although South Carolina prohibited the education of
the slaves in 1740[1] and seemingly that of other Negroes in 1800,[2]
these measures were not considered a direct attack on the instruction
of free persons of color. Furthermore, the law in regard to the
teaching of the blacks was ignored by sympathetic masters. Colored
persons serving in families and attending traveling men shared with
white children the advantage of being taught at home. Free persons of
color remaining accessible to teachers and missionaries interested in
the propagation of the gospel among the poor still had the opportunity
to make intellectual advancement.[3]

[Footnote 1: Brevard, _Digest of the Public Statute Law of South
Carolina_, vol. ii., p. 243.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid_., p. 243.]

[Footnote 3: Laws of 1740 and 1800, and Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p.
1078.]

Although not as reactionary as South Carolina, little could be
expected of Georgia where slavery had such a firm hold. Unfavorable as
conditions in that State were, however, they were not intolerable. It
was still lawful for a slave to learn to read, and free persons of
color had the privilege of acquiring any knowledge whatsoever.[1] The
chief incentive to the education of Negroes in that State came from
the rising Methodists and Baptists who, bringing a simple message to
plain people, instilled into their minds as never before the idea that
the Bible being the revelation of God, all men should be taught to
read that book.[2]

[Footnote 1: Marbury and Crawford, _Digest of the Laws of the State of
Georgia_, p. 438.]

[Footnote 2: Orr, _Education in the South_.]

In the territory known as Louisiana the good treatment of the mixed
breeds and the slaves by the French assured for years the privilege
to attend school. Rev. James Flint, of Salem, Massachusetts, received
letters from a friend in Louisiana, who, in pointing out conditions
around him, said: "In the regions where I live masters allow entire
liberty to the slaves to attend public worship, and as far as my
knowledge extends, it is generally the case in Louisiana. We have,"
said he, "regular meetings of the blacks in the building where I
attend public worship. I have in the past years devoted myself
assiduously, every Sabbath morning, to the labor of learning them to
read. I found them quick of apprehension, and capable of grasping the
rudiments of learning more rapidly than the whites."[1]

[Footnote 1: Flint, _Recollections of