In 1636, a Dutch minister Everadus Bogardus brought a teacher to Manhattan Island to teach Dutch and African children how to read and write so that could be effective members of Christianity. He was the first white settler to take an active interest in the education of both free and enslaved African American students (“The Black Past,” 2016). Others soon followed his example, and in 1695 the Anglican Reverend Samuel Thomas opened the first colonial school for African Americans. However, many slave owners refused to send their slaves to school because it was widely believed that Christians should not own other Christians, until of course the slaves began to convert to Christianity, so laws were passed to nullify the previous belief (“ The Black Past ”, 2016). Additionally, educating African Americans was unpopular because “…they [slave owners] feared that slaves would see themselves as equal to their masters, at least in the eyes of God” (Reiss, 1997, p. 222). South Carolina even went so far as to ban the education of slaves in 1740, but schools in other states continued to open to provide an education to African American children (“The Black Past,”