley
Warner: the
Freedman’s
Friend
Walked 900 miles
from PA to TN
Lived 1815-1885
Born in Bucks County, PA
Died in Bush Hill, NC

4. When the Civil War ended,
4½ million freed people released
from their bonds of slavery:
• No jobs,
• No property (illegal to own
property for several years) and
• No education.

5. Options for recently emancipated:
1. their transport back to Africa,
2. their subjugation – (YW: “both of these
impossible and unthinkable”)
3. their education (YW: “both possible and
feasible”)

6.  Believing that education was the way to lift
themselves & their families to higher levels of
achievement, freedmen in Maryville initiated
plans to build a normal school for training
teachers.
 Yardley Warner raised money
– many trips to Northeast
Friends & to England.
 Free Negroes provided labor
and some money.
 William B. Scott, Sr.,
newspaper publisher, was a
leader in the push for
education & schools for
black people. Scott had been
educated by his white mother.

7.  William B. Scott, Sr.,
a leader among the
Negroes
 Freedman from NC;
 Lived in Friendsville /
worked as blacksmith
 Published first Negro
newspaper in TN
 Published 2 newspapers in
Maryville with YW as
editor
 Maryville City Councilman
along with other blacks
 First Black Mayor of
Maryville – 1869-70 Portrait of Scott by Amy
Campbell based on photo of
Scott’s grandson, Cansler.

8. ~1867 – Log building primarily a Colored
School but could also be used as a church
– Southern Friends Meeting (now St. Paul
AME Zion location--shown) on Broadway
 Yardley Warner, assisted by Miss Hannah
Collins, conducted first school session

9. Maryville Freedman’s Institute
trained black teachers ~1873
Built with hand-fired brick at the site
(where current Maryville High stadium is)
Watercolor by John Collins

10. Dormitory at Freedman’s Institute
(frame building with brick basement)

11. Yardley Warner’s Journal logged careful
financial records of receipts from fundraising
trips and precise logs of expenditures at each
of the schools. When he died, his wife, Anna,
said there was no debt for any school.
Freedman’s Institute building
at Jonesborough (Warner
Institute) still stands, used as
an apartment building.

12.  For the Maryville Freedmen’s Institute,
freedmen in Knoxville & Maryville area,
◦ Raised $2,300 (white people gave $500)
◦ Made 750,000 bricks
◦ Built Institute 120’ long, 36’wide, 56’ deep
at center of building & 40’ deep on long
side – 2 stories high plus a basement
◦ Built a barn 50’ by 40’ at a cost of $17,000

13. At the Maryville Freedmen’s Institute’s
first year of operation,
 Yardley Warner served as
administrator (followed by William B.
Hastings for 20 years)
 plus 4 teachers
George Tate,
teacher

14. In an 1889 report to the State
Superintendent, Maryville’s
Freedman’s Institute had
 212 students
 11 teachers
 Charged $5 per month for student
boarders (a note added that was a
losing rate but all that students could
afford)
Mattie Hannum, a
student at Maryville
Freedman’s Institute

15. Yardley Warner
started at least this
many primary
schools:
23 Colored schools
in TN:
AND
25 Colored schools
in other states: NC,
AL, GA, MS, OK, VA,
Maine
Page from Yardley Warner: The Freedman’s Friend by Stafford Warner.

16. In addition to academics, the
colored school curriculum included
*homemaking skills for girls &
*agricultural husbandry,
*gardening and
*practical labor skills for boys.

17. Graduation ceremony at Maryville
Freedman’s Normal Institute

18. No schools existed for either race so
some whites complained in newspaper
editorials about Federal money coming
for only the Negro schools.
Education of Negroes met with resistance
by many whites, however.
E.g., Maryville – almost completely burned by
skirmishes & scavenges of both armies
 Sherman – 3 units = ~25,000 men +
horses (to relieve Burnside from Longstreet)
 Maryville’s population = ~2,000
 Friendsville area – more buildings survived;
some still standing even today.

19. Anna Warner with children in Warnerville,
NC, where Yardley & Anna Warner lived
with their 3 small boys, started colored
schools & where Yardley died & is buried.

20. When the Civil War ended in 1865,
emancipating 4½ million people, Yardley
Warner became convinced that the greatest
need of his country was for schools for
Negroes. While his entire life was spent in
service of the poor and downtrodden, he
spent almost every waking moment of the
last 20 years of his life raising money and
setting up Freedman’s Institutes to train
black teachers and raising money and
setting up elementary schools for Negro
children. What are we doing to address
a need in our community?

21. Current Local African American Traditions
August 8: Andrew Johnson, from Johnson City, TN,
freed his slaves on August 8, 1865, following Lincoln’s
January Emancipation Proclamation. Blacks in this area
were permitted to visit Knoxville’s Chilhowee Park only
on that one date each year, so that day is still
recognized and celebrated by locals.
Integration of Schools: 1963 in Maryville and Alcoa.
Kuumba Festival: Annual African American Cultural
Arts Festival in Knoxville, celebrated in June.
Kwanzaa: An annual event (Dec. 26-Jan.1), created
in 1965 as the first African American holiday in which
candles represent the 7 core principles of African
heritage.

22. Sources:
 Cansler, Charles W. Three Generations: The Story of a Colored
Family of East Tennessee. USA:Privately printed, August
1939.
 Friendsville Quarterly Meeting. Minutes. East Tennessee:
Unpublished, 1880-1975.
 Warner, Stafford Allen. Yardley Warner, The Freedman’s
Friend: His Life and Times. Abingdon: The Abbey Press, 1957.
Illustrations:
 Yardley Warner portrait, John Collins watercolor of Maryville
Freedman’s Institute & Anna Warner with children in
Warnersville: Reprints from Warner, Stafford Allen. Yardley
Warner, The Freedman’s Friend: His Life and Times.
Abingdon: The Abbey Press, 1957.
 Sepia Freedman’s Institute, Graduation Ceremony & George
Tate portrait: W.O. Garner Digital Photograph Collection.
Blount County Public Library website, www.blountlibrary.org
and UT Digital Library, www.diglib.lib.utk.edu on July 21,
2015.
 Remainder of photos (Friendsville Academy, William B. Scott,
Sr. painting, St. Paul AMEZ Church, Warner Institute) were
taken by Joan VanSickle Sloan.