Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute was the first of the Negro training schools founded by northern philanthropy on the principle that "no education is complete which does not train the hand to work." At Hampton, established in 1868 and located in Virginia, founder Gen. Samuel Armstrong of the Freedmen's Bureau popularized a practical curriculum — industrial and agricultural education — for both former slaves and American Indians. Armstrong's aim was to "train selected youth who should go out and teach and lead their people," and his school provided experimental stations for agriculture, a building for domestic science study, and a trade school administered by the Worcester School of Technology. The innovative approach of combining traditional learning with trade education to "showcase the possibilities of the Negro race" attracted significant attention in the late 1870s. It was not unusual for several hundred northern tourists a...