Regarding 18th-century schools for black children, I believe these were
so-called Bray schools, Anglican institutions designed to teach house slaves
of elite planters to read well enough to comprehend the Bible.  I don't
think these schools indicate any broad interest in teaching black children
to be literate.  I picked up this information from a tour guide at Colonial
W-burg who seemed to know her stuff (they ARE very well trained at CW); I
haven't studied it in depth myself.  As for the school in F-burg Anita Wills
refers to, I don't think GW himself was involved in it at all because I
didn't find any mention of it in his papers, but I defer to Anita, who has
done the F-burg research.

There is no evidence that GW or anyone in the white family at MV took an
interest in teaching slaves to read, though some MV slaves could read and
write.  At Monticello, some of TJ's grandchildren did teach slaves to read
and  write, according to oral histories.

Henry Wiencek

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