it was deemed wise in 1672 to enact a law prohibiting members of that sect from taking Negroes to their meetings.  In 1678 the colony enacted another measure excluding Quakers from the teaching profession by providing that no person should be allowed to keep a school in Virginia unless he had taken the oath of allegiance and supremacy.[2] Of course, it was inconsistent with the spirit and creed of the Quakers to take this oath.

[Footnote 1:  Quaker Pamphlet, p. 9.]

[Footnote 2:  Hening, Statutes at Large, vol. i., 532; ii., 48, 165, 166, 180, 198, and 204. Special Report of the U.S.  Com. of Ed., 1871, p. 391.]

The settlers of North Carolina followed the same procedure to check the influence of Quakers, who spoke there in behalf of the man of color as fearlessly as they had in Virginia.  The apprehension of the dominating element was such that Governor Tryon had to be instructed to prohibit from teaching in that colony any person who had not a license from the Bishop of London.[1] Although this order was seemingly intended to protect the faith and doctrine of the Anglican Church, rather than to prevent the education of Negroes, it operated to lessen their chances for enlightenment, since missionaries from the Established Church did not reach all parts of the colony.[2] The Quakers of North Carolina, however, had local schools and actually taught slaves.  Some of these could read and write as early as 1731.  Thereafter, household servants were generally given the rudiments of an English education.

[Footnote 1:  Ashe, History of North Carolina, vol. i., p. 389.  The same instructions were given to Governor Francis Nicholson.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., pp. 389, 390.]

It was in the settlements of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York that the Quakers encountered less opposition in carrying out their policy of cultivating the minds of colored people.  Among these Friends the education of Negroes became the handmaiden of the emancipation movement.  While John Hepburn, William Burling, Elihu Coleman, and Ralph Sandiford largely confined their attacks to the injustice of keeping slaves, Benjamin Lay was working for their improvement as a prerequisite of emancipation.[1] Lay entreated the Friends to “bring up the Negroes to some Learning, Reading and Writing and” to “endeavor to the utmost of their Power in the sweet love of Truth to instruct and teach ’em the Principles of Truth and Religiousness, and learn some Honest Trade or Imployment and then set them free.  And,” says he, “all the time Friends are teaching of them let them know that they intend to let them go free in a very reasonable Time; and that our Religious Principles will not allow of such Severity, as to keep them in everlasting Bondage and Slavery."[2]

[Footnote 1:  Locke, Anti-slavery, etc., p. 31.]

[Footnote 2:  Ibid., p. 32.]