had in my hands.  I had learned from somebody that the way to begin to read was to learn the alphabet, so I tried in all the ways I could think of to learn it,—­all of course without a teacher, for I could find no one to teach me.  At that time there was not a single member of my race anywhere near us who could read, and I was too timid to approach any of the white people.  In some way, within a few weeks, I mastered the greater portion of the alphabet.  In all my efforts to learn to read my mother shared fully my ambition, and sympathized with me and aided me in every way that she could.  Though she was totally ignorant, she had high ambitions for her children, and a large fund of good, hard, common sense, which seemed to enable her to meet and master every situation.  If I have done anything in life worth attention, I feel sure that I inherited the disposition from my mother.

In the midst of my struggles and longing for an education, a young coloured boy who had learned to read in the state of Ohio came to Malden.  As soon as the coloured people found out that he could read, a newspaper was secured, and at the close of nearly every day’s work this young man would be surrounded by a group of men and women who were anxious to hear him read the news contained in the papers.  How I used to envy this man!  He seemed to me to be the one young man in all the world who ought to be satisfied with his attainments.

About this time the question of having some kind of a school opened for the coloured children in the village began to be discussed by members of the race.  As it would be the first school for Negro children that had ever been opened in that part of Virginia, it was, of course, to be a great event, and the discussion excited the wildest interest.  The most perplexing question was where to find a teacher.  The young man from Ohio who had learned to read the papers was considered, but his age was against him.  In the midst of the discussion about a teacher, another young coloured man from Ohio, who had been a soldier, in some way found his way into town.  It was soon learned that he possessed considerable education, and he was engaged by the coloured people to teach their first school.  As yet no free schools had been started for coloured people in that section, hence each family agreed to pay a certain amount per month, with the understanding that the teacher was to “board ’round”—­that is, spend a day with each family.  This was not bad for the teacher, for each family tried to provide the very best on the day the teacher was to be its guest.  I recall that I looked forward with an anxious appetite to the “teacher’s day” at our little cabin.