Chapter 4 of 7 · about 4 min
Laura Learns to Read
What do the records tell us about Laura's ability to read and write — and what can't they tell us about how she learned?
Experience the Evidence TableStory
In 1870, a census taker in Copiah County reached Laura's line and made a single mark in the education columns. The archive reads it as “cannot write,” with “cannot read” left blank. On the same page, Bettie's and John's lines carry two marks each.
Read that way, the page records Laura, about eighteen, as able to read. The marks are small and faint. The archive's reading is a transcription of the page, not a certainty, and it does not tell us how well she read or what she read.
Ten years later, the 1880 census records Laura V. Smith and John the same way: able to read, not able to write. That entry has been read from the original page.
Later records do not agree. Compiled research reports that the 1900 census marked Laura as unable to read or write, and that 1910 again marked her as able to read but not write. Those two pages still need to be checked against the original images.
Who taught her? The records do not say. In 1870, a young woman named Melissa Hines, about nineteen and recorded with an occupation associated with teaching, appears in the same community. That is a research question, not a finding. Nothing yet shows that Melissa taught Laura.
A census mark is one person's answer to one question on one day. It may not capture everything Laura knew. The next chapter turns to her marriage to John Smith.
The record
Reading the record
Census literacy columns record a yes-or-no answer, usually given by whoever spoke to the enumerator. They do not measure skill.
Reading without writing was a common pattern: many people learned to read in church, at home or in short school terms before they had the chance to practise writing.
Each census entry is kept separately. The archive does not choose one as “the truth” or average them together.
What we know
- The 1870 census, as read by the archive, marks Laura as unable to write and leaves “cannot read” unmarked.
- The 1880 census, read from the original image, records Laura V. Smith as able to read and unable to write.
- Melissa Hines, about 19, is recorded in 1870 with an occupation associated with teaching.
What we don't know
- Who taught Laura to read, and when.
- Whether she attended any school.
- How well she read, and what she read.
- Why the 1900 entry reportedly differs — or who answered the enumerator that year.
- Whether Melissa Hines ever taught Laura.
Inspect the evidence
- What does Laura's 1870 entry show?
- Do the censuses agree about Laura's literacy?