Avaricious: : greedy of gain : excessively acquisitive especially in seeking to hoard riches (Merriam-Webster)

In the first chapter, the preacher urged the students at Naxos not to become avaricious. He was basically telling them not to try to advance their social status in society. This in turn would keep them subservient to the whites. This relates to my annotation on the Jim Crow laws since the goal of the Jim Crow laws was to suppress the colored population