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South Carolina
Prohibits the Teaching of Slaves to Write 1740
And whereas, the
having of slaves taught to write, or suffering them to be employed in writing,
may be attended with great inconveniences; Be it therefore enacted by the
authority aforesaid, That all and every person or persons 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 whatsoever,
hereafter taught to write, every such person or persons, shall, for every such
offense, forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds current money.
David
J. McCord, The Statutes at Large of South Carolina, VII, 413
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Sundry Citizens of
Savannah, Georgia, Petition Mayor and Aldermen
for a Place of Worship for Slaves
in that City, 1790
The
petition of sundry of the citizens humbly sheweth--
That
the Negroes and Slaves, by the assistance of many of the Friends
of religion in Savannah, in different parts of the State, and
from in the state of So. Carolina, at some expence &
trouble, have erected a meeting House, and have been regularly
supplied with a Pastor, extreamly well adapted to their
capacities and situations, and who is better qualified to
instruct them in the duties of their states then any other
person would be, though of greater Abilities--
The
influence of vital religion on the human Heart, in every rank
and situation of life, and
invariable tendency, in proportion to its operation, is to
subdue the turbulent passions-promote a spirit of meekness &
moderation--A contentment with the lot and situation--A
resignation to the will of Providence, as ordering &
directing all the events of this life by unerring wisdom and for
the most positive good of the creature--
That
ever since the society has been established it has been a
standing rule to admit none who have not only the Approbation
but the recommendation of their Masters for their good morals
& faithful behaviour-as individuals and a Society, they have
been eminent for their orderly conduct at the place of their
meeting-for their meek--and inoffensive carriage towards, the
Citizens--for their submission & obedient behaviour to their
Masters & Mistresses. From the strict discipline that is
kept up, if we may judge from the past, there is the most
rational grounds for insuring the same peaceable & quiet
behaviour in future--
Your
Petitioners, from personal knowledge, are fully satisfied that
there are many instances in the City and Neighborhood of
Savannah of bad and evil disposed Negroes & Slaves, who have
been detected in their villainies, and it seemed out of the
power of the several punishment to deter them from a repetition
of their crimes; but since their becoming members of Andrew's
Society, and their attendance on his preaching have been
entirely reclaimed; they have given the highest proofs of the
happy tendency of religion in the humblest situation, on the
smallest capacities, and of some desperately wicked, and
notorious for almost every vice, becoming the most valuable
& trusty slaves their Masters have in their possession--
From
the irreproachable character their Pastor has long maintained
together with his Deacons & Elders, they have deservedly
great influence over this society. Their being under the
inspection of one of the most numerous Denominations in America.
The evidence they have long given in their daily walk and
conversation in their jives and characters, of the purity &
the excellency of the Doctrines they possess. The desire they
have to assemble is to get good, to become better slaves &
better Christians--
It
would seem that a Society from such motives, and regulated by
such principals, could never interrupt the peace of the City--If
your Petitioners might be permitted to express their own
thoughts, from these facts in opposition to the suspicions which
some people may seem to harbor-that if this society should be
permitted to Assemble themselves for the purpose of Religious
worship, they will pervert the privilege for base ends--for
disorder & Confusion--and to give unnecessary alarms to the
Citizens, are altogether groundless.
Besides
if there should be any disorder brooding from this quarter,
their Pastors, Deacons, and leading members would be the first
to receive and the best to depend upon, for every
information--So that from motives of policy it would be the
highest wisdom, to attach rather than alienate the interest of
the leading members, & they would be found to be usefull
& valuable instruments in the hands of the Honble. Council,
in cases of real emergency--
It has been hinted by
some of the friends, in favour of the prohibition, that the
Doors of the different Churches in the City should be opened to
them-This would be impracticable for it is known that when they
are assembled in large numbers, from constitutional
peculiarities, they are extremely disagreeable to every
audience. There seems therefore no other alternative, but,
either, to permit them to assemble at their own house, and in
their own way, or entirely deprive them the privilege of
attending public worship.
This we presume the
Honble. Council would not do. Your petitioners therefore humbly
pray that a society of Christians, that have walked hitherto
with so much order and decorum, who have been so eminently
exemplary by their inoffensive lives & Conversations, and
have given such ample testimony of their purity, & the
influence of the doctrines they profess may no longer be
deprived of the privilege of worshiping the God of their
existance, according to the dictates of their consciences and in
their own way. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever
pray &c &c-
LACHN.
McINTOSH
Reverend James M. Simms,
The First Colored Baptist Church
in North America (Savannah, Ga., 1888), pp.26-29.
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The Permission of the
Sundry Citizens of Savannah Is Granted, 1790
Savannah 19th
March 1790.
In as much as I deem it
inconsistent with the Spirit and principles of the Christian
Religion that any Set of People under the Sun Should be debarred
exercising that Religion in the way they best understand it, and in
the manner best fitted to their Capacities and Situations, when
Conducted with that Decorum and decency which becometh good
Christians; And it appearing that a Great Number of the Most
respectable Citizens in Savannah have Signed a recommendation in
favor of the bearer Andrew and his Society that they should be
permitted to assemble and preach in the Meeting house built by them
for that purpose at Yamacraw, so that their Meetings were Confined
to Sunday between Sun Rise and Sun Set; And as the Corporation have
heretofore declined Acting on a Petition preferred to them for their
Sanction, and it resting more particularly with the officers of the
Militia--
I do hereby give unto the
Said Andrew as Pastor, and to his Elders and Society, my full
approbation to meet and perform Divine Worship, in the Meeting-house
at Yamacraw, on the Sabbath day, between Sun Rise and Sun Set, so
long as they Conduct themselves with due decency and order; and that
the persons attending thereon have a pass from their masters or
Mistresses for that purpose; And I do Recommend to the officers
Commanding Companies in the first Battalion, to give their Sanction
for the above purpose, and that they will Cause an inspection as
often, and at Such times, as they may Deem Necessary, in order that
no abuse of this indulgence may take place.
D.
B. Mitchell, Major.
1st Batallion C R--
Joseph
Roberts
James
Box Young
John
Moore
Geo.
Throop
James
Robertson
Francis Doyle
 |
Sources:
Chapter VI. "The Instruction of Negroes." In Edgar W.
Knight..
A Documentary History of Education in the South before 1860. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina, 1953
Chapter 10 "Up From Slavery: Educational and
other Rights of Negroes." In Edgar W. Knight and Clifton L. Hall. Readings
in American Educational History. New York Appleton-Century-Crofts,
Inc., 1951. Many states had laws prohibiting
the education of blacks; here black youngsters are turned away at the
school door |
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Salvage the Bones
A Novel by Jesmyn Ward
On one level, Salvage the Bones is a simple story about a poor black family that’s about to be trashed by one of the most deadly hurricanes in U.S. history. What makes the novel so powerful, though, is the way Ward winds private passions with that menace gathering force out in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a hint of pretension, in the simple lives of these poor people living among chickens and abandoned cars, she evokes the tenacious love and desperation of classical tragedy. The force that pushes back against Katrina’s inexorable winds is the voice of Ward’s narrator, a 14-year-old girl named Esch, the only daughter among four siblings. Precocious, passionate and sensitive, she speaks almost entirely in phrases soaked in her family’s raw land. Everything here is gritty, loamy and alive, as though the very soil were animated. Her brother’s “blood smells like wet hot earth after summer rain. . . . His scalp looks like fresh turned dirt.” Her father’s hands “are like gravel,” while her own hand “slides through his grip like a wet fish,” and a handsome boy’s “muscles jabbered like chickens.” Admittedly, Ward can push so hard on this simile-obsessed style that her paragraphs risk sounding like a compost heap, but this isn’t usually just metaphor for metaphor’s sake. She conveys something fundamental about Esch’s fluid state of mind: her figurative sense of the world in which all things correspond and connect. She and her brothers live in a ramshackle house steeped in grief since their mother died giving birth to her last child. . . . What remains, what’s salvaged, is something indomitable in these tough siblings, the strength of their love, the permanence of their devotion.—WashingtonPost |
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A Wreath for Emmett Till
By Marilyn Nelson; Illustrated by
Philippe Lardy
This memorial to
the lynched teen is in the Homeric
tradition of poet-as-historian. It is a
heroic crown of sonnets in Petrarchan
rhyme scheme and, as such, is quite
formal not only in form but in language.
There are 15 poems in the cycle, the
last line of one being the first line of
the next, and each of the first lines
makes up the entirety of the 15th. This
chosen formality brings distance and
reflection to readers, but also calls
attention to the horrifically ugly
events. The language is highly
figurative in one sonnet, cruelly
graphic in the next. The illustrations
echo the representative nature of the
poetry, using images from nature and
taking advantage of the emotional
quality of color. There is an
introduction by the author, a page about
Emmett Till, and literary and poetical
footnotes to the sonnets. The artist
also gives detailed reasoning behind his
choices. This underpinning information
makes this a full experience, eminently
teachable from several aspects,
including historical and literary—School
Library Journal |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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