Slavery In The Late 1700's And Early 1800s

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The late 1700’s and early 1800’s were a very important time in history regarding slavery and tobacco production. There were many differing opinions on tobacco and slaves. Some of the people that were more concerned with these issues wrote articles on them. The first article was written in 1775 when a traveller wrote about tobacco in Virginia and Maryland. About twelve years after that, Thomas Jefferson wrote an article about his thoughts on slavery and how he believed that blacks were naturally inferior to whites. There were also articles written by slaved that had taught themselves to write. Frederick Douglas and Olaudah Equiano were both slaves at this time. Douglas wrote about the struggles & consequences of learning to read and write, while Equiano wrote about how he felt being taken from his home. During the controversy over allowing slaves to have equal rights, three questions evolved about the ability of slaves to learn, the opportunities at…show more content…
Olaudah Equiano, in response to this question, believes that the whites were afraid to let them learn in fear of the slaves retaliating and possibly freeing themselves. The whites also used their lack of education as a way to classify themselves at a higher status than the blacks. By not allowing the slaves a chance at an english education, it made sure that they were always fearful of what the whites were saying, which resulted in obedience. In the article “Olaudah Equiano Describes His Enslavement, 1971” Equiano is speaking of his first encounter with the white people when he writes “. . . the language they spoke (which was so different from any I had ever heard) united to confirm me in this belief [that they were going to kill us.] Very similar to Equiano’s thinking was Frederick Douglas. He believes that the whites
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