University of Virginia Library

III.—ACADEMIES, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

In all the New England colonies, a law was passed in 1647,
"That every township, after the Lord hath increased them to the
number of fifty householders, shall appoint one to teach all
children to write and read; and when any town shall increase
to the number of one hundred families, they shall set up a
grammar school; the masters thereof being able to instruct
youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." See
Colonial Laws.

Again, in Connecticut we find the following: "Forasmuch
as the good Education of Children is of singular behoofe and
benefit to any Commonwealth, and whereas, many parents and
masters are too indulgent and negligent of theire duty in that
kinde:—

"It is therefore ordered by this Courte and Authority thereof
that the Selectmen of every Town, in the Several precincts
and quarters where they dwell, shall have a vigilant eye over
theire brethren and neighbours to see first that none of them
shall suffer so much Barbarism in any of theire families as not
to endeavour to teach by themselves or others theire Children
and apprentices so much Learning as may enable them perfectly
to read the Inglish tounge, and knowledge of the Capitall
Laws, upon penalty of twenty shillings for each neglect
therein." See "Code of Laws established by the General

Court of Conn., May, 1650," as recorded in Vol. II. of the
Colonial Records of Conn.

In the year 1671, or twenty-four years after the establishment
of public schools by law in the Plymouth Colonies, and
over thirty years after Harvard college was founded, and a
printing press set up in Cambridge, Gov. Berkley, at that time
Governor of Virginia, said of that State: "I thank God there
are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have
these hundred years, for learning has brought disobedience and
heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged
them, and libels against the best government; God keep us
from both."

The following Tables Nos. XXXVI., XXXVII., XXXVIII.,
and XXXIX., show the condition of the Academies, Private and
Public Schools in 1850, as given in the Census Compendium:

TABLE XXXVI.
Academies and Private Schools in the Slave States.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	Number.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Annual Income.	Scholars in Colleges, Academies and Public Schools.
Alabama	166	380	8,290	$164,165	37,237
Arkansas	90	126	2,407	27,937	11,050
Delaware	65	94	2,011	47,832	11,125
Florida	34	49	1,251	13,089	3,129
Georgia	219	318	9,059	108,983	43,299
Kentucky	330	600	12,712	252,617	85,914
Louisiana	143	354	5,328	193,077	31,003
Maryland	223	503	10,787	232,341	45,025
Mississippi	171	297	6,628	73,717	26,236
Missouri	204	368	8,829	143,171	61,592
North Carolina	272	403	7,822	187,648	112,430
South Carolina	202	333	7,467	205,489	26,035
Tennessee	264	404	9,928	155,902	115,750
Texas	97	137	3,389	39,384	11,500
Virginia	317	547	9,068	234,372	77,774
Total	2,797	4,913	104,976	$2,079,724	699,079

TABLE XXXVII.
Academies and Private Schools in the Free States.

                                   

FREE STATES.	Number.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Annual Increase.	Scholars in Colleges, Academies and Public Schools.
California	6	5	170	$14,270	219
Connecticut	202	329	6,996	145,967	79,003
Illinois	83	160	4,244	40,488	130,411
Indiana	131	233	6,185	63,520	168,754
Iowa	33	46	1,111	7,980	30,767
Maine	131	232	6,648	51,187	199,745
Massachusetts	403	521	13,436	310,177	190,924
Michigan	37	71	1,619	24,947	112,382
New Hampshire	107	183	5,321	43,202	81,237
New Jersey	225	453	9,844	227,588	88,244
New York	887	3,136	49,328	810,332	727,222
Ohio	206	474	15,052	149,392	502,826
Pennsylvania	524	914	23,751	467,843	440,977
Rhode Island	46	75	1,601	32,748	25,014
Vermont	118	257	6,864	48,935	100,785
Wisconsin	58	86	2,723	18,796	61,615
Total	3,197	7,175	154,893	$2,457,372	2,940,125

TABLE XXXVIII.
Public Schools of the Slave States.

                                 

SLAVE STATES.	Number.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Annual Income of Public Schools.
Alabama	1,152	1,195	28,380	$315,602
Arkansas	353	355	8,493	43,763
Delaware	194	214	8,970	43,861
Florida	69	73	1,878	22,386
Georgia	1,251	1,265	32,705	182,231
Kentucky	2,234	2,306	71,429	211,852
Louisiana	664	822	25,046	349,679
Maryland	898	986	33,111	218,836
Mississippi	782	826	18,746	254,159
Missouri	1,570	1,620	51,754	160,770
North Carolina	2,657	2,730	104,095	158,564
South Carolina	724	739	17,838	200,600
Tennessee	2,680	2,819	104,117	198,518
Texas	349	360	7,946	44,088
Virginia	2,930	2,997	67,353	314,625
Total	18,507	19,307	581,861	$2,719,534

TABLE XXXIX.
Public Schools of the Free States.

                                   

FREE STATES.	Number.	Teachers.	Pupils.	Annual Income of Public Schools.
California	2	2	49	$3,600
Connecticut	1,656	1,787	71,269	231,220
Illinois	4,052	4,248	125,725	349,712
Indiana	4,822	4,860	161,500	316,955
Iowa	740	828	29,556	51,492
Maine	4,042	5,540	192,815	315,436
Massachusetts	3,679	4,443	176,475	1,006,795
Michigan	2,714	3,231	110,455	167,806
New Hampshire	2,381	3,013	75,643	166,944
New Jersey	1,473	1,574	77,930	216,672
New York	11,580	13,965	675,221	1,472,657
Ohio	11,661	12,886	484,153	743,074
Pennsylvania	9,061	10,024	413,706	1,348,249
Rhode Island	416	518	23,130	100,481
Vermont	2,731	4,173	93,457	176,111
Wisconsin	1,423	1,529	58,817	113,133
Total	62,433	72,621	2,769,901	$6,780,337

It will be seen that in the South a larger proportion of the
children who attend School, attend at private Schools, than at
the North. Still the number of scholars in these Schools is
but a slight fraction over two-thirds as great at the South as at
the North, and the amount of money paid for the support of
these Schools nearly $400,000 less in the slave than in the
free States.

It is to be regretted that we are unable to compare these
Schools in other respects, but figures can carry us no further at
this time. Perhaps by comparing the different sections of this
chapter we may be able to form a just opinion.

It will be observed that the Public School statistics would
not be materially affected for purposes of comparison, were
those of the private Schools added to them.

The number of public Schools at the South is 18,507; at
the North, 62,433; a ratio of about three and one-half to one.
Teachers at the South, 19,307; at the North, 72,621; almost

four to one. The number of Scholars at the South is 581,861,
and at the North, 2,769,901; nearly five to one, and over
2,000,000 more at the North than at the South. Indeed, if
we compare the entire number attending all Schools (Colleges
Academies, private and public Schools,) we find in the North
a majority over the South of 2,241,046, which is now more
than three times the entire number attending School in the
Southern States. In other words, more than four-fifths of the
children attending School in the Union are in the free States.
The amount of money expended annually for these Schools is,
in the Slave States, $4,799,258; and in the free States,
$9,237,709.

The State of Ohio is not quite two-thirds as large as Virginia.
Virginia has 77,764 scholars at School and Ohio has
502,826.

The area of Kentucky is very nearly equal to that of Ohio,
the population almost exactly one-half as great, and the number
of scholars at School a little more than one-sixth.

Massachusetts is one-fourth as large as South Carolina, and
contains nearly four times as many white inhabitants. The
number of scholars attending School in South Carolina, is
26,025; in Massachusetts, 190,924.

The amount expended for Schools, both public and private,
in South Carolina, is $406,089; in Massachusetts, it is $1,316,972;
a difference of almost a million of dollars.

The whole number of scholars at School in the fifteen slaveholding
States, is 699,079; in the single State of New York, it
is 727,222.

Such are the figures of the Census for 1850.

Great effort has been made to obtain such statistics as to
show the condition of all grades of Schools at the present time,
much more fully than it can be learned from the census for the
time when that was taken. Not enough, however, could be obtained
for purposes of just comparison, the annual reports
from the Slave States being so exceedingly meagre. So far,

however, as such reports could be obtained, they show that the
difference between the free and slave States, in regard to education,
is constantly increasing.

This arises from the want of any regular system for education
of the poorer classes, who are increasing so rapidly in the
Southern States. Proofs of this might be given, were it not a
well known fact.

On page 146 of the Census Compendium, it is said of
"Georgia—no public Schools strictly, but Schools receive a
certain amount of aid from State funds. This is true for many
Southern States."

The State of South Carolina appropriates annually the sum
of $75,000 to free Schools. Gov. Manning, in his message
of Nov. 28, 1853, says that "under the present mode of applying
it, that liberality is really the profusion of the prodigal,
rather than the judicious generosity which confers real benefit."

In the State of Arkansas, only forty Schools were reported
to the Commissioner for 1854. It is of course utterly impossible
to obtain any reliable information with regard to the Schools
there, though we may form a very just opinion concerning
their character in such a community. The Commissioner says
"The great obstacle to the organization of common Schools is
not so much a deficiency in the means to sustain them, as it is
the indifference that pervades the public mind on the subject
of education."

The amount expended by the State of Virginia, in 1854, for
the education of poor children, was $69,404. For the maintenance
of the public guard, $73,189.

New England, whose area is less than one-twelfth greater
appropriated $2,000,000 for Public Schools, and felt secure
without a public guard.

The State of South Carolina has established one Free State
Scholarship; the State of Massachusetts has established forty
eight.

In Kentucky, the average number of scholars at school in
1854, was 76,429. In Ohio it was 279,635. The total amount
of money distributed (for public schools) during the year
1854, in Kentucky, was $146,047. The amount appropriated
by the State of Ohio for the same purpose, was $2,266,609; a
difference of over $2,000,000.

There are very many items of expenditure for educational
purposes at the North, for which the corresponding sums at the
South cannot be ascertained. Among these are Teachers' Institutes,
holden annually in every county in many of the
Northern States; Teachers' Associations, Normal Schools,
School-houses, &c. The value of school buildings in the State
of Ohio in 1854, was $2,197,384, and in Massachusetts it was,
in 1848, $2,750,000; even in the little State of Rhode Island
it is $319,293. The amount raised by taxation for educational
purposes is now, in each of the three states, New York, Pennsylvania,
and Massachusetts, over one million dollars annually.

The Report of the Commissioner of Public Schools to the
Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, for the year 1851, gives
the following facts:

The value of school buildings in the city of Baltimore, is
$105,729; New York, $552,457; Philadelphia, $858,224;
and in Boston $729,502.[1]

The following table is copied from the same report:

TABLE XL.
Showing the Condition of Public Schools in certain Cities.

             

CITIES.	Population.	Schools	Teachers.	Pupils.	Cost of Tuition.
Boston	138,788	203	353	21,678	$237,000
New York	517,000	207	332	40,055	274,794
Philadelphia	409,000	270	781	48,056	341,888
Baltimore	169,012	36	138	8,011	32,423
Cincinnati	116,000	17	124	6,006	81,623
St. Louis	81,000	73	168	6,642

The population of Baltimore is 30,000 greater than that of
Boston. Baltimore has 8,000 scholars at school, for whose
instruction she pays $30,000. Boston has 20,000, and pays
for instruction, $230,000.

It would indeed be interesting, were it a matter capable of
statistical comparisons, to trace the results of the superior educational
advantages enjoyed by the children of the North; to
compare the philosophers, orators, and statesmen, men of skill,
science, or literature, authors, poets, and sculptors, of the two
sections. To see how many of those who are most distinguished
at the South were born, bred, and educated at the
North.

DeBow, in a labored article in the Census Compendium, in
behalf of the southern schools, says: "An examination of
Massachusetts shows, out of 2,357 'students,' mentioned, 711,
or one-third nearly, born out of the State, and 152, or one-fifteenth,
born in the South. On the other hand a southern
town, taken at random, furnished one out of three editors, four
out of twelve teachers, two out of seven clergymen, born in the
non-slaveholding States."

The presumption is that not so large a proportion of the students
in Southern institutions are sent there from the North to
be educated, and that, on the other hand, not so large a proportion
of the editors, teachers and clergymen of the North are of
Southern birth and education.