A three-man committee appointed by the superintendent of the Robeson County schools questions a clause in "common School Law" that "obliges free persons of colour to contribute to this Fund, without the privilege of sending their children to the schools, or in any way whatever, reaping any benefit therefrom." They therefore "pray that the Law shall be modified so as to release the colored population from taxation for educational purposes." Two members of said committee, Absalom Davis and Archibald Smith, suggest that the law be modified to include free persons of color. Purporting that free blacks are "poor, ignorant, and vicious, & Consequently troublesome to their immediate neighbours, and burdensome to the Citizens generally," they maintain that if free blacks "were better instructed would not these evils measurably subside and their condition be greatly bettered?" The third petitioner, Thomas Norment, states that he is opposed to taking "any further steps to educate the Free people of Color."
Result: Exemption from taxes "agreed to".
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Repository: North Carolina Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, North Carolina
