He went out ostensibly to play, keeping his books concealed under his arm, but spent six or eight hours each day in school until he could read well and had mastered the first principles of geography, grammar, and arithmetic.

At the age of ten he took regular lessons in writing under an old South Carolinian, J.C.Thomas, a rebel of the bitterest type.

Like Frederick Douglass, President Scarborough received much instruction from his white playmates.[1] [Footnote 1: Simmons, _Men of Mark_, p.

410.] Bishop Turner of Newberry Court House, in South Carolina, purchased a spelling book and secured the services of an old white lady and a white boy, who in violation of the State law taught him to spell as far as two syllables.[1] The white boy's brother stopped him from teaching this lad of color, pointing out that such an instructor was liable to arrest.

For some time he obtained help from an old colored gentleman, a prodigy in sounds.