Some of the free negroes could read and write, and a few had graduated at some Northern college.

Though the laws which forbade teaching slaves to read or write were not generally enforced, only favored house servants received instruction.

It is certain that the percentage of illiteracy was at least 90, and possibly as high as 95.

This has been progressively reduced until in 1910 the proportion of the illiterate negro population ten years old or over was 30.4 per cent, and the number of college and university graduates was considerable though the proportion was small.
Since the percentage of native white illiteracy in the United States is but 3, the negro is evidently ten times as illiterate as the native white.

This comparison is not fair to the negro, however, for illiteracy in the urban communities in the United States is less than in the rural districts, owing largely to better educational facilities in the cities; and 82.3 per cent of the negro population is rural.[1] [Footnote 1: In New England negro illiteracy is 7.1 per cent in the cities and 16.9 per cent in the rural communities.