LITR 5731: Seminar in American Multicultural Literature
Sample Student Midterm, Fall 2007

Sonya Prince

Does Literacy Really Guarantee Freedom?

            Literacy was a very important topic during the slaves fight for freedom. Slaves wanted to learn to read and their slave masters did not want them to learn to read at all. As a result, most slaves did not become literate. If they tried to learn to read or write they would be punished. In the stories, “The Life of Frederick Douglass” and “Incidents in the Life a Slave Girl” we see examples of how hard it was for slaves to become literate. On the other hand, in “Song of Solomon” we saw how hard life was for Corinthians after becoming literate to live a life free of servitude. This leaves only one conclusion. Literacy did not guarantee freedom from oppression.

Although slaves were punished by their slave masters for learning to read or write, it is ironic that most of what we now know about slavery comes from the very slaves who were denied that privilege. These slaves wanted to tell their own story.  The most widely known slave narrative is “The Life of Frederick Douglass”, written by Douglass.   

            Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. He barely knew his mother and it was rumored at the plantation that his master was also his father. Nevertheless, Douglass become a favorite of his master’s and eventually would be placed under his protection from the older boys on the plantation. When he moved to Maryland he became Mrs. Auld’s slave. This “opened the gateway, to all (his) subsequent prosperity” (Morrison 362). It was Mrs. Auld who first taught Douglass how to form words and learn to read. However, she stopped because Mr. Auld forbade her to teach Douglass to read. Mr. Auld told his wife:

If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master-to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now…if you teach that nigger (speaking of Douglass) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy” (364).

After this statement, Douglass realized that he could use literacy to escape slavery. He realized that reading and writing could only help in his quest to become a free man. Mrs. Auld didn’t realize she was starting something that Douglass would set out to finish.  Mr. Auld’s statement forced Douglass to see literacy as a powerful force. Something so powerful, people would do anything to keep slaves from having it. He wanted to learn to read and write by any means necessary. After he started working for Mr. Freeland, he began teaching a small number of slaves to read, and before long the few grew to over 40 attending “Sabbath School”.

Literacy aided Douglass in devising a plan to escape slavery by allowing him to write letters that said he was allowed to travel. Literacy also helped Douglass because he was able to seek his “own employment, (make) his own contracts….” (415). His ability to seek out his own employment was handy, as he was allowed to contract out his labor to his master, Mr. Gardner.    

            Literacy also benefited Linda in “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl”. Linda, like Douglass was born into slavery.  However, she didn’t know that until she was six. Later, she was sent away to take care of Dr. Flint’s baby. At the age of twelve she found herself being pursued by Dr. Flint and hated by Mrs. Flint. However, through all the evil that was growing around her, she was able to teach herself to read and write.  This benefited Linda in two ways. First, when she escaped and traveled northward she was able to deflect Dr. Flint from finding her. She accomplished this task by addressing letters from various places so Dr. Flint would believe she was somewhere she really wasn’t. Tara Edwards writes, “She uses her literacy directly as an aide to her escape from slavery by sending letters … in order for Dr. Flint to assume she travels a great deal” (2). Second, Her literacy allows her to see a trap set up for her by Dr. Flint. Edwards continues, “Linda receives a letter, supposedly written by Emily’s younger brother, begging Linda to come home. Her literacy allows her to recognize the true author as Dr. Flint” (2). Literacy truly saves her life. Once, from being killed for running away and another by escaping Dr. Flint’s grasp to bring her back to him.

            Although literacy benefited Linda, she still could not share with anyone that she could read or write. She hid the fact that she could read or write for fear that she would be punished.  During this time, the dominant culture denied slaves an education because they feared they would rise up and take over. Also, since slavery was profitable they did not want the institution of slavery itself to end. They felt that the only way to keep slavery going was to keep slaves ignorant. “The choices and voice gained through literacy are understood well as a threat to the control of the slaves…Allowing slaves to have such voice and choices through literacy would severely undermine their submission to the institution of slavery…” (Edwards 1) Both, Linda and Douglass had no choice or voice. If they admitted to anyone that they could read or write then their masters would assume they would want to escape. 

            By the time Macon Dead Jr. was born, African Americans were free from the institution of slavery. However, Macon Jr’s constant push for becoming literate and his push for making sure his children were literate stemmed from his passion to make sure they did not end up like his father. Macon Jr. told Milkman that his father lost land and money because he could not read or write. He felt that his father’s illiteracy led to his downfall. Morrison writes,

“Papa couldn’t read, couldn’t sign his name. Had a mark he used. They tricked him. He signed something, I don’t know what, and they told him they owned his property. He never read nothing. I tried to teach him, but he said he couldn’t remember those little marks from one day to the next. Wrote one word in his life-Pilate’s name; copied it out of the bible. That’s what she got folded up in that earring. He should have let me teach him. Everything bad that ever happened to him happened because he couldn’t read” (62).

Macon Jr. believed if his father were literate he would have given his family a better start in life. To Macon, all his father’s bad luck resulted from being illiterate. This made Macon Jr. believe that literacy was the key to success. If he became literate then his outcome in life would be different from his father’s. His would be better. Macon Jr. was right. He was the leader his father never was. He had the money and the educated children. Literacy benefited Jr. and his family because he made it a point to instill in them the importance of an education. However, like his father, he still wasn’t good enough to be accepted by white society.

            On the other hand, Corinthians Dead was even more educated than anybody in her family. She went to school overseas; she traveled and visited amongst various cultures. Morrison writes, “The three years she had spent in college, a junior year in France…her education had taught her how to be an enlightened Mother and wife, able to contribute to the civilization…” (205).

It would seem that Corinthians would be a working professional, “teacher, Librarian, or…well, something in intelligent and public-spirited” (Morrison 206). However, that was not the case. “…Corinthians was a powerless black woman in a society controlled by wealthy white people” (Ftacnik 2). Her education was wasted. When she arrived back in the U.S., she was seen as another useless Negro. Ordinarily, a lady who was well educated would have a good job and be in apposition of power if she wanted to. White women could choose whether or not they worked or stayed home with the kids. Not Corinthians. Corinthians does not have the power to choose. “Morrison plays with the idea of literacy representing power, as Corinthians is highly literate, and can read the same books as her employer, however, Corinthians has no power and is relegated to her lowly occupation” (Ftacnik 2). In fact, it is ironic that Corinthian’s employer feels good about hiring her because she dresses and has good manner. Morrison writes, “Miss Graham was delighted with Corinthians’ dress and slightly uppity manners. It gave her house the foreign air she liked to affect, for she was the core, the very heartbeat, of the city’s literary world” (208). Corinthians character showed that literacy doesn’t guarantee the best things in life. Nor, does it necessarily guarantee freedom from oppression.  

            To conclude, literacy allowed Douglass and Linda to escape from danger and oppression.  Macon Jr. who was not born into slavery, but still reeling in the after affects from it, also

benefited from being literate. He was rich and enjoyed a life filled with money and power. However, these people were still oppressed because they were not considered equal by the dominant culture. They had to hide their literacy so whites would not feel threatened or in Linda’s case so she would not be punished. Morrison invented Corinthians’ character to show another side of oppression. She showed us an educated woman forced into another kind of servitude; so that we understand that even with the best education, African Americans were still considered low class citizens. Although literacy helped these individuals out of some immediate dangers and situations, it never freed them from the pitfalls of everyday life that went with being black. The dream of freedom for all African American’s was deferred. Langston Hughes writes regarding a dream deferred in Harlem, “…does it explode” (Line 11). In the case for African Americans, it did not. They eventually became free.                  

Work Cited

   Brent, Linda. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” 1861. The Classic Slave Narratives. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin, 1987.

Douglass, Frederick. “Narratives of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” 1845. The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Penguin, 1987.

   Edwards, Tara. “Education in African American Literature.” LITR 5731-Seminar in American Minority Literature.  2 October 2001. http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731/models/midterms/mt01/mt01edwards.htm

  Ftacnik, Jane. “Precious, Corinthians, and Douglass: Literacy as Relief from Oppression?” LITR 5731-Seminar in American Minority Literature.   22 February 2003. 

http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/5731/models/midterms/mt03/mt03ftacnik.htm

   Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin, 1977.