Early Life and Education
In 1780 Lott Cary was born into slavery and humble surroundings in Charles City County, Virginia, on the estate of Mr. William A. Christian. It soon became apparent that he was exceptionally bright and energetic.
In 1804, his master John Bowry, a Methodist minister, hired Cary out as a young man in Richmond, about 25 miles away. He was hired out by the year at the Shockoe warehouse. In 1807 Cary joined the First Baptist Church of Richmond, originally a congregation of both whites and blacks, free and slave. He was baptised by its pastor, John Courtney. Beginning his education by learning to read the Bible, Cary later attended a small school for slaves. Its twenty young men were taught by Deacon William Crane. He had come from Newark, New Jersey in 1812, opened a shoe store and joined the First Baptist Church. Crane's students met three evenings each week to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, and the Bible.
As he became educated, Cary rose from working as a common laborer to become a shipping clerk in a tobacco warehouse along Tobacco Row. Because of his diligence and valuable work, Cary was often rewarded by his master with five-dollar bills from the money he earned. He was also permitted to collect and sell small bags of waste tobacco for his own profit.
Read more about this topic: Lott Cary
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
““Never hug and kiss your children! Mother love may make your children’s infancy unhappy and prevent them from pursuing a career or getting married!” That’s total hogwash, of course. But it shows on extreme example of what state-of-the-art “scientific” parenting was supposed to be in early twentieth-century America. After all, that was the heyday of efficiency experts, time-and-motion studies, and the like.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)
“True Shandeism, think what you will against it, opens the heart and lungs, and like all those affections which partake of its nature, it forces the blood and other vital fluids of the body to run freely thro’ its channels, and makes the wheel of life run long and chearfully round.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“I say that male and female are cast in the same mold; except for education and habits, the difference is not great.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)