This woman was fortunate in coming into the world at that time.  So general had been the efforts for the elevation of the colored people that free Negroes had many of the privileges later given only to white people.  Virginia then and for a long time thereafter ranked among the commonwealths most liberal toward the Negro.  The dissemination of information among them was not then restricted, private teaching of slaves was common, and progressive communities maintained colored schools.[1a] In Fredericksburg such opportunities were not rare.  The parents of Maria Louise Moore fortunately associated with the free Negroes who constituted an industrial class with adequate means to provide for the thorough training of their children.  Miss Moore, therefore, easily acquired the rudiments of education and attained some distinction as a student of history.

In 1820 Miss Moore was married to Adolphe Richards, a native of the Island of Guadaloupe.  He was a Latin of some Negro blood, had noble ancestry, and had led an honorable career.  Educated in London and resident in Guadaloupe, he spoke both English and French fluently.  Because of poor health in later years he was directed by his friends to the salubrious climate of Virginia.  He settled at Fredericksburg, where he soon became captivated by the charms of the talented Maria Louise Moore.  On learning of his marriage, his people and friends marveled that a man of his standing had married a colored woman or a Southern woman at all.

Adjusting himself to this new environment, Mr. Richards opened a shop for wood-turning, painting and glazing.  It is highly probable that he learned these trades in the West Indies, but having adequate means to maintain himself, he had not depended on his mechanical skill.  In Fredericksburg he had the respect and support of the best white people, passing as one of such well-to-do free Negroes as the Lees, the Cooks, the De Baptistes, who were contractors, and the Williamses, who were contractors and brickmakers.  His success was in a large measure due to the good standing of the family of Mrs. Richards and to the wisdom with which she directed this West Indian in his new environment.

They had in all fourteen children, the training of whom was largely the work of the mother.  All of them were well grounded in the rudiments of education and given a taste for higher things.  In the course of time when the family grew larger the task of educating them grew more arduous.  Some of them probably attended the school conducted by a Scotch-Irishman in the home of Richard De Baptiste.  When the reaction against the teaching of Negroes effected the closing of the colored schools in Virginia, this one continued clandestinely for many years.  Determined to have her children better educated, Mrs. Richards sent one of her sons to a school conducted by Mrs. Beecham, a remarkable English woman, assisted by her daughter.  These women were bent on doing what they could to