{"id":4345,"date":"2025-05-14T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-14T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/?page_id=4345"},"modified":"2026-07-23T16:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T16:28:11","slug":"woodstock-manual-labor-institute","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/institutes\/woodstock-manual-labor-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"Woodstock Manual Labor Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Black\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t<\/button>
A 1957 view of the last remaining building of the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute. Photo courtesy of the Lenawee County Historical Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was established in 1844 in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan, by Prior (sometimes spelled Prier) Foster<\/a>.[1] The Institute received its official charter in 1848, when it gained greater notoriety and remained active through the mid-1850s.[2,3] According to Foster, the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was the first school of its kind to receive an official charter from the state legislature.[4] The school was strategically placed; Michigan had more progressive rights for African Americans compared to many other states at the time. As Foster himself proclaimed, African Americans in Michigan enjoyed \u201call the rights of the whites, except that of suffrage; and I hope this will not long be denied.\u201d[5]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first teacher at the school, recruited by Foster, was a woman named Thalia E. Strong.[6] Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was inclusive: \u201cThe doors of this institute were thrown open to all desirous of securing an education, irrespective of color, sex, or religious affiliations\u2026\u201d[7] The school was meant to be an educational haven for not only African Americans, but for their allies as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was situated on roughly five hundred acres of land, with eight buildings, including a library with fourteen hundred volumes, and seventy acres of the school\u2019s property were used for cultivation by students.[8,9] Students could either pay tuition fees or earn their room and board by performing manual labor. However, the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute also offered a more academic curriculum, such as chemistry, philosophy, algebra, history, grammar, music lessons, and a variety of languages.[10] Foster believed that through both intellectual education and manual labor, the Woodstock Institute would provide African Americans better career opportunities, increased earning potential, and therefore, more power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

[1] \u201cCircular of the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute,\u201d The North Star<\/em>, 12 May 1848, Accessible Archives<\/em>.
[2] Prior Foster, \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute, for Colored People and Others,\u201d The National Era<\/em>, 6 April 1848. Accessible Archives<\/em>.
[3] \u201cFriend Jones,\u201d Anti-Slavery Bugle<\/em>, 3 September 1859, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers<\/em>.
[4] Prior Foster, \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute, for Colored People and Others,\u201d The National Era<\/em>, 6 April 1848, Accessible Archives<\/em>
[5] \u201cCircular of the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute,\u201d The North Star<\/em>, 12 May 1848, Accessible Archives<\/em>.
[6] Prier Foster, \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute, Report of the General Agent,\u201d National Anti-Slavery Standard<\/em>, 9 October 1845, Accessible Archives<\/em>.
[7] Richard Illenden Bonner. Memoirs of Lenawee County, Michigan: From the Earliest Historical Times Down to the Present, Including a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families in Lenawee County, Volume I<\/em>. (Western Historical Association, 1909), 532.
[8] \u201cCircular of the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute,\u201d The North Star<\/em>, 12 May 1848, Accessible Archives<\/em>.
[9] \u201cInstruction to Colored People,\u201d Anti-Slavery Bugle<\/em>, 1 June 1850, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers<\/em>, Lib. of Congress.
[10] \u201cWoodstock Manual Labor Institute,\u201d Anti-Slavery Bugle<\/em>, 27 March 1852, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers<\/em>. Lib. of Congress.<\/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

Edited and revised by Samantha de Vera and Kelli Coles, University of Delaware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was established in 1844 in Woodstock, Lenawee County, Michigan, by Prior (sometimes spelled Prier) Foster.[1] The Institute received its official charter in 1848, when it gained greater notoriety and remained active through the mid-1850s.[2,3] According to Foster, the Woodstock Manual Labor Institute was the first school of its kind to receive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":3052,"parent":4341,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4345","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4345","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=4345"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4633,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4345\/revisions\/4633"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloredconventions.org\/women-higher-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4341"}],"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=4345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}