Armstrong, Samuel Chapman, 1839–93, American educator, philanthropist, and soldier, b. Hawaiian Islands, of missionary parents, grad. Williams, 1862. He served in the Union army in the Civil War, rising to the rank of major general. Appointed an agent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Virginia, he quickly realized the need for vocational training for emancipated slaves and persuaded the American Missionary Association to found, in 1868, the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, now the Hampton Institute. Because of Armstrong's interest, Native Americans were later admitted to the institution, which he headed until his death. Armstrong's ideas, particularly on the need for vocational training, influenced Booker T. Washington.
See biography by E. A. Talbot (new ed. 1969); F. G. Peabody, Education for Life (1918), a history of Hampton Institute.
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