Part 9 (2/2)

[Footnote 1: _Ibid_, p 393]

[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the As of the Am Conv_, 1801, p 15]

This situation, however, was not sufficiently alarinia It is remarkable how Robert Pleasants, a Quaker of that State who emancipated his slaves at his death in 1801, had united with other members of his sect to establish a school for colored people In 1782 they circulated a pa a Free School for the Instruction of Children of Blacks and People of Color”[1] They recommended to the humane and benevolent of all denominations cheerfully to contribute to an institution ”calculated to promote the spiritual and temporal interests of that unfortunate part of our fellow creatures in forion, and in co, and mechanic arts, as the most likely means to render so numerous a people fit for freedom, and to become useful citizens” Pleasants proposed to establish a school on a three-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract of his own land at Gravelly Hills near Four-Mile Creek, Henrico County The whole revenue of the land was to go toward the support of the institution, or, in the event the school should be established elsewhere, he would give it one hundred pounds Ebenezer Maule, another friend, subscribed fifty pounds for the same purpose[2]

Exactly what the outcome was, no one knows; but the memorial on the life of Pleasants shows that he appropriated the rent of the three-hundred-and-fifty-acre tract and ten pounds per annuroes, and that a few years after his death such an institution was in operation under a Friend at Gravelly Run[3]

[Footnote 1: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 215]

[Footnote 2: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 216]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_, p 216]

Such philanthropy, however, did not becoro education there was decidedly checked by the rapid developroes ambitious to e the first quarter of the nineteenth century that cohtenment of the colored people than the benevolent element allowed the colored pauper children apprenticed by church-wardens was prohibited by statute iroes eager to learn were thereafter largely restricted to private tutoring and instruction offered in Sabbath-schools Furtherinia developed few urban communities there were not sufficient persons of color in any one place to cooperate in enlightening themselves even as roes had practically no chance to educate thee_, vol xvi, p 124]

North Carolina, not unlike the border States in their good treatment of free persons of color, placed such little restriction on the improve the ely on account of the zeal of the antislavery leaders and Quakers,[1]

continued unabated froreatest activity, to the period of the intense abolition agitation and the servile insurrections In 1815 the Quakers were still exhorting their ious instruction of Negroes[2] The following year a school for Negroes was opened for two days in a week[3] So successful was the work done by the Quakers during this period that they could report in 1817 that most colored et a portion of school learning”[4] In 1819 some of them could spell and a few could write The plan of these workers was to extend the instruction until males could ”read, write, and cipher,” and until the females could ”read and write”[5]

[Footnote 1: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 231; Levi Coffin, _Reminiscences_, pp 69-71; Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p

66]

[Footnote 2: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 232]

[Footnote 3: Thwaites, _Early Travels_, vol ii, p 66]

[Footnote 4: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 232]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_, 232]

In the course of tie their slaves to a Sunday-school opened by Levi Coffin and his son Vestal Before the slaves had learned more than to spell words of two or three syllables otherthat such instruction would make the slaves discontented[1] The timorous element threatened the teachers with the terrors of the law, induced the benevolent slaveholders to prohibit the attendance of their Negroes, and had the school closed[2] Moreover, it became more difficult to obtain aid for this cause Between 1815 and 1825 the North Carolina Manu their efforts to raise funds for this purpose By 1819 they had collected 4700 but had not increased this amount more than 262 two years later[3]

[Footnote 1: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p 69]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, p 70]

[Footnote 3: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p 241]

The work done by the various workers in North Carolina did not affect the general improvement of the slaves, but thanks to the hulected In 1830 the General association of the Manumission Societies of that commonwealth complained that the laws made no provision for thewas in a very s the colored people of a few sections, it was almost unknown to the slaves They pointed out, too, that the little instruction some of the slaves had received, and by which a few had been taught to spell, or perhaps to read in ”easy places,” was not due to any legal provision, but solely to the charity ”which endureth all things” and is willing to suffer reproach for the sake of being instru the wanderer in the right way”[2] To a other things the enact for the instruction of slaves in the elee at least so far as to enable them to read the Holy Scriptures[3] The reaction culminated, however, before this plan could be properly presented to the people of that commonwealth

[Footnote 1: An Address to the People of North Carolina on the Evils of Slavery by the Friends of Liberty and Equality, _passim_]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_]

During these years an exceptionally bright Negro was serving as a teacher not of his own race but of the most aristocratic white people of North Carolina This educator was a freeman named John Chavis He was born probably near Oxford, Granville County, about 1763 Chavis was a full-blooded Negro of dark brown color Early attracting the attention of his white neighbors, he was sent to Princeton ”to see if a Negro would take a collegiate education” His rapid advancement under Dr Witherspoon ”soon convinced his friends that the experiood Latin and a fair Greek scholar