Education in the Thirteen Colonies during the 17th and 18th centuries varied

considerably. Public school systems existed only in New England, which also had a
strong private and collegiate system. From the individual's viewpoint how much
education a person received depended on a person's social and family status. Families
did most of the educating, and boys were generally favored. Basic education in
literacy and numeracy was widely available, especially to whites residing in the
northern and middle colonies, and the literacy rate was relatively high in world
perspective. Educational opportunities were much sparser in the rural South.
Priamry and secondary education: The Puritans valued education, both for the sake
of religious study (they demanded a great deal of Bible reading) and for the sake of
economic success. A 1647 Massachusetts law mandated that every town of 50 or more
families support a 'petty'(elementary) school and every town of 100 or more families
support a Latin, or grammar, school where a few boys could learn Latin in preparation
for college and the ministry or law. In practice, virtually all New England towns made
an effort to provide some schooling for their children. Both boys and girls attended
the elementary schools, and there they learned to read, write, cipher, and they also
learned religion. In the mid-Atlantic region, private and sectarian schools filled the
same niche as the New England common schools.
The South, overwhelmingly rural, had few schools of any sort until the Revolutionary
era. Wealthy children studied with private tutors; middle-class children might learn to
read from literate parents or older siblings; many poor and middle-class white
children, as well as virtually all black children, went unschooled. Literacy rates were
significantly lower in the South than the north; this remained true until the late
nineteenth century.
A unique exception to this state of Southern education is the Ursuline Academy in
New Orleans. This institution, founded in 1727 by the Catholic sisters of the Order of
Saint Ursula, was both the oldest, continuously-operating school for girls and the
oldest Catholic school in the United States. It also holds many American firsts,
including the first female pharmacist, first woman to contribute a book of literary
merit, first convent, first free school and first retreat center for ladies, and first classes
for female African-American slaves, free women of color, and Native Americans.
Secondary schools were rare outside major towns such as Boston, New York,
Philadelphia, and Charleston. Where they existed, secondary schools generally
emphasized Latin grammar, rhetoric, and advanced arithmetic with the goal of
preparing boys to enter college. Some secondary schools also taught practical subjects
such as accounting, navigation, surveying, and modern languages. Some families sent
their children to live and work with other families (often relatives or close friends) as
a capstone to their education.

Higher education: The first colleges, not including pre-collegiate academies, were:
Harvard in Massachusetts (1636); the College of William and Mary in Virginia
(1693); Yale (1701), the College of New Jersey (subsequently Princeton) (1746);
King's College (subsequently Columbia) New York, (1754); the College of
Philadelphia (subsequently the University of Pennsylvania) (1755); and Queen's
College in New Jersey (subsequently Rutgers)(1766).
Only white males were admitted; some took students as young as 14 or 15, and most
had some sort of preparatory academy for those who needed Latin or other basic
skills. College faculties were generally very small, typically consisting of the college
president (usually a clergyman), perhaps one or two professors, and several tutors, i.e.
graduate students who earned their keep by teaching the underclassmen. All students
followed the same course of study, which was of three or (more commonly) four
years' duration. Collegiate studies focused on ancient languages, ancient history,
theology, and mathematics. In the 18th century, science (especially astronomy and
physics) and modern history and politics assumed a larger (but still modest) place in
the college curriculum. Until the mid-18th century, the overwhelming majority of
American college graduates became Protestant clergymen. Towards the end of the
colonial period, law became another popular career choice for college graduates.
Vocational education: Although few youth of the colonial era had access to
secondary or higher education, many benefited from various types of vocational
education, especially apprenticeship. Both boys and girls were apprenticed for varying
terms (up to fifteen years in the case of young orphans). Apprentices were typically
taught a trade (if male) or sewing and household management (if female) as well as
reading and basic religious knowledge. Of course, many children learned job skills
from their parents or employers without embarking on a formal apprenticeship.
Political life in the colonies: American colonial governments were a local enterprise,
with deep roots in communities. For instance, elected bodies, specifically the
assemblies and county governments, directly determined the development of a wide
range of public and private business. Specifically, these assemblies handled land
grants, commercial subsidies, and taxation. They were also involved in the oversight
of roads, relief,of the poor, taverns, and schools. This made them fundamental to the
development of public and private enterprises in a particular region.
Furthermore, participation in local courts was very high in the colonies. When the
county court was in session, American men traveled for miles to serve as witnesses
and jurors. Americans sued each other at a very high rate, with binding decisions
made by local judges and juries, instead of a great lord (as in Britain). This promoted
the rapid expansion of the legal profession, so that the intense involvement of lawyers
in politics became characteristic of the American political system by the 1770s.

Widespread participation in local community governments was also distinctive of the

American colonies. Unlike Europe, where aristocratic families and established
Churches dominated the political sphere, American political culture was open to
economic, social, religious, ethnic and geographical interests: with merchants,
landlords, petty farmers, artisans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Quakers, Germans,
Scotch Irish, Yankees, Yorkers, and many other groups participating in public life.
None of the colonies had stable political parties of the sort that formed in the 1790s,
although each had shifting factions that vied for power. This was especially true in the
perennial battles between appointed governors and the elected assembly. For instance,
there were often "country" and "court" factions, representing those opposed and in
favor, respectively, of the governor's actions and agenda. Massachusetts also had a
strong populist faction that typically represented the province's lower classes. This
was a possible effect of the state's 1691 charter, which had particularly low
requirements for voting eligibility and strong rural representation in its assembly.
Additionally, non-English ethnic groups had clusters of settlements, such as the
Scotch Irish and the Germans. Although each group assimilated into the dominant
English, Protestant commercial, and political culture, they tended to vote in blocs and
politicians often negotiated with group leaders for support.
Hence, the colonial American political system was remarkably different from Europe,
where widespread public participation in the political sphere was expected and
enjoyed. Local leaders found themselves directly negotiating and engaging with a
wider body politic that included elites as well as petty farmers and ethnic immigrants
who had a voice in the political process. British-appointed governors also faced
various degrees of opposition and resistance over new colonial policies, which
resulted in much negotiation between assemblies, voting populations, and colonial
authorities. Furthermore, local politics was entwined with local commercial
development, with land grants, subsidies, and entrepreneurial incentives stemming
from government grants and incentives. Hence, politics in colonial America, while
public and relatively accessible to most social groups, was primarily localized in
scope--the thirteen colonies were not united by a confederate system across regional
boundaries until the outset of the American Revolution.
Culture in the colonies: Between 1680 and 1760 Anglicanism and
Congregationalism, an offshoot of the English Puritan movement, established
themselves as the main organized denominations in the majority of the colonies. As
the seventeenth and eighteenth century passed on, however, the Protestant wing of
Christianity constantly gave birth to new movements, such as the Baptists,
Methodists, Quakers, Unitarians and many more, sometimes referred to as
Dissenters. In communities where one existing faith was dominant, new
congregations were often seen as unfaithful troublemakers who were upsetting the
social order.

Despite the effort to govern society on Christian (and more specifically Protestant)
principles, the first decades of colonial era in most colonies were marked by irregular
religious practices, minimal communication between remote settlers, and a population
of Murtherers, Theeves, Adulterers, [and] idle persons. An ordinary Anglican
American parish stretched between 60 and 100 miles, and was often very sparsely
populated. In some areas, women accounted for no more than a quarter of the
population, and given the relatively small number of conventional households and the
chronic shortage of clergymen, religious life was haphazard and irregular for most.
Even in Boston, which was more highly populated and dominated by the
Congregational Church, one inhabitant complained in 1632 that the fellows which
keepe hogges all weeke preach on the Sabboth.
Christianity was further complicated by the widespread practice of astrology, alchemy
and forms of witchcraft. The fear of such practices can by gauged by the famous trials
held in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and 1693. Surprisingly, alchemy and other
magical practices were not altogether divorced from Christianity in the minds of many
natural philosophers (the precursors of scientists), who sometimes thought of them
as experiments that could unlock the secrets of Scripture. As we might expect,
established clergy discouraged these explorations.
In turn, as the colonies became more settled, the influence of the clergy and their
churches grew. At the heart of most communities was the church; at the heart of the
calendar was the Sabbatha period of intense religious and secular activity that
lasted all day long. After years of struggles to impose discipline and uniformity on
Sundays, the selectmen of Boston at last were able to parade the street and oblige
everyone to go to Church . . . on pain of being put in Stokes or otherwise confined,
one observer wrote in 1768. By then, few communities openly tolerated travel,
drinking, gambling, or blood sports on the Sabbath.
Slaverywhich was also firmly established and institutionalized between the 1680s
and the 1780swas also shaped by religion. The use of violence against slaves, their
social inequality, together with the settlers contempt for all religions other than
Christianity resulted in destructiveness of extraordinary breadth, the loss of
traditional religious practices among the half-millions slaves brought to the mainland
colonies between 1680s and the American Revolution. Even in churches which
reached out to convert slaves to their congregations the Baptists are a good example
slaves were most often a silent minority. If they received any Christian religious
instructions, it was, more often than not, from their owners rather than in Sunday
school.
Local variations in Protestant practices and ethnic differences among the white settlers
did foster a religious diversity. Wide distances, poor communication and
transportation, bad weather, and the clerical shortage dictated religious variety from
town to town and from region to region. With French Huguenots, Catholics, Jews,

Dutch Calvinists, German Reformed pietists, Scottish Presbyterians, Baptists,

Quakers, and other denominations arriving in growing numbers, most colonies with
Anglican or Congregational establishments had little choice but to display some
degree of religious tolerance. Only in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania was toleration
rooted in principle rather than expedience. Indeed, Pennsylvanias first constitution
stated that all who believed in God and agreed to live peacefully under the civil
government would in no way be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion
of practice. However, reality often fell short of that ideal.