Early Years
Ralza Morse Manly was born on January 16, 1822, in Dorset, Bennington County, Vermont. He was the son of William Manly and Sarah Dunton Manly. After graduating from Wesleyan University, in Middletown, Connecticut, with a BA in 1848, he married Sarah Bemis Wright on August 16 of that year. They had two sons and two daughters before her death on August 18, 1881. He earned an MA from Wesleyan in 1851 and was admitted to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1857, although he devoted most of his energies to teaching prior to the Civil War. By 1862 Manly had been ordained a deacon and in 1864 he was ordained an elder in the New Hampshire Conference. From 1848 to 1862 he was a principal of several academies and seminaries in Vermont and New Hampshire, and served as editor of the Vermont Christian Messenger.
Virginia
Influence
Manly's greatest contribution to postwar African American education lay in the training of African American public school teachers. He helped organize the Richmond Educational Association in 1867, and as its first president spearheaded the efforts to establish the Richmond Normal and High School. Constructed with funds provided by the Freedmen's Bureau, the American Freedmen's Union Commission, and the local African American community, the school opened to students in October 1867 and quickly gained a reputation as a high quality educational institution in the South.
Leaving Virginia
Manly's marriage to Mary Louisa Patterson, a former teacher at the normal school and a professor of English and rhetoric at Wellesley College, in Massachusetts, prompted his departure from African American education. They married in Flint, Michigan, on July 15, 1884, and had one son. He joined his wife on the faculty at Wellesley, where he taught logic and rhetoric between 1885 and 1890. Health issues led them to relocate to northern Georgia in 1892 and to San Diego in 1895. There he became a deacon at the city's First Congregational Church.
Manly died at his home on September 16, 1897. He was buried in San Diego's Greenwood Memorial Park. Graduates and current students of Richmond Colored Normal and High School honored him by holding an elaborate memorial service at the First Baptist Church and commissioning a life-size portrait for the school.
Time Line
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January 16, 1822 - Ralza M. Manly is born in Vermont.
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1848 - Ralza M. Manly graduates with a BA from Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
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1848–1862 - Ralza M. Manly is a principal of several academies and seminaries in Vermont and New Hampshire. He is also editor of the Vermont Christian Messenger.
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August 16, 1848 - Ralza M. Manly and Sarah Bemis Wright marry. They will have four children.
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1851 - Ralza M. Manly earns an MA from Wesleyan in Connecticut.
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1857 - Ralza M. Manly is admitted to the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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By 1862 - Ralza M. Manly is ordained a deacon in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
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October 1862 - Ralza M. Manly enlists in the 16th New Hampshire Volunteer Regiment and serves as chaplain.
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January 10, 1864 - Ralza M. Manly is appointed chaplain of the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry at Fort Monroe, where he seeks to educate the regiment's African American soldiers.
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March 3, 1865 - An act of Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau) within the War Department.
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June 10, 1865 - Ralza M. Manly is assigned to the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. By November, he becomes the bureau's superintendent of education.
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November 1865–August 15, 1870 - Ralza M. Manly serves as superintendent of education with the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia until it ceases operations.
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1867 - Ralza M. Manly helps establish the Richmond Educational Association and serves as its first president.
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October 1867 - Ralza M. Manly spearheads the establishment of the Richmond Normal and High School, which gains a reputation as a high quality school in the South.
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June 1865–1875 - Ralza M. Manly serves on the Richmond Board of Education.
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August 1869–1874 - Ralza M. Manly serves on the Richmond city council, first appointed in 1869 and then elected in 1871.
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1871–1878 - Ralza M. Manly serves as principal of the Richmond Colored Normal School.
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1873 - Ralza M. Manly unsuccessfully runs for House of Delegates.
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May 1874–October 1877 - Ralza M. Manly serves on the Richmond board of aldermen.
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1876 - Ralza M. Manly and the Richmond Educational Association donate Richmond Colored Normal School's land to the city, with the condition that it remains a public school for African Americans.
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1877–1883 - Ralza M. Manly serves as U.S. deputy collector of internal revenue in Richmond.
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1883–1885 - Ralza M. Manly serves a second term as principal of the Richmond Colored Normal School.
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July 15, 1884 - Ralza M. Manly and Mary Louisa Patterson, a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, marry. They will have one son.
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1885–1890 - Ralza M. Manly leaves Virginia to become a professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, joining his new wife.
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September 16, 1897 - Ralza M. Manly dies in San Diego. Students from Richmond Colored Normal and High School honor him with a memorial and commemorative portrait.
References
Further Reading
External Links
Cite This Entry
- APA Citation:
Green, H. N., & the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Ralza M. Manly (1822–1897). (2015, January 27). In Encyclopedia Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.EncyclopediaVirginia.org/Manly_Ralza_M_1822-1897.
- MLA Citation:
Green, Hilary N. and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "Ralza M. Manly (1822–1897)." Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, 27 Jan. 2015. Web. READ_DATE.
First published: January 14, 2015 | Last modified: January 27, 2015
Contributed by Hilary N. Green and the Dictionary of Virginia Biography.