A SKETCH OF EDUCATION IX SOUTH CAROLINA. 523 



X.— EDUCATION OF THE COLORED PEOPLE. 



Slavery was introduced into South Carolina almost contemporaneously 

 with the settlement of the colony ; by the early part of the eighteentli 

 century the blacks were already the preponderating element of popu- 

 lation. These slaves, imported from the coast of Africa, were untutored, 

 unclad savages. The first task of their masters was to civilize them and 

 teach them the English language ; and the early labors of the mission- 

 aries w^ere largely directed to that end. The first missionary sent to 

 Carolina, the Rev. Samuel Thomas, made a report, in 1705, to the Society 

 for the Propagation of the Gospel, stating, among other things, that in the 

 parish of Goose Creek, twenty negro slaves came regularly to church, 

 while several others were able to speak and read the English language. 

 He added, that among the thousand negro slaves in the province, many 

 of them were well disposed towards Christianity, and were willing to pre- 

 pare themselves to embrace it by learning to read, the time consumed in 

 which they redeemed from their masters by extra labor. 



In the proceedings for 1752, of the Society for the Propagation of the 

 Gospel, it w^as stated, " that a flourishing negro school was taught in 

 Charleston by a negro of the society, under the inspection and direction 

 of the w^orthy rector, Garden, by which means many poor negroes were 

 taught to believe in God, and in his Son, Jesus Christ." 



This religious and literary training went on a long time, until the idea 

 began to prevail that knowledge should be reserved for free men, and. 

 could not, with safety, be imparted to slaves. Several insurrections gave 

 strength to this view, and despite the earnest protests of many of the lead- 

 ing men of the State, laws were passed, providing penalties for the teach- 

 ing of slaves to read and to write. Notwithstanding this prohibition, a? 

 number of servants managed to acquire some elementary knowledge,, 

 either through their own efforts, or aided by indulgent masters and mis- 

 tresses, or, more often, by younger children of the family. The daily as- 

 sociation of favored servants with their cultured superiors was, in itself, an 

 education of no mean order. Even when literary instruction was denied,, 

 religious training was zealously imparted. Scarcely a household was 

 there in the confines of the State in which colored children, and some- 

 times their parents, were not assembled for either morning or evening 

 prayer, or for catechism and religious services on the Sabbath. In every 

 church was a place set apart for the blacks ; they were admitted into 

 church membership, and partook of all the sacraments. On larger plan- 

 tations chapels of worship were established, in which clergymen of dis- 

 tinguished merit regularly officiated. Preachers of their own color were 



