"[2] To ameliorate these conditions the association
recommended among other things the enactment of a law providing for
the instruction of slaves in the elementary principles of language 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 experiment
would issue favorable."[1] There he took rank as a good Latin and a
fair Greek scholar.
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