... the ability to read and write was crucial to both religious practice and to the assertion of individual and political rights. As Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explains, "The act of writing for the slave constituted the act of creating a public, historical self." Since literacy presented slaves with a means in which to assert their humanity, white slave holders in the South actively ... which many slaves strove to exemplify. For the most part, however, most slave children were legally deprived of an education of any kind. A slave who was capable of reading or writing was probable to attempt to ...

• Word Count: 2340
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate