Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol. 2 No. 5

WHEN VOICES ARE MADE SILENT
It’s no secret that certain stories, voices and groups
have been silenced throughout history. Books have
been banned, stories have been pulled and voices
have been hushed for the comfort of one group.
When the U.S. was first founded, the Founding Fathers
drafted the Bill of Rights, detailing every right
Americans would have while they lived in the States.
One of those rights was the freedom of speech. Every
American would have the right to freely express any
emotion they had through songs, books, poems, and
other forms of art.
Just so long as those thoughts, ideas and feelings didn’t
offend anyone.
America is a country built on the idea of freedom in
every aspect of life. But there have been times where
that freedom is not experienced by every group. When
Black people were removed from their homes and
brought to the Americas, they also brought plenty of
stories, songs, and voices with them.
But by the time those people reached the Americas,
those stories were gone.
Black people were forced to assimilate into American
culture.
Of course, the voices of Black people never completely
went silenced. As slavery and oppression wore on in
America, the cries for freedom got louder.
In August 1831, Virginia pastor Nat Turner led a bloody
revolt in Southampton County, Virginia that lasted
around 24 hours. The revolt killed 55 white people and
led to the execution of 55 enslaved people. However, this
rebellion did more than just violence.
It led to sweeping reform across Virginia and the United
States. Lawmakers wanted to prevent enslaved people
from being able to assemble and become educated.
The very freedoms the Bill of Rights promised every
American were stripped away from Black people.
At the time of this revolt, only 10% of enslaved people
in the South were literate. But this was still too high
of a rate for slave owners. Literacy gave Black people
power. With power came knowledge. With knowledge
came rebellions.
“An educated enslaved person was a dangerous person
[to slave owners],” said Clarence Lusane, a professor at
Howard University.
In April 1831, Virginia lawmakers passed a law that
forbade any gatherings to teach freed African
Americans how to read or write. In 1833, lawmakers
in Alabama stated that any person that tried to teach
a free or enslaved Black person would be fined no less
than $250.
If this law was passed in 2022, the fine would be no less
than $8,367.
It became increasingly clear that the fear of rebellion
and abolitionism fueled these laws. White people could
control illiterate Black people. They could dictate what
Black people learned, what they viewed as right or
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