The address of the American Convention of Abolition Societies in 1819 is typical of these appeals.[1] They requested free persons of color to endeavor as much as possible to use economy in their expenses, to save something from their earnings for the education of their children ...

and "let all those who by attending to this admonition have acquired means, send their children to school as soon as they are old enough, where their morals will be an object of attention as well as their improvement in school learning." Then followed some advice which would now seem strange.
They said, "Encourage, also, those among you who are qualified as teachers of schools, and when you are able to pay, never send your children to free schools; for this may be considered as robbing the poor of their opportunities which are intended for them alone."[2] [Footnote 1: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1819, p.
21.] [Footnote 2: _Proceedings of the American Convention_, etc., 1819, p.
22.] The concentration of the colored population in cities and towns where they had better educational advantages tended to make colored city schools self-supporting.

There developed a class of self-educating Negroes who were able to provide for their own enlightenment.

This condition, however, did not obtain throughout the South.

Being a proslavery farming section of few large towns and cities, that part of the country did not see much development of the self-sufficient class.
What enlightenment most urban blacks of the South experienced resulted mainly from private teaching and religious instruction.