"Jennie Dean"(1852-1913)

Was born into slavery in western Prince William County, Virginia.Her father wanted to to be a land owner but he died he died before the family was able to purchase the farm they worked on near Sudley Springs.It seems that Jennie took on a leadership role in the family by the time she was fourteen.She was a deeply religious woman.When Jennie was sixteen she joined the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington D.C. at first Jennie concentrated on raising money and gathering support from community churches.She has been identified with aiding in the establishment of at least four churches in Northern Virginia and perhaps some smaller missions as well.Jennie held Sunday school sessions,which also became an avenue for her to meet younger members of the community.Jennie began to hold training sessions on Saturdays for those who were interested in learning how to cook and sew.According to the account of Stephen J. Lewis D.D.S.,a graduate of the MIS and friend of Jennie,"She was much influenced by these industrial classes and turned her thoughts to a more practical application...(for) these young folk...She was a matriarchal figure to her community and she worried for the large number of African-Americans who were migrating to the urban centers of the country.She realized the evils which resulted from the exodus of hundreds of her Sunday school scholars to the city slums and alleys but she also realized the hopelessness of their fate when they remained at home.Jennie saw the school as a remedy for these  ills.Jennie believed that the migration to the cities was causing and entire generation to become tied to the low paying and poor working conditions of factory life in turn of the century period.In addition,young people were being exposed to the more distasteful elements of urban life,namely drinking and other social evils that were limitations upon the spiritual growth of the youngsters.If there were a school for these youngsters to go to near their homes these students would not feel compelled by economic concerns to move away into the disorderly environ of the city.Instead,they could become efficient farmers or they could market themselves as skilled laborers and teachers thus avoiding the evils of city life.As a result, we must recognize that the school  operated under the auspices of middle class beliefs and morality.In many ways these expectation's have ties to the Victorian notions of manners and morality.Its focus was on identifying,cultivating,and directing students to operate within specific manners and virtues that were a construction of these spaces that existed within the society itself.Students were being inculcated into the mind of middle class morality through its teachers and from the influence of its benefactors.The school itself was in large part a representation of the elite and middle class valuesof 1890-1920.