Correction

In “NYC Schools: Separate and Unequal” (WV No. 1157, 21 June), we incorrectly stated, “It was once a crime punishable by death to teach a slave to read.” This statement is too sweeping. Punishments varied from state to state, ranging from heavy fines to imprisonment and whippings. For most of the period before the defeat of the slavocracy in the Civil War, the death penalty for promoting slave literacy was not on the books of any state. However, the 1831 Nat Turner rebellion, along with the spread of abolitionist literature that flooded the South, struck fear into the hearts of the slave masters. As a result, Virginia strengthened its anti-literacy laws so that the death penalty could be imposed.

In some cases, state statutes also mandated punishments for slaves caught reading or writing; however, the plantation owners often took matters into their own hands, meting out all manner of cruelties. Defiantly, many slaves like Frederick Douglass devised creative methods to learn how to read and write as an important step toward freedom. Douglass went on to become one of the most eloquent leaders of the abolitionist movement.