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October 18
His academic performance attracted much public attention because it contradicted the belief that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites. In 1808, Chavis founded a school for the children of white slave owners, training white children during the day and free black children at night. He prepared the white children for college by teaching them Latin and Greek. The school he opened in Raleigh was described as one of the best in the state. It surely was an excellent school, for some of the most powerful men in white society entrusted their sons’ education to Chavis. His students included Priestly H. Mangum, brother of Senator Willie P. Mangum; Archibald E. and John L. Henderson, sons of Chief Justice Henderson; Governor Charles Manly; The Reverend William Harris; Dr. James L. Wortham; the Edwardses, Enlows (Enloes), Hargroves, and Horners; and Abraham Rencher who became Minister of Portugal and Territorial Governor of New Mexico. John Chavis' influence was far reaching. A dedicated opponent of slavery, John Chavis was an influential abolitionist leader in the South. The circumstances surrounding his death in 1838 remain unclear, although many suspect that he was murdered because of his work to better the lives of blacks. Reference: African Americans/Voices of Triumph by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Copyright 1993, TimeLife Inc. Founder's Day Lecture Washington & Lee University The Negro in the American Revolution. by Benjamin Quarles University of North Carolina Press for the Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Va., 1961.
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