Anti-literacy laws in the United States

Anti-literacy laws in many slave states before and during the American Civil War affected slaves, freedmen, and in some cases all people of color. Some laws arose from concerns that literate slaves could forge the documents required to escape to a free state. According to William M. Banks, "Many slaves who learned to write did indeed achieve freedom by this method. The wanted posters for runaways often mentioned whether the escapee could write." Anti-literacy laws also arose from fears of slave insurrection, particularly around the time of abolitionist David Walker's 1829 publication of Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, which openly advocated rebellion, and Nat Turner's Rebellion of 1831.

The first anti-literacy law was passed by the legislature of the colony of South Carolina in 1740. Enacted in response to the 1739 Stono Rebellion, it prohibited enslaved people from learning to write and restricted their ability to read to prevent an organized slave rebellion. Southern slave states enacted anti-literacy laws between 1740 and 1834, and the United States is the only country known to have had anti-literacy laws.