HOW THE SLAVES LEARNED TO READ AND WRITE

As I read the many, many letters written by black soldiers in the Civil War to newspapers as letters to the editor and articles, and the slave narratives written before that war, I now no longer wonder, as I once did, how these people came to acquire not only bare literacy, but to claim a fluid facility with the English language, given Southern laws barring it. They willed themselves to know! As such, they used every readily available means from each and every person and from each and every situation to acquire literacy, numeracy, and even scholarly proficiency in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, both in the reading and in their writing before 1861. Dr. Carter G. Woodson has, in his classic study, THE EDUCATION OF THE NEGRO PRIOR TO 1861 (1919, listed some of those means: "Many picked it up here and there, some followed occupations which were in themselves enlightening, and others learned from slaves whose attainments were unknown to their masters. Often influential white men taught Negroes not only the rudiments of education but almost anything they wanted to learn . Not a few slaves were instructed by the white children whom they accompanied to school. While attending ministers and officials whose work often lay open to their servants, many of the race learned by contact and observation . Shrewd Negroes sometimes slipped stealthily into back streets, where they studied under a private teacher, or attend a school hidden from the zealous execution of the law . "The instances of Negroes struggling to obtain an education read like the beautiful romances of a people in an heroic age. Sometimes Negroes of the type of Lott Carey educated themselves. James Redpath discovered in Savannah that in spite of the law great numbers of slaves had learned to read well. Many of them had acquired a rudimentary knowledge of arithmetic . 'But,' said he, 'blazon it to the shame of the South, the knowledge thus acquired has been snatched from the spare records of leisure in spite of their owners' wishes and watchfulness. ' C. G. Parsons was informed that although poor masters did not venture to teach their slaves, occasionally one with a thirst for knowledge secretly learned the rudiments of education without any instruction. While on tour through Georgia, E. P. Burke observed that, notwithstanding the great precaution which was taken to prevent the mental improvement of the slaves, many of them 'stole knowledge enough to enable them to read and write with ease.' Robert Smalls of South Carolina and Alfred T. Jones of Kentucky began their education in this manner.... (P.206-207) "B.K. Bruce, while still a slave, educated himself when he was working at the printer's trade in Brunswick , Missouri . Even farther south where slavery assumed its worst form, we find that this condition obtained. Addressing to the New Orleans 'Commercial Bulletin' a letter on African colonization , John McDonough stated that the work imposed on his slaves required some education for which he willingly provided. In 1842 he had had no white man over his slaves for twenty years. He had assigned this task to his intelligent colored manager who did his work so well that the master did not go in person once in six months to see what his slaves were doing. He says , 'They were, besides, my men of business , enjoyed my confidence, were my clerks, transacted all my affairs , made purchases of materials, collected my rents, leased my houses, took care of my property and effects of every kind, and that with an honesty and fidelity which was proof against every temptation .' Traveling in Mississippi in 1852, Olmsted found another such group of slaves all of whom could read , whereas the master himself was entirely illiterate . He took much pride , however, in praising his loyal. capable, and intelligent Negroes." P. 210