John Chavis

Lexington County · dedicated 2006 · In front of Evans Dining Hall, Washington and Lee University

John Chavis (1763–1838), a free-born African-American veteran of the American Revolution was a native of Granville County, North Carolina. He was also one of the first college-educated men of color in the United States. Chavis studied at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1792 and attended Liberty Hall Academy (present-day Washington and Lee University) by 1796. The Lexington Presbytery licensed him to preach in 1800. Chavis returned to North Carolina where he taught free blacks in the evenings and white students by day. One of the latter was Willie P. Mangum who became a U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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John Chavis

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