Education is the key to knowledge and knowledge is the key to success; many have uttered a phase such as this for hundreds of years. The “New World’s” European men and women felt no different when it came to understanding this idea of education. As the slave institution flourished and the demand for free labor became expected, the restrictive role that the white man had over the slaves became more and more prominent. Whites knew that if a slave were to learn to read or write that the institution of slavery would be threatened and chaos would arise.
In the mid-1700s, the southern states began to take action to secure their restriction of slaves and passed laws that prohibited the teaching of reading or writing to slaves. A law in South Carolina was passed in 1740 stating, “Whereas, the having slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing, may be attended with great inconveniences; Be it enacted, that all and every person and persons whatsoever, who shall hereafter teach or cause any slave or slaves to be taught to write, or shall use or employ any slave as a scribe, in any manner of writing whatsoever, hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall, for every such offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds, current money.” It was laws such as this that further enforced the reality of the slave’s place in society.
Years later, another law was passed in regards to the restriction of the schooling of African Americans in a southern state. In 1819 Virginia passed a law stating, “That all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and associating with such slaves at any meeting-house or houses, etc., in the night; or at any school or schools for teaching them reading or writing, either in the day or night, under whatsoever pretext, shall be deemed and considered an unlawful assembly; and any justice of a county, etc., wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge or the information of others, of such unlawful assemblage, etc., may issue his warrant, directed to any sworn officer or officers, authorizing him or them to enter the house or houses where such unlawful assemblages, etc, may be, for the purpose of apprehending or dispersing such slaves, and to inflict corporal punishment on the offender or offenders, at the discretion of any justice of the peace, not exceeding twenty lashes.” This law is another example that continues to depict the fear of education, as well as the lack of trust in the institution of slavery amongst the governing authorities and the voting white men.
The South displayed a lack of innovation, industrialization, and urbanization influencing a lack of education as a whole. The southern region’s primary focus and lifestyle centered on the production of cotton, and therefore their labor force and industry were their top priorities. As Dr. McKinney quoted in class, “An educated slave is a wasted slave-hand.” This mentality embodied the southern regions and due to the fear of losing their stronghold over the institution of slavery and risking a downfall in their greatest enterprise, the southern legislature took action and passed governing laws that further restricted African American men and women. The white man knew that education would lead to success, and therefore their fear of education led to greater restraints in the institution of slavery and stronger bondage of the African American people.
I find it puzzling that white Americans experienced this fear of African American education even though there was the common conception that African Americans were at the bottom of the chain, childlike, and incapable of rational thought. This claim was used to justify the institution of slavery, yet now that the institution had become developed, white Americans started to contradict their own reasoning. How could an object lacking rational thought acquire an education? In their increasing worry over African American education, White Americans demonstrated that they could no longer deny the humanity of their commodities. Here we witness the tension white Southerners faced in knowing that their property were people.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to compare this fear of education to the Northern fear of industrialization in the South. The South was amid a period of extreme hyperspecialization, investing all energy into the production of cotton. This inevitably led to the neglect of innovative advancement. As the South fell behind on urbanization and industrialization, they also fell behind on knowledge. Compared to the progressive North, the Southerners were relatively uneducated themselves. Perhaps this contributed to their reluctance to expose African American slaves to education. Nevertheless, the Northern fear of industrialization in the South and the Southern fear of education of slaves provide an interesting parallel between racism and regionalism.
I think this fear from the white Americans about the educated blacks once again demonstrated the value of education and the power it can bring endlessly. Verbal conversation is important and can be damaging, but compares to written documents, written confrontations are silent yet it outweigh certainly any other forms of communication. Firstly, African Americans were closely monitored and controlled by the slaveholders from head to toe, so it was impossible for them to verbally speak, to protest. Secondly, verbal conversations are temporary, it can be easily altered. That means, listeners will only remember certain parts or even forget altogether. On the other hand, written confrontations contain endless power. It will never fade or age. It marks history. The commentaries that we have read, because they are written, we are then able to place ourselves, to really understand, the perspective from that individual, race, society, or even history.
ReplyDeleteIn the American South, no great demand for formal education existed. The agricultural lifestyle of this part of the United States resulted in lower literacy rates, even among whites. Since the whites in the American South had little to no need for education themselves, they were extremely wary of exposing slaves to it. Education could provide African Americans with organizing means and a method for sharing and recording their stories. If educated, blacks could articulate their suffering and could more easily exploit the racism they experienced and retaliate against it. Educated slaves may be able to outwit slave owners successfully and overthrow this entire way of life. Education was a route to freedom for blacks, and a possible attack on slavery by educated blacks could easily be connoted with an attack on the Southern way of life. Along with education, whites were also skeptical of exposing enslaved blacks to free blacks. Whites did not want to reveal to slaves the life they could live if they were able to escape the bondage of slavery. As Kyle stated, whites realized the power of education and feared the consequences of having educated slaves.
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