[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Prior to the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, generations of African-American children were punished for attempting to read or trying to better themselves through education. For them, liberation meant in practical terms the freedom to learn. That principle -- education is liberation -- is still true today.

Man, where is this moron coming from?  True, that there were instances of this, but it was also true that many southern slaveholders had black overseers and book keepers (as well as domestics) who had to read to fulfill their duties.

And let's not forget the free blacks and the black slaveholders as well.  Nowhere was there an official policy of keeping blacks ignorant.

[summer]

Nowhere was there an official policy of keeping blacks ignorant.

Yes, there was such a policy, whether official or unofficial, as many slaves were punished if they tried to learn how to read. Where are YOU coming from?

[gatorman]

Frumious Bandersnatch - you are right that there was not an "official" policy of keeping blacks ignorant. However if you follow the link below it states that only 10% of the slaves were literate . . . now it is that 10% literacy rate is what Jeb Bush was addressing.

Literacy Revisited: http://www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=22tl.h21

. . . The popular conception, even among historians, is that literacy rates in the Southern states were generally very low. Actually, some 80 percent of whites and free blacks, as well as 10 percent or more of slaves, could read, said Beth Barton Schweiger, a professor of history at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

"It is counterintuitive," particularly when you consider the lack of formal schooling throughout many parts of the South, Ms. Schweiger said. "The literacy rates were rather high, especially among slaves, especially since society was doing all it could to prevent slaves from becoming literate." . . .

FRegards . . .

 

[summer]

Re your post #18 -- I think you are really wrong here.

From The Bible and Slavery:

"Although [slaves were] generally prohibited from learning to read and write, and in some states prohibited by law from reading the Bible, slaves heard and interpreted the Scriptures in an immediate, historical and spiritual sense. "

So, I guess Gov. Bush knows more than you think he knows.