John Baptist Snowden, memoir
in reference to 1830-1860
"[Chapter VII, page 34]
The education of my children was a subject that gave me much thought and anxiety.
Living in a slave State, where free children of color did not have schools to attend, shut the door
which I most earnestly desired to have wide open to my children. This being the state of affairs
in my native State, as I have stated in another place, I was anxious to move to a free State where
I could educate my children.
But I am thankful to be able to say that all of my children, except my oldest daughter, did
have the privilege of attending school some, and all learned to read and write. My son John, the
oldest boy, attended school a few months in Carroll county. The rest I sent to Libertytown in
Frederick county during the winter months as I could make it convenient to send them. They all
made rapid progress while in school. My son Ignatius was going to school in Baltimore when he
was taken sick, and was home but a few days before his death. He had a good mind and I believe
he would have made a noble record had he lived long enough. One winter I employed a teacher
in my home to teach my children, as it was cheaper than sending them away. Anthony Herald, a
German boy, was the teacher thus employed.
Mr. John Bowman, who taught a white school near where I lived a few years before the
Rebellion, undertook to teach my boys at night, but was stopped by bad young white men, who
would slip and fasten the schoolhouse door on the outside and then stone the house. It was not an
easy matter to try to have my boys and girls to learn just a little in the State of Maryland in ante-
bellum days.
My son Thomas, after getting the taste of knowledge that I was able to give him, worked
his own way through college and through the Theological School of the Boston University. He is
now a minister of the Gospel. Two of my daughters, Mary and Jane, have ministers for husbands,
true and good men, who are trying to build up Christ’s kingdom."
Author
Name: John Baptist Snowden
Unit: N/A
Document Information
Type: Memoir
Subject(s):
- African American
Event Location: Westminster, Carroll Co., MD
Document Origin: N/A
Source
The Autobiography of Rev. John Baptist Snowden. Rev. Thomas Baptist Snowden, ed. (Huntington, WV, 1900)
Transcripts
document-157.pdf 
