I'm not sure there was a statutory prohibition, or if there was Margaret Mercer
was certainly breaking it when she taught her slaves to read in her little
school at Belmont plantation in Loudoun County. I don't think some of the locals
liked it but she wasn't prosecuted.
Jim Hershman
Gregg Kimball wrote:
> Have you checked Janet Duitsman Cornelius's book "When I Can Read My Title
> Clear: Literacy, Slavery, and Religion in the Antebellum South"? I believe
> that this book outlines the law in various states. As I remember
> Cornelius's discussion of this matter, Virginia was one of four southern
> states that legally limited the instruction of slaves from the 1830s to
> 1865. The state criminalized assemblies for teaching slaves and teaching
> slaves for pay. The legislature seems to have left the door open for
> individual masters to educate their own slaves. I think it's also important
> to realize that in some cases community pressure and other laws could be
> used against schools. Free black Christopher McPherson's night school in
> Richmond was quashed due to a public outcry that led to him being hauled
> into court for operating a public "nuisance."
>
> Gregg Kimball
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Thursday, July 26, 2001 11:43 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Teaching Slaves To Read
>
> A colleague asked me recently when it was that Virginia, either the colony
> or
> the Commonwealth, made it "a formal policy to prevent teaching slaves to
> read." I had thought such a statute was passed in the early 1830s, but I
> find no evidence to support my impression. I looked in studies of Virginia
> law and slavery, but did not find an answer to my question. Of course, the
> statute prescribed punishment for those who taught the slaves; therefore,
> it might not have been a part of the slave code at all.
>
> I hope someone can help. Thanks.
>
> James R. Sweeney
> Department of History
> Old Dominion University
> Norfolk, VA 23529
>
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