et, these were men who ferociously rushed in upon my Sabbath
school, at St. Michael's, armed with mob-like missiles, and I must say,
I thought him a Christian, until he took part in bloody by the lash.
This same Garrison West was my class leader, and I must say, I thought
him a Christian, until he took part in breaking up my school. He led me
no more after that. The plea for this outrage was then, as it is now and
at all times--the danger to good order. If the slaves learnt to read,
they would learn something else, and something worse. The peace of
slavery would be disturbed; slave rule would be endangered. I leave the
reader to{206} characterize a system which is endangered by such causes.
I do not dispute the soundness of the reasoning. It is perfectly sound;
and, if slavery be _right_, Sabbath schools for teaching slaves to read
the bible are _wrong_, and ought to be put down. These Christian class
leaders were, to this extent, consistent. They had settled the question,
that slavery is _right_, and, by that standard, they determined that
Sabbath schools are wrong. To be sure, they were Protestant, and held to
the great Protestant right of every man to _"search the scriptures"_ for
himself; but, then, to all general rules, there are _exceptions_. How
convenient! What crimes may not be committed under the doctrine of the
last remark. But, my dear, class leading Methodist brethren, did not
condescend to give me a reason for breaking up the Sabbath school at St.
Michael's; it was enough that they had determined upon its destruction.
I am, however, digressing.

After getting the school cleverly into operation, the second time
holding it in the woods, behind the barn, and in the shade of trees--I
succeeded in inducing a free colored man, who lived several miles from
our house, to permit me to hold my school in a room at his house. He,
very kindly, gave me this liberty; but he incurred much peril in doing
so, for the assemblage was an unlawful one. I shall not mention,
here, the name of this man; for it might, even now, subject him to
persecution, although the offenses were committed more than twenty years
ago. I had, at one time, more than forty scholars, all of the right
sort; and many of them succeeded in learning to read. I have met several
slaves from Maryland, who were once my scholars; and who obtained their
freedom, I doubt not, partly in consequence of the ideas imparted to
them in that school. I have had various em