At the age of thirteen his mother
employed a white lady to teach him on Sundays, but she was soon
stopped by indignant white persons of the community. When he attained
the age of fifteen he was employed by a number of lawyers in whose
favor he ingratiated himself by his unusual power to please people.
Thereafter these men in defiance of the law taught him to read and
write and explained anything he wanted to know about arithmetic,
geography, and astronomy.[2]
[Footnote 1: Bishop Turner says that when he started to learn there
were among his acquaintances three colored men who had learned to read
the Bible in Charleston. See Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 806.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 806.]
Often favorite slaves were taught by white children. By hiding books
in a hayloft and getting the white children to teach him, James W.
Sumler of Norfolk, Virginia, obtained an elementary education.[1]
While serving as overseer for his Scotch-Irish master, Daniel
J. Lockhart of the same commonwealth learned to read under the
instruction of his owner's boys. They were not interrupted in their
benevolent work.[2] In the same manner John Warren, a slave of
Tennessee, acquired a knowledge of the common branches.
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