17.] [Footnote 3: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1809, p.
20.] [Footnote 4: _Ibid_., 1816, p.

20.] [Footnote 5: _Ibid_., 1821, p.

18.] In Pennsylvania the interest of the large Quaker element caused the question of educating Negroes to be a matter of more concern to that colony than it was to the others.

Thanks to the arduous labors of the antislavery movement, emancipation was provided for in 1780.
The Quakers were then especially anxious to see masters give their "weighty and solid attention" to qualifying slaves for the liberty intended.

By the favorable legislation of the State the poor were by 1780 allowed the chance to secure the rudiments of education.[1] Despite this favorable appearance of things, however, friends of the despised race had to keep up the agitation for such a construction of the law as would secure to the Negroes of the State the educational benefits extended to the indigent.