Fearing that black literacy would prove a threat to the slave system -- which relied on slaves' dependence on masters -- whites in many colonies instituted laws forbidding slaves to learn to read or write and making it a crime for others to teach them.
It cost too much to hire teachers to instruct so many slaves. The ability to read might cause them to rebel against the slaveholders. There were not enough textbooks for children to learn. Slaves did not need to read since they were only laborers
