Address: Charleston, SC, USA
Born in 1811 to free black parents, Daniel Alexander Payne would become a Bishop in the AME Church, President of Wilberforce University, abolitionist, educator, and historian. After early schooling, Payne went to work at age 12 with a shoe-merchant, as a carpenter at 13, and then a tailor, finally entering the teaching profession and opening a school for black children in 1829, at age 19. In 1835, South Carolina passed bill 2639: An Act to Amend the Law relating to Slaves and Free Persons of Color, which forced him to close his school.