SLAVE NARRATIVES - Library of Congress

Besides being a teacher and minister my father was a carpenter and
expert cabinet worker.
The first school for Negroes In Little Hock was opened in 1863
and was taught by my father* I went to school to him* A few months
later there came from the north a company of missionary teachers
and opened a school which I attended until 1867* My father was a
minister of the Methodist Episcopal church for colored people on what
is now Eighth and Broadway. He also had a chapel on the property of
Mr. Ashley. You probably know that during slavery days the slaves
belonged to and attended the same church as their white foiks* They
sat in the back, or in a balcony built for them. Vty father was con-
sidered the founder of Wesley Chapel, which was Methodist Episcopal*
From that time until this day I have been a member of that church*
Seventy-three years, I think it is. Before the break came in the
Methodist church, you know, it was all the same, north and south*
After the division on account of slavery the Methodist church in the
south had the word *south" attached* For a long time my father did
not realize that. In 1863 he and his church went back into the orig-
inal Methodist church.
In 1867 the Society of Friends - we called them Quakers -
came and erected a large two-story schoolhouse at Sixth and State
streets. It was called Union school* When it was built it was
said by the Quakers that it was to be for the use of colored child-
ren forever, but within a year or two the city bought the property
and took charge of the school* As far as I can now recall, white
and colored children never did attend the same school in Little Rock.
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