news2notice

"The oldest state constitution, (1780 Massachusetts), drafted by John Adams, states: 'Wisdom and knowledge, as well as virtue, diffused generally among the body of the people, being necessary for the preservation of their rights and liberties; and as these depend on spreading the opportunities and advantages of education in the various parts of the country, and among the different orders of the people, it shall be the duty of legislatures and magistrates, in all future periods of this commonwealth, to cherish the interests of literature and the sciences, and all seminaries of them'." from a LTE to
"the New Yorker" by Sanford Levinson of Austin, TX, agreeing that there is no mention of education in our Constitution. When and where were state laws made prohibiting the teaching of reading to slaves, which I first heard about in High School, reading about Nat Turner. Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, "A slave in the White Hours", wrote about a slave who could read, who wrote the first White House Memoir, titled something like, "Memories of James Madison".

Labels: John Adams-Education-Slave in White House