John Chavis served as a soldier during the American Revolutionary War.
20 Facts About John Chavis
1.
2.
John Chavis had married a woman named Sarah Frances Anderson, and they had one son, Anderson Chavis.
3.
On November 19,1800, John Chavis completed with high honors a rigorous theological examination that began on June 11,1800, in Virginia.
4.
Six months later, with high character recommendations from the Presbytery of Lexington, John Chavis was transferred to work under the Hanover Presbytery.
5.
Between 1801 and 1807, John 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.
6.
John Chavis went to Raleigh, North Carolina sometime between 1807 and 1809, where he was licensed to preach the Christian gospel by the Orange Presbytery.
7.
In 1808, John Chavis opened a school in his home, where he taught both white and Black children.
8.
John Chavis placed ads in the Raleigh Register to encourage enrollment.
9.
John Chavis charged white students $2.50 per quarter, and Black students $1.75 per quarter.
10.
John Chavis's school was described as one of the best in the state.
11.
John Chavis's students included 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, Hargroves, and Horners; and Abraham Rencher, Minister of Portugal and Territorial Governor of New Mexico.
12.
For many years, they conducted a correspondence where John Chavis often criticized the senator's political positions.
13.
John Chavis did not publicly support abolition, and publicly condemned Nat Turner's slave rebellion, positions he likely took out of concern for his own safety and to maintain his status as a freeman and position as an educator as southerners expelled free Blacks and violently suppressed Turner's rebellion.
14.
John Chavis found the letter in the library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
15.
Rev John 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.
16.
At that time, John Chavis's widow told the presbytery that her family could take care of her and her children.
17.
John Chavis died in June 1838 in circumstances that remain unclear.
18.
Local legend says that John Chavis was beaten to death in his home.
19.
Dr George Clayton Shaw wrote the first biography about John Chavis, published in 1931.
20.
John Chavis wrote that Chavis was buried at Walnut Hall, the plantation of Senator Willie Person Mangum, Chavis' former student.