Eudcation in Colonial America; R. Peterson

Robert A. Peterson EDUCATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA ONE of the main objections people have to getting government out of the education business and turning it over to the free market is that "it simply would not get the job done." This type of thinking is due, in large measure, to what one historian called "a parochialism in time,"! Le., a lim ited view of an issue for lack of his torical perspective. Having served the twelve-year sentence in govern ment-controlled schools, most Americans view our present public school system as the measure of all things in education. Yet for two hundred years in American history, from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s, public schools as we know them to day were virtually nonexistent, and the educational needs of America were met by the free market. In these two centuries, America produced several generations of highly skilled and literate men and women who laid Mr. Peterson is Headmaster of The Pilgrim Academy, Egg Harbor City, New Jersey. He teaches economics and is constantly in search of ways to support and defend the principle of voluntarism in education.

the foundation for a nation dedi cated to the principles of freedom and self-government. The private system of education in which our forefathers were edu cated included home, school, church, voluntary associations such as li brary companies and philosophical societies, circulating libraries, ap prenticeships, and private study. It was a system supported primarily by those who bought the services of ed ucation, and by private benefactors. All was done without compulsion. Although there was a veneer of gov ernment involvement in some colo nies, such as in Puritan Massachu setts, early American education was essentially based on the principle of voluntarism. 2 Dr. Lawrence A. Cremin, distin guished scholar in the field of edu cation, has said that during the co lonial period the Bible was "the single most important cultural in fluence in the lives of Anglo-Ameri cans."3 Thus, the cornerstone of early 551 552 THE FREEMAN September American education was the belief that "children are an heritage from the Lord."4 Parents believed that it was their. responsibility to not only teach them how to make a living, . but also how to live. As our forefa thers searched their Bibles, they found that the function of govern ment was to protect life and prop erty.5 Education was not a responsi bility of the civil government.

Education Began in the Home and the Fields Education in early America began in the home at the mother's knee, and often ended in the cornfield or barn by the father's side. The task of teaching reading usually fell to the mother, and since paper was in short supply, she would trace the letters of the alphabet in the ashes and dust by the fireplace. 6 The child learned the alphabet and then how to sound out words. Then a book was placed in the child's hands, usually the Bible. As many passages were familiar to him, having heard them at church or at family devotions, he would soon master the skill of read ing. The Bible was supplemented by other good books such as Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan, The New England Primer, and Isaac Watt's Divine Songs. From volumes like these, our founding fathers and·their generation learned the values that laid the foundation for free enter prise. In "Against Idleness and Mischief," for example, they learned in dividual responsibility before God in the realm of work and learning. 7 How doth the busy little bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower.

How skillfully she builds her cell, How neat she spreads the wax And labours hard to store it well With the sweet food she makes. In works of labour, or of skill, I would be busy too; For Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do. In books, or work, or healthful play Let my first years be passed; That I may give for every day Some good account at last. Armed with love, common sense, and a nearby woodshed, colonial mothers often achieved more than our modern-day elementary schools with their federally-funded pro grams and education specialists. These colonial mothers used simple, time-tested methods of instruction mixed with plain, old-fashioned hard work. Children were not ruined by educational experiments developed in the ivory towers of academe. The introduction to a reading primer from the early 19th century testifies to the importance· of home· instruction. 8 It says: "The author cannot but hope that this book will enable many a mother or aunt, or elder brother or 1983 EDUCATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA 553 sister, or perhaps a beloved grand mother, by the family fireside, to go through in a pleasant and sure way with the art of preparing the child for his first school days."

Home education was so common in America that most children knew how to read before they entered school. As Ralph Walker has pointed out, "Children were often taught to read at home before they were sub jected to the rigours of school. In middle-class families, where the mother would be expected to be lit erate, this was considered part of her duties."9 Without ever spending a dime of tax money, or without ever consult ing a host of bureaucrats, psycholo gists, and specialists, children in early America learned the basic ac ademic skills of reading, writing, and ciphering necessary for getting along in society. Even in Boston, the capi tal city of the colony in which the government had the greatest hand, children were taught to read at home. Samuel Eliot Morison, in his 'excel lent study on education in colonial New England, says:l0 Boston offers a curious problem. The grammar (Boston Latin) school. was the only public school down to 1684, when a writing school was established; and it is probable that only children who already read were admitted to that .... they must have learned to read somehow, since there is no evidence of unusual illiteracy in the town. And a Boston bookseller's stock in 1700 includes no less than eleven dozen spellers and sixty-one dozen primers.

The answer to this supposed prob lem is simple. The books were bought by parents, and illiteracy was ab sent because parents taught their children how to read outside of a for mal school setting. Coupled with the vocational skills children learned from their parents, home education met the demands of the free market. For many, formal schooling was simply unnecessary. The fine edu cation they received at home and on the farm held them in good stead for the rest of their lives, and was sup plemented with Bible reading and almanacs like Franklin's Poor R ich ard's. Some of our forefathers desired more education than they could re ceive at home. Thus, grammar and secondary schools grew up all along the Atlantic seaboard, particularly near the centers of population, such as Boston and Philadelphia. In New England, many of these schools were started by colonial governments, but were supported and controlled by the local townspeople.

In the Middle Colonies there was even less government intervention. In Pennsylvania, a compulsory edu cation law was passed in 1683, but it was never strictly enforced. l1 Nev ertheless, ma,ny schools were set up sinlply as a response to consumer demand. Philadelphia, which by 1776 had become second only to London 554 THE FREEMAN September as the chief city in the British Em pire, had a school for every need and interest. Quakers, Philadelphia's first inhabitants, laid the foundation for an educational system that still thrives in America. Because of their emphasis on learning, an illiterate Quaker child was a contradiction in terms. Other religious groups set up schools in the Middle Colonies. The Scottish Presbyterians, the Moravi ans, the Lutherans, and Anglicans all had their own schools. In addi tion to these church-related schools, private schoolmasters, entrepre neurs in their own right, established hundreds of schools.

Historical records, which are by no means complete, reveal that over one hundred and twenty-five private schoolmasters advertised their ser vices in Philadelphia newspapers between 1740 and 1776. Instruction was offered in Latin, Greek, mathe matics, surveying, navigation, .ac counting, bookkeeping, science, En glish, and contemporary foreign languages. 12 Incompetent and inef ficient teachers were soon elimi nated, since they were not subsi dized by the State or protected by a guild or union. Teachers who satis fied their customers by providing good services prospered. One school master, Andrew Porter, a mathe matics teacher, had over one hun dred students enrolled in 1776. The fees the students paid enabled him to provide for a family of seven. 13 In the Philadelphia Area Philadelphia also had many fine evening schools. In 1767, there were at least sixteen evening schools, ca tering mostly to the needs of Phila delphia's hard-working German population. For the most part, the curriculum of these schools was con fined to the teaching of English and vocations. 14 There were also schools for women, blacks, and the poor. An thony Benezet, a leader in colonial educational thought, pioneered in the education for women and Negroes.

The provision of education for the poor was a favorite Quaker philan thropy. As one historian has pointed out, "the poor, both Quaker and non Quaker, were allowed to attend without paying fees."15 In the countryside around Phila delphia, German immigrants main tained many of their own schools. By 1776, at least sixteen schools were being conducted by the Mennonites in Eastern Pennsylvania. Christo pher Dock, who made several nota ble contributions to the science of pedagogy, taught in one of these schools for many years. Eastern Pennsylvanians, as well as New Jerseyans and Marylanders, some times sent their children to Phila delphia to further their education, where there were several boarding schools, both for girls and boys. In the Southern colonies, govern ment had, for all practical purposes, no hand at all in education. In Vir1983 EDUCATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA 555 ginia, education was considered to be no business of the State. The ed ucational needs of the young in the South were taken care ofin "old-field"

schools. "Old-field" schools were buildings erected in abandoned fields that were too full of rocks or too ov ercultivated for farm use. It was in such a school that George Washing ton received his early education. The Southern Colonies' educational needs were also taken care of by using pri vate tutors, or by sending their sons north or across the Atlantic to the mother country. Colonial Colleges A college education is something that very few of our forefathers wanted or needed. As a matter offact, most of them were unimpressed by degrees or a university accent. They judged men by their character and by their experience. Moreover, many of our founding fathers, such as George Washington, Patrick Henry, and Ben Franklin, did quite well without a college education. Yet for those who so desired it, usually young men aspiring to enter the ministry, university training was available. Unlike England, where the govern ment had given Cambridge and Ox ford a monopoly on the granting of degrees,16 there were nine colleges from which to choose.

Although some of the colonial col leges were started by colonial gov ernments' it would be misleading to think of them as statist institutions in the modern sense. 17 Once char tered, the colleges were neither funded nor supported by the State. Harvard was established with a grant from the Massachusetts Gen eral Court, yet voluntary contribu tions took over to keep the institu tion alive. John Harvard left the college a legacy of 800 pounds and his library of 400 books. "College corn," donated by the people of the Bay Colony, maintained the young scholars for many years. 18 Provision was also made for poor stu dents, as Harvard developed one of the first work-study programs. 19 And when Harvard sought to build a new building in 1674, donations were so licited from the people of Massachu setts. Despite the delays caused by King Philip's War, the hall was completed in 1677 at almost no cost to the taxpayer. 20 New Jersey was the only colony that had two colleges, the College of New Jersey (Princeton) and Queens (Rutgers). The Log College, the pre decessor of Princeton, was founded when Nathaniel Irwin left one thou sand dollars to William Tennant to found a seminary.21 Queens grew out of a small class held by the Dutch revivalist, John Frelinghuyson. 22 Despite occasional hard times, nei ther college bowed to civil govern ment for financial assistance. As Frederick Rudolph has observed, "neither the college at Princeton nor 556 THE FREEMAN September its later rival at New Brunswick ever received any financial support from the state .... "23 Indeed, John With-.

erspoon, Princeton's sixth president, was apparently proud of the fact that his institution was independent of government control. In an adver tisement addressed to the British settlers in the West Indies, Wither spoon wrote: 24 "The· College of New Jersey is altogether independent. It hath received no favor from Govern ment but the charter, by the partic ular friendship of a person now de ceased." Based on the principle of free dom, Princeton under Witherspoon produced some of America's most "animated Sons of Liberty." Many of Princeton's graduates, standing firmly in the Whig tradition of lim ited government, helped lay the le gal and constitutional foundations for our Republic. James· Madison, the Father of the Constitution, was a Princeton graduate. Libraries In addition to formal schooling in elementary and secondary schools, colleges, and universities, early America had many other institu tions that made it possible for people to either get an education or supple ment their previous training. Con ceivably, an individual who never attended school could receive an ex cellent education by using libraries, building and consulting his own library, and by joining a society for mutual improvement. In colonial America, all of these were possible.

Consumer demand brought into existence a large number of li braries. Unlike anything in the Old Country, where libraries were open only to scholars, churchmen, or gov ernment officials, these libraries were rarely supported by government funds. In Europe, church libraries were supported by tax money as well, for they were a part of an estab lished church. In America, church libraries, like the churches them selves, were supported primarily by voluntarism. The first non-private, non-church libraries in America were main tained by membership fees, called subscriptions or shares, and by gifts of books and money from private benefactors interested in education. The most famous of these libraries was Franklin· and Logan's Library Company in Philadelphia, which set the pattern and provided much of the inspiration for libraries throughout the colonies. 25 The membership fee for these subscription libraries var ied from twenty or thirty pounds to as little as fifteen shillings a year.

The Association Library, a library formed by a group of Quaker arti sans, cost twenty shillings to join. 26 Soon libraries became the objects of private philanthropy, and it be came possible for even the poorest citizens to borrow books. Sometimes 1983 EDUCATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA 557 the membership fee was completely waived for an individual ifhe showed intellectual promise and charac ter. 27 Entrepreneurs, seeing an oppor tunity to make a profit from colonial Americans' desire for self-improve ment, provided new services and in novative ways to sell or rent printed matter. One new business that de veloped was that of the circulating library. In 1767, Lewis Nicola estab lished one of the first such busi nesses in the City of Brotherly Love. The library was open daily, and cus tomers, by depositing five pounds and paying three dollars a year, could withdraw one book at a time. Nicola apparently prospered, for two years later he moved his business to Soci ety Hill, enlarged his library, and reduced his prices to compete with other circulating libraries. 28 Judg ing from the titles in these librar ies,29 colonial Americans could re ceive an excellent education com pletely outside of the schoolroom. For colonial Americans who believed in individual responsibility, self-gov ernment, and self-improvement, this was not an uncommon course of study .. Most lawyers, for example, were self-educated.

Sermons as Educational Tools The sermon was also an excellent educational experience for our colo nial forefathers. Sunday morning was a time to hear the latest news and see old friends and neighbors. But it was also an opportunity for many to sit under a man of God who had spent many hours preparing for a two, three, or even four hour ser mon. Many a colonial pastor, such as Jonathan Edwards, spent eight to twelve hours daily studying, pray ing over, and researching his ser mon. Unlike sermons on the frontier in the mid-19th century, colonial sermons were filled with the fruits of years of study. They were geared not only to the emotions and will, but also to the intellect. As Daniel Boorstin has pointed out, the sermon was one of the chief lit erary forms in colonial America. 30 Realizing this, listeners followed sermons closely, took mental notes, and usually discussed the sermon with the family on Sunday after noon. Anne Hutchinson's discus sions, which later resulted in the Antinomian Controversy, were merely typical of thousands of dis cussions which took place in the homes of colonial America. Most discussions, .however, were not as controversial as those which took place in the Hutchinson home.

Thus, without ever attending a college or seminary, a church-goer in colonial America could gain an intimate knowledge of Bible doc trine, church history, and classical literature. Questions raised by the sermon could be answered by the pastor or by the books in the church 558 THE FREEMAN September libraries that were springing up all over America. Often a sermon was later published and listeners could review what they had heard on Sun day morning. The first Sunday Schools also de veloped in this period. Unlike their modern-day counterparts, colonial Sunday S~hools not only taught Bi ble but also the rudiments of read ing and writing. These Sunday Schools often catered to the poorest members of society. Modern historians have dis counted the importance of the colo nial church as an educational insti tution, citing the low percentage of colonial Americans on surviving church membership rolls. What these historians fail to realize, however, is that unlike most churches today, co lonial churches took membership seriously. Requirements for becom ing a church member were much higher in those days, and many peo ple attended church without offi cially joining. Other sources indi cate that church attendance was high in the colonial period. Thus, many of our forefathers partook not only of the spiritual blessing of their lo cal churches, but the educational blessings as well.

Philosophical Societies Another educational institution that developed in colonial America was the philosophical society. One of the most famous of these was Franklin's Junto, where men would gather to read and discuss papers they had written on all sorts of top ics and issues. 31 Another society was called The Literary Republic. This society opened in the bookbindery of George Rineholt in 1764 in Phila delphia. Here, artisans, tradesmen, and common laborers met to discuss logic, jurisprudence, religion, sci ence, and moral philosophy (eco nomics).32 Itinerant lecturers, not unlike the Greek philosophers of the Hellenis tic period, rented halls and adver tised their lectures in local papers. One such lecturer, Joseph Cun ningham' offered a series of lectures on the "History and Laws of En gland" for a little over a pound. 33 By 1776, when America finally declared its independence, a tradi tion had been established and vol untarism in education was the rule.

Our founding fathers, who had been educated in this tradition, did not think in terms of government-con trolled education. Accordingly, when the delegates gathered in Philadel phia to write a Constitution for the new nation, education was consid ered to be outside the jurisdiction of the civil government, particularly the national government. Madison, in his notes on the Convention, recorded that there was some talk of giving the Federal legislature the power to establish a national university at the future capital. But the proposal was 1983 EDUCATION IN COLONIAL AMERICA 559 easily defeated, for as Boorstin has pointed out, "the Founding Fathers supported the local institutions which had sprung up all over the coun try. "34 A principle had been· estab lished in America that was not to be deviated from until the mid-nine teenth century. Even as late as 1860, there were only 300 public schools, as compared to 6,000 private acade mies. 35 A HighlyLiteratePopulace The results of colonial America's free market system of education were impressive indeed. Almost no tax money was spent on education, yet education was available to almost anyone who wanted it, including the poor. No government subsidies were given, and inefficient institutions either improved or went out of bus i ness. Competition guaranteed that scarce educational resources would be allocated properly. The educa tional institutions that prospered produced a generation of articulate Americans who could grapple with the complex problems of. self-gov ernment. The Federalist Papers, which are seldom read or under stood today, even in our universi ties, were written for and read by the common man. Literacy rates were as high or higher than they. are to day.36 A study conducted in 1800 by DuPont de Nemours revealed that only four in a thousand Americans were unable to read and write legibly.37 Various accounts from colo nial America support these statis tics. In 1772, Jacob Duche, the Chaplain of Congress, later turned Tory, wrote: 38 The poorest labourer upon the shore of Delaware thinks himself entitled to de liver his sentiments in matters of reli gion or politics with as much freedom as the gentleman or scholar .... Such is the prevailing taste for books of every kind, that almost every man is a reader; and by pronouncing sentence, right or wrong, upon the various publications that come in his way, puts himself upon a level, in point of knowledge, with their several authors.

Franklin, too, testified to the effi ciency of the colonial educational system. According to Franklin, the North American libraries alone "have improved the general conver sation of Americans, made the com mon tradesmen and farmers as in telligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their priv ileges."39 The experience of colonial Amer ica clearly supports the idea that the market, if allowed to operate freely, could meet the educational needs of modern-day America. In the nine teenth century, the Duke of Wel lington remarked that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton and Cambridge." To560 THE FREEMAN day, the battle between freedom and statism is being fought in America's schools. Those of us who believe in Constitutional government would do well to promote the principle of com petition, pluralism, and government nonintervention in education. Years ago, Abraham Lincoln said, "The philosophy of the classroom will be the philosophy of the government in the next generation." , -FOOTNOTESIBertrand Russell, quoted in: Tim Dowley,ed., The History of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Wm.

B. Eerdman's Pub. Co., 1977), p. 2. 2Clarence B. Carson has emphasized this point in his The American Tradition (Irvington-on Hudson: The Foundation for Economic Educa tion, Inc., 1964). 3Lawrence A. Cremin, American Education: The ColonialExperience,1607-1789. (New York: Evanston and London: Harper and Row, 1970), p.40. 4Psalm 127:3. 5Romans 13. 6Elizabeth McEachern Wells, Divine Songs by Isaac Watts (Fairfax, Va.: Thoburn Press, 1975), p. ii. 7Ibid., p. 42. 8Eric Sloane, The Little Red Schoolhouse (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Com pany, Inc., 1972), p. 3. 9Ralph Walker, "Old Readers," in Early American Life, October, 1980, p. 54. lOSamuel Eliot Morison, The Intellectual Life of New England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1965), pp. 71, 72. llCarson, p. 152. 12Louis B. Wright, The Cultural Life of the American Colonies (New York: Harper and Row Pub., Inc., 1957), p. 108. 13Ibid.

14Wright,p. 109. 15Carl and Jessica Bridenbaugh, Rebels and Gentlemen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 36. 16Ibid.,p. 39. 17Frederick Rudolph, The American College and University (New York: Random House, A Vintage Book, 1962), pp. 15-16. 18Morison,p. 39. 19Morison,p. 37. 2oMorison,p. 39. 21Archibald Alexander, The Log College (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1968, First Published, 1851), pp. 14-22. 22William H.S. Demarest, A History of Rut gers College, 1766-1924 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1924), p. 45. 23Rudolph,p. 15. 24John Witherspoon, "Address to the Inhab itants of Jamaica and Other West-India Is lands, in Behalf of the College of New Jersey," Essays upon Important Subjects, Vol. III (Edin burgh, 1805),pp.312-318,328-330. 25Max Farrand, ed., The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Berkeley, California, 1949), p.86. 26Bridenbaugh, p. 87. 27Bridenbaugh, p. 99.

28Bridenbaugh, p. 91. 29Wright,pp. 126-133. 30Daniei Boorstin, The Americans: The Co lonial Experience (New York: Random. House, Vintage Books, 1958), pp. 10-14. /' 31Thislater became, of course, the American Philosophical Society. 32Bridenbaugh, pp. 64-65. 33Bridenbaugh, p. 65. 34Boorstin, p. 183. 35Richard C. Wade, et. aI., A History of the United States with Selected Readings, Vol. I (Boston: Houghton Miffiin Co., 1966, 1971), p. 398. 36Rousas John Rushdoony, The Messianic Character ofAmerican Education (Nutley, N.J.: The Craig Press, 1963, 1979), p. 330. . 37Ibid. 38Bridenbaugh,p. 99. 39Farrand, p. 86.