![]() After Civil War, Schools Spring UpĪntislavery ideas had already spread, largely through the written word. Barring Black Americans from reading and writing wasn’t a practical strategy for anyone.Īnd it was too late. Many enslaved people did “sophisticated work, including management of operations,” which required literacy, explains Rugemer. And numerous enslavers may have supported this. In 1833, an Alabama law asserted that “any person or persons who shall attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read, or write, shall upon conviction thereof of indictment be fined in a sum not less than two hundred and fifty dollars.” (The fine would be the equivalent of about $7,600 in today’s dollars.)ĭespite the consequences, many enslaved people continued to learn to read. Other southern states passed similarly strict anti-literacy laws around this time. New codes also outlawed teaching enslaved people. In April 1831, Virginia declared that any meetings to teach free African Americans to read or write was illegal. States fighting to hold on to slavery began tightening literacy laws in the early 1830s. ![]() “That gets disproven when African Americans were educated, and undermines the logic of the system.” Literacy Threatens Justification of Slaveryīlack Americans’ literacy also threatened a major justification of slavery-that Black people were “less than human, permanently illiterate and dumb,” Lusane says. Although it was edited by Garrison, who was described as a “radical” white abolitionist, Rugemer argues it was largely seen as a “Black newspaper,” since most of its readers were African Americans, along with a “few radical whites who believed in antislavery and antiracism.” Southern enslavers saw this paper as another example of outside agitation spread through the written word. ![]() If written “abolitionist agitation was shaping the nature of slave resistance” in the islands, American enslavers believed that it could influence enslaved populations stateside.Īdding to such fears was William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist paper, The Liberator, which began publishing on January 1, 1831. However, there’s “a lot of evidence that abolitionist writings directly influenced” Caribbean uprisings around this time, he notes. There’s no proof that Turner, himself, read the Appeal and was inspired by it, according to Edward Rugemer, history professor at Yale University. Nat Turner's bible on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., 2017. Black sailors brought Walker’s text, surreptitiously sewn into the seams of clothes, to the South. From 1829-1830, he distributed the Appeal, a pamphlet calling for uprisings to end slavery. One of the most threatening abolitionists of the time was Black New Englander David Walker. ![]() “Anti-literacy laws were written in response to the rise of abolitionism in the north,” says Breen. Abolitionists Agitate Through Written WordĪfrican American literacy wasn’t just problematic to enslavers because of the potential for illuminating Biblical readings. His ability to read the Bible allowed him to find stories of divine support for fights against injustice, explains Sarah Roth, professor of history at Meredith College and creator of The Nat Turner Project.Įnslavers and their clergy controlled the Biblical narrative among illiterate enslaved people, but educated Black Americans, like Turner, saw past this “sanitized” version, which didn’t call slavery into question. Turner was a passionate preacher guided by spiritual visions. The 1831 revolt confirmed this view, which had been gaining steam for years. As Clarence Lusane, a professor of political science at Howard University notes, there was a growing belief that “an educated enslaved person was a dangerous person.” For many enslavers, even this rate was too high. ![]() Ultimately, however, Virginia and other southern states opted to keep slavery in place and tighten control of African Americans’ lives, including their literacy. In the antebellum South, it's estimated that only 10 percent of enslaved people were literate. Nat Turner (1800-1831) accosted in the forest by a man hunting for Black people seeking freedom. ![]()
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