Anti-literacy laws prevented millions of enslaved Americans from learning to read and write, and from chronicling their lives on paper. Thanks to oral history projects, however, not all of the stories of the enslaved are lost. And, thanks to their ingenuity and determination, some Americans in bondage did learn to write their own stories. This series on slave narratives and the pursuit of literacy begins with the memoir of Bethany Veney, also known as Aunty Betty.