Reading, writing and countingamong enslaved women: a history to be written

Abstract:

The main purpose of this article is to identify whether enslaved women knew how to read and to write, as well as to analyze how they learned those skills. First, we discuss the existence of schools for enslaved people. Then, we reveal some aspects involved in the education of enslaved women, especially concerning homemaking skills. Finally, we present data that shows that enslaved women learned how to read and to write in private classes, schools for women, and homes - whether the home of their owners or the homes of white women who were poor or in better economic conditions or of black and mixed-ethnicity women who were free or enfranchised. All data for this research was gathered in newspapers available in the Digital Newspaper Archives maintained by the National Library of Brazil.

Keywords:
reading; writing; slavery; education