Black People Don’t Read

Welcome to Series 1, Blog Post 3 (BP3).

In light of recent events and the tragic death of George Floyd by the hands of a police officer (on 25.05.2020), triggering a world wide response, I wanted to write to you about an area that is extremely fundamental. A basic human right which was withheld and in many US states illegal.

I want to talk to you about the extreme efforts made to ensure that black slaves were kept illiterate. To understand this area further I did some reading to gather information of my own.

Did you know that black slaves who were
caught reading or writing were severely punished? It was at an extremely great risk to be found reading or writing any material. However, against the harsh chastisement, people were determined as they knew it was freedom.

The slave masters feared that travel passes could be forged if their slaves were able to read and write. Passes signed by the master were a requirement in order to travel from one place to another. There was also the idea that if slaves were literate, they could have rebelled against their masters and arranged mass escapes, as they communicated via passing hand written messages.

The oppression was extremely tormenting to say the least, that many tried to escape the plantations they were sold to. If you ran you were known as a ‘run away slave’ and if caught you were as good as dead. The people knew that they needed to unite and if they attempted to run, they had a greater chance of survival. In 1831, following a great slave uprising led by Nat Turner, who was caught and hanged, laws were passed in the US making it illegal for the teaching or schooling of slaves.

The Alabama Slave Code of 1833 included the following law “[S31] Any person who shall attempt to teach any free person of color, or slave, to spell, read or write, shall upon conviction thereof by indictment, be fined in a sum of not less than two
hundred fifty dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars.”

I found this extreme but came to understand the severity of punishment if caught reading or writing.

Here is an account from James Fisher of Nashville, Tennessee, who shares his story in 1843: “I . . . thought it wise to learn to write, in case opportunity should offer to write myself a pass. I copied every scrap of writing I could find, and thus learned to write a tolerable hand before I knew what the words were that I was copying. ….One day, my mistress happened to come into my room, when my materials were about; and she told her father (old Capt. Davis) that I was learning to write. He replied, that if I belonged to him, he would cut my right hand off.”

By 1860, less than 8% of Black people from Boston, Massachusetts were illiterate, while only an estimated 5% of the overall African-American population could read.

Despite these conditions, free and enslaved blacks fought for their rights and eagerly continued in the struggle of desiring to be educated. In 1833, the Emancipation Act was passed freeing all black slaves within the British Empire and some 30 years later in 1863, this law came into affect in the USA.

The dreadful grip of slavery was at long last loosened, leaving generations of black people mentally enslaved. It wasn’t as easy as hitting a reset button.

– I will give you a minute to digest all the above – It makes me feel really sorrowful and equally angry, to know that something many take for granted, education, was made illegal because of the colour of your skin.

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Listen.

Our ancestors fought to have an education. They knew the value of understanding words and the worth of ink to paper. Many were dreadfully punished just because they wanted to or could read while others had their hands or fingers amputated if caught. If their owners wanted to kill them, they didn’t hesitate. You were a criminal if caught and sentenced accordingly. I can’t begin to image what that must of been like. 😔

Do not underestimate the power of knowledge. The freedom you have in exploring and researching. The power in simply knowing. No longer do you need to secretly hide in shadows and read in fear of being caught neither do you need to pretend that you are illiterate when you are actually educated, to save you from punishment.

We can not be ignorant of the past struggles that our ancestors endured and died for, which later became our victory.

Let’s keep it 💯. You have every resource available to you. From libraries, educational establishments, to online learning facilities. We live in an era that right from your hand held device, you can become a PHD holder! Do not despise education or think that you do not need to learn any further. The systems of the world are always evolving and upgrading and in order to stay relevant and be valuable to society, we must upgrade too.

Do not keep yourself enslaved through the lack of knowledge but understand that complete freedom is the ability to transcend past discrimination and racism to a place where you are so rich in what you know, confident in who you are, sealed with the power in the word of God that nothing can keep you in chains.

“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery” – Bob Marley

#Educationmatters

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog post. Please feel free to scroll down and leave your comments & hit the ⭐️ tap. Thank you for reading, see you in the next one!

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Season 1, BP 3 | Black People Don’t Read | Let’s keep it 💯

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Sources:

Kimberly Sambol-Tosco, The Slave Experience: Education, Arts & Culture, [online], https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Literacy-as-Freedom.pdf

SAAM Smithsonian American Art Museum, Literary as Freedom, [online] https://americanexperience.si.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Literacy-as-Freedom.pdf

Harriet Jacobs and Elizabeth Keckly: The Material and Emotional Realities of Childhood in Slavery, The Value of Literacy to the Enslaved, [online] https://edsitement.neh.gov/sites/default/files/2018-07/value-of-literacy-slaves.pdf