Self-taught : African American Education in Slavery and Freedom: Easyread Super Large 20pt Edition (9781442995482)
'With great skill, Heather Williams demonstrates the centrality of black people to the process of formal educationthe establish-ment of schools, the creation of a cadre of teachers, the forging of standards of literacy and numeracyin the post-emancipation years. As she does, Williams makes the case that the issue of education informed the Reconstruction periodthe two-cornered struggle between North and South over the rebuilding of Southern society, the three-cornered struggle between white Northerners, white Southerners, and black people over the nature of education, and the less well known contest between black Northerners and black Southerners over the direction of African American culture. Self-Taught is a work of major significance.'' IRA BERLIN University of Maryland ''Self-Taught is not merely the most comprehensive documentation and analysis of African American education in the South during the 18611871 period, it is in every respect the first definitive ...