Shrewd Negroes sometimes slipped stealthily into back streets, where
they studied under a private teacher, or attended a school hidden from
the zealous execution of the law.
The instances of Negroes struggling to obtain an education read like
the beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age. Sometimes Negroes
of the type of Lott Carey[1] educated themselves. James Redpath
discovered in Savannah that in spite of the law great numbers
of slaves had learned to read well. Many of them had acquired a
rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic. "But," said he, "blazon it to the
shame of the South, the knowledge thus acquired has been snatched from
the spare records of leisure in spite of their owners' wishes and
watchfulness."[2] C.G. Parsons was informed that although poor masters
did not venture to teach their slaves, occasionally one with a thirst
for knowledge secretly learned the rudiments of education without any
instruction.[3] While on a tour through parts of Georgia, E.P. Burke
observed that, notwithstanding the great precaution which was taken
to prevent the mental improvement of the slaves, many of them "stole
knowledge enough to enable them to read and write with ease.
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