{"id":4312,"date":"2025-05-14T06:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T06:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/?page_id=4312"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:28:11","slug":"prior-foster","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/biographies\/prior-foster\/","title":{"rendered":"Prior Foster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Scan
Image of an article from The Liberator<\/em> warning the public about Prior Foster, from 1843. Source: \u00a92008 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc., 19th Century U.S. Newspapers. \u00a92008 Reproduced by permission: www.cengage.com\/permissions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prior (sometimes spelled Prier) Foster was born around 1798 in Pennsylvania.[1] In 1844 he founded the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan, which was officially chartered by the Michigan state legislature in 1848.[2] Foster faced racial persecution in his home state and moved to the west \u201cin exile,\u201d in the hopes of securing greater equality for himself and his children. He opened the Woodstock Institute in Michigan because African Americans had greater rights there, and Foster wanted the school to educate \u201ccolored people and others.\u201d[3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there was considerable controversy surrounding Foster\u2019s fundraising and advertising methods for the Institute. Several newspapers circulated \u201cwarnings\u201d regarding Foster\u2019s character, submitted by a committee of African Americans from Masillon, Ohio, who claimed that they had asked Foster to assess Michigan laws and determine whether a vocational school could be established in the state.[4] This committee alleged that Foster never contacted them again and instead proceeded to collect money and establish the Institute by himself.[5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was alleged that Foster kept the economic records of the Institute private, despite requests for them to be public.[6] Frederick Douglass\u2019 paper, North Star,<\/em> also accused him of using their masthead to publicize the Institute, despite the fact that Foster had never received an official endorsement from Douglass. Foster circulated advertisements for the school claiming to have the well-known newspaper\u2019s approval without their consent.[7]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

[1] \u201cPrior Foster,\u201d Page: 758; Image: 758; Family History Library Film: 803551,Ancestry.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2] Prior Foster, \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute, for Colored People and Others.\u201d The National Era. 6 April 1848. Accessible Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3] Prier Foster, \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute, Report of the General Agent.\u201d National Anti-Slavery Standard. 9 October 1845. Accessible Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4] W.M. Pinn, P. Brown, and Jacob Palmer, \u201cPrior Foster\u2014Caution.\u201d The Liberator. 30 June 1843. Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers: page 103.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6] \u201cPrior Foster again.\u201d The North Star. 25 August 1848. Accessible Archives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7] Ibid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Written by Lila Gyory, History 213 taught by Sharla Fett, Occidental College, Spring 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prior (sometimes spelled Prier) Foster was born around 1798 in Pennsylvania.[1] In 1844 he founded the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan, which was officially chartered by the Michigan state legislature in 1848.[2] Foster faced racial persecution in his home state and moved to the west \u201cin exile,\u201d in the hopes of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3052,"parent":4306,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4312","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4312"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4617,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4312\/revisions\/4617"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}