Part 13 (2/2)
[Footnote 6: Letter of St George Tucker in Joshua Coffin's _Slave Insurrections_]
Camden was disturbed by an insurrection in 1816 and Charleston in 1822 by a formidable plot which the officials believed was due to the ”sinister” influences of enlightened Negroes[1] The anization was Denmark Vesey He had learned to read and write, had accumulated an estate worth 8000, and had purchased his freedom in 1800[2] Jack Purcell, an accomplice of Vesey, weakened in the crisis and confessed He said that Vesey was in the habit of reading to hies in the newspapers, that related to Santo Doo and apparently every accessible pamphlet that had any connection with slavery[3] One day he read to Purcell the speeches of Mr King on the subject of slavery and told Purcell how this friend of the Negro race declared he would continue to speak, write, and publish paest day he lived,” until the Southern States consented to emancipate their slaves[4]
[Footnote 1: _The City Gazette and Coust 21, 1822]
[Footnote 2: _Ibid_, August 21, 1822]
[Footnote 3: _The City Gazette and Coust 21, 1822]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid_, August 21, 1822]
The statement of the Governor of South Carolina also shows the influence of the educated Negro This official felt that Monday, the slave of Mr Gill, was theable to read and write he ”attained an extraordinary and dangerous influence over his fellows” ”Permitted by his owner to occupy a house in the central part of this city, he was afforded hourly opportunities for the exercise of his skill on those ere attracted to his shop by business or favor” ”Materials were abundantly furnished in the seditious paht into the State by equally culpable incendiaries, while the speeches of the oppositionists in Congress to the ad effect to his ht ho his heart fired with the spirit of liberty by his perusal of the accounts of servile insurrections and the congressional debate on slavery
[Footnote 1: _The Norfolk and Ports 30, 1822]
Southerners of all types thereafter attacked the policy of educating Negroes[1] Men who had expressed theed their attitude when it became evident that abolition literature in the hands of slaves would not only make them dissatisfied, but cause them to take drastic measures to secure liberty Those who had eroes to increase their econoy who had insisted that the bond to enable theion, were thereafter willing to forego the benefits of their salvation rather than see them destroy the institution of slavery
[Footnote 1: Hodgson, _Whitney's Reh North America_, p 184]
In consequence of this tendency, State after State enacted ent laws to control the situation Missouri passed in 1817 an act so to regulate the traveling and asse headway against the white people by insurrection Of course, in so doing the reactionaries deprived them of the opportunities of helpful associations and of attending schools[1] By 1819 er of the various colored schools in Virginia The General asse that there should be no roes, orwith such slaves for teaching the[2]
The opposition here seeenerally enlightened in the towns of the State and that white persons as teachers in these institutions were largely instru this result Mississippi even as a Territory had tried to meet the problem of unlawful asseroes above the number of five to meet for educational purposes[3] Only with the perious worshi+p conducted by a recognized white minister or attended by ”two discreet and reputable persons”[4]
[Footnote 1: _Laws of Missouri Territory_, etc, p 498]
[Footnote 2: Tate, _Digest of the Laws of Virginia_, pp 849-850]
[Footnote 3: Poindexter, _Revised Code of the Laws of Mississippi_, p
390]
[Footnote 4: _Ibid_, p 390]
The probleent persons who ly in 1814[1] the State passed a law prohibiting the iration of free persons of color into that commonwealth This precaution, however, was not deeroes of New Berne, Tarborough, and Hillsborough, North Carolina,[2] had risen, and David Walker of Massachusetts had published to the slaves his fiery appeal to arms[3] In 1830, therefore, Louisiana enacted anotherthat whoever should write, print, publish, or distribute anything having the tendency to produce discontent a the slaves, should on conviction thereof be imprisoned at hard labor for life or suffer death at the discretion of the court It was provided, too, that whoever used any language or beca into the State any paper, book, or pa this discontent should suffer practically the same penalty All persons who should teach, or perht, any slave to read or write, should be imprisoned not less than one month nor more than twelve[4]
[Footnote 1: Bullard and Curry, _A New Digest of the Statute Laws of the State of Louisiana_, p 161]
[Footnote 2: Coffin, _Slave Insurrections_, p 22]
[Footnote 3: Walker mentioned ”our wretchedness in consequence of slavery, our wretchedness in consequence of ignorance, our wretchedness in consequence of the preachers of the religion of Jesus Christ, and our wretchedness in consequence of the colonization plan”
See _Walker's Appeal_]
[Footnote 4: Acts passed at the Ninth Session of the Legislature of Louisiana, p 96]
Yielding to the deia passed a year later a law providing that any Negro who should teach another to read or write should be punished by fine and whipping If a white person should so offend, he should be punished with a fine not exceeding 500 and with imprison istrate[1]