"Slavery and Illiteracy"
State legislation of nineteenth century America was far from uniform, as American government was taking some of its earliest steps toward organization. This lack of unanimity, however, was applied only to the specifics of legislation in most cases, as the framework of each state?s government seemed to reflect that of its neighbor. In the south, especially, generalities were highly prevalent And one such generality was that of a legislation that protected and supported the institution of slavery. Many states, for example, had harsh laws concerning runaway slaves, known in most regions as the Fugitive Slave Law. Some variations of this law were more abrasive than others, as in the case with one of the earliest Fugitive Slave Laws in Virginia, which in 1642 authorized the branding of the letter ?R? on the face of runaway slaves. (www.edcen.edu)Another widely accepted regulation, and means of maintaining slavery, was the ?one drop rule? which categorized any person as African-American who has even one drop of African-American blood in his/her family tree. This was a very powerful tool in exploiting more and more slaves. As explained at www.Africana.com, ?Race-based slavery was basically an economic system. It was in the syst
In the preface to The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Philip S. Without the abilities to read and write and with all the dehumanizing practices of slavery abound, slaves could not achieve their own identities, let alone organize together against the patronage of such inhumanity. comState Laws Related to Speech/Alabama Slavery Codeshttp://www. Another important facet of the inhumane legislation that forbade reading and writing by slaves was the restriction of white persons to aide slaves in any form of education. As exemplified in the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, the collective oppression of blacks minds? by way of depriving them literacy was the most central element in the perpetuation of slavery. When all they knew was degradation, slaves were actually led to view themselves with less worth than whites. This enrages her husband/Douglass?s master, Hugh Auld and he orders her to discontinue any such tutoring, saying ??A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master?to do as he is told to do. One of the foremost uses of the laws prohibiting literacy was to help further the stereotypes of the mid nineteenth century. It was then vital to the institution of slavery to keep the entire black race uneducated, because it would pose all too much of a risk for any black person to be able to organize against slavery. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. ? This specific declaration demonstrates not only the oppression of the minds of slaves, but of free blacks as well. Foner explains the ?Negro Convention Movement,? or the broadening education of blacks as ?inevitable that this development would lead to a realization among the Negro people that their ultimate victory lay in an integrated program representing a national viewpoint. Hearing his master?s justification for repressing the black mind led Douglass to realize the importance of literacy as the gateway to freedom. Through decades of cruelty, the spirit of the African American mind was almost entirely broken to fit a mold of the least resistance.
Common topics in this essay:
Frederick Douglass,
Slavery Code,
Hugh Auld,
Box Brown,
African American,
Laws Virginia,
II Section,
Convention Movement,
,
Aulds Auld,
frederick douglass,
institution slavery,
read write,
reading writing,
maintaining slavery,
writing slaves,
reading writing slaves,
educated whites,
slave unmanageable value,
slave narrative,
fugitive slave,
unmanageable value master,
life frederick,
forever unfit slave,
kentucky vol ii,
|
Acceptance Essays
