In 2021, attempts to censor books in the United States spiked to nearly five times as many as the previous year. This resurgence came a year after the largest series of demonstrations for Black freedom in U.S. history, prompted by the murder of George Floyd and the widespread reading of antiracist books.
Book banning, however, is nothing new. Americans have been attacking literacy in reaction to Black freedom struggles for 286 years.
Negro Act of 1740:
On May 10, 1740, the South Carolina General Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740. It is also known as “An Act for the better Ordering and Governing Negroes and other Slaves in this Province.” The Act was in direct response to the Stono Rebellion, a revolt led by enslaved people a couple of months prior.
What does it say?
The Act deemed all unfree “negroes, Indians, mulattoes and mustizoes” and their descendants “to be chattel persons.” It forbade teaching enslaved people how to write, which barred them from reading. It prohibited carrying “dangerous weapons,” and from using “drums, horns, or other loud instruments.” It also restricted enslaved people from gathering, especially on weekends and holidays.
The Act also set rules for enslavers. They now had to provide “sufficient” clothing and food to those they enslaved. If an enslaver murdered an enslaved person out of “willful” intent or by “sudden heat of passion,” they would have to pay a fine.
Even so, the law set a violent reminder. If you incited an insurrection or promoted running away, you would “suffer death.”
What caused the Act?
The Stono Rebellion began on September 9th, 1739, on the banks of the Stono River in South Carolina’s Lowcountry. The group’s leader, Jemmy, and his followers most likely came from the kingdom of Kongo. This area was known to have high literacy rates in Portuguese because of its many schools and churches, so enslaved people from the Kingdom of Kongo most likely would have known Portuguese. Because of this, authorities suspected they had read a Spanish edict that was first created in 1733 and then publicized in 1738. The document granted freedom to any enslaved person from the British colonies who arrived in St. Augustine, Florida, a Spanish colony.
As the group moved south, members played drums, carried flags and spoke of “Liberty.” Along the way, they looted a nearby shop, burned houses and killed over twenty White enslavers. Eventually, they stopped by the Edisto River. There, a militia led by Lieutenant-Governor William Bull ambushed them. Bull’s forces immediately murdered around 40 people. In the ensuing weeks and months, patrols captured and killed the majority of escapees.
Bull wrote the only eyewitness account of the rebellion. It was during his term as governor that the General Assembly passed the Negro Act of 1740. It took more than 100 years for the 13th Amendment in 1865 to overturn it.
Why is it important?
Before 1740, South Carolina defined slavery ambiguously. In 1691, state law referred to enslaved people as “freehold property,” a system like serfdom. In 1696, it used even more obscure language. It said enslaved people were “slaves to all Intents and purposes.” In contrast, the 1740 Negro Act referred to enslaved people as “chattel.” This term meant that people’s bodies became property.
The Act inspired anti-literacy laws like Georgia’s Slave Code of 1755. In the 1800s, lawmakers in South Carolina used literacy tests to restrict Black people’s voting rights.
Even with the Act in place, enslavers continued to live in fear of revolts–proof that as long as there have been attempts to limit freedom, there has always been a counter.