Slavery and Freedom in the Bluegrass State by Gerald L. Smith

Author:Gerald L. Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780813196176
Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky

Dr. William J. Simmons was born a slave in Charleston, South Carolina, and ended up president of the Kentucky Normal and Theological Institute, which is now known as Simmons College. Image of drawing from Alpha Stock / Alamy Stock Photo.

As a fugitive slave, William could not have a formal primary education. Fortunately, his uncle Tardiff could read, write, and perform basic arithmetic; therefore, he taught the Simmons children the fundamental basics. Simmons credits the teachings of his uncle with providing the early underpinning for a love of education and “laying a foundation so broad and exact, that in after years college studies . . . were comparatively easy.”28

Initially, William J. Simmons did not have any intention of pursuing a formal education because he had a successful apprenticeship with a prominent white dentist, Dr. Leo H. DeLange of Bordentown, New Jersey. In 1863, Dr. DeLange was elected the first mayor of Bordentown, which took him away from his duties as a dentist. However, he was confident in Simmons’s abilities and periodically left him in charge of the dental practice. Simmons performed dental work on some of the most successful white families in Bordentown and regularly offered his services to Black families who did not have access to dentists. Wishing to remain in the field where he had amassed experience, Simmons applied to dental school before the Civil War but was rejected, presumably because of the color of his skin. On September 18, 1864, he enlisted in the Forty-First United States Colored Infantry. He was present for the infamous siege of Petersburg and the unconditional surrender of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in northern Virginia on April 9, 1865.29

In the fall of 1867, Simmons returned to Philadelphia, where he briefly apprenticed for an African American dentist, Dr. William Long­fellow. However, he returned to work for Dr. DeLange because Dr. DeLange was able to offer better wages owing to his white clientele and their greater ability to pay for dental services than their newly emancipated counterparts. During this time, Simmons joined the white congregation of First Baptist of Bordentown. He felt welcomed as a member of the church and received support when he announced his call to preach and be a leader within the Baptist denomination. Recognizing his potential, the all-white congregation financially supported his education at Madison University of New York. For undocumented reasons, in 1868 Simmons transferred to Rochester University of New York, where he paid for his tuition by performing odd jobs at a local white Baptist church. In Rochester, he also became heavily involved in missionary work and in the African American Baptist community.

It was not unusual that local white leaders and missionaries helped to pay Simmons’s tuition. White church missionaries drew on the tradition of humanism or a system of values and beliefs that were centered on the ideas that people (African Americans) are inherently good and that the best way to address the “Negro Problem” and issues plaguing the African American community was with religion, education, and a paternalistic-like uplift.

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