DOUGLASS' SUNDAY SCHOOL

"Henry and John were quite intelligent, and in a little while after I went there, I succeeded in creating in them a strong desire to learn how to read. This desire soon sprung up in others also. They very soon mustered up some old spelling books, and nothing would do but I must keep a Sabbath school. I agreed to do so, and accordingly devoted my Sundays to teaching these my loved fellow slaves how to read . Neither of them knew letters when I went there. Some of the slaves of the neighborhood found what was going on, and also availed themselves. It was understood, among all who came, that there must be as little display about it as possible. It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael 's unacquainted with the fact that, instead of wrestling, boxing, and drinking whiskey, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings.... "I held my Sabbath school at the house of a free Colored man, whose name I deem it imprudent to mention; for should it be known, it might embarrass him greatly , though the crime of holding the school was committed ten years ago. I had at one time over forty scholars, and those of the right sort, ardently desiring to learn. They were of all ages, though mostly men and women. I look back to those days with an amount of pleasure not to be expressed. They were great days to my soul. The work of instructing my dear fellow-slaves was the sweetest engagement with which I was ever blessed. We loved each other, and to leave them at the close of the Sabbath was a severe cross indeed...They came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness. I taught them, because it was the delight of my soul to be doing something that looked like bettering the condition of my race. I kept up my school nearly the whole year I lived with Mr. Freeland; and beside my Sabbath school, I devoted three evenings in the week, during the winter, to teach the slaves at home. And I have the happiness to know, that several of those who came to Sabbath school learned how to read; and that one, at least, is now free through my agency." P.70-72, THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1845, 1994)