Final answer:
Slave owners did not want slaves to read because it could lead to exposure to abolitionist movements and ideas, empowering them to challenge and potentially disrupt the pro-slavery society.
Step-by-step explanation:
People who owned slaves did not want them to read because they were afraid they would learn about abolitionist movements and ideas. Slaveholders were deeply invested in the institution of slavery and any dissemination of abolitionist thought represented a threat to their way of life and economic interests. Historically, literacy was seen as a form of empowerment, and enslaved individuals like Frederick Douglass and Phillis Wheatley used their ability to read and write as tools for advocating freedom and planting the seeds for social movements. Exposure to writings about human rights, freedoms, and egalitarian ideologies would not only equip the enslaved with the intellectual means to challenge the status quo but also potentially motivate them to seek their liberation, thereby destabilizing the slave-based economy.