I knew from oral history and the 1870 census that my great-great-great-grandfather Henry W. McNeely was a teacher during Reconstruction. Born in 1841 to John W. McNeely, a white slaveowner, and Lucinda McNeely, the woman he enslaved, Henry presumably learned to read and write during slavery.

The document above is extracted from “List of School Teachers & School-buildings North Carolina” compiled by a Freedmen’s Bureau official. Miranda was a community on present-day Millbridge Road in Rowan County, southwest of Salisbury and just a few miles northwest of China Grove. Henry’s home was closer to Mount Ulla, a few miles northwest of Miranda. Another document in this dataset notes that H.W. McNeely taught 138 students in one building under the patronage of the Friends Freedmen’s Association.

Roll 028, Monthly and Other School Reports North Carolina July 1868-Dec 1870, Records of the Education Division, Headquarters Records, U.S. Freedmen’s Bureau Records 1865-1878, http://www.ancestry.com.