To Read or Not to Read: Risk and Literacy for Enslaved Americans

When antebellum slaveholders opposed slave literacy, it was primarily because they thought readers and slaves had opposing characteristics. Through lectures, threats, and commands about literacy, slaveholders conveyed that sentiment to enslaved people. Consequently, enslaved people usually concluded that pursuing literacy was too risky, leading most of them to not pursue literacy. But sometimes enslaved people became passionate about acquiring literacy and tenaciously pursued the skill. Pursuing literacy was a tradeoff: it increased enslaved people's chances of acquiring literacy, but also their chances of getting whipped. Enslaved people who pursued literacy usually did not get whipped, likely because relatively few pursued literacy and because getting help from a white was the most common way enslaved people pursued literacy. Because literacy was only of tenuous value for someone in the position of an American slave, enslaved people were smart to favor caution about pursuing literacy.