An enslaved boy was barred from school yet educated privately in his enslaver’s household.

Evidence

When John Marshall Harlan was born in 1833, Robert would have been seventeen. Robert developed into “a strapping young man with a golden smile” and “confidently sallied forth into the world around Harlan’s Station.” Even though Robert was technically enslaved, James had a soft spot for him and “gave him a position of trust within the family.” John likely grew up hearing stories about or witnessing the challenges his half brother faced. For instance, when James enrolled Robert in school, he was later sent home because the school discovered he was part black. Thereafter Robert was educated by the older Harlan sons. — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 394

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Teaching an enslaved person to read was criminalized while trading them was not — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 888
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Teaching an enslaved person to read was criminalized while trading them was not — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 888