They added a female department in which Sarah Dwight[1] was teaching the girls spelling, reading, and sewing in 1784.

The work done in Philadelphia was so successful that the place became the rallying center for the Quakers throughout the country,[2] and was of so much concern to certain members of this sect in London that in 1787 they contributed five hundred pounds toward the support of this school.[3] In 1789 the Quakers organized "The Society for the Free Instruction of the Orderly Blacks and People of Color." Taking into consideration the "many disadvantages which many well-disposed blacks and people of color labored under from not being able to read, write, or cast accounts, which would qualify them to act for themselves or provide for their families," this society in connection with other organizations established evening schools for the education of adults of African blood.[4] It is evident then that with the exception of the school of the Abolition Society organized in 1774, and the efforts of a few other persons generally cooeperating like the anti-slavery leaders with the Quakers, practically all of the useful education of the colored people of this State was accomplished in their schools.
Philadelphia had seven colored schools in 1797.[5] [Footnote 1: _Ibid_., p.

251.] [Footnote 2: Quaker Pamphlet, p.

42.] [Footnote 3: Wickersham, _History of Ed.

in Pa_., p.