Educational laws of Virginia

DAGUERREOTYPED BY ROOT.—ENGRAVED BY SARTAIN. Margaret Douglass
THE PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF Mrs. Margaret Douglass, A SOUTHERN WOMAN, WHO WAS IMPRISONED FOR ONE MONTH IN THE COMMON JAIL OF NORFOLK, UNDER THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA, FOR THE CRIME OF TEACHING FREE COLORED CHILDREN TO READ.
“Search the Scriptures!” “How can one read unless he be taught?” Holy Bible.
BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT & CO. CLEVELAND, OHIO: JEWETT, PROCTOR & WORTHINGTON.
1854.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by MARGARET DOUGLASS, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
I am perfectly aware that the public cannot be interested in my personal history previous to the occurrences which this narrative is designed to lay before them, nor am I vain enough to suppose that there would be any thing in it worth relating. It will, however, be seen necessary that I should state who and what I was, and under what circumstances I found myself suddenly placed, by the authorities of the city of Norfolk, in a position of such unenviable notoriety. This position was not one of my own seeking, nor was I the agent or representative of any association. I was not a “Northern emissary,” engaged in undermining the institutions of the South, and recklessly defying her laws, but only a weak and helpless woman, endeavoring to do what I deemed my duty to God and to humanity. In order to relate the circumstances as they occurred, so that they may be fully understood, my narrative must necessarily assume a personal character, for it was I, and I alone, who was contending for a heaven-born principle against not only the authorities of Norfolk, but against the united strength of the whole State of Virginia. The entire population of the commonwealth that claims to be the first and noblest in the land were the plaintiffs in this case, I, alone, the defendant. My story therefore must not be called egotistical.