How Literacy Encouraged Slavery Post American Revolution Rebellion

When the American Constitution was confirmed through votes in 1789, massive efforts were applied to sustain slave illiteracy and restrict slave mobility. The white masters, were, however, becoming uncomfortable as the slaves were increasingly displaying discontentment. To ensure that their slaves did not see the light and rise, the slaveholders hijacked the two factors that they realized were their biggest threat: writing and reading. The slaveholders realized that the numerous slave gatherings and their thirst for literacy could topple the balance and turn against them. Their biggest worry rose from the fact that a learned slave would be free from the ignorance they imposed on them and would no longer bow to slavery.

The leaders of famous slave rebellions such as Nat Turner, Gabriel Prosser, and Toussaint L’Ouverture showed a similar pattern that seemed to worry the white masters; they were all literate slaves. The ensuing worries were, ‘what if the slaves understood that they were not meant to be enslaved?’ ‘Would a learned slave extend his or her knowledge to the other slaves?’ and ‘Would the slaves, once literate, seek revenge against their oppressors?’

The above-mentioned people were the souls that did not fear branding, whipping or certain death as they sought literacy. They needed to read and write at all costs. However, freedom was far from over owing to the existence of oppressive laws such as the Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850. This Act gave the slave masters the right to reclaim their property in which case the slaves were termed as “property.” These acted as barriers because most of the slaves’ attempts to escape always failed.

The enslaved people chose to run away from their plight especially when faced with poor working conditions, new owners, division of family or punishment. Newspapers published advertisements for slave runaways as a strategy by white masters to repossess escaped slaves. There were also advertisements aimed at sensitizing the slaves on what literacy could do for them. They were, however, rare because not many slaves could read or write.

The slave Prophet’s case explains the above revelation. Prophet, aged about 25 to 30, was owned [as a property] by one John Ruppert. Ruppert had bought Prophet from one Leonard Cecil. So, when Prophet escaped from Ruppert, the latter advertised him in the Georgia Gazette based in Savannah on the 18th of October 1792. The advert described Prophet as a figure that was well-known in the Savannah area. He was said to relate highly with both black and white dwellers unlike other slaves in the area. He also accessed the newspapers with much ease and was not the typical slave that worked on rural plantations under the scorching sun. He was learned, literate and empowered. In his conclusion in the advertisement, Ruppert stated that Prophet was likely to live freely henceforth because he could read and write.

Ruppert’s advertisement showed that if a slave was able to read and write like Prophet, then they could transform the image of slavery that was believed and upheld by the majority of Americans. Prophet, owing to his literacy, was not perceived of as a common slave and he had perfectly manipulated himself. This manipulation, it shows, offered him the “free man” status. Unlike his fellow slaves, he integrated with the society better and in his mind, was a free person. His physical freedom followed his mental freedom when he escaped from Georgia. Ruppert, on the other side, realized that he had to save his face and defined him as a smooth-tongued slave that could easily tell a reasonable story to escape.

Ruppert was not alone: Thomas Hamilton and Isaiah Wright also set up advertisements for Hercules, an escaped slave, around June 1793. He was largely defined by a whip mark on his back, and this earned him the title of a notorious offender. “He is an African-American runaway, aged 24 years and was born in the country,” read the advertisement. Hercules was denied instruction but was able to hide his quest for knowledge. He could read well, and this earned him the “very impertinent and artful” title. They expected him to change his name after his empowerment. Name changing by slaves in those days was an indication of an empowered slave. To the slaveholders, it was a risk to their authoritative powers. After acquiring the literacy skills, Hercules became impossible to control and could no longer obey his owners’ commands. The result of this was the placement of a $10 bounty on him: delivered alive or lifeless.

The term “artful” defined the characters of slaves who were learned and literate: those that could transform their identities and possessed excessive knowledge. Artful slaves were those that could read because they had the ability and imagination of interpreting and camouflaging with the world they existed. These were the slaves that were aware of themselves and had created their own identities. Those slaves that could write only were hardly referred to as “artful” because much of what they could do was forge passes to facilitate their escape.

For an escapee to succeed, it required practicality, adaptability, astuteness (mental sharpness). If the slaves were not conspicuous during the escape attempts, that would likely hinder or fault their endeavors. On the other hand, the slaveholders were not ready to embrace the reality that their laborers were now demonstrating agency, skill and empowerment. This was evident in their advertisements as they sought to downplay the successful slaves’ escapes. They advertised for them in manners that tried to portray them as still superior to them. For instance, they used the terms “pretends to be free” to indicate that the slaves were still enslaved but were acting up. They would also say, “acquired a pass” to withhold the fact that the slaves had forged the passes and escaped. Collectively, their attempts could be termed as deliberate vagueness or contemptuous.

The slaves could understand the evil of their statuses after they were able to read and write and this encouraged them to pursue freedom. Reading and writing provided them with mental freedom and they began crafting their free identities. Most importantly, they realized that their only way to escape the slave system was through reading and writing.


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