Education
School
Boarding School
Children

Interesting letter discussing sending Chief Wilmot's boys to live in Pictou and attend the Academy. Discusses plans to house and educate them in Pictou, and asks for government financial assistance and support.

1850-05-04
1850-05-04

James Anderson (Doctor) (Author)
R. Young (Recipient)

Pictou 4th May 1850 The Honorable R. Young Dear Sir In reply to your note of the 1st Inst., I can only say in addition to what I wrote in the letter which you read to the House that we are still of opinion that there never occurred a more formidable opportunity of testing the problem in reference to the Indians of this Province. Jas. Wilmot appears as anxious as ever to send his boys to the Academy, and we are no less desirous to that he should be enabled to do so, and are willing to devote our time to the superintendence of all the arrangements and also to raise a portion of the sum requisite. Our plan at present is to take the boys entirely from the parents wigwam, that is to say, mostly to permit them occasionally to go see them; if we shall be placed in possession of the necessary funds we would at once place them in a respectable family and have them clothed and treated in every other respect, as other boys of the town, children of respectable tradesmen. I have not yet spoken to Mrs. Wilson the Superintendent of the Infant School, but we have thought she would be an excellent person with whom to board the boys- she has lately taken up house and supports her father and mother; the father is aged and infirm, but the mother is an active, respectable, and intelligent woman and would aid her daughter in attending to the boys. The board we suppose would be twenty pounds a piece, per annum. It might be got cheaper but not in such families as we would think it safe to place the boys. We do not think that it is too much to ask the Government to advance the sum. We will undertake if this be done to provide suitable [pg.2] Suitable clothing and to pay for washing etc. I can say nothing more than this that I have thought it would be prudent not to attempt to trust them to the whole discipline of the Academy at once, and that it will be wise to send them for a portion of the day in the first place to the Infant School, the exercises in which the [] calculated to instruct and improve would not appear so much in the nature of tasks. Both His Excellency and Mr. Howe have considerable acquaintance with the habits of the Indians and will readily judge of the feasibility of this project. If the Government thinks our plan worthy of encouragement, I for one will cheerfully depute my time to aid in carrying out, but I would rather that nothing should be done, than that it should be commenced and abandoned. I remain very thankfully yours Mr. Jas. Anderson P.S. What is the meaning of the dishonouring of the drat of the Trustees of Pictou Academy? By order of the Board I write in reference to it this day.

eng

Public Archives of Nova Scotia, RG1, Vol. 431 (Indian Commissioner Series), file 55.