Before the American Civil War, during slavery times, there was a series of anti-literacy laws that prohibited slaves from learning how to write or read. Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, and Virginia passed anti-literacy laws, some of them punished the person who attempted to teach slaves to read and write a fine of 100 pounds and 6 months in prison.
Because of that, once slavery was over and Reconstruction created the Freedmen Bureau, former slaves wanted to read and write and be a part of society.
