ABSTRACT
This chapter presents evidence for how Native Americans and enslaved Africans and Afro-Carolinians strategically learned and used new skills, practices, and discourses. It was how they used their knowledge—not their supposed ignorance—that drew responses from colonials. The chapter considers the successes and failures of missionary work among Natives and African slaves, as well as evidence for learning of English and writing among both groups. It examines the biographies of Mary Musgrove (Creek Indian), Attakullakulla (Cherokee), and several people of African descent. Trade networks, religious initiatives, and print emerged as avenues for the development of learned, hybrid identities for the colonized. Learning by the colonized created a question for colonials: was instruction of the colonized in English literacy and religion safe for colonial settlements? The dominant answer, “no,” was not the only answer colonials reached. Nonetheless, colonial governments took steps to limit and shape Native and African learning.
