another family, whose name I bear. My parents by adoption
were both coloured, and possessed a flourishing business in the fortress
of Monroe.

I went to school a year and a half in Norfolk. The school was composed
entirely of coloured children, and was kept by a man of color, a Baptist
minister, who was highly esteemed, not only as a teacher, but as a
preacher of rare eloquence and power. His color did not debar him from
taking an equal part with his white brethren in matters pertaining to
their church.

But the school was destined to be of short duration. In 1831, Nathaniel
Turner, a slave, having incited a number of his brethren to avenge their
wrongs in a summary manner, marched by night with his comrades upon the
town of Southampton, Virginia, and in a few hours put to death about one
hundred of the white inhabitants. This act of Turner and his associates
struck such terror into the hearts of the whites throughout the State,
that they immediately, as an act of retaliation or vengeance, abolished
every colored school within their borders; and having dispersed the
pupils, ordered the teachers to leave the State forthwith, and never
more to return.

I now went to the fortress of Monroe, but soon found that I could not
get into any school there. For, though being a military station, and
therefore under the sole control of the Federal Government, it did not
seem that this place was free from the influence of slavery, in the form
of prejudice against color. But my parents had money, which always and
everywhere has a magic charm. I was also of a persevering habit; and
what therefore I could not get in the schools I sought among the
soldiers in the garrison, and succeeded in obtaining. Many of the rank
and file of the American army are highly educated foreigners; some of
them political refugees, who have fled to America and become
unfortunate, oftentimes from their own personal habits. I now learned
something of several languages, and considerable music. My German
teacher, a common soldier, was, by all who knew him, reputed to be both
a splendid scholar and musician. I also now and then bought the services
of other teachers, which greatly helped to advance me.

Many of the slaveholders aided my efforts. This seems like a paradox;
but, to the credit of humanity, be it said, that the bad are not always
bad. One kind-hearted slaveholder, an army officer, gave me free access
to his valuable library; and another slaveholder,