Margaret Douglass
In 1845, after the death of her son, Margaret moved with her daughter Rosa to Norfolk, Virginia. Though very poor and without a husband to support her, she was also proud and independent.
In early 1852, she stopped at a Norfolk barbershop to discuss some business with the proprietor, who was a free black man. She noticed two small black boys sitting in the back of the shop studying spelling books. The barber said they were his children and that “there was no one who took interest enough in little colored children to keep a day school for them.”
Margaret immediately offered to teach the barber's five children how to read and write. Though a slave-owner herself and the daughter of slaveholders, she and her daughter Rosa taught the barber’s children to read and write at no charge.
A few months later, Margaret decided to open a school for free black children in her home for a fee of $1.00 per month. They received many applications and opened for business in June 1852 with 25 students.
In a back room upstairs, Margaret and Rosa taught the black children to read and write. Margaret knew that it was against the law to teach slaves, and so she was careful to accept only free black children.
On the morning of May 9, 1853, two city constables came to the Douglass home with an arrest warrant for Margaret and Rosa. The officers marched the teachers and 25 frightened children to the mayor's office, where Margaret and Rosa were charged with teaching colored children to read and to write.”
Margaret was appalled when the Mayor explained that teaching any black child to read and write was unlawful. She told the mayor that she had no idea that a child could not be taught to read simply because it was black.
The mayor dismissed the case on the grounds that she had been ignorant of the law, but the local grand jury heard about it and indicted them anyway:
“INDICTMENT COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA, NORFOLK COUNTY,
In the Circuit Court. The Grand Jurors empanelled and sworn to inquire of offences committed in the body of the said County on their oath present, that Margaret Douglass being an evil disposed person, not having the fear of God before her eyes, but moved and instigated by the devil, wickedly, maliciously, and feloniously, on the fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, at Norfolk, in said County, did teach a certain black girl named Kate to read in the Bible, to the great displeasure of Almighty God, to the pernicious example of others in like case offending, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
On November 2, 1853, Mrs. Douglass went to trial without counsel before Judge Richard Baker and a jury of twelve white men. Rosa had fled to New York City. Margaret refused the services of a lawyer and defended herself.
After letting the prosecution present its case without opposition, she rose and stated her case to the jury:
“I am a strong advocate for the religious and moral instruction of the whole human family! Let us look into the situation of our colored population in the city of Norfolk for they are not dumb brutes.
“Think you, gentlemen, that there is not misery and distress among these people? Yes, indeed, misery enough, and frequently starvation. Even those that are called free are heavily taxed and their privileges greatly limited.
“And when they are sick or in want on whom does the duty devolve to seek them and administer to their necessities? Does it fall on you, gentlemen? Oh, no, it is not expected that gentlemen will take the time to seek out a Negro hut for the purpose of alleviating the wretchedness he may find there. Why then prosecute your benevolent ladies for doing that which you yourselves have so long neglected?
“But, if otherwise, there are your laws: enforce them to the letter. You may send me, if you so decide, to that cold and gloomy prison. I can be as happy there as I am in my quiet little home: and, in the pursuit of knowledge, and with the resources of a well-stored mind, I shall be, gentlemen, a sufficient companion for myself.”
She called several witnesses to show that black children had been taught to read and write for years in the Sunday schools in the city, but the jury found Margaret Douglass guilty, but affixed her punishment as a fine of only one dollar.
But Judge Baker ordered the sheriff to place Mrs. Douglass in the prisoner's box, and he meted out her sentence:
“Margaret Douglass, stand up. You are guilty of one of the vilest crimes that ever disgraced society; and the jury have found you so. You have taught a slave girl to read in the Bible. No enlightened society can exist where such offences go unpunished. The Court, in your case, do not feel for you one solitary ray of sympathy, and they will inflict on you the utmost penalty of the law.
“In any other civilized country you would have paid the forfeit of your crime with your life, and the Court have only to regret that such is not the law in this country. The sentence for your offence is that you be imprisoned one month in the county jail, and that you pay the costs of this prosecution. Sheriff, remove the prisoner to jail.”
Margaret Douglass served her time without complaint, and when finished, she went home to her little house and her books.
During the Civil War, Norfolk fell to the Union in May, 1862. Northern generals closed the city's public schools to white children and opened them to blacks. At the close of the war, the city government regained control of the schools and returned them to the white community.
Margaret Douglass may have been alone in her effort, and she may have suffered defeat, but her example should be an inspiration to us today.
Copyright © 2007 Maggie MacLean
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