January 1832

In January 1832, the Virginia legislature holds a remarkable public debate on gradual emancipation triggered by Turner's rebellion. Delegate Thomas Jefferson Randolph proposes a plan. Western Virginia delegates support it. But Eastern planters defeat abolition and instead pass sweeping new repressive codes: banning Black preaching, tightening patrol laws, restricting free Black movement.

In January 1832, the Virginia legislature debates gradual emancipation triggered by Turner's rebellion. Delegate Thomas Jefferson Randolph proposes a plan; western Virginia delegates support it. But eastern planters defeat abolition and instead pass sweeping new codes: banning Black preaching, tightening patrol laws, restricting free Black movement — more repression over freedom.

Georgia (1829, reinforced 1833) and Alabama (1832) pass laws criminalizing education for enslaved people. Georgia's law bans teaching enslaved or free Black people to read and write, imposing fines on whites and corporal punishment on Black violators. Alabama's law prohibits assembling to teach Black people. The wave of anti-literacy laws sweeps the entire South after Turner's rebellion.