Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Slavery existed in the United States of America until 1865. One of the innumerable inhumane aspects of slavery was that state statutes prohibited anyone from teaching slaves to read and write. Among the reasons for these laws was to prevent slaves from forging the freedom papers that all free African Americans possessed. Once slavery was abolished, however, so did the reasons for keeping former slaves illiterate. In the years after slavery ended several organizations and individuals supported the idea of formal education for African Americans from the elementary through the post-secondary levels. Before long, colleges for black Americans existed in every jurisdiction that had sanctioned slavery. Most slave states and territories were east of the Mississippi River, but a few were west of that major American waterway. Thus, an examination of the history of black colleges west of the Mississippi will shed light not only on the advent of education for black citizens in the United States but also on the experiences of African Americans in the American West.