Scrabble?! ANTIELITE

Definitions of ANTIELITE in various dictionaries:

During the time of slavery in America there existed anti-literacy laws, its restrictions on educating slaves. An intelligent slave, in some cultures, might be taught letter-writing and given secretarial work. In contrast, anti-literacy laws were in force in many slave states before and during the American Civil War regarding slaves, freedmen, and in some cases all people of color. These largely came into force following abolitionist David Walker's 1829 publication of Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which openly advocated rebellion, and Nat Turner's slave rebellion of 1831. The Southern white public was already fearful because of the revolution in Haiti (1804) and the Denmark Vesey revolt of 1822. Now slaveowners — in many cases the wealthiest and influential men in the South — were close to panic. Controlling news by controlling literacy was absurd. But what else could they do? William M. Banks wrote, in Black Intellectuals:"Literacy also threatened the control and surveillance network for slaves in the South. Concern about runaways prompted slaveholders to require passes for all slaves traveling unaccompanied off the plantation. Literate slaves, however, could forge the necessary papers and escape to the North (few white patrollers could read well enough to verify the documents). Many slaves who learned to write did indeed achieve freedom by this method. The wanted posters for runaways often mentioned whether the escapee could write. ...Some slaveholders tolerated slave literacy. Others ignored the statutes for economic reasons, realizing that literate slaves could handle record-keeping and business transactions, and thus increase the profits and leisure time of the planter class. The prohibitions were also ignored by pious masters who wanted their slaves to read the Bible. There are also numerous accounts of planter children enjoying "playing school" and teaching their slave playmates the rudiments of literacy."