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Teaching slaves to read became increasingly illegal in the antebellum South. Nevertheless, a small number of slaves achieved literacy through the efforts of courageous whites and even that of some slaves themselves.

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Transcript

Lead: Teaching slaves to read became increasingly illegal in the antebellum South. Nevertheless, a small number of slaves achieved literacy through the efforts of courageous whites and even that of some slaves themselves.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: In the colonial and antebellum South there were few efforts to teach Africans to read. In fact, by the early nineteenth century, across the South, whites passed and strengthened anti-literacy laws. Some states even frowned upon the education of free blacks. Much of this sentiment grew out of fear following several high profile slave revolts, such as those led by Gabriel Prosser in Virginia in 1800, Denmark Vessey in Charleston in 1822, and Nat Turner in Southeast Virginia in 1831.

Slave owners feared that educated slaves would become demanding and insubordinate, or run away, or even organize slave sedition. A law passed in Georgia in 1829 reads that if “a white teaches a free negro or slave to read or write, he is fined 500 dollars, and imprisoned at the discretion of the court; if the offender be a colored man, bond or free, he is to be fined or whipped . . . ”

There was a small minority of southern whites, however, who were emphatically defiant in the face of legal restrictions on black literacy so that slaves could benefit from moral and religious instruction, read the Bible, and receive salvation. Therefore, it is estimated that approximately 5% of slaves across the south were literate in the years leading up to the Civil War. Frederick Douglass was taught fundamental reading skills by his mistress, Sophia Auld, until her husband forbade her to teach young Frederick, but Douglass continued to learn reading and writing skills by teaching himself. One of the themes of his life’s narrative was that knowledge was “the pathway from slavery to freedom.”

During the spiritual explosion of the mid-1700s known as the Great Awakening, in the Virginia heartland counties of Hanover and Louisa, a Presbyterian minister, Samuel Davies, was one of those who defied attempts at tight literacy control and led a campaign to teach Virginia blacks to read.

Next Time: Sam Davies and the campaign for slave literacy.

Research by Ann Johnson, at the University of Richmond, this is Dan Roberts.

Virginia Standards