mber of persons, including George Fowler, and, it was said, Lafayette,
who had always been regarded as a friend of emancipation. According to
a letter from a clergyman of South Carolina, the first slave for this
institution went from the York district of that State. Exactly what these
enterprises were, however, it is difficult to determine. They were not well
supported and soon passed from public notice. Some have said that the
Tennessee project was a money-making scheme for the proprietors, and that
the Negroes taught there were in reality slaves. Others have defended the
work as a philanthropic effort so characteristic of the friends of freedom
in Appalachian America.[52]

The people of Eastern Tennessee were largely in favor of Negro education.
Around Maryville and Knoxville were found a considerable number of white
persons who were thus interested in the uplift of the belated race. Well
might such efforts be expected in Maryville, for the school of theology at
this place had gradually become so radical that according to the _Maryville
Intelligencer_ half of the students by 1841 declared their adherence to the
cause of abolition.[53] Consequently, they hoped not only to see such
doctrines triumph within the walls of that institution, but were
endeavoring to enlighten the Negroes of that community to prepare them for
the enjoyment of life as citizens in their own or some other country.[54]

Just as the people of Maryville had expressed themselves through _The
Intelligencer_, so did those of Knoxville find a spokesman in _The
Presbyterian Witness_. Excoriating those who had for centuries been finding
excuses for keeping the slaves in heathenism, the editor of this
publication said that there was not a solitary argument that might be urged
in favor of teaching a white man that might not be as properly urged in
favor of enlightening a man of color. "If one has a soul that will never
die," said he, "so has the other. Has one susceptibilities of improvement,
mentally, socially, and morally? So has the other. Is one bound by the laws
of God to improve the talents he has received from the Creator's hands? So
is the other. Is one embraced in the commands search the scriptures? So is
the other."[55] He maintained that unless masters could lawfully degrade
their slaves to the condition of beasts, they were just as much bound to
teach them to read the Bible as to teach any other class of their
population.

From a group in Kentu