[3] John
Baptist Snowden of Maryland was secretly instructed by his owner's
children.[4] Uncle Cephas, a slave of Parson Winslow of Tennessee,
reported that the white children taught him on the sly when they came
to see Dinah, who was a very good cook. He was never without books
during his stay with his master.[5] One of the Grimke Sisters taught
her little maid to read while brushing her young mistress's locks.[6]
Robert Harlan, who was brought up in the family of Honorable J.M.
Harlan, acquired the fundamentals of the common branches from Harlan's
older sons.[7] The young mistress of Mrs. Ann Woodson of Virginia
instructed her until she could read in the first reader.[8] Abdy
observed in 1834 that slaves of Kentucky had been thus taught to read.
He believed that they were about as well off as they would have
been, had they been free.[9] Giving her experiences on a Mississippi
plantation, Susan Dabney Smedes stated that the white children
delighted in teaching the house servants. One night she was formally
invited with the master, mistress, governess, and guests by a
twelve-year-old school mistress to hear her dozen pupils recite
poetry.
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