Stolen Childhood, Second Edition: Slave Youth in Nineteenth-Century America

5. “ Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave”: Temporal and Spiritual Education

169 5 “Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave” Temporal and Spiritual Education The white folks feared for niggers to get any religion and education. W. L. Bost Enslaved children spent some of their leisure time in search of the fundamentals of education, both secular and sacred. Their primary concern with the temporal was literacy, while their interest in the spiritual involved religion, especially Christianity. The extent to which they succeeded depended upon their owners’ attitudes about the intellectual and religious development of slaves. Southern owners were conscious of the possibility that religion and education could undermine slavery if they changed the bondservants’ worldviews and made them restive. Neither education nor religion for northern slaves caused comparable angstamongownerssincegradualemancipationlawspromisedfreedom within a specified period. In the meantime, enslaved children destined forfreedomhadsomeopportunitiestolearntoreadandwrite.Thisisnot to say education and religion would not make northern slaves restless, it is simply a matter of acknowledging differences in the possible influences of education and religion. It was virtually impossible for owners in the North or South to prevent enslaved boys and girls from exposure toknowledge,sincetheylearnedtokeepsuchmatters“underdecovers.” Differences in the amount and kind of knowledge owners approved for theirchatteltolearnandtheamountandkindoftheknowledgeenslaved people desired for themselves fostered conflicts.1 This chapter examines how boys and girls gained literacy and practiced their religious beliefs. Of equal importance, it examines the role 170 Stolen Childhood parents and others played in teaching behavior that was appropriate for children and slaves. Parental responsibilities were especially crucial in this matter because of the possibility that an owner would arbitrarily remove children from the protective arms of loved ones. Consequently, it was necessary for adults to teach children fundamental survival skills at an early age. Despite their own travails, many enslaved parents demonstrated an unfailing love for their offspring and socialized them to endure bondage by paying deference to whites while maintaining selfrespect . This embodied a major act of resistance and equipped children to defend themselves on the psychological battlefield. Parents, whether together or alone, taught their youngsters how to tolerateinhumaneactsanddegradationwhilemaintainingtheirhumanity and keeping their spirit intact. One of the most poignant pieces of advice from a father to a son was this: “Whatever you do, treat people right.” The father’s words take on an added dimension when learning that the adolescent boy was about to be sold. The father, a partner in an abroadmarriage,arrivedonthatfatefuldayandjoinedhisfamilyinsong and prayer as they prepared the child for his departure. The separation wouldbelife-alteringfortheboyandhisparents,yetthefatherremained stoic and provided words of wisdom. He seemed to believe that if the child adhered to standards of fairness he would receive treatment in kind. While this is admirable, the circumstances suggest that the child’s reward for treating people right was not in the hands of mortals.2 Two letters written decades apart by unfree fathers contain similar advicetotheiroffspringastheynegotiatedtheintricatemazesofslavery. The first, an 1833 letter from Tennessean George Pleasant Hobbs to his “Dear Wife” in Virginia, is testimony to the difficulties of separation, especially from his daughter Elizabeth, whom he addressed fondly as “Little Lizzie.” He expressed an abiding interest in the child’s growth and development. Confidently he wrote of his dream: “I want Elizabeth to be a good girl.” To be a “good girl” in all probability meant that she was to obey, help with chores, and do anything necessary to mitigate the family’s situation. The second letter, written in 1853 by Prince Woodfin, contains a similar message. Woodfin was in a Jamestown, California, gold-mining camp while his family was in North Carolina. Woodfin’s “Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave” 171 dispatch directed to his partner urged, “Rais your children up rite” and “Learn them to be Smart and deadent and alow them to Sauce no person.”3 The fatherly advice was pertinent for surviving slavery. Courteous and “Smart” children were not likely to cause offense and would not bring reprisals upon themselves or their parents. Within the context, “Smart” does not refer to intellectual development but to industrious behavior. The timely and satisfactory completion of chores would not annoy owners, overseers, or others in the workplace. If the children were “smart” enough to escape punishments, it was testimony, in part, to their parents’ success in “raising them up rite.” Much of the advice for maneuvering through the minefields of slavery came from parents, grandparents,andotherswhohadgrownupinbondagewheredeference to whites of all ages was crucial to survival.4 Enslaved parents insisted upon respect from their children, who learned...