[Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1797,
address.]

[Footnote 3: The constitution of almost any antislavery society of
that time provided for this work. See _Proc. of Am. Conv._, etc.,
1795, address.]

[Footnote 4: _Proceedings of the American Convention of Abolition
Societies_, 1794, p. 21; and 1795, p. 17; and _Rise and Progress of
the Testimony of Friends_, etc., p. 27.]

This work was organized by the abolitionists but was generally
maintained by members of the various sects which did more for
the enlightenment of the people of color through the antislavery
organizations than through their own.[1] The support of the clergy,
however, did not mean that the education of the Negroes would continue
incidental to the teaching of religion. The blacks were to be accepted
as brethren and trained to be useful citizens. For better education
the colored people could then look to the more liberal sects, the
Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians, who prior to
the Revolution had been restrained by intolerance from extensive
proselyting. Upon the attainment of religious liberty they were free
to win over the slaveholders who came into the Methodist and Baptist
churches in large numbers, bringing their slaves with them.[2] The
freedom of these "regenerated" churches made possible the rise of
Negro exhorters and preachers, who to exercise their gifts managed in
some way to learn to read and write. Schools for the training of such
leaders were not to be found, but to encourage ambitious blacks to
qualify themselves white ministers often employed such candidates
as attendants, allowing them time to observe, to study, and even to