African Americans & Education

Question: Do you think that if White Americans allowed slaves to read and have an education from the beginning, would history be different and how so?

If African American slaves were given the right to an education when they came to the United States their lives could have been much different. “Plantation owners were in constant fear of slave revolts and, consequently, denied their workers any form of education. There was a general fear that literacy would expose the slaves to abolition literature” (p.42). Yes, there probably would have been revolts once slaves began reading abolition articles. There probably would have been even more slaves trying to escape to the North.

However, I believe that if African Americans were given the right to an education and literacy, they would have felt somewhat more civilized. Now, I’m not trying to say that getting an education would make slaves feel equal to whites. I’m just trying to say that having an education would decrease the equality gap of slaves and whites.

African American slaves thought horribly about their white owners. They lived in horrible conditions and were denied everything. By receiving an education, I think the hatred African Americans had for their owners would not be as great. I really believe that African American education could have been the key for some peace between the two cultures.