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Biography of Samuel Chapman ArmstrongName: Samuel Chapman ArmstrongBirth Date: January 30, 1839 Death Date: May 11, 1893 Place of Birth: Maui, Hawaii, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: educator, teacher Samuel Chapman Armstrong As an American educator, Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1839-1893) did much to advance the education of the African American. He was the founder of Hampton Institute in Virginia.Samuel Chapman Armstrong was born on Jan. 30, 1839, on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands, the child of American missionaries. He spent his early years there, attending the Royal School at Punahou and, when that became Oahu College, continuing for 2 years. In 1860, carrying out the wishes of his father, who had recently died, he sailed for the United States and entered Williams College, in Massachusetts.Although at first he was not particularly exercised over the issues of the Civil War, Armstrong found the excitement of his classmates infectious, and he volunteered for the Union Army in 1862. Given a captain's commission, he recruited a company near Troy, N.Y., which he led with distinction at the Battle of Gettysburg, earning a promotion to major. Shortly afterward, before …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…need, flourished then, and still survives. He died at Hampton on May 11, 1893. Further Reading Edith Armstrong Talbot, Samuel Chapman Armstrong (1904), is an admiring biography by Armstrong's daughter; it contains extensive selections from his letters and speeches. Francis Greenwood Peabody, Education for Life (1913), is an account of the first 50 years of Hampton Institute. Frances B. Johnston, The Hampton Album (1966), contains 44 photographs, which, although not taken until 1899-1900, provide a vivid visual image of the school under Armstrong's direction. A favorable evaluation of Hampton, along with moving descriptions of what the school meant to its pupils, is contained in Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (1901; abr. ed. 1929). Criticisms of the Hampton approach may be found in W. E. B. DuBois, The Souls of Black Folks (1903). See Henry Allen Bullock, A History of Negro Education in the South (1967), for background. Talbot, Edith (Armstrong), Samuel Chapman Armstrong; a biographical study, New York, Negro Universities Press, 1969. |