8 inhumane ‘slave codes’ created to keep black people in bondage in the 1700s

Enslaved blacks barred from reading and writing

It was illegal to teach a slave to read or write, nor could any slave transmit or possess “inflammatory literature”. People who were caught running a school or teaching enslaved blacks reading and writing were fined or jailed. Religious motives sometimes overcame this, however, as many white Christians educated slaves to enable the reading of the Bible, said U.S. History.

RELATED STORIES

How this light-skinned slave child was used to entice white Americans to abolish slavery

This African American son of slaves became so rich in Nigeria that he sent his U.S. family bags of gold

See the first African-owned and published newspapers from the 1800s

These popular landmarks in the U.S. were once slave market sites