Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson

by S.C. Gwynne

Still, not all Lexington residents liked the idea of the school, not least because state law in Virginia prohibited whites from teaching blacks to read and write. On May 1, 1858, Jackson happened to encounter three lawyers he knew on the street in front of the county courthouse. One of them, Colonel S. M. Reid, clerk of the courts, said to him, “Major, I have examined the statute and conferred with the commonwealth’s attorney. Your Sunday school is an ‘unlawful assembly.’ ” The other two lawyers expressed agreement with Reid, and one of them, J. D. Davidson, said, further, that “probably the grand jury will take it up and test it.” Jackson, normally the most civil of men, responded angrily, “Sir, if you were, as you should be, a Christian man, you would not think it or say so.” Jackson then turned on his heel and strode away. Though Jackson went to Davidson’s office later to apologize, the larger point was made: he would fight any interference with his school.19 The school, in fact, continued in operation for thirty years.20