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| | Acts against the
education of slaves South Carolina, 1740
and Virginia, 1819
Cited
in William Goodell. THE AMERICAN SLAVE CODE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE.
pt 2. (New York: American & Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, 1853).
DINSMORE DOCUMENTATION, CLASSICS ON AMERICAN SLAVERY.
http://www.dinsdoc.com/goodell-1-2-6.htm
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Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the
slave system -- which relied on slaves' dependence on masters -- whites
in many colonies instituted laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or
write and making it a crime for others to teach them.
Excerpt from South Carolina Act of 1740
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.
Excerpt from Virginia Revised Code of 1819
That all meetings or assemblages of slaves, or free negroes or mulattoes mixing and
associating with such slaves at any meeting-house or houses, &c., 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, &c.,
wherein such assemblage shall be, either from his own knowledge or the
information of others, of such unlawful assemblage, &c., 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, &c.,
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.
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