The Pixie Light: From Slavery to freedom

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John Chavis came from a mixed-race community where free people of color prized education and self-reliance — and produced many great leaders in the long struggle for liberation.

After the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, whites in Virginia and the Carolinas responded with mob violence, executions, and laws that shut down schools such as the Chavis academy.

Born free in Wilmington, NC, David Walker settled in Boston, founded businesses, aided runaway slaves, and wrote the influential Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World in 1829.