On March 3, 1865, Congress passed “An Act to establish a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and Refugees” to provide food, shelter, clothing, medical services, and land to displaced Southerners, including newly freed African Americans. The Freedmen’s Bureau was to operate “during the present war of rebellion, and for one year thereafter,” and also established schools, supervised contracts between freedmen and employers, and managed confiscated or abandoned lands. The battle to establish the Freedmen’s Bureau, and then to extend the legislation one year later, was a major factor in the struggle between President Andrew Johnson and Radical Republicans in Congress over Reconstruction and the role of the federal government in integrating four million newly emancipated African Americans into the political life of the nation.

Before the 1830s there were few restrictions on teaching slaves, or free blacks in slave states, to read and write. After the slave revolt led by Nat Turner in 1831, all slave states except Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee passed laws against teaching slaves to read and write.

Following Emancipation, former slaves in Jacksonville, Florida organized as the Colored Education Society in a desire to build a school to educate their children. Requesting assistance from the Freedman’s Bureau they were awarded $16,000 to build a school with the purpose of training African-American women from the ages of 16 to 25 as educators. They purchased land for $850 from Ossian Bingley Hart (Jan. 17, 1821 – March 18, 1874), son of Isaiah Hart, one of the founders of Jacksonville. Ossian was a Republican and opposed secession. He went on to serve on the Florida Supreme Court, and became governor in 1873, dying in office the following year.

The first two-story wooden structure was built in December 1868, and dedicated as the Stanton Normal School on April 10, 1869 in honor of  Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of War. He was an ardent champion of human rights and an advocate of free formal education for African-American children.


E&HT Anthony. Prominent Portraits. No. 3876. Hon. Edward M. Stanton, Secretary of War

The first class at Stanton was comprised of 348 black students, six white teachers and a number of black staff.


E&HT Anthony. No. 9596. Stanton Institute for Colored Children


Stanton Institute for Colored Children

 By 1882, the original building had burned down, and a new one was built. In 1901, the fire that destroyed much of downtown Jacksonville destroyed the school’s second structure. Immediately after a temporary wooden building was constructed and in 1915, the current brick building on W. Ashley St. was built. Over the years, until the current day, the Stanton Institute has expanded both in mission, location and size. Today,  Stanton College Preparatory School provides an advanced academic program for students in grades 9-12. Stanton is one of a select few schools in Florida to offer the International Baccalaureate Program, a rigorous college level program that provides course credit or advanced placement for up to one full year in colleges and universities worldwide.

No. 16. Stanton Institute School for Colored Children


Stanton Institute School for Colored Children


Stanton Institute School for Colored Children

All from the humble beginnings in 1868, through the dedication of a group of former slaves, and the assistance of the Freedman’s Bureau.