Butchart notes that “ducation is always, everywhere, and inevitably political” (xix), a point clearly illustrated by Webb’s novel, where politics and education are inextricably linked. Because Webb performs much of the novel’s political work through the character of a rebellious though highly intelligent child, he is able to advocate black solidarity and expose racial injustice while maintaining a white readership.įocusing on Webb’s interest in education opens up the political possibilities of the novel, illuminating the complex position of a black community advocating for uplift in a culture of white supremacy. In Charlie, Webb creates both a student and an educator who asks well-intentioned white characters-as well as readers-to examine and transform their erroneous beliefs.
Black education as a means to uplift is a prominent concern for Webb a meaningful part of his project is to expose the shortcomings of white-sponsored educational programs that assume white superiority. Charlie exploits his teacher’s assumptions of black intellectual inferiority, engaging in a social critique of educational inequity that Webb masks as comic childhood rebellion. Charlie, a proficient reader and writer, responds by theatrically stuttering through his speller, aware that his teacher has never entertained the possibility “that he could do more than spell” (248). Webb’s 1857 novel The Garies and Their Friends. “Can you spell?” Miss Cass asks her sole black pupil, the young and mischievous Charlie Ellis, in a critical but often overlooked scene of Frank J.
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