Tutelage Towards Freedom: Education and Slavery. Taneisha Palmer Abstract In the autobiography, Life and times of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass details his life as a representation of the plight of a slave in the Antebellum South. Literacy, starting in his younger years, held a major significance to Douglass. From being introduced to a book by his initially tender slave mistress in Baltimore, Sophia Auld, to obtaining a copy of The Columbian Orator, literacy became a symbol of hope and freedom for a young Douglass. The Columbian Orator instilled in Douglass the idea that humans had a right to liberty and that slavery was a systematic beast that needed to be eliminated. It was with the assistance of the literacy Douglass obtained that he knew he could no longer stay a slave and that, morally speaking, slavery could not continue to hold a place in American society. This paper will demonstrate the following three themes as it pertains to literacy and slaves like Frederick Douglass: why literacy was important to African Americans as well as how literary materials were obtained and concealed in the Antebellum South; whites’ attitudes towards education and the legislature which made education illegal; how formal education formed an expression of freedom for people of African descent. By exploring these themes, the idea that literacy was something some slaves were encapsulated with and fought to obtain through any means necessary will provide a fundamental understanding one of the various plights slaves preserved through. This will also show how punitive whites were because of their fears that would not even allow slaves to learn how to read for religious purposes yet, strangely, how some slave master used slaves’ thirst for literacy for their own personal gain.

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Tutelage Towards Freedom: Education and Slavery
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DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36697.21606
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2. Abstract
In the autobiography, ​Life and times of Frederick Douglass, ​Frederick Douglass details his
life as a representation of the plight of a slave in the Antebellum South. Literacy, starting in
his younger years, held a major significance to Douglass. From being introduced to a book
by his initially tender slave mistress in Baltimore, Sophia Auld, to obtaining a copy of ​The
Columbian Orator, ​literacy became a symbol of hope and freedom for a young Douglass.
The Columbian Orator ​instilled in Douglass the idea that humans had a right to liberty and
that slavery was a systematic beast that needed to be eliminated. It was with the assistance of
the literacy Douglass obtained that he knew he could no longer stay a slave and that, morally
speaking, slavery could not continue to hold a place in American society. This paper will
demonstrate the following three themes as it pertains to literacy and slaves like Frederick
Douglass: why literacy was important to African Americans as well as how literary materials
were obtained and concealed in the Antebellum South; whites’ attitudes towards education
and the legislature which made education illegal; how formal education formed an
expression of freedom for people of African descent. By exploring these themes, the idea that
literacy was something some slaves were encapsulated with and fought to obtain through any
means necessary will provide a fundamental understanding one of the various plights slaves
preserved through. This will also show how punitive whites were because of their fears that
would not even allow slaves to learn how to read for religious purposes yet, strangely, how
some slave master used slaves’ thirst for literacy for their own personal gain.
Introduction: A Young, Tender Frederick Douglass

3. Frederick Douglass, formally known as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was
born February of 1818, the specific day he never knew, in Talbot County, Maryland. He did
not know of his father, even though there were assumptions that his father could have been
his slave master. He was separated fairly early in his life from his biological mother, Harriet
Bailey, and sent to live with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At the age of six he was
unexpectedly thrusted into the world of slavery went he was separated from his grandmother
and sent to the Wye House plantation, where he was at once introduced to the plight and the
life of a slave living as Aaron Anthony as the overseer. Despite his rude awakening to the
harsh reality of his circumstances Douglass was able to catch a bit of luck, after the death of
Anthony, with his transition to Thomas Auld and his eventually his move to Baltimore to
serve Auld’s brother, Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia. It is with Auld’s that Douglass was
first introduced literacy.
“The frequent hearing of my mistress reading the Bible aloud, for she often read aloud when
her husband was absent, awakened my curiosity in respect to this mystery of
reading, and roused in me the desire to learn. Up to this time I had known
nothing whatever of this wonderful art, and my ignorance and inexperience of
what it could do for me as well as my confidence in my mistress emboldened
me to ask her to teach me to read.”
1
1
​Frederick Douglass “Life and times of Frederick Douglass: written by himself; his early life as
a slave, his escape from bondage and his complete history to the present time ​... Boston: De
Wolfe et Fiske, 1893, pg. 94.

4. Sophia, according to Douglass, was untouched by the slave mentality which caused many
whites to presume people of African descent as subsidiary. At this moment she treated
Douglass with the same humility that she gave her son as she taught him the alphabet, helped
him master the spelling of basic three and four letter words, and eventually teaching him to
read the Bible. Thomas Auld became furious with his wife when he learned of their
educational sessions and vehemently informed his wife that
If you give a nigger an end he will take an ell. Learning will spoil the best nigger in the
world. If he learns to read the Bible it will forever unfit him to be a slave. He
should know nothing but the will of his master, and learn to obey it. As to
himself, learning will do him no good but a great deal of harm, making him
disconsolate and unhappy. If you teach him how to read, he’ll want to know to
write, and this accomplished, he’ll be running away with himself.
2
This encounter between the Aulds drastically altered how Sophia treated Douglass for the
duration of his time in Baltimore. Sophia no longer taught him how to read and if there was
any inclination that Douglass was progressing on his quest for literacy would be met with
swift reprimand. This only increased Douglass ‘thirst for knowledge as he looked for other
ways to accomplish his goal of literacy. He would “constantly… carry with him a copy of
2
Ibid.

5. Webster’s spelling-book in [his] pocket” and would discreetly read it whenever the
3
appropriate opportunity presented itself. He kept pieces of bread in his pocket and would
bribe his white peers into teaching him how out of the spelling book.
Douglass, at the age of twelve, was eventually earned some money which he
purchased ​The Columbian Orator​, deciding to purchase the book after overhearing a
conversation amongst his white peers discussing the content of the book which they
discussed at school. Through reading this book constantly Douglass was able to eventually
master the words and the meanings behind the text, which consisted of a “bold and powerful
denunciation of oppression and a most brilliant vindication of the rights of man.”​ Douglass
4
gravitation towards ​The Columbian Orator​ drastically altered his current reality, he finally
saw the society in which he was unwillingly an enslaved member of; Thomas Auld’s
inclination of what literacy would achieve in a slave finally coming into fruition because he
was no longer “the light-hearted, gleesome boy full of mirth and play”, for Douglass was
now a young adolescent who yearned for his chains of oppression to be released. “Light had
penetrated the moral dungeon where I had lain, and I saw the bloody whip for my back and
the iron chain for my feet, and my good, kind master was the author of my situation.”​
5
He continued to read ​The Columbian Orator ​to further increase his literacy and his
understanding of the type of system he had fallen victim to. This, unfortunately, increased his
dissatisfaction as he longed to be free of his captivity. Specific essays and selections within
3
Ibid.
4
Ibid. 104
5
Ibid. 105

6. the book resonated with a now conscious Douglass, developing in him the ideas of liberty,
human rights, freedom, and the idea that slavery could be a system which had the potential to
inevitably end. Sophia, at this point, became the drastic opposite of the person who was
initially introduced. She became cold-hearted towards Douglass and made it her mission to
make sure he was not able to read, despite the tardiness in her approach by this point in
Douglass’ life.
Hearing of the word “abolitionist” further generated in Douglass the drive for literacy
and freedom as he overheard conversations between Master Hugh and his company. This
word fascinated Douglass as he attempted to figure out the meaning of the word. When the
dictionary offered nothing substantial in understanding the meaning of “abolitionist”
Douglass turned to a newspaper, “The Baltimore American”, which gave him the
information in which the dictionary lack. There he was able to find the various initiatives of
abolitionist on behalf of the abolishment of slavery. There he was introduced to the idea of
hope as he read about “the vast number of petitions and memorials [that] had been presented
to Congress, praying for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for the
abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and for the abolition of the slave trade
between the State of the Union.” Through these article within this newspaper Douglass was
6
able to see the impact the abolitionist movements had on the slave holding class, sending him
into a deeper analytical thought about the longevity of the slave system. Rebellions, such as
6
Ibid. 109

7. the Nat Turner Rebellion, gave Douglass hope in the day in which slavery was no longer a
reality, equating the occurrences with the wrath of God.
Douglass serves as an exemplar example of a slave who was able to obtain literacy
because he was able to gain access to various means of literature which assisted in him being
able to teach himself how to read. Douglass account can be seen as exceptional because
many slave were not allotted the same opportunities as Douglass. Slaves who sought to
obtain literacy, nevertheless, exhorted all of their resources, as Douglass did, to be able to
learn to read and write. Douglass’ narrative provides a first person perspective which
essentially assists in understanding the motives behind the enslaved seeking literacy, as well
as the avenues they used to obtain and secure an education. Douglass’ account can also
provide information about how most Southern whites during the Antebellum period viewed
literacy.
Hegemonic Perspective of Literacy
Thomas Auld’s sentiments about literacy to a slave represents a perspective many
Southern whites had about their property. As Auld stated, teaching a slave to read will
eventually astir in them the want to learn to write, which would alter a slave’s thinking about
their current state of being, thus making a slave unhappy and , eventually rebellious, about
their position of servitude. Eventually the slave will begin to find ways in which they can
alter their condition, implanting in their minds idea of insurrections or slave flight. White
Southerners wanted to keep their slaves in a mental position of unconscious inferiority, thus
creating a dependency between slaves and their owners.

8. “[A] master was expected to maintain absolute authority over his slaves. Backed by law, his
authority over them extended to the limits of life and death. Within these broad
limits he was expected to require and get absolute obedience, loyalty, docility,
diligence and all other patterns of behavior considered essential for profitable
production and the survival of the slave economy.”
7
With this mentality many slave owners used the laws enacted to defined their paternalistic
relationships with the slaves and to keep them fearful of what may happen if they ever
crossed the barriers which defined their positions of servitude. Edward Covey, who
according to Douglass was known as being a slave breaker, was poor white farmer in which
Douglass was subjected to serve under during a brief period in his servitude. Covey used
violence to establish this fear amongst the slaves he was accountable for as he kept constant
watch over Douglass and his counterparts. Slave masters, and sometimes their overseers,
readily used violence to signify a level of dominance over their subordinates. They made
every attempt to control their slaves’ thoughts, imagination, mind, and hearts. Covey’s
8
mentality thus becomes common amongst slave owners as punishment for wrongdoings
7
Henry A. Bullock, A history of Negro education in the South: from 1619 to the present. New
York: ACLS History E-Book Project, 2005, pg. 3
8
Heather Andrea Williams, “Self-taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom”​.
Chapel Hill, NC: UNC, 2005​, pg.​ 7.

9. often became a norm many slaves faced in the antebellum South. Covey’s mentality
resembles that of slaveholders throughout the South. Slave owners, in some instances, show
six interdisciplinary ways in the development of slave mentality:
1. The establishment of strict discipline over the captive African population in the United
States;
2. The development within African people personal inferiority in relation to skin color and
facial and bodily features;
3. The development of raw fear and awe in the power of the master;
4. The establishment within the enslaved African’s psyche a sense of affiliation with the
master’s welfare;
5. The creation of a willingness among African captives and their descendants to accept the
slaveholder’s standards of conduct as their own; and
6. The development within the captive people total dependence upon those
persons who claimed to be their masters.
9
The creation of legislature throughout the South can be seen on a rise after the 1830s,
as slave owners looked increased their dominance of the enslave blacks. South Carolina,
leading in the establishment of the anti-literacy statues in the South, stated that
Whereas the having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing,
may attend with great inconveniences… that all and every person and person
9
Mitchell pg. 81

10. 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
hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons shall for every such
offense forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money.
10
These statutes succeeded the Stono Rebellion in 1739, in which a literate slave named
Jemmy led a band of slaves to kill more than sixty white South Carolinians. It was believed
that “slaves had communicated their insurrectionary plans in writing” which made whites,
out of fear, create a way to banned slaves being able to read and write. It was mainly out of
11
fear that the slave economy would establish anti-literacy legislature. This created legislature
in South Carolina which outlawed teaching a slave to read and write. From South Carolina’s
statue came the creation of laws in other states, such as Georgia and North Carolina, adapting
similar language.
Literacy became equated to as a threat to the slave system once infamous events
altered this perception amongst slave owners. Blacks, free and enslaved, contributed to the
eventual identification of literacy being a threat the slave economy. David Walker, an
African American freedman who was known for being an outspoken abolitionist, published a
pamphlet in 1829 called ​Appeals to the Coloured Citizens of the World​. Walker’s publication
urged enslaved blacks to view that whites as their natural born enemies. He called for slaves
to revolt against their master, thus ending the perpetual cycle of slavery. In ​Appeals ​Walker
10
​George Stroud A sketch of the laws relating to slavery in the several states of the United
States. Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless, 1827.
11
Williams pg. 13

11. stated that whites in power knew that literacy would reveal the harsh realities and the cruel
extents slave owners sunk to in order to perpetuate the cycle of slavery, which contributed to
whites not allowing their slaves to obtain literacy. Walker’s pamphlet, which was published
12
in Boston, eventually made its way to the South and into the hands of slaves. Once slave
owners realized that the pamphlet was being distributed they immediately rectified the
dissemination of Walker’s work. Nat Turner’s rebellion in 1831 also awoken in many slave
owners the perceived threat of literacy. Turner, a literate slave, was able to gather over
seventy free and enslaved blacks to lead a revolt which resulted in the killing of
approximately sixty whites. These two events drastically changed the way in which
13
Southern whites saw literacy, especially for the enslaved. The creation of anti-literacy laws
began to rise after Turner’s rebellion throughout the South. A connection can even be
observed between the enactment of these laws and the black resistance which these laws
were often met with. White created statutes which often came immediately following events
such as Turner’s rebellion and the Walker’s ​Appeals ​distribution which outlawed teaching a
slave to read and write as well as banning bringing any publications into Georgia, for
example, which came a few days after copies of ​Appeals ​were found being handed out by a
black Baptist minister.
14
12
Gundaker, Grey. "Hidden Education Among African Americans During Slavery." Teachers
College Record 109, no. 7 (July 2007): 1591-613, pg. 1596.
13
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro slave revolts. New York: Internat. Publ., 1978,​ pg. 298.
14
Williams pg.14

12. Not all Southern whites equated literacy with fear, connected black literacy to black
resistance, or shared the same sentiments of believing in the necessity of creating laws which
banned literacy. Many slave owners used education as a tool in further maintaining the
system in which they were accustomed to in which they established on their plantations and
rarely perceived threat in the matter. A Georgia planter, who commonly went by the name
“Hurricane” did not see the danger in educating a slave. He believed that African Americans
were intellectual deficient and did not see how literacy would “undermine white authority”.
He willingly allowed his slaves to learn to read and write because it assisted him and his
business ventures. Some slave owners used slaves’ desires for literacy as a tool for
15
enforcing religious doctrines onto the slave in which they accepted as their own. Slave
owners saw religion as a tool to control a slave’s mentality and inevitably save their savage
souls. Many Southerners feared that exposure to the Bible would “expose slaves to
abolitionist literature and stimulate revolt within their ranks” but Southern religious leaders
spoke out against these fears. Reverend George Pierce, of the Methodist Episcopal Church in
Georgia, addressed these fears in 1863 as he argued to his colleagues to allow slaves to
obtain literacy. There was also whites who challenged the laws by assisting slaves in
16
literacy. With the rise in anti-literacy laws throughout the South education of a slave more
inside people’s home. Honorable John Fouchereau Grimke, supreme court judge in South
15
Williams pg. 18
16
Bullock pg. 11

13. Carolina allowed his two daughters to operate a school at night out of his home. His
daughters took please in challenges the absurdity of anti-literacy laws.
17
Essence of Literacy to a Slave
Slaves have often been categorized in three various categories: those who were
militant and rebellious; docile and passively accepting; and limited resistance due to constant
terror of punishment, being deprived of basic necessity, or of being separated from their
families. Douglass, for example, identifies with those who showed limited resistance out of
18
trepidation of what could happened based off of encounters he had with people of authority,
black and white, such as Aunt Katy and, leading up to his breaking point, Covey. Not
knowing what being a slave fully meant, Douglass treaded lightly as he learned how to read
and write, and eventually plan for his escape. Douglass’ interaction with ​The Columbian
Orator ​and the revelations which followed signifies the threat literacy held to slave masters.
Despite their attempts to suppress the urges of seeking literacy still mustered up various
motives for wanting to learn to read and write.
For the typical slave, literacy was equated to self-consciousness thus leading to acts of
liberation. For Douglass, reading did not introduce him to the idea of freedom, it made him
fully aware of the circumstances in which he was subjected to. The many essays within ​The
19
Columbian Orator ​presented Douglass with the necessary information needed for him to
17
Ibid. pg. 10
18
Mitchell pg. 79
19
William pg. 25

14. fully understand the injustices he faced as a slave. At this moment Douglass was able to
come to the conclusion that slavery was not a position blacks stayed objected to and that in
some instances slaves were able to articulate their frustrations with their slave master,
something Douglass could not fathom until reading it in ​The Columbian Orator. ​For the
slaves who did equate literacy to freedom the Bible, various book, and newspapers served to
challenge what slaves learned on the plantation about the activities that were happening
around them, furthering their motives of an eventually insurrection. Literate slave used their
20
abilities to write “passes and transit documents to gain freer movement on the roads and
better opportunities to escape slavery altogether.”
21
James Fisher told an interviewer in 1843:
I...thought it wise to learn to write, in case opportunity should offer to write myself a
pass. I copied every scrap of writing I could find, and thus learned to write
a tolerable hand before I knew what the words were that I was copying. At
last I met with an old man who, for the sake of money to buy whiskey,
agreed to teach me the writing alphabet... I spent a good deal of time trying
to improve myself; secretly, of course. One day, my mistress hap- pened to
come into my room, when my materials were about; and she told her
father... that I was learning to write. He replied that if I belonged to him, he
20
Williams pg.24
21
Gundaker pg.1602

15. would cut my right hand off.
22
Many slaves used literacy as a means to alleviate the burden of being a slave, using it
as a form of entertainment and leisure. Fork lore, outside of song and dance, contributed to
the preservation of these attempts, which were often past down to slave children who used
them to learn how to read.
Many present literacy in league with another means to reach freedom– black rural folk
culture, specifically songs, tales and character types, like the trickster, that
long circulated as means of communication, education, and entertainment with
the black communities. In these works literacy and aspect of oral culture came
together to empower the enslaved and newly free black child.
23
Through folklores and songs slaves were able to express themselves honestly and freely
without having to worrying about being punished by their slave masters. It allowed for slaves
to maintain aspects of their culture which was stripped away from them with their initially
introduction into the life of a slave. Stories also assisting in preserving the cleverness of
many blacks in their attempts to defy their slave masters.
24
22
Ibid. pg 1602
23
Karen Chandler. "Paths to Freedom: Literacy and Folk Traditions in Recent Narratives about
Slavery and Emancipation." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 31, no. 1 (March 2006):
pg. 3.
24
Ibid pg 5.

16. Some slaves wanted access to literacy so that they could challenge the slave system,
often times directly challenging their slave masters. Ellen Turner, challenged the
master-slave relationship. Slave owners knew that slave were getting access to literature, so
Turner’s master checked her room adamantly. He discovered a picture of Abraham Lincoln
hanging on her wall. Lincoln, often synonymous with abolitionism, angered Turner’s master
because it signified that the slave system was at a possible end. It also meant that somehow
slave able to understand what symbols like Lincoln meant, further foreshadowing the events
which lead up the Civil War and the end of slavery. Some slaves challenged their masters in
25
more discreet ways. Hannah, who was enslaved under Thomas Jefferson, undermined
Jefferson promiscuous behavior in a letter she sent to him which provided him with a update
of his home while he was out of town;
Master,
I write you a few lines to let you know
that your house and furniture are all safe as I expect
you would be glad to know I heard that you did not
expect to come up this fall I was sorry to hear that
you was so unwell you could not come. It grieve me
many time but I hope as you have been so blessed in this
that you considered it was god that done it and no other
25
Williams pg.

17. one we all ought to be thankful for what he has done
for us we ought to serve and obey his commandments
that you may set to win the prize and after glory run.
Master I donot my ignorant letter will be much
encouragement to you as know I am a poor ignorant
creature, this leaves us all well adieu, I am your
humble servant
Hannah
26
Analysis of this letter has shown that Hannah called attention to the commandments,
acknowledging how she highlights what will be achieved if we do. Almost dismissive of her
initial claims for Jefferson to behave his self, Hannah concludes her note by downplaying her
abilities as a literate slave. Slaves who had the ability to provide commentary on the
27
personal lives of the masters, as Hannah did effortlessly, were able to penetrate the
master-slave relationship, thus challenging its formation and continuous progression.
There were even slaves found literacy essential to religious devotion and expression.
Slaves, before the wave of anti-literacy legislature, were converted to Christianity because
slave owners believed it would alter the savage trait presumably accompanied by all people
of African descent. Some slaves even wanted to obtain literacy in order to be able to read the
26
​Letter from Hannah, a slave at Poplar Forest, to Thomas Jefferson 15 November 1818.
27
Ben Schiller, "Learning Their Letters: Critical Literacy, Epistolary Culture, and Slavery in the
Antebellum South." Southern Quarterly 45, no. 3 (April 2008), pg. ​15.

18. Bible or to presume a religious leadership role amongst the black community. According to
the Federal Writing Project “one-third of the Federal Writers Project interviewees whose
learning was slave-initiated also specified a religious context for their learning to read and
write.” A study of ​The American Slave: A Composite Autobiography​ also shows that many
28
slaves who wrote an autobiography eventually became religious clergymen, further showing that
some slaves valued religious practices and, for whatever personal reasons, adopted Christianity
as their own. Connected to the religious aspect of literacy came a moral awakening which
29
slaves often used to challenge the norms of the slave system. Douglass, once he finally
understood the moral damnation slavery caused on innocent souls, would use his ability to
articulate this amongst his white school peers who assisting him in his educational efforts.
30
Avenues of Securing Literary Liberation
Despite the legislature with prohibited a slave from getting an education and the
whites who, which made literacy illegal, and the personal vendettas of slave masters to keep
slaves in a subsidiary state, slaves were still able to find means of securing literature.
Douglass’ account serves as an excellent example to conceptualize the ways in which a slave
was able to access the tools to become literate. Douglass also provides a common perspective
in the sense that he taught himself how to read with little assistance from others, outside of
the initial attention he received from Sophia Auld and the assistance he was able garner with
his white schoolboy peers through bribery. Douglass learning of the word “abolitionist”, for
28
Cornelius, Janet. ""We Slipped and Learned to Read:" Slave Accounts of the Literacy Process,
1830-1865." Phylon (1960-) 44, no. 3, pg. 172.
29
Ibid. 182
30
Douglass pg. 102

19. example, was learned by Douglass as he overheard a conversation between his owner and his
counterparts. Eavesdropping was often used by slaves to stay abreast of events which were
taking place inside and out of their respective plantations or areas. John Quincy Adams, an
enslaved boy in Virginia, used this skill once he was made privy about whites not wanting
slaves to learn to read and write. Whenever he heard someone white reading aloud he would
listen intently, assuring that he was not being observed doing so. Once he returned to his
slave quarters he would tell his family what he was able to gather from the conversations.
Slaves, through eavesdropping, was about to sustain a system of information which relied on
oral and aural means.
31
Eavesdropping, along with the other avenues slaves in their educational pursuits, can
be easily identified within three categories “invisible of seemingly extraneous aspects of
schooling and effort to orchestrate school-like activities; hidden and not so hidden literacy,
like eavesdropping; and expressive practices which educational dimensions for participants
that remained largely invisible to outsiders.” Through these categories, however, slaves
32
looked for any opportunity to acquire literacy. Many was able to find means through the
leniency of whites. Slave owners desperately sought to establish a system in which complete
control was given to them over their slaves. Some owners established personas which
contradicted the brutish attitude towards their slaves, allowing for some companion to be
bestowed upon their slaves. Slaves used this “permissiveness [to] spring up outside of the
official structure of slave order.” Many slaves were able to use this allowance to their
31
Williams pgs. 9-10
32
Gundaker pg. 1595

20. benefits, often gaining access to more personal relations with their masters, some level of
literacy”, which placed some slaves in a “leadership structure and thereby… upward mobility
within Southern society.”​
33
Most slaves, however, obtained literacy through some degree of secrecy. This, in
effect established a secret life in which slaves “subverted the master-slave relationship and
created a private life for those who were owned by others.” ​
Within these secret lives that
34
slaves lived came the passing down of information from adult to child, and even sometimes
from child to adult. These represented times in which slaves relied extensively on hidden
education to secure their activities from the owners, including the concealment of literature
obtained from other slaves or material they received from whites. Slaves would often trade
items with poor whites, such as alcohol, and from white children, such as food, like Douglass
was able to do. With the materials they gather slaves dug cellars beneath their quarters to
hide the items they received, which varied from food to spelling books. Slaves would also
35
use Sundays as days to learn to read and write. Most slaves did not work on Sunday, which
coincides with the ideals practice within Christianity as Sunday being a day for religious
observation. Slaves would use this free day to either discreetly teach themselves or to teach
others. Some slaves were even able to learn to read and write about taking advantage of the
missionaries who encouraged slaves to convert to Christianity.
33
Bullock pg. 4
34
Williams pg. 3
35
Gundaker pg. 1594

21. Enslaved blacks outside of trading items, were also able to receive literacy lessons
from whites, often times the slave owner’s children or wife. Slave children, in particular,
were able to receive literacy through “play schools”. During these sessions white children
would pretend as if they were the teacher and provide educational lessons based off the
information they learned recently learned. These activities were often taken seriously by both
slave and white child. Some white mistress took it upon themselves to educate slave
36
children, which they were often inspired to do so by evangelical Christianity. While some
owners allowed for the activity to persist, especially if they were able to benefit in some way
from having a literate slave. Many slave owners, however, condemned such activities, which
further confirms the fear many whites had about having a literate slave in their mist.
37
Slaves, no matter the circumstances, took every opportunity they could to obtain an
education.
Conclusion
Frederick Douglass’ autobiography serves as a necessary tool in understanding not only
the significance literacy held to a slave, it also contributes to a broader understanding of the role
education played as it pertained to the success of a slave and the wrath of Southern whites during
most of the antebellum period. Literacy proposed an optimistic perspective for many slaves who
were able to access literature and who actually learned how to read and write which often
interconnected with the theme of liberation. These educational opportunities provided slaves
with a way to not only express themselves but their beliefs and thoughts. It allowed for some
36
Bullock pg. 10
37
Williams pg. 19

22. slaves to challenge the slave system, which many whites essential feared would bring about the
end of slavery. Despite the various obstacle slaves went through to learn to read and write many
slaves did not see the hassle in attempting something which could potential result in some type of
punishment. The anti-literacy laws, which were created specifically to deter whites from
assisting slaves to read and write as well as provide necessary statues which condemned such
practices amongst slaves, essentially worked in deterring many slave from obtaining literacy.
White fear played an enormous role in the suppression slave education. Whites knew the
dangers of having a literate slave in their mist. It not only meant that slaves would eventually
become unhappy with the current state, as it did with Douglass, it also had to possibility of
initiating insurrections which would have virtually undermined the entire system whites built.
Keeping slaves ignorantly bliss contributed to the complete control whites wanted to have over
their slaves. Slaves were considered chattel, which is often synonymous with emotionless,
savages. Slave owners needed slaves to succumb to this level of inferiority be able to have
complete control over every aspect of their slave’s life. Slaves who were able to obtain literacy
proved that they were not people who were for some whites, education added an additional
dimension to the property they considered incapable of sustaining.
Nevertheless, slaves who were able to document their experiences with learning to read
and write shows a level of resilience, which is often a key characteristic in many slaves. Slaves
seeking to obtain literacy did not stop after they were reprimanded, as in the case of Frederick
Douglass. Sophia Auld may have been able to stop Douglass from obtaining literacy through her
but Douglass proved that he was persistence and that he had the dedication to eventually teach
himself how to read. Some slaves were even threatened with harsher punishment, such as

23. amputation of body parts of even death, but this did not prevent slaves from learning to read, and
in some cases, learning how to write. This speaks volumes not only to the thriftiness in slaves
38
to remain faithful to their own goals through any means necessary, it also shows how blacks
fought back against the oppression they were facing by challenging the slave system which
would have perpetuated the circumstances and by seeks ways to ultimately obtain freedom.
38
​La' Neice M Littleton, "High Hope and Fixed Purpose: Frederick Douglass and the Talented
Tenth on the American Plantation." Phylon 51, no. 1 (October 2014), pg. ​110.

24. Bibliography
Aptheker, Herbert. American Negro slave revolts. New York: Internat. Publ., 1978
Douglass, Frederick. “Life and times of Frederick Douglass: written by himself; his early life as
a slave, his escape from bondage and his complete history to the present time ​... Boston: De
Wolfe et Fiske, 1893​.
Bullock, Henry A. A history of Negro education in the South: from 1619 to the present. New
York: ACLS History E-Book Project, 2005.
Chandler, Karen. "Paths to Freedom: Literacy and Folk Traditions in Recent Narratives about
Slavery and Emancipation." Children's Literature Association Quarterly 31, no. 1 (March 2006):
3-26.
Cornelius, Janet. ""We Slipped and Learned to Read:" Slave Accounts of the Literacy Process,
1830-1865." Phylon (1960-) 44, no. 3, 171-86.
Littleton, La' Neice M. "High Hope and Fixed Purpose: Frederick Douglass and the Talented
Tenth on the American Plantation." Phylon 51, no. 1 (October 2014): 102-14.
Schiller, Ben. "Learning Their Letters: Critical Literacy, Epistolary Culture, and Slavery in the
Antebellum South." Southern Quarterly 45, no. 3 (April 2008): 11-28.
Stroud, George. “A sketch of the laws relating to slavery in the several states of the United
States.” Philadelphia: Kimber and Sharpless.
Williams, Heather Andrea. “Self-taught: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom”​.
Chapel Hill, NC: UNC, 2005​.
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