John Chavis John Chavis ( c . 1763 - June 15 , 1838 ) was a black educator and Presbyterian minister in the American South during the early 19th century . Early life . The exact date of Chavis ' s birth is not known . It is believed that he was born in either 1762 or 1763 . One source claims he was born on October 18 , 1763 , but with no evidence given . Information about Chavis ' s early life is scant as well , with few records to document it . It is believed that he may have been the ' John Chavis ' who was employed as an indentured servant by a Halifax lawyer named James Milner . A 1773 inventory of Milner ' s estate does list an " indentured servant named John Chavis . " Since Milner possessed a large library , it is likely that Chavis received some schooling during his period of service . Military service . Chavis served as a soldier during the American Revolutionary War . He enlisted in December 1778 and served in the 5th Virginia Regiment for three years . Captain Mayo Carrington of the regiment wrote in a bounty warrant dated March 1783 that Chavis had " faithfully fulfilled [ his duties ] and is thereby entitled to all immunities granted to three year soldiers . " A 1789 tax list of Mecklenburg County , Virginia , shows that he was listed as a free black man owning one horse . He had married a woman named Sarah Frances Anderson , and they had one son , Anderson Chavis . In 1789 , he was employed by Robert Greenwood ' s estate as tutor to Greenwood ' s orphans . Education . Chavis arrived at the Liberty Hall Academy in Lexington , Virginia in 1795 , one year prior to George Washington ' s gift of 100 shares of James River Company Stock . He was still a student when the institution changed its name to Washington Academy . ( Washington Academy would change its name a third time long after Chavis left the school , becoming Washington and Lee University . ) Prior to 1795 , Chavis had resided in New Jersey , where he had taken private classes under John Witherspoon in preparation for entering the Presbyterian ministry . In the recorded minutes of the meeting of the trustees of the College of New Jersey ( later to become Princeton University ) dated September 26 , 1792 , there is a recommendation by Reverend John Blair that " Mr . Todd Henry , a Virginian , and John Chavis , a free black man of that state , . . . be received " on the school ' s Leslie Fund . Chavis transferred to Liberty Hall Academy after Witherspoon ' s death in 1794 . Ministry . On November 19 , 1800 Chavis completed with high honors a rigorous theological examination that began on June 11 , 1800 . On this date , he was also granted a license to preach by the Presbytery of Lexington in Virginia . Six months later , with high character recommendations from the Presbytery of Lexington , Chavis was transferred to work under the Hanover Presbytery . In April 1802 , Chavis had applied for freedmen ' s papers and received them from Rockbridge County Court . It was recorded that " said [ John ] Chavis has been known to the Court for several years . . . and that he has always . . . been considered as a freeman , and they believe him to be such , and that he has always while in the county conducted himself in a decent orderly and respectable manner , and also that he has been a student at Washington Academy [ sic ] where they believe he whent [ sic ] through a regular course of academical [ sic ] studies . " Between 1801 and 1807 , Chavis served as a circuit riding missionary for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to slaves and free blacks in the states of Maryland , Virginia , and North Carolina . He also converted whites as well . Chavis came to Raleigh , North Carolina sometime between 1807 and 1809 , where he was licensed to preach the Christian Gospel by the Orange Presbytery . While he was not given a parish , he continued to preach to Black and White congregations in Granville , Orange , and Wake Counties . Some of the white congregations included slaveholders . Educator . In 1808 , Chavis opened a school in his home where he taught both white and black children . He placed ads in the Raleigh Register to encourage enrollment . At first he taught both races together , but after some white parents objected , he taught white children during the day and black children in the evenings . He charged white students $ 2 . 50 per quarter , and black students $ 1 . 75 per quarter . As an educator , Chavis taught full time and instructed his college bound white students in Latin and Greek , which were required study in the colleges and universities of that time . His school was described as one of the best in the state . Students from some of the most prominent white families in the South studied at Chavis ' school . His students includes Priestly H . Mangum , brother of Senator Willie P . Mangum ; Archibald E . Henderson and John L . Henderson , sons of Chief Justice Henderson ; Governor Charles Manly ; The Reverend William Harris ; Dr . James L . Wortham ; the Edwardses , Enlows ( Enloes ) , Hargroves , and Horners ; and Abraham Rencher , Minister of Portugal and Territorial Governor of New Mexico . Personal life . Chavis maintained a friendship with one of his white students , Senator Willie P . Mangum . For many years , they conducted a correspondence where Chavis often criticized the senator ' s political positions . Chavis , it seems , supported the abolition of slavery , had a great dislike for President Andrew Jackson and was opposed to the states ' rights advocacy of Mangum and his colleagues . According to some writers " In 1837 , Chavis published ' An Essay on the Atonement , ' though no copies are known to have survived . " The previous statement is erroneous because John Chavis ' s " Letter Upon the Doctrine of the Extent of the Atonement of Chris " t was found by Helen Chavis Othow , Ph . D who published " John Chavis : African American Patriot , Preacher , Teacher , and Mentor 1763 - 1838 " ( McFarland Publishers , 2001 ) at the library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . A copy of Chavis ' s sermon is included in the study with an Introduction by Dr . Othow . . Rev . Chavis had appealed to the Orange Presbytery to assist with the publication of his sermon , but they refused stating that it was a subject that had been adequately discussed and would be of no interest to the public . However , he went ahead and published his sermon in 1837 through J . Gales and Son in Raleigh , North Carolina . Although the subject of the Atonement of Christ had been written about by many theologians , no one had written on the subject with such clarity and enthusiasm as John Chavis had done . After Nat Turner , an educated slave and preacher in southern Virginia , led a bloody rebellion in 1831 that saw the murder of dozens of white men , women and children , slave - holding states quickly passed laws that forbade all blacks to preach . Although Chavis was forced to give up preaching and teaching school , the presbytery continued to pay Chavis $ 50 a year until his death to support him and his wife . The presbytery even continued payments to his wife after his death until 1842 . Chavis ' s wife told the presbytery that she would no longer need their contributions , because her family could take care of her and her children . Before his death , Rev . Chavis left the Orange Presbytery and joined the Roanoke Presbytery . Rev . Chavis did not perceive of money borrowed from his friends as charity but as an agreement between equals . Death . Chavis died in June 1838 in circumstances that remain unclear . According to his biographer , Helen Chavis Othow , the oral tradition suggests that Chavis was killed by whites who didn ' t want him educating blacks . Local legend says that Chavis was beaten to death in his home . In 1986 the John Chavis Historical Society was founded by Helen Chavis Othow . One of the goals of the society was to discover the gravesite of John Chavis . The first author who wrote a book length biography of John Chavis was Dr . George Clayton Shaw , Founder of Timothy Darling Presbyterian Church in Oxford , North Carolina in 1888 and Mary Potter Academy , the first high school for African Americans in 1889 . He published a book entitled " John Chavis " in 1931 . In the biography , Dr . Shaw stated that Rev . Chavis was buried on the land of Willie P . Mangum , Chavis ' s former student . After numerous searches for the gravesite , the old cemetery was discovered by members of the John Chavis Historical Society in 1988 . Dr . Othow located what is believed to be the gravesite and appealed to the state archaeologist to investigate the site but as of this date ( 2013 ) the appeal has been in vain . The Old Cemetery was added to the map of Hill Forest ( the former Mangum plantation ) by Michael Hill , historian of the North Carolina Archives . Legacy . Chavis is the subject of historical markers in both North Carolina and Virginia . Both Chavis Heights apartments and Chavis Park in Raleigh , North Carolina , are named after him , as are a residential house and board room at Washington and Lee University . Several schools are , as well . One of the lessons to be gained from John Chavis ' s " The Extent of the Atonement " is that Christ died to save all people , regardless of their race or creed , free or slave . He also states that all people have freedom of will . He believed that the previous discussions of the Atonement of Christ were manipulated due to prejudice . He makes the following famous statement , " Thus we have a demonstrative evidence of the fatal and dangerous effects of prejudice - that it blinds the mind and forbids free and open investigation after truth " . References . Helen Chavis Othow . John Chavis : African American Patriot , Preacher , Teacher , and Mentor 1763 - 1838 . ( McFarland Publishers , 2001 )