Reading is power. Don’t think so? Just ask our ancestors who were slaves. The statute below, passed by the state of North Carolina in 1830—1831, was fairly typical.
AN ACT TO PREVENT ALL PERSONS FROM TEACHING SLAVES TO READ OR WRITE, THE USE OF FIGURES EXCEPTED
Whereas the teaching of slaves to read and write, has a tendency to excite dis-satisfaction in their minds, and to produce insurrection and rebellion, to the manifest injury of the citizens of this State:
Therefore,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That any free person, who shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any slave within the State to read or write, the use of figures excepted, or shall give or sell to such slave or slaves any books or pamphlets, shall be liable to indictment in any court of record in this State having jurisdiction thereof, and upon conviction, shall, at the discretion of the court, if a white man or woman, be fined not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, or imprisoned; and if a free person of color, shall be fined, imprisoned, or whipped, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding thirty nine lashes, nor less than twenty lashes.
II. Be it further enacted, That if any slave shall hereafter teach, or attempt to teach, any other slave to read or write, the use of figures excepted, he or she may be carried before any justice of the peace, and on conviction thereof, shall be sentenced to receive thirty nine lashes on his or her bare back.
RELATED: Books That Can Change Your Life Almost Instantly
Wow.
Instead of just going to the movies, parties or other things that people do during Black History Month, here are some books that I think we begin to free our minds (and our bodies will follow).
What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky by Lesley Nneka Ariamah
The Twelve Tribes Of Hattie by Ayana Mathis
I Am Not Your Negro with excerpts by James Baldwin
The Radical King by Cornel West
Slavery By Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon
Michelle Obama: A Life by Peter Slevin
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
The Souls Of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
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