John Chavis (c. 1763–June 15, 1838[1]) was a free Black educator and Presbyterian minister in the American South during the early 19th century.

Later, while working in Raleigh, North Carolina, he established a private school that was highly regarded and attended by both white and Black students (although on differing schedules).

It is believed that he may have been the 'John Chavis' who was employed as an indentured servant by a Halifax, Virginia lawyer named James Milner.

Captain Mayo Carrington of the regiment wrote in a bounty warrant dated March 1783 that Chavis had "faithfully fulfilled [his duties] and is thereby entitled to all immunities granted to three year soldiers."

In the 1790s, Chavis lived in Princeton, New Jersey, where he took private classes under John Witherspoon to prepare for entering the Presbyterian ministry.

The recorded minutes of the meeting of the trustees of the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University) dated September 26, 1792, includes a recommendation by Reverend John Blair that "Mr. Todd Henry, a Virginian, and John Chavis, a free Black man of that state, ... be received" on the school's Leslie Fund.

On November 19, 1800, Chavis completed with high honors a rigorous theological examination that began on June 11, 1800, in Virginia.

"[3] Between 1801 and 1807, Chavis served as a circuit-riding missionary for the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church to slaves and free Blacks in the states of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina.

[4] Although not called by a parish, he continued to preach to Black and White congregations in Granville, Orange, and Wake counties.

Chavis maintained a long friendship with one of his white students, Willie P. Mangum, who was elected as a US Senator from North Carolina.

Chavis reportedly privately supported the abolition of slavery, greatly disliked President Andrew Jackson, and opposed Mangum's advocacy of states' rights.

[citation needed] Chavis did not publicly support abolition, and publicly condemned Nat Turner's slave rebellion [citation needed], positions he likely took out of concern for his own safety and to maintain his status as a freeman and position as an educator as southerners expelled free Blacks and violently suppressed Turner's rebellion.

After Turner's 1831 rebellion resulted in the murder of dozens of white men, women and children, slave-holding states quickly passed laws that forbade all Blacks to preach.

Chavis is the subject of historical markers in both North Carolina and Virginia Archived 2012-04-21 at the Wayback Machine.