to
machinists and artisans until they learned a trade.

[Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, 1794, p. 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._, 1795, p. 29; _ibid._, 1797, pp. 12, 13, and 31.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid._, 1797, p. 31.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, 1818, p. 9.]

Two early efforts to carry out this policy are worthy of notice here.
These were the endeavors of Anthony Benezet and Thaddeus Kosciuszko.
Benezet was typical of those men, who, having the courage of their
conviction, not only taught colored people, but gladly appropriated
property to their education. Benezet died in 1784, leaving
considerable wealth to be devoted to the purpose of educating Indians
and Negroes. His will provided that as the estate on the death of
his wife would not be sufficient entirely to support a school, the
Overseers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia should join with a
committee appointed by the Society of Friends, and other benevolent
persons, in the care and maintenance of an institution such as he
had planned. Finally in 1787 the efforts of Benezet reached their
culmination in the construction of a schoolhouse, with additional
funds obtained from David Barclay of London and Thomas Sidney, a
colored man of Philadelphia. The pupils of this school were to study
reading, writing, arithmetic, plain accounts, and sewing.[1]

[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 375.]

With respect to conceding the Negroes' claim to a better education,
Thaddeus Kosciuszko, the Polish general, was not unlike Benezet. None
of the revolutionary leaders were more moved with compassion for the
colored people than this warrior. He saw in education the powerful
leverage which would place them in position to enjoy the newly won
rights of man. While assisting us in gaining our independence,
Kosciuszko acquired here valuable property which he endeavored to
devote to the enlightenment of the slaves. He authorized Thomas
Jefferson, his executor, to employ the whole thereof in purchasing
Negroes and liberating them in the name of Kosciuszko, "in giving them
an education in trades or otherwise, and in having them instructed for
their new condition in the duties of morality." The instructors were
to provide for them such training as would make them "good neighbors,
good mothers or fathers, good husbands or wives, teaching them the
duties of citizenship, teaching them to be defenders of their liberty
and country, and of the good