Dangerous learning : the South's long war on Black literacy / Derek W. Black.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Black, Derek W., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Literacy--Southern States--History.

Literacy.

African Americans--Southern States--Social conditions.

African Americans.

Discrimination in education.

Southern States--Race relations.

Southern States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 344 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2025.

Summary:

The enduring legacy of the nineteenth-century struggle for Black literacy in the American South Few have ever valued literacy as much as the enslaved Black people of the American South. For them, it was more than a means to a better life; it was a gateway to freedom and, in some instances, a tool for inspiring revolt. And few governments tried harder to suppress literacy than did those in the South. Everyone understood that knowledge was power: power to keep a person enslaved in mind and body, power to resist oppression. In the decades before the Civil War, Southern governments drove Black literacy underground, but it was too precious to be entirely stamped out. This book describes the violent lengths to which southern leaders went to repress Black literacy and the extraordinary courage it took Black people to resist. Derek W. Black shows how, from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of Reconstruction, literacy evolved from a subversive gateway to freedom to a public program to extend citizenship and build democratic institutions—and how, once Reconstruction was abandoned, opposition to educating Black children depressed education throughout the South for Black and white students alike. He also reveals the deep imprint those events had on education and how this legacy is resurfacing today.

Contents:

Preface

Introduction

1. The Spark

2. The Quarantine

3. The Word: David Walker

4. Arresting the Word

5. The Fire: Nat Turner

6. The South's Last Slavery Debate

7. The Blockade

8. A Gag in the Halls of Congress

9. The Tragedy of Silence

10. Southern Propaganda

11. Secret Learning

12. Black Literacy on Trial

13. A Rebirth of Freedom: Black Schooling in the Midst of War

14. Public Education for All

15. Burning Down the Schoolhouse

16. Our Chance to Break the Cycle.

Notes:

Includes bibliographic references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300281231

0300281234

OCLC:

1481785645