tnote 1: _Niles Register_, vol. lxxi., p. 296.]

Intelligent Negroes secretly communicated to their fellow men what
they knew. Henry Banks of Stafford County, Virginia, was taught by
his brother-in-law to read, but not write.[1] The father of Benedict
Duncan, a slave in Maryland, taught his son the alphabet.[2] M.W.
Taylor of Kentucky received his first instruction from his mother.
H.O. Wagoner learned from his parents the first principles of the
common branches.[3] A mulatto of Richmond taught John H. Smythe when
he was between the ages of five and seven.[4] The mother of Dr. C.H.
Payne of West Virginia taught him to read at such an early age that
he does not remember when he first developed that power.[5] Dr. E.C.
Morris, President of the National Baptist Convention, belonged to a
Georgia family, all of whom were well instructed by his father.[6]

[Footnote 1: Drew, _Refugee_, etc., p. 72.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., p. 110.]

[Footnote 3: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 679.]

[Footnote 4: Ibid., p. 873.]

[Footnote 5: Ibid., p. 368.]

[Footnote 6: This is his own statement.]

The white parents of Negroes often secured to them the educational
facilities then afforded the superior race. The indulgent teacher of
J. Morris of North Carolina was his white father, his master.[1]
W.J. White acquired his education from his mother, who was a white
woman.[2] Martha Martin, a daughter of her master, a Scotch-Irishman
of Georgia, was permitted to go to Cincinnati to be educated, while
her sister was sent to a southern town to learn the milliner's
trade.[3] Then there were cases like that of Josiah Settle's white
father. After the passage of the law forbidding free Negroes to remain
in the State of Tennessee, he took his children to Hamilton, Ohio,
to be educated and there married his actual wife, their colored
mother.[4]

[Footnote 1: This is based on an account given by his son.]

[Footnote 2: _The Crisis_, vol. v., p. 119.]

[Footnote 3: Drew, _Refugee_, p. 143.]

[Footnote 4: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p. 539.]

The very employment of slaves in business establishments accelerated
their mental development. Negroes working in stores often acquired
a fair education by assisting clerks. Some slaves were clerks
themselves. Under the observation of E.P. Burke came the notable case
of a young man belonging to one of the best families of Savannah. He
could read, write, cipher, and transact business so intelligently
that his maste