If I recall correctly, there was also a school for mulatto and
African-American children which was established by a Quaker family at
Curles, Henrico Co.  Others were taught secretively- for example, a
Virginia woman was said to have been imprisoned prior to the Civil War
when she was caught teaching these children to read and write.(Some of
the children were said to be her kin as well.) 

Also re African-American surnames, some of the African Americans chose
surnames not only because of biological descent, but also adopted a name
of a master, even if they were not related, or after a national hero.
(For example, there were at least 800 African Americans during the Civil
War named George Washington.) See David H. Streets' book entitled "Slave
Genealogy: A Research Guide With Case Studies," Bowie, MD: Heritage
Books, 1986. This book explains the various ways families chose their
names and how to trace them.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Anita Wills
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 8:48 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "common-sense Jeffersonian conservative principles"

When I was researching in Fredericksburg I learned that Washington,
Fielding Lewis, and other prominent Businessmen, opened a school for
Mulatto children. The school was burned down by angry whites, and the
idea scrapped. I have not researched it, but imagine there is some
material floating around about the school and the incident. 

Anita 




-- Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
With the TJ/Hemings issue in full conflagration again, I would like to
roll back to Jurretta Heckscher's eloquent post on GW.  She wrote: "I
would argue that Washington . . .  must be presumed to have believed
almost inevitably in white racial superiority. That was, quite simply,
one of the bedrock foundations of the world that made and sustained
him--and if he broke extensively with that belief in his own mind, as I
at least would need to see demonstrated by an unambiguous
pronouncement."

He did break with that world by freeing his slaves and he did make a
"pronouncement" in his will, in which he not only freed his slaves but
specified that they be taught to read & write, be "brought up to some
useful occupation," and further ordered that no slave be transported out
of Virginia "under any pretence whatsoever."  This is my interpretation
of that
pronouncement: Washington believed that blacks had a right to freedom;
that formerly enslaved blacks were quite amenable to education and
training; furthermore, he clearly believed that they had a claim to
education and decent work; finally, he seems to have believed that with
education and training the freed children of slaves could immediately
take a fruitful and productive place in Virginia society as free people
because he emphatically specified that no one should be exiled.  I don't
think a racist of the 1790s variety would write such a will.

Henry Wiencek

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