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No longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read. Some of these restrictions had been in effect before the Negro Act ...

Most of the Southern states, before the Civil War, made it illegal to teach a slave to read and write. Now, some African Americans did learn to read and write secretly. Some... their master or ...

A former slave who taught himself how to read and write, and became a wealthy man leaving between $750,000 and $1 million upon his death. An active philanthropist and a social activist who worked ...