Many picked it up here and there, some followed occupations which were in themselves enlightening, and others learned from slaves whose attainments were unknown to their masters.

Often influential white men taught Negroes not only the rudiments of education but almost anything they wanted to learn.

Not a few slaves were instructed by the white children whom they accompanied to school.
While attending ministers and officials whose work often lay open to their servants, many of the race learned by contact and observation.
Shrewd Negroes sometimes slipped stealthily into back streets, where they studied under a private teacher, or attended a school hidden from the zealous execution of the law.
The instances of Negroes struggling to obtain an education read like the beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age.

Sometimes Negroes of the type of Lott Carey[1] educated themselves.

James Redpath discovered in Savannah that in spite of the law great numbers of slaves had learned to read well.