Hi, that was the law in some states to apease early Unions and cut competetition with free white workers. A totally uneducated slave would have been of very little value in the 4 story Atlanta A.C. and B.F. Wyly Wholesale Grocery warehouse. The teamster who deliverred to local stores would have to be able to read orders and boxes and street signs. Many white children had black playmates who were taught at home by the mother or the playmate himself. Some were called "Whipping Boys". It seems our politicians seem to still have their favorite political "Whipping Boys" and try to single issue everything for the last 150 or so years. They told us in East Tennessee that some census takers could not read & write very well, but their slave or wife could, and they would give the counting stick or family score pad to the one at home who could read and write. The freed slaves from East Tennesse area who were sent back to Liberia could read and write- if not, who wrote the first Liberian Democatic Constitution? No one ever researches in and about Liberia. The letters sent to East Tennessee reported at Sevier Family Reunion wrote very clear letters back to white families they knew offerinf to work for 20 or so years to pay for their trip back to the U.S. That was their major poroblen in Liberia- they were almost the only ones there who could read and write- they were americanized. I also really don't think the "Americans" really could or tried to do much regulation of slaves of the Indians of the 5 civilized Tribes and other tribes. Some could read and write English and Sequpya's Cherokee Alphabet, still taught as a high school requirement in Cherokee, Northn Carolina. Uneducated slavery would have destroyed itself by 1900 or before as the Plantation land wore out. They thoutht no new soil being made. If you think that , visit Erath County, Texas, the #1 Dairy county in Texas. The dairymen beg you to sign a Government tpermit to let them spread dairy waste on your fields. These fields produce more hay than at any time in history. One former professional Rodeo Cowboy near Dublin has invested over a million dollars in a Composting operation on other people's land and has a contract to supply it to Kroger Grocery Stores as bagged compost. Take care Charles Wyly P.S. I agree some slaveowners were abusive,like some husbands are, but not all. One doesn't abuse someone he has money invested in if he stays in business. That is counterproductive. It was far cheaper to hire unemployed Irish for a nickel a day and no shelter, food or Doctors and let him die of Malaria and Alligators as he drained swamps. for rice fields . It was far too expensive to loose a slave to an alligator. Irishmen didn't count. In the 1960's an Irish Guide in New Orleans told us the French went to St. Louis Cathedral and the Irish went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, for the most part if they had early Louisiana Roots. The only respected Irish were the few rich ones and Priests in 1850's.