[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 Manumission
Societies were redoubling their efforts to raise funds for this
purpose. By 1819 they had collected $47.00 but had not increased this
amount more than $2.62 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 humanitarian
movement, they were not entirely neglected. In 1830 the General
Association of the Manumission Societies of that commonwealth
complained that the laws made no provision for the moral improvement
of the slaves.[1] Though learning was in a very small degree diffused
among 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 instrumental in
"delivering the poor that cry" and "directing the wanderer in the
right way.
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