He accepted a position teaching mathematics at the Clarksville school of John D. Tyler.

He chose the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he graduated second in his class in June 1857.

He was opposed to the secession attitudes of his fellow southerners, and he searched for ways to improve the situation of his slaves as well as his farm.

During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he knew that if slaves were able to survive emancipation, they must be trained in business.

This innovative law dared to make education available to rich and poor alike.