But the power of the Puritan theocracy was not permanently maintained. By the beginning of the eighteenth century the influence of the clergy was waning and the Puritan rule was becoming less harsh and severe. But the old Puritan spirit did not die out completely. Life in New England continued to be the sober and somber affair it always was. Amusements were largely frowned upon; dancing was not allowed, the theater was prohibited, and the players of football found little favor in the eyes of the rulers. in the Colonies In the Middle Colonies, where religion was regarded as a Religion private affair with which government had nothing to do, there Middle was no state church. In New York serious efforts were made by the governors to give the Episcopal Church a privileged position, but this policy had to be abandoned because the great majority of the inhabitants belonged to other religious bodies. The colony, being as cosmopolitan in matters of religion as it was in other matters, had within its borders almost every denomination that could be mentioned, and there was no one church that greatly overshadowed the others. In Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey the Quakers were the most influential sect, although at the opening of the eighteenth century Lutherans and Presbyterians were gaining a foothold in Pennsylvania. Toleration The cause of religious toleration was gaining strength, Religious not only in the colonies but in the mother-country as well. In 1689 Parliament passed the Toleration Act which virtually established freedom of worship in England. In America religious tolerance had led to a medley of faiths such as the world had never seen. Dutch Protestants, Huguenots, Quakers, Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, could worship in accord with the dictates of their conscience unmolested by the law. This freedom, however, was not yet fully enjoyed by the Catholics, for this group of worshipers was still under the ban of the law both in England and America. In Pennsylvania, however, there was no exception to the rule of tolerance. Here the gates of religious freedom were opened to Catholics as well as Protestants, to Jews as well as Gentiles. Education in New England Thus in the march that America was making toward complete religious freedom the banner was carried by Pennsylvania. COLONIAL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES In most of the colonies there was a keen appreciation of the blessings of education, although conditions were entirely unfavorable to anything like a well-ordered system of popular instruction. There was so much hard work for the young people to perform that they had little time for study. Good teachers were hard to get and the school-houses-shabby affairs in most cases were so far apart that children had to travel miles to reach one. Still, education was nowhere entirely neglected, and in some of the colonies there was considerable progress in the diffusion of knowledge among the people. In the Puritan colonies education began to receive serious attention at a very early date and by the opening of the eighteenth century schools were becoming quite common throughout New England. Like almost everything else in the Puritan world the schools were under the control of the church and were conducted according to the wishes of the clergy. The chief purpose of a school was to give instruction in the Bible, which in America as in England (p. 28) was revered by Puritans as the "book of books," the unfailing guide and final authority in every circumstance and relation of life. One of the earliest of the Puritan schools was the Boston Latin School established in 1634. Two years later, in order that there might be a place where "learned and godly" ministers could be trained, Harvard College was established. With the same object in view Yale was founded in 1701. The idea of maintaining schools at public expense took the form of law in 1647 when the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a statute requiring every town of fifty householders to maintain a master to teach reading and writing and every town of one hundred householders to maintain a grammar-school of the English type (p. 26). The wages of the master were to be paid by those parents whose children took advantage of the instruction. Three years later a similar law was passed in Connecticut. Thus in New England education almost from the beginning was looked upon as a matter of public responsibility. in the Middle Colonies In the Middle Colonies the responsibility for maintaining schools was assumed for the most part by private organizations and by families desiring instruction for their children. In New York education had flourished under the Dutch, but the English were slow in establishing schools. In New Jersey, also, Education the progress was slow. In Pennsylvania one of the first laws passed by the Assembly provided that all who had charge of children should see that they were taught to read and write by the time they were twelve years old, and the records show that the law was to some extent enforced. Thus in the Middle Colonies there was a commendable interest in education, although schools were few in number. In the Southern colonies popular education had made no headway at all. In Maryland there was an occasional private school, but no regular public schools had as yet been established. In the Old Dominion and in the Carolinas it was much the same. In 1671 Governor Berkeley thanked God that there were no schools in Virginia and expressed a hope that there Education would be none for a hundred years. Nevertheless by 1700 South there were in Virginia perhaps half a dozen private schools where the elementary branches were taught. By this time, too, Virginia had made a beginning in higher education, for in 1693 William and Mary College was founded. COLONIAL GOVERNMENT in the Each colony, as far as colonial relations were concerned, was a political unit standing by itself; aside from the tie which bound it to the mother-country it was independent of all governmental connections. In New England for a brief period (1643-1684) several of the colonies were united under a loose form of government known as the New England Confederation. The The members of this union were Plymouth, Massachusetts, England Connecticut, and New Haven. Its avowed purpose was to defend the colonies against the French, the Dutch, and the In New Confederation |