Many servants who survived their indenture were able to start their own farms. By the 1650s, with a tobacco production boom and an emigration boom of poor people arriving from England as indentured servants, Virginia had turned its course toward permanence. In 1624, after nearly two decades of failure, Jamestown was placed under the control of the crown instead of the investment company that founded it. Would the new colony of Carolina benefit from their hard-won experience? As historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman writes, "Not until Europeans began to think of America as a place to come and live out their lives, establishing homes to be passed on to their children, would these apparently unpromising lands be colonized."* By the mid 1600s, the Chesapeake colonies had made this change.
Many had no intention of staying in the colonies forever: making quick riches and returning home were the goals. The first settlers in Jamestown and the Roanoke colonies were adventurers rather than farmers, for the most part, and their leaders lacked the experience or will for the longterm building of stable colonies. It is in the southern colonies that we see the most dramatic transition from instability to permanence. Map: Charles Town, 1671 (oriented with east to the left) Virginia: A governor's recommendations, 1663 (PDF)Ĭarolina: Founders' promises to new settlers, 1666Ĭarolina: A young settler in Charles Town, 1682Īdam Thoroughgood House, ca. Permission is granted to teachers to reproduce this skill page for classroom use.English Colonies III: Chesapeake/Southern Colonies The Gazette reports that, in Virginia, literacy among the male gentry was almost 100 percent, and only 40 percent of laborers, 25 percent of upper class women, and 1 percent of slaves could sign their names. A governess usually taught the girls enough reading, writing, and arithmetic to run a household and the social skills to attract a husband.Ĭlass differences were most pronounced in the South, where only upper-class men were widely educated. Most then completed their education in England. Because the distances between farms and plantations made community schools impossible, plantation owners often hired tutors to teach boys math, classical languages, science, geography, history, etiquette, and plantation management. In the southern colonies, children generally began their education at home. Girls were tutored at home in a variety of household and social skills.Ī QUESTION OF CLASS: EDUCATION IN THE SOUTHERN COLONIES Depending on their social class, they might also study classical languages, history and literature, mathematics, and natural science. Pennsylvania's first school was established that same year.Ī variety of local religious groups ran most schools in the middle colonies and stressed the practical aspects of education. The decision of whether to educate children was left to individual families until 1683, when a Pennsylvania law was passed, requiring that all children be taught to read and write and be trained in a useful trade. In the middle colonies, where, according to the Gazette, about half the adults could sign their names, colonial leaders agreed that education was important but were not concerned with providing it. Girls usually continued their education - in household skills - at home.Ī PRACTICAL MATTER: EDUCATION IN THE MIDDLE COLONIES Later, either the boys went on to a Latin grammar school to prepare for college and an eventual religious or political career or they trained in a trade. Many young Puritans, primarily boys ages six to eight, learned reading, spelling, and prayers at a "dame school," run very much like a home day care. According to The American Colonial Gazette, about two-thirds of Puritan men and one-third of Puritan women could sign their names - the accepted standard of literacy for the time. The Puritans, in particular, valued education, because they believed that Satan was keeping those who couldn't read from the scriptures.
In the New England colonies, the Puritans built their society almost entirely on the precepts of the Bible.
Education World ® Lesson Planning Skills Page: Education In The ColoniesīASED ON THE BIBLE: EDUCATION IN THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES