Comment by happymellon

> > 150 years ago, the average person was illiterate

> Not true in the case of the US, which famously adopted a culture of universal literacy earlier than the rest of the world.

Later on the a small caviet about it being for whites only, but then goes back to ignoring it by saying

> It may or may not be relevant to your point, but at least in the US the idea that the average person was illiterate is ahistorical. They were the best read population in the world 150 years ago, and took some pride in that.

The average person had a 20% chance of being enslaved and illiterate. Of the remaining ~80% there was high rates, but there was absolutely not universal literacy when there were strict laws in place to prevent it.