The question of
slavery there, however, was so ardently discussed and prominently kept
before the people that while little was done to help the Negroes, much
was done to reduce them to the plane of beasts. There was not so much
of the tendency to wink at the violation of the law on the part of
masters in teaching their slaves. But little could be accomplished by
private teachers in the dissemination of information among Negroes
after the free persons of color had been excluded from the State.]
[Footnote 2: _Fourth Annual Report of the American Antislavery
Society_, New York, 1837, p. 48; and the _New England Antislavery
Almanac_ for 1841, p. 31.]
The Knoxville people who advocated the enlightenment of the Negroes
expressed their sentiment through the _Presbyterian Witness_. The
editor felt that there was not a solitary argument that might be urged
in favor of teaching a white man that might not as properly be urged
in favor of enlightening a man of color. "If one has a soul that will
never die," said he, "so has the other. Has one susceptibilities of
improvement, mentally, socially, and morally? So has the other. Is one
bound by the laws of God to improve the talents he has received from
the Creator's hands? So is the other.
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