Not all slaveholders, however, were thus induced to respect this new right claimed for the colored people.  Georgia and South Carolina were exceptional in that they were not sufficiently stirred by the revolutionary movement to have much compassion for this degraded class.  The attitude of the people of Georgia, however, was then more favorable than that of the South Carolinians.[1] Nevertheless, the Georgia planters near the frontier were not long in learning that the general enlightenment of the Negroes would endanger the institution of slavery.  Accordingly, in 1770, at the very time when radical reformers were clamoring for the rights of man, Georgia, following in the wake of South Carolina, reenacted its act of 1740 which imposed a penalty on any one who should teach or cause slaves to be taught or employ them “in any manner of writing whatever."[2] The penalty, however, was less than that imposed in South Carolina.[3] The same measure terminated the helpful mingling of slaves by providing for their dispersion when assembled for the old-time “love feast” emphasized so much among the rising Methodists of the South.

[Footnote 1:  The laws of Georgia were not so harsh as those of South Carolina.  A larger number of intelligent persons of color were found in the rural districts of Georgia.  Charleston, however, was exceptional in that its Negroes had unusual educational advantages.]

[Footnote 2:  Marbury and Crawford, Digest of the Laws of the State of Georgia, p. 438.]

[Footnote 3:  Brevard, Digest of the Public Statutes of South Carolina, vol. ii., p. 243.]

Those advocating the imposition of restraints upon Negroes acquiring knowledge were not, however, confined to South Carolina and Georgia where the malevolent happened to be in the majority.  The other States had not seen the last of the generation of those who doubted that education would fit the slaves for the exalted position of citizens.  The retrogressives made much of the assertion that adult slaves lately imported, were, on account of their attachment to heathen practices and idolatrous rites, loath to take over the Teutonic civilization, and would at best learn to speak the English language imperfectly only.[1] The reformers, who at times admitted this, maintained that the alleged difficulties encountered in teaching the crudest element of the slaves could not be adduced as an argument against the religious instruction of free Negroes and the education of the American born colored children.[2] This problem, however, was not a serious one in most Northern States, for the reason that the small number of slaves in that section obviated the necessity for much apprehension as to what kind of education the blacks should have, and whether they should be enlightened before or after emancipation.  Although the Northern people believed that the education of the race should be definitely planned, and had much to say about industrial education, most of them were of the opinion that ordinary training in the fundamentals of useful knowledge and in the principles of Christian religion, was sufficient to meet the needs of those designated for freedom.