QUESTION TIME

This was particularly so in the north-eastern part of the Southern United States of America, the Appalachians, in the 1830s and early 1840s. The population was mostly White and mainly Presbyterian, historically opposed to racism and slavery. They knew labour to be necessary for survival; they also knew that it inculcated positive and valuable personal values and understandings, especially when many people work together. And they knew that development required skills that had to be learned, and taught to new generations.

These needs prompted the establishment of Berea College and the development of the students labour programme in Berea in 1859 with one of its subsidiary aims being to provide financial assistance to poor Appalachian students from the American South.