Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:29:53.631Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Persistence and Change in Eighteenth Century Colonial Education

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Extract

In the last decade of the seventeenth century a comment made by a colonial official foreshadowed the conflict in values and modes of behavior that developed in eighteenth century America. By 1691 Virginia appeared ready to foster an institution of higher education within the colony. London was requested by the colonial government to support the establishment of a college. An appeal was made to the Lords of the Treasury by the Reverend James Blair, a ranking official of the Church of England in Virginia. In his appeal he emphasized the value of a college in training ministers to save colonial souls. “Souls!” exclaimed Sir Edward Seymour, a treasury official, “Damn your souls! Make tobacco!” Despite this expression of a utilitarian and commercial view of the function of the colonies, a charter for the College of William and Mary was granted in 1693.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1962, University of Pittsburgh Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Cited in Louis, B. Wright's, The Atlantic Frontier, 1607–1763 (New York, 1947), 86.Google Scholar

2. Sprat, Thomas, The History of the Royal Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge (London, 1934), 62.Google Scholar

3. Boorstin, Daniel J., The Americans (New York, 1958), 155.Google Scholar

4. Boucher, Jonathan, A View of the Causes and Consequences of the American Revolution in Thirteen Discourses: … (London, 1797), 63.Google Scholar

5. Chauncey, Charles, Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England (Boston, 1743), 336–37.Google Scholar

6. Wickersham, James P., A History of Education in Pennsylvania (Lancaster, Pa., 1886), 66.Google Scholar

7. Tawney, R. H., Religion and the Rise of Capitalism (New York, 1947), 40.Google Scholar

8. Butts, Freeman R., The American Tradition in Religion and Education (Boston, 1950), 115.Google Scholar

9. Cited in Adamson, J. W., Pioneers of Modern Education (1905), 72.Google Scholar

10. Walsh, James J., Education of the Founding Fathers of the Republic (New York, 1933), 12.Google Scholar

11. American Philological Association, “Report of the Committee of Twelve on Courses of Study in Latin and Greek for Secondary Schools,” Transactions and Proceedings, Vol. 30, 1899, Appendix lxxix–cxxi.Google Scholar

12. Curti, Merle, The Social Ideas of American Educators (Patterson, N. J., 1959), 7.Google Scholar

13. Harvard College Records, Part III, “Colonial Society of Massachusetts,” Collections, XXXI (Boston, 1935), 329.Google Scholar

14. The History of the College of William and Mary from its Foundations, 1693 to 1870 (Baltimore, 1870), 43.Google Scholar

15. Sizer, Theodore, ed., The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, Patriot Artist. 1756–1843 (New Haven, 1953), 5.Google Scholar

16. Middlekauff, Robert, Harvard Educational Review, XXI (Spring, 1961), 215.Google Scholar

17. Stearns, Raymond P., “Colonial Fellows of the Royal Society of London, 1661–1788,” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London (reprint), Vol. 8, No. 2 (April, 1951).Google Scholar

18. Kraus, Michael, Intercolonial Aspects of American Culture on the Eve of the Revolution (New York, 1928), 161–62.Google Scholar

19. Quoted in Benjamin Farrington's, Francis Bacon: Philosopher of Industrial Science (New York, 1949), 98.Google Scholar

20. Cohen, Bernard, Franklin and Newton: An Inquiry into Speculative Newtonian Experimental Science and Franklin's Work in Electricity as an Example Thereof (Philadelphia, 1956).Google Scholar

21. Smyth, Albert H., The Writings of Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1905–07), Vol. V, 437–38.Google Scholar

22. Warner Barber, John, Massachusetts Historical Collections (Worcester, 1839), 452, 453. Cited in Counts, George S., Education and American Civilization (New York, 1952), 136.Google Scholar

23. Schneider, Herbert, ed., Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Selections from His Other Writings (New York, 1949), 162.Google Scholar

24. Curti, Merle, The Growth of American Thought (New York, 1943), 102.Google Scholar

25. Hornberger, Theodore, Scientific Thought in the American Colleges, 1638–1800 (Austin, Texas, 1945), 25.Google Scholar

26. William and Mary Quarterly Historical Magazine, 1st series, XXI (April, 1914), 289.Google Scholar

27. Simons, L. G., Introduction of Algebra into American Schools in the Eighteenth Century (Bureau of Education Bulletin, No. 18, Washington, 1924), 45.Google Scholar

28. Freeman Butts, R. and Cremin, Lawrence, A History of Education in American Culture (New York, 1953), 5859.Google Scholar