le that they early attained rank among
the most enlightened ante-bellum Negroes. This interest, largely
on account of the zeal of the antislavery leaders and Quakers,[1]
continued unabated from 1780, the time of their greatest activity,
to the period of the intense abolition agitation and the servile
insurrections. In 1815 the Quakers were still exhorting their members
to establish schools for the literary and religious instruction of
Negroes.[2] The following year a school for Negroes was opened for
two days in a week.[3] So successful was the work done by the Quakers
during this period that they could report in 1817 that most colored
minors in the Western Quarter had been "put in a way to get a portion
of school learning."[4] In 1819 some of them could spell and a few
could write. The plan of these workers was to extend the instruction
until males could "read, write, and cipher," and until the females
could "read and write."[5]

[Footnote 1: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 231; Levi Coffin,
_Reminiscences_, pp. 69-71; Bassett, _Slavery in North Carolina_, p.
66.]

[Footnote 2: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 232.]

[Footnote 3: Thwaites, _Early Travels_, vol. ii., p. 66.]

[Footnote 4: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 232.]

[Footnote 5: _Ibid_., 232.]

In the course of time, however, these philanthropists met with some
discouragement. In 1821 certain masters were sending their slaves to
a Sunday-school opened by Levi Coffin and his son Vestal. Before the
slaves had learned more than to spell words of two or three syllables
other masters became unduly alarmed, thinking that such instruction
would make the slaves discontented.[1] The timorous element threatened
the teachers with the terrors of the law, induced the benevolent
slaveholders to prohibit the attendance of their Negroes, and had the
school closed.[2] Moreover, it became more difficult to obtain aid
for this cause. Between 1815 and 1825 the North Carolina Manumission
Societies were redoubling their efforts to raise funds for this
purpose. By 1819 they had collected $47.00 but had not increased this
amount more than $2.62 two years later.[3]

[Footnote 1: Coffin, _Reminiscences_, p. 69.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 70.]

[Footnote 3: Weeks, _Southern Quakers_, p. 241.]

The work done by the various workers in North Carolina did not affect
the general improvement of the slaves, but thanks to the humanitarian
movement, they were not entirely neglected. In 18