The restriction on teaching slaves to read and write was not codified until
1819 in the Revised Code. There was no law preventing teaching slaves before
that, and there were numerous instances where slaves were taught to read and
write. It is more the absence of any provisions for organized teaching rather
than a restriction on teaching that seems to have resulted in a historical
inference that there was a restriction before 1819. Even for white children,
there was no law requiring they be taught until 1796 when the General
Assembly established a public school system. The Revised Code of 1819(c.111),
which was commissioned by the General Assembly to codify the law (distinct
from the effort at compilation by Hening), does incorporate a prior statute
(Jan 24, 1803, c. 119) restricting the assembly of slaves in the "nighttime,"
which was intended to counter conspiracy and insurrection. Gabriel's Plot to
take over Richmond in 1800 signaled a warning to white Virginia and rumors of
the long and bloody uprising in Haiti, which ended the year before with the
slaves victorious, had traveled the slave grapevine for some years. The
language added in 1819 restricts "teaching " in the "day or night." The
expansion of the 1803 statute to make "teaching" unlawful indicates that the
restriction arose from white concern that these slave schools provided a
method for slaves to pass along information or plans for insurrection.

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