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Question: Black Slaves Kept From Reading!?
Why were black slaves kept from learning to read and education during colonial America!?Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
In history there have always been societies who attempted to keep people uneducated in a round about attempt to control them!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

they were NOT prevented from learning!. during they transatlantic slave trade, american scholars tried in vain to teach the africans how to read!. it was known that an educated slave was more valuable than an idiot!. all throughout history, especially during the roman empire, all slaves were educated!. the problem was that so few african slaves were able to learn to read, that it was decided that trying to teach them was just a big waste of time!. after that a few slaves did manage to educate themselves, but those were the industrious slaves, and they invariably purchased their freedom from their owners!. by the time the war broke out, there were more freed black than slaves, and most of the freed blacks had learned to read before the had been freedWww@QuestionHome@Com

It was a way of controlling the information slaves could obtain, and also to prevent them communicating with others!.

also, it was feared that slaves who could read and write would forge passes and documents to free themselves and others!.

Best wishes :-)Www@QuestionHome@Com

By keeping those enslaved in an amorphous "beast" status (unable to think and communicate like the superior beings), white supremacists/slave owners-abusers sought to keep all of the subjugated population of chattel workers in a state of helplessness!. !. !.Due to abolitionists and others breaking the log-jam of illiteracy and ignorance, a layer of reading and even composing began to break through in the 1700s and 1800s (Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, among many others) !Www@QuestionHome@Com

Because education of slaves would have allowed them to communicate, and that could be dangerous for slave owners!. It was much safer for masters to keep their slaves ignorant, and so minimizing communication to word of mouth!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It's a lot easier to control people if they're uneducated and unable to make the decision for themselves!. They were denied education during colonial but working on the field!. They were poor so they needed to make a living to survive!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Because they were slaves!.!.!. Too busy working to learn, they worked from sun up to sun down!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com