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Legal Summons Signed by John Chavis (WLU Coll. 0572), Special Collections and Archives, James G. Leyburn Library, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.
Purchased in May 2026.
John Chavis was a free black man born in circa 1763. He is considered the first African American to attend college. His studies began at what is today Princeton University and finished at what is today Washington and Lee University. He returned to North Carolina to teach.
This collection consists of a legal summons issued to the Sheriff of Warren County, NC by the Clerk of Court ordering him to hold William P. and John A. Newell if found in the county and take them before the Justices of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions. The document is signed twice by John Chavis and is dated April 21, 1828.