Few actively enslaved people were "free" enough to write to family members to warn that they might presently be traded. Though a substantial number of letters written by slaves have survived, accounts of African-American life in the antebellum period are more commonly studied through slave narratives written or dictated by former slaves. The literacy rate among 19th-century slaves is estimated to have ranged from 5 to 20 percent. Often cited as an example of slave writing, Perkins's letter is quoted by many US textbooks to illustrate slaves' personal struggle, heartbreak, and strategic thinking. Christopher Hager, in his book Word by Word (2013), critically analyzes the document as a case study and suggests that it progresses from conventional correspondence to frantic diarying. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips discovered the letter and published it in 1929. Perkins was literate, something uncommon among slaves, and all that is known about her comes from this letter. In the letter, she shares the news that their son Albert has been sold to a trader, expresses fears that she too might be sold, and says that she wants her family to be reunited. On October 8, 1852, Maria Perkins, an enslaved woman in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, addressed a letter to her husband, also enslaved. The letter by Maria Perkins, dated October 8, 1852
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