Women of distinction/Chapter 60
CHAPTER LX.
MRS. N. A. R. LESLIE.
Modest, zealous, aspiring and faithful to duty; economical and yet philanthropic; conservative and kind, are traits characteristic of this very devoted laborer in the cause of Afro-American education.
She was born in Amelia county, Va., and is the fourth daughter of Nannie and Charles P. Coles. She has taught school most of her life, beginning with the English primary branches, has gone upward from a mere teacher of moderate grade to the position of a founder and principal of a great enterprise in our educational work.
She labored for some time under appointment of the Freedman's Bureau at a time when it took nerve and will to teach among our people, for in those days opposition to negro education in the South was strong within our own ranks as well as without.
Nevertheless she began this work in 1865 and continued in the same as long as the government supported and continued the schools in the South under its supervision. For quite a while she was jointly employed and paid by the first public school board in New Orleans and the American Missionary Association at a salary of $70 from the former and $25 from the latter per month, making a salary of $95 per month. She was married to Rev. R. A. Leslie in 1874.
After teaching for some time in the State of Mississippi they moved to Indian Territory, the native home of her husband. They remained there awhile and then they returned to Mississippi, soon after which he died, April, 1884. She then returned to Indian Territory (after spending some time at the Boston Conservatory of Music).
She, now having developed herself along musical lines, has done much for her race in giving instructions in music.
The Texas Pioneer, June 15, 1886, said of her:
Mrs. N. A. Leslie, of Paris, Texas, is an educated and accomplished lady and a successful teacher of instrumental music.