Part 6 (2/2)

A roes had progressed before the close of the eighteenth century, is better obtained fro ainia about 1755, Benja them to read and study the Bible for themselves and consider ”how the Papists do all they can to hide it from their fellowmen” ”Be particularly thankful,” said he, ”for the Ministers of Christ around you, who are faithfully laboring to teach the truth as it is in Jesus”[1] Rev Mr Davies, then athe Poor, reported that there were inia ere ”willingly, eagerly desirous to be instructed and e theh they had generally very little help to learn to read, yet to his surprise ress that they could ”intelligently read a plain author and especially their Bible” Pity it was, he thought, that any of theroes ont to co accounts of their needs in this respect that he could not help supplying thes and Sundays his home was croith numbers of those ”whose very Countenances still carry the air of importunate Petitioners” for the sa that his stock was exhausted, and that he had to turn away ed his friends to send hiht he, could be a greater inducement to their industry to learn to read

[Footnote 1: Fawcett, _Compassionate Address_, etc, p 33]

[Footnote 2: Fawcett, _Compassionate Address_, etc, p 33]

Still more reliable testimony may be obtained, not from persons particularly interested in the uplift of the blacks, but from slaveholders Their advertisements in the colonial newspapers furnish unconscious evidence of the intellectual progress of the Negroes during the eighteenth century ”He's an 'artful,'”[1] ”plausible,”[2]

”shts much in traffic,”[5]

and ”plays on the fife extremely well,”[6] are soitive slaves Other fugitives were speaking ”plainly,”[7] ”talking indifferent English,”[8] ”relish”[10] In some advertisements we observe such expressions as ”he speaks a little French,”[11] ”Creole French,”[12] ”a feords of High-Dutch,”[13] and ”tolerable Geritive a master would often state that ”he can read print,”[15] ”can read writing,”[16] ”can read and also write a little,”[17] ”can read and write,”[18] ”can write a pretty hand and has probably forged a pass”[19] These conditions obtained especially in Charleston, South Carolina, where were advertised various fugitives, one of wholish fluently, and passed for a doctor a his people,[20] another who spoke Spanish and French intelligibly,[21] and a third who could read, write, and speak both French and Spanish very well[22]

[Footnote 1: _Virginia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan 21, 1800; _The Maryland Gazette_, Feb 27, 1755; _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser_, July 23, 1776; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, May 18, 1786; _The State Gazette of North Carolina_, July 2, 1789]

[Footnote 2: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, SC), Sept 26, 1797, and _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802]

[Footnote 3: _The Charleston Courier_, June 1, 1804; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb 20, and 27, 1786; and _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb 19, 1793]

[Footnote 4: _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Feb 19 and April 2, 1783; _State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb 20 and May 18, 1786]

[Footnote 5: _The Maryland Journal and Baltiinia Herald_ (Fredericksburg), Jan 21, 1800; and _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle_, April 24, 1790]

[Footnote 7: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Jan 20 and March 1, 1800; and _The South Carolina Weekly Gazette_, Oct 24 to 31, 1759]

[Footnote 8: _The City Gaz and Daily Adv_, Jan 20 and March 1, 1800; and _SC Weekly Gaz_, Oct 24 to 31, 1759]

[Footnote 9: _The Newbern Gazette_, May 23 and Aug 15, 1800; _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Feb 19, 1793; _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_ (Charleston, SC), Sept 26, 1797; Oct

5, 1798; Aug 23 and Sept 9, 1799; Aug 18 and Oct 3, 1800; and March 7, 1801; and _Maryland Gazette_, Dec 30, 1746; and April 4, 1754; _South Carolina Weekly Advertiser_, Oct 24 to 31, 1759; and Feb 19, 1783; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Sept 13 and Nov 1, 1784; and _The Carolina Gazette_, Aug 12, 1802]

[Footnote 10: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Sept 26, 1797; May 15, 1799; and Oct 3, 1800; _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Aug 21, 1786; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug 26, 1784; _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug 1, 1754; Oct 28, 1773; and Aug

19, 1784; and _The Columbian Herald_, April 30, 1789]

[Footnote 11: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct 5, 1798; Aug 18 and Sept 18, 1800; _The Gazette of the State of South Carolina_, Aug 16, 1784]

[Footnote 12: _The City Gazette and Daily Advertiser_, Oct 5, 1798]

[Footnote 13: _The Maryland Gazette_, Aug 19, 1784]

[Footnote 14: _The State Gazette of South Carolina_, Feb 20 and 27, 1780]

[Footnote 15: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct

17, 1780 _Dunlop's Maryland Gazette and Baltimore Advertiser_, July 23, 1776]

[Footnote 16: _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21, 1795]

[Footnote 17: _The Maryland Journal and Baltimore Advertiser_, Oct

17, 1780; and Sept 20, 1785; and _The Maryland Gazette_, May 21, 1795; and January 4, 1798; _The Carolina Gazette_, June 3, 1802; and _The Charleston Courier_, June 29, 1803 _The Norfolk and Portsmouth Chronicle_, March 19, 1791]