HAMPTON NORMAL INSTITUTE. 517 HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE. a plantation of 185 acres on the Hampton River, Virginia, two miles from Old Point Comfort. The school was opened in 1808 under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, with Gen. S. C. Armstrong in charge. In 1870 it received a charter from the State. It is a private corporation, administered by a board of 17 trus- tees of difl'crent denominations. The school has 55 buildings, including, besides dormitories and recitation-halls, a library with 11.000 volumes, a church, a hospital, gj'mnasiura, sawmill, plan- ing-mill, various shops, a well-equip])ed trade school, and a large building for domestic science and agriculture. The instruction comprises aca- demic, trade, agricultural, domestic science, and normal courses." The Armstrong and Slater Me- morial Trade School, opened in 1806, gives train- ing in the theory and practice of carpentry, painting, blacksmithing, tailoring, and other handicrafts. The girls are instructed in house- work, laundry-work, cooking, sewing, upholstery, and other home and farm occupations. A farm with barn and stock, greenhouses, and experi- ment station furnishes work and instruction for agricultural students. Five miles from the school is another farm of tiOO acres, largely for stock, also worked by students. The expenses of tuition are met by contributions: but in pursuance of the school's policy to foster independence in the' students, those who are unable to pay their board are required to make a return in labor. The young men are under military discipline, and are organized in a battalion of six companies. The school publishes a monthly paper, the South- ern Workman, devoted to matters relating to the two races, and printed, as is all other school literature, by the students' printing department. In 1002 the school had 80 instructors and an attendance of 1070, of whom about 110 were Indians. The day school is closed from .June to October, but the industrial departments continue through the summer. A normal institute is car- ried on during six weeks in the summer for the colored teachers of the South. Between four and five hundred attend. The institute has grad- uated over 1100 students, of whom 60 per cent, are engaged in teaching. At least 6000 under- graduates have gone nut from the school. Of the colored students wlio have finished their trade studies since 18S5. about 80 per cent, are either teaching trades or working at them. Many for- mer students of both races are successful farmers or engaged in varit)us business enterprises, while a limited numlwr have fitted themselves for pro- fessional careers. The most noted graduate is Booker T. Washington (q.v. ). of the class of 1875. The endowment of Hampton is nearly $1,100,000. and the annual income of about .$165.- 000 is received from endowments, from the State land scrip and agricultural funds, from the Oov- ernment Indian funds, from the Slater and Pea- body funds, and from private henefactions. mostly in the form of srlmlarships. HAMPTON ROADS. The lower part of the estuary of the .Tames River, Virginia, where it falls into Chesapeake Bay (Map: Virginia, H 5). It is an important military point, and is defended by Forts Wool and ifonroe. Its chan- nel is broad and deep, and the harbors along its shores, especiallv that of Xnrfolk, are excellent. This fact. tii;;ether with the nimber of railroad lines which terminate at Norfolk and other point.^ on ils shores, gives it a considerable commercial importance. During the Civil War there were two naval engagements in and near Hampton Roads. On March S, 18U2, the frigate Co)i(jri-ss, the sloop- ofwar Vuinbcrlund, the steam frigates Minncmla and lo<nwkc, and the ship tSaiiit Laurence were in the roadstead, when the Virninia, an iron-clad Confederate craft, formerly the I'nited States steam frigate Merrimac, which had been seized the year before, attended by two small steamers, came from Norfolk, passed rapidly by the Con- gress, exchanging broadsides, and ran directly into the Cumberland, which sank in less than three-quarters of an hour. The Congress was disabled and .set on fire, and eight hours later her magazine exploded. The other Union vessels escaped. The Union loss was 286; that of the (.'onfiHleralcs only about a dozen. On the follow- ing day the famous contest occurred in the Roads between the Federal Monitor and the VirfiinUi. Sec M(jMTOK. HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE. In American history, an informal conference, with reference to the "arrangement of a peace between the North and South, held on a vessel, the River Queen, near Fort Monroe, February 3. 1865, toward the close of the Civil War, between Presi- dent Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward, rep- resenting the United States Government, ami Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War .John A. Campbell, representing the Confed- erate States. The conference was brought about primarily by Francis P. Blair (q.v.). who con- ceived that the war might be closed and the two sections of the country reunited by arranging for joint action on the part of the Federal and Con- federate armies against Maximilian in Mexico, with a view to the enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine and the possible absorption of Mexico by the I'nited States, the Southern States to agree, however, to the complete abolition of sla- very within their boundaries. President Lincoln refused to consent to such a conference except on the basis of union, and the Southern commis- sioners somewhat equivocally acceded to his terms. During the conference, wdiich lasted for four hours, President Lincoln expressed himself in favor of the admission of the Southern States, after their surrender, to innucdiatc representation in Congress, and stated that in regard to the confiscation acts he should "exercise the |)ower of the executive with the utmost liberality," but that he would never modify to the slightest extent the Emancipation Proclamation, though "if the w-ar should then cease, with the voluntary .abolition of slavery by the States," "he should, personally, favor the payment by the Federal Government of a fair indemnity to the former slave-owners. He disapproved, however, of the project for a joint attack upon the French in Mexico. ;ind refused to consent to any treaty with the Confederate Gov- ernment as such, or to consider any proposition for peace which did not provide for the complete restoration of the Union. The conference broke up without any agreement having been reached, and the Confederate commissioners immediately reUirncd to Richmond. Consult : Nicolay and Hay, Ahr'ilinm Lincoln: A Tlislorii. vol, x. (New York, 1800) : A. H. Stephens. The War lietwecn the Hhtlex. vol. ii. (Philadelphia, c. 1808-70) : and
