Education of Slaves

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             Through a compilation of journals, Edmund Drago created a solid argument regarding the Whites" fear of slave education. Slaves had to take classes in secret, behind the backs of their masters; however most slave owners were afraid to allow their "property" to be educated beyond the tasks of farming and housekeeping . They believed that knowledge would lead the slaves to hostility and revolt. Few slaves rose from their original status to the ranks of the slave elite or even the free-black. Slaves gained status among themselves by the work they did for other slaves rather than that which they did for their owners.
             Learning of their ancestry and adapting their culture to conform to their restricted life as a slave resulted in a revolutionized culture for African American slaves, which is clearly evident through Thomas Webber's work. Slave culture had at its heart a set of cultural themes, forms of artistic expression, a religion, a family pattern, and a community structure which set blacks apart from whites and enabled them to form and control a world of their own values and definitions . This essentially meant that although slaves were bound to their plantations, they still developed their own sense of individuality, their own way of life. Many whites wanted to believe that they were capable of controlling every aspect of their slaves" lives; however this was not the case, in the least. Through countless generations, African culture was passed down and survived its journey to the present day, despite all odds.
             Even while they were enslaved, African Americans aspired to literacy. The majority of slaves did recognize that the ability to read and write was crucial to both religious practice and to the assertion of individual and political rights. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains, "The act of writing for the slave constituted the act of creating a public, historical self." Since literacy presented slaves with a means in which to assert their humanity, white slave holders in the South actively opposed efforts to educate them.