The Irony of Urban School Reform, Ideology and Style in Mid-Nineteenth Century Massachusetts. Final Report

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ED 015 522 24 EA 000 826 THE IRONY OF URBAN SCHOOL REFORM,IDEOLOGY AND STYLE IN MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS. FIIALREPORT. BY- KATZ, MICHAEL B. REPORT NUMBER CRF-S-085 PUB DATE 66

REPORT NUMBER BR-5-8183 . EDRS PRICE MF-$1.50 HC-$15.76 392F.

DESCRIPTORS- *EDUCATIONAL CHANGE, *URBANEDUCATION, ECONOMIC FACTORS, INDUSTRIALIZATION,MOTIVATION, PUBLIC EDUCATION, HIGH SCHOOLS, *EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION,COMMUNITY LEADERS, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS, *RURAL URBANDIFFERENCES, ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL, EDUCATIONALOBJECTIVES, DELINQUENT REHABILITATION, CORRECTIONAL EDUCATION,FACTOR ANALYSIS, SCHOOL COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP,*HISTORICAL REVIEWS, CAMBRIDGE,

THE ORIGINS OF MASS POPULAR EDUCATIONIN NINETEENTH-CENTURY MASSACHUSETTS ARE STUDIEDIN TERMS OF THE RELATION BETWEEN REFORMER IDEOLOGY ANDSTYLE OF REFORM WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF FUNDAMENTAL ALTERATIONSIN THE LIFE CONDITIONS IN MASSACHUSETTS. THREE SIGNIFICANTEVENTS ARE ANALYZED IN DETAIL--(1) ABOLITION OF BEVERLY HIGHSCHOOL IN 1860, (2) ATTACK OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTEOF INSTRUZTION ON CYRUS PEIRCE, AND (3) CRITICISM OF THESTATE REFORM SCHOOL OFFERED BY SOME OF THE STATE'S LEADINGREFORMERS. THE STUDY CONCLUDES THAT EDUCATIONAL REFORM WASSPONSORED FY A COALITION OF THE SOCIAL AND FINANCIAL LEADERS OFMASSACHUSETTS: MIDDLE CLASS PARENTS, AND EDUCATORS. A FACTORANALYSIS OF RELEVANT VARIABLES IN THE HISTORICAL STUDY ISAPPENDED. (HM) Aililli. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE

OFFICE Of EDUCATION

THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCEDEXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE

PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATINGIT.POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS

STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTOFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION

POSITION OR POLICY.

THE IRONY OF URBANSCHOOL REFORM,

Ideology and Style inMid-NineteenthCenturyMassachusetts

Michael B. Katz

UnitedStates Office of Education, Cooperative Research Program, Project S-085

Final Report

1966 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

ACUPWLEDGMENTS

ABBREVIATIONS

Educational Reform:The Cloud of Sentiment INTRODUCTION. 1 and Historiograplly

7 The New Society . . . I. 18 II. The New Education

Reform by Imposition: PART ONE. 26 Social Origins ofEducational Controversy 26 The Abolition ofBeverly High School PROLOGUE: 36 I. Educational Promoters andthe High School 66 Local Opposition toReform II. 66 1. Academies and Districts 82 2. Groton, a Case inPoint 106 3. The Working Class againstReform Town" to "Primary School EPILOGUE: Lawrence, From "Model 122 of Vice"

PART TWO;The Uses of Pedagogy: Teachers and the EducationalProcess 152

152 PROLOGUE: The Heresy of CyrusPeirce action" and the Necessity I. Society's "hot stimulus to 154 of Restraint 166 II. "The true idea ofeducation" excellence" vs. "emulation" . . 176 III. "A new motive to moral 204 EPILOGUE: "God's Gardener," Strategies of Teacher Mobility

Urban Delinquent: PART THREE. Compulsory Education and the The State Reform School 214

. 214 PROLOGUE: Reformers against the ReformSchool . of Prisons 215 I. Delinquency and the Grading impressions'? to "imperfection ofthe II. From "favorable 225 stock": the Theory of Crime and Poverty 244 III. "At once a home and aschool" 267 EPILOGUE: The Results of Reform

Myths and Limits 279 CONCLUSION. Educational Reform: Table of Contents (continued)

Page

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Massachusetts Social, Economic and Educational Statistics 287 APPENDIX B: Communities and Education, an Analysis of Variance 292 I. High School Defined 295 First Relationships 305 III.Factor Analysis 315 IV. Patterns of Variance 331 V. Conclusions and Limitations 340 APPENDIX C: Social Composition of High School Enrollment 345 APPENDIX D: Beverly and the Vote to Abolish the High School: Relevant Statistics 348

BIBLIOGRAPHY 363

I. Note', 363 II. Sources 367

VITA 386 Acknowledgments

contract from the This study was madepossible by the grant of a deeply grateful. United States Officeof Education. For this award I am supported by a National The statistical workinvolving a computer was time under the Science Foundation grant. For allowing me computer John B. Carroll.Throughout grant I wouldlike to thank Professor administration my stay atthe Harvard GraduateSchool of Education the considerable financial has provided tolerance,freedom, interest and very graciousness and generosity support, and ithas done so with the characteristic of itsdealings with students. My thanks go especially to Associate DeanEdward Kaelber. assistance I sought have The librarians andschool officials whose wculd like to been almost unfailinglyhelpful. In particular, I Society, whose eagerness thank Miss Ruth Hill ofthe Beverly Historical collection should be imposed to help scholars usethe Society's fine listened upon more often. Many friends andcolleagues have patiently the past two years; anumber to me think outloud about this study over have read drafts andsections; almost all havemade helpful comments. thank Dr. They have my deepestthanks. Especially, I would like to substantial assistance. Robert Dreeben and Dr.Allan Ellis for their very My advisor and the sponsorof this project hasbeen Dean Theodore R. residence at H. Sizer; and the profitablenessand pleasantness of my G.S.E. has been due in nosmall part to his considerationand assistance. This study started as a paperin the seminar of Dr.Daniel Calhoun. almost every draft of each Dr. Calhounhas sinceread every version and section; he has, too, spent manyhours discussing the studywith me. have helped give His always penetratingand stimulating comments this study much ofwhatever merit it possesses.For all the help mis- I have received I am mostgrateful. Of course, all errors, interpretations and otherblunders that remain are entirely my own responsibility.

Finally, it is probablyenough to say that my wifeand children well as graduate have suffered throughlife with an undergraduate as than he himself student husband andfather with more faith and patience has had. Abbreviations

of In the footnotes all references tothe various annual reports the Massachusetts Board ofEducation will be abbreviatedand include only the number and the word"report," e. ,g.,Nineteenth Report.

The full title would beNineteenth Annual Report of theMassachusetts

Report of the Board of Education togetherwith the Nineteenth Annual

Secretary to the Board. Report number one is dated1838.

Reports of school committeesfrom the same town changedtitles

in the manner of the frequently. Here they will be referred to

following example:

Groton. . .1851-52, 1852, p.5. The Cloud of Introduction. Educational Reform: Sentiment andHistoriography

Americans share a warmand comforting mythabout the origins of

historians have helped to perpetu- popular education.For the most part rational, enlightened ate this essentisllynoble story which portrays a intellectuals, trium- working class, led byidealistic and humanitarian wealthy elite and phantly wresting fzne publiceducation from a selfish, 1 This story squares from the bigoted proponentsof orthodox religion. More and more in poorly with the currenttrend in historical writing.

that fundamental social recent years historianshave attacked the notion Instead, they controversy providedthe dynamic of nationaldevelopment. controversies repreient but argue, theapparently opposing sides in past variations of a common consensuson fundamentalprinciples.

satisfies no more But the consensusviewpoint applied to education

2 of than the older conflictversion. For a hard look at the myth

1 reform in the As an example of the candard version of educational mid-nineteenth century, oneof the:mmitul*lidely,:read socialhistories of became conscious of the period claims: "It was not until the common man used the suffrage he had the privileges ofwhich he had been deprived and turned to a acquired to demand educationfor his children that the state consideration of the commonschool. This movement was in accordwith the humanitarianism: of the time,and the reformers joined theworkingmen in seeking remedies for thedefects in the educationalsystem."Alice Felt Tyler, Freedom's FermentPhases of American Social Histor to 1860, Minneapolis, 1944, p. 233. 2

knowledge produces popular education and atrealities which are common

Everyone knowsthat for many some glaringdiscrepancies and paradoxes. went to highschool. years only atiny proportionof eligible children version, was Yet the foundingof the high school,in the conventional Could there havebeen a a greatachievement of populardemocracy. Pop- ready consensus toestablish expensive,minority institutions? outgrowth of workingclass ular education, sothe story goes, was an the school aspiration, but the estrangementbetween the culture of

least since the and the workingclass community hasbeen lamented at

implies the existenceof a deep time of Dewey. Such an estrangement evidence to cultural division throughoutsociety. It seems to provide but it also runs support the theoriesthat stress social controversy,

working class. counter to the ideaof an education hungry

started in a passionate Popular education,according to the myth,

urban school system&since blaze of humanitarianzeal, but most large cold, rigid andsomewhat ster- the latter nineteenthcentury have been humanitarian urge tohelp realize ile bureaucracies. Could a truly quickly into thedispassionate, widely diffusedaspirations have turned so for the discrep- ethos of red tapeand drill?How are we to account Are parts of themyth valid, parts ancies between mythand actuality?

questions and brushaside the cloud of untrue?To answer these

of applied the consensusinterpretation to the events Massachusetts has Consensus in Common Jonathan Messerli,"Controversy and the period. May, 1965, pp.749-758. School Reform,"lgaser'ColiLJA_.eRecorclo of fundamentaleducational contro- Messerli suggeststhat the concept must look uponeducational history in versy is notvalid and that we efforts ofindividuals to meetcertain this period more asthe pragmatic for learning and toalter the glaring deficienciesin the provisions schools to meet newsocial obligations. 3

of mass, popular sentiment and historiographythat covers the origins

and important questions: education we can start byasking a few direct

product of working class Were educational reformand innovation the moti- demands? Were the moreprominent supportersof popular education

Did educational reform vated by humanitarianand democraticconcerns? entail fundamentalsocial controversy?

myths surrounding I have asked thesequestions, which test the

because I hope to suggest answers the origins ofpopular education, ,aducational reformers of to larger questions,that have relevance for

origins of popular educationhave our own time. Did the nature of the

Were these consequences, lasting consequencesfor American society?

By coldly evaluatingthe re- if any exist,beneficial or harmful? learn anything of form movement of themid-nineteenth century, can we

Questions of influence andsignif- use tothat of the mid-twentieth? historianthey are also the ic,mce are the mostdangerous for the

Certainly this study cannothope most fascinatingand important. its conclusions regardingthe to prove, in ahard and empirical sense,

Yet the results of a studyof the mid- impact of educationalreform. in which popular edu- nineteenth centurystrongly suggest that the way its pace--had permanent cation started--itssocial base, its ideology, of informed suggestion that my consequences. And it"is in the spirit educational revival often harsh conclusionsabout the impact of the

should be received.

reform. Contemporaries had their owninterpretation of educational

than any since the revivalof "It is a doubledecade more distinguished 4

of letters for the diffusion ofknowledge generally among the masses men," George Boutwell wroteof the twenty years since the1837 found-

In the last twenty- ing of the MassachusettsBoard ofEducation.3

1864,-"A' new life. . five years, assertedJudge Emory Washburn in here."4 has been infused intothe whole system ofpopular education

"For As told by contemporariesthe story wasstraightforward. nearly two hundred years oursystem of freeschools was sustained

aid from the directly by the people,without special care or direct

government," the Board ofEducation reminded readersof their twen-

tieth report. The enlightened consensusof pre-industrial society homogeneous; the sustained popular education. "The people were then deficiencies in the sentiment in favor ofeducation was universal; in the schools, when they existed, wereoften supplied by instruction

without faults; "there waslittle family. . ." The schools were not

completeness of system orperfection of detail,yet the results were

worthy of allpraise."5

destroyed the social But the onset ofurban, industrial growth

and a manufacturingpopulation basis of populareducation; "a foreign valuable; in connection came in; thelabor of children became more

of 3Twentieth Report, pp. 35 -36.. Boutwell was the third secretary the MassachusettsBoard of Education.

(+Massachusetts Teacher, xvii, 1,January, 1864, p.34.

5Twentieth Report, p. 5. 5

with the increase of population, the concentration of wealth, and the division of sects and of classes, numerous private schools sprang up, and it was found that the public schools were losing their efficiency, and the system itself its vitality." The decline of public education

"alarmed patriotic and good men, and gave rise, in 1837, td the Board of Education."With zeal the Board and its secretaries, assisted by the Legislature, "labored to break"up the former torpor, to introduce arrangement and system, and to secure for the subject of education that place and interest which it must have among a free people, if their institutions are to be either enjoyed orperpetuated."6

Most contemporary chroniclers and later historians geherally have agreed that the "revival" of education was a great succes2, that the fourth, fifth and sixth decades of the nineteenth century in Massa- chusetts witnessed the true beginning of the remarkable and contin- uous growth of mass popular education in America. The story of the early and mid-nineteenth century, historians in recent years have revealed, was by no means as unambiguous as it first seems. Under- lying the extension of democracy symbolized by the election of

Andrew Jackson, the nobility of the anti-slavery crusade, the remarkable transformation of an agrarian economy, the belief in the goodness of man and the reality of progress allegedly symbolized by Emerson: underlying these phenomena were haunting doubts, pervasive value

6Ibid,pp. 5-6. 6

7 conflicts and severe social tensions. The movement for educational reform reflected the complexity of socialdevelopment, for, an the

Board of Education itself observed, education wasdeeply intertwined with the rest of society. To unravel th( most important threads, to

explicate the relationship between education andsociety, is one goal

of this study.

The Board of Education connected educationalchange with the

building of factories, the growth of cities, the wavesof immigration.

But they left the nature of theconnection vague. Was it that indus-

trialism destroyed public education bydissolving its social basis?

If so, what did educational leaderssubstitute for an enlightened,

homogeneous, agrarian population?Did education itself play nopart

in the economic transformationof the Commonwealth? Were schoolmen

only "patriotic and good," purelyaltruistic? Were the ends of educa-

tion solely the enjoyment andperpetuation of democracy?Did the

creation of new institutions and therekindling of interest mean that

the educational reform movement was asuccess? What was the relation-

ship of goals to results?The goals of educational reform werefor-

mulated amidst a profound change inthe conditions of human experience

within Massachusetts, and itis against the backdrop of thischange

that all questions concerning therelation of education and society

must be formulated.

70n the complexity of this era see: Leo Marx, The Machine in the GardenTechnology and the Pastoral Idealin America, New York, 1964; Marvin Meyers, The JacksonianPersuasion, first copyright,1957, Vin- The Old tage edition, 1960;William R. Taylor, Cavalier andYankee: South and American NationalCharacter., New York, 1961; ArthurP. Dudden, 7

I. The New Society

"Industrialisation" and "urbanization" aresuch common terms, they have so permeated discoursethat they have become concepts,abstractions' almost devoid of power, moreoften conjuring images of dulltextbooks rather than the pains andtensions of human beings caught up inthe creation of a new world. But to penetrate the meaning of eventsin mid-nineteenth century Massachusettsquantitative measures of economic and social change mustbe considered not abstractions but ex- pressions of a profoundalteration in human experience. Statistics

should serve as reminders that ageneration, the very generationof

educational reformert, watched the contoursof society propelled,

twisted and bent intoradically new shapes, shapes thatbrought new

forms to all aspects of the lifeof men, to their everyrelation.

Consider what happened during thelife of Horace Mann, the most 8 famous educational reformer of thetime. He was born in 1796, in the

year John Adams waselected President; throughout hisyouth and young

manhood about two-thirds of thepeople of Massachusetts lived inrural

communities of less than threethousand scattered throughout the state.

When he was fourteen years old,Massachusetts contained less thanhalf

a million people;between his fourteenth and thirty-fourthbirthdays

"Nostalgia andthe Americans,"Journal of the History ofIdeas, XXII, 4, October-December, 1961, pp. 515-530.

80n the biography of HoraceMann see: Jonathan.C.Messerli, Ph.D. disserta- "Horace Mann: The Early Years, 1796-1837,"Unpublished tion, Harvard University. quarter.9 Immi- population increasedslowly, by little more than a Urban gration was slow,the populationethnically homogeneous ;.

covering much of theworld. merchants financedtrading operations decades, clothes weremade Farming was carried on asit had been for slpplemented in the home, andthe products ofindependent craftsmen and nation most the work of farmingfamilies. Throughout the state would continue to rest people assumed thatthe Massachusetts economy

on commerceandagriculture.10

throughout But Mann sawall this change. During the 1840's, Education, the popu- most of whichhe was secretaryof the Board of by the yearfollowing his lation leaped by morethan thirty percent; million and a quarterinhab- death, 1860,Massachusetts had nearly a

hordes of immigrantspouring into the itants. Mann watched the he was thirty-fiveslightly less than Commonwealth. In the year that Charlestown; nine yearslater the fifteen hundredaliens landed at fourteen yearslater almost number had multipliedalmost four times,

later almost nineteentimes. And most of eight times,eighteen years

economic andpopulation statistics are 9Tables showing relevant see the A. On populationand its concentration included in Appendix Growth in by Percy WellsBidwell, "Population illuminating article Publications of the Southern New England,1810-1860," Quarterly Series, No. 120,December, 1917, American StatisticalAssociation, New pp. 813and 816. of Massachusetts, 10Samuel Eliot Morison, TheMaritime Histor New EnglandCotton 1921; CarolineWare, The Early 1783-1860,, Boston, Cambridge, 1931, p.118. Industrial Beginnings, Manufacture: A Study in 9

the aewcomers, over seven outof ten in fact, were from Ireland;they brought new, strange anddisturbing ways to theCommonwealth.11Under a swelling Celtic wavethe homogeneous land of Yankeesdisappeared forever. Mann himself had moved from asmall town to the city, and many of hiscontemporaries did likewise. The small, rural towns de- clinedslightly as population becameincreasingly concentrated in urban areas. In southern New England theproportion of the population living in towns with fewerthan three thousand residentsde- clined from 67.1 percent in 1810 to52.1 in 1840 to 30.1 in 1860.

Throughout the same period theproportion of the population livingin towns and cities with morethan 10,000 inhabitants grew from6.9 to

18.5 to 36.5percent.12

In Mann's youth merchantsused the profits from their ventures

But the em- to buy more ships, toinvest in new trading enterprises. bargo imposed on foreign goodsprior to the War of 1812 bothfostered

previously been imported, a shortage ofmanufactured goods, which had

in foreign trade. and reduced draIticallythe opportunity for investment

of capital stimulated The combination ofdemand and the availability manufacture of cotton the growth of nativeindustry, particularly the

11Massachusetts Senate DocumentsNo. 2, January 1859,pp.'142-143; Francis DeWitt Abstractof the Census of theCommonwealth of Massachu- 230-233, and Oliver Warner,Abstract of setts. . .1855, Boston, 1857, pp. the Census of Massachuoetts. . .1860, Boston, 1863, p.335.

12Bidwell, pp. cit., p. 816. 10

Mann's life, then,manufacturing cloth.13 Throughout a large part of ventures, generallysmall grew inMassachusetts..But many of the early by 1820. The years of and started withoutsufficient capital, failed

industrial growth,began most marked progress,the real onset of 1830 to 1860 saw thetrans- around 1830, andthe three decades from state.14 By the time Mann had been sec- formation of the economyof the 1845, the value retary of theBoard of Educationfor eight years, in only thirty-four percent of the agriculturalproduce of the state Was

Ten years laterthat figure had of the value ofmanufactured goods.

the mid fifties was,indeed, a been halved. The early forties to well as in population period of remarkablegrowth in manufacturing as

the yards of cottoncloth manu- and immigration. From 1845 to 1855 314,996,567 and theirvalue, cor- factured rose from175,862,919 to

likewise from nearlyten to nearly rected for changesin price, rose

twenty-onemilliondollars.15

the family. For Manufacturing had itsfirst great impact on

with their familiesuntil generations New Englandgirls had remained

13Ware, op. cit., pp. 50-63.

cit.., p. 107. 14Bidwell, 22. cit., pp.830-831, Ware, op.

G. Palfrey,Statistics of the 15Computed from thestatistics in John Branches of Indust in Massachusetts Condition andProducts of Certain 1846; FrancisDeWitt,Itatisd..._:s41IncrmaefiEsi . .1845, Boston, .1855; Boston, 1856; e oIndu t in Ma achu stt . . t Ce a Relating to CertainBranthes and Oliver Warner,Statistical In formation .1865, Boston,1866. These will here- of Indtistry inMassachusetts. . Industry. after be referred to asthe Censuses of marriage. Now large numbers of farm girlsleft home to work in the 16 mills of Lawrence, Lowell and otherplaces. Whole families moved to manufacturing areasand worked in the mills inthe southern part

17 of the state. But immigration changedthis pattern. The immigrants

swelled tbe labor force andfostered competition for jobs, and the

consequent loweringof wages tended to discouragenative girls from

working in the factories. The supply of native girls wasdiminished

further by the westwardmigration of entire farmfamilies. Moreover,

as largenumbers of Irish tended to enterthe mills and factories,

natives, who found the Irish repugnant,oftenleft.18 By the 1860's

the unskilled work in the newlarge industries was mainly the prov-

ince of immigrants. In the lifetime of HoraceMann,. Massachusetts

had acquired a proletariat.

A new conception of work and aheightened sense of the powerof

man to transformhis environment accompaniedthe development of man-

ufactures. For the development ofindustry was fostered by techno-

logical innovation as well asby the increasing supply oflabor. In

1824 ini- the cotton industry theintroduction of the power loom in

large factory in which tiated a shift from tiesmall yarn mill to the

gathered under one all the stages of themanufacturing process were

provided the roof,19and after 1840 theintroduction of the turbine

16Ware, op. cit., pp. 64-65.

17Ibid.,p. 199.

18Ibid.,pp.128-232.

19Victor S. Clark, History of Manufacturesin the United States, Washington, 1916,P. 429; Ware, op. cit., p.63. 12

for themills.20 In 1826 first big innovationin the source of power

stimulated by theinvention of theGoulding the productionof wool was dif- the filamentsof wool to the condenser, adevice for transfering process; andthe introduction ferent machinesin the manufacturing

increased theproductivity ofwool of "self-actingmules" after 1840 Similarly, the shoeindustry was revo- manufacture stillfurther.21 devices for cuttingand rolling. lutionized: "first came mechanical sewing machines--all leather, then peggingmachines, and finally 1860."22 With the new machines oneman introduced between1840 and

the old methodiof production; could do thework-of scores using though Lman/ were nowbut just enter- "Indeed it.wouldalmost seem as the earth, which wasassigned to him at ing on thatdominion over the 'lord of creation';and all nature, beginning."23 Man ". . .is indeed, making of the conquest,is progressively as thoughdaily more sensible dominion."24 Unskilled labor and less and lessresistance to his manufacturing processesbased on powerful machines werecombined in craft, an For many work nolonger remained a the division oflabor. of a man's life;started instead was acquired skill, animportant part

of men fromtheir work, there-definition the processof the alienation

20Clark, op. cit. , pp.407-408.

21Ibid., pp. 423 and 434.

221bi., p.441.

23Quoted in Mar;:, op. cit., p.194.

24Quoted in ibid., p. 196. 13

of work as the repetitive operation of amachine, the making of a motion that was only one small part ofthe-production of a shoe, a

piece of cloth, a rifle or a watch.

Transportation as well as the machinerevealed the new power of

man over nature:

Steam .is annihilating space. . .Travelling is changed from an isolated pilgrimmage to a kind' oftriumphal procession. . .Car- avans of voyagers are nowwinding as it were, on the wingsof the wind, round the habitableglobe. Here they glide over cultivated acres on rods of iron, andthere they rise and fall on the bosom of the deep,leaving behind them a haming wheel- track like the chariot-path of asea-god. . ."

It was the railroad, annihilating spacerather than the steamship that

immediately affected the life and economyof Massachusetts. Until

Horace Mann was nearly forty yearsold no railroads existed in Massa-

chusetts. Indeed, his work in the Massachusettslegislature helped

to spur their advent. By the time he died, 1,264 milesof tracki

26 crisscrossed the state. Railroads carried raw materials to the new

industries and marketed their finishedproducts. They stimulated

the development of suburbs, a newresidential pattern. Within ten

miles of Boston, where the commutingfare was economical, some places

like Saugus were virtually createdwhile others, like Lynn, grew

phenomenally.27

25Quoted, loc. c.it.

26Edward C. Kirkland, Men, Cities and Transportation: A Study in New EnKland History,1820-1900, Cambridge, 1948, v.1, p. 284.

27Charles Kennedy, "Railroads in Essex County aCentury Ago," Essex Institute HistoricalCollections, XCV, 2, April, 1959, p.142. 14

No aspect of life in Massachusetts remainedin 1860 as it had been in the youth of Horace Mann. The growth of cities stimulated ashift from domestic to commerical farming, atrend reinforced by the introduction of canals and railroads; and innovationmarked agriculture as well as industry; farmers adopted newtools, like the iron plough and substituted horses for oxen as draftanimals.28 However, the Erie

Canal and, after 1840, theintroduction of the railroad ruined someof the developing commercialspecialties, like wool-growing andbeef- fattening, because wool andcattle could be obtained more inexpen- sively from the West. Yet some produce remained veryprofitable, especially vegetables, fruit and milk,which could not be transported

long distances without refrigeration,and farmers utilized the grow-

ing number of branch railroadlines to market theirgoods:29

Their domestic manufacturessupplanted by the products of machines,

farm women cast about for a new meansof supplementing their incomes.

Some left home to work inthe new factories and mills orto'teach,

others turned to new domesticoccupations, such as raising silk worms,

30 the work of a brief andabortive fad. Still, labor for carrying on

28Percy Wells Bidwell, "The Agricultural Revolutionin New England," The American HistoricalReview, XXVI, 4, July,1921, pp. 687-689.

29Ibid"pp. 690-693. On agriculture in thisperiod see also Paul W. Gates, TheFarmer's Age, New York, 1960, On p. 269 Gate; decline and farm claims "too much emphasis hasbeen placed upon rural abandonment in the Northeast,and too little attention hasbeen given and readjustment. that took to the growingagricultural specialization place in the area."

30Bidwell, sitt.s41., p. 696: 15

farming itself was notalways easyto find, for the lure of the city England penetrated to ruralMassachusetts.As a writer in the New

Farmer complained:

Every farmer's son anddaughter are in pursuitof some genteel of mode of living, Afterconsuming the farm in the expenses education, they leave the hon- a fashionable,flashy, fanciful orable profession of theirfathers to become doctoTs,lawyers, merchants, or ministers orsomething of thekind.31

manufacturing, The conduct of businessaltered with the changes in

Cochoran, "business .had and agriculture. "By 1860," writes Thomas that we are familiar assumed almost all, thevaried forms and functions

Managers had learned how tocoordinate with in the' twentiethcentury." transportation," and a "big office staffs,particularly in finance and

No important monopolies class .of business executiveshad been created. with almost all the had been. formed, but"managers had experimented Horrze Mann and his contem- modern techniques oflimitedcompetition."32 accelerate the emergence poraries in the statelegislature had helped to

Between the late eigh- of the new economywithin their own lifetime._ state government teenth and mid- nineteenthcenturies the Massachusetts its function and a sus- discarded an almostmercantilist conception of

Substituted was a moreliberal formulation picion of industrialgrowth. interference with the economy as which stressed aslittle governmental incorporation on a general possible and a grantingof privileges such as through rather than a selectivebasis.1tMoreover, direct assistance 31Quoted in ibid., p. 700. Development of 32Thomas C. Cochran, "BusinessOrganization and the Harold F. Williamson,The Growth of the an industrialDiscipline," in to the EconomicHistorof the American EconomyAn Introduction 16

innovations like limitedliability andthe guaranteeing ofthe security

the economic of loans for railroad constructionhelped to make possible

transformation of thestate.33

changes Horace Mann's adult lifeencompassed the most remarkable

his death the in the economy of the state. In the half decade after

For growth of the Massachusetts economyslackened considerably.

instance, between 1850 and1855 the population increased157., between

percent.34 1855 and 1860 it grew8X and between 1860 and1865 only 3 War fostered The difficulty of obtaining rawmaterial during the Civil

hands employed in the cottonindustry a markeddecline in the number of industrial- and in the ::mount ofgoods produced. Likewise, the pace of earlier, the value ization slackened; between1845 and 1855, as noted

Between1.845 of agricultural productsdropped from 34 to 17 percent. manufacturing rose sixty-nine and 1855 the number ofhands employed in Business, percent; in the next tenyears it increasedbut ten percent.

In 1845 sixty-five however, was apparently moreprofitable than ever. dollar of invest- cents worth of cottongoods were produced for every

figure. had increased to ment in the cottonindustry; by 1855 the dollar and eighty-one cents; by1865 it had skyrocketed to one

United States, New York,1944,.p. 303. The best general economic Taylor, The Transportation history of this periodis George Rogers Revolution, 1815-1860, NewYork, 1951. A Study of the Role 330scar and Mary Flugg Handlin,Commonwealth: Massachusetts, 1774-1861, of Government in theAmerican Economy, New York, 1947, passim.

34Figures from the abstracts of the state censuses,cited in..au. , note 9. sixty-three cents. Probably thedecline in output during the Civil War

Indeed, the caused a shortage, rising pricesand increased profit. rise in prices and theinflation during the Civil War werephenomenal.35

hundred, then the cost If 1913 is takJn as astandard, representing one of living in 1840 was 60, in1861 it was 61, in 1865 it was102.36

When Horace Mann was bornin 1796, who could havepredicted that within one lifetime thelandscape of the commercial andagrarian

Yankee Commonwealth would bespotted by foul Irish slums,scarred by

Who could have known iron tracks, disfiguredby mills and factories?

operating ma- that women and childrenwould be working in factories,

chines that replaced thelabor of scores of men anddestroyed the

traditional crafts of thehome?Who could have forseenthat more

children would be growing upin cities and urban areasthan on farms?

Within .the lifetime of one man a newsociety was born, a society'that

smashed old expectations withthe force of steam, thatripped apart

and restiftbd the tissues,the web of relationshipsthat composed the

experience of men.

35Figures computed from the Censuses of Industry.

36Historical Statistics of the United States Colonial Times to 1957, Washington, 1960, p.127. do not refute In general the trendsin the Massachusetts economy Cochran's conclusion "that theCivil War retardedAmerican industrial Civil War RetardIndustrialism," growth." (Thomas C. Cochran, "Did the York, 1964, p. 48.) in Thomas C. Cochran,-The Inner Revolution, New industrial In Massachusetts at any rateall the characteristics of an society had developed bythe mid-50's andlittle expansion, indeed, mid-50's and 1865. Whether or not some decline,occurred between the the declining the Civil War retardedindustrial growth or whether off of an earlier spurt growth rate reflectedthe inevitable leveling is a question beyondthe scope of this study. 18

II. The New Education

shape of public As a new society emergedwithin Massachusetts, the of men were education expanded into newforms. As all the relationships

that ex- being woven anew, there arose aneducational reform movement

administration amined and transformed everyfeature of schooling, from

teachers.37 An expansion of to pedagogy, fromfinance to the sex of Between 1840 and public schooling accompaniedthe leap in population.

increased 53.8% 1865 the tannber of pupilsenrolled in winter schools

teachers and the number ofschools, 54.5 percent. Yet the number of the num- increased 74.4%, twenty percent morethan the number of pupils;

Augmented teach- ber of pupils assigned toeach teacher was decreasing.

er salariesaccompanied the expansion ofthe educational enterprise.

From 1840 to 1865 the averagesalary of male teachersincreased 65.5% the and that of femaleteachers, 71.1 percent. Until the inflation of of liv- 1860's these increases representedreal gains because the cost ratio and ing remained relativelystable. A decreasing pupil-teacher expenditure more than rising teacher salarieshelped increase per-pupil However, the school tax two and one halftimes during this period.

multiplied its total and per rate changed butlittle, and the state of its re- pupil expenditure withoutallocating proportionally more values, the basis for school sources to schools.A rise in property Indeed, between 1840 taxes, made possiblethis fortunate situation.

37Except where specifically noted allstatistics in this section of are from the reportaof the secretaries ofthe Massachusetts Board Education. 19

and 1865 the value of the Commonwealth's real estate mo;:e than

tripled.

The face of public education altered in other ways, too. Teach-

ing became a predominantly female occupation; in 1840, 61% of Massa-

chusetts teachers were men; by 1865 the proportion had dropped more

that three and one third times to fourteen percent. Public schools, moreover, were educating proportionally more of the state's children.

The number of children attending incorporated academies remained

relatively stable, but the number attending unincorporated academies

and other private schools dropped markedly. In 1840, 22% of Massa-

chusetts school children attended private schools; by 1865 the pro-

portion was halved. The creation and spread of a new type of school,

the public high school (defined in detail in Appendix B) accompanied

the decline in academy attendance. The first, the Boston English High

School, was founded in 1821. In 1840 there were but eighteen high

schools in the state; in 1865 there were one hundred and eight.38

Presiding over the transformation of public education was the

state government. As the Massachusetts government abandoned its

mercantilist tendencies for a more liberal, non-interventionist ap-

proach to economic life, its attitude toward education changed in the

opposite direction. The state took a far more active and positive

38The figures for high school establishmentare from Alexander James Inglis, The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts, New York, 1911, pp. 42-45. 20

role than before in the promotion of publiceducation. In 1837 the

Legislature created the Board of Education.Although the Board lacked coercive power, its secretaries used theirannual reports to diffuse comparative educational statistics and educationaltheory as well as a general goad to reformthroughout the state. During this period

the Legislature also voted to establish thefirst state normal schools

39 in the United States and, in 1852, passed the first compulsoryschool

law.°The most effective sanction the statecould use against a town

was to withhold itsportion of the state school fund, firstdistributed

in 1834. In 1865 it used this weapon to coercerecalcitrant towns to

meet their legalobligations to establish highschools.41 The state

sponsored and encouraged other innovations. It disbursed money for

school libraries to districts and evencommissioned a controversial

set of books. The Legislature permitted the towns toabolish the dis-

trict system, and the secretaries cf theBoard of Education encouraged

them to do so. The state permitted the appointment ofpaid local su-

perintendents. Secretaries encouraged the adoption ofbetter styles of

school architecture, new pedagogicaltechniques and different methods 42 of school management and discipline. Local school reports reveal

390n the first normal school sea: Andrew Nortoned., The First State Normal School in America, TheJournals of Cyrus Peirce and jimMSwiftt Cambridge, 1926.

40Massachusetts Statues, 1852, chapter 283.

41Twenty-ninth Report, p. 18.

42Many of- the innovations are listed in George H.Martin, The Evolution of the Massachusetts PublicSchool System, New York, 1894, passim. 27.

entered the schools; that exhortations were notin vain; many innovations the process of educationitself was changed.

Within Massachusetts the mostremarkable period of economic ex-

from 1860 to 1865 pansion had ended by1860; during the half-decade

educational expansion. there was little change;the same is true of The Some measures of education wereeven markedby retrogression.

the number of teach- increase in enrollment,the number of schools and indeed, the ers slowedconsiderably. Salary increases were slight; salaries of teachers, rise in prices faxoutstripped the gains in the Civil War. whose financial conditiondeteriorated badly during the

Likewise, the rise in propertyvaluation slowed, and thetwelve percent

keep pace with inflation. rise in per pupilexpenditure could hardly made on private Public schools even lost someof the inroads they had

students attending academies roseslight- education. The proportion of In the ly, and the number atunincorporated academies grewmarkedly. emerged with- mid-nineteenth century a newsociety and a new education

remarkably similar. in Massachusetts,and their growth patterns were

popular education is, to a Thus, to explorethe origins of mass

and the new education. large extent, to try torelate the new society

the relation be- The attempt here is toestablish, on the one hand,

of reform and, on theother tween reformers'ideology and their style the con- hand, to see both inthe context offundamental alteration in

ditions of life inMassachusetts.43 At the outset the reader should .1111111. t9 430n the formulation of inquiriesin the social sciences see: Harper Torchbookedition, R. M. Maclver, SocialCausation, New York, 1942, construal of the problem 1964, a work which hascontributed greatly to my of this study. 22

realize that this explorationof relationships isneither narrative nor study descriptive history. It is analytical. By that, I mean this

examine focuses on small, concretesituations, which it tries to

rather it is to start thoroughly. The intent is not to be narrow; work outwards to with the concrete andthrough careful analysis to

conclusions of broad culturalsignificance. The analytical approach

though, requires some ratherunconventional historical techniques,

certainly, they are being usedwith increasing frequencyby historians..

Interpretation of specificcomplex and frequentlypuzzling phenomena

I have requires the use of ideasdeveloped by socialpsychologists.

Scientific theory, but my tried not to encumberthe text with social revised in the light conclusions about motivationhave been pondered and

with the role of of current theories,particularly those concerned empirical questions, ambivalence in motivation. Similarly, certain very

high schools, and the such as ones about thesocial composition of crucial to the anal- kinds of areas in whichinnovation occurred, are

elaborate statis- ysis. To answer these Ihave had to use some fairly

included the technical informa- tical techniques. In general, I have tables in the appendices tion about the handlingof the data and most analyses in the text as and used the conclusionsof the statistical

they are relevant.

differs from the My frame of reference,it should be evident, between education prevailing trend in thestudy of the relationship

trend rests, for the most and economic development. For my taste this assumptions about human part, on overlysimplistic and mechanistic 23

behavior.44 Iam not concernedwith gross generalizations about human resource development orrelations between levels of education and levels of industrialization. Rather I am concerned with the often subtle interplay of factors in acomplex situation, with the pattern of interaction formed when majoralterations in the conditions of life, mediated by the tensions andvalues of men, provoke innovations in social policy. The concern here, as well, is withthe irony and problems that arise when ideologicallytreasured innovations confront social reality. To approach these issues I have focused on three important events or situationsthat seemed significant and

440ne example of the kind of economic approach against which I am arguing is provided by Shultz. (Theodore Shultz, "gducation and Ec- onomic Growth," in Henry B.Nelson, ed., Social Forces Influencing American Education, Chicago, 1961.) Shultz argues that education has played an important part in economic growth.He starts from the assumption that much economic growth isinexplicable solely in terms of an increase in the labor force and anincreasing investment in physical stock. He sees education as the factorthat accounts for the unexplained portion of growth. Shultz measures total investment in education and tries to compare it againstits returns in terms of individual income and economic expansion. He conclude' that educationis a very profitableinvestment. Similarly, Harbison and Meyers(Frederick Harbison and Charles A. Meyers, LisLaMazior,_Anclislagg&kpithEdnt: Atratsgim9Lagagiammargejkarjazau,New York, 1964.) assert that "the processes of human resourcedevelopment unlock the door tomodern- ization" (p. 2) and proceed to try todemonstrate a relation between "levels" of economic development and"levels" of education. On the Marxian.approach see: Benjamin Higgins, EconomicDeveloiament Problems. and Politics, New York,1959, pp. 107-121.

For a critique of the approachof many economists see: David C. McClelland, %WeAchimdnizApcietv,Princeton, 1961, p. 8: Basically, the economist's model of developmentis a rational one in whichenlightened self-interest of man converts pressures acting on the economic system frominside or outside into activities resulting in greater productivity orwealth. . .Man's self-interest and an event which changedthe economic equilbrium so that he was at anadvantage or disadvantage might thus explain the resulting increases ineconomic activity and productivity. Even today this model continues todominate the 24

abolition of BeverlyHigh somewhat surprising. The first is the. attack of the AmericanInstitute School in 1860;the second is the. Cyrus Peirce; thethird is of Instruction on arespected colleague,

school offered by someof the the criticism ofthe state reform

by all expectations,have state's leadingreformers, wto should, I have tried tobuild out- been its champions. From each situation wide reform andassessing ward, seeing itin the context of state

time and itsimplications for the its generalsignificance for the

parts of thisstudy, then,considers an future. Each of the three I have proceededI important aspectof thereform movement, and as relationship to eachother. have tried toindicate their

that in no senseis this However, I shouldmake clear again

the educationalreform move- study intended as acomplete history of

effort to provide athorough or evenbalanced ment. It makes no of publiceducation within description of theremarkable development

is paid topolitical parties, to Massachusetts. Little attention

simplicity and thinking of mosteconomists becauseof its great convincing a priori,reasonableness.

sense aninvestment ineducation Actdally, thehypothesis that in any can berejected from "caused" the economicgrowth of Massachusetts in the educationallevel of the pop- the outset. Without any change con- presented as ideal asituation as one can ulation Massachusetts from anagricUltaral-commerical ceive for therapid transformation abun- Population wasincreasing; food was to anindustrial economy. could be avoided;land and water were dant and theMalthusian dilemma could be imported;capital was seeking an plentiful; technology development of manu- wasfostering the outlet and the government important in statement ofthe factors factures. For a good .brief Richard T. Gill,EconomicDevelopment: economic developmentsee: 1963, pp. 3-20; Past and Present,Englewood, Cliffs, 25

religious controversies or toforeign influences. This is not to say

important, but that politics, religionand foreign influences are not other scholars have investigatedthese topics, which are thetraditional emphases of the historiansof education concerned withthis

different and a new perspec- period.45This study hopes to provide a

the attention paid to the more tive. Indeed, it is my feeling that

traditional categories has helpedobscure the underlying dynamicsof

the reform movement, and itis precisely these dynamicsthat this

study hopes to illuminate.

450nreligious controversies see: Raymond Culver, Horace Mann and Religion in the MassachusettsPublic Schools, New Haven, 1929; on politics see: Rush Welter, PopularEducation and Democratic Thought in America, New York,1962, pp. 45-123; onforeign influence see: John Davies, Phrenology: Fad and Science, aNineteenth Century American Crusade,, New Haven,1955; and Newton Edwardsand Herman G. Richey,. The School in theAmerican Social Order, Bbston,1963, pp. 306-310. Part One. REFORM BY IMPOSITION Social Origins of EducationalControversy

Prologue: The Abolition of Beverly HighSchool

At the Beverly town meetingin March, 1860, clerk John I. Baker called

abolish the roll of the eligible voters. on amotion of Joseph Thissell to

the two year old high school,re-distribute the money alreadyappropriated

among the schooldistricts and challenge in the supremecourt the state

law requiring towns of acertain size to maintain a highschool. Numerous

citizens, unable to make up theirminds, stayed silent when Bakercalled

249 in their names. But 392 did vote,143 against the motion to abolish, 1 does violence to the its favor. The nature of supporters and opponents

myth that sees free, publicsecondary education as the fulfillmentof demo-

cratic, working class aspirations. Likewise, it raises disturbing questions

about the viability of the consensustheory of the American past. For the

question of the future of Beverly highschool found the social and financial

leaders of the town arrayed against itsleast affluent citizens, and it was

the former who provided the most solid groupof supporters for the high school.

Because the high school issue was soimportant clerk Baker, most unusually,

recorded the name of each individual whovoted and the nature of his vote.

Tax books and the manuscript censusof 1860 furnish information aboutthe

residence, occupation, wealth, age andnumber of dependents of 343 of the 392 2 Voters. This information is presented intabular form in Appendix D.

1BeverlyCitizen, Match17, 1860,p.2. 2 The tax books are in the Beverlycity Hall. These are useful because they group the tax assessmentlists byschool district. The manuscript census 27

opposed abolition ofthe high First of all,consider the people who populous, dense and'centrally school. Most of them livedin 'the two most 3 the South. Supporters includedthose located districts,the Grammar and

17 of the 19professionals andpublic in the most prestigousoccupations: mariners and all employees; eight ofthe nine seacaptains and master

businessmen was lessdecisive, but a four "gentlemen".The vote of the category, includingeverything significant majority ofthis heterogeneous

the supportersof the high from wealthy merchantto shopkeeper, were among Grammar and the businessmenwho lived in the school, Moreover, most of school as did mostof the wealthiest ones. South districtssupported the high but those wholived Throughout the townthe vote of theartisans was split,

and those withchildren generallyfavored in the Grammarand South districts town was clearly onthe side of thehigh the high school. The wealth of the estate, real estateand total estateof those school. The average personal those who favored it. Of those who opposed abolition wasmuch higher than

valuation, over$5,000,high school in the top categoryfor each kind of with real estatein this supporters predominated. Sixteen of twenty-six personal estate andthirty-three of category; eighteen oftwenty-four with those who stood outagainst the abolition forty-nine with totalestate were among

of the high school.

the motion toabolish the high school For those whovoted in favor of

reversed. Must came from theoutlying these characteristicswere generally of The Cove district,where only five out districts, sparselypopulated. school, was the onlydistrict untouched fifty-seven voterssupported the high prestigous occupationalcategories were by the railroad. Those in the least

school as theprominent were infavor. as solidlyopposed to the high

of 1860 is in the MassachusettsState Archives. Voting to abolish were 37 of the 44 farmers, 80 of the 109 shoemakers,

21 of the 24 mariners and fisherman, and all 10 laborers.The businessmen who opposed the high school generally had less wealth than the supporters and more lived in the outlying districts.Fewer of the artisans who voted for abolition had children of school age than did those who supported. Indeed, dependency was an important characteristic. Of 171 voters with no children of school age, 120 voted to abolish the high school.

However, no significant differences existed between voters in number of children of high school age or in number of teenage children attending school. Finally, the people who voted.to abolish the high school were the least wealthy, on every measure. Not only that, but the distribution of the wealth they did have was different. Whereas those who supported the high school generally had an estate balanced fairly evenly between real-and personal property, those who voted for abolition had more valuable real than personal holdings. That is, opposition to the high school came not only from the least wealthy but also from those whose holdings in land and buildings exceeded their personal property.

None of these characteristics, of course, can be trulyindependent

of the others,Yet there were two sorts of dominating groupings in the vote on the high school issue. On the one hand, people with no children

of school age were protesting the continuation of an institution whichincreased

their tax bill. On the other hand, there was a clear social division, which

encompassed many, though not all, the voters.Those in prestigous occupations

and those of Most wealth were supporting an innovating addition to the

31was able to judge district density andlocation from a map in the possession of the BeverlyHistorical Society. 28

Voting to abolish were 37 of the 44 farmers, 80 of the 109 shoemakers,

21 of the 24 mariners and fisherman, and all 10 laborers.The businessmen who opposed the high school generally had less wealth than the supporters and more lived in the outlying districts. Fewer of the artisans who voted for abolition had children of school age than did those who supported. Indeed, dependency was an important characteristic. Of 171 voters with no children of school age, 120 voted to abolish the high school.

However, no significant differences existed between voters in number of children of high school age or in number of teenage children attending school. Finally, the people who voted.to abolish the high school were the least wealthy, on every measure. Not only that, but the distribution of the wealth they did have was different. Whereas those who supported the high school generally had an estate balanced fairly evenly between real and personal property, those who voted for abolition had more valuable real than personal holdings. That is, opposition to the high school came not only from the least wealthy but also from those whose holdings in land and buildings exceeded their personal property.

None of these characteristics, of course, can be truly independent of the others, Yet there were two sorts of dominating groupings in the vote on the high school issue. On the one hand, people with no children of school age were protesting the continuation of an institutionwhich increased their tax bill. On the other hc.nd, there was a clear social division, which

encompassed many, though not all, the voters. Those in prestigous occupations and those of most wealth were supporting an innovating addition to the

31was able to judge district density and location from a map in the possession of the BeverlyHistorical Society. 29

educational system, even though they were the ones whowould pay the 4 highest taxes.Opposition came from the working class : fishermen, farmers, shoemakers and laborers. Indeed, these groups were almost as unanimously opposed to the high school as the former werein favor. A third important element was the business andartisan groups among which few differences in wealth could be discerned. In fact, it was again the wealthier businessmen, who would be more highlytaxed, who voted more often for the high school. With the business and artisan groups concerns other than taxation must be considered. The association between vote and residence provides a clue here sincethese people were engaged in retail work; they were dependent upon their neighborsfor a livelihood, and it is reasonable to infer that both theprejudices of their neieiborhood and the desire to avoid offending customers wererelevant factors in their vote.

Still, we must ask if there were other reasons forthese more middle

class townsmen to support the high school. Indeed, the explanation of the

vote to abolish Beverly high school is far fromclear. Opposition did not

come from vested interests,and it came only partly from thetraditional

bane of educational innovators, parsimonious peoplewith no children of

school age. Why did the wealthy and prestigous favor ahigh school?Why

did the working class oppose?Perhaps a closer look at an individual

supporter will suggest some answers. One of the most prominent high school

4 1 use the term working-class throughoutthis study to mean people in the lowest socio - economic. categories. Thus, I am using the term-in its current sense. I do not mean "workingmae in the sensethe term was employed in the mid-nineteenth century.since this covered a muchbroader range of social groups, including people wewould today term middle and upper middle class. On the term "workingman" see WalterHugins, JacksoniospemocracE and The Workin4 Class, Stanford, 1960, p. 52. 30

Robert Rantoul, al promoters in Beverly wasRobert Rantoul, Sr. His son

helped found the FreeSoil Party was the famousDemocratic Senator who Whittier. Rantoul, Sr., and whose early, tragicdeath evoked an ode from 5 . Born was one of the`first citizens of bothBeverly and Massachusetts

Sdottish immigrant, drowned in 1778 in Salem,Rantoul was the son of a financial at sea when his son wasstill quite young. In spite of severe private difficulties Rantoul attended,successively, a dame school, a Latin school. writing school, the town grammarschool, and, occasionally, a apprenticed to a doctor- At the age of fourteenhe left school and was

soon managingthe shop; and his apothecary.Rantoul, a quick learner, was the money to buy a vacantapothecary successful experienceenabled him to raise

and a half years old.Rantoul shop in Beverly whenhe was but seventeen rise toward. eminence continued his success as anapothecary and began his

'The following partial list ofRantoul's positionsdemonstrates Poor, 1804-54; justiceof the peace his importance:Overseer of the Beverly 1818-1858; first parish(Unitarian) and acting trialjudge for the town, trustee of the StateIn- clerk, deacon of thefirst parish church;-original member of the stitution for theBlind, 1830-1851,original and life-long at the General Court, Massachusetts TemperanceSociety; representative County, 1820,1821-22; captain 1809-19; 1823-27;1828-33; senator from Essex 1805-8 and first lieutenantof the of the Beverly LightInfantry Company, commissioner of highways, Coast Guard ArtilleryCompany, 1814-15, county to Beverly in1834; deliverer of the officialaddress when Lafayette came member of two constitutional member of the schoolcommittee for forty years; committee to audit conventions, 1820 and1855; chairman of the legislative stir the question ofcapital the entire state;alledgedly first person to Federalist, a Democratand punishment in Massachusetts;and successively a For biographical one of the tenfounders of the RepublicanParty in Beverly. "Beverly", in D. HamiltonHurd, details on Rantoul see,Frederick A. Ober, Sketches of ed., History of EssexCounty, Massachusetts, with Bio . a bical v.17F772g. 149_.:Ta of its PioneersandProminent en, Philadelphia, 1 31

toward his politicalfuture, as a localmerchant.Most likely with an eye practice and to become a Rantoul by himself studied law and learned enough to

at the top of Beverlysociety by local jache.Rantoul signified his arrival providing his son with oneof the most prestigiouseducations Massachusetts

Phillips Andover and,in'1820, could offer.Robert Rantoul, jr., attended

Harvard College. Another the year of his graduationfrom the academy, entered position in important sign of Rantoul's socialarrival was his prominent Insurance Company in town financial ventures.He was founder of the Marine These activities, as well Beverly and an activedirector of the local bank. Magazine, as a legacyincluding a ecuplete andlengthy set of Hunt's Merchants holdings and indicate that Rantoul was apromoter.The extent of Rantoul's development are revealed his involvement withcommerical life and industrial $28,326.45 in personal by his estate.Rantoul left$16,350 in real estate and

distributed between railroads,steam cotton estate. His stock holdings were The uncollected debtshe mills, turnpikes, banks and insurancecompanies.

left indicate that Rantoul wasalso a money lender,and the bequeathed rents 6 likewise a realtor . on a number ofproperties show that he was

writings offer no clue Rantouls's public speechesand, even, his private

it would seem deliberately, that he was a promoter. Indeed, they are designed,

To Rantoul no value deserved more to present a ratherdifferent impression.

than communal conflict. attention than social unity;nothing was more repugnant longing for a truly Throughout his speeches andhis autobiography runs a real

of the Name and Family 6Robert S. Rantoul,"Some Nhterial for a History Collections of the Es_ sexInstitute, ofRentoul-Rintoul-Rantoul," Historical Youth and Apprentice- xxi, October- November -December, 261; "Mr.Rant:Mls Sr.l."Autdbiography", ship", ibid., v. October,1863, pp. 193-196, Robert Rantoul, manuscript, Beverly HistoricalSociety, pp. 2Y5 and415; his collection of Society. His will Hunt's .... is in the possession ofthe Beverly Historical is in the Essex CountyCourt House, Salem. 32 unified society, which he locates somewherein the past.When Rantoul lectured on "economy" at the lyceum in 1835, he stressed that he would say "nothing" to encourage that miserable spirito:t' envy and jealousy, which finds its highest gratification in planting and fostering the lost bitt?r feelings of opposition and hatred between those in the different classes into which society is divided". Instead, he stressed "mutualdependence.?

Elsewhere he commented with nostalgic regret on the demise of voluntary fire fighting, which had provided a "favorable influence goon themass of the community, provoking a generous desire to aid oneanother byperscnal efforts and sacrifices". Unfortunately, the termination of voluntsryfirefighting represented one phase of a misguided "Lessening of sympathy forcur fellow 8 beings". Similarly, the high point in the history of Beverly, according to Rantoul, was the united community action in response to an 1832 cholera threat, united action that would not have been possible, he claimed,a few yearslater9.

Observers other than Rantoul noted the earlier social unityinBeverly.

Historian Joseph Ober saw harmony as a product of kinship and portrayed Beverly

7RobertRantoul, "Lecture onEconomy",delivered before the Beverly lyceum, December8and.15,1836,manuscript, Beverly Historical Society.

8"Autobiography ", p. 219. Rantoul started to compile his autobiography in 184$ and made additions until his death ten years later. It draws heavily on extracts from his diary, record books and letters and is, therefore, much more than the senile musings of an old man.

9Ibid., p.365. 33

or as a large family,almost a clan. Throughout generations the ,people

Beverly "had contentedlytilled the soil and ploughedthe sea, leaving their ancestral homes onlyto participate in thebusiness affairs of the

Intermarriage had united town or when summoned bythe imperative ofwar".

the people ... were the people in thedifferent sections of the town,and and individually members of oneand the same great family;their Interests

10 noted their traditions wereidentical". Edwin' Stone, another historian,

in 1842 that thelawyers in Beverly found itimpossible to make a living wrote, had by fees alone.A "distinguished memberof the Essex bar," he during a practice of remarked "as a singularfact in his experience, that convicted of any nearly forty years, he had neverknown a native of Beverly

heinouscrime".11

the summer boarder, whose To Ober the destroyerof the happy family was

"new element" into the arrival with the railroad,around 1840, introduced a

12 the law abiding nature ofBeverly citizens: town. As for Stone's comments on during 1864, one was formurder, among the seventy-nine arrests in the town for keeping a"disorderly seventeen were for assault,eighteen for larceny, one

"stubborn children"; house" and two for "nightwalking". Two, likewise, were of

reported with horror that one four were for adultry. In 1863 the nempaper killed Stackpole, an example ofthe "fast youngmen" who infested the town, had

Nor were the recentimmigrants his sister and attemrtedto murder his parents.

disgusted account of the always placid, as ...... dicatedby the town paper's Street.3 stabbing of oneIrishman by another onWater

10Ober, a. cit., p. 749. Ecclesiastical, from UZdwinStone, A History ofBeverly, Civil and its Settlement in20:1 to 1642, Boston,18;37. 7.

120be-r, 1 o cit., p. 749, 314-

Rantoul perceptivelyconnected the demise ofsocial unity with the

Beverly.It changes that were overtakingthe Commonwealth andthe town of

general employment" that had been"the introduction of shoemaking as a the mass - from had "gradually changed thehabits, manners and morals of a fishing,sea-faring and farmingpopulation," into "a manufacturing 14 population in the main". Indeed, Rantoul told a localaudience, farming

life, the was better thantrade as an occupation. In itself mercantile

fine activity; distribution of products andluxuries over a wider area, was a

"too many mean artifices but, unfortunately, tradehad some unlovely aspects: frauds, and a and tricks, too much overreachingand even gross atrocious number of lives ..." reckless sacrifice of health,morals, comfort and of a vast

On the whole, then,agriculture provided a betterlife than trading.

Massachusetts soil was not themost fertile, but"labor, intelligently and

"ample reward". skillfully applied in thecultivation of the ground" offered an

manufacturer; thei.e was no No farmer could grow asrich as a merchant or a

"active and industrious" hope of sudden or spectacularaccumulation; but a man, And how would obtain a "comfortablesubsistence" and have a bit left over.

uncertainties and much superior was theidyllic life on the farm to the

questionable morality of trade. How unfortunate was it thatthe country had

suffered already "from the ...large and disproportionatenumber ... withdrawn

in the from the laborious and productiveclasses in rural life, to engage 15 merchant, unproductive pursuits of. trade...". Thus spoke Robert Rantoul,

who lawyer, promoter: a man who never was afarmer, who grew up in a city,

directed a bank, who sent neither son norgrandson to a farm, who subscribed

1863, November 5, 1859, all p. 2. 13Bever March 12, 1864; April 1,

14.Rantoul, a:cit., pp.194 and 365. 35

faithfully to that agent of the mercantilespirit, Hunt's Merchants Magazine.

In 1854 Robert Rantoul formallyretired from town affairs. But three years later he returned tothe annual, spring town meeting. One purpose,

claimed the aging patriarch, was to bidfarewell and thanks to thetowns-

people; the other was to speak infavor of the proposed town high sc.'ol.

In his nearly completed autobiography,Rantoul commented, "This subject I

deem to be very important and have cometo speak and vote in favorof such

a school. I spoke at some length but bythe result of the vote with very

little effect as there was alarge majority against themeasure". Yet, some

citizens drew up an indictment againstthe town for not complying with the

state law which required towns ofBeverly's size to have a highschool.

This action precipitated anothertown meeting. Again Rantoul attended; 16 this, however, was the last time. By his side were his grandsons,who

also argued for the high school. One grandson was Robert S.Rantoul, a

lawyer, later president of theEssex Institute. In his papers exist the

fragments of a speech listingcitations of court cases,which were apparently

chosen to show the town thatthe law was clearly on theside of the state.

Surely, he must have told thetownspeople, they would lose theensuing legal

battle if they persisted intheirdefianae.17The high school, started in

1858, was abolished in 1860, by thenRantoul was dead, but oneof those who

15Robert Rantoul, "Lecture on Agriculture", Read atBeverly Lyceum, February 11, 1841, manuscript,Beverly Historical Society.

16: Rantoul, "Autobiography", unnumbered page.

Essex Institute in Salem. 17Thepapers of RobertS. Rantoul are at the Also there are some papersof Robert Rantoul, Sr.and many of the papers of Beverly Robert Rantoul, Jr.Many other Rantoulfamily manuscripts are at the Hisotical Society.Enough material exists to doat least a three generation study of the family. 36

Endicott, stood out against its destruction wasthe wealthy druggist, William one of the grandsonswho had been atRantoul's side in 1857.

Why did Rantoul support ahigh school? Is there a relation between his activities as a promoter, hislonging for social harmony,his disingenuous or activity on behalf of incongrous remarks on the virtuesof farm life and his education, especially a highschool?18 Rantoul left no direct answers to

values that he extoled, these questions, but hisperception of his society, the

schoolpromoters throughout these were representativeof.leading schoolmen and high

and arguments of these men, we can the state. If we look at the attitudes better understand both RobertRantoul and the abolitionof Beverly high school.

I. Educational Promoters and theHigh School

the Massachusetts educational promotershad an ambivalent attitude to

They argued, on the- one transformation of the economicbasis of the state.

of the state. hand, that education had fosteredthe impressive economic progress

in fact, the The relation between educationand the creation of wealth was,

thesis of Horace Mann's fifthreport in which heelaborated at length his contention

dependent that the progress and prosperityof a manufacturing economy were 19 education upon the educationof the entire population. The connection between

18Given Rantoul's transition from Federalism toDemocracy the stress on social unity is to be expected, asis clear from Shaw Livermore,Jr., The Twighlight of Federalism, TheDisintegration of the FederalistParty,TE5-1830, Princeton, 1962. 19 Horace Mann, Life and Works of HoraceMann Boston, 1867, v.4 p. 259. bee also, ibid., v.iii, pp.92-126, esp. p. 109: education is not only a moral renovator, and a multiplier ofintellectual power, but ... it is also themost prolific parent of material riches. It has a right, therefore, not onlyto be included in the grand inventoryof a nation's resources, but tobe placed at the very head of thatinventory. 37

and industrial prosperityand the enthusiasm with whichschoolmen welcomed economic transformation were wellillustrated in the first report ofGeorge 20 Boutwell Boutwell, third secretary ofthe Massachusetts Board ofEducation. stressed that education hadbeen of the utmost importancein the development

of Massachusetts into anindustrial state. The role of tbo schools was characteristics", had been increasingly potent since"labor", in its "leading

previously a "manualprocess", but now had become,"in its force and value, were harvested in improved essentially intellectual". The frvits of intelligence of agricultural production and,especially, in industry. For "the prosperity

the intellectual vigor as upon the mills and shops isbased quite as much upon description of the the physical power of thelaborers". In his rapturous demonstrated one side of the qualities of intellectualizedindustry Boutwell

ambivalence of Massachusettseducators to industrialsociety:

20 Education, George Boutwell, was The third secretaryof the Board of Boutwell, like his predecessorsMann a resident ofGroton and a Democrat. personified and Sears, had adistinguished career, which)in Boutwell's case, and the American myth of theself-made man. Boutwell's parents were poor, working his only formal education wasin common schools. He commkmed his store in the center ofGroton life as an assistant to amerchant whose brick built.Boutwell was opposite thesite on which thehigh school was eventually qualified to practice law. continued his own educationand eventually became and served as memberof the He took an active rolein the affairs of Groton representative to the General Court. school committee, localpostmaster and Party in Massachusetts Boutwell was one of thefounders of the Republican the legislature and an ardent opponentof slavery. In the early fifties representing a coalitionof elected him Governor tohead an administration During the Civil War heentered dissident Conscience Whigsand Democrats. and, eventually, congress- national politics as commissionerof internal revenue representatives During Johnson's administrationBoutwell was one of the man. Under Grant Boutwell who agitated vociferouslyfor the President'simpeachment. finally, United StatesSenator. His last was Secretaryof the Treasury and, League, a post which heheld position was president ofthe Anti-Imperialist details on Boutwell see from 1898 until his deathin 1905. For biographical of American Biograpy, v.ii, the article by Henry G. Pearsonin the Dictionary Sketch of Groton, Massachusetts, pp.489-490; Samuel A. Green, An Historical Reminiscences of Sixty 165-18900 Groton, 1894, passim, andGeorge Boutwell, Years in Public Affairs,2 vol., N.Y., 1902. 38

Labor is not imitative merely, - it isinventive, creative. The laborer is no longer servile,yielding to laws and nec- essities that he cannot comprehend, andtherefore cannot respect, but he has been elevated to theregions of art, and works by laws that he appreciates, and aspires to aperfection as real, at least, as that of the sculptor,painter, or poet.... The laws of labor are the laws that existand are recognized in art, eloquence and science. The great law of these latter unquestionably is, that every studentshall be at the same time an original thinker,investigator, designer and producer.

The artist laborer had a central roleto play in Massachusetts since, claimed Boutwell, "Massachusetts,from its history and position, isnecessarily a manufacturing andcommercial state". Manufacture and commerce, he continued, require intellectual cultivationand "a high order oflearning". The industrial and commercial success ofMassachusetts, consequently, depended!'for the material,

classes upon the of its growth and prosperity onthe intelligence of the laboring land and in the shops and mills. Thus we connect theproductive power of our 21 state with its institutionsof learning".

In the past, educators argued,the common schools had madeMassachusetts prosperous, but educationalinstitutions sufficient for the needsof a simple agrarian society would not meetthe demands of an urban-industrial economy.

Rantoul shared this opinion, asthe resolution he offered at an1837 town meeting

implies:

Resolved that while the antiquityof our common schools commands our great respect we oweit to ourselves and to posterityto infuse into their system of instruction aspirit of improvement so thatwhile all other means of educationhave been vastly improved, enlargedand extended this favorite system of ourdemocratic republic may have its citizens just and relative value andpiesent high estimation Gong our and continue to accomplish its greatend anddesign.2` ninrwmecliIN

21 therelation Twentieth. Report, pp.36-37. For Barnas Sears' comments on of education and economicgrowth see Nineteenth Report, p.51.

ft 39

The Winchendon school committee, similarly,maintained that it was a "fixed point"that all should receive a good education but theterm

"good "itself was "moveable". In educational requirements the"tendency" 23 was upwards". The occupations open to a boy with only anelementary common schoolbackground now required a secondary education. In every variety of work "rapidprogress", commented the Brookline schoolcommittee in 1855, called for a"corresponding expansion ... in education". To the Brookline committee a highschool was the means of providing forthe

2), demands created by economic change.

22 Manuscript, Rantoul Papers, BeverlyHistorical Society.

3Winchendon...1852-53, 1853, P. 15. Horace Mann expressed the view that education had not kept pacewith political and social change in a letter to J. A. Shaw, March7,1840 (Mann papers, Massachusetts Historical Society): Now the increased means ofeducation for the last sixty years have not kept pacewith the increasing obligations, duties, and temptations of the community. For some years past, the friendsof the schools, the advocates for a universal education, commensuratewith the wants of the community have perceivedthis, and have endeavored to make education not only moreefficient when it existed, but to enlarge the circle of itsaction.

24Brookline Report abstracted in EighteenthReport, P. 205: Modern commerce requires of the youngmerchant that he should have a more adequate knowledge ofthe great globe he dwells on than can be acquired from the pagesof a Grammar School text- book;. the farmer cannot muchlonger dispense with some scientific knowledge of the soil he cultivates;the ships, the mills, the warehouses we need can nolonger be built.by the rule of thumb' of an ignorant mechanic. Whole clascas in our community, who, not a generation ago,would have been content to earntheir living by unskilled labor, are nowthrust from that lower market, and forced to add knowledgeand intelligence to the labor of their hands. Surely, we should not regret thisstate of things, but it behooves us toprovide fcr it. Rantoul may have had a high school in mind when he complained that

some parents scoffed at the newer, moreadvanced subject matter of

education with the attitude "that as they did not attend, then young,

to those studies, therefore it is not important for their children to

attend to them." But this was a fallacy "inasmuch as thlir.children

come into life in a community much bettertaught than was the society

in which their parents beganlife".25

Intertwined with the arguments relating the necessity of improved

education, especially a high school, to the economic requirements of

an industrializing society arecontentions stressing the relationship

between the high school and social mobility. The Winchendon committee

argued that the availability of foreigners to perform the"least desirable"

sorts of work enabled "our sons to rise to otheremployments."To seize

the new opportunities for its children a town required an advanced

educational system, especially a high school; there was no otheralternative

if parents desired their children to rise on the economic andsocial

scale. "Shall we," asked the committee, "stand still, and see our children

outstripped in the race of life, by the children of those who arewilling

'to pursue a liberal and far-sightedpolicy?"26

The relation between the high school and both communalprosperity

and mobility were driven home to the people of Beverly by RufusPutnam,

part time superinteudent and principal of a high school inneighboring

25flMr. Rantoul's Connexion with Town and Parochial Affairs - His Views on Religion", The Historical Collections of theEssex Insitute, vi, April, 1864, no. 2, p. 82. 26 Winchendon, op. citc, p. 15. 43,

Salem. He informed the town that there was a directcorrelation between educational facilities and the wealth of a community.Be told the citizens of Beverly that to developtheir economy they would have to develop their schools, and, he maintained, noimprovement was more crucial than a high school. "The best educated community", said Putnam,

"will...always be the most prosperous community ...nothing so directly tends to promote the increase of wealthof a community as the thorough mental training of its youth...".27When he had taken charge of the

Bowditch (English) High School in Salem,Putnam, as reported by Rantoul, told the people of Beverly in1853, parents had difficulty finding

employment for children who had attended.But technological change had

completely altered the situation:

the introduction of Machinery inthe arts had increased the demand for education inasmuch asthere was more mind required in the use of machinery thanwithout it ... and an increase in a greater proportionof mental process to produce theincreased results called for more education.

In fact, continued Putnam,"there was such a demand for well educated

boys that some were induced toleave school before they-hadcompleted

.28 their regular course ofstudy"

The argument that a high schoolwould foster mobility probably

appealed to parents of limited ormoderate means. For they are the ones

who would not be able toprovide their sons with the capital orinfluence

that might make a good educationless necessary, and it islikely that

these arguments influenced manyof the artisans and less wealthybusiness-

men who voted for theretention of Beverly highschool. Similarly,

27Report of Rufus Putnam asSuperintendent of schools in Beverly ... 1855, pp. 24.26. 42 it is likely that the wealthy elite of supporters found the appeal to communal wealth moving, for as owners of real estate, as investors in enterprises they stood to gain the most from urban and industrial development.But would the arguments concerning mobility appeal to them?Had they an interest in paying taxes to develop their own competition and competition for their children? Another prominent high school promoter from Beverly helps answer these questions.

This high school promoter was the leading town physician, Dr:

Wyatt C. Boyden, next door neighbor of Robert Rantoul. The two promoters did not always agree.Boyden was a Whig, a friend of Rufus Choate, an admirer of Webster.Rantoul was a Democrat. In 1836 Boyden was one of four physicians whose united raising of fees evoked a petition from e 29 town meeting, a petition urged by Rantoul. Both Rantoul and Boyden were charter members of the Beverly Acadepv, which flourished from the 1830's to the mid-50's, but a fight between the trustees and proprietors led to

Rantoul's resignation. The fight had been over the Appointment of a 30 teacher, one James Woodberry Boyden, the doctor's eldest son. However, the two men must frequently have submerged their differences. For nearly two decades they served together on the town school committee, and both were 31 among the ten original members of the Republican party in Beverly.

28Rantoul, "Autobiography's,p. 229.

29AlbertBoyden, Here and There in the Family Tree, Salem, 1949, p. 113. The draft of the petition, in Rantoul's handwriting, is in his papers, Beverly Historical Society.

30 0n both the demise of the academy and the proprietor-trustee controversy set. Rantoul, "Autobiography ", pp. 221-223 and Ober, op. cit., p.722. 43

Boyden was The son of afinancially strugglingcountry doctor, born in Tamworth, NewKamp-shire, in1794. A combination of common

private tutoringby a local schools, a brief spellat an academy and he entered in1815. minister preparedBoyden for Dartmouth,which resident to receive aDartmouth In 1819 he becamethe first Tamworth going to collegewith school A.B.From 1815 to1826 Boyden alternated Dartmouth.As was common teaching and, finally,studying medicine at practice before hehad received in that period, heactually started to

Boyden taught aschool in BeverlyFarms his degree. During one term They married in1821andsettled in where he metElizabeth Woodbury.

Elizabeth's parentsand the offer New Hampshireuntil pressure from in a flourishingpractice attracted of an attractivejunior partnership

them back toBeverly.32

doctor. "Duringthe Unlike his father,Boyden was a prosperous

life," he wrote, "I havehad aleading healthy and active:part of my

My yearly incomehas from the and somewhatlucrative business.... "33 Boyden's financial status was beginning more thansupported me.

income fromfifes. With con- not, however, solelythe result of his future of the shoebusiness siderableshrewdness h?.early perceived the

31 party in Beverly,together The resolutionforming the Republican: founders, is reproducedin Boyden,off. with the signaturesof the ten cit., opposite p.116. Boyden is taken 32Boyden, op. cit., pp. 16-17.The account of composed partly ofnarrative and from this source,which is a genealogy papers. partly of generousexcerpts from family

33Ibid.,p. 17. in Lynn, and his considerableinvestments there, cleimed his grandson,

"have proved of substantial benefit to thefamily".Boyden also provided his sons with capital. "When he found that his son Albert was ashrewd and safe man," wrote Boyden'sgrandson, " ... he entrusted moneyto him for investment in Illinoisfarm-mortgages at rates of interestwhich,

though normal for their times, seemfancifully high in our days of cheap

money." Dr. Boyden died in1879 and left an estate valued at$75,000,

"this sum being almost entirely theresult of his own earnings, savings and

H34 investments.

of This physician-promoter alsoengaged actively in the affairs

the classics made him a leader Beverly. Boyden's learning and his love of

twenty-four years in educational matters,especially; and he served for

the as a member ofthe school committee. He was also a charter member of

he was the town's Beverly Academy.Again, according to his grandson, 35 most active and influentialexponent of graded schools. For all his

interest of many Years ineducation, the decision to votefor the high

school was not an easy one forBoyden to make. In a fragment of a letter,

importance of a perhaps never sent, heexplained his conception of the

high school.

Boyden admitted his unwillingnessto increase "the high rateand

I pressure of our TownExpenses - for schools,and all other purposes. of a high confess I have had some reluctanceto add to them the expense

assumption regarding education wasthat school."36But Boyden's fundamental

23-244

.35Ibid.,pp. 22-23. 45

"the prosperity of the country -and the permanence of ourcivil,

the intelligence political and religiousInstitutions ... depend on conditions the founders of and virtue of thepeople."To insure these

established common schools open New England,Boyden explained, had expense.But, and free to all and acollege more or less at common

education wanted, inter- he continued,"There was still a course of The "academies mediate between the commonschool and thecollege."

met this need and, moreover, private schools andprivate tuition" hardly clasnes." For served the rich betterthan the "middlingand poorer for the reasons of statethe lack of highereducational opportunities

poorer class was aserious situation,claimedeBoyden, undoubtedly

generalizing from his ownmotivation:

education of the besttalent of The State had aninterest in the often found among the the community.And this talent was as oftener. middling and lowerclasses as among therich - perhaps and lazy. For the rich areapt to becomeluxurious, indolent which is not onlythe They have not thestimulus of necessity - of great effortand mother of invention -but of diligence - progress.

schools proved"unacceptable to the And becauseacademies and private distance and expense ...our Legislature people at large,by reasons of The purpose ofthe high school established the highschool system...".

available"preparation for college system, emphasizedBoyden, was to make to distinguishedindustry and and the higherbranches of learning ... it might befound". talent;, in whatevercondition and circumstances

for the high school,should he so Boyden made itclear that his vote

account" because hecould afford to cast it, would notbe on his "own INWIIININ111111M AMMNIONIMINIMMISIMW AINIMPWII= is in 36The fragpent of a letter concerningthe high school ibid., pp.' 117-120. educate his own children. Likewise, he would not vote for one"to supply the rich. They can supply themselveswith the means of education".

His vote, rather, would be,first, for those individuals"who have not the means of a higher educationwithin themselves."His motivation for providing that means was his conceptionof "the public good," that is,

"it is for the interest of the Statethat the best talent of thecommunity should be educated, whereverit may be found". Ironically, the very people for whose good Boydeneventually supported a high schoolhad not the enlightened self-interestto accept his graciousness.

But who would a high schooleducate? Would all attend? Boyden

neither advocated nor believed in ademocracy of intellect, and his

social convictions become evenclearer from his remarks on thedistribution

branches"; of ability. Some had not the"capacity" to learn the "higher

others would not have theoppOrtunity; others would not want to; and

others would not find the higherlearning in "their interest".To imagine

that all could learn the higherbranches was, in fact, a dangerousillusion.

Besides being untrue, that is, itthreatened to alter a dilicate social

balance, which required hewers of woodand drawers of water. Society

needed learned men,"preachers, teachers and authors," but it also re-

quired "food, shelter andclothing." And food, shelter and clothing were

"not the higher branches oflearning." Neither was higher learning"mer-

chandise" which could be bought and sold. In fact, those who had not the

need for higher learning hadbetter avoid it: "As a littlelearning is a

dangerous thing-'drink deep or taste notthe Pierian Spring.'"Only

common schooleducation was "fundamental for practical life and it

should be made as universal andpractical as possible ". Indeed, "knowledge

of the common branches is about asmuch as the mass of scholars canacquire 47

37 during the period oftheir childhood andyouth...".

tonic. Too little andprosperity In proper doseseducation was a fine Too much and theintri- faltered whiledeserving talent wentunrewarded.

properly.Dr# Boyden, essentially, cate social organism nolonger functioned and assimilate thebright, prescribed a meritocracywhich would absorb

had been.But he had nodesire ambitious hard workingboy, as he himself

social ladder necessary,and with to alter thehierarchy which made a of the man who hasmade'it the hard way, more than alittle of the smugness to climb nor wide. he wanted theladder itself neither easy

throughout the state werepeople As in Beverly,school promoters transformation of thestate. On the intimately connectedwith the economic great advocate ofschool reform, based state level JamesCarter, the first had to education on the factthat Massachusetts an argumentfor extended Horace Mann helpedpush through the industrialize in ordertosurvive.'

and assistingrailroad construction. Massachusetts legislaturebills supporting Henry K. Oliver,the most vocal George Boutwell was aMerchant.In Lawrence

for appointment asthe third schoolPromoter and a leading candidate agent for one ofthe largestcotton secretary of theBoard of Education, was 39 occupation of JosephWhite, mills in the state. This was the former

37Ibid.,p. 119.

4 , "Report 38CommOnwealth of Massachusetts, HouseDocuments No. Esta lishments'. On Carter's Education of Childrenin Manufacturing on the that he was chosenSecretary of background and the reasonswhy Mann rather illuminating articleby Jonathan C.Masserli, the Board ofEducation see the School Reformer,"History of "James G. Carter'sLiabilities as a Common Education quFterlD v.1, March,1965, pp. 14-25. Oliver", in Commonwealthof Massachusetts, 39Jesse H. Jones, "Henry Kemble of the Statisticsof Labor, March, Seventeenth Annual R_ort of the Bureau IBM, Boston,.157Bp. fourth secretary of theBoard of Edvzation. School comitteemen had to

they had to be able tointelligently represent the mosteducated citizens; for Often the ministry .examine teachers, inspectschools and write reports.

participation was important played an active role,but in most towns lay

years one of themost active and critical. Again in Beverly, for many 40 And so it educational reformers wasWilliam Thorndike, a richmerchant. wrote the was throughoutthe Commonwealth. The supporters of education

legislation, invested the moneyand ran the enterprisesthat brought about

the economic and socialtransformation of Massachusetts.

communal re- Wealthy groups hadinterests other than developing

advocated high schools. sources and promotinglimited mobility when they prolonged apprentice- As changes in the natureof commercial life made a do with their _ ship no longer necessary, somemerchants wondered what to 9, 1834, a group of men,"chiefly adolescent boys. On the night of June education of their sons. engaged in commerce",gathered to discuSs the secretary of the meeting Among those present wasNathan Appleton, and the

The merchants agreed thatthe was the eminentWilliam Ellery Channing. inefficient and wasteful of present system ofapprenticeship had become decline to their sons' time. The men also agreedthat "gentlemen, who their send their sons tocollege as being aninstitution not suited to education preparation for active life, arebound to give them a better

educational objectives for than they nowreceive".The men had definite the ideal New England their sons, and theseobjectives suggest a portrait of

merchant: astutely making afortune, conscious of a deep senseof

4°Stone,op. cit., pp.150-154. 149 responsibility to society and desirous of continually improving his mind. To the merchants their ideal school would be anything but a place of leisure since it was to provide an arduous preparation for a life in the counting room. A new type of institution was clearly needed, and the merchants thought they saw one at hand. "It was thought,

that the present English high school (a very valuable institution) might be so extended as to give all the advantages which areneeded".4 1

Certainly, many school committees around the state must have been

concentrating on moving those with a stake in the economic progress of

their towns to support a high school. The Dalton school committee,

for one, wrote in 1860 that a high school would offer "greater inducement ...

to capitalists from abroad to come and occupy your unoccupied building 42 sites and unimproved water power". Likewise, the Athol comittee in

1855 contended that a high school would attract people "who have large

scholars to educate ... and thereby increase the population and business

of the place".Aside from attracting capital and population, the Committee

continued, a high school "would greatly enhance the value of property

in town, to a percentage, it is believed, which would of itself more than

pay the expenses of the school".The committee concluded that "the town

could not make a better pecuniary investment ".'3

Report of the meetingaccompanies a letter from William Ellery Charming to Nathan Appleton,June 10, 1834, in Appleton papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. 42 p.

"Abstractof the Athol1r8e6p0 ::ghteenthReport, pp. 64-65. 50

established high If the promoters werecorrect, then towns which schobls should have had a farhigher per capita valuationthan ones which

correlation did not.There should have been asignificant and positive this between the two. In a large sample oftowns studied (the details of study are in AppendixB) in both 1840 (before almost anyof them had established a high school) and in1865, those with high schools had a 44 But slightly higher per capitavaluation than those which did not.

establishment and there was no significantcorrelation between high school valuation for either year.Apparently, in spite of promoters'predictions, the high school had no effecton communal wealth.

From the analysis of the votein Beverly we would predictthat the

more wealthymembers of the community, as well asmiddle class parents

particularly concerned about theirchildren's mobility, would send the

most students to high school. From the reaction of the Beverlyworking

class we would expect but few oftheir children in the high schools. These

predictions are strengthened by thegeneral tenor of thepro-high school

arguments presented so far. We should expect that the highschool would

be a minority institution,. attended byonly a fraction of the eligible

children in the town.We should expect, further, thatthe proportion of

eligible children attending wasinversely related to the size of thetown.

That is, it was mainly immigrantsand other laborers who swelled thepopulatic

of towns in order to man the new millsand factories. Thus, as towns grew

the working class elements, who we aresupposing did not use the high schools

very much, would becomedisproportionately larger.From a random sample

"Throughoutthis Part I shall refer to the statisticalstudy of the state. This study employed a viJiety ofstatistical techniques and was performed by computer. In the body of this study I presentonly the conclusions of the statistical analysis wherethey are relevant. Interested 51 of ten percent of towns ana cities that had high schools in1860 both these predictions are definitely confirmed. In the sample as a whole under 20% of the estimated eligible children went to highschool. In the smallest towns (1-3,000) about 28% of the eligible attended. In the medium sized ones (6-8,000), about 15% and in the largecities (over

14,000), approximately8%.45

The analysis of high school enrollment in individualcommunities

supports this more general finding. One hundred and eighty-one students

entered Somerville high school between1856 and 1861; information about

the parents of one-hundred and thirty-five of thesehas been gathered.

These 135 children represent 111 families. In these 111 families, forty-

four fathers were owners of businesses(stores or manufacturing concerns),

self-employed as merchants or brokers, or masters employingartisans.

An additional eight fathers were employed inbusinesses, mostly as clerks.

Five were professionals and six public employees; one was amaster mariner

and one a shipwright. If we lump these people together as"upper middle

class" they comprise 57% of the fathers of high school children. If we

consider as slightly lower on the occupational scale, butstill middle

class, artisans and farmers, there were twenty-sixfathers in the former

and nine in the latter category. There Irks one father who was a farm

laborer and for ten parents no occupation waslisted. (Some of the latter

were obviouslywidows.) No child of a factory operative or of anordinary

laborer entered Somerville high school inthese years.Although there

readers will find a full discussion of method aswell as tables in Appendix B. 45 For details of this sample seeAppendix C. 52 were over 1,500 Irish immigrants in Somerville, none of their children entered either. Indeed, only three of the fathers were foreign born: one in each England, Nova Scotia and Bavaria. Only twenty-five of the one-hundred and eleven families had children who graduated, but there was little difference in their social background. How typical was

Somerville? An analysis of the graduates of Chelsea high school between

1858 and 1864 produces similar conclusions. In our "upper middle class"

category were twenty-nine out of the forty-three parents.Eleven were artisans, three had no occupation listed.Again, no operatives, no laborers, no Irish sent children to the high school. In both Chelsea and Somerville it is reasonable to estimate that the lowest occupational categories 46 included at least forty to fifty-per cent of the population. Truly, the high school was a strictly middle class institution.

Educational promoters were ambivalent about the very industrial

society that the high schools they supported were supposed to help develop.

They felt that industrial and urban life produced the most frightening kinds of social and moral decay.Horace Mann, for one, maintained that

"A cardinal object" of the state was the "physical well- `being of all the people, - the sufficiency, comfort, competence, of every individual, in regard to food, raiment, andshelter."47But the "industrial condition..

46Theseresults are shown in tabular form in Appendix C. They are based on manuscript records kept in the respective high schools and on manuscript census returns for 1860. 47 Mann, Life and Works o . cit., v. 4, p. 245. On the biography of Dann be ore he became Secretary of the Board of Education see Jonathan C. btsserli, "Horace Mann: The Early Years, 1796-1837", Un- published Ph. D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1963. 53 and business operations" ofMassachusetts were producing"fatal extremes 48 of overgrown wealth and desperatepoverty". Class divisions, moreover, were being intensifiedby the growth of cities, for"den3ity of population

has always been one. of the proximate causesof social inequality". There

was a danger, he warned,that America would follow the courseof Englend

where agricultural feudalism hadreceded before a new industrialserfdom

accompanied by novel forms ofdegradation andvice.49

Another problem posed by thegrowth of cities and factories wasthe

hostility of manual laborers tothe cultivation of refined mannersand

taste as well as to benevolenceand kindness. To Mann poverty bred bar-

barity. In cildes, "poverty casts itsvictims into heaps, and stows them

away in cellarsand garrets ..."; and in cellarsand garrets family life

For and morality degeneratedinto a mere mockery of their properform.

Mann the results ofurbanization were poverty, crime andvice. Civilization

itself was threatened by therapid and uncontrollable growthof cities,

and there was a consequently urgentduty to save "a considerableportion

of the rising generation fromfalling back into the conditionsof half-

barbarous or of savage life...".50

8lbid., p. 250. In the letter to Shaw, op. cit.,Mann expressed his vieirethe consequencesof the shift from a rural to anurban civilization: ...the new exposure to error,with new temptations to dishonesty, which zrow out of a moredense population. If the spontaneousproductions of the earth weresufficient for all, men might be honestin practice, without any principle of rectitude becauseof the absence of temptation. But as population increases,and especially as artificial wants multiply, the temptationsincrease, and the guards and securities must increase also, orsociety will deteriorate. 49 Mann, Life and Works, oz.city, V. 4., pp.248-250. 54

The second and third secretaries of the Boar .of Education, Barnas

Sears and George Boutwell, also feared for the destruction of indi- 51 vidual morality, the family and society. To Sears immigrants and cosmopolitanism were particularlypenicious52Both Boutwell and Sears stressed that young people were rapidly rushing from a life of purity in the country to the city where temptation lurked. Luxury, sin and the

"current of sensuality ", according to Sears, were educating the children

50(Horace Mann) The Massachusetts S stem of Common Schools being an FInlarandReykieEtor:LofbeleztAnnluaitoftheFirst gecretilktItaricEoleatiorssachusetsBoi_,Boson11;"1:1-pp.B4-86.

51BarnasSears, second secretary of the Board of Education, had a long and influential career in education. Born on a farm in the Berkshires and educated in the local common schools, Sears was the only one of the ten children in his family to attend college. After graduation from Brown, Sears, a Baptist, went to the Newton Theological Seminary, and following ordination, became minister to a church in Connecticut, which he shortly left in order to teach at Hamilton College. After a brief period of teaching Sears took a leave of absence from Hamilton as well as from his wife and child to spend three years in Germany and France in order to prepare himself to teach biblical theology. He returned to Hamilton but soon accepted a professorship at Newton Theological Seminary. Within a few years he was president of the Seminary and, in 1848, accepted a new position as Secretary of the Board of Education.Alvah Hovey, his ex-student and memorialist, claimed that Sears consolidated and continued Mann's policies. Through his urbanity (a word repeatedly used by various people in referring to Sears), tact and administrative ability Sears, Hovey asserts, overcame the bitterness and hostility toward the Board aroused by his predecessor. Sears left the.Board to become president of Brown, where, in spite of the Civil War, his successful presidency inaugurated reforms which foreshadowed the great university developments later in the century. Sears' talents were next applied to an extremely important task, the Peabody Fund. As General Agent Sears was responsible for administering the grant, and one memorialist has referred to him as the Horace Mann of the South. However, the common schools that he fostered were, with his acquiescence, segregated by race. See Alvah Hovay, Barnas Sears: A Christian Educator, Boston, 1902, and Earle Huddleston West, The Life and Educational Contributions of Barnas Sears, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, George Peabody College for Teachers, 1961. 52 0n Sears' views concerning immigrants and the influence of the cosmopolitan spirit see Nineteenth 1312211, pp. 41-50. Sears' view of urban civilization is well illustrated by the following passage in which he maintained that cities "furnish peculiar facilities for the diffusion of corrupt principles and morals". Migrants to cities found: 55

schoolmen the of the city and competingwith schools. To Massachusetts young, unknowingly, werecaught in a Faustian dilemma,and Mephisto- pheles lurked in the cities. The reports of Sears wereparticularly

against them, what couldthe gloomy. With all of society conspiring to ask schools do?The question Sears andindeed everyone else refused

growth of urban- was: If the public schoolsaided and sustained the powerless to check industrial civilization, andif, in turn, they were

of public education its pernicious effects,then was not the extension really the pursuit of socialself-destruction?53

011111111MIN110

in their places ofabode, pleasuies setbefore them appealing to every sense, and ingradations adapted to everyintellect. The current of sensualityis so strong that it toooften sweeps human almost everything beforeit. This life of congregated beings, where money, leisure,shows, and a succession of excitements are the objectsof pursuit, is now, withinconceivable power, educatingmyriads of children. In this situation Searsasked: if ... a new generation are the publicschools justly responsible should not turn out to beall that the friendsof virtue and promise or to humanity could desire: Are we called upon to believe, that unaided andalone, they will have the powerto points? turn back the tide ofdegeneracy setting in from so many

53Boutwell's participation in the general fearof social disintegration comes through vividlyin his reports. For instance, see, Astir First Report, p.61: The activity of business,by which fathers havebeen diverted from the custody andtraining of their children;the claims of fashion and society whichhave led to some neglectof family government on the part ofmothers; the aggregationsof large populations in cities and towns,always unfavorable to thephysical neglect of agri- and moral welfare ofchildren; the comparative culture and the consequentloss of moral strength inthe people, are all facts to be consideredwhen we estimate the powerof the public school to resist evil and topromote good. Also, see, Twenty-ThirdReport, pp. 55-6. the true idea As in some languagesthere is no word which expresses persons who of home, so in ourmanufacturing towns there are many know nothing of thereality. Of this class aremultitudes of districts such cases are children and youth. In the agricultural rare; and I cannotdoubt that much of the moraland intellectual 56

health enjoyed by the agricultural population is due tothis circumstance.

In the face of the decline of the family andsociety, Massachu-

setts schoolmen proclaimed that the state should assertitself in its

character as a parent who should guard its family of children.Mann

stressed the natural right of the child to education and theduty of

society, acting as a trustee and the final arbiter ofproperty, to

assure the fulfillment of thechild's rights. To Sears, too, the 54 state was kindly, a "nourishing mother, as wise as sheis beneficient."

But the softness of the mother turned intothe sternness of the patriarch as problems increased. In the writings of Boutwell and the:fourth

secretary, Joseph White, the state through itsschool system became

an engine for instilling socialdiscipline. To Boutwell the school:

inculcates habits of regularity, punctuality,constancy and industry in the pursuits of business; throughliterature and the sciences in their elements, and, under somecircumstances, by an advanced course of study, it leadsthe pupils toward the fountain of life and wisdom; and by moral andreligious instruction daily given, some prepar on is made for the duties and temptations of the world.

"woll11e

54Mann, The Massachusetts ... CommonSchools,p. cit.1 is a good example. On p. 17 Mann wrote: I believe in the existence of a great,immutable principle of natural law, or natural ethics ... which provesthe absolute right of every human, being that comes intothe world to an education; and which, of course, proves thecorrelative duty of every government to see that the meansof that education are provided for all. On pp. 18-31 Mann developed his theoryof property and on p.147 claimed that Massachusetts was an especially good statesince it was "parental

. . .in government." In the same vein he wrote, p. 29: The new-born infant must have sustenance,and shelter, and care. If the natural parents are removed, orparental ability fails,--in a word, if parents either cannot orwill not supply the infant's wants, then society atlarge,--the government, . having assumed to itself the ultimate control ofproperty,--is bound to step in and fill the parent's place. Sears' comment is in Nineteenth Report, p.50. 57

With Boutwell the school became the meansof instilling in the popula" tion the qualities necessary for successin industrial society. His successor, White, alsostressed the formative qualities of education.

"Now a great and good thing," White wrote,"is the legislation which wisely seeks to train the intellect and formthe character of a people

"56 To Joseph White the state,through the schools, should ,a transform the tyranny of the majority into anorganized and effective mechanism for social discipline.

High school promoters shared thesecretaries' analyses of the

disastrous course of society and argued thatthe high school would

solve at least three outstandingcommunity problems. In the first

55 Twenty-First Retort, pp. 5-6.

56Twenty-Ninth Report, p. 48. With Joseph White the tradition of eminent secretaries at the Boardended. White, unlike his predecessors, came from a well-to-dofamily of merchants in Worcester county. He attended Williams College and started to preparefor a legal career. White, however, decided against the law as a careerand, instead, took a position in Lowell as anagent for one of the largestcotton.mills in the state.An ardent Presbyterian and a devotedWhig, White entered politics as a state senator.His term as Secretary to the Boardlasted seventeen years, and after his retirementhe evidently devoted himself to the local affairs of the Berkshires,to the business of his church and of Williams College and to the promotionof local historiography. One memorialist claimed that his termat the Board represented"much the most successful work of hislife." Yet White's work evidently had severe limitations: His own quick temper was an infirmity, anindolent habit of mind and body, a native tendency to postponeimpending duty, and a consequent facility of throwingoff, perhaps at a late hour, upon other shoulders responsibilitieswhich were properly his own, marred more or less during allhis later years his services both to the public and the college. 58

place, the high school intheory catered to the poor aswell as the

strife and social rich and was a vital antidoteto the stratification,

The Wind. disintegration that educatorsthought they saw aroundthem.

the high school hendon School Committeeclaimed that the influence of good feeling and "in binding the populationtogether, and promoting

harmony, must be obvioustoeveryone."57To many Massachusetts

of the found-. educators an ideal society, onewhich represented the aims

harmonious and without' ing fathers, was freeof rigid stratification, alleged social unity acrimony.To achieve thisharmony, to recreate the

necessity.58 of pre-industrialcivilization, high schools were a

Tribute to the Memory of For biographicaldetail on White see A surprising in Joseph White) no place, no date. The unfavorable comment, a memorial isfrom an esF in Tribute by Arthur L.Berry.

57Winchendon, 1852-53, 1853, pp. 17-18.

83-84, where, referring 58See,e.A., Twenty-EighthReport, pp. specifically to high schools,White wrote: honored and the The children of therich and the poor, of the unknown, meet together on commonground. Their pursuits, their aims and aspirations are one. No distinctions findplace, but such as talent andindustry and good conductcreate. In the school- the competitions, thedefeats, and the successes of roomi they meeteach other as they are to meetin the broader fields of life before them;they are taught to distinguish between the essential and true,and the fractious andfalse, in benefit is character and condition. . .Thus a vast and mutual the result. Thus, and only thus, can therising generation be best prepared for the dutiesand responsibilities ofcitizenship laid in our social in a free commonwealth. No foundation will be life for the brazenwalls of caste; and ourpolitical life, which is but the outgrowth ofthe social, will pulsatein harmony with it, and so be kept true tothe grand ideals of thefathers and founders of the republic.

-7-74777;; 59

of high school promotersand When we understandthe longing for unity helping to create, their essential ambivalenceto the society they were Robert Rantoul and high then we can appreciatebetter the attitude of and Boyden stressed thede- school promoters inBeverly. Both Rantoul Surely, they sirability of a =re organic,closely knit social order.

state people were arguing must have been awarethat throughout the

The high school, thatis, that a high school wouldpromote this goal.

divisive economic forces would provide acounter-balance to the same high school was a that it was to helpunleash. Thus, support for a ambivalent perception complex reaction that stemmedfrom an essentially

ideal innovation because itwould of society. The high school was an interests of allegedly serve the frequentlyconflicting values and

educational reformers.

The high school wassupposed to solve othercommunity problems

the school would serve as anagent of as well. Promoters claimed that community would be raised; community civilization.The tone of the upwardly mobile youths cultural as well as socialunity would prevail and

their new could be socially as well asintellectually -orepared for

continually status.59 Another problem was theattitude of parents,

-111=1111111111.-1 .11=11111111111MI. i9Lincoln 18 "- 4 18541 pp. 6-71 claims thatthe effect of a well conducted high sc ool: of the is to elevate the sentiments,the taste, the manners and pupils. It gives no room forthe awkwardness, vulgarity rudeness in behavior andspeech that are toogenerally tolerated, It and sometimets encouraged even,in common districtschools. introduces its pupils to ahigher civilizatim andrefinement, and them for does what otherwise mightnot be done, to prepare for ocenaing exaltedpositions in social life,and for doing much 6o

lamented by school committees.Parents failed to appreciate thevalues of education, spoiled theirchildren and frustrated the effortsof the school.The failure of, parents to providemoral discipline and their general lack of interest in theschools was a persistent theme in every school reportconsulted. To school committees theproblem was extremely serious because parentalapathy and hostility were not only thwartIng educational advance but promotingthose very social tendencies that educators were tryingtocheck.

The high schools, rgued BarnasSears in 1854, were a means of overcoming the problem of parentalapathy. The establishment of high

schools, he wrote; "gives the schoolsthemselves a place in the

estimation of the people, which they neverheld before."

the welfare of their fellow men. Are these benefits. .confined to those individuals who attend theschool? By no means, the spirit of improvement here imbibed, goeshome with them, and the whole family feels its inspiration. The intellectual light that is kept burning there, sends its raysabroad through the community. The refining process here commenced,is carried into the social circle. The lessons of politeness and courtesythat may and should be learned here, will be repeated at everyfireside and practiced in every relation of life.

6oSee, e.g., Barnst able,1860-61, 1861, p. 27: The greadefecfin our day, isthe absence of governing or controlling power on the part of parents,and the consequent insubordination of children. Children are allowed their own way;self- will is their law; hence flows conceit and a monstrousprecocity. What the parent makes them theteacher finds them. . Parents are bound so tocontrol and regulate their children thatthey will be tractable and capable of respectand obedience. . .Our schools are rendered inefficient by the apathy ofparents. See also Watertown,1856 -57, 1857, p. 4: Common modesty. .is often, shocked in the neighborhoodof the play- ground, by indecencies of languageand conduct, which seem to be the prevailing dialect and manner oflife; and which it is manifestly the duty of somebody to reform. Peaceable travelers, whose 63.

Sears continued, "We need not goback many years to (and prejudice against the public schools," but thehigh schools had dispelled antipathy and apathy to publiceducation because "There are no better schools in the Commonwealth than some of ourpublic high schools, and to these families of the highestcharacter now prefer to send 1 theirchildrel But the fact that parents of the"highest character", meaning probably the socially andfinancially prominent, used the high schools is no-proof that theantipathy of the working class was overcome. In fact, the undisguisedharangues of school committees made one feature of educational reform particularlyclear. The school

committees saw themselves arrayedagainst the mass of parents. The

school committees, themselves, notedthat Parents were uncomprehending

and indifferent. On this reluctant citizenryschool committees were

unashamedly trying to impose educationalreform and innovation. They

were not answeringthe demands of a clamorous workingclass; they, the

communal leaders, were imposing thedemands; they were telling the

majority, your children shall beeducated, and as we see fit.

The emphasis of high school promoters onthe democratic and socially

unifying potential of their pet innovationraises serious questions about

sm."' ammo IN Ir -j011..M. loam

habiliment or equipage is act ofthe approved pattern orconsti- tution, are hooted at, and personsquietly purating theirdaily avocations, are pelted withsnow-balls. 1858$ p. 18 and 1861$ p.18; See also the followingreports: Barnstable, Fairhaven, 1863, Pp.7-8; Dartmouth, 1860, pp.3=4;Groton, 1850, p.5; 1857, p. 17 and 1859, Townsond, 1862, pp. 11-12;l*bster, 1855-56; Monson, p.14; Dalton, 1859, pp. 1-2; Rockport,1855, p.3.

4, 413ighteenth Report, p.59. the relationship between ideology andmotivation. For, as we have noted, the high school was not a workingclass institution; the high school did not reflect the social compositionof the community. It did not serve as a means of boosting thelower class child up the economic ladder. At least partly the ideology of high school promoters was a rationalization of their own interests. The most articulate spokesmen, also economic promoters, were deeplyambivalent towards the society for which they were responsible, and they soughtinnovations that would simultaneously prOmote economic growth and prevent the consequencesthat industrialism had brought in other societies)especially England. The high school was an ideal innovation because itwould allegedly serve both these ends. Promoters' attachment to this ideology gave them a good psychic reason for avoiding the confrontation of the actualfacts of high school attendance.To have realized the disparity between theory and actuality would have raised too many haunting questions, too manydoubts about the real nature of the promoters' impact uponsociety.

For many parents who used the high school the myth wasjust fine.

The entire community was supporting an institutionmost useful in terms of their own purposes. For middle class boys the high school probably served as both a means of status maintenance and anentree into the business world. Information has been found on thirteen boys who left

Somerville high school between 1856 and1860. Of these) eight became

clerks, two also entered business and three became apprentices.For all but one of the apprentices the jobs represented an occupationdifferent

from that of their fathers, who, with three exceptions) were notin 63

and farmers probably sawthe business.The seven sons of artisans class status during high school as a way ofhelping to retain a middle

economic alterations madethe future a time whenmechanization and other They probably alsohoped that of their fathers'occupations less secure.

through business they couldrise above the sociallevel of their parents.

for instance, may have Wealthy parants, ownersof prosperous businesses For them the been moved by the same concerns asthe Boston merchants.

their sons during the high school wouldprovide a fine way of occupying was no longer years of adolescencewhen an extended apprenticeship

necessary.

For Substantially more girlsthan boys attended highschools.

for some girls thehigh school probablyoffered a good preparation

function that promotersoften teaching. Indeed, teacher training -:/as a the most attractive ascribed to high schools.Teaching was undoubtedly

vocational goal for themiddle class girl whowanted to earn some

populated by large numbersof females money.All the other occupations For girls who had no were manual,arduous and decideitrlowerclass.

intention of becominggainfully employed the highschool probably until they came offered a relatively painless wayof passing the time

61a of marrying age. MINIWII' 61a preparation for On the emphasis onhigh schools as providing the teaching see Chelsea,1858, pp. 27-28. On female occupations see domestics, state census for1865, pp. 142-143.The largest category was teaching, employing 27,393; next cameoperatives, 20,152; third came of size, seam, 6,050. Other groups over athousand were: in order straw and palm leaf stresses, shoe workers,tailoresses, dressmakers, workers, milliners,laundresses, nurses andclerks. Educational reform, especially thehigh school, was presented as an innovationdirectly aimed at urbanizing,industrializing communities. It was to simultaneously servethe status needs of children within these communities,promote general development and prosperity, and save towns from disintegratinginto an immoral and dege:uerate chaos. If these contentions were heeded,then it should have been in the communitiesundergoing the most rapid and severe transformation, the most urban andindustrial areas, that high schools

were established. It should. have been inthese places thatschoolmen were

contending most vigorously for innovation,most actively trying to

overcome the apathy ofthe mass. In these areas the concern for

education should have been most markedby not only innovation but high

expenditures on schooling.

These suppositions are, for the mostpart, valid, an extensive

statistical study of the state has demonstrated.The establishment of

high schools was related to all the dominantpatters of urbanism and

industrialism; and it was in the more urban andindustrial areas that

greater numbers of children over15 atten2ed school. High school

establishment was, however, relatively more associatedwith urban than

with manufacturing characteristics. This is not surprising, for it was

more specifically the urbanphenomena that were signalled out by pro-

moters as susceptible of correction by ahigh school. The harangues

against the new society that have beenpresented stressed the problems

of urban poverty, squalor and socialdisorganization.Moreover, high

schools were especially associated with large numbersof people employed in commerce. Again, this is an expected conclusion. For it was to

solve the problem of an anachronistic apprenticeship for adolescents

headed towards a commercial career that the Boston merchants advocated a

high school.

As for measures of school spending, both high per pupilexpenditure

and a high school tax rate were usually associated with the establish-

ment of a high school But this general relation obscures subtle

differences. For spending on education was by no means as clearly re-

lated to social measures as was high school establishment. Usually,. the

higher the per capita valuation of a town, the lower was its taxrate.

The converse was true. for per pupil expenditure. These relations are

Predictable. The more money a town had the smaller the proportion needed

to sustain a high per pupil expenditure. In one situation, however,

both measures of school spending were high. This was in wealthy

suburban towns. This finding confirms the contention that educational

concern was primarily a characteristic ofthe middle and upper social

groups, for in these towns, wheremanufacturing was not extensive,

there would be fewer of the kinds of people who stood in the wayof the

improvement of schools.Similarly, in towns where agriculture became

of increasing importance the school tax rate wasparticularly low. In

these areas the townspeople would see but little relation betweentheir

own welfare andthe furtherance of industrial growth, and they would be

affected little by social disorder right at their doorstep. Yet, per

pupil expenditure was depressed by the rapid and sharpdevelopment of

manufacturing. In this situation the lower expense was probably as 66

large much the result of theproblem of an influxof immigrants with How the problem families and fewtaxable resources as ofparsimony. topic that will be dis- of population increase wasin fact met is a cussed presently.

II. Local opposition toReform.

1. Academies and Districts

schools were supposedto The mechanismsthrough which high examination of a third accomplish their goalsbecome clearer from an These arguments series of contentionsadvanced by their supporters. To build a truly focused on the allegeddeficiencies of academies.. argued, it was effective system of publiceducation, many schoolmen

influence of privateschool:,. necessary toeliminate the pernicious

complex. The word The whole academy-privateschool issue is very varying in characterfrom academy covered amultitude of institutions

endowed academies. The effect small privately runschools to the famous and related issues areby of an academy, of anytype, upon a community

However, the anti-academyarguments no means asclear as is desirable. significant because theycontain are clear; and they are especially series of arguments,those many of the samethemes employed in another arguments against criticizing the districtschools. A comparison of to high school academies and districtschools highlights areas of concern

promoters.

injured the public schools Academies, it wasfrequently maintained,

of education which are common by dampening publicinterest in "those means they withdrew manyable to the wholepeople."62 At the same time, 67

critics said, pro- children from public schools,and their existence, so unhappy for some reason vided a safety valve fordisaffected children who,

In Hadley, one townwhere in the public schools,could always transfer.

the replacement.ofthe the latter probleri hadbeen especially serious, effectiveness of the whole academy by a high schoolhad increased the

63Academies were alsopernicious school system, thecommittee claimed. because they took children awayfrom home. School committees repeatedly in moral contended that, for some reason,children at academies were

vice."64Why this danger.The academies wereplaces of "temptation and their halls? The emphasis fear of academies?What was going on within

the desire of Bostonmerchants to on the immoraltendencies of academies, school committee complaintsof provide strong disciplinefor their children, had parental inability to controlchildren: all suggest that adults

of the younger generation. serious reservationsabout the inner strength implication, connect Some of the complaintsexplicitly, and others by

the complaints aboutthe younger generationwith adolescence

1826, p. 8. 62JamesG. Carter, Essays uponPopular Education, Boston,

63Abstract of Hadley school report in EighteenthReport, p. 178.

children were exposed Dalton 1859;60, p.8, claims that at academies 1862-63, p. 12, which to "temptations andvice."See also Attlebor Charges that childrenwho attended ac e s, because they have nothingelse to do, to spendfether's money, or parents to have them simply to gratify theearnest wish of their to educated, are better off athome . . They are less likely under parental restraints,than among fall into bad practices usually found strangers, ringling withthe giddy youths that are atacademies. Indeed, the high school was amajor social innovation for handling

cost, between a high school adolescents. The key difference, besides and an academy was that inthe former children stayed athome. Because adolescents got into trouble awayfrom homes the way to controlthem was to prolongtheir dependency, to delay thetime at which they sallied worth, independent, into theworld. Just why the prolongation of dependency was so important canbetter be understood after an investigation of pedagogical theoryand a comparison of the problems ofacademy, high school and reform school, andthis issue will be returned to in

Part Three.

There was, it must be added, moreto the anti-academy argument than concern over adolescentbehavior. Academies involved considerable 65 expense; besidestuition there was the cost of board andspending money.

The high school offered aneconomical means of solving a socialproblem.

In his reports George Boutwellsustained an effective harangue which pointed out some other failings ofacademies.Academies, Boutwell asserted, were generally in a more difficultfinancial position than

schools and, through lack of funds, couldnot offer an equivalent education. If academies were provided with ample money,then parents

65Seepe.E.L., HIRchengssi53,1853, pp. 16.17; To send children to other placesdemands a greater outlay of money, than wouldbe needful to sustain a school ut home; and here we see the policy of goodschools is economical. There is the expense of traveling; the increased expenseof living away from home; and the item of spending money,which will always be larger, and often necessarily so, than whim the pupilsremain under the parental roof. 69

They were payingtaxes to were incurring anunnecessary expense.

at academies.The two sources support the publicschools and tuition 66 extremely effectivesystem. of money, combined,could furnish one

often too smallto apply Besides, in academiesthe numbers were into which involveddividing the schools the latestpedagogical theory, innovation offeredby a public grades (discussedbelow), an excellent Finally, Boutwellcontended school system whichincluded a highschool. life and did not prepare that the academyoffered too sheltered a "In this age," heclaimed, "the 'children for therealities of society. governed by theeducation of the world i3 neitherreformed, improved nor asserting just cloister."67 Boutwell, here and in otherarguments, was

Whatever interpretationone the opposite ofthe parent4s,contention. out a poor secondto public took of the moralityof academies, they came finally,the high school,it was said, high schools.Unlike the academy, institution since itfostered the principle was athoroughly democratic of high schoolsthe relation of equality ofopportunity. In the absence opportunity had becomethe between mobility :endeducation meant that

prerogative of thewealthy.68

66Twentieth Report, pp. 43.44.

67Loc.cit. high Report, pp.43.44, claimed that the White,in Twenty- Eighth alike to all the benefits of asuperior education school "brings home and makes prac- people, and thusbeautifully illustrates classes of the arefounded." equal rig'its, onwhich our institutions tical the theory of "Shall not the fieldbe left open And Wetertown,1855.56p. 16, asks, Shall the povertyof the parents for rfairintellectual competition? be visited uponthe mind of theoffspring?" 70

have seen, did But the establishmentof public high schools, as we Surely, high little to promote themobility of the lowestsocial groups.

that the children ofthe school promoters could nothave really expected

the operatives and laborerswould attend. They knew only too well their apathy of these peopletowards education. In this situation high ideology again served as arationalization. By stressing that

of opportunity, schools were democratic,that they fostered equality noblest of educational promoters could coverpersonal motives with the

throughout the sentiments.What they were doing,really, was spreading minority of the children. whole community theburden of educating a small

Interestingly, the terms ofthe academy-high school controversy

district school - high school were alsolargely the terms of the

administrative system towns weredivided debate. Under the prevailing managed its own into school districts,each of which maintained and

school with the aid offunds from the town schoolcommittee and the

vociferously and nearly unanimously con- state. For years educators in charge of demned this practice. The "prudential committeemen"

friends and relatives, often separate districtsdoled out teaching jobs to teachers fre- regardless of theirqualifications, and the selection of

quently became a source ofintra-district rivalry and animosity. The

opposed to single town committees,concerned with the whole town as

districts, distributed the moneyto the districts andreal or alleged

inequities were frequently the causeof inter-district rivalries. Indeed,

school committee reports givethe impression, both implicitlyand

explicitly, that districts oftenacted like separate towns.Another 71

source of hostility within districts wasthe location of the school, an issue which frequently produced heatedconflict.69

The first four secretaries of the Board ofEducation were all hostile to the district system, but none expressed theircontentions with more detail and clarity than George Boutwell.Boutwell employed all the

arguments already noted. In additionl he added that the scanty populatioft

and financial resources of many districts made it hard topersuade resi-

dents to pay adequate taxes, and, thus, appropriations werenot made

according to what was desirablebixt according to theamount of money that

could be raised. To convince knowledgeable and able men to serve as

prudential committeemen, Boutwell lamented, wasdifficult, and conse-

quently district schools were usually administeredin ignorance of the

latest pedagogical theory.District policy was made by men"Assembled

by concert, in the shades ofevening, in a dimly lighted house."There

the policy makers hurriedly consummated"their schemes" and built an

educational system suited to their own material orpersonal requirements,

not to the needs of thechildren.7°

69See,e.g., Twenty-Ninth Rust, p.14, where the Board of Education wrote that they hopedcommunities, at their next town meeting, would vote the total abolition of the cumbrous andunwieldy district system, which has so long clogged the progress ofeducational improvement in the towns where it has been suffered toremain.Reason and fact alike condemn it as a fruitful sourceof inconvenience and evils. It perpetuates poor schoolhouses, inefficientteachers, and neighborhood feuds and jealousies. It prevents the egailization ofschool advantages, and stands in the way of a properclassification of pupils. As compared with the town system,it is Pit once expensive and inefficient. See also George H. Martin, TheEvolution of the MassachusettsPublic School System, NewYorKT-IW-777-IIT: 72

Both the law and practical considerationsrequired the high school to be a town school, administeredby the town school committee, and drawing its students from all the districts.The high school was in one sense anadministrative device for modifying the districtsystem.

Many districts resented thesurrender of autonomy and power that the high

1..4"11 school represented, and the districtsystem proved an obstacle to schooldevelopment.71 Many people argued, moreover, that large =fibers of children would live too far awayfrom the high school to be able to attend and that parents, therefore, mouldbe paying taxes to support

schools from which, they could derive nobenefit.The issue of school

location, a source of intense controversywithin the small districts

themselves, became a major obstacle to thedevelopment of high schools

72 when raised on the town scale. Population density was an issue related

NalimapENMINVIIINNIM, 79For Boutwell on districts see Twenty -First eort, pp.78-80; and Twenty -Third Rep_ pp.76-78. Boutwell's views on districts went +brough an interesting evolution. When he commenced his work as secretary he believed that districts wereharmful but that they could not be abolished within the century) and heconsequently urged some modifica- tions in the system. A few years later,however, he openly reversed his former position and declared thatdistricts, much worse than he had imagined, had to be abolished as soon as possible.

71Sears,in Nineteenth Retort, p. 53, wrote)concerning the opposition of districts to high schools: local prejudices already existing will comeinto increase the difficulty. Instead of looking dispassionately at thebenefit of the wholeland favoring that arrangementwhich will accomplish the greatest good with the least sacrifice,parties will sometimes be induced by the arts of selfish ataddesigning men, to consult only :their own passion andprejudices, and refuse to advance any other interest thantheir own. 72 See) e.g., Lincoln,1852-53, 1853) p. 5. 73

and towns whichreported to school locationand inter-district rivalry, autonomy of districts were the greatest difficultiesin overcoming the the most thinly generally the ones whichconceived of themselves as

school reports read, aswell as other populated. Nearly every set of density a prerequisite sources, consideredrelatively high population

for the founding of ahighschool.73

pedagogical practicewhich most The district systemalso fostered a schools children ofall ages educators felt was unsound. In most district

Throughout the pre-CivilWar were taughtin one roan by oneteacher. inefficient method ofinstruction period educators arguedthat this was an eaucation in gradedschools. In and that childrenwould acquire a better the town that there was nolonger an Beverly the schoolcommittee reminded problems of district academy and called attentionto the pedagogical

school subjects.Both younger school teachers who triedto introduce high

harried teacher wasunable to do any- and older childrensuffered, and the 74 which students of the sameage thing effectively. Graded schools, in more effectiveand worked together andstimmIated each other, were a school was to formthe apex of efficient pedagogicaldevice, and the high

73 53; pstitpteentrt, p.56; See, e.g. Nineteenth Report, p. Dalton, 1 - $p. Dartmouth,1865-66, 1866, p. 4 and

74: Beverly, 1857.58,1858, pp. 4-12. 714.

which would include,ideally, a number a reorganized,graded school system the system, a highschoo1,75 of dIttrictzschools,and, at the top of

the first high George Emerson, amember of the Boardof Education and

another virtue ofgraded schools. school teacher inAmerica, stressed

he maintained,would offer a Class rather thanindividual promotion, practice of school "healthful stimulus toexertion, ." The prevailing competition. organization, like themonitorial system,fostered intense

to their rank inclass, and when a Children were seatedin rows according

the end of the row. Most educatom child failed inrecitation, he moved to as a stimulus,but agreed that some typeof competition was necessary would produce an intra-personal competitionlcompetition with oneself,

implications.The latter equal amount of effortwithout harmful social schools where advance- was the typeof competitionencouraged in graded prescribed level ment was from classto class so thatall who attained a the students of Boston would be promoted. "Strive not," Emerson told strive rather to surpass English Bigh School,"to surpass each other, -

yourselves."76

grading see John Bru- 75Fora long andthorough discussion of New York, 1931, pp.96-104. bacher, ed., HenryBarnard on Education, 79 and abstract ofMarshfield report See alsoTwenty-Seventh Report, p. in NineteenthRezzet, p. 223: grading schools bringsscholars of similarattainments and the amount together; the number ofclasses is diminished, receives directly fromthe ofinstructionwhich the scholar teacher is correspondinglyincreased.

76 Common School Journal, George B. Emerson,"Address on Education," of aage Barrell v.X,1848, pp.321-326. RobertC. Watertown, A Memoir 1884, p. 8. Emerson's claim asfirst high school teacher Eherson, Cambridge, usually rests on the factthat he was firstteacher at Boston English, also Arthur A. Norton, considered the firsthigh school. On this point see 75

Graded schools, thus, werethoroughly democratic since thereward

of was withinthe reach of all whotried. In graded schools equality Here, again, the opportunity would be extendedto the schoolroom itself.

by the high school. goals of equality andopportunity were to be attained

The attack on the wrongsort of competition suggestsalso that, educators

social security principle, were trying tocreate a school with a built-in In this sense their a school inwhich failure would notbe disastrous. parents in a time efforts reflected the statusanxieticz of middle-class

meant sinking to the level of social fluidity.Loss of status, moreover, who, to mapy people, of the operative class,represented by the immigrants steady if slow promo- were scarcelycivilized. The attempt to assure a results of failure were, tion, within the classroomand to mitigate the

created by the then, a projection onto theschool of the tensions

shifting economic basis ofthestate.77 Educators were once again trying

industrialism within the framework to effect a synthesis:the promotion of

of an idealized ruralsociety.

Journals of Cyrus Peirceand ed., The First NormalSchool in America, The Mary Swift, Cambridge,1926, pp, 99-100.

77See, e.g., Oscar Harlin, "TheHorror," in Handlin4 Race and Nationality in AmericanLife, Boston, 1950,Anchor ed., 1957, p. 125: danger of the loss In a mobile societythere was a constant the small of status.Everything was possiblein a period in which rural town receded inimportance, in which thevillage found family farm itself ringed about withfactories, and in which the could lost the stability it was neverto recover. .no American disregard the growing armies ofthe proletariat, of thehired tramps -- all laborers and tenant farmers,of the millions.of penalty of their existing in the brutishmisery that was the .l were as great failure.For the anxious fatherthe risks of as the opportunitiesto rise. maximize the oppor- It was possible tominimize the risk and tunity through a proper startin life; and now morethan ever capital and education were the means. 76

Graded school systems had still morebenefits. A high school would raise the inadequateeducational attainment of thechildren through inspiring a whole school systemto greater effort as well as through its own curriculum. Pupils would strive for theprestige of success in the entranceexaminations, and teachers wouldstrive for the prestige of havingsuccessfUl4upils.This would be a beneficial competition, for the high school, epento all who qualified, again offered the supreme advantage of areward attainable by all through hardwork.78Separating the older from the youngerpupils, educators maintained, would eliminate many discipline problems,and within graded schools a correct sex distribution ofteachers could be achieved.

Pedagogical theory held that femaleteachers were preferable for younger

children and male forolder.79 A streamlined school system would re-

quire, in addition, no increase inthe number of schools, and if all the

older children were gathered into oneschool, only one male teacher

need be hired. Thus, a number of the more expensivemasters in district

schools could be replaced by females paid athird to a half as much.

Relevant comments on the role of statusin this period are also found in David Donald. "Toward a Reconsideration of the Abolitionists,"and "An Excess of Democracy," in LincolnReconsidered, New York, 1947, Vintage edition, 1961. On downward social mobilityand its impelling force see also Theodore Parker, The Collected Worksof Theodore Parker, Frances Power Cabe, ed., London,18;477111177647737123 ZT177------

78See,e.g., Fairhaven,1851-52, 1852, p. 11 and Twenty-Eighth Report, p.81. 77

of the teachtag force was George Boutwellimplied that the feminization teaching more thandesirable; it was a necessitysince men were leaving 80 for more lucrativeopportunities.

Evidence to supportBoutwell's statement is hard tofind. From one

Biographical data exists small sample, however, comesdata for his case. and 1844. for thireteen male teachers atHolliston Academy between 1836

Of these thirteen, four wereministers. Of the nine who were not business career ministers, seven eventuallyleft teaching for a full time and and two for medicine.One of the ministersalso left both religious

pedagogical callings for thetextile business. Except for one of the

doctors, none of the ninefuture businessmen were incollege when they

stereotype of were teaching atthe academy. Thus, they do not fit the All seven of the future the male teacher as vacationingcollege student.

businessmen also taught atschools other than the academy,in different

in teaching for five years, communities. Their tenure varied, two stayed

Nineteenth Report, 79See e.a., abstractof the Braintree report, in p. 203: the scholars being nearlyof the same age and standing,the same modeof government is adapted tothe whole school, which renders the efforts of theteacher to maintain order easier grading and more efficient . . . .Another advantage gained by the schools is, that itrenders it easier to selectappropriate teachers.Among teachers of equalliterary qualifications, there may be a great diversityin the capability of governing and disciplining a school.Females, generally, are bestadapted to govern andinstruct the Primary schools Experience abundantly evinces that theeducation of children of thatvariety of age usually found inlarge districts, is bestpromoted by placing the older and the youngerin separate schools, with a female teacher for thelatter, and a male teacher forthe former.

80Twentieth Report, pp. 42-43. 78

one for four, one for two, onefor twelve, one for eighteen and onefor

"several" years.Apparently none ever did attend college. Some probably

intended to make teaching a career,only to be lured away by developing

commercial opportunities. Others may well have looked on teaching as a way to both stay aliveand establish a local reputation whilewaiting

for the right business opportunity to appear.These men did not, however,

lose all contact with educational affairs; atleast four of the seven

businessmen were active on local and stateeducation committees. Never-

theless, this small sample suggests that one varietyof male teacher

was the young man onthe make.Whatever their reasons for leaving, the

teachers at Holliston Academy do supportBoutwell's assertion that young 81 men were quitting thepedagogical business for more lucrative opportunies.

Feminization was good and it was cheap. Between 1840 and 1860 the 82 percentage of males teaching schooldropped from about sixty to fourteen.

Which was the real reason: economy orpropriety? If all went according

to the theory, we should find thatfeminization was associated with

graded school systems, which would be marked by ahigh school.We should

find, too, that feminization was not associatedwith a low level of ex-

penditure.For it was presented not as a means ofachieving a reduction

in expense but as a way of getting moreClr the same money. These expecta-

tions are not confirmed by the statisticalanalysis. .There was no

81Silas L. Loomis, Record of the Hollistonhclam, 1836-1844, Washington, 1876, pp. 7-8 and3U:61, is the source from which this information was compiled.

82See Appendix A. 79

significant relation betweenfeminization and high schools. There was a significant association betweenfeminization and a low level of expenditure on public education.For the most part, femaleteachers were introducedbecause they were cheap.

Of course, there wereexcellent reasons for a mile parsimony.

the The number of children wasincreasing rapidly, and the additions to

population were mainly thechildren of poor immigrants whocould contri-

bute little to school taxes.To run the educational systemeconomically

and efficiently, thus, was notstinginess but realism:w. Essentiallythe

same group ofpeople as before had to pay forthe education of many more

Here, too, the children. This is what made feminization soimportant.

arguments against theeconomic drain caused by academiesand for the

economy of highschools become particularly relevant.Feminization and

high schools, however, weresincerely believed to be desirablefor their

own sakes.Deeply pervading educationalthought was the belief that both

economy and improvement werepossible.Actually, throughout this period

per pupil expenseincreased markedly, but theschool tax rate did not.

of ex- Rising property valuationsenabled towns to increase the amount

penditure on schools while spendingthe same proportion of theirincome.

All this points to a conclusionthat taxpayers were unwilling tospend

more than a fairlyfixed amount oftheir income on schools and that one

important dynamic.of educationalreform in this period was theeffort,

under the impact of a growingpopulation, to extend and improvegducation

within this limit.

The parallels between themethods of educational and industrial re-

organization in this period arestriking. Women made up an increasing

proportion of the industrial aswell as the educational laborforce. 80

In industry the growth oflarger units of production was partof a process of rationalization:the subdivision of processes inthe ranufacture of goods and the gathering of all theworkers engaged in making a product under one roof. Workers, moreover, were given training toincrease their efficiency. Educational reorganization reflected the sametrends. The teaching process was to be subdivided; eachteacher, ideally, would be responsible for but a part of astudent's education, and the teachers would be trained in the new normalschools.Overlap between schools, where possible, was to be eliminated andlarger, more efficient units created through regrouping. Rationalization, the dividion of labor, training and feminization: all fourcharacteristics marked both industry and education.To account for these innovations inindustry and to explain their comparatively more pronouncedfeatures in America than in

England, H. J. Habakkuk has arguedpersuasively that the dominant cause was a shortage oflabor. Spurred on by the scarcity and high costof

labor, manufacturers had

a greater inducement toorganise their labour efficiently. The dearness of American labour gavemanufacturers an inducement to increase its marginal productivity in all possible ways.... The shortage of labour ledgenerally to longer hours of work, to a general amphasis onthe saving of time and a sense of urgency about gettingthe job done ....In the U.S.A. the proportion ofemployed females to males was higher than in England. ..0 The mostconspicuous example of the efficient use of labour is thetraining that the American manufacturers gave their workers sothat each was able to handle more looms.... It is noaccident that scientific systems of labour managementoriginated in&merica....83

83 H. J. Habbakuk, American andBritish Technology in the Nineteenth Century: The Search for Labour-SavingInventions, Cambridge (England), 1962, pp. 25 and 45-48. $1

Habbakules argument can be extended from industry toeducation.

School committees were faced with a rapidincrease in numbers of children because of immigration, a dcarcity of menbecause of industrial and commercial opportunities and a consequentprobable enormous rise in school costs. In this situation schoolmen likeindustrialists sought to increase the "marginal productivity" of laborthrough training, feminizatlon, innovation and reorganization.

At this point it is important to notethe similarities, already referred to, in criticisms leveled at bothacademies and district schools.

Boutwell, it will be recalled, argued that bothacademies and district schools had financial resources too limited toallow the institution of graded schools and really effective pedagogy. Bothomoreover, involved the duplication of facilities and the consequentdoubling of expenditures.

In the long run public, townadministered schools would be more effective

and less expensive.Academies and district schools alike contributed to

the maintenance of community strife and preventedthe attainment of the

social harmony necessary, more than ever, in anindustrializing society.

Both, moreover, were essentiallyundemocratic. Parents could not control

private schools and cliques controlleddistricts while both hindered

equality of opportunity. The poor child could not receive the benefits

of an academy education, and children sufferedin districts too poor to

have adequate schools.Finally, the existence of both academiesand

district schools allegedly hindered theinstitutioncof high schools.

In attacking private anddistrict schools high school promoters were

really fighting the same battle. 82

But did academies reallyhinder the development of high schools?

Was educational improvementthe real motive behind the dual fightof high school promoters?The answer to the first question must be considered in two parts, for unincorporatedand incorporated academies.

The statistical study shows that the sortof town that had the most unincorporated academies in 1840 had a publichigh school by 1865. That

is, these, were the urban townswith large numb.s of merchants. In light

of merchants' attitude toward highschools, which we have seen, it is

not surprising that this shiftoccurred. Unincorporated academies, thus, as

a rule did not hinderthe establishment of public high schools. For in-

corporated academies the evidence is not soclear. Apparently, in com-

munities with large numbers of professionalpeople in 1840 there was often

an incorporated academy,and this academy usually continued its existence

thrOugh the next two and one half decades. In some instances such an

institution hindered the development of public highschools. Such an

instance was Groton. By looking at Groton we can watch theunfolding

of the two-fold battle of a school committeeagainst a district system

and an academy. We can also suggest one answer to the secondquestion,

the real motives of the beleaguered committees, and we can connecttheir

two-pronged attack more clearly with the battle toestablish high schools.

2. Groton, A Case in Point

"In 1835," according to George Boutwell, "the townof Groton was a

place of much importance relatively. It was the residence of several men 83

'30's Groton was primarily an of more than localfame."84In the late

establishments.Twelve agricultural communitywith very few manufacturing

Two tanneries employed men and six womenmade boots, probably athome. factory and two four people; six men andfive women made hats in one

establishments for themanufacture of chairs andcabinetswares employed

forty-five women madeclothing, probably six individuals. Two hundred and made palm leaf hats, at home, and anunspecified number of individuals and thirty also at home. During 1837 somewherdin the town one hundred

three hundred dollarsworth soapstone pumps,sixty-four axletrees and 85 of mathematical instruments weremanufactured.

By 1865, the amountof manufacturing hadincreased considerably.

ploughs and other agricultural Two establishmentsfor the manufacture of Two "paper manu- implements employed onehundred and twenty-five persons. tannery was factories" gave work totwenty-three men and twenty women; one

variety of small establish- staffed by seventy-five"hands," and, there was a manufactory, four ments: two bakeries,three saw mills, one tin ware factory and one blacksmith shops, four masterbuilders, one clothing

industry had establishment for making soap.Domestic, home-centered

86 agricultural and lessindustrial virtually disappeared. Groton was more

Imlimm.ropwa, 84George Boutwell, Reminiscences ofSim:Years it Public Affairs, New York, 1902, v.1, p. 35.

Statistical Tables: "JohnP. Bigelow, Secretaryof the Commonwealth, of Industry in Exhibiting the Condition andProducts of Certain Branches 1838, p. 28. Massachusetts for theinEE0111Amikl, 1837, Boston,

The numbers 86The table indicates the extentof the growth of the town. which, like Groton, in parentheses are averagefigures for all towns studied established a high school by1865. Groton, 1840 and1865 1865 % change Variable 1840 (3059) 45 (51) Population 2139(2023) 3176 Total employed in 148(137) manufacturing 113(259) 281(616) -63(-17) Agricultural employees 799(273) 300(229) Number foreign born 506(498) 81:

than most towns which establishedhigh schools.Yet the change in the character of the town between 1840 and1865 was relatively more marked.

In fact dame was feltespecially strongly in Groton becausemanufacturing was concentrated in one partof the town, Groton Junction.Virtually uncultivated in 1830, the Junction became athriving commercial and industrial center when it was made theplace of meeting for a number of different railroad lines.

The town newspaper, the Groton Mercury,chronicled and welcomed the growth of Groton Junction. In December, 1851, the Mercury notedthe erection of an agricultural tool factory andclaimed, "The facilities for transportation at the Junction areprobably better than at any other place in New England, the Railroads therediverging in all directions.

We prophesy that sometimes, thiscelebrated Station will be a considerable of a town "87 Similarly, two years later the paper welcomed another agricultural works factory that wasmoving to the Junction

from Rhode Island and bringing with it all itsemployees "(some 60 or 70)"

and their families.The company was building "two large boarding houses"

as temporary accommodationand erecting an "immense factory" and a "large

Foundry."Others at the Junction were also prospering. A soap manufacturer

had "lately put up a building for the manufactureof Allis article in all

its varieties;" a number of homes and stores wereslated for erection in

the Spring, "and a site had been selected for a speciousHotel." Within

a few years Groton Junction was"destined. to be a large and flourishing

town."The growth of the Junction, of course, would "diminish whatlittle

Groton Mercury, December, 1851, p. 3. 85

But, stressingthe business there is nowdoing in thevillage." the town, the editorwrote, "it'will difference betweenthe sections of and desirable placeof leave dear old Grotonas ever, amost beautiful

the noise andbustle of business is residence - nonethe less so, that

88 not always socharitable to the far from it." But the Mercury was who lived in the"village" but owned "village."The "old fogies" the latter'sgrowth by property inthe Junction, itclaimed, retarded manufacturers who wantedto build refusing to sellland to all the

89 between the sectionsof the town were re- factories. The tensions education; eventuallythey became flected in thedevelopment of public

Junction severedits ties withthe village so severethat in 1871 Groton

and became the townof Ayer.

letter to the shortlived Groton In 1820 theschool committee in a

of the town'sschools. "So far as Herald complainedof the law state maintained, "we areconvinced we havehad the means ofjudging," they made in our schoolsgenerally for there has not beenthat improvement be expected."The problem years past,which we thinkmight reasonably teachers were chosen. Sometimes centered in the lackof care with which before being examined;sometimes they were allowed tobegin teaching the standard wasmuch they were notexamined at all;and in examinations

insisting on cheapteachers and theschools too low. The town erred in

8lbid., January 15, 1853, p. 2.

89Ibid., June 15,1854, p. 2. 86

90 sufferea. However, by 1842 the schoolcommittee was reasonably general optimistic. Over the past year,they noted, there had been a improvement in the schools,and the committee wasparticularly happy about the number of parentswho had attended the closingexercises.

Nevertheless, a few problemsremained. A number of childrenhad been overheard using profanity; someof the districts should becombined, and the wealthier childrenin the town were receiving someunfair advantages: they couldattend academies, sunday schoolsand "social

libraries."In spite of thesedifficulties the committee was rather

pleased with the state of thetown'sschoo1,91 but six years later in

1848 the committee was once againcomplaining.They reported that the

educational situation had deteriorated,and their report for that year

commenced a mounting crescendo ofcriticism which would be abated but 92 slightly over the next seventeen years.

Better discipline amongboth students and teachers wasabsolutely

urgent, for the manners and grammarof the latter were faulty. Better

financing was also necessary, andthe committee buttressed their appeal

with the familiar contentionthat there was an inverse relationbetween

education, pauperization and crimeand a high positive correlationbetween 93 education and the economic andpolitical greatness of Massachusetts. Tke

heart of the 1848 report, however, was alengthy demonstration of the

90 groton. Herald, March27, 1830, p. 2. The Herald was published from 1828-30.

91 Groton... 1841-42,1842, passim.

92 Ibid., 1847-48, pp. 11-14.

93 Loc. cit. 87

This argument wasreally superiority of public toprivate education. harangue against thetown's the slightly veiled startof a decade-long

academy and its supporters. In "the early partof the year," Groton Academy wasfounded irg 1792.

townuhistorian, "a voluntaryassociation wrote Dr. SamuelAbbott Green, the

of the town andneighborhood, in order was formed . . .by certain people higher education couldbe obtained than to establish anacademy where a Subscriptions were was given atthe district schoolsof that period." The association organ- collected and sharesof stock in theacademy sold.

other officers onApril 27, 1792.The ized itself andchose trustees and 94But in the early1840's academy was maintainedcontinuously thereafter.

existence uncertain. One of the financial difficultiesmade its continued Lawrence, perhapsthe most eminent trustees, Dr. JoshuaGreen, wrote Amos difficulties, including a alumnus of the academy,and told him of its

95 with munificence. He and his falling enrollment. Lawrence responded between eighteen andtwenty brothers endowed theacademy in 1846 with enough financial security thousand dollars andprovided, consequently, 96 renamed LawrenceAcademy. to enableexpansion, and the school was enrollment of the academyincreased by more Between 1845and 1850 the children accountedfor nearly a than one hundredstudents, and Groton academy offered both aclassical fifth of the increase.The coeducational

that it preparedstudents for and an English course,and this indicates

94 Massachusetts Samuel A. Green, AnHistorical Sketch of Groton, 1655-1890, Groton, 1894, pp.91-93.

Lawrence, April19, 1841 and 95Letters from JoshuaGreen to Amos Historical Society. December 2, 1843, LawrenceMss., Massachusetts

96Green, a. cit., pp.91-93. 88

97 both college and business. It is significant, therefore, that the first sustained attack on the academy by the townschool committee occurred in 1848.

The proprietors of the academy emphasized themoral as well as the intellectual aspects of the education they provided."The discipline of the school," they wrote in 1845, "commendsitself to parents and guardians, securing the greatest intellectual progress inconnection with a desirable moral influence The settled policy of the Principal," they continued, was to "allow no incorrigiblyidle or vicious pupil retained in school."

"The constant object and desire of effort,"claimed the catalogue, was "a

98 pure and peaceful community." In 1849 another passage was inserted in the catalogue which emphasized that the teachers andproprietors of the academy would keep a more than watchful eye on themorals of the children entrusted to their care. "None,!' they proclaimed, "are allowed to frequent the stores, or taverns, or other places, where they maybecomecontaminated."99

And in 1850 they added, "There is no attempt to securepopularity made at

the expense either of thoroughness of instruction orstrictness of

discipline."100 If one believed the official statements, no one would

be able to accuse Lawrence Academy of immoralinfluence.

97Curriculum details are included in the various editions of the Catalogue of the Trustees, Instructors, and Students of Groton(later Lawrence) Academy.These will hereafter be referred to as Catalogue.

98Catalogue, 1845, p. 9.

99 Ibid., 1849, p. 20.

10 °Ibid.,1850, p. 16. 89

different picture when Nevertheless, the Mercurypresented a slightly it reported thefollowing conversation: the other day in the 'Dick,' said a student ofLawrence Academy, write to him.' Post Office,'Bill wishes you would 'I'll see him damnedfirst,' replied his mate.

students, claimed thepaper.10' Such language was not uncommonamong academy Committee The claims of theacademy were counteredby the Groton School the committee, as well asthe town newspaper. Public education, asserted seclusion, and was based on aphilosophy of exposurerather than one of In public schools thus, they argued, was abetter preparation forlife.

state," and the carefullynurtured one did not seelife "in an artificial surrounded children of the rich wouldbe thrown into a"world of children,

of good - those ofbad by all classes. .. poorboys and rich - those

would "see the world asit is."The habits. . . . " In short, they schools would have, inlater years, wealthy childreneducated in public the temptations oflife - the practical advantageof "being able to resist been more carefullywatched, while, perhaps, thosewhose education has the existence ofwhich they discovox themselvesexposed to temptations, however, offered have been notified -alas! too late."Public education, for in a advantages other thanthe inculcation ofmiddle class virtue, principles, especially public school childrenlearned the great American public schools no the fact that "all men arecreated equil," and in 102The Groton notions of aristocracycould be fostered ortolerated. but, then, it had aformidable school committee employedstrong language,

foe.

101 Groton Mercury,January 1852, p. 2.

102 Groton . . . 1847-48, 1848, p. 16. 90

In 1850 the committee noted with pleasure a growing parental interest in the schools but complained that the town was so parsimonious that school appropriations were low by comparison with other, similar towns. Tardi- ness, absenteeism and, in some cases, "insubordination" were hindering 103 the work of the teachers. These considerations, nevertheless, received relatively brief attention since the committee delivered its principal lecture for the year on the need for a high school. Unite a few districts and decrease the number of lower level schools, the Com- mittee proposed, and a high school will involve no increase in taxation.

The separation of the older from the younger children, they continued, would permit the more efficient instruction of both, and the desire for success in high school entrance examinations would stimulate the common schools to "increased exertion." A high school, perhaps most beneficially, would "break down the popular prejudice," the committee now openly proclaimed, that received "no little support from the existence of an academy . It would be much better for the town if no such institution existed."The committee reinforced this contention with a discussion of the relation between the high school and equality of opportunity and the importance of the latter for the preservation of 104 democracy.

A look at the Lawrence Academy catalogue for 1851 reveals the source of the school committee's anxiety and their choice of 1850 fora plea for a public high school.Referring to Groton, the catalogue claimed,

IMINTIMI1=111./.1111011 103 Ibid: 1849-50, 1850, pp. 15-16.

104 Ibid., pp. 22-23.

..ierrr.o.n.wwre.s.isMiwwrtawreoiw.,vr...,vao4AArr..'"kglFt"ott-jiZL,v.:;:A.,..k.:t;;tf. 91

refined, which end the common "the population ishighly intelligent and to effect." This wasindeed schools of the townhave mainly contributed place, unobjectionable, but thecatalogue continued,"The youth of the

public obtaining the rudimentsof a good educationin our excellent

the relative placeof a schools, pass into theacademy, which occupies

consciously in competitionwith the high school." The academy was the academy, in desires of the schoolcommittee. The description of

In the academy,the catalogue fact, was much likethat of a high school. in such branches asfit explained, the students"are further instructed

professional life."The them for variousdepartments of business or

from abro,id also catalogue proudly and trulyannounced that "Youth

105 Lawrence largely participate inthese inestimableblessings." example, its enrollment Academy must have beenwell known. In 1851, for Missouri, two from included seven studentsfrom New York, two from two from Kentucky, one Michigan, one fromMaryland, one from Louisiana,

In 1852 the studentbody from Washington, D.C.,andonneffrom Canada. again, one Canadian. included five South Americanpupils, one Cuban, and,

and rather startlingly oneLeonida In 1853 a studentfrom Spain was added,

made his appearancein the same D. Rodocanachifrom Smyrna, Asia Minor, India."6 With such an institution year, followedin 1858 by a boyfrom school would not be easy. as a competitorthe fight for a high

between the schoolcommittee Throughout 1851 and1852 tension mounted

discipline renained. and the town.Appropriations improved but poor

16 5Catalogue) 1851, p. 15.

catalogue 1°Lists of students were printed atthe front of the each year. 92

the battle between theschool However, the greatissue of these years was had been troublesome committee and districtfourteen. District fourteen argued over who was to pay before. In 1839 and 1840the town and district

The toxin won. In for the moving of aschool house to a newlocation.

people to transfer a portion 1847 the town meetingpermitted a group of district three, a move of the school moneyfrom district fourteen to 107 the town and district. hardly calculated toimprove relations between

the town represent thetensions The struggles betweendistrict fourteen and District fourteen was a com- between the old and the newparts of Groton. occupations and property mercial part of the town. Tables 1 and 2 list the

in district fourteen in valuation of thefathers of children at school The statistics 1852, the first year inwhich registers could beobtained.

themselves are from the1850 manuscript census:

District Table 1.Occupation of Parents ofChildren At School in Groton,

Fourteen, 1852

N. 7.

0 Professional 0 8.3 Business 2 62.5 Artisan 15 12.5 Laborer 3 4.2 Farmer 1 None listed 12.5 (no father) 3 innholder and a teamster.' Note: The two fathers listedunder business were an

107 Groton Town Records,1839 and 1840, pp. 77, 90 and92; 1847, p.221. The town records are onfile in the townclerk's office. 93

of Real Estate amongParents of Children Table 2.Distribution of Value

at School in Groton,District Fourteen, 1852

62.5 $0-999 15 37.7 $1,000-4,999 9 0 $5,000 or more 0 63.3%, and 24 out Tables represent 31 outof 49 children attending, or Occupations and valuationfigures of an estimated 37families, or 64.9%. froi the manuscript censusfoi 1850.

non-agricultural, commercial The tables imply thatdistrict fourteen was This conclusion is and peopled largely byartisans of littlewealth. The only map reinforced by the probablelocation of districtfourteen.

located was drawn in1830. with school districtboundaries that could be But districtstwelve On this map there wereonly thirteen districts. that eventually becameGroton and thirteen were nearthe side of the town

large chunk of unpopulatedland was the Junction. In fact, the one became the Junction,and this portion of the townthat within a decade district created, district makes it reasonable tosuppose that the next 108 section of the town. fourteen, was located inthe newly developing

happened when district The controversy inthe 1850-51 school year without consulting the fourteen took it uponitself to hire a teacher

of the Commonwealthof town schoolcommittee.The Revised Statutes first selected by the Massachusetts unambiguouslystated that teachers had to be approvedby the prudential committee incharge of a district violation of theseplain town schoolcommittee. "In direct and palpable

1830, p. 17. The 108Town Plan Book#12, Town Plan Map of Groton, State Archives. town plan books are onmicrofilm in the Massachusetts 94

enactments, the gentleman acting as aprudential committee for District

Number 14, employed a personand put her in charge of oneof its schools, without the knowledge or approvalof the superintending committee."When

the school committee learned ofthis act, they assumed the prudential

committeeman intended to establish aprivate school, but they"learned

from his own lips that he hadestablished it as a public school, and

that its expenses would be defrayedby public money." In the "most

friendly manner" the town committeeinformed him of the illegality of

his actions at,' urged him todiscontinue the school.. He refused, and

the town informed him that theywould themselves establish a public school.

The committee also sent "a respectful note tothe person whom he had em-

ployed as an instructor, desiring her torelinquish her charge without

delay, but it was treated with silent contempt."Therefore, the town 109 committee hired a teacher and prepared to open aschool in the district.

But the prudential committeemandid not accept defeat."The key of

the door opening into the school-room waswithheld," and another "school

was opened in close proximity tothe school-house, purporting to be a free

school, and the same person who had illegallyassumed to instruct the

public school officiated as the teacher." In fact "vigorous efforts were

made to draw away the children from thepublic school and prejudice the

minds of parents against it." These efforts were reinforced by "anonymous

letters" of "an insulting and overbearingcharacter" threatening legal

action sent to the legitimate teacher.But the teacher carried on and

"accomplished as great an amount of good as couldreasonably be expected

109 Groton. . . 1851-52, 1852, pp. 7-8. 95

110 difficulty was com- under such circumstances." The town committee's teacher they had pounded by the town treasurerwho refused to pay the appointed in spite of thefact that "she was justlyand legally entitled"

committee's teacher started prosecu- to her salary.Consequently, the town clearly tion against the town,and the town was facedwith an expensive,

uncertain terms censured losing legal battle. The school committee in no authority "to determinewhat the treasurer, doubtingthat he possessed the for their number of duly qualifiedteachers ought to be compensated 111 services, and what numberought not to be . "

fourteen did not During the winter termthe situation in district

assumed the job of theprudential com- improve. The town school committee

latter capacity "gave . . . mittee since the personsupposed to act in the

sustaining any officialrelation no intimationthat he regarded himself as

whatever, to the District." The town hired two"competent instructors,"

the prudential committeeman, and one committeemancalled on Mr. Shattuck, But Mr. Shattuck to obtain the keys tothe school and thewood-house. bad to "force the refused to hand over thekeys, and the town committee school made locks in order to gainadmittance."This was done and the morning with our ready. "But on arriving atthe school-house on Monday of men teachers, we found the doorslocked against us, and a company apparently of pre- around the door of thewood-house, for the purpose, Rather dua use force venting us by force,from entering that building."

from. another source. the town committeeobtained fuel temporarily

110 Ibid., pp. 8-9.

111Ibid., pp. 9-10. 96

"Ultimately, however," they "were compelled to use force in entering the

wood-house, that the District might avail itself of the wood which had been

provided for its use." Still "repeated assaults were made on the wood-

house by fastening the door, until the District calleda meeting, and

appointed a committee to prevent if possible a repetition of similar

acts."The overt hostile acts ended, but Mr. Shattuck sent thetown

committee's instructors letters "implicitly forbidding themto enter

the school-house, if they would avoid the penalties threatened by law

for housebreaking."The instructors ignored the letters and carried 112 on as best they could.

The school committee claimed it had had "no private endsto answer

nor private piques to gratify.Contention and strife are not congenial

to our taste," and they proffered to their antagonists "the hand of kind-

113 ness and affection." But in spite of the proffered hand strains remained

between district fourteen and the town.For instance, in 1853 the town

meeting appointed a committee to determine why DistrictFourteen had

received more money than had been voted it.The report of the committee 114 the next year was accepted and puton file. To the town committee the

earlier struggle with district fourteen had been ofimportance because

the success of the district would seta precedent whose consequences would destroy public education. If prudential committees could "employ

instructors, and place them in charge of our public schools without

their being examined and approved'by the superintendingcommittee,

112 Ibid., pp. 10-11.

113Aid., pp. 11-12.

114 Groton Town Records, 1853, p. 374 and 1854, p. 407. 97

then the best system of public instructionexisting in our country will be prostrated in thedust."115 In spite of its humorousqualities, the

struggle between district fourteen andthe town was significant.It

illustrated, first, the tensions between thenewly developing industrial

and the old agricultural sectionof the town.Second, it revealed the

magnitude of the resistance to becountered in establishing a town high

school, which would eventuallyeliminate the power and autonomy of the

districts.

Surely, however, prudential committeemanShattuck must have known

that the town committee would oppose hisflagrant flouting of state law,

and hehce be must have desired tomake a deliberate test of the com-

mittee's strength.His reasons can more easily beunderstood after a

consideration of the movement to establish ahigh school.

The politics of high schoolestablishment were extremely complicated

in Groton.Between 1851 and 1859 town meetingspassed and tabled a number

of contradictory motions regarding ahigh school. In 1851 the meeting

"passed over" a motion to establish ahighschoo1116; in 1854 it accepted

a committee's reportthat it was not expedient to establish ahigh school

atpresent117; later thesame year it referredanother motion to establish

a high school to adifferent committee and the next yearaccepted and

printed its favorablereport.118Backed by the report of the committee, -a 115GrotonSchool Retort,op. Sit., P. 12.

116GrotonTown, Records,1851, p. 526.

117 Ibid.,1854, p. 407.

118Ibid.,1854, pp. 421and 429. 98

the town voted to appoint another committee toselect a site for the high school but not to spend any money before gaining the approvalof the town

119 at its next meeting. But the encouragement was short lived: in1855 two motions were indefinitely postponed: tosend all children to Lawrence

Academy and pay the tuition of the poor and second, to establish schools equivalent to high schools in thedistricts.120In November the town voted to postpone any further consideration of a highschool for one year but early in 1857 it voted toreconsider that motion and appointed 121 a committee to begin establishing ahigh school. Shortly after ap- pointing the committee to go ahead with the high school another town meeting indefinitely postponed all motions regarding a high school, and at its next meeting the town voted to postpone the proposedhigh school 122 at Groton Center for one year. Finally, in 1859 the town voted to begin a high school in a brick building to be built as a combination 123 school and town hall. Finally, too, the high school supporters 124 managed to defeat a reconsideration vote.

High school supporters were led by the school committee which kept

up its appeals throughout the yearsof changing votes.To the school

1191bid.,1854, p. 431.

120Ibid.,. 1855,p. 433.

121Ibid., 1857, p. 456.

122 Ibid., 1857, p. 1.

123 Ibid., 1859, p. 73.

124 Ibid., 1859, p. 85. 99

in Groton was, committee the villainholding up educational progress In 1854 the school com- aside from DistrictFourteen, LawrenceAcademy. the academy which,they mittee report featuredanother withering blast at and withdrew "manyof the maintained, divided"the interest of parents," The influence of theacademy advanced pupils fromthe common schools."

the interests of thepublic school system was,therefore, "prejudicial" to of a highschoo1.125The 1855 and, by implication,to the establishment

harangue aimed at theacademy.This de- report alsoincluded a lengthy of the allegedly nunciation ended,interestingly, with a revelation "Once," the reportcontended, egalitarian sentimentsof the committee. social distinction in "a collegiate education wasalmost essential to and now "the highesthonors" Massachusetts." Happilythat time had passed "The trader, thefarmer, were open tograduates of the commonschool. legislation," the committee the mechanic at presentcrowd our halls of ex-member, now noted with satisfaction,perhaps thinking of their

day would arrive when"the day- Governor, GeorgeBoutwell, and soon the reasonable claim for greater con- laborer, so-called,will put in his pleasure that sideration." The reportclaimed with ill-concealed unfrequently stand back. Menof deeds "professional men. . .must not 126 of them." The rather than professionswill often take precedence thus served notice sheltered and privilegedstudents at the academy were would quickly transfer to a and, if they knewtheir own best interest,

common school.

125 Groton . . . 1853-54, 1854, p. 8.

126Ibid., 1854-55, 1855, pp.10-11. 100

The school committee was, indeed, trying tofind a way of striking effectively at the academy. A passage added to theacademy catalogue in

1855 indicates some of the bases of competitionbetween the two.The academy described the comprehensiveness andquality of its education in terms that made a high school seemsuperfluous.

The Classical Department includes the studiesrequired for admission to college, and instruction in French, Spanish, and other modern languages. The English Department compre- hends, in its two courses of study, the common branchestaught in the elementary schools, and all the higherbranches of a complete English education. In this department special pains will be taken to prepare teachers of commonschools for their work, and to furnish young men with what they need inbusiness and commercialpursuits.la

The 1855 school committee report also contained adiscussion of the relation of education to economic development, for thecommittee believed that settlers of the "best character" would beattracted to a town largely by its schools. If Groton wanted to grow in wealth and population,the 128 implication was clear. A third major argument in the 1855 report was

the necessity of indoctrinating the young with Christianmorality.129

This pointwas also the subject for alengthy lecture in 1857, because

by that date the Groton school committee, undoubtedlyshocked by the

transformation of Groton Junction, had become thoroughlyalarmed at the

social alterations they saw rapidly transforming their town and state.

Through their eyes Massachusetts was rather like theWild West.Men

were relying "upon theknife and the revolver rather than upon law,

127 Catalogue, 1855, p. 15.

128 Groton School Report, a. cit., p.12.

129 p. 10. 101

Lawlessness" was "rifeeverywhere."The for their personalsafety. by the fact that effects of socialchaos on theschools were compounded

declining."If the familyfailed "family government" was"more and more the home and to cooperatewith the school, to enforcerules within the moral renaissance wasrequired to latter would beleft helpless. A

and the dissolutionof a civilized avoid thedestruction of society 130 committee noted intheir next report, community. Unfortunately, the and when a community"feels more parental cooperationbad not increased, colts than theirchildren," the com- interest in thetraining of their of their schools maybe easily mittee notedsadly, "the character then, the failure ofthe family was not, inferred."To the committee Irish. the soleresponsibility of the poor

finally which the highschool proponents were In 1859,the year in their case forpublic permanently victorious,the committee renewed admitted thedifficulties created secondary education. The committee but they feltthat a high school was, by a widelyscattered population, contention that The reportrepeated the former nevertheless,feasible. consolidation was aneconomic innovation the high schooleam4ned with spread to allthe advantages and that thehigh schoolwould democratically The committeecountered in advance presently available tothe wealthy. different might assert that"jealousies between a possiblerebuttal which If this were true, with sucharrangements." districts. . .will interfere the better."The schoolccAmittee, "the sooner they aredone away with the would engineersocial harmony in representing theparental state,

IMINIMMINM

130Ibid.,1857-58, 1858, p.5. 102

most efficient way: namely,by bringing "the scholars of thedifferent "131 districts as much as possible together.

The thesis that district jealousies werehampering the creation of the high school was supported by the Mercury. An early supporter of a high school, the Mercury, based an 1854 argument onthe need for intelli gent citizens and thedifficulty of paying both tuition at the academy 132 and school taxes. After the initial vote in favor of thehigh school

in 1857 the Mercury tried to convincetownspeople not to reconsider the motion.As in other battles within the town theopposition was coming

from Groton Junction. People from the Juntion "with some others la remote parts of the town, have caused a warrant tobe posted for

another meeting. .. to seeif the town will not reconsider the vote."

The reconsideration move stemmed fromthe fact that, 'Some of the people

of this village cherish a bitter feeling towardseverybody in town" and

were consequentlyobjecting to what the newspaper claimed was a very

smalltax.133A large part of the objection, unsaid by the Mercury,

was probably the factthat the high school was to be built in Groton

Center, a far distance from GrotonJunction which was becoming the

center of the industrial andcommercial activity and population of the

town. In other towns reports implied andstated that outlying districts

opposed high schools because childrencould not reach them. Groton was

peculiar in that its outlying district waspopulous and dense enough to

131Ibid., 1858-59, 1859, p. 5.

132droton Mercury, July 20, 1855, p. 2.

133Ibid., January 15, 1857, p. 2. 103

sponsor a cohesive and, foreight years, successful movement against the Center.

Groton .;unction resistedboth a high school and, as the description of die controversy concerning districtfourteen has shown, control by the town co.nittee over the hiring ofteachers. The battle of district fourteen, in fact, occurred in the yearof a serious plea by the town school committee for the establishment of a highschool. Both the opposition to the high school and to the townsupervision of district hiring practices, this coincidence of date implies, were partof the resistance of the district to a loss of autonomy.Probably the resistance sprang from Junction residents' resentment of theolder section of the town.

After all, as the quotation cited earlier fromthe Mercury indicates,

the reluctance of the old residents to sell land toJunction, manufacturers retarded the growth of that part of the town,and second, the populous

and prosperous Junction was undoubtedly supplying adisproportionate

share of town taxes.Residents probably felt that their contribution

to the town treasury coupled withtheir economic distinctiveness en-

titled them to both an increased share in the managementof their own

affairs and a chance to benefit equally from any new towneducational

facilities.

Yet the alignment of forces in .tic: .,trict-town fight was odd.

Surely, the rhetoric of educational reform andthe correlates of high

school establishment suggest that, it should havebeen the industrial,

urban Junction, not the agricultural Village, thaturged the commence-

ment of a public secondary school.The town committee did use arguments

stressing the relation between the high school andeconomic growth, but 104

perhaps these were contentions thrown out to convertthe stubborn residents of the Junction.At stake really was the control of the town.If the

Junction could flaunt the school committee and preventthe centralization of power represented by a high school in theVillage, too far away for them to use, then they would effectively controltheir own educational system. And this might be only the harbinger of futureissues. This assumption of power by the district, this loss ofaccustomed control over the town, is probably what the Village and school committeestruggled so energetically to prevent. If this hypothesis is valid, the Battle of

District Fourteenand part of the struggle for a high school represented a major power struggle withinthe community.

To point out the elements of a powerstruggle in the district-town controversies is to raise a major question concerning the useof ideology by the committee. They phrased their goals not in terms of power but in terms of the accepted and respectableideology, even though in this case it bore little relation to their own economic interests. Ideology was a kind of cloak withwhich they could cover their less idealistic motives, an unanswerable set of arguments tohurl at their opponents, who, in turn, had nothing with which to reply. Ideology became the rationalization

of interest; and it served well, for the committee won.

The extent to which ideology masked a power struggle reallylittle

concerned with educational issues is revealed by the early historyof the

town of Ayer. When Groton Junction became Ayer in 1871, the new town

started its school system with no districts and with a high school. 105

In fact, in their first reportthe Ayer school committeelisted improvement of the high school as theirfirstpriority.134

The Mercury agreed with theschool committee that districtjealousy was hamperingthe establishment of a highschool.Yet it rejected the argument that the Academy was ahindrance."The story concocted that those interested in the Academy are averseto the High School isall moonshine," wrote the editor. "So far from it," he continued,"they encouraged it - voted for it, and oneof its benefactors, Mt. A. A.

Lawrence, wrote a letteradvising the Groton people topush ahead and

135 establish it."

Still, the presence of an academyoffering an equivalent education

the was a majorhurdle to high school promotees. In fact like most of

other school committee appeals for ahigh school, the 1859 pleaoccurred

in the same year that theacademy posed a new challenge topublic educa- implied tion. The catalogue for that yearcontained an announcement which

some exaggerationin the school committee'sassertion that the benefits

of the academy were open only tothe wealthy.In an announcement

entitled, "Aid to young men fittingfor college," the cataloguedeclared:

Provision is made by fundsof the Academy, given forthis purpose, to aidthose who need assistance inobtaining a liberal education.Those who receive thebenefit have their tuition remitted for thefirst term of their preparatory studies.Afterwards, they receive a sum notexceeding one dollar per week, includingtheir tuition. The conditions are, good moralcharacter, talents, andscholarship, and

1...smanImi 134 Ayer,...1871-2 1822, pp. 8-9.

135 Loc. cit. 106

the avowed purpose to obtain aliberal education.No preference is given to any one ofthe learned professions; and by the will of the donor,the late William Lawrence no discrimination ismade in favor of any denomination.

Thus, the Groton boy whose parentscould not afford the thirty-five to

forty-five cents a week tuition couldstill be prepared for college.

Groton High School, which opened onMarch 11, 1860, surrendered in

one respect beforethe academy. It offered only an "English" or non- 137 collegiate course, and the school committee diatribesagainst the

academy ended. The academy, however, did not give upits English

curriculum and, therefore, still competedwith the high school.

3. The Working Class Against Reform

In Groton the struggle for ahigh school masked a struggle for

control of the town. Much of therhetoric of the anti-academy and

anti-district fight throughout the stateprobably covered the same

reasons.In Groton as in Beverly thefight for a high school reflected

a deep communaldivision. Only in Groton the primary battle was not

between social classes but between sectionsof the town. Nevertheless,

even in Groton theessential nature of educational reform and innova-

tion as an imposition by one group uponanother, an imposition only

partly prompted by altruistic and humanitarian concerns:this once tee-- becomes clear.

Except for the people of Groton Junction itis not yet clear why

.0=1111=1=11110111/10..... 136 Catalogue, 1859, p. 16.

137 Groton . . . 1861-62, 1862, pp. 6-9. 107

reform and innovation had to be impositions.There is evidence that citizens seemed reluctant to take the largessoffered them by reformers and of a lack of comprehension of thealleged advantages of education, but we still cannot account for the phenomenathat we can identify.To make the nature of opposition clearer itis necessary to return to

Beverly.The least affluent citizens of Beverlyrecorded their opposi-

tion to the high school in votes, not in words. No record of their

reasons for opposing the persuasiverhetoric of promoters exists.Yet

good reasons for opposition can be inferredfrom a consideration of their

social and, conomic situation.

The abolition of Beverly high schooloccurred amidst probably the

greatest social crisis in the historyof the town. In the same week

that they voted four to one to abolish thehigh school, the shoemakers

of Beverly, the dominpat occupational groupin the towa, went on strike,

and so did thousands of other shoemakersin Essex County. Indeed, the

walkout by shoemakers in 1860 was the largeststrike in the United States 138 before the Civil War.

Beverly had been a small and homogeneouscommunity until the advent

of the railroad in 1840. From the 1840's through the mid-1850's a number

of manufacturing enterprises started in the town. The industries were

of various types, and it seemed as though Beverlywould turn into a

small but diversified manufacturing center. However, during the de-

pression of 1857 many of the new, smallindustries with little capital

failed, never to be started again.Indeed, equally good harbors and

138George Rogers Taylor, The TransportationRevolution, 1815-1860, New York, 1951, pp. 284-285. 108

better facilities i!or manufacturing, such as water power for mills, existed elsewhere in Massachusetts. Only for the shoe industry did

Beverly provide an attractive outlet for capital.For Beverly had more of skilled shoemakers than an *one else, and shoemaking was a major

139 industry throughout Essex County, especially in nearby Lynn.

As Beverly developed into a one industry town, it experienced the grave social consequences that accompanied the transformation of shoemaking. It was in the 1850's and 60's that shoemaking became mechanized.

Factory production replaced the skilled craftsman. Technological change, in fact, hit shoemakers with the impact of modern day automation. The number of shoes manufactured per shoemaker rose rapidly. Indeed, machine manufacture increased the output of shoes beyond the demands of the market; and as apprenticeship ceased to be necessary, manufacturers hired unskilled, untrained workers who swelled the ranks of shoemakers to overflowing. Overproduction and a plethora of workmen produced a crisis in the industry, and the price of shoes declined drastically.

In this situation, manufacturers introduced a sizeable pay cut, and the

140 shoemakers struck.

139 See Appendix D for economic and social statistics of Beverly.

140J .Leander Bishop, A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860, Philadelphia, 1866, v02, pp. 509-510; Victor S. Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States, 1607-1860, Washington, 1916, p. 444; Blanche Hazard, The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts before 1875, Cambridge, 1929, passim.; and Inin Rer,rter, March 31, 1860, p.3 and March 10, 1860, p.3: "There are too many shoemakers, and millions of cheap, miserable things have been manufactured, through the aid of machinery, and the employment of a vast number who are novices in the art." 109

The shoemakers of Beverly left nowritten records, and the timid town newspaper tried topretend that the strike did notexist.To find the attitude of the strikers one must turnto Lynn newspapers. In both places shoemaking dominated the economy,and it is reasonable to assume that within the same countytechnological developments were closely paralleled from town to town.Moreover, within the area whichserviced

the Boston market prices would besimilar. Thus, one can assume that

the Attitude of the Lynn shoemakers wasshared by the hundreds of their

colleagues who struck in Beverly, and itis the attitude of thestrikers

that is important, for thisreveals the social gulf that widenedwith

industrialization and contributed tothe abolition of Beverly high

141 school.

Articles in pro-strike papersstressed other thaa"strictlyeconomic

grievances. One writer proclaimed to themechanics f Lynn that "those

occupying a position in societydifferent from yours. . .have wantonly

9,1142 and ill-advisedly insulted allthat is manly in your breasts. . .

and in a very real sense thestrike was about manliness,about the preserva-

tion of honor.

Another writer delineated the grievancesof the strikers.The

tensions .id opinions engenderedby the strike, he claimed, were"the

unerring indications of a social wrong,felt to be such by the whole

1 1I followed the courseof the strike in two newspapers,the pro- strike ImIREE State and theanti-strike L an Reportor.The former was Democratic, thelitter Republican.

142Bax State, March 15,1860, p. 2. 110

community, yet so interwovenwith our social condition thatits reform has become the most perplexingproblem of the age."The "wrong" was the existence of an increasein:both the inequality of thedistribution of wealth and the lossof independence by the artisans."Great fortunes," were beingconcentrated "under the controlof a few manufacturers" in

Lynn, while "hundredsof workmen" were "graduallycrowded from the

independent positions theyformerly occupied." Shoemakers, noted the

writer, were "men of more orless means"; in fact, as a groupthey

probably owned more propertythan the manufacturers; clearlythis was

no strike of aproletariat.But shoemakers were beingcompelled to

relinquish "the luxuries, next theconveniences, and finally the 143 necessaries of life."

From the deterioration intheir position stemmed two consequences:

while the country became richer,the shoemakers became poorer,and,

second, they were progressivelyunable to take advantage of the new

educational and communal facilitiesbeing introduced. "We have better

streets, better schools, snd morewholesome sanitary regulations,"

claimed the writer, "but we do not get aneducation commensurate with

the increase of ourfacilities." Indeed, children were being "removed

from school two or three years tooearly," and an alarming "numberof

young men and women" weresinking "into early graves."Why?The writer

rejected the thesis that shoemakersremoved children from school through

cupidity. Indeed, for one parent, he proclaimed,who took a boy of

thirteen from school for selfish reasons,there were a hundred who did

so from necessity."The parent finds the expenses ofhis household

Ibid., March 1, 1860, p. 2. 111

constantly increasing, while the wagesof his labor are steadily diminishing," and he had no choice but tosubmit to that which he considered a wrong to his family.But in the wonderful,inventive nineteenth century, "To say that such athing is either right or necessary,

being is a libel upon the age."The promise of industrialization was

betrayed; "the benefits resultingfrom a proper division oflabor and

of the application of machinery were"monopolized by the few, instead

being diffused in just proportions."The author stressed, in his con-

clusion, not the drop in wages, butthe tendency "plainly tobreak down

the independence of the laborer,and to abtidge the various sourcesof

1 his social enjoyment."44

The protest of the shoemakers was anagonized remonstrance against

indeed, of a whole the loss of personal andfinancial independence, and,

the editor of the pro- way of life. One old shoemaker, according to

strike paper, perfectly summed upthe issue of the strike in asingle n145 phrase: "Once it was honorable tolabor, now it is a disgrace.

the modern The great Essex County shoestrike was a last protest against

world of the machine andfactory.

school had quite Thus the shoemakers whovoted against Beverly high

For the core of a differentorientation from the Rantoulsand Boydens. The opposition to Beverly highschool the future was notpromising.

shoemakers were the propertied, oncemoderately comfortable andindependent

1 Ibid., March 15,1860, p. 1.

145Ibid., March 8, 1860, p. 2. 112

For group sho30 life wasbeing altered by technologicaldevelopment. the shoemaker the past,certainly, was better than theominous future.

school And it wt: an urban-industrialfuture, precisely, the the high was alleged to promote.In Beverly Rufus Putnam, amongothers, had the high spread the doctrine, prevalentalso throughout the state, that school would promote economicdevelopment.If this were true, if the shoemaker accepted the logic of thedducational promoter, then the last institution be would want toestablish would be a public highschool.

Moreover, to property ownerswhose incomes had been reduced, as many shoemakers were, anything whichwould raise taxes would hardlybe appealing.

Besides, to what avail wasthe democratic argument advancedby

Boyden?The high school might be there,but, as the shovr.maker in Lynn pointed out, modern economic conditions wereso hard thatchildren were

forced to begin work precisely atthe age when the benefits from ahigh

school should commence.Farmers, too, probably wouldbe moved by some

of these arguments.For them the advance ofindustrial society offered

little but a lure to their children.As Rantoul observed, more and more

boys were leaving the parentalfarm for the city.The decided weighting

of high school opponents' propertytowards real estate rather thanpersonal

estate symbolized their rootsin a community being torn apartby the forces

backed by the supporters.The high school issue brought intofocus the

different orientations towards socialdevelopment within a nineteenth

century New England tam.

At the time of the high school votethe shoemakers in particular were

hostile to the representatives of themanufacturing and commercial interests,

who had lowered wages.Yet the tradition of machine breakinglad direct 113

did not spread to physical assault, prominentin other countries,

the high school, a America in this period.In voting to abolish shoemakers had an favorite innovation oftheir antagonists, the The shoe- opportunity to vent their angerin a perfectly legal way.

of little makers, it has been argued,and most likely other groups

social and economic wealth too, were hardlyenthusiastic about the is a diffuse alteration taking place aroundthem. But industrialism high antaonist; it is bard toassault directly.Here, again, the manufacturing and urban school, explicitly billed asthe harbinger of

growth, was a convenient sourceforattack.'"

the town high Why, then, did Beverlycitizens vote to abolish

records makes it impossibleto offer school? Their lack of written evidence three reasons canbe more than ahypothesis. But from the against the raising of taxes, inferred. First, the vote was a protest affluent especially by people withoutchildren. Second, the least

Insofar as the strike was aprotest againstreplacement of a Yet, craft skill by machinerythere is a similarity toLuddism. unlike the Luddites theAmerican shoemakersprotested peacefully. wrecking of machinery or Even hostile accountsdid not report the deliberate physical assaultsOn Luddism see GeorgeRude, The Crowd On p. 226, Rude in History, 1730-1848, NewYork, 1964, pp. 79-82. pre-industrial crowd to "capi- notes the particularhostility of the of the working class talist innovation."Luddism and the attitudes England are during the period of thefirst industrialization in portrayed sensitively in E. P.Thompson, The Making ofthe English A comparable study Workirs. Class, (AmericanEdition) New York, 1964. The interpreta- for the United Stateswould be a majorcontribution. by psychological tion stressing "displacedaggression" is supported and Gardiner Lindzey, theory of various schools. See Calvin S. Hall and 449-453. Theories of Personality, NewYork, 1957, pp. 47-49 114

citizens felt that the highschool would not benefit theirchildren.

leaders of Third, the vote representedhostility to both the wealthy the town and to the onset ofIndustrialism.

In their exhortations tocitizens to vote for a highschool, educational promoters in Beverlyused arguments based onmobility and economic growth.Apparently, the promoters earlybad the wealthy and prominent on their side,and they must, therefore,have been appealing to the moderately and least prosperous voters. What they failed to see was

That that their own values were notshared by the rest of thecommunity.

of educa- is, the promoters who stressedmobility and wealth as products

tion appealed to exactly the wrongvalues in terms of an outlookskeptical

of progress. A strike was someevidence of social division. jibresubtle,

perceive the but more devastatingv was thecommunity leaders' failure to

weakness in their own rhetoric.The probable assumption of thepromoters

that the rest of the towndocilely would follow their advice wasrudely

challenged.Dr. Boyden was an investorin shoe manufacturing and

Rantoul, too, derived much ofhis income from commerce andmanufacturing.

In the same week theshoemakers of Beverly staged a dualrevolt against

of their these communal leaders.They struck, literally, at the source

income, and they rejected their peteducational innovation.Truly, the

events of the first week inMarch, 1860, testify to the depthof social

division in a nineteenth centurycommunity.

The underlying cause ofboth the establishment and abolitionof

Beverly high school was theshifting economic base of both the townand 115

urged the state.It was to keep pace withthese changes that promoters opportunity for tba an extendededucational system; it was to assure individual within an altered economythat the high school was argued;

it was to re-unite asplintering community that a highschool was

the necessary. The unravelling of thesocial fabric that accompanied

growth of a manufacturing economyheightened the distance betweenthe

members of the community; itproduced the decaying economicposition of

craftsmen and became the sourceof the antagonises whicherupted during

the first week of March, 1860,in the great shoe strike andthe abolition

of Beverly high school.

How typical was theBeverly experience? From it can wegeneralize The about educational controversythroughout the state of Massachusetts?

geographic location of Beverly onthe coast and its dependence upon one

industry are factors that make itsomewhat distinctive.Nevertheless,

the underlying causes ofcommunal dissension, the impactof the intro-

duction of manufacturing uponsociety, occurred throughout thestate,

often with more swiftness thanin Beverly.Attitudes toward social

change, moreover, were sharedby educational reformersthroughout the

The state. Everywhere the high school wasurged for the same reasons.

problems raised by industrialism,too, were similar.Not only the large

body of shoemakers but thehar0-loon weavers and othercraftsmen were

affected adversely by the comingof the factory and machine.The tensions

in the that erupted in Beverly wereinherent throughout most of the towns

of circumstances they became Commonwealth.Because of a conjunction 116

particularly visible in Beverly in March, 1860.The events of March,

1860, in Beverly formed one of those momefits that illuminate for the

historian widespread smoldering controversies.The nature of the contro-

versy in Beverly, moreover, suggeststhat the identification of antagonists

by older historians was essentially correct. In spite of the predictable

and continuing parsimony of childless taxpayers andthe mixed reaction

of certain middling 'Dotal groups, two distinct clustersof antagonists

emerge, prominent, prestigousleaders and a working class. Only the

attitudes of the antagonists defined by older historians mustbe re-

versed; for the Beverly experience suggests that one dynamic of

educational controversy was the attempt of social leaders to impose

innovation upon a reluctant working class.

The high schools forced upon reluctant towns met, predictably, many

problems.During the first few years after the founding of a high school

committees reported euphorically on the achievements on the new institu-

147 tion, but after a time difficulties usually arose.By itself, separa-

tion from younger children failed to make the older ones more obedient,

and discipline was frequently a serious problem withinthe highschoo1.148

Attendance and tardiness were two issues related to theproblem of

discipline.Irregular attendance and truancy, indeed, were the most

persistent and common complaints of school committees, and, in some 149 towns, the worst offenders were high school students.

Sae, taw FairhaventAlka, 1859, p. 3 andLincolnt 1853-54, p.4.

148See, taw Webster, 1859-60, 1860, pp. 4-5.

149 See, eta a? Fairhaven, 1860-61, 1861, pp. 9-10. School committees were virtually obsessed withthe problems of punctual and regularattendance150It is not unreasonable to assume that these concerns were based on realproblems.However, the concern with time and reliability implies thatschools were to serve the new society in part by producing those habitsparticularly needed in the work force. A writarAn the MassachusettsTeacher asserted:

That the habit of prompt action in theperformance of the duty required of the boy, by the teacher atschool, becomes in the man of business confirmed; thus systemand order characterize the employment of the day laborer. He must begin each half day with as much promptness ashe drops'lis tools at the close of it; and he must meet everyappointment and order during the hours of the day with noless precision. It is in this way thatregularity and economy of time have become characteristic of our community, as appearsin the running 'on time' of long trains on our greatnetwork of rail- ways; the strictregulations of all large manufacturing establishments; as well as the daily arrangements of our

school.duties. . . .Thus, what has been instilled in the mind of the pupil, as a principle, becomesthoroughly recognized by the man as of the first importance inthe transaction

of business. . . . 151

Indeed, the transformation of agrarianhabits in which precision and

promptness are less emphasized intothe traits necessary to conduct

city life and large scale manufacturing is aproblem characteristic of 152 urbanizing and industrializing societies. Without regular and prompt

150 See, eat, Watertown, 1861-62,1862, p.9.

151_ massachusetts Teacher, xiv, 9, September,1861, P. 329.

152 See Oscar Handlin, "The Modern City as afield of Historical Study," in Oscar Handlin and John Burchard, eds.,The Historian and the City, Cambridge 1963, pp. 14-15: The complex interrelationships oflife in the modern

city. . . called for unprecedented precision. The arrival of all those integers who workedtogether, from whatever part of the city they inhabited,had to ba coordinated to the moment. There was no natural span for such labor; arbitrarybeginnings and ends had to be set, made uniform an adhered to.The dictator- Oil) of the clock and the schedule becameabsolute. (continued) 118

attention the factory no morethan the school canfunction adequately.

workers the school would serveto By discipliningthe habits of future emerging economic order. induct children intothe requirements of the

rather different from Some school committeesalso had a problem

to the irregular attendance. Manyparents applied steady pressure and the committees to lower the entrancerequirements for high schools, 3 Parents mobilized very standardsof the new schools werethreatened.15 in sociological personal influence and pressureagainst the committees;

than achieved qualities,and terms they wereemphasizing ascribed rather trying to cast out it was precisely thisemphasis that schoolmen were the unfair ad- from the educational system. Likewise, complaints about

academies and complaintsabout vantages offeredchildren of the wealthy by

152,(continued) No earlier humanexperience had made suchdemaxds. . . nine- The urban factory wasconceivable only well into the teenth century when it waspossible to imagine that alabor force would come to workregularly and dependably. Writing of the clock as"Thoreauls model of the capitalisteconomy," Technology and the PastoralIdeal Leo Marx (TheMachine in the Garden, in America, New York,1964, p. 248) notes: Thoreau's respOnse to the mechanizationof time reflects the heightened significance ofthe clock in the periodof the "take-off" into full scaleindustrialism. With the building of factories andrailroads it became necessary, as never before, to provide thepopulation with access tothe exact time. This was made possible,in New England, by the transformation of the clockmakingindustry. Before IWO clocks had been relatively expensiveluxury items made only by master craftsmen. Significantly enough, theindustry was among thefirst to use machines and theprinciple of inter- changeable part manufacture. By 1807, inConnecticut, Eli Terry had begun toproduce wooden clocks in largenumbers, and before he died in1852 he was making between10,000 and 12,000 clocks a year at$5.00 each.

153See, Fairhaven1864-65, 1865, p.5. 119

the hiring of unqualified friends and relativesas teachers: both were protests against rewards based on ascription rather than achievement.

The ideal school system was graded, promotionswere equally open to all solely on the basis of merit, teacherswere hired for their professional qualifications; this ideal school system reflecteda belief that status based on achievement should pervade society.In a rural, agricultural society labor is divided within the family, for themost part jobs require little special skill and formal training, responsibilityis based largely on age, the social hierarchyrests mainly on custom, and few pressures force an alteration of traditional attitudes;in such a society, that is, ascription forms a relatively powerful criterion for the assignment of status. Industrialization, on the other hand, dissolves the traditional social fabric,many tasks become highly specialized and technical competence becomes of paramount importance.To adequately cope with its business an industrial, urban society must award relative priority to achieved over ascribed qualities.Thus, although achievement is a fundamental criterion for reward in democratic ideology,its stress in this period is particularly significant.The transition of the state from an agricultural-commercial toan industrial economy required a corresponding shift in the basis of socialvaluation. By trying to institutionalize achieved status through publiceducation and to indoctrinate parents with its virtues schoolmen againwere 120

facilitating economic change throughthe transformation of social

154 attitudes.

In the mid 16018 schoolCommittees were still complaining of a parental apathy that resistedthe efforts and achievements ofeducational reformers.The Groton school committee,for one, virtually confessed failure. Public interest in educationhad not increased, and how the schools could be maintained withoutthis entbuttiism and support was a 155 question whose answer was, to saythe least, uncertain. One of the problems inherent in reform wasthe confused nature of the ideology.

Reform would promote urbanindustrial society, which was a finething,

only urban industrial society wasbad, and education should radiate a

centripetal force to reunite the shatteredfragments of towns and re-

create the social atmosphereof the rural village. If the two sides of

154David McClelland started anextensive cross-cultural examination of children's readers with thehypothesis that achieved status wouldbe more prominent in rapidlydeveloping countries.This notion, he states, is agreed upon by all sociologicaltheorists. However, his findings do not confirm the hypothesis.Nevertheless, there is an hypothesisthat he does not investigate. McClelland, that is, considers countriesin 1925 and 1950.Lumped together and not partialled out arecountries at very different stagesof economic development.What he does not consider, and what this study suggests, isthat a stress on achieved status maybe a characteristicof societies in the process oftransition from -tan agricultural to an industrial economy. The process of industrialization itself, bringing with it major changesin all the relationships of men, may necessitate ashift in social attitudes daringthe period that Rostow calls the "take off."Later, as industrialism becomesfirmly established and self-perpetuating, asre-orientation of the population becomes no longer necessary, new bases of status may emerge, newdistinctions become hardened, and the stress on achievementless emphasized. (David C. McClelland, The Achieving Society, NewYork, 1961, pp. 183-186).

5 15Groton ... 1864-65,1865, p. 13. 121

the ideology were not logically incompatible,they nevertheless formed a set of highly implausiblegoals. Still, reformers might have argued

that it was the obstacles withinold towns that had frustrated their

efforts. If only they could have a chance tobuild a system from

scratch, then they might produce a smallcity on a hill.Indeed, the

chance to make a school system in a new townwould provide a test case

for the viability of reform theory. In Lawrence reformers weregiven

their chance. 122

Epilogue: Lawrence, From "Model Town"to "Primary School of Vice"

The early history of Lawrence is thestory of the fading of an

utopian vision before the realities ofurban-industrial life. In 1830,

even in 1846, Lawrence was a strip of land beside theMerrimack River.

In 1865 Lawrence was a booming factorycity. The onslaught of urban problems is predictable in the rapidcreation of a large city froma

river bank, and this fact alone wouid makeLawrence an interesting study; but Lawrence is particularlyfascinating because, as muchas

Brook Farm or a twentieth century EnglishNew Town, it was the conscious and deliberate creation ofmen who had an utopian vision. Pecuniary gain was certainly a motive, but the foundersof Lawrence were also inspired with a vision of anew type of community: a modern, industrial city in which would prevail the harmony andmorality of the Lawrence brothers' boyhood memories ofGroton., In Lawrence the contradiction at the heart of the social thought of Massachusettseducators was exposed once and for all.Education failed to create thecountry in the city: with the best educationalsystem that could be devised Lawrence still developed the universal diseases ofurban life.The early history of Lawrence also suggests that thestress on the role of education in industrial developmentwas somewhat of an exaggeration.The labor power that built and manned the great mills andfactories was not the loving hand of the artist laborer but,for the most part, the untutored efforts of uneducated Irish immigrantsand their children. In spite of the arguments and surveys of Mann and later Boutwell concerningthe productivity of educated labor, Lawrencemanaged to combine industrial greatness with mass ignorance. The first American industrialists werekeenly aware of the misery and degradation characteristicof the great Europeanmanufacturing centers, and they had nointention of recapitulating theexperience of the old world in the new. On a visit to England NathanAppleton, a leader in early textile manufacture,asked whether the "degredation" of the operatives "was theresult of the peculiar occupations orof other and distinct causes." heconcluded there was no reason"why this peculiar description oflabour should vary in its effects upon character from all otheroccupations."156Part of the problem in

Europe stemmed from a lack of concernfor the morality and welfare of

the operatives, and Americanmanufacturers determined toprevent

the development of social miserythrough a paternalistic supervision

of their workers. In the first place, they assumedthat their labor

force would come not from thelowest levels of society but from

New England farms.They planned to create aworkforce of farm girls who

would spend a few years in a millaccumulating money for a dowry.

In the second place, thwideterminedto carefully overseethe girls and,

consequently, erected the now famousboarding houses in which the'conduct

of the girls was to be strictlysupervised. For the first few years

156 Nathan Appleton, IntroductonI ofthe Power Loom and theOrigin of Lowell, Lowell, 1858, p.15.

157 the early manufacturing citiesand the ideas they represented Social Motility in a Nine- seeStephan Thernstrom, Poverty and Progress: teenth Century Cia, Cambridge,1964, esp. pp.60-61; Donald B. Cole, Immigrant City: Lawrence, Massachusetts,1845-1921, Chapel Hill, 1963, Origins and New-New - esp. ch.2; andCharles L. Sanford, "The Intellectual Worldliness of American Industry,JournalofEconomic History,xviii,l, 1958, pp.1-16. felt that America had at least the systemseemed to work, and Appleton avoided copying the Britishexperience. "The contrast in the character

of Europe," wrote of our manufacturingpopulation compared with that

Appleton, "has been theadmiration of the mostintelligent strangers who have visited us."158

Appleton referred mainly toWaltham and Lowell, but theideology

According to the most he represented characterizedLawrence, too. 159 recent historian ofthe city, it was to he a"model town."

Conceived, built and directedby Boston Brahmins, it wasdesigned to produce cottonsand woolens, but to do itin an environment that was physically andmorally sound. To Lawrence would come sturdy mechanics to do thecity's work and be uplifted in the process.160

To create a model townthe early years wereparticularly important.

.of laying a The formative periodoffered "a golden opportunity. .

broad and deep foundationfor a virtuous and thrivingpopulation."

To lay a strongfoundation a strong and vigilantcity government was

a necessity,stressed the Lawrence Courier. "Let the idea once become

prevalent abroad that inLawrence the reins of governmentwill be holden

hand," wrote the editor, "and thebetter portion of with a lax, a feeble 161 As important as firm our country willbe deterred from cominghere."

159Cole, sp. cit., p.21.

16°Ibid., p.26. On the history of Lawrence see also Maurice B.Dorgan, History of Lawrence with WarRecords, Lawrence, 1924.

161Lawrence Courier, March 6, 1847. 125

governmumt was agood system ofschools.

civil engineer, one ofthe On February 8,1848, Charles Storrow, a Horace Mann a letterthat founders and first mayorof Lawrence, wrote

that education was toplay in the showed clearly boththe central role

assumptions of thefounders. The letter new cityand some of the key in which revealed that Lawrence wasto be acontrolled environment morals and intellectof a industrial overlordspaternally shaped the their last meeting,three city. Storrow remarked toBann 'chat since had doubled and was, months previously, thepopulation of Lawrence Storrow wrote, had"come at present, sixthousand. The population, had "New England here mostly fromNew England homes,and therefore" One of theeducational needs of wants among whichschools arefirst." high school, andStorrow told the people withNew England wants was a I must see youagain and have Mann, "Before commencingoperations.

your advice."162

would be the ideallocation for Storrow had decidedthat Lawrence Lawrence needed a the state's fourthnormal school.The area arou& ideal location since"Six normal school, andLawrence provided an of which we shall railroad lines" would"shortly meet here, by means Newburyport, Portland,Man- communicate directly withBoston, Salem, argued his case ongrounds chester, N.H., andLowell." But Storrow also

162 Mann, Mann Collection, Letter from CharlesStorrow to Horace Massachusetts HistoricalSociety. 126

He asked Mann to"think also higher than geographicaccessibility. establishment would exert for a moment of theinfluence which such an Storrow asked: upon a communitylike this." In a revealing question society ready to be "Where else can you find ashere the elements of a pull down, all to build moulded into a good Jr anevil shape; nothing to

influence and train as up; a whole towncomposed of young people to school whose mind you would aschool?" Lawrence was to be a huge The echoes of thetheory would be formed byStorrow and his associates.

Clear too is a curiousmixture of of the paternal state areclear. he himself benevolance and hungerfor power. Storrow reminded Mann that uncultivated district had commented on the"influence. . .in a remote and

well educated teacher ofagreeable by the presence andeffort of a single Storrow continued, "Letthen manners andelevated moralcharacter." before their eyes the crowd of young women soonto assemble here see

Through the power ofexample young women would such examples. . . ." 163 Thus would Storrow turn willingly tothe schools ofLawrence. Mother in industrial insure the preservationof female virtue, Home and

society.

predominance Table 3 reveals the rapidgrowth of Lawrence and the

of the textileindustry:

163,cit. 1850-1865 Table 3. Populationand IndustrialEmployees, Lawrence, 1865 1850 1855 1860

17,639 21,698 Population 8,358 16,114 9,217 Foreign born 9,383

Hands employed in: m. 1,012 Cotton industry m. 712 f. 1,873 f. 1, 715

m. 758 Woolen industry m. 1,310 f. 1,000 f. 1,290

4,216 Other industries 2,007 8, 991 Total 6,902

and children, were Nearly half of thepopulation, including women Of these employees, overhalf worked employed in a manufacturingindustry.

However, the peoplefrom "New England in cotton orwoolen mills. Seven years after homes" soon lost theirdominance in thepopulation. half immigrant, and mostof the its foundingLawrence was roughly

newcomers wereIrish.

creation of theschool The thought and carerepresented by the

Storrow placed oneducation.. In their system reflectedthe importance school committee set report for theschool year 1848-49the Lawrence

school system. Interestingly, one forth theirconception of an ideal committee was J.D.Herrick, whose of the membersof the first school of the leading career was anironic commentary onthe assumptions and served assuperintendent of schools citizens. Herrick eventually 128

head of the policeforce.164In the school committee's blueprint of an ideal school system thehigh school was the apex of a four stage system of schools. Each stage was of importance to thecommittee who claimed, "we would not dispense with oneof the series." In the same report the committee'sdesire for the most modern and efficientschool system possible was shownagain by its detailed discussion ofschool 165 fladiture and architecture.

164Dorgan, ag. cit., .pp.83 and 89. 165Lawrence 1848-49, 1849, pp.3-7: The Statute considers a child offour years of age, admissable to the public schools. Let those ofthis early age, be collected in primary schools, to bescattered over the territory of the town, and made of as easy access as ispossible, to these infant aspirants after knot,. .edge. In these, they may together acquire thealphabet of science. When able to read sentences,and when they have been initiated into the simplest mysteries ofnumbers, which will ord- inarily be at the age of seven, let thembe transferred to a school of a higher degree, where with others oflike advancement, they may progress inreading, mental arithmetic, and acquire some ofthe rudiments of geography. At the age of ten, achild of common abilities, if it has been regular at school,will be capable of reading tolerably well; will have mastered thefundamental rules of arithmetic, and have acquired a generalgeographical knowledge of his own and other countries, and thefoundation principles of grammar. He is now ready to pass into aschool of a higher grade, or the grammarschool, where, under the superivision of a competent master assisted by femaleteachers, he will acquaint himself more extensively with grammar, geography, arithmetic,reading and give attention to penmanship, human anatomy,and physiology, history, algebra, etc. In this school, classed with others of the same qualifications and in the same studies, subject to ahealthy emulation, many will finish their term ofstudy, and go forth qualified for the various vocations of life.Many of our youth, anxious to release their parents from theburden of their support, will be induced, after they have enjoyedfor a season the advantages of the grammar school, to engage in someempibyment, inwhidh! they can provide for themselves and beacquiring a knowledge of some industrial pursuit. But if desirous of advancing farther, and in addition to the branches taughtin the grammar schools, they 129

failed to maintian Yet even the bestpossible schol system

In 1856 the editorof the prosperity, socialharmony and morality. that Lawrence is a veryfluctu- Courier claimed,'it is no use to deny today flooding andoverflowing ating and uncertainplace of business - withdrawing almost the meansof every branchof business - tomorrow, enterprises and the mostassiduous subsistence, from themost cautious

11166 studded industry and perseverance. Indeed, the newspapers are

the most disastrousbeing the with reports ofdepressions and booms, suspended and, at onetime or depression of 1857when banks were 167 another, every mill wasclosed.

and poverty accompanied Newspapers alsoreported that immorality In 1855 the editorof the failure tomaintain a steadyprosperity.

reputation of the city:"As the abode of the Courierlamented the low resort forgamblers, swindlers, as a stoppingplace for thieves, as a

of theglobe."168But this city is notentirely an unknown quarter

MIN11.111101111111M1WV). geometry, ancient geog- would learn somethingof natural philosophy, of classical raphy, book-keeping,composition, or pursue a course opportunity is affordedin the study preparatoryfor College - an Well endowed bythe 'High School' - thehighest of the series. illustrative apparatus liberality of one of ourcitizens, with an the High School isin- and furnished with acompetent teacher, for any of the common tended to thoroughlyqualify our young men teaching, or the res- callings of life, and our youngwomen for ponsible duties belongingto their sex.

166Lawrence Courier,April 11, 1856, p.2. January 1,1855, 167Lawrence Courier, April 24, 1853;December 11, 1854; January 9, 1857;February 18, January 8, 1855;July 10, 1855;April 11, 1856; October 16, 1857;August 9, 1860 and 1857; Septebmer,1857, passim., Lawrence Sentinel,February 9, 1861.

168Lawrence Courier, December 25, 1855, 130

Even in 1845, during the problem had nottaken a decade todevelop. Courier noticed with the construction of thecity, the Merrimac night is dismay, "Drunken men staggerand reel through our streets -

fear their personal made hideous by theiryells, and honest men

Nor did the problemdisappear with time In 1864 safety. . . ."169

the "immorality andblack- the Sentinel, forinstance, complained of guardism exhibited upon ourpublic streets andcommons."17°

Poverty, too, was a seriousproblem. During the depression of

Association told of "rine 1857 the president ofthe Provident Relief the children huddled different families,wholly without food or fire - the fragments of their scanty in bed or perhapstrying to keep warm by 171 below zero. . . stock of furniture,while the thermometer was near or allegedly far from a- In 1859 the Courierreported another example,

typical. Except for a fewodd jobs the father of afamily of respect-

unemployed since the able church members withfour children had been the earnings of two boys, depression of 1857, andthe family lived on

food had been potatoes aged eight and twelve. "Their chief articles of

and cabbages, and the womansaid no one knew how muchshe had suffered

172 housing problems. nights from thecold." With poverty came serious satisfactory, but Boarding houses for singleworkers may have been

169MerrimacCourier, November 21,1846.

170LawrenceSentinel, August 27,1864.

171Lawrence Courier, January 16, 1857.

172Ibid., February 3, 1859. 131

In a benevolance did not extend tothe tenements forfamilies.

correspondent to the complaint echoed throughoutthis period one be their character, must Courier claimed that,"The poor whatsoever may

inconvenient houses,several be crowded intoill-constructed and families under oneroof. . . ."173

echoed byschoolmenT:tho The general lament ofthe newspapers was

in Lawrence. When Lawrence looked with horror atthe fate of children administration officially became a cityin 1853, the patternof school

by a paidsuperintendent, changed, and reports werewritten henceforth

With dismaythe first super- elected from themembers of the committee.

failed to reachlarge numbers intendent admitted thatthe schools had

city upwards of twohundred of children. "There are now in the fifteen years old," heclaimed, boys and girlsbetween five and The "who keep aloof fromschool and have noregular employment." these children who spenttheir zuperintendent describedthe occupation of backyards, pilferingswill, "time in prowling aboutshops, alleys and articles as happen to beunprotect- fuel, old iron, andsuch more valuable educated. The super- ed." Yet, the committeenoted, these children were which included,really, intendent had a broaddefinition of education

these, there wereplenty in Lawrence: all formativeinfluences and, of if ever enter aschool of TIte two hundredlittle maurauders rarely but through each literature and science,of wisdom and virtue; live-long day they aretaught by example, andtheir knowledge where the viola- fixed by practice, inthe school of the street,

N111.11.1IM

Lawrence Sentinel, 173Lawrence Courier,August26, 1853. See also August 19, 1865. 132

tion of every moral preceptand duty form the manners and the eveningless.m.174

The superintendent declaredthat in its "minor bearings" this was a situationof considerable importance. Unfortunate were "the losses from theft, the maliciousmischief done to public and private property, the occasional disturbance ofschools and religious meetings, and the frequent and increasing insults to womenand children."But more serious was the influenceof the two hundred vagabonds on therespectable children who, brought into contact withthem, were "introduced to the

Primary School of Vice." Even worse,perhaps, was the fact that these urchins would soon be parents,"training up a new generation after their own ideas and exerting an equal powerto the most exemplary in determining the character of ourinstitutions,"175 In five years

Lawrence had changed from amodel town of New Englanders hungry for schools to a Primary School of Vice.

To schoolmen the apathy of parentshad a critical influence on the. moral degradation of the children.George Packard, the superintendent

in 1855, claimed that the attemptsof the school committee to create public interest in education hadfailed and that this failure was

attributable to both native and Irish parents:

We have a large foreign population, manyof whom are almost wholly untaught themselves, and are strangelyindifferent to the education

174Lawrence. . .1852-53, 1853, pp.20-21.

175 Loc. cit. 133

of the like sadindif- of their children. Too many instances All efforts to awaken ference occur amongAmerican born parents. this class, havethus far signallyfailed.176

for 1858, Henry K.Oliver, With similar motivationthe superintendent them to allow theirchildren addressed five requests toparents: he urged

to enforceregular attendance, to to completethe entire school course, and to keep informedconcerning insure punctuality, tovisit the schools especially to the progress oftheir children. He addressed himself

the parents of highschool students: fail in these pursuits, The pupils of HighSchools are more prone to than the general runof to be absentfor less pressing causes that period scholars of otherschools. Their near approach to parental of life when they arato becomelawfully independent of of holding olderchildren sway and the commoncustom among parents cause them tofeel less responsible under diminished restraint, to act that ordinarilycontrol, and more disposed to the checks They and under the imulseof their owninclinations. for themselves and women, begin, to feelthemselves to be morethan incipient men things' they may fairly put and that in'putting away childish . .heretofore, away that verychildish thing. . .reverenced. called parental authority.7'

of adolescenceand the weakeningof In an urban societythe combination of the oldergeneration parental discipline wasdestroying the hold

problems of the highschool reflected upon the younger.The attendance The wrong influences wereproviding the attendanceproblems of the home. delivery into rational,moral the education ofchildren for whose had labored hard. citizenship the schoolcommittee, at least,

1859 morality was According to thesuperintendent's report for

176 Ibid 1856-57, 1857, p.6.

177Ibid., 1857-58, 1858, p.62. "inher- indeed on the wane.Many children werebeing brought up to an

practical crime, and to skill itance of vice. . .educated to skill in

from its consequences." in adroit concealmentof crime, and escape the growing stratification The whole pernicioustendency was reflected in of distance be- of society, "an increasingseparation and enlargement

wealth. . .civilization tween the severalclasses. . .from the increase of

.and high intellectualdevelopment." Sometimes high intellectual

development dampened aperson's social sympathies,and this was

extremely unfortunate at atime when the lowerclasses required the

ministrations of theintelligent. To halt the decay ofsociety which,

from higher civ- the superintendentadmitted, "invariably results

ilization," was the duty of thegovernment,which should"step in to

protect, to defend, toreform, and to punish." If compulsory education 178 was evaded,compulsory reform schoolshould follow.

The nature of thepopulation of Lawrence posed anumber of

specific problems for theschools. One problem was thefluctuation

reported that a drifting in enrollment. Again and again schoolmen predict,and hence but increasing populationmade enrollment impossible to

planning was extremelydifficult.179 During the depression of1857

children lost their jobs and,unemployed, turned in droves tothe

that some good might result schools. Schoolmen welcomed them, claiming

178 Ibid., 1858-59, pp.67-72.

1791bid. 1847-48, p.8; 1850-51, pp.19-20;1852-53, p.6;1855-56, p.6; 1859-60, p.6. 135

180 became acute. from the evils of thedepression, but overcrowding spread evenly The fluctuating and growingenrollment, however, was not 2,016 throughout the four kinds ofschools. In 1858, for instance, children attended the primaryand middle schools andonly 1,044 the 181 the superin- grammar and highschools. On the one hand, argued

since mothers who tendent in 1860, primaryschool enrollment was high earliest possible needed to work placed theirchildren in school at the

industrial and commercial time while at the otherend of the spectrum children staying a long time employment opportunitiesmilitated against in school and, even,going to the grammarszlool atal1.182 low, a cause of Within the high school theenrollment was continually

"notoriety," according to onesuperintendent. In fact, most of the

students who remained inhigh school untilgraduation were girls.

the high proportion ofdrop- The low enrolluentof the high school and constant outs (generallyaround two-thirds ofthose who entered) were remained unable complaints throughout reports,problems which schoolmen

tosolve.183

Schoolmen also failed to find asatisfactory way of coping with

school truancy, a problemrelated to enrollment. As early as 1848 the

180 Ibid. 1856-57,pp.5and 27.

1811bid.,1857-58,p.8.

182 Ibid., 1859-60,p.5.

1831b1d, 1852-53,p.12;1860-61,pp.11-12; 1861-62, pp.12-13; 1864-65, pp.12 and 22. 1862-63, pp.11-12; 1862-64, pp.6, 15-16; 136

committee complained of irregular attendance,especially among the

Irish.184In 1850 they urged the passing of by-laws todeal with 185 truants because the problem wasincreasing. By 1854 the school committee, increasingly disturbed, was unsuccessfullyurglitgl`, the establishment of a special school for truants.The city did establish a truant committee which wassupposed to review cases and decide how to deal with offenders, but in 1860 thesuperintendent complained that the committee was ineffective and urged the appointment of aregular truant officer.186 One concrete action Fad been taken; in theschool year

1859-60 the sub-master of the Oliver grammar schoolstarted a class to which the most recalcitrant truants were sent. Ones who,failed to reform

or to appear were geherally sent tothe State Reform School at West-

187 borough. During 1861 a school janitor, probably with encouragement

from the superintendent, began seeking out truantsand urging them to

attend school,188and soon he was officially appointed truant officer.

The magnitude of the problem of truancy inLawrence is indicated by the

fact that in his first year of regular service the truantofficer handled

over five hundred differentcases.189 At first the superintendent

185 Ibid.,1850-51, pp.7-8.

186 Ibid.,1858-59, pp.22-24.

187Ibid, 1859-60, p.11.

188Ibid1860-61, pp.14-15.

189Ibid., 1861-62, pp.10-12. 137

officer's work, but reported glowingly onthe results of thetruant

time for mass truancyfailed to his satisfactionlasted only a short urging, the citycouncil passed a more disappear. Finally, after much provision that truantsbe sent rigorous set of by-lawswhich included a

TheAlmshouse was to bepartly remodled and to the cityAlmshouse. 190 the council did not turned into a truantschool. But the vote of

the superintendentreported that solve the problem,for the next year and that theAlmshouse had the new by-lawshad remained inoperative truants.191 not beenmade ready for thereception of

truancy werecompounded by the The problemsof enrollment and schools early in the confusion caused bythe establishmentof Catholic frequently made hostile history of thecity. The school committee

and the peak oftheir bitterness comments aboutparochial schools, widespread Know-Nothingactivity occured in 1854, a yearof intense and

of incidentsunderlined the native- in Lawrence. During 1854 a number rioted in thestreets;192 Irish hostility inthe town. Irish and Americans

with an Americanfamily was walking to in June anIrish girl who lived and tried to forceher to public school when hersisters grabbed her intervened, and aserious brawl come away with them. Native bystanders and took the girl tothe nearly started. Thetown marshalarrived quickly

190 Ibid.,1863-64, p.18. 191 Ibid.,1864-65, p.17. 192 Lawrence Courier,July 11, 1854. she wished to go with court house where shetearfully admitted that

ai4d the girl was hustled out her sisters. This the marshal permitted, 193 through a back door to avoidthe angry crowd waitingin front.

this time the girl Later the same month asimilar case occured, only target for epithets elected to stay with theAmerican family and became; a 194 hurled at her by the Irish.

wmplained that the In their report for1854 the school committee

undermined ed- parochial schools (theytermed them "Romanist") had

ucational planning. Catholic children wereleaving and re-entering

school at such an erratic pacethat no enrollmentpredictions could

children "emanating from a be made. Even more seriously, the very advantages, as to make class of our population sodestitute of domestic

school system" had them special candidatesfor all benefits of our and facilities been removed from theinfluence of excellent teachers

and placed in decidedlyinferior institutions. In criticizing the of the charges Catholic schools thesuperintendent realized the gravity

he was making, buthe felt that he hadobtained sufficient evidence.

Large numbers of childrenwho were allegedlyattending Catholic schools who were, in reality,roaming the streets, andthe task of determining public was a truanthad become impossible. Children returning to the students, teachers schools brought shockingstories; and the returning

noticed, had declinedmentally during their term at theCatholic school.

193 Ibid., June 9, 1854. 194 Ibid., June 16, 1854. 139

had What could be done?The superintendentrealized that Catholics evry legaland constitutional right toestablish their own schools, establishing qual- but he urged thestate legislature to pass a law conduct of both private ifications that wouldapply to the teachers and 195 and public schools.

from Lawrence, In spite of the urgingof the state representative

the Legislature did not passthe law, and the problembecame more acute.

obtain a cer- State law required childrenemployed in manufacturing to

tificate signed by ateacher stating that theyhad attended school for

of mills over- a stiuplatednumber of weeks.At times superintendents certificates signed looked the regulation; atother times they accepted avoided by the teachers ofparochial schools.The school committee fire in the Pem- confronting the latterpractice until after the great

berton Mills in 1860 when afactory superintendent,inundated with

burned) asked the committeeif he new certificates(the old had been The committee's could legally accept thosefrom the Catholicteachers.

lawyer maintained that it wasnecessary for thecertificates to be

committtee signed by a teacherapproved by the townschool committee. The certificates henceforth thought this implied thatonly public school

would beaccepted.196

195 Lawrence. . .1853-54, 1854, pp.8-12.

196 1859-60, pp.9-12; On the problem see,Ibid., 1854-55, pp.7-9; 1860-61, p.12; 1862-63,pp.20-24. 140

To the consternation of thecommittee the teacher of thelargest

Catholic school appeared with hisstaff and requested an examination.

After some hesitation thecommittee agreed to examine theCatholic teachers. The committee claimed thatthey had asked their usual questions and had found thatall but the principal were grosslyin- competent and could not bejudged suitable persons to certify tothe 197 education of the children employedin manufacturing. The outcome of

the examination is, however,unclear since it is not certainthat

factory superintendents heededthe finding of the school committee.

Many children continued to beenrolled annually in the Catholicschools,

and it is reasonaole to assumethat if they had been unable toobtain

employment with the certificatesfrom their Catholic teachers, their

parents would have sent them topublic schools. Thus, in spite of the

examination the problem of thealleged inferiority of the Catholic

schools remained unsolved. One issue was resolved, however, Catholic

teachers cooperated with the town truantofficer, and it became possible 198 to separate truantsfrom students enrolled in parochialschools.

Schools became a partisan politicalissue for the first time during

the Know-Nothing agitation. Since the founding of the city eachpolitical

party had offered a separateslate of candidates for school committee,

but the party press did notcriticize the committee that was elected,

even when it wasdominated by the opposition. However, in 1855 the

197Ibid.,1859-60, pp.9-12.

1981bid. 1862-63, p.20. 141

Both the Whig andDemocratic Know-Nothings capturedthe committee.

virulently.Attacks centered on papers werehostile, the latter most His report was crit- the allegedincompetence of thesuperintendent. of school property was icized as semi-literate;his custodial care examination of teachers was attacked, and hisconduct of the annual Sentinel the Super- mercilessly lampooned. According to the Democratic until the end of the exam- intendent askedridiculously easy questions word that none ofthe teachers had ination when heintroduced a spelling

define the word, thesuperintendent ever heardbefore. When asked to

the subject. The charge was suddenly becameflustered and changed

expressed vividly by apoet in theSentinel:

Rusher's Examination ofTeachers, Happened in Ye Town of An Accurate Accountof What Actually Authorities. Laurentium, in Ye19th century,compiled from ye Best

A teacher is wanted -the order has goneforth, ladies more near, Young ladies fromfar - and young In response to the summonsquite promptly appear, show forth And assuming theirplaces are ready to pedagogue's sphere. How well they'reprepared for the

So there sat theladies, demure in a row prepare, While the learnedSandhedrin for judgment with care; With their stock of strangequestions selected buckler and bow And the chief,girding on now, his Gazes round on hisvictims withterrible stare.

that, Addition, subtraction,Division, and all are four, And twice ten aretwenty, and twice two And a thousand's alot; if it isn't some more, block hat,* Were examined in turn,til the Rusher's the floor. Crowded off with thepressure,and fell to

thorough trial Then next came thespelling - a full, With words of onesyllable, sometimes of two, One h-a-t hat, r-a-t rat,and c-a-t- cat, Were all passed inreview. 142

A11 thought, but the Rusher, the spellingwas royal,** But without the great question, he couldnot be through.

So here he brings forward the charm talismanic, The touchstone of learning and talent and wit- FEOFEE - that's the word, and who cannot spell it, Tho' possessed of all knowledge, and virtue'sangelic For a primary teacher, oh sure she's not fit.

But alas! and alaCk! ftbm one to another The fatal word passed to the end of therow, And no one could spell it,- They e'en did not know Its existence before - and so ina bother Requested the Rusher its meaning to show.

He scratched up his scull cap- he rubbed up his eye. And he twitched at his collar- still nothing would do- Then he thumbed his old nose till theysay it was blue; Till at last in despair, he confessed witha sigh That he"hadn't examined from that point ofview, "***

*It is said yt ye Rusher is much givento wearing of ye hat in meetings. **Ye ..erm Rusher, it hath been said,was first applied to ye individual in question fromye fact yt he is one of ye un- fortunates, who will rush in where angels fearto tread. ***Ye reports say yt Rusher appearedat this juncture terribly ob- fusticated and he seemed desirous of changingye subject.

The Sentinel charged the Superintendent Williams("Rusher's" real name) and the committee were so incompetent thatthe old school committee had to conduct the examination of highschool students, which they did free of charge. The nativist c4per, ofcourse, tried to refute the charges of the Sentinel and claimed thatWilliams had held responsible posts in educational administration before comingto Lawrence and that he had conducted the teacher examinationswell. In his annual report

Williams himself answered charged concerningthe mishandling of school maintenance. Actually, Williams' report is farfrom semi-literate and 143

city . compares favorablywith most others. In fact, the Know-Nothing administration must have caredconsiderably for the schools. In 1855-

the 56 both the per pupilexpenditure and the school tax rate were highest in the history ofLawrence in this period. Williams' literacy

the Sentinel were founded and the high spendingimply that the charges of primarily on a combinationof political animosityand a hostility to an

during the same year. Mr. increase in taxes.Asimilar event occured

Fairfield, a teacher in theSouth grammar school, wasfired. The

refusal to Democratic Sentinel attributedthe firing to Fairfield's

claimed he was join the Know-Nothing movement. The nativist American of the incompetent and personallydisagreeable. In this case a group

signed a memorial testifying most distinguishedcitizens of the city implies that the to Fairfield's highqualifications, a fact which /99 Sentinel's charges may have beenjustified.

Catholics posed a Other private schoolsbesides those of the adver- problem for the city. From the founding ofLawrence newspapers

high school education. tised private schoolsoffering both primary and Blaisdale's school, which was The most successful andrespected was Mr. Blaisdale's death operated from the earliest yearsof the city until

charged that the school com- in 1861. One correspondent in a newspaper Blaisdale's and to mittee members themselves senttheir children to

Lawrence 199On the controversies overWilliams and Fairfield see,.

17, 1856; September 16, Sentinel, January 26,1856; March 15, 1856; May 2, 1856, November 1856; Lawrence American,January 19, 1856; February 2, 1856 and Lawrence..7:.1855-56, 1856, pp.13-14. 144

200 other private schools andacademies. However, the committee itself noted that some of the parentalapathy towards educationstemmed from

schools, they held, cut the private schools. In particular: private down the attendance at thehigh school. In 1865 the superintendent asserted that the high schooloffered an education bothexcellent and practical, but he was severlydisappointed at the responseof the citizens. He asked:

Do the citizens ofLawrence realize that theirhigh school furnishes better facilitiesfor the education of their sonsand daughters than many, not to say any,of the academies of theland? If they did, would there notbe many more of their sonsavailing themsleves of the rich privilegesit offers at theirdoors?201

The "rich privileges" ofthe education offered inLawrence schools were intended tobe more moral thanintellectual. It is "obvious,"

should asserted superintendent HenryK. Oliver, "that heart-culture

culture."202 be paramount to brain-culture,moral culture to intellectual

Oliver warned of dire consequences,

unless the heart be so influencedin the tenderness of its young growth, that goodnessbecomes part of its nature,unless the mind be so trained in thepliancy of its formation, thathabits of right are ingrainedinto its very constitution, sothat. the evil that abounds inthe world and that gloats withtri- umphant riot over the ruinedhearth-stones of millions, will be resisted by the novices that aresuccessively assailed as they enter upon life'sduties.203

200 On private schools inLawrence see Nerrimac Courier,April 17,1847;: Lawrence Courier, October31, 1854; Lawrence Sentinel,June 26, 1850; April 13, 1861; LawrenceDaily Journal, November 14, 1861;Lawrence American,April 16, 1864; February 4,1865. 201 Lawrence. . .1864-65, 1865, p.22.

202 Ibid.,1857-58, p.48. 203 PALL1856-57, p.38. 145

of guarding the youngagainst Schools were the"most effectual means

them in childhoodand will environthem the many evilsthat surround life."204 Heart culture was especiallynecessary in all ofsubsequent growth" . .counteracting the in Lawrence;required were"influences. students.205 Without education of the "stupendousevils" surrounding crumble: "as surely asdarkness of the heart societyitself might surely doth the miseryof the in- succeeds to theabsence of sun, so

does the insecurityof society in dividual and ofsociety - so surely

absence of a righteducation of the every matter -follow from the

individual."2°6

of heart culturein the urban Because of thespecial importance

felt that primaryschools required environment ofLawrence schoolmen

usually given.The "firstinfluences" moreattention than they were "Primary thus, argued theschool committee, upon achild were crucial; future educationof the schools should have aninfluence over the

stand very highin the estimation children, thatshould cause them to the committee In Lawrence,unlike other cities, of the public. . . ." of the greatnessof the work continued, there was a"fuller recognition salary consequently "we paythe teachers the sime to be donein them," and schools."207 as theteachers in themiddle and grammar

2°41bid., 1856-57, p.59.

Maid., 1857-58, p.48.

206 Ibid.y'Pf59. pp.4647 and 63. 207Ibid., 1852-53, p. 16. Also,1856-57, 146

Purely intellectual education, claimedSuperintendent Oliver,

could be positively harmful if carried too far,and he was especially worried about the girls of Lawrence.He complained that their "mental

education" was carried to such an extreme that itbecame deblitating

and that their education for motherhood wasneglected. He lamented,

"we have no romping girls, no capering'tomboys,' with straight limbs,

active frames, and plump with robust health. but a dwindling race

of pale-faced, sallow-skinned, wasp-waisteddamsels. " Moreover,

girls were neglectinghe "trying matters of housewifery."Aside

from acquiring the skills of literacy and numeracy,girls, he contended,

should receive a thorough education in the"elementary" branches of

advanced subjects such as Moral, Intellectual and NaturalPhilosophy,

Physiology ("by all means"), Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy, Historyand

Algebra. But when girls left school at eighteen, theirstudies should

be completed by "Home and Mother," something"much and transcendently

important."2"

Although Lawrence schoolmenemphasized the importance of moral

education, they did not neglectthe intellectual, as their frequentand

careful revisions of the highschool curriculum revealed. In 1853

the committee extended theclassical course to four years, and inthe

late 1850's they revised thewhole curriculum. Throughout the state,

argued the superintendent, moresubjects than could be covered adequately

were being added to thecurriculum, which grew by a process ofaccretion;

298Ibid., 1856-57, pp.57-59. 146

Purely intellectual education, claimed Superintendent Oliver,

could be positively harmful if carried too far, andhe was especially worried about the girls of Lawrence. He complained that their "mental

education" was carried to such an extreme that itbecame deblitating

and that their education for motherhood wasneglected.He lamented,

"we have no romping girls, no capering 'tomboys,' withstraight limbs,

active frames, and plump with robusthealth. . .but a dwindling race

of pale-faced, sallow-skinned, wasp-waisteddamsels. . . ." Moreover,

girls were neglecting the '`trying matters ofhousewifery." Aside

from acquiring the skills of literacy and numeracy, girls, hecontended,

should receive a thorough education in the"elementary" branches of

advanced subjects such as Moral, Intellectual and NaturalPhilosophy,

Physiology ("by all means"), Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy,History and

Algebra. But when girls left school at eighteen, theirstudies should

be completed by "Home and Mother," something"much and transcendently

important."2"

Although Lawrence schoolmenemphasized the importance of moral

education, they did not neglectthe intellectual, as their frequentand

careful revisions of the highschool curriculum revealed. In 1853

the committee extended theclassical course to four years, and inthe

late 1850's they revised thewhole curriculum. Throughout the state,

argued the superintendent, moresubjects than could be coveredadequately

were being added tothe curriculum, which grew by a processof accretion;

298Ibid., 1856-57, pp.57-59. 147

the result was "superficiality" and "ostentation." Instead the correct way of altering the curriculum, and t1.2 one adopted in Lawrence, was to

rigorously prune from the course all subjects not essential and all

advanced topics more suitable for college. The result was a carefully

structured curriculum including, in the three year English course,

Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Modern Languages, Latin, English language

209 and Literature, and History. The four year classical course included

Greek as well. The committee also considered the grammar school

curriculum carefully. They tried to make the grammar school course

complete in itself, a thorough and good education for the many students

who would not go on to high school.Especially necessary, argued the

superintendent, were bookkeeping and drawing. These subjects were

so important for business that if they were notincluded in the public

school curriculum, students would have to go to private school in

210 Lawrence or Boston to learn them. The committee and superintendents

urged other innovations. as well. They stressed the importance of music 211 and at times hired a special music teacher. In the late 1850's and

early '60's they began to emphasize physical education and object

teaching and, in a few years, reported with satisfaction that these

212 subjects had entered the curricula of most of their schools.

209Imo., 1855-56, p.24; 1857-58, pp.25-27 and 73-75.

210Ibid. 1862-63, pp.12 and 58.

211Ibid., 1857-58, pp.31 and 33 and 1860-61, pp.20-21.

2121bid, 1857-58, p.38; 1859-60, pp.14-15; 1861-62, ".15; 1862-63,pp.14-16. 148

Voluntary associations attempted to meetparticular educational needs not satisfied by the publicschools. In 1861 a joint committee of all the religious denominations, exceptthe Catholics, established a Free Evening School tobe conducted by the City Missionary. The

school taught the rudiments of literacy,arithmetic and some bookkeeping,

and all the students were over fifteen yearsold. The extremely large

enrollment of the school, often well overthree hundred, testified both

to its popularity and to theeducational level of a significant portion

of the population. Like the public institutions, the eveningschool was

intended to have a moral as well as anintellectual function: "Many

elements of persons have. . .been stimulated and aided in acquiring the

reading and writing, or of other fundamentalbranches of education,"

claimed the superintendent, "and at the sametime have been secured from

the manifold temptations spreadbroadcast around them, during the long

evenings of the Winter months." According tothe school committee and

the City Missionary, the Free EveningSchool was a complete success.

The adult students who came voluntarily wereeagerto learn and gratifying

toteach.213Yet, noted one newspaper, Lawrence lackedprovision for

the factory operative who wanted toacquire a secondary education after workinghours.214But the newspaper's complaint apparently metwith

little response, and the gap in thecity's educational facilities

remained.

213Ibid., 1860-61, pp.21-22; 1862-63, p.25; 1863-64, pp.14-15.

214LawrenceDaily Journal, March 23, 1861. 149

land on In 1853 the Essex Companydonated ten choice acres of

In rapturous terms the a hill overlookingthe city as a public park.

Courier responded:

the midst In the rapid developmentof our young community, in yearly and daily of the material andmoral changes taking place amount [sic} us, itwill sinely [sic] hereafterbe interesting to find one spot atleast retaining most of itsoriginal features; base is one wordedFflic7 summit, which while all around its intrusion undergoing transformation,shall remain sacred from the of the spade andshovel, and whose trees solately waving over neglected farms, shall grow toadorn with their shade theabode of civilization and thearts.215

The response of theCourier symbolized the goal ofthe founders of

Lawrence: the preservation ofthe best features of anidealized rural

life in the midst of amanufacturing community. The primary mechanism

In education they for effecting this delicatebalance was education. proud of their invested heavily, and theleading citizens of Lawrence were

than once that it was among school system, Indeed, they argued more

proud; the very finest in thestate.216And they had cause to be

of grading, their school systemrepresented the most advanced system

teachers were hired with great care,curricular and pedagogical

excellence of their innovations were adopted. Yet in spite of the

schoolmen watched schools and the intensityof their efforts Lawrence accompanying the with dismay the developmentof typical' urban problems group growth of their city. Despite the best educational system a

215Lawrence Courier, November 1, 1855.

pp.42 and 54. 216Lawrence. . .1852-53, pp.23-24; 1856-57, 150

could devise, Lawrence was acity of informedMassachusetts citizens Lawrence offered characterized by discord,immorality and poverty.

trump card, insteadit Massachusetts educators achance to play their called their bluff.

reach-their.goals represents The failure of theschools of Lawrence to

failure echoed around the state. the failure ofurban school reform, a first, because thoseends were The schools failed toreach their ends, because of the style of impossible to fulfill.They failed, second, innovation represented educational development. Educational reform and schooling upon areluctant, un- the imposition bysocial leaders of Beverly, hostile citizenry. comprehending, skepticaland sometimes, as in and made difficult the Social and culturalantagonisms that delayed erased after new schools achievement of innovationcould not be simply representing the had been built. From on high theschool committees, cities, excoriated the social and financialleadership of towns and with a sense ofsuperiority, working class parents. They founded schools

and they forced it fastand not compassion. They forced education, to accustom itself to hard; no time wasallowed for the community

of school life. School novel institutions orideas about the length ends of the status committees hoped to servetheir own ends and the

ends involved the anxious parents thatsupported them; one of those and style unification of urbansociety. Ironically, their ideology

alienate the very peoplewhom could not have beenbetter designed to

closely knit social order. In they strove toaccomodate in a more 11

mid-nineteenth making the urban schooleducational promoters of the

between the school andthe working century fosteredthat estrangement of the greatest class community thathas persisted to become one

challenges to reformers of our owntime. Part Two. TBE USES OF PEDAGOGY Teachers and the Educational Process

Prologue: The Heresy of Cyrus Peirce

Cyrus Peirce vas one of the mostrespected educators in the state.

Horace Mann had been soimpressed by a visit to Nantucket,BighSchool that he had chosen its principal,Peirce, 101. head the first publicnormal school in

America, founded in1839. Peirce's struggles in the early days of thenormal school had been truly valiant, butoverwork had ruined his health. When he had to retire, praise was heard onall sides. By 1839 Cyrus Peirce was an elder statesman of the educationalrevival. Therefore, when that august body of reformers, The AmericanInstitute of Instruction, longchampions of normal schools, viciously attacked asheresy a mildly censorious speech by

Peirce, something was verywrong.1

By 1853 educators had developed anemotional commitment to an ideology

that awarded them the critical role inthe salvation ofmankind.2 Throughout

NOD

'Massachusetts Teacher vi, 10, October, 1853, pp. 310-312 and 320-322. FM' biographical details onPeirce (1790-1860) see Reverend Samuel J. May, "Memoir of Cyrus Peirce," The American journalof Education. iv, 2, December, 1857, pp. 275-308.

2By "ideology" Imean substantiallythe same thing as Merrill D. fttersen, who writes:. The term ideolo is given to that synthesis of ideas and repre- sentations esigned to state an ideal and to motivateaction. It, maybe true in some of its parts;but it is a gross over- simplification both of history and of the existingsituation, 153

and institu- Massachusetts the developmentof a theory of administrative

theory of the educational tional reform wasaccompanied by the growth of a

urban schools was the makingof an urban process. Joined to the making of

educatorS acquired a tremendouspersonal pedagogy. In this urban pedagory stake.

Schoolmen agreed thatMassachusetts shouldcontinue to strive for a prosperity based on large-scaleindustrial development.They also agreed

familial and social decay, that the growth ofcities and factories fostered and,counteract urbanism and they argued that educationshould both promote

of a system of administrative and manufacturing. High schools, one feature

accomplish both goals.Another and institutional reorganization,were to educa- means of reachingthe schoolmen's goals wasto try to transform the

transformation produced tional process. Schoolmen agreed. that economic To counteract social decay through itspernicious effects onpersonality. restraint as a trait of these effects they proposedthat the inculcation of

character become the goal ofthe educational process. Assumptions concerning

the effects of society onpersonality and the goalof the educational process

nature of that process were widely shared as wereassumptions concerning the

the methods through whichshared itself. However, a debate emerged over Both sides in the assumptions and goals shouldbe translated into practice.

not produce the restraint debate argued that the techniquesof the other would

the true recognition ofwhich would not be an accordwith the feelings and interestsof the men who advance the ideology. (The Jefferson Image in the AmericanMind, New York,1960,Galaxy Edition; and Utopia, first 196, p.134) On ideology .see alsoKarl 14innheim, Ideology publishecVlnEnglish, 1936, Harvest Booksedition,.10.S. 154

necessary to counteract the pernicious influenceof society upon personality.

In a sense, both sides were right, for there was anunresolved contradiction in the arguments of each.And the side that clearly won, the side whose arguments became elevated to the status of a dominant ideology, diffused a theory that reflected the ambivalence of schoolmen to society.They argued for counteracting social ills by producing the very personality qualities that, in effect, would augment the worst of them.

1. Society's "hot stimulus of action" and the Necessity of Restraint

The shared assumptions of schoolmen concerning the pernicious effects of society upon personality focused on the observation that urbanism promoted a reliance upon external stimuli rather than upon the dictates of an

inner sense of purpose and a personal set of ethical standards.America,

claimed an article in the Massachusetts Teacher, had a universal reputation

for "activity, practicality and material prosperity."The distinguishing

features of this prosperity were "a flourishing agriculture, and a commerce

of unrivalled growth" combined with remarkably rapid urbanization; "cities,"

that is, "were springing into life on every side."The steamboat, the rail-

road and the telegraph revolutionized communications while other inventions

made industry "every day more speedy and profitable." In surveying the

scene, the article claimed, "the national heart leaps and well nigh bursts

withexultation."3

. 3Massachusetts Teacher, xii, 9, September 1858, pp. 347-349. 155

for concern. The triumph ofthe But the nationalheart also had cause by the franticpursuit of material aspects ofcivilization was accompanied extravagence of thenewly rich. wealth and the ostentatiousand wasteful

article, revealed"a baneful love of Truly, Americansociety, claimed the motive- 1111- "one of the greatest display. This love of displayhad become of merit had become"dress, powers of Americansociety," and the criteria

"real or feignedpossessions." In an equipage . . .style of living," and had become the markof the increasingly affluentsociety ostentation

problem with ostentationwas that,"The spirit American.The heart of the to that which isoutward. Here lies of the people isalmost wholly directed age." Another writerechoed the same the essence of thematerialism of the Massachusetts hadfostered "energy, point: the adm4.rablematerial progress of it had alsopromoted "the activity andenterprise," but, unfortunately, the neglect of what wemost need - the noisy, the showy,and superificial, to morals."5 As the point of reference broad-based and deep-rootedin mind and

not the promptingsof conscience or for their actionsAmericans were taking, possessions and opinionsof others, of a internal standards,but, rather, the

venal andshallow society.

dangerous because theybred Materialism and shallownesswere inherently to an article the temptation to moreserious sin. Massachusetts, according

particular danger: in the Common SchoolJournal, was in

. toe. cit.

5Ibid., ii, 6, June, 1849, p.167. 156

temptation What we call civilisationand progress, have increased The race a thousandfold;--in this country, tenthousand fold. With for wealth; luxury, ambitionand pride, is open to all. our multipliedprivileges, have come not onlymultiplied obligations, which we may condemn,but multiplied dangers intowhich base and depraved we may fall. . .In this country, all that is in the human heart has suchfull liberty and wide compas6 s,and hot stimulus of action, ashas never been known before.

The problem was that everything waseasy. Sin was to be had without difficulty; so, too, unfortunately, were moneyand luxury. In the softness of affluence one point wasforgotten, and schoolmen waged a continual battle for its re-entryinto the public mind; that was, simply, "that nothing worthpossessing can be had withoutlabor,"7

Schoolmen applied theirdictum to education, as "Nothing istruly valuable in education thatdoes not cost real, steady,energetic ef-

fort to secure.aOne commentator attributed thefrequent success

in adult life of countryboys over city youths to theformer's tough

education. An instructional error,claimed the writer, had begun

"in the metropolitan schools,and" was "permeating all the insti-

tutions for instruction": namely, "'Too much direct help, toomuch

because it pampering.'"Pampering was pernicious, for one reason,

ripped the strength of theindividual and injured him in hisadult

life, where there would be"no friendly arm to lean upon, noculti-

vated determination to brace up,but a faltering incompetency that

ends in vain wishes and emptyresolutions." And how would"faltering

fare when confronted with incompetency. . .and empty resolutions"

8Common School Journal, xii, 15, August, 1850, p. 236.

7Massachusetts Teacher, ii, 7, July 1849, p. 213.

8Ibid.,xv, 8, August1862, p. 274. 157

resolute the city's "hot stimulusof action"?Needed was "a strong and well-balanced character," acharacter obtainable onlythrough "severe

discipline."9

Any term referring to an easy orsoft quality was pejorative,and

attitude of parents totheir such terms usedrepeatedly to describe the

too were metropolitanedu- children. Society as a whole was soft; so

cational methods; so, too, wasthe family. For instance-,educators'

punctual atten- exaortations regarding thenecessity of regular and

accompanied by terms dance of children atschool were almost always "Let referring to parentalmanagement as indulgentand permissive. settled every morn- 'Need I go to schooltoday?' be a question to be mother" ing, between a boysix years old, andhis indulgent, yielding

claimed a writer in theMassa- and perniciouseffects will follow, charactef of family chusettsTeacher.° The "indulgent", "yielding" If society was charac- life implied a clearduty for the schools. susceptibility to these temp- terized by softtemptations, and if finally, if theseattractions tations was reinforcedby the home, and, had to inter- were pernicioussnares, then,clearly, some institution dependency, to wean the vene. The role of theschool became to break of the child from the parent tothe real world: to perform aspects unable to carry out. socialization process whichparents had become

9Ibid., xvii, 2, February 1865, pp.46-47.

i, 6, March 15,1848, pp. 82-83. 158

"Children," analyzed one author, "are the center of observation, care and attendance of the whole family," as long as they are in the

"nursery or the sitting room."Here, they learned "to feel themselves as individuals."However, "adults" were "treated by society in an entirely different way." The world of the adult was one of

fixed laws and customs, wholly impersonal, often "one-sided and. . . unjust, annihilating individual liberty and dignity in a high degree."

The child, in this situation, had to make a. difficult transition:

The child atands between the two extremes and a transition from the one to the other, sudden or gradual, methodical or plan- less, will make a vast difference in the formation of the child's character.

To effect this transition, to induct the child from the family into the adult world, was the duty of the school: "The important duty to act as a medium falls upon the school in general, and upon the

Primary school in particular."11

A contributor to the Common School Journal claimed that the schools' assumption of socialization, including induction; resulted from the increased complexity of society.Moral and vocational education, claimed the writer, had beenpravioutytLe duty of the parent;

"But in the present state of society,"-he.continued, "a vast majority of parents are unable, wither on account of theirown deficient education, or from want of time, to attend, in person, to the dis-

charge of this duty."Schools were a result of this situation;

llIbid.,x, 3, March 1857, p. 103. Similarly, a writer in the Common School Journal, iii, 11, June 1, 1848, p. 168, claimed, "We must rub off the rust that sticks to us at home." 159

schools, that is, represented "an arrangement" entered intoby all the residents of a given area to "associate themselvestogether, and, in their joint capacity, employ a teacher, toperform for them in the education of their children, a duty which they cannotattend to, or can only dischargeimperfectly." That a teacher should be hired to educate children should not be a cause for concern; forthe employment of a teacher was an example of thedivision of labor characteristic of the times. "In the present complicated relations of society and of business," claimed the author, "most men.undertake to do more

than they can personallyaccomplish."12

The school's responsibility, in its expandedtasks, included

acculturation; the Boston school committee, for instance,described

their task as:

taking childremat random from a greatcity, undisciplined, uninstructed, often with inveterate forwardnessand obstinacy, and with the inherited stupidity of centuriesof ignorant ancestors; forming them from animalsinto intellectual beings, beings; giv- and. . .from intellectual beings into spiritual ing to many their first appreciationof what tif wise, what is true, what is lovely and what is pure. . ."

Education, then, was partly a breaking away fromthe home, an

eradication of pernicious or infantilequalties; but it was also a

substitution; and schoolmen agreed quiteprecisely on what was to be

replaced and on its replacement.

12Common School Journal, vii, 15, August 1, 1846, p. 226.

13Boaton. . .1857-1858, 1858, p. 50. 160

Schoolmen assumed thatthe unfavorableinfluence of society restraint upon personality wasto be counteredby the inculcation of a "lower" plea- based upon sublimation, asubstitution of "higher" for that sures.14 In 1858 the Boston schoolcommittee reminded parents

acquires a relish, "every pure and refinedpleasure for which a child one."15 To is to that extent, asafeguard against a low anddebasing of higher for assist the child in theattainment of the substitution Students were to lower pleasures was a keyfunction of the school.

sensual; this, learn to check firmly thepassionate and to avoid the moreover, was a realisticgoal for education:

Those whose minds andwhose hearts have beenproperly trained their passions. and disciplined byeducation, have control over Having cultivated a tastefor simple and innocentpleasures, rather than a love forvicious. excitement,their desires are awakened by objects higherthan any gratificationmerely anima1.16

the establishment In Beverly the sameargument was used to urge profitable source of rec- of a public library. It would afford "a amusements of an reation, and thereby"lessen "the temptation to "Nothing unworthy character ." Claimed the library promoters,

Francis 140nthe nature ofdesired character traits seealso: by Joseph Blau, Camb- Wayland, The Elementsof Moral Science, edited Miller Elson, ridge (John HarvardLibrary series) 1963 and Ruth Nineteenth Guardians of Tradition: American Schoolbooks of the Centurx, Lincoln, 1964. For a revealing andstriking comparison stressed in note the socialvalues prevalent in Britain as 1830-1870, New Haven, Walter E. Houghton, TheVictorian Frame of Mind 1957.

15Boston School Committee, pp. cit., p. 50.

16 Massachusetts Teacher, ii, 5, May 1849, p. 139. 161

can be more true,than that the best means fordestroying a taste for a lower pleasure, is by cultiva-Ang ataste for a higher. . ."17 The control of the passions coincidedwith another goal, necessary especially for social mobilitybut usually expressed in ratherdifferent

"Forming plans terms: namely, the ability to planfor the future:

"rise nearer for a distant future"individuals, one writer claimed, and nearer to a spiritualexistence.u18

had to teach The parents, hopefully,and the school, definitely,

The key this lesson; substitutefuture for immediate gratification.

No quality, in words became control,self-discipline and restraint. society and the fact, was more usefuland, indeed, necessary to both

the individual than self-restraint. Restraint it was that separated

child from the adult. Men, claimed one writer,"act from principle. . .

The restraints of society arefelt. They can see remote consequences.

quickened by the But children act fromthe impulses of their natures

objects around them.1119 Thus, restraint was thepersonality charac-

teristic central to education; onrestraint focused the workof the

17Quoted in Robert W. Lovett, "from Social Library toPublic Massachusetts," Library: A Century of LibraryDevelopment in Beverly, lxxxviii, July, 1952, The Essex InstituteHistorical Collection a. v. p. 231.

18Loc. cit.

19Massachusetts Teacher, i, 6, March 15,1848, pp. 81-83. See also, ibid., i, 11, June15, 1848, p. 171; i,16, August 1, 1848, 1849, p. 168; ii, 7, p. 243; ii,5, May 1849, p. 139; ii,.6, June, 9, July, 1849, p. 211; iv, 2,February, 1851, p.33; xiv, September 1861, p. 329. schools, and educators stressed, repeatedly, the associated virtues of "concentration" or "fixing the attention,""earnestness," "control," and "self-discipline."

On the surface a contradiction existed in educational thought.

For many schoolmen (as will be discussed shortly) emphasized the importance of the natural, of educational methods which accorded with nature. But restraint was designed to control natural impulse.

The conflict is only surface deep, however, because ofschoolmen's conception of the natural. "Every living thing below man, except those designed to share in his toils," claimed a writer in the

Common School Journal, "may be said to be perfectly educated by

Nature, or in accordance with the will of God;" and man was no exception; the realization of God's will was also the end a the education of man. But God's will was embodied in nature, and, thus,

"Nature is as truly the standard for him, as for the nightingale or

the honey-bee. . ." Herein was a problem. Would not the work of the teacher represent artificial tampering with the work of God:was not the man closest to the standard of nature theuncivilized, the uneducated? Schoolmen repudiated this implication of their theory.

The "State of nature" the writer in Common School Journal contemplated was "very different from. a state of brutal simplicity, without brutal innocence, a state that would paralyze every power possessed

by man,, except the lower agents of sensuality." The hero, the model

of the natural man, was not then the primitive, as the author's des-

cription of the Indian made clear: 163

forest is therude child of Nature,and the least In our western that even the dog, caressed of any of herchildren; he is so low, he has rarely companion, deterioratesin his society; his constant week; he sufficient to makehimself comfortablefor a single knowledge, but his sensesand the has no means ofincreasing his touches him, council-fires of hisfathers; when civilization he retreats ordies. . .20 it is with sorude a shock that

ideal was not thewild, but the Rude nature, then,needed man; the

and the divinityof man was rep- cultivated. Man improved nature; capacity for the masteryof the resented by hislatent but inherent

external world. Thus, con- untawad within bothhimself and the of man is a higherstate of cluded the author,the "natural state would require the civilization than hehas ever yetknown, a state that

condition." The stress use of allhis powers, intheir most perfect fear of the passionateand on controlimplied an oftenexplicit

Massachusetts Teacherexclaimed, without sensual. A writer in the racebe."21 And in counter-checks uponpassions, "what would our indication of theinner tension this fear of thepassionate lies one in the mid-nineteenthcentury. which permeatedMassachusetts society

the substitutionof pleasures The combinationof the emphasis on coupled with theprevailing con- and the inculcationof restraint of the passionateand the ception of naturereveals a deep fear attempt tosublimate, to re- sensual; this fearimplies a. conscious leading to socialand indi- channel energies awayfrom activities

fostering industrialproductivity, vidual failureand into those

1840, pp. 373-374. 20Common School Journal, ii,23, December 1,

21Massachusetts Teacher, iv, 2,February 1851, p.35. 164

If citizens needed an social cohesion andindividual mobility. had only to look atthe example of the failureof sublimation, they

Irish: well known, that the Did wealth consistin children, it is Irish would be a richpeople; and if the old Romanlaw pre- to every manwho vailed here, whichgranted special privileges elevated into an had more than three,this people would be aristocracy.22 aristocracy, and wealth As anyone could see,the Irish were not an Certainly did not consist inchildren. Was the oppositetrue? is implied by the ap- the effort to reducethe size of families

birth-control and abortion pearance ofadvertisements for alleged

producing pills in most newspapersof theperiod.23But birth con-

trol through artificial means wasnot a generallyaccepted notion,

limit even if thepills did work. Thus, if it were necessary to standard of living and family size in order tomaintain an adequate

remained, exceptrestraint? to provide forone's children, then what of people in the Historians have pointed outthe status anxieties

mid-nineteenth century, thefear of falling on thesocial scale.

22Common School Journal, ii, 4, February 15,1840, p. 49.

23Newspapers in this period carriedadvertisements for numerous The most widely alleged birth-control andabortion-producing pills. A typical advertised were Dr.Cheesmen's Female RegulatingPills. advertisement for these. read:

the results The combination ofingredients in these Pills are of a long and extensivepractice. They are mild in their op- painful eration and certain incorrecting all irregularities, from cold or menstruations, removingall obstructions, whether otherwise, headache, painin the side, palpitationof the heart, distrubed sleep, whichalways arise frominterruption of nature. These Pills They can be successfullyused as a preventive. would be sure to should never be takenin preganancy, as they

cause amiscarriage. . . 165

Already we have seen these fears reflected in the desirefor graded

schools, ones with a built in social security principle; nowthe

same anxiety is evident at theheart of the new urban pedagogy, in

the central goal of the educational process.

In asserting the virtues of self-restraint andthe pernicious

effects of the easy life, schoolmen visualizedthemselves counter-

acting the dominant tendencies of their time. The editor of the

Common School Journal warned, for instance, in1848, that "nothing

has yet been done to counteract what mustinevitably lead to the ruin

of our free institutions," and called for an increasedattention to

morality and virtue in theschools.24Commonly, authors juxtaposed

the characteristics of Massachusetts, the dominationof the workshop

and factory or "insane competition forgain," "base iniquity and

fraud," and the qualities and social characteristics thatschools

should produce; qualities such as respect forlearning perle, or

"equity andvirtue."25

In sum, then, the educators' immensetask was to supply indi-

viduals with a set of inner restraints:

Those external restraints of blind reverencefor authority, . and superstitious dread of religiousguides and firm penal On the relation between status anxietyand an explicit emphasis on sexual restraint see: D. E. C. Eversley, Social Theoriesof Fertility and the Malthusian Debate, Oxford, 1959, pp.89-162.

24Common School Journal, xiv, 6, March 15, 1852, p. 85.

25Massachusetts Teacher, xiv, 4, April 1861, pp. 121 -124 and ix, 3, March 1856, pp. 106-107. 166

codes, which once repressed thepassions of men and paralyzed all energy are now lifted off.If internal and moral restraints be not substituted for the externaland arbitrary ones that are removed, thepeople, instead of being conquerorsand sov- ereigns over their passions, willbe their victims andslaves.26

The emphasis on "internal" iscrucial. Educators wer- to change the point of reference for humanaction from the external opinions and possessions of others to anintrinsic regulator. The child, with the help of the school, was toexchange both the indulgence of his parents and thegratifications proferred by a vain, mai,- terialistic society for a set of intrinsiccontrols. One schoolman exhorted,"Instil the desire to be rather than toseem."27

"the true idea of education"

The assumptions of schoolmen concerningthe methods of instil-

ling restraint rested on a tri-partitedefinition of the educational

process. "A teacher once asked a boy,'What do you intend to be?'"

reported the Massachusetts Teacher; theboy "replied, 'I shall strive

to be a man.' This answer embodies the true ideaof education--

moral, physical, andintellectual."28 Massachusetts schoolmen gen-

erally would have agreed with thisconclusion; three kinds of edu-

cation, they claimed, existed, andeach, in the proper balance, was

essential to the well being of boththe individual and society.

In fact, the omission of any onekind could spell disaster. For

instance, purely physical educationwould produce men "of godly

of the brutes in appearance. . .only superior to the untamed hero

its erect posture." The pure intellectual would have"the power

evil," to grasp the universe. . .but his rule would be the despotism of

and the merely moral wouldbe a pathetic figure, "a beautiful but 167

intellectual humiliating negation ofitself." The physical and

angel in the bodyof a alone "would place thesoul of a fallen .might prolong the giant; while that ofthe moral andphysical. .

timidly in known andbeaten life of virtue,but only to keep it

combination, "the moraland intellectual paths." Finally, the last

itself out in theintensity of its effortto . .would soon wear

work wonders withoutthe propermechanism."29

The assumption The task of theeducator was clear,if immense.

for the "whole man" wasnot a that the schoolhas responsibility reform invading theschool; product of latenineteenth century social

flush of urbanizationand industrial- it grew, instead,in the first because even thenschoolmen ization in themid-nineteenth century,

the family andchurch had asserted explicitlythat the role of that the maintenanceof social altered and weakened,and they argued rested upon theschool's cohesion, even ofcivilized social life,

assumption of the processof socialization.

garden," wrote anauthor "The mind is astorehouse as well as a

This distinction wasthe epistemological in the CommonSchool Journal. active and passive, basis of educationaltheory. The mind was both

1850, p. 236. 26Common School Journal, xii,15, August 1,

1859, p. 350. 27Massachusetts Teacherxii, 9, September

281bid.,i, 13, July 1,1848, p. 192.

291bid.,ii, 2, February1850, p. 49. 168

and education had to serveboth aspects. One object of education,

perceptions; to enable it that is, was to"quicken" the mines "to store the mind to see effects incauses." Its other object was 30 the aspects of with useful information." The distinction between

the mind provided a wayof combining both theolder Lockean episte-

stressed the inborn, mology and the newer,Romantic theories, which

the dis- native powers of theindividual. Perhaps more important,

tinction had definiteimplications for teaching.

The "garden" aspect ofthe mind referred to itsinnate poten-

tialities; till the soilcarefully, implied the theory,and powers

faculties, would of thought, invention,reflection, in short, the husbanding; they grew grow to maturity. These required a careful

strong through practiceand activity, notthrough passive reception.

Memorizing facts did notaid their growth; instead,"principles must

n31 of principles would be investigated. Through the investigation

"to teach" the "pupil grow the powerof mind to its ultimategoal:

to think and tothink forhimself."32The emphasis was clearly on

penetration and mastery. Education was to "preparethe mind to grap-

tools in the ple with the difficultiesof life, just as we sharpen boy could mechanic arts,"33 and education had to insure that the

30Common School Journal, v, 1, January 1,1843, p. 7.

31Massachusetts Teacher, 1, 13, July 1, 1848, p.198.

32Ibid., ii, 6, February 1853, p. 142.

33Ibid., i, 13, July 1, 1848, p. 199. 169

principle," that he could digest knowledge and-proceed from "fact to

the prerequisite "generalize and deduce. . ." The active mind was

whose citizens'"habitual for the activeworld of Massachusetts, 000 the rote mental state" was one"of tension." In such an atmosphere "arena, for these re- learner would lose inthe "struggles of" the

ideas, which are therealities quire not 'words,words, words,' but

is, activity and perseverancein of things, andmental energy, that the powers of perseverance, the use ofthem."34The cultivation of necessary for morethan mastery andpenetration of appecrance were also for thespiritual. the business world;they were necessary natural laws embodiedin all For God communicatedwith man through

the universe; and,thus, it the manifold objectsand processes of but the divinity was notexternal reality itselfthat mattered most principle over fact, or law itrepresented. The power to penetrate, But, God's universe wasim- again became theobject of education. argued for a con- mense and itslessons countless;thus, schoolmen in which schooling ception of education as acontinuous process, one education for life: "To prepared the mind toacquire its continuing life, i3 the boastand have finished educationin any part of this

.process ofeducation is as en- complacency only offools. The. .

during asimmprtality."35

article in theMassachu- "The organs ofsense," according to an

of ideas, andthe mind is ablank, setts Teacher,"are mere vehicles

366-367. 34Common School Journal, i, 23,December 1, 1841, pp.

35Ibid., i, 5, January 1843, p.4. 170

knowledge are to beinscribed." The Lockean upon whichthe records of imporatnt, if subordinate, side of educationaltheory clearly implied an Indeed, the Boston place to the inculcationof useful knowledge.

its enlightenedpedagogy, English High School,which prided itself on

precisely, the entire U.S. Con- required all studentsto memorize, implication of this stitution. But, there wasanother important is, in a great measure, aspect of educationbecause "the infant mind as others may choose to passive, subject tojust such influences

of the child, thetime at impress upon it."36The early passivity faculties would be butseeds, which the masteringand penetrating The first left the child almostcruelly exposed toenvironment. associated, that is, social conditionswith which the child was adult. would have a tremendousimpact upon his character as an the infant mind" were Indeed, when the"primitive impressions upon "tenfold." "of an adversenature," the teacher'swork increased vastly greater than "The work of eradicatingnoxious weeds is often

harvest."37 The en- that of rearing anabundant and life-giving

vironment, then, was akey educator, and,perhaps, most educative

The child within the environment wereindividual human models. the adult models in learned by imitatingadults, and a glance at One writer referred to Massachusetts made someeducators shudder.

and other vices andanswered the growth ofcities, luxury, drinking depravity" with the complaints about thegrowth of "juvenile

36Massachusetts Teacher, i, 8, April 15,1848, p. 120.

3722tsit., pp. 120-121. 171

rejoinder, "Compare these thingstogether, and then say whether men 4.1 can any longertalk of Juvenile depravity, withoutblushing to blistering."38 Anotherway in whichpernicious models were set before children was exemplifiedby the habit "among thehigher and wealthier classes of society,"of having nhildren,"particularly

during the earliest portionof their existence," underthe care of

"domestics who, not infrequently, areignorant, supersititious, and

the importance of models depraved." For the teacher, the stress on

. .before the meant the necessityof placingthn elevated standard,

The teacher had to create amodel environ- mind of the pupil. . ."39

ment in which he,himself, exemplified thebehavior of the paragon

as well as theskills of the pedagogue.

qualities of mind, The tension between theactive and the passive

What were innate the innate and theblank, is not a contradiction.

for in- werecapabilities and dispositions: The ability to think,

stance, and thetendency to be moral. Not innate were facts, con- supply crete conceptions. The ideal became todevelop the innate and gardening was widely used to the facts. Although the conception of

express the former,this metaphor was notemployed consistently. people who Another common conception, onesometimes used by the same

The teacher, that is, also spoke of gardening, wasshaping or molding.

molded the plastic mindof the child as the Lawrenceschool committee

38Common School Journal, x, 24, December15, 1858, p. 371.

39Massachusetts Teacher, i, 8, April 15, 1848, p.121. 172

minds of the little oneswho attend wrote, "Howpliable are the young faithful teacher; truly they these schools in thehands of a kind and

They can be formed andmoulded are 'asclay' in the hands of the potter. The conceptionsbehira at the pleasureof the affectionateteacher."4° literature of pedagogy molding and gardeningcertainly differ, but the different ideas leaves the impressionthat they were not used to convey the idea of in- of mind, but, rather,quite-loosely employed to convey

nate potential atthe mercy of a powerfulteacher.

"Moral education," wrote aprize winning essayist inthe Massa-

chusetts Teacher, "is the greatwant of the age." The author's com-

echoed in plaint in 1856 wasforeshadowed in the early forties and

far more successful inreach- the sixties. Schoolmen felt themselves The education of ing the intellect thanin touching the heart. the times con- children in morality wasespecially difficult since

spired against theschools:

intellectual The close application tobusiness, the incessant to check activity which mark/sic/ the times, have a tendency while the arts and .the flow of affectand harden the heart, trade and politics commerce, thefashion and etiquette, the of a refined civilization,foster a voluptuousmaterialism that would revel inostentation and luxury.

home, school and church The assignment offinal influence between widespread was not entirelyclear in Is period, but there was undertake the bulk of moral agreement that theschool would have to

education since this task wasbeyond the competence ofthe two Other

See also, e. Massa- °Lawrence. . .1861-62, 1862, pp. 19-20. chusetts Teacher,17777ibruary 1851, p. 119as an example:

daily shaping that whichshall "Fellow Teacher. . .your hands are bear your impress forever. . ." 173

learning institutions. But how? Here, again, the emphasis was on through models and thegrasping of the truth underlyingappearances.

morality through "lecturing The student, thatis, would not learn

.and by improving favorable on ethics,but by an uprightexample. . opportunities for the practicalinculcation of moraltruth."1

However, if uprightexamples and favorableopportunities failed,

methods to insure there was no hesitationabout using more forceable

of Commonwealth v. desirable behavior. Take, for instance, the case disobedient S. M. Cook. The teacher, Cook,had beaten an insolent and of assault. boy, one Lewis Winchell,whose father entered charges

in loco parentis,had The judge emphasizedthat the teacher, standing did in the every powerof .correction in theschool that the parent

. .and home. The duty of both was to"maintain good government. Besides, the law secure propersubordination in all. . .members." punishment, pointed outthe explicitly sanctioned resortto corporal maintain the magistrate, when physicalforce became necessary to

teacher's authority and preservethe order of theschool.

only permitted butmade In fact, continuedthe judge, the law not liable corporal punishment an"imperative duty."The schoolmaster was under violence of only if he had actedfrom "vindictive feelings, or

had not been the case. passion or malevolence."But this, clearly, language which might have "The boy, Lewis Winchell,"noted the judge in well as to an act against been applied to a crimeagainst the State as

a teacher:

"Massachusetts Teacher, ix, 3, February 1856, pp.105-107. 174

and through the assumed at the outset anattitude of defiance; against the authorityof whole manifested aspirit of rebellion of resistence, andthe the master, by openand violent acts most insolentand profane language. civil and socialorder at a time One duty of theschool was to insure Schoolmen preferredinner when both wereincreasingly in jeopardy. pernicious environmentbred controls, but whenindulgent parents and a of social chaos andthe de- unquenchable defiance,then the real fear pedagogical theory cameforth in termination to insureorder behind combined,power of the stateand teacher an unflinchingassertion of the 42 over theindividual child andhis parent.

intellectual totalitarian- Moral education was,really, a kind of Rather, the schools wereto trans- ism. Relativism wasinconceivable. experience, if not,by force, a pre- mit, hopefullyby example and Moral education was defined set of ideas,behaviors and standards. rationality of man andthe universe. based on theassumption of the

natural law, thedivinity, behind If children couldonly see the and consent to theregulations of appearance,they would understand Massachusetts schoolmendrew a adult society. Nineteenth century Individualism in the sharp line betweenindividualism and deviance. method and goaI, waslaud- pursuit of the"good", in terms of both and socially dangerous. able; deviance ineither respect was suspect /111

1849, pp. 257-262. 42The case is reported inibid., ii, 9, September lesiErto be inculcated byschools see also: On the nature ofthe moral the similaritybetween the Elson, op.cit.,passim., which reveals preachiiiiichoOTEEand the contentof textbooks.

,WW-40Pa,A,WSIT:01...... ;;;,;Arw"TAM7W0WWWW,gow. 175

The final ingredient in educationshOuld not be neglected.

Horace Mann's many reports onimproved methods of school construction stemmed from an enlightenedappreciation of the importance of the

introduction of formal physical. Interestingly, the arguments fox the physical education into schools inthis period became associatedwith schoolmen's perception of the consequencesof urbanization. "Under

the present conditions ofcity life at home and at school," wrotethe

Boston superintendent ofschools in 1860, "a child stands a poor

chance to enter upon the careerof life having a good physical sys-

he tem, a body healthy, strong,well formed, and of good size," and

contrasted the success of therelatively uneducated country-boy in

the "race of life" overhis highly educated city-bredcompetitor.°

When schoolmen wrote of theunending nature of education andthe

intrinsic pleasures oflearning, they came close to definingthe

goals of education in terms ofthe joy and delight it brought tothe

individual. But they always stopped shortof this point and turned

to extrinsic goals. In the last analysis, that is,their own per-

ception of social need posedthe schoolmen's objectives. Here, then,

In the first we see thateducation was an imposition inthree senses.

place, as the previous partof this study has shown,educational re-

form was an impositionby the prominent upon the community. Second,

the goals of that reformrepresented the imposition of upperand

middle claws fears andtheir perception of socialdeficiencies.

43Boston. . .1859-1860, 1860, pp. 56-57. Third, the content of a reformed education representedan imposition of the values of communal leadersupon the rest of society. There was little of the humanitarian in educational reform;it was mainly indoctrination, an attempt by proMoters to re-makethe rest ofmankind in their own image. It would bewrong, however, to criticize

reformers for not accepting now current notions of culturalrela- tivity, for this is a modern concept. Reformers did not shareour own haunting doubts about forcing middle class valueson the working class; they were confident that theirown values were right.

III. "a new motive to moral excellence"vs. "emulation"

Schoolmen agreed on the overall nature of theeducational process; they even agreed on the ends of schoOling. On the matter of means, however, there was disagreement. No one dissented fromthe glorification of hard work and the repudiationof softness; buta debate emerged on methodology and curriculum. Ranged on one side were educators who advocated educational innovationstermed soft and debilitating by their opponents. The soft-line educators,as the innovators will be termed, accused the proponentsof the hard-line,as

their antagonists will becalled, of cateringto the very motives

that had hastened the decay of society. In both cases, chargeswere leveled at the social implications of motivationaltechniques; in both cases those implications were thoughtto hasten the further disintegration of publicand private morality. 3.77

Rote recitation based on the diligentadherence to a text- book, claimed a writer, gives "the scholar adistaste for the study."

Instead, he claimed, "the child should be interestedin what he

44 studies." Likewise, in answer to the all importantquestion,

"How shall the teacher form in his scholars,habits of industry and perseverance?" another commentator replied,"by exciting their curiosity."45Here was the essence of the ideology ofthe soft-line educators; they would reform instruction toaccord with interests of pupils; they would develop instudents the necessary intrinsic self controls through leading them tointernalize a love for knowledge. Thus, according to one description,the model teacher:

should connect with his instructions, asfar as possible, what is interesting and attractive; sothat the associations, formed in the ulnds of his pupils,will leave them in love with the subject of investigation, and, in propertI91, bring them back to the pursuit withreadiness and alacrity.'

But, interest was not to beequated with ease; there was here a

fine distinction, and the teacher"should be careful, that awakened

curiosity be not gratified too soon,by unnecessary and super-

abundant aid, leaving no motive and noopportunity for effort, on

the part of his pupils."On the other hand, interestshould not be

allowed to suffocate beneath acloak of "appalling difficulties."

Ideal teaching, then, was to strike abalance. The teacher "should

44Common School Journal, ii, 4, February 15, 1840, p. 63.

45Massachusetts Teacher, i, 9, May 1, 1848, p. 135.

"Ibid., i, 1, January 1, 1848, p. 7. 178

intermingle with text-book instruction a dueproportion,of familiar lecturing; enough of the one with the other toguard against the pernicious effects of excess ineither." "The pupil," concluded the author, "must be made to work; but he mustwork voluntarily, cheer-

fully, withhope."47

"The matter of object teaching," reported apleased writer in

1860, "is rapidly growing in favor withleading educators.

Object teaching was a favorite innovation amongthe soft-line edu-

cators. In childhood, knowledge, theyclaimed, is acquired "through

the senses," and to disrf-,- the senses, therefore, "is to violate

the first .principles of correctteaching." With both children and

adults, moreover, comprehension and appeal areusually correlated,

and "the study of objects under a skillfulteacher, is sure to se-

cure the attentionand interest of thechild."48 Object teaching,

then, was a desirable innovation becauseit met the new criterion of

appealing tochildren.49

Schooling, some writers advanced, shouldbe concerned with the

real world; and proponelas of this point ofview were definitely in

the camp of the soft-lineeducators. The arguments for curriculum

reform were concerned with two issues; one was the introductionof

drawing and bookkeeping, second was a lessenedemphasis upon the

47Loc. cit.

"Massachusetts Teacher, xiii, 11, November 1860, p. 416.

49Fora discussion of objectteaching see: Charles J. Brauner, American Educational Theory, Englewood Cliffs, 1960, pp.36-48. 179

classics and a 'correspondinglygreater increase on thesciences.

The connectionbetween curriculum innovationand the soft-line the response educators was recognized,according to one writer, by

The attempts, to attempts tointroduce drawing into theschools. the idle and he wrote, had been"pretty generally. . .condemned, as unprofitable resort of thosewho are prone to makecaricatures of

with close application visible objects, ratherthan puzzle their heads

and hard study.1150

The advocate of drawing,however, dismissed theimplication

thereby, violating the that he was equatinginterest and ease, and, demonstrate dogma of the virtuesof effort. Instead, he attempted to professionals, archi- the practical utilityof drawing to engineers, pecuniary point ofview," tects, machinistsand mechanics; "in a highly beneficial to he concluded,"skill in drawing must prove

almost every class ofthe community."No educator, of course,

could justify a subject onmerely utilitarian,especially fiscal, criterion as sole ar- grounds, since the acceptanceof the financial capitulation biter of the content ofthe curriculum wouldrepresent a

indeed, a reinforcementof the to the worstqualities of the times,

Thus, very tendencies that schools were tooffset. in busi- independently of itt2 utility ascontributing to success effect is by no meansunimpor- ness, itsrefining and elevating depict the beautiesof nature and tant. He who has learned to keenly relishes those art, more highlyappreciates, and wore 111.k /111.1.1.1111111MB

WMassachusetts Teacher, i, 8, April15, 1848, pp.113-115. 180

beauties; and hence has within himself anadditional source of innocent enjoyment, and a new motive tomoralexcellence.51

Drawing facilitated the substitutionof pleasures; sublimation and

business success united conveniently in aparticular curriculum re-

form.

An even stronger statement was providedby an advocate of book-

keeping, who contended "that muchof our instruction is unpractical;

it does not assimilate easilywith the wants of future life." To

I Irender education practical. to select practical studies;and not

only that, but to" give "them all apractical turn" was his goal. The

failure of students to acquire anacquaintance with the practical

branches of mathematics, argued thewriter, caused considerable in-

convenience, and, he continued,it was "far better" for students to

learn relatively simple, butpractical numerical operations in school

than "amid the cares and necessitiesof business, when perhaps a

'firm' may be obliged to go intobankruptcy in consequence of a few

luckless mistakes and omissions."Yet, even the extreme practicalist

could not omit his obeisance to thesacred aspects of educational

theory:

such things are not to be learned atthe expense of a sound and thorough discipline; by no means. That is the great end of all intellectual trainin$. For this we must ever relymainly upon the severerbranches.2

51Loc. cit.

521bid.,v, 6, June 1862, pp.168-174.

O. reeKe...1=rot 181

argued that subjects Some advocates ofinnovation, however,

branches" combined mentaldis- other than thetraditional "severer An instance of thissort cipline with otherdesirable qualities. Principal of BostonEnglish of argumentwasaspeechof Thomas Sherwin, "The Relative Importance High School, in an1856 debate concerning

Studies in an AmericanSys- of Ancient Classicaland of Scientific admitting that classical tem of Education."Sherwin commenced by somewhat disarmingly study had manybenefits. His criterion, he definition. admitted, was utilitarianism,according to his own best sense," was, Utilitarianism, or usefulness,"in its largest and

object of life, andhe regarded him he claimed,"one great end and to the physical,intellec- as the greatest-manwho contributes most fult, the sciences tual, and moral goodof humanity." Here, Sherwin

and, as evidence,he cited were clearlysuperior to the classics, possible by advancesin pure social and industrialimprovements made his case onutilitarianism, and applied science. Not content to rest classicists and Sherwin turned tothe traditionaldefense of the of science mayboldly asserted, "As a mentaldiscipline, the study classics." And he meantthe challenge comparisonwith that of the 53 applied as well as the puresciences.

affinity with thesoft-line Finally, Sherwinrevealed his real

it awakens," heclaimed, "is another educators. "The interest which boys, who, benefit of the studyof the sciences." He knew many

For biographical 53Ibid., ix, 9. September 1856, pp.398-403. "Thomas Sherwin," information on Sherwin see: John D. Philbrick, Education i, 4, March,1881, pp. 388-392. 182

"disgusted with the dry details of Latinand Greek Grammar," had

become disciplinary problems inschool; but when these same boys

were introduced toscience, "they had no time forulschief."The

interest aroused by scienceteaching was an intensified form ofthat

aroused by object teaching, since "new truths" were "constantly pre-

senting taemselves and the pathwayof the learner" was "strewn with

objects, each of which invitesand fixes his attention."The arousal

interest, admitted Sherwin, is notalways a measure of worthiness;

"yet when the highest degree ofutility and the loftiest mental efforts

present also a strongattraction to the learner, thisattraction is

a recommendation."To clinch his argumentSherwin contended, "Except

to a few peculiarlyconstituted minds" it is doubtfulif the appeal

of the classics can ever equalthe attraction of the sciences. In

other words, the sciences, atthe least, were not inferior to the

classics in terms of eitherdiscipline or utility; thus, all things

being equal, it was legitimate toemploy interest as the criterion

for judging between the relativemerits of the two. This criterion

accepted, the sciences clearly wonthe dominant place in the ,_urric-

ulum.54

Advocates of pedagogical reformgradually succeeded in spreading

their notions to the schools. School reports, especially in the

sixties, reveal that innovations wereentering the schools, that

in some instances the processof education was changing. In

54Loc. cit.

11111.11)1111WIMPOO 183

instruction Lawrence, as wehave seen, objectteaching, physical

In Beverly the samethree in- and music enteredthe curriculum. sponsored by the school cam- novations wereall initiated and

curriculum wasliberalized in a way mitee. Even the high school Latin became optionaland that would havemade Sherwin happy. entered thecurriculum bookkeeping, botany,geology and chemistry

schools, claimedthe committee, as electives. The ideal of their

was asound mind in a soundbody.55

reflected in Beverly. Another importanteducational issue was master in the Grammar Dis- On March 26,1827, the grammarschool

the schoolcommittee of his trict, RufusPutnam, Jr., advised "government" which of- dissatisfaction with asystem of school

.effort, and toclose ap- fered as inducements"to a proper. . in school, orthe fear plication" only "thehope of distinction of eminence inthe of censure andpunishment."The attainment scholars, who caredonly for future, moreover,hardly moved young The problemswith "some immediate, ornot verydistant reward." "to cramp themental punishment weretwofold: it had a tendency their whole energies and preventthe facultiesfrom exerting it could controlonly strength in a propermanner," and, second,

What was needed,claimed Putnam, a fewpupils at any onetime.

and intro- .1803-64, 1864, pp.6-8 on the virtues 55See Beverly. . 6-7 on objectteaching; duction of physicaleducation; 1864-65 pp. clearly show thatthe ideas and 1865-66 p. 7, onmusic. These passages seeped down toBeverly. advocated on the statelevel had finally 184

was a system of school management avoiding corporal punishment and offering immediate rewards. To meet the criteria Putnam recommended the appropriation of a small sum of money to be divided weekly among students, according to a system of merits and demerits.56

Although no record exists, it is doubtful that Putnam's suggestion was adopted, because one of the leading school committeemen was William Thorndike, a wealthy merchant who advocated a theory of motivation very different and more in line with the contentions of soft-line educators throughout the state. Thorndike, too, looked to a system of school government avoiding physical punishment and providing immediate gratifications. But he argued that the praise and affection of the teacher were, themselves, rewards of the highest order as were the internal pleasures that came from both learning and a job well done. In fact, according to one town historian, Thorndike's influence was instrumental in persuading the tom schools to discard emulation, which previously had been used as the principle of motivation. In a report on discipline Thorndike stressed that his goal was:

to secure the attention of the scholars to the duties required of them, by engaging their affections, and offering as a reward for faithfulness, not the record of their good deeds, or the tempting allurements of gifts, but the smiles of a kind and endeared instructor, and the satisfaction of an approving conscience,--feeling anxious that proper motives should stimulate the mind and swell the heart, than those which proceed

56Letter from Rufus Putnamto Beverly School Committee, March 26, 1827, manuscript, Rantoul papers, Beverly Historical Society. 185

from the promise of pecuniary rewards, or the display of ac- quisitions, the only value of Which is their secret influence, and the tone they give to character andprinciple.57

Thorndike was echoing the contentions of the soft-line educators who attacked currently practiced techniques of motivation Like

Thorndike, the soft-line educators directed part of their assault

at the appeal to emulation as a motive for learning.An example is

one educator's criticism of the practice of the Boston grammarschools,

which awarded medals and premiums to the most successful scholars.

Awarding premiums for achievement, wrote this schoolman, was pernicious;

students "with a premium before their eyes" were "tempted to study

for. . .effect. . .rather than for a deep, thorough acquaintance with

the subject; to appear, well, rather than to do well."Premiums,

continued the author, provided an "artificial stimulus" which rein-

forced the very social tendencies which schools existed to eradicate.

His "chief objection" to premiums, emphasized the writer, wasthat

they fostered "emulation"and.tended "powerfully to excite and foster

a class of passions and feelings which arealready. too active, and

are producing much unhappiness in theworld." Emulation, in short,

was:

57Quoted in Edwin Stone, A History of Beverly, Civil and Eddie- siastical,from its Settlement in 1630 to 1842, Boston, 1843, pp.150- 154. There is no evidence of a direct confrontation of Stone and Putnam, but given the divergence in their views and theiractivity in the same period, it is not unlikely that the issue ofemulation was discussed by the school committee. There is, likewise, no evidence to support or contradict Stone's assertion that theschools discarded emulation. By this he may have meant that teachers ceased to give tangible rewards for good behavior and outstanding achievement. 186

the commencement of that competition,--thatperpetual scrambling for the loaves and fishes,--that feverishaspiration for office and place,--which we see inafter=life going on all around uo, and which makes the eye of enligthenedhumanity weep.

Emulation, moreover, was, according todefinition, ll'a desire to

excel for the sake of the gratificationof being superior to others.'"

In this sense, emulationreinforced the shallow, materialistic and

ostentatious aspects of society; it preventedthe schools from

instilling within students an intrinsic setof controls and stan-

dards. At the same time, it appealed to thedesire for gratifi-

cation, and gratification is a passion. Thus, in reinforcing a pas-

sion, that is,. the sensual,emulation counteracted the school's

attempts to substitute non-sensualfor physical pleasures; it de-

feated the work of sublimation, which schoolmen stroveto foster.

"Let us," condluded the writer, "at an earlyperiod, begin to treat

children as intellectual and moral beings,susceptible of influence

to considerations of a pureand noblenature."58If man could only be

touched through emulation, then he was, in reality, nobetter than

an animal. If man could only be touched through emulation,then the

whole carefully constructed rationale forhis own existence would

tumble down about the teachert0 head, andteachers, it will be pointed

out shortly, had more than anintellectual stake in the ideology of

educational reform.

Who, then, supported emulation? Who were the hard-line edu-

cators? The answer is not entirely clear, but various sources connect

58Common School Journal, xv, August 1, 1844, pp. 242-243.

AMIMINMISMIIIII.KNIZMWO.111111PRIPIR 187

reform and otherinnovations opposition to objectteaching, curriculum

Board of Educationand its secre- with sectarianopposition to the to a headwhen thirty- taries. In 1844, infact, opposition came Boston violentlyattacked theseventh one grammarschool masters of at least,the lines annual report ofHorace Mann. In this struggle, dimension becamethe focus of wereclearly drawn;and the hard-soft school masters HoraceMann and his the controversy. To the grammar whose attemptedinnovations supporters weredangerous radicals, social and or otherwise,at undermining weredirected, consciously unravelling the moralfibre familial stability aswell as further

of Massachusettschildren.

instruction of ourpublic schools. . "The object ofthe elementary of knowledge,"claimed the is, not alone toimpart a certain amount and "but to give training. to discipline grammarschool masters, them, as far asis possiblefor strengthen theirminds, and prepare be requiredof them in thedis- that independentaction, which will The grammar schoolmasters, thatis, charge of theduties of life." citizenry guidedby intrinsic sten- also wanted anessentially strong of theirobjective, was,they dards. Their enemy,in the attainment innovating followers. The masters asserted, HoraceMann and his appeal to theinterest of thelearner centered theirattack on Mann's this sort One critiqueof reliance on as amotivational technique. masters' objectionsto object- of motivation wasconnected with the of stressed, in hisseventh report,the virtues teaching. Mann had schools. The mastersreplied: object - teaching aspracticed in Prussian 188

That the method pursued by the Prussian instructor, is calculated to interest the mind o.,1 the pupil, we would notdeny; for the variety of information and illustration must,without fail, gratify his curiosity, and for the time arresthis attention; but it will in no degree induce that habitof patient and constant attention to a subject, towhich we have before alluded. On the other hand, the variety of information presented, and the novelty of illustration, wouldtend rather to dissipate, than to strengthen the habit of calm anddeliberate attention to a single subject.And the mind of the pupil, instead of forming the habit of independent andindividual

effort. . .would become accustomed to act only through the force of that excitement which is supplied by theteacher.

The essence of the masters' criticism wan that the pupilsbecame dependent upon an outside stimulus; they became"accustomed to depend, for their motive to mental effort, upon thatexcitement alone which is furnished by their teacher." Object teaching fostered an accentuation of child-like dependency and its corollary,the lack of internalized motivation. Both of these were conditions that the school, to both hard and soft-line educators, was to overcome. The appeal to interest, expressed in object teaching,had disastrous social implications:

And we most earnestly pray that ourcountry,--whose citizens are already, to a great extent,destitute of habits of independent thought and deliberate action, and toomuch accustomed to think and act through theforced excitement of motives that may be, and often are,supplied by wicked and designing men,- - may be kept forever safefrom a system of public instrmtion which we think calculated to augment so great anevil.'

59(Boston, Association of Masters of the Public Schools) Remarks on the Seventh Annual Reportof the Honorable Horace Mann, Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Boston,1844, pp. 45-47. The Masters were firm in their rejection ofbasing motivation on the interest of the child. "Nothing," they declared, had yielded more "mischief," and had been more"subversive of real happiness, than mistaking what may afford the child presentgratification, for that which secures for him lasting good." This had been precisely the mistake of Horace Mann, who would "have theteacher first amuse the child, so as to gain his good-will at any expense,and would, 189

The masters also attacked other educationalinnovations: the

Normal Schools; the method of teachingreading now known as "look-say"; the criticism of corporal punishmentand the disparagement of emulation.

In their attack on the denigratorsof emulation the real concerns ofthe masters began to emerge. Emulation was an important point because it was related to theproblem of authority, perhaps the issue atthe heart of the masters! worries. The masters considered themselves realists in contrast to the soft-lineeducators; and they urged the "great importance" of "taking human nature as itreally exists." Their view of human nature was essentially Calvinistic. The Emersonian emphasis on the inherent goodness of man, whichthe mapzers rightly claimed was reflected in the theories of Mann and hisfollowers, was, to these experienced schoolmen, a naive exampleof wishful thinking. Perhaps

unfortunately, but, nevertheless, undeniably,emulation was, a basic

human instinct. Therefore, a judicious appeal toemulation was a

necessary componentof educational practice, sinceteachers had to take

into account all of man's motivesand instincts. "Since nature has

then, have him attend to duty as asecondary matter."Mann's course of assigning priority to thepleasure of the child threatened"the welfare, both of the individualand society, by sending forth a sickly race, palsied in everylimb, through idleness, and togratify a morbid thirstfor pleasure."As for Mann's attempts to encourage the teaching of readingthrough what has become known asthe "look- say" method, it was an instance of hiswhole approach, "a misguided effort to make that pleasant, which, to someextent at least, mustbe disagreeable; to make that easy,which, from the nature of the case, is beset with unavoidabledifficulties." Ibid., pp. 84-87. admitted its existence," wrote the Reverend Leonard Withington of emulation, in a passage approvingly quoted by the masters, "we are to

allow it. . . .Within bounds. . .emulation may fire the genius. . .with- 60 .04t inflaming the passions or corruptingthe heart." With few statementscould the soft-line educators disagree more.

The errors of the soft-line educators, claimed the masters, led them not only to overlook a basic facet of human nature but also to neglect the very foundations of school discipline. "But upon what shall school discipline be based?" asked the masters. "We answerunhesitatingly, 61 upon authority as a starting-point." It is scarcely too much to say

that nothing was more important for the masters than submission to authority, and their protestations concerning the necessity of author-

ity indicate their sense of the fundamental alteration occuring within

the power structure of society. The masters reminded their readers that

even in a democracy authority was necessary,"He who would command even, must first learn to obey. Indeed, when authority was the issue, the masters were unequivocal that:

implicit obedience to rightful authority must be inculcated and enforced upon children as the very germ of all good order in future society, no one, who thinks soundly and follows out principles to their necessary results, will presume to deny. Yet, it is quite offensive now-a-days to ears polite, to talk of authority, and command, and injunction. We must persuade, and invite, and win. Respect for law is hardly sufficient to insure

6°Ibid., pp.126-127.

61Loc.cit. 191

the infliction of its severe penalties. Thus the zestraining influence of fear is ineffectual where mostneeded. Penalties, being too much dreaded by the innocent, are, forthat very reason, too little dreaded by the guilty; who soonlearn to avail themselves of the protecting shield that overstrained mercy castsbefore them.

The age was soft; it was an age,"remarkable for the ascendancy of sympathy over the sterner virtues.Kindness, powerful, overwhelming in its proper sphere, has assumed afalse position." Nevertheless, reminded the masters sternly,kindness was secondary; "Kindness cannot 62 supply the place of authority, nor gratitude that ofsubmission."

The masters, in fact, were caught in acontradiction. They called; on the one hand, forindividuals with internalized standards; persons whose actions adhered to an inner sense ofright, not the dictates of society. Yet, on the other hand, they emphasizedauthority, and preached obedience to an external authority; it was, moreover,an unquestioning obedience for which they asked.From whatever portion of the "great chain" of authority emanated acommand, the "bounaen duty of all" was not to,"demand to knowthe reason of the command, as a necessary condition ofobedience, but simply" to ask "if it be really the voice of rightful authority that speaks."Likewise, claimed the masters, "True obedience is a hearty responseto acknowledged authority.

It does not voluntarily comply with a request,but implicitly yields to acommand."63The ideal of the masters was not the society that was

62 Loc. cit.

"Ibid., pp.128-129. emerging; but an older, perhaps idealized order, in which roles and relationships were fixed; in which the "great daain" of authority was well-defined.

On the basis of their assumption of the importance of authority,

the masters had due cause for worry. "Authority. . is clearly the starting-point of all government; the corner-stone of all order.Remove it, and the reign of anarchy and chaos instantly succeeds."And to remove it is, precisely, what Horace Mann and his associates were trying to accomplish. The person who permitted any deviation from "docility" or "obedience" was a "disorganizer weakening and dissolving the primal bond of civil society; and sapping the foundations of social order."64And this is what the theories of Mann intended; these theories claimed to follow nature, but their romanticized view really meant capitualtion to "mere inclination," and children were taught:

to lean upon the experience of others, to notice merely the superficial relations of things, and to trust for knowledge to the easy process of cursory observation. Now this propensity to observe without analysis, nature provides for without ey aritificial aid. Indeed, it predominates in children and savages.

And is this where Massachusetts was heading?Toward a society of children and savages?

64 (Boston, Association of Masters of the Public Schools) Rejoinder to the "Reply" of the Hon. Horace Mann. . .to the "Remarks" of the

Association of Boston Masters. . . .,Boston,1845, fourth part(Joseph Hale), p.60.

65 Remarks.,.2p.134. 193

"Education," claimed the Reverend LeonardWithington, a supporter of the Masters, "has often beentampered with by vain theorists."

Indeed, a strong, explicit dislike oftheory permeates the diabtribes of the Masters; in their elevationof tradition and common sense and in their opposition to rationalityand theory the Masters revealed their almost classic, Burkeanconservatism. Withington, for instance, asserted, "Our conviction is thateducation has "much more to hope from the collected wisdom and commonprudence of the community, than fromthe suggestions of the individual,"and he proceeded to attack Locke,Milton andRousseau."

To the masters, and otherhard-line educators, Horace Mann and his followers weredangerouS radicals. Radical was, to them, a pej-

orative term of the utmost power. Thus, in a discussion ofMann's

advocacy of Normal Schools and ofhis theories in general, theMasters'

asserted with condemnation,"It is hard toconceive of any thing more

radical and less conservative thansuchviews."67 Horace Mann and his

cohorts had broken with the past;and their break, felt theMasters,

threatened the future of society.

The advocates of educationalreform, associated with the advocates

of social reform in general,threatened more than the future ofsociety.

AmmEMMIIaw!

66Leonard Withington, PenitentialTears; or a Cry from the Dust 12y. "The Thirty-one," Prostratedand Pulverizedbythe Hand of Horace Mann, auetaa,&c., Boston, 1845, p.56. 67 Remarks. . . .,p.13. 194

They threatened the grammarschool rasters themselves. Pleas for educational reform implied that the grammarschool masters were using

cruel and obsolete methodsand were, really, unfit for their jobs.

At least this is how theMastersperceived the appeals for innovation.

The grammar school masters were career,not itinerant, teachers;they

were proud oftheir work and felt that they werethe representatives

of an honorable educationaltradition within the city.Yet, "The

public mind," complained the masters,"has been so far poisoned, that 68 great distrust isfelt in all teachers of the old school.- And to

them, the old school, which theyrepresented, was the good school.

Even worse, Mann's seventh report, tothe schoolmasters the mostob.:

jectionable of the generally perniciouseducational tracts of the times,

would be widely circulated bothwithin America and in foreigncountries.

People resident outside the statewould assume that Mann's disparaging

remarks concerning Massachusettsteachers applied specifically to

Boston, since Mann had an office inBoston and since Boston and the

State were often equated in the eyes of outsiders. "Who, at home or

abroad, complained the aggrievedMasterg,"will not think of the

metropolis, when they read thesecretary's reflections upon the teachers 69 and the schools of.Massachusetts?"

The attack of the Masters was,really, the culmination of three

68 Ibid., p.17.

69Ibid p.29. 195

One was the assault on types of assaults oneducational innovation.

already described. the motivationaltechniques of the reformers, nature of Massachusettsed- The second was theassault on the secular ucation under its morerecent legislation.The Masters themselves made the explicit con- referred to Mann assacrilegious but Withington methods and a pernicious, nection between themodern softness in teaching

"Children," he complained,"were to new softnessin school religion. "general Christianity," was to be led along by thecords of love." A

that infidels mightbelieve, and be taught, one"so weakened and diluted that modern education sensualists applaudit." Part of the authority 71 The harangue ofWithington, was .challenging wasthat_of_religion. kind of attack oneducational moreover, provides alink with a third Four years earlier acommittee innovation: the attack oncentralization.

in favor of abolishingthe of the Massachusettslegislature had reported Withington referredglowingly Board of Education andthe Normal Schools.

re-read itsreport.72 to the committeeand urged legislators to

committee's report, was The Board of Education,according to the only but had become an organ founded as an instrumentof recommendation

recommendations which werevirtually rubber- of regulation.The Board made , Raymond Culver, 74or a discussion of religiouscontroversy see, Public Schools,NewHaven,1929. Horace Mann andReligion in the Massachusetts 49,1840, 72Withington, ,op. it., p.51. MassachusettsHouse Documents Education and the NormalSchools," "The Expediency ofAbolishing the Board of Allen Dodge, chairman. 196

been adhering to stamped by.theLegislature.73Even if the Board had

would still have its statutory functions,the authors of the report opposed it since they arguedthat, in any case, voluntaryteachers'

associations were the best sourcesof information andrecommendation.74

Unhampered, inter-associationrivalry would produce and promote most had effectively pedagogical advance. However, these associationg,which

de- done an outstanding jobbefore the creation of the Board, were

speak freely at a conventioncalled clitting. Who, for instance, could 75 by a governmental agency?

under govern- At any rate, the progressachieved in professions not

innovation to mental control demonstratedthat it was wisest to leave

"private industry and freecompetition. . . ." The regulation and

disseminatim of pedagogicalideas was not, however, the worstsin of

the Board, for the Board, mostdangerously of all, was trying toremodel

Massachusetts education onFrench and Prussian lines, andboth were

authors highly centralized systems. Centralization, according to the

of the report, woulddestroy the distinctive virtuesof Massachusetts. that New They cited De Tocqueville asthe source of their observation

England had derived greatstrength from its system of localself-

government and that theabsence of public spirit was, inEurope, n76 "the greatest obstacle in the wayof public improvements. Thus,

74/bid., p.4.

"Ibid., p.5.

76Loc.cit. 197

"the commencement of a system to the committeethe Board represented

.contrary, in everyrespect, to the truespirit of of centralization. . 78To the authors of the reportthe demands our democraticinstitutions. creation of schoollibraries for statistics, theNormal Schools and the 79 were theBoard's primary agents oftyranny.

of the Board of The report, therefore,recommended the abolition precedent by Education and the normalschools which depg,rted from wisely taking education outof the hands "towhich our ancestors

"to form all ourschools and entrusted it."The Board was attempting the authors con- all our teachers on onemodel," and such an attempt, emulation, and even concluded, "would destroyall competition - all

the spirit of improvementitself."8°

78Ibid., p.6.

79Ibid., pp.7-11.

another proposal toabolish the 8°Ibid_ p.12. In 1860 there was investigating the matter Board of Edu cation.This time the committee 127,1860) In order to reported in favor ofretention.(House Document the Board, thecommittee demonstrate the natureof the opposition to These spoke louderthan printed a few of thepetitions it hadreceived. to the Boardhad sunk to k bumb- any arguments,for, by 1860, opposition passage(mis-spellings andgrammatical ling semi-literacy asthe following reproduced) makes clear.From pp.4-5: errors massachus what will All parties want to seeeducation thrive it secretary pict become of those orphanssuch as our Honorable bearing resemblance towhat I up down toSalem without something things by the school have been saying, why nottake care of these .it seems to methis will raise districts it is much ceaper. . . solid phalanks tomarch the lower end andbring them all into a scattered from dan onword and upword together and not have them best way but to basheba. it seemsto me thiswill not only be the 198

In all three types of complaints - instructional innovation,

secularization and centralization - the reformers were perceived as

radicals, altering the tried and true, the source of stability, strength

and virtue. The opponents of the Board, its secretaries and its

ideas wanted to turn back the direction of development and return to

a simpler, static society, a society in which the sources of authority were clear, a society in which the schoolmaster and the clergyman were

important and in which decisions could be made, as they had always been,

by the townspeople mutually associated and free from the pressure of a

state government presiding over and fostering the creation of an urban-

industrial society.

In spite of their denigration of the altered social and economic

characteristics of Massachusetts, the soft-line educators were more in

tune with their society.Their emphasis on teaching through an appeal

to interest was, implicitly, an assertion of the importance of the indi-

vidual. They recognized the irrelevance of old sources of authority

in a society of altered roles and relations. What would be the point

of teaching obedience to external authority, if external authority could

not be located?Yet, the innovators believed that the complete absence

but the ceapest way, for I know something about the value of money as means to ends aril thisis another reason why I ask you to divide the Fund (and he further demanded) the abolition of the Board of Education, who are prodigating the people's money and sticking, their hands into the money up to their elbows. till their eyes stick out with fat; (he demanded it) in the name of the Great Jehova and the Continental Congress, who for their bessed deeds. have been judged worthy to enter their fathers house not made with hands and eternal in the heavens and that to day are ranging those bright elysium fields that sourroun :heir fathers mansion. 199

and only intensify of any authority overactions would lead to -haos

about which they worried the sociallydisintegrating tendencies, educators quite as much as theirantagonists. Thus, the soft-line

create individualswho sought to internalizethe source of authority; to urbanizing society, but could steer their on wayin an industrializing,

The soft-line who would steer withpropriety, decency andcompassion.

educators claimed they wereconcerned with the higher,spiritual

qualities most aspects of life;nevertheless, they stressed the very Their ideal product necessary forsocial mobility and economic success. arena of Massachu- would be supbrbly equippedto enter the competitive

setts business life. He would possess allthe qualifications necessary industrialism, all the to continue thedevelopment of urbanism and which had a qualities necessary to fosterthose aspects of society personality on the life pernicious effect onpersonality, and through

of the Commonwealth.

The significance of thehard line is three-sold. In the first

educational arena of a place, the battle was amanifestation in the

other states as well conflict in other areas ofreform, a conflict in

prison reformers as inMassachusetts. In the 1840's, especially, penal system based on advocating an environmentaltheory of crime and a experienced wardens kindness and an effort torehabilitate fought against

of rehabilitation, of prisons who, pessimisticabout the possibilities a.man's argued for a harsh systemof punishment and aneffort to break 200

81 Similarly, one historianhas claimed, . will and producerepentance. punishment as astruggle "We may summarize thedebate over capital

the effect ofenvironment on moral between reformerswho emphasized should be curedinstead oi being behavior, arguingthat criminals finally abandoned therationalistic punished andtraditionalists who doctrine of intrinsicand theory of deterrenceand fell back upon a struggled against whatthey considered absolutejustice."82Other reformers the insane, andpsychiatrists harsh and obsoletemethods of treating

rejected theories,continued to lamented generalpractitioners who such as bloodletting, try to curemental diseasethrough physical means testify that anycriminals were and who almosttotally refused to reforming insane.83 The process of creating newinstitutions, or

problems was characteristic old ones, to copewith mounting social generated a fundamentaldebate over, es- of the 1840's.This process often,were theorists sentially, the natureof man. Arrayed on one side,

viewpoint. On the other representing anenvironmentalist, optimistic

reflecting a moreCalvinistic, pessimisticand side werepractitionera, such as crime,insanity and education. conservative approachto problems

The Rise of the 81W.David Lewis, FromNewgate to Dannemora: Penitentiary in NewYork, 1796-1848,Ithaca, 1965, p.201. Fiction, 1798 -1863: 82David Brion Davis,Homicide in American A Study in SocialValues, Ithaca, 1957,p.299. United States,1789-1865, 83Norman Damn, Conceptsof Insanity in the New Brunswick,1965, pp.148-164. 201

In Massachusetts thesoft-line clearly won, andherein lies the

for other two aspects of itssignificance. In the material consulted this study no other significantoutburst of the hard-lineappeared. The

educational debate. victory of the soft-linemarked the ending of serious

of the Aside from its virtues orfailings, the vigorous articulation hard-line Ead fostered ahealthy situation.From the conflicting viewpoints might have arisen agenuine and constructivedialogue that would have forced educationalpromoters to face thecontradictions in their own ideologyand to examine, refine andimprove their theories. might have A continuing debate betweensocially respected opponents forced educators tocontinually confront theirideas critically; it might have prevented the onsetof the complacency thathelped make The educational thought increasinglysterile, unreal and routine.

quality of American victory of the soft-line was amajor defeat for the

education.

school reports and But why did thesoft-line diffuse throughout

ideology? One teachers' journals to becomeelevated to the status of wielded reason was thepolitical power that Mannand his supporters of this almost during and after the controversy. It is the consequence

brutal exercise of perthat marks tLe third wayin which the controversy

between Mann and the Masters wassignificant. One political tactic was

legislature to establish for Mann's friends toimmediately petition the successful, and in this a new normalschool. The bill they sponsored was further their respect Mann and hisfollowers proved their power to In the state favorite innovation in spiteof widespread public.criticism.

legislature it was clear on whoseside power lay. The other ploy was the concerted attemptby Mann's friends, particularly Charles Sumner andSamuel Gridley Howe, to spearhead a takeover of the Boston school committee. "Once in office," writes one historian,

"they would have the whip hand over the mastersand could put through a

'purgation' of the personnel of one school,replacing them by progres- sives who could then run it as amodel that would effect a revolution in education."The school committee could have a whiphand over the

Masters because teachers did not have tenureand, annually, were voted upon by the committee.Through active political maneuvering Sumnerand

Howe receivednominations by theWhig party as two of their candidates for the school board, and Howe waselected. Although the reformers were not a majority,their impact was strong. Two of them, including

Howe, managed to get themselvesappointed to examine the grammar schools. Contrary to custom they gavewritten examinations with questions previously unknown to theteachers. On the basis of these

examinations they published a scathingindictment of the Boston grammar

schools in their annual report. They tried hard to prevent the re-hiring

of some of the offending Masters, andthey obviously made life un-

comfortable and insecure fur a number of them. Indeed, although the

most offensive Master was notfired, he was transferred (temporarily

as it turned out) toanother school. There were even reports that

corporal punishment was dropped in Boston; and otherreforms were

started. The most important was theconsolidation of the administrative

system by eliminating the separate,unwieldy primary school board, 203

followed by the appointment, in afew years, of a citysuperintendent

of schools, one of thereformers' primary goals.Administrative

supervision at the changes in general enhancedand tightened central 84 enjoyed. expense of thevirtual autonomy theMasters had previously

really left the It is hard to imaginethat corporal punishment

schools, or that the Masterschanged their minds on thetopics of

remember that it had beendemon- controversy. Yet it is important to

strated how unwise it was to opposethe reformers, howbrutal and

vindictive they could be,how they could heappublic scorn on anyone

resurrect the hardline would who fought them.For a schoolmaster to about to do be to commitprofessional suicide.But teachers were not

this, and those teacherswho wrote in the1850's found different

community for the work of tactics for increasingthe respect of the

the educator.

The discussion of thepolitical finale of theMann-Masters controversy is takenlargely from HaroldSbhvzrtz's excellent book, Samuel Gridley Howe, SocialReformer, 1801-1876,Cambridge, 1956, board see also, Mary AnnConnolly, pp.120-136. On the primary school "The Boston Schools in the NewRepublic, 1776-1840,"unpublished Ed.D. ends just when thesis, Har*ard, 1963.Unfortunately, this thesis See also, events in Boston becomemost exciting andinteresting. Joseph Whightman, Annals ofthe Boston PzienySchool Committee, from Dissolution in 1855, Boston, its First Establishmentin 1818, to its 1860. 204

Epilogue: "God's Gardener," Strategies of Teacher Mobility

"It is not easy to account for the fact," complained a writer in the Massachusetts Teacher, "that the calling of a teacher isgenerally racked, not only below the other professions, but even below some of the more common industrialpursuits."85Easy to account for the fact or not, no one dissented from the conclusion that thesocial status of teachers was dreadfully low. If money had become the measure of all taings, as social critics maintained, then the rank of teachers was no mystery;teachers were paid verypoorly.

In 1843, "in one of the most cultivated towns in theCommonwealth,"

the author of an article in the Common School Journal had set out to determine "the wages of journeymen, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, painters, carriage-makers, wheelwrights, harness-makers, cabinet and piano-forte makers, and some others." His conclusions were distressing;

every trade received more,"some of them received fifty, and a few one hundred per cent. more than was paid to any of the teachers of the

district schools of thetown."86 Similarly, nine years later, in 1852,

the enlightened school committee of Cambridge complained:

The largest salary paid to a public teacher in Cambridge is not equal to that of a confidential clerk in a commercial establishment; it is about half as large as the salary of the Cashier in a Boston Bank; while the lowest salaries paid in the Alphabet and Primary

85Massachusetts Teacher, vi, 4, April 1853,p. 109.

86Common School Journal,v, 13, December 1, 1843, p.355. 205

than Schools are less than the wagesof a good cook, and not more needle-woman. A fashionable as much as canbe earned by a tolerable music teacher or dancing mastereasily makes an incomesuperior to the combinedsalaries of all the teachersin the Cambridge High Schooltogether.87 pride for teachers to There were, indeed, reasonsof substance as well as

concerning the seek to raise their statusand to educate the public

importance of the commonschools.

designed The teachers themselvesconsciously adopted strategies

The improvement of to raise theirstanding within the community. founding, in 1847, status was the motive,for instance, behind the

the establishment ofits of the MassachusettsTeachers Association and The first journal, the MassachusettsTeacher, in the following year.

the present age of issue of the jouraalexplained that the people, in hands," and were equality, were "fast takingthe reins in their own Association and "driving on, by motive powersentirely their own, -

had been used the Press." Althoughboth association and the press educators still by religious andpolitical groups with great success,

lagged behind the times intheir failure to usethe most moder4 means

"if we wish the teacher in of mass influence. Concluded the article,

Education to rank besidethe teacher inReligion and Government, we

1188 must use the same meansthat they employ.

87 Cambrid e. . .1851-52, 1852, p.6.

Teacher,i,l, January 1,1848, p.4. 206

One strategy for the improvementof'teacher status was toremove

the blame for educational failurefrom the school to the home. Articles

in the Massachusetts Teacher reminded readersof the power of parents

to increase the teacher's influence or,on the other band, to undermine his efforts. For instance, some parents complainedof the severity of

school discipline, but, chidedan article, all too often children

learned disrespect for authority, especiallyfor the school, at home.

"If parents were sufficiently faithfulin.. .honepreparation, the necessity for stringent discipline would begreatly diminished, and the

89 moral influence of the teacher. . .greatly enhanced.

The editor of the Massachusetts Teachercommended the views of a speaker at a recent teachers' meeting to "the carefulconsideration of our readers." "Ought not teaching," asked theauthor of the com- mended article, "to be raising bic/to the rank of a liberal profession, distinctly recognized as such?" To.accomplish this endpersons entering teaching from "caprice"or temporarily from financial motives should be barred in the future. Professionalization would be assured by "a high standard of preliminaryrequisition", "emolumentscorrespond- ing to its true dignity and value",and protection "from theintrusions of the incompetent and unskillful." The time had arrived for the employment and evaluation of teachersto be freed from "the verdict of men engaged in other occupations;"the teaching force h adto secure

8 9Ibid.,i,18,September 15, 1848, p.277. -Tr

207

body, of whatever name, "its own professionalfaculty, or appropriate

professional certificates,licences competent andempowered to grant and apparently to manyother teachers ordiplomas."90To the author, control over entry.Through as well,the hallmark of aprofession was become permanent,well qualified control over entryteachers hoped to

and prestigousprofessionals.

ofpermansncy and qual- Teachers' recognition ofthe importance

training. Thus, in contrast ification implied thenecessity of special

schoolmasters, theMassachusetts to the earlier responseof the Boston allied itself with thenormal schools Tuachers Associationin the 1850's One author of anarticle in the and with educationalinnovation. that would be used,in the Massachusetts Teacheremployed an analogy

future, with increasingfrequency: others himself a teacher,because he has seen The man who imagines empiric, as a pre- teach in a particular way,is just as Inch an walks through thewards of tender in medicine,who occasionally a hospital. pedagogues is passed." Certainly, Continued the writer,"The day for quack who" failed to "make some "no person" could"excel as an instructor,

and acquainthimself with the phil- special preparationfor his work, conducting and governing aschool."91 osophy of teaching,and the art of allies of the teachersin their Theory and normalschools became

90 Ibid., ix,2, February,1856, pp.58-60.

91Ibid., iv,2, February, 1851,p.37. 208

that would set teachers drive for status. They provided the mystery Theory and specialpreparation con - apart from the restof mankind.

teaching a profession. tainea thepotential to make school

the desire to gain The denial ofresponsibility for failure; preparation: all were control over entryand the emphasis on proper mobility, but none were asdominant , important strategiesof occupational

repitition of theassertion of theabsolute or basic, asthe continual calling to all other menand jobs. superiority of theteacher and his

priated articlesconcerned with Repeatedly, theMassachusetts Teacher

What was thiscompensation? What the compensationof the teacher. and respect, theabsence of could compensate forthe absence of money in a materialisticsociety? Simply any of theusual criteria of success spirit of mat- this: the teacher wasabove money. He served not the counteracted the sordid erialistic gain; he,in fact, it was who burden of inculcating tendencies of his age; unhis shoulders lay the

fostering a respectfor the spiritual inplace of the sensual, of preserving morality andsocial the internalizationof restrajnt, of Cod's emissary, was responsiblefor cohesion. In short, the teacher, Massachusetts Teacher the future of thehuman race.An article in the his location as a counter- exemplifies the elevationof the teacher and

weight to the rest ofsociety: proportion to theimportance An employment iselevated in dignity in it has to do.The mag- of its subject, orthe materials with which ranks above the herdsman,for istrate, or thecommander of an army, The makers ofchronometers the one governsbrutes, the other, men. 209

takes rank above the blacksmith,because he is employed with more costly and delicate materials.Upon this principle, the work of teaching, especially if we includein this term the worlf of the ministry, surpasses all otheroccupations in point of dignity. The farmer, the mechanic,the merchant, are employedwith material and perishable things. The legal profession isbusied with forms and precedents, and with crimesand penalties, and, with the exception of its pleading, it hasbut little to do directly with the mind. Medical skill is employedalmost exclusively upon the outer man, the temporaryhabitation of the soul. But the subject the teacher's work is the mind,the masterpiece of the great Architect, Aglicate in structure,transcendent in value, immortal in destiny."'

Or, as exhorted a stanzafrom"Goes Gardener," written, expressly for the Teacher, by a poet fromGroton:

Magnify your office,teacher! Higher than the kings of earth; - Are you not the prophet,preacherx To the future givingbirth?9-5

Regardless of the opinion of thecommunity, the teacher atleast had the compensation of knowing thcthis was the most importantoffice on earth.

Teachers took seriously the notionof their moral influence; to

them an attack on the notion was apersonal assault of the gravestdanger.

This was the threat that provokedthe attack on Cyrus Peirce atthe

annual meeting of the American Instituteof Instruction in 1853. In

1853 the Institute awarded the prizefor its annual essay contest

On to Peirce for an essayentitled, "Crime, its Cause andCure."

Wednesday, August 17, 1853,in the afternoon, Mr. Peirceread his

92Ibid., vi, 4, April 1853,pp.109-110.

"Ibid., x,6, .dune 1853, pp.261-263. The point of the essay,ac- essay beforethe assemblededucators. by itself was no guar- cording to Peirce, wasthat secular instruction moral instruction antee againstcrime, and in hisplea for increased

crime had accompaniedthe increase in he pointed outthat an increase in In fact, he cited surveyswhich the provision offormal education. "than the purported to show thatconvicts were oftenbetter educated 94 generality of theirclass."

To them Mr. Peircehad The educationistsresponded with fury. schools but had implied not only deniedthe moral efficacyof the common Mr. Bishop of Bostoncomplained: "he that they contributedto crime. whole life in theCommon School felt called upon, ashaving spent his

be told that for thirty yearswe cause, to saythat we ought not to defective system ofeducation. have been doing thepublic an injury, by a Peirce's statistics; He denied it."Dr. Hooker ofHartford commented on "There must be some mis- he had no evidencebut declared, nonetheless,

renowned for his urbanityand conciliatory ake."Even Barnas Sears, prize essay as this.It tact, "remonstratedagainst sending out such a 95 was a libel uponthe Common Schoolsof New England."

before the public. The Institute The Institute neversent the essay

but to allow him tokeep the voted to return the essayto its author

94Ibid., vi, 10, October 1853,pp.310-312.

95Ibid., vi, 10, October, 1853,pp.310-312. 211

96 of Peirce had threatened prize money. The mild doubts and strictures based their existence. the very foundations uponwhich the educationists

guilty of heresy. With its most augustsolemnity the synod found him

the rest of man- Facts were irrelevant;teachers knew they were above kind; they knew that, inthe last analysis, theyalone were responsible

might show, they for the future ofcivilization; whatever statistics to live in knew they were succeeding.Else, how could they continue of penury andsubmit to the scorn ofsociety? If their interpretation

Peirce's essay were correct,and if they acceptedthis interpretation

scorning the as true, then,in forsaking businessfor teaching, in

market place, teacherswould be not saints butfailures.

comparison with Moreover, althoughteachers' salaries were low by

in the years between other occupations, theyhad risen substantially

real one since the costof 1840 and 1853. And the increase was a 97 teachers living had r,..mainedrelatively stable. One conclusion that ideology of reform and could draw was that thepublic was buying the

pedagogue in shaping the slowly accepting thecentral role of the public? future of society. What would happen ifPence's notions became

impotent or hurtful? Surely What would happen ifteachers were exposed as substance for the there were reasons offinancial as well as psychic

Institute to turn its fury upon aformer champion of its cause.

9 6Ibid.,vi,10, October 1853,pp.320-322.

97See tablesin Appendix A. 21.2

the teachersinvested so heavily The new urbanpedagggy in which ideology contradictory could not reach itsgoals. Within educational into a set of goalsthat were perceptions of the newsociety were fused

always implausible. To join the sometimes hggicallyincompatible, nearly of the future, topermeate a land- best of the pastwith the dynamism

with the socialand moral virtuesof the scape ofcities and factories could do, more,:-.probably, countryside: this was morethan education At its core theideology than any set ofinstitutions couldaccomplish.

joined the dualisticgoals of schoolmen was soft,the threads that Schools were tounleash and were wovenof the flimsiestlogic. push socialattitudes into a contain the forcesof industrialism, to

and the contoursof the past, shape that fit themold of the future equipped to bothresist the deg- to send forthindividuals supremely and to hastentheir development. enerating tendenciesof modern life fissures strainingalways Throughout educationalideology ran deep

leaned ever moreheavily upon their to split intochasms; but shhoolmen

construct andrefused to see itsflaws.

school revival, Cyrus Peirce hadbeen right. Despite the common 98 their categoric crime had increased. Educators' paranoic response,

the tone for thefuture. Educators denial of what hadreally happened, set

They had associationsand training were developingtheir own world. Soon teacherswould schools to impart their ownversion of the tuuth.

98For data on crime see PartThree of this study.

------77"...1AWAL0sIgmmammummmw 213

for in the 1850's;teaching win the certificationlaws that they asked high school principals had acquired a coreof career professionals -

size until itcontrolled all and administrators -that would expand in 99 themselves. aspects of localschool affairs exceptfor the committees would be able Soon teachers wouldhave a machine solarge that they increasingly necessary. to talk only toeach oi...her. And this would become existence and their Because they builtthe rationale for their own

an implausibleideology increasing commandof community resources upon educators had to turninward; they ever moredivorced from reality, around the schoolsand at their had to avoid a hardlook at the world that became a myth. own work;they had to retreatinto an ideology the stage for therigid, sterile By the 1850'seducators had helped set

bureaucracies that soonwould operate mosturban schools.

started in 1847, the 99The MassachusettsTeachers Association first meeting of theAmerican National TeachersAssociation in 1857. The meeting of the association Normal Schools Association wasin 1859, the first N.E.A. The First of superintendentsin 1865. See, Edgar B. Wesley, New York,1957, p.44; Hundred Years, TheBuilding of a Profession, Workings and TheirResults, American Normal Schools:Their Theory, Their School Association, as Embodied inthe Proceedings ofthe American Normal and 20, 1859, NewYork,1860. Held at Trenton, NewJersey, August 19 Part Three. COMPULSORY EDUCATION AND THE URBANDELINQUENT The State Reform School

Prologue: Reformers against the Reform School

The report of the MassachusettsBoard of State Charities for 1865 must have surprised many people. Samuel Gridley 'Howe and Frank Sanborn,prominent and eclectic social reformers, wereattacking the state reform school.

Their attack must have come assomewhat of a shock because seventeen years earlier the school had been startedwith the ardent support of the very reformist circles that Howe andSanborn represented. The reform school to many was the epitomeof scientific penology,'a landmarkin the progress of man's enlightened treatment of his fellows, abeacon radiating throughout

the land the modern liberality ofthe Commonwealth.Why, then, did Howe

and Sanborn heap blame upon thisinstitution less than two decadesafter

its founding? When we can answerthis question, we will see much more

clearly the fate of mid-nineteenth centuryreform.

One reason for includingthe reform school as partof a study of

educational reform is that it providesclarification and assists in assess-

Educators saw the ment. But there are other reasonsequally important.

reform school as part of theCommonwealth's system of education. The words

reform and school, as we shallsee,lad very specific meanings and were

agreed. chosen with care; most Massachusettseducators would probably have 215

1907 that reformschools represent"more with the.authoritywho wrote in other part of theeducational fully the idea ofstate educationthan... any 1 institution but at aneducational system." We are notlooking at a penal the rest of the and impliedthroughout most of one. Themes that are muted explicit in discussionsrelated to the literature ofeducational reform are reformers talked aboutthe re-making reform school.When Massachusetts velvet gloves, andthe fact that of urban delinquentsthey took off their poverty, crime and education was tobe a key weaponin a battle against

stridently, clear.By studying aninstitution; vice becameexplicitly, even about the powersof furthermore, we can see moreclearly how assumptions

reality.Finally, the reform education fared whenconfronted with social

first form ofstate-wide compulsory school is importantbecause it was the

education in the UnitedStates.

Grading of Priscins I.Delinquency and the

widespread effort ofgovernment, Educational reform was oneaspect of a

philanthropy to create anetwork of insti- both state and local,and private and the onset of largescale manufacturing tutions capableof coping with the reformschool, the State, increasing urbanism. Besides establishing

its poor lawsand establishedState between the1830's and 1865, altered classes of paupersand criminals; almshouses; it builthospitals for different

dramatically, created acentral agencywhose it passed laborlaws; and, more century war onpoverty and crime. duty was to coordinatethe mid-nineteenth

1 Krug, TheShaping of theAmerican David Sneddenquoted in Edward A. High School, NewYork, 1964, p.265. 216

As a result of the recommendation of a legislative committee Lhat in 1858 surveyed the public charitable institutions of the State, the legislature created the Board of State Charities in 1863.The new body was modelled on the board of Education and had a permanent secretary and an appointed, rotating membership. Its duty was to investigate, publish its findings, and make recommendations to the legislature.The reports of its secretery provide a comprehensive view of the problem of crime and poverty iii the Commonwealth 2 and a shrewd assessment of the State's institutions. The first secretary, whose initial five hundred page historical and analytical report was, for the times a truly remarkable social investigation, was Frank B. Sanborn, poet, transcendentalist, intimate and disciple of Emerson. Sanborn provides a link between the idealistic transcendentaliits and the social problems of the day; indeed, his work suggests that historians, such as Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., who have argued that the transcendentalists isolated themselves from the crucial issues of.the time, have been in error. Perhaps Ralph Waldo Emerson 3 was the T.H. Green of the early and mid-nineteenth century.

2 See "Public Charitable Institutions" Massachusetts Senate Document No. 12, January, 1859. Hereafter referred to as Board of State Charities, 1865 and 1866, respectively.The two reports considered in this.chapter are the raft Ahhual Report of the Board of State Charities to which are added the Reports of the Secretary and the General Agent of the Board, Public Document 19, January, 1865 and Second Annual Report...., January, 1866. These will hereafter be referred to as Board of State Charities, 1865 and 1866, respectively.

3See Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Age of Jackson, Boston, 1950, pp. 380-382. On the Influence of T.H. Green see Melvin Richter, The Politics of Conscience: T.H. Green and His Age, Cambridge, 1964.For an intriguing comparison between the influence of Green and Garman of Amherst see George E. Peterson, The pewEngland College in the Age of the University, Amherst, 1964, ch. 7, "The Whole Man as Reformer." If the comparison with Emerson is valid, then the fact that Emerson did not hold "a university appointment suggests in itself the change in the nature and role of universities in the late nineteenth century. 217

Private as well as Statephilanthropy increased markedly inthe decades preceding the Civil War. Between 1815 and 1830,according to one estimate, private philanthropy in Bostonaveraged $100,000 per year;between 1830 and 1845 the figure was$133,000; and in the year 1864-65 acautious. 4 estimate revealed an increase to$500,000. But public and private

philanthropists did not act in isolation.One significant joint venture

5 school: was the firstnormal school; another was the first reform

In 1846 two petitions tothe State legislature urgedthe creation of 6 investigate the a State ManualLabor School. The committee appointed to select and petitions reported favorably,and a commission was appointed to

7 purchase a site. The prospects and prestigeof the project were enhanced

promised an equal by an anonymous gift of$10,000 froth Theodore Lyman, who

sum in thefuture. Lyman, ex-mayor of Boston,had a particular interest

4Board of State Charities (Secretary's Report),1865, pp. 210-212. reform, the Comparisons, between Massachusettsand England on administrative nature of institutionaldevelopment and the pattern ofprivate philanthropy on ins of during this period are striking. See David Roberts, Victorian English Philanthropy the British Welfare State, NewHaven, 1960, and David Owen, schools on 1660-1960, Cambridge, 1964, pp.91-208.Ower discusses reform philanthropy see pp. 152-155.On aspects of theorganization of American Stewardship in the Clifford S. Griffin, TheirBrothers" Xeepers: Moral United States) 1800-1865, NewBrunswick, 1960.

5 "localism On normal schools seeparticularly Jonathan C. Messerli, and State Control in HoraceMann's Reform of the CommonSchools," American Quarterly, Vol. XVII, 1, Spring,1965, pp. 104-118, esp. pp.114-115.

Massachusetts State 6The petitions in manuscriptform are on file in the erection of a State Manual Archives, under Resolves,1846, ch. 143, "for the Labor School." 7 Hereafter referred to as Senate Document No. 86,March 27, 1846. First Legislative Report. 218

in reform schools since he had been influential in establishing a private one on Thompson's Island in Boston.

In 1814 the Boston Asylum for Indigent Boys had been created through private philanthropy.The Asylum never became, strictly speaking, a reform school since its inmates had not been convicted of a crime.Rather, it took orphans and other neglected children "to restrain'Ithem "from vicious courses by a judicious system of education."In 1831 the Asylum encountered severe financial difficulties and started a public appeal for funds. At the same time a group of philanthropists were also soliciting funds to establish a Farm School and with the money collected they purchased

Thompson's Island, The boys in the Asylum were transferred to the Farm

School and the two charities combined.For a number of years Theodore Lyman was president of the ditectors of the Farm School.In 1846 he proposed that the School be enlarged to accomodate boys from communities besides Boston.

But the other direftors did not accept his proposal, "and (perhaps in consequence) General Lyman directed his munificence towards the State

8 Institution at Westborough." Lyman continued his generosity to the reform

school, to which he willed $50,000.

The legislative commissioners' report and land purchase were received

favorably by the legislature, which passed a law ordering the erection of

a reform school, a term the commissioners preferred to manuallabor.9 The

8Board of State Charities (Secretary's Report), 1866, pp. 97-100.

9 Senate Document No. 10, January, 1847, Hereafter referred to as Second Legislative Report.

J1, governing body of the school was aboard of seven trustees, responsible to the governor and, in1863, placed under the surveillanceof the Board of State Charities. The power of committing boyswas vested in each magistrate in the Commonwealth, a systemlater radically altered.

Building proceeded rapidly, and onDecember 7, 1848, officially oened .

the first state reform school, firstdefinitely in the United States and

England, probably in Europe.

Writers concerned withthe Reform School were particularly proud

that Massachusetts was the first state toestablish an institution speci-

fically designed for the reformationof juveniles. However, municipal-

ities had anticipated the state. In 1825 a New York House of Refuge

was opened through privatephilanthropy. The City granted increasing

sums for its maintenanceand, after 1830, "the institution wasentirely

10 supported by public appropriations. The other reformatory pre-

ceding Westborough was the Boston Houseof Reformation, opened in 1827.

However, by 1865 the Boston institutionand its municipal counterpart,

opened at Lowell in 1851, differed fromthe state school since the

former were "mainly, if not exclusively,devoted to the reception of

Truants" whereas the inmates of Westborough, as weshall see, were

usually committed on different charges.A number of other municipal

reform, really Truant, schools wereestablished following the passage

of a state truant law in 1862, whichrequired each city and town to

provide suitable accommodations forchildren convicted of

' °BlakeMcKelvey, mdean Prison!: A Studyin American Social History Prior to 1915, Chicago, 1936, p.14.For an account of adifferent method of handling delinquents see, Miriam Z. Langsam,Children West, A History of the Placing-Out System of theNOWYorkChildialarrilYocSiety, 1853- MO, Madison, 1964. For biographical details on Francis 220

11 habitual truancy.

George Shaw see James Grant Wilson and John Fiske, eds., Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, New York, 1888, v.50,p. 486.

11Board of State Charities(Secretary'sReport), 1866,pp. 102- 109. The relation of the state reform school at Westboroughto municipal reformatories and truant schools is somewhatcomplex. When the reform school was opened in 1848, truancywas not a legal offense and boys actually imprisoned for truancywere convicted on other charges, usually "stubborness." The first law making truancyan offense was passed in 1850. Surprisingly, truancy becamea punish- able offense two years before attendanceat school became compulm sory! Truant laws of 1850 and 1852 forceda differentiation in reform institutions.Truants could only be given sentences of firstone, then two years. Boys could only be sent to the reform schoolfor the duration of their minority.Thus, if a magistrate convicted a boy of truancy he had to send him elsewhere than to Westborough. Changes in the pattern of offenbes for whichboys were sent to municipal institutions were reflected in theBoston House of Refor- mation. At first this took boys for allsorts of offences.After the passing of the truant law, truancy graduallygained prominence among the offences of boys committed until the school became, actually, a truant school.

See: City of Boston, Report of the StandingCommittee of the Common Council on the Subject of the House c,f Reformation forMI11 MINNOI Ju- venileOffenders, Boston, 1852,'pp. 5-7; City ofBoston, Houses of Industry and Reformation, City Document No.14,Boston, 1844, p.20; Massachusetts Statutes, 1850, chap. 294; 1852,chap. 283; United States Bureau of Education, Truant Schools(ChapterIII of the report of the Commissioner of Education), Washington,1901; John William Perrin, The History of Compulsory Educationin New England, Mead- ville(Pennsylvania), 1896. 221

The two concerns that combined toform the argument thatthe Common- wealth should create a reformschool were the evils ofmixing juvenile delinquents and mature criminals inthe same jail andapprehension at an increase in crime. Each of the two petitions sentthe state legislature in 1846 stressed one ofthese concerns. The first petition came

The foreman of the from the second jury oftrials in NorfolkCOunty.

and jury was Francis GeorgeShaw. Shaw was a wealthy businessman

litterateur active at Brook Farmand in the affairs ofRoxbury. He

again provides a link betweentranscendentalism and socialreform.

The second petition, fromthe selectmen of the townof Roxbury,

located within Norfolk County, wassent "in aid ofthe petition of

F.G.Shaw." The petition of theNorfolk jury argued its case suc-

cinctly:

The House of Correction inthis County is not afit or suitable place for the confinementand detention ofjuvenile offenders. suitable employment provided. . they are . .there is or can be no necessarily exposed to thecontaminating influence ofconvicts depraved rather already hardened in crime. . .they are therefore when discharged, fliter than reformed. . .and consequently subjects for detention thanwhen they were committed.

individuals by the legis- The answers to questionsasked of selected of lathe committee reinforced this argument. Judge Emory Washburn

.serious objections tocommitting Worcester replied that hehad "always felt. .

12 From the manuscript,Massachusetts State Archives. 222

boys...to a jail or house ofcorrection" because it placed "a stigma upon the character of*the boy, whichis a serious clog to his successin life."

Moreover, the policy affordedhim little opportunity foreither an intellectual or moral, education, and, mostseriously, it allowed him "to see 13 and hold intercourse withthe older prisoners. ..." Moses Grant of Boston put the matter even morebluntly. "Boston jail," he wrote, is "as great a school of vice as canbe well imagined, andeminently calculated to harden".

4 legislative committee echoed the boys "incrime."1 In their report the

petitions and responses.By the present penalpolicy, the report claimed,

a boy was forced

for a short time to associatewith desperate and hardenedcriminals, hardened, his and :,;.-:then returned uponthe community with feelings burning in his bosom, moral sense blunted, andthe spirit of revenge instruments of his it maybe, aaainst thosewhme he considers the 15 degredation.

Judge Washburn, in hisspeech at. the opening ofthe reform school,

Improvements in considered penal policy inthe light of other criteria.

of the advance of the treatment of criminals,he claimed, was one sign

observed, "criminal justice seemsto civilization. "For some reason," he administered:"To have. been almost alwaysbehind the age in which it was

violated "one of the first treat young and oldoffenders alike, he asserted,

principles of the scienceof prison discipline, aswell as of common humanity."

13 First Legislative Report, pp.10-11.

14 Ibid., p. 14.

15Ibid., p. 2.

16 of the State Reform Em ry Washburn, AnAddress at the Dedication School at WestboroughDecember 7 1848, Boston, 1849, pp. 88-92. 223

Washburn's remarks indicate two important aspects of mid-nineteenth century reform. First was the consciousness that altered socialconditions required altered social institutions. In part the high school was to bringthe system of public education into line witheconomic progress; the reform school was to bring the penal system into line withscientific and moral advance.Second was an increased sensitivity to differencesin the age and condition of individuals. The theory of educational reform urged an almost child centered pedagogy; the theory of penalreform urged a child

17 centered prison. The theory of educational reform urged the gradingof schools; the theory of penal reform urged thegrading of prisons.

The desire to provide distinct andhumane treatment for children was

only one of the concdrns behind the foundingof the reform school. The

other was an increase in crime, especiallyjuvenile Crime. In their

petition the Roxbury selectmen complained;

We have been called uponfrequently to take charge of boys and give theM a place in our Alms House, whohave been in the habit of lodging in barns and sheds, andexposed to everything which is bad: and dangerous,to society, who have no friends todirect them and if they have cannot control them - Wehave noticed the most profligate and profane, who are strollingabout the streets, who never go to school becausethey have no one to make them, who are fitting themselves for the mostdangerousIsid] in society, growing up in hardened guilt,destroying themselves,, and poisoningsociety with theirwickedness.18

17 This also was the period when specialinstitutions were established for the insane, the blind and the deaf--also, for the'teacher.

18 From the manuscript; Massachusetts State'Archives. 224

extract from the report The selectmenincluded with their petition an of "a class of the townschool committee, which stressed the existence

to of large boys, numerous and wefear increasing, who seldom or never go

school and have little or novisible occupation." Withoutcorrection, these

boys would grow to be "the moreperceptible disturbersrsicj pests and burdens"

questions of the legislative coM- ofsociety.19 Similarly, in answer to the

mittee Judge S.D. Parker of Bostonasserted, "That during the year1845,

offenders, and the there has been a great andalarming increase of juvenile

crimes these youths havecommitted were of a veryaggravated'nature, including 20 and from Charlestown arson, stabbing,shop-breaking, larcenies,etc" temptation and William Sawyer observed, "Ibelieve the want, exposure,

suffering of some juveniles in this town,would astound those who have 21 with our never given anyattention to it." Whoever has been familiar "cannot have failed to markthe criminal courts,"observed Judge Washburn, 22 The reform school increase of crime of late,especially among the young."

crime; was a key strategyproposed for dealing withthe alarming increase in

of but it was a strategy based oncertain assumptions about the nature

they had good crime and poverty, assumptionsfor which reformers thought

evidence.

19 Loc. cit. 20 First Legislative Report, p.16.

21Ibid.,pp. 6-7.

22 Washburn, p. 102. 225

stock"; II. From "favorableimpressions" to "imperfection of the The Theory of Crime and Poverty

'En the lexicon of reformetsthe first fact about crime wasits urban nature. The legislatiVe.commission of1847 asserted confidently, "We know 23 that most of the inmates will comefrom populous places," and their pre-

diction was fulfilled. In 1850, for instance, onehundred and one of the

sixty-three of the three hundred and eleveninmates came from Suffolk County,

boys from Essex and fifty-ninefrom Middlesex. Only thirty were sent "from

the five western counties." Fromthese figures the superintendentconcluded,

"the greater proportion of commitments arefrom the manufacturingportion'of

cities; and the State, and from that sectioncontaining the large towns and

Likewise, in 1864 but few from theagricultural part of our community."24

the trustees of the reformschool claimed, "We see a largenumber of boys in

the State, most of them inthe cities and larger towns, whounless early

dangerous placed in some such school asthis, must inevitably become a very

25 reflected class...."The relationship assumedbetween cities and crime was

David Brion Davis in popular literature waswell as in reformist tracts.

writes: increased to During the 1840's fictionaldescriptions of city crime astonishing proportions. In 1853 George Lippardpresented, against prostitution, and violent a generalbackdrop of New York poverty, death, vivid accounts of six rapes,seven adulteries,and twelve Lippard, murders. In the works of Ingraham,Buntline, Henri Foster, and the true' nature of the city wasrevealed to the Americanpeople.

23Second Legislative Report, p. 6.

references cited 24Senate Document 12;1850, p. 17. This and all other Document refqr to theannual as House Document,Senate Document and Public published reports of the Trusteesand Superintendent ofthe Reform School, under different titles.

25Public Document 20, October1864, p.3. 226

Under the bustlingactivity, stores, and the growing the fineryof dress, commerce, theglittering decay.Ifone they beheld cared toleave the an incrediblesocial Boston'sAnn Street mainthoroughfares or New York's and walkinto darkenedarea of Five Points,one would for poverty and find a pennies,where oppression,whereragged where haggardprostitutes childrenbegged strangerssuddenly desperatelysolicited in doorways disappeared,and where trade, andgutters, corpses stiffened arousingneither sympathynor attention.26

But howdid cities cause crime?Nathan Crosby,Justice of Court of the Police Lowell,relatedto the legislativecommission thechilling,if melodramatic,fate ofmanynice New Englandfarm girls whocame to work in themodel city. Often, he claimed,girls betweenfifteen and years oldcame to Lowell seventeen with but money enoughfor a week's failed board. If they to findwork, they were ejectedfrom their boardinghouse and another,"to be sought again turnedaway. In themean time, take cab-driversand others advantageof their necessitiesand ruin them.".Still "decoyed otherswere away in cabsand long walks, tilltheir boardinghouses"were closed, andafter a repetitionof such delinquenciqs," turned were permanently away, onlyto be "taken up by thewatchmen as night-walkers." the townhad "manj Indeed, young girlswho spend their nightsin unfinished and old and houses, inthe woods,&c.,and are suppliedwith food who have by therascals ruined them."Here, most graphically,was a need forreformation, and Crosbypleaded, unsuccessfully, that thenew reform school be 27 Aside from coeducational. facilitating theseduction of innocentgirls, citiespromoted 2 %avidBrion David, in Social Homicide in Values, AmericanFiction, Ithaca,1957,p. 259. 1798-1860:A Study, 27 SecondLegislative Report,pp. 60-61. reformatoryfor girls The Statedid in 1854at Lancaster. establisha 227

"Lea- crime by bringingtogether large numbersof potential offenders.

the accomplices of gued together forplunder, and in some instances, evaded the law or re- adult rogues," theyraided property and either "were accelerated in avicious ceived short sentences. In short, they and criminal career. . . ."28

and urbanism were in- To reformers crime,poverty, immigration Washburn was a state: extricably woven together;Massachusetts to Emory

of her sister states; With a population moredense than that of any numbers, among the first with a metropolisranking, in point of and villages scat- class of the cities in ourcountry; with cities with active life, gath- tered all over herterritory, and teeming those.poisonous seeds ofvice, which ering within itscrowded masses most surely where men by some strange lawof our nature, germinate crowding to our shores, do most congregate; withhosts of foreigners associations of foreignlands; and bringing with themthe habits and poverty, and vice,and with intemperance,that great mother of .29 crime, spreading outher lures on every'side

claimed the superintendentof the Within this appallingurban society, pical pattern th roughwhich boys reform school in1850, recurred a ty often truancy fromschool. became delinquents,The first c:ime was racing, the bowlingsiloon, the The truant becamefamiliar with "horse places of amusement,de- theatrical exhibitions,and other similar alley, "initiated bybeing bauchery and crime. ." In the bowling the "desira to actthe man" employed in settingpins," he soon acquired and licentious- and became "a juvenilegambler. Profanity, drunkenness, the path of crimeand ness," soon followed,"hurrying him forward in

ruin."30

28House Document 20,1856, p. 37.

102. 29Washburn, Address. . . sm. cit., p.

30Senate Document 12, 1850, pp.21-22. 228

Essentially, the boy became acriminal because he yielded to tempt- 31 But for two ation; he had not"moral principle to restrainhim." reasons the boyhimself could not beblamed for his depravity; he was neither innately vicious norweak, but the victim of povertyand familial 32 reformers held, was an intimate failure. Between poverty and crime,

connection; the worst boy camefrom "the lowest stratum."33The unity

of crime and poverty wasstressed by Frank Sanborn, secretaryof the

which cannot Board of State Charities. "This," he asserted, "is a point

confidently, "no less than be too stronglyurged." In fact, he claimed

three-fourths of what is technicallycalled crime. . .is the direct

result of poverty and itsattendant evils."

Of the thousandscommitted to ourprisons during the past year, not more than one in ten everowned property to the value of athousand dollars, and the great majorityhave never owned anything thatcould well be calledproperty.34

One reason why cities bredcrime is that they bred poverty. The

legislative committee on charitableinstitutions observed, "it isin

the cities and large towns thatthe greater proportion of ourState

paupers are found." Of the 7,100 inmates in theState almshouses in

1858, 2,719 were from Boston and480 from Lowell. The cities that sent

most paupers, claimed thecommittee, were the most industrial;immig-

ration sponsored by industrialcorporations had caused the alarming

increase in the bill for publiccharity:

31 Loc. cit.

32 On poverty in this period see Robert H. Bremner,From the Depths: The Discovery of Poverty in theUnited States, New York, 1956, ch.l.

33House Document 2, 1856, p. 37.

34 Board of State Charities(Secretarysaeport), 1865, p.409. employees who fill monster corporationsimport by the shipload the and their de- their mills, do the basedrudgery of their workshops grading, ill paid, menialservices in every branch ofbusiness. They allow chew to erectin their cities and townsthe most mis- capitalists, who profit erable shanties fordwellings, or else the by their labor, do it intheir stead. In them are made the paupers

of the state. . .

According to the committeethe foreign populationof the five cities leading in the productionof paupers was: Boston,61.75%; Lawrence, about 33 per 71.66%; Lowell, 54.17%;Roxbury, 63.70%; and Chicopee,

35 cent.

The nature of the urbanfamily was one of the"attendant evils"

A "family whose parental of poverty most conduciveto criminality. the chaplain instructors are ignorant,inefficient and immoral," wrote

make a disastrous failure of the reform school in1859, "is quite sure to 36 to its care." Pedagog- of the education ofthe little ones committed

that the shape of theessential- ical theory asserted,Part Two has noted, by the models from ly plastic character ofthe child was determined

absolutely important which it gained impressionsand direction; "it is impressions, and be trained that the young besubjected to favorable S.B. Woodward of the in the course of virtueand duty," claimed Dr. tendency will be unfavor- State Lunatic Hospital,Worcester, "or the with individuals able, and great hazard run,of a career of vice

IMPII110

3 5Public CharitableInstitutions, pp. 81-82.

36 Public Document 23, 1859, p.44. 230

neglected in childhood whoae moral andintellectual culture has been 37 The parental models, theimpressions provided and early youth. . " in cities, were the worstpossible. Charlestown, claimed William

children are suf- Sawyer, "is no worse thanother large places, where

is worse, amiust fered to grow up without anymoral culture, and what

." Judge scenes ofdrunkeness, debauchery, andother crime. ".

Sawyer contended:

in which I am not . there is seldom a caseof a juvenile offender, well satisfied that the parents, orperson having thechild in charge, is most blamable -they take no pains tomake him attend school - they suffer him tobe out nights withoutknowing or caring where; and, in manyinstances, they areincapable of taking children; they have no care of themselves,much less of their home fit for a child; theirresidence is a grog shop;their companions drunkards andgamblers or worse; they bestow no thought upon theirchild, until he fallinto the hands of an officer and is broughtb efore acourt.'8

here as Table 1 In his introduction tothe information presented

"The following facts the superintendent ofthe reform school commented, of crime as have been gathered, tothrow some light upon the causes

developed in the commitments tothe Reform School."The facts served

between the nature of to reinforce theconnection reformers asserted

the family and juveniledelinquency:

37First Legislative Report,p.4.

387.bid.,pp. 7-8. 231

Habits of BoysCommitted to Table 1. FanilyBackground and Previous the State ReformSchool, 1850-1851

440 Whole number 169 Lost their father 108 Lost their mother Father has no steadyenployment 138 194 Father is intemperate 57 Mother is intemperate 170 Father uses profanelanguage 45 Mother uses profancelanguage rather is Sabbathbreaker 145 71 Mother is Sabbathbreaker have Father, mother,brothers or sisters 72 been or areimprisoned Has been idleprevious to admission or had no steadyemployment 350 227 *.bias been over-indulged 225 Has been neglected 367 Has been a truantfrom school 297 Has been a Sabbathbreaker 394 Has been addictedto lying 230 Has used tobacco 356 Has used profanelanguage 259 Haa used obscenelanguage Has attended thetheater and similar places of amusement 303 261 *Has slept out Has drank ardentspirits - most ofthem 169 to intoxication 172 Has been arrestedpreviously 88 Once 33 Twice 16 Three times 10 Four times Five times and over 25 116 Has been in prison orschools of reform of luxuries butallowed *over-indulged meant notprovided with an excess to do as hepleased from home ** slept out meantspent the night away

the figures were"based on the acknow- Some inaccuracyis probable since general shape of thepicture ledgments of the boysthemselves," but the the first remains, and fromthis table thesuperintendent concluded "parental inefficiency." cause of crime wasL'orphangge," the second, 232

The impression of urban delinquents presented by observers, apicture of boys reafed in poverty and subject to noparental control, exposed to drunkeness, truant fromschool, leading a wild existence thatled to a replication ofparental behavior: such a picture was morethan a

39 figment of the imagination.

Yet unproven are observers' assertionsof a connection between crime and immigrants and of an increasein delinquency. In 1850 41% of the inmates of the Reform School wereeither Irish immigrants or theirchildren;" the foreign born population of Massachusetts as a 41 whole was 18.93%. The superintendent attributed the fact thatthe number was not disproportionately larger tothe different attitudes towards the reform school of Protestant andCatholic families. Anxious for the State to try to reform their sons,Protestant parents, he

claimed, often voluntarily committed theirchildren, a phenomenon that will be returned to; on the other hand,Catholic parents resisted any 42 attempt to incarcerate their childrenin the reform school. One

39House Document 14, 1851, pp. 24-25.

40Public Document 23, 1858, p.51.

41Mycomputation from census figures.

42 Public Document 23, 1858, p.51. 233

reason for the hostilityof Catholic parents undoubtedly was the explicitly Protestant nature of the reform school, until1860 under the

supervision of a resident, Evangelical Protestantchaplain, who con-

ducted the compulsory prayers and chapel andworked actively for the

spiritual regeneration of the individualboys."

Figures relating to the crime rate are both unreliable and hard

to find. More explicit, though also highly questionable,figures

exist for pauperism, as measured by persons in receiptof state and

local aid. The committee investigating state charities and Frank

Sanborn both made a persistent effort to gatherhistorical data on

poverty. Their figures, while not accurate, probably canbe accepted

as representing trends. Between 1826 and 1831 pauperism actually de-

creased; from the early thirties until 1845pauperism(and immigration)

increased slowly, but both increased dramaticallyin the late forties

and reached a peak in 1858. If one accepts the contention that crime

was directly related to poverty,then the assertion that crime was 44 increasing can be regarded as most likely valid.

The Civil War had a curious effect on crime and poverty.Many

of those who might have become paupers served in the army,and male

crime and pauperism diminished. On the otherhand, female and juvenile

"Fora comment on the importanceof the role of the chaplain see the speech of the out-going one, Rev. N.Scott, A Plea for the Bible in the State Reform School at Westboro' Mass. A Farewell Discourse Delivered April 4, 1862, Boston, 1862. This is hardly anunbiased source, but it does offer insight into the role of chaplain and an extremestatement of the necessity of Protestant evangelicalism inthe reform school.

44Public Charitable Institutuions, pp. 39 and131. 234

crime increased alarmingly.By implication the nature of thecrime was peculiarlydisturbing to a generation thatpreached restraint and the higher pleasures asthe paths to social and individualsalfiation.

Frank Sanborn remarked with dismay:

It may not be extravagent to saythat one in four of the manychild- ren committed to ourprisons have near relatives in the army.The same is true ofthe female prisoners, though probably notin the same proportion. It has been again and again said to meby prison officers that themothers, wives, sisters and daughters of soldiers are among the numerousadditions to the list of female criminals in the past few years;and many of these officers ascribe the increase in female crime tothe distiibution of State Aid and bounty money.The possession of more money thanusual makes these poor women drink, and fromthis they are led on to worse offences; whilethe absence of their sons, husbandsand fathers leaves them without restraint orprotection.

Hardly a report to boost morale on thefront! Sanborn also warned

that the return of peace might bring anincrease in both crime and 45 pauperism, a prediction that wasverified.

In 1850, Table 2 reveals, two sortsof offenses accounted for most

of the committals to the reformschool; and the figures for this year

were typical ofothers.

46 Table 2. Offenses of Boys Committed toReform School in 1850

Larceny 109 Stubborness 106 Idle and Disorderly 17 (continued)

45 Boardof State Charities(Secretary'sSupplementary Report), 1865,p.77. 46 SenateDocument 12, 1850,p.21. 235

(Table 2, continued)

Vagrancy 23 Shopbreaking and stealing 17 Burglary 1 Housebreaking and stealing 2 Shopbreaking with intent to steal 3 Pilfering 7 Having obscene books and prints for circulation 1 Common drunkards 2 Malicious mischief 1. Assault 1 Trespass 4 Arson 2 Runaways 3 Total 311

Most offenses involved stealing under one or another label. How- ever, the meaning of the obviously important offense "stubborness," is unclear. Apparently the term puzzled readers of the period, too, because the next year the superintendent tried to provide an explanation. Rather than try to precisely define the amorphous term, the superintendent cited case histories of boys committed for "stubbornness:"

No. Has spent most of his time idling about the streets in company with other bad boys, and has been addicted to the use of intoxicating and tobacco; has often been intoxicated, has indulged in lying, profanity, pilfering, and sleeping out. No. Was sent to the House of Correction a year since, for stubborness. For four or five years has been in the habit of pilfering money and small articles from his mother; has been notoriously profane, having formed the habit of lying, and associating with a bad class of boys, often returning to his mother late at night. No. Is a notorious truant from school, and home; addicted to the habits of chewing tobacco and profanity. He has associated with the worst class of boys, rin away from home many tittles, often staying away several days, and even months at a time, sleeping nights in stables, or any place that might afford him shelter. At two different times he was absent three months. 236

No. His father died about ten years since.He has often taken money from his mother, and treatedher in the most insulting and shameful manner; throwing billets of wood at her, and threatening her life, so that she has been obliged to call in the neighbors and the watchman. No. Was once fined for throwing stones at a market man; is a notorious pilferer, having taken money and small articles too numerous to mention; also addicted to the habits ofchewing and smoking tobacco, lying, profanity, and Sabbath breaking.

Contained in state law, stubborness was the "crime? used to incarcerate boys who could be convicted of no other specific offense. It was, moreover(as we shall see), an offense used by parents to commit their

47 children.

Until the mid-1860's pauper, criminal and depraved were closcly associated terms; they implied that certain potentialities for evil, present within all men, had been developed at the expense of the more beneficent tendencies. These potentialities for evil had been cultivated by a pernicious environment, contended the reformers.Thus, the

theory of crime was profoundly democratic; it implied, that is, that all men were inherently equal in moralpotentiality; how that potential was realized was determined by the circumstances in which the child lived.

Really, however, the theory explained little. Poverty and crime were

related, but each appeared to cause the other; both seemed to occur in

cities; both seemed to characterize immigrants. But these are only

relationships; the nature of the relationship, the explanation of the visible bonds, was imprecise and remained to be determined.

47 House Document 14, pp.18-19. $'s4,Statutes. . .1836/Title III Chap.143,sec.5. 237

The stress on environmental causes of deviant behavior was a noteable characteristic of the 1840's.For instance, psychiatrists stressed the importance of environment in producinginsanity and argued that the tensions accompanying the development ofindustries and cities were a prime cause of an increasethey noted in mental disorder. In fact, widespread was the belief that insanity was mostprevalent in 48 the Northeast, the most urbanized part of the country. Likewise, novelists concerned with crime increasingly implied the primacyof 49 environment in moral development, and the same stress was characteristic of the theories of reformers concernedwith adult prisons. "One manifestation of a sympathetic outlook towardthe criminal in the

1840's," asserts W. David Lewis, "was the willingnessof many citizens to absolve him from guilt; eitherwholly or in part, by shifting blame to various environmentaldeficiencies."5°

By the mid-1860's another explanation ofcrime and poverty, and with it a new definition, had appeared. In the second report of the

Board of State Charities the new notebecame blatantly clear. JThe

causes of the evilEthe existence of such a large proportion of dependent and of destructive members in ourcommunity]are manifold, but amongthe

48Norman Damn, Concepts of Insanity in the United States, 1789- 1865, New Brunswick, 1964, pp. 85-90.

49 Davis, op, cit., pp.43-44.

50W.David Lewis, From Newgate to Dannemora: The Rise of the Pen- itentiary in New York, 1796-1848, Ithaca,1965, po231. 238

immediate ones, the chief cause isinherited organic imperfection, - v:tiated constitution, or poor,stock."51 The prominence given hereditary oveienvironmental causation inthe report of the Board is explained, first, by the views of itsauthor, the famous educator and social reformer, Samuel Gridley Howe. By the 1860's Howe, somewhat discouraged with the results of the PerkinsInstitute, had begun to believe that the blind were inherently mentallyinferior, and a general emphasis 52 on the importance ofheredity marked his thought in this period.

Howe was not alone in his stress onheredity. By the 1860's the optimism of the environmentalists in thetheory of inrinity had like- 53 wise given way to an emphasis uponinnate deficiencies, and even popular novels concerned with the causes ofcrime reflected thistrend.54

The Board of State Charities delineated twokinds orvitiation or imperfection of the stock."

First, lack of vital force; second,inherited tendencies to vice. The first comes from poor nutrition, useof stimulants, or abuse of functions, on the part of theprogenitors. The second comes from their vicioushabits of thdught and action. The first, or lack of vital force,affects mainly the dependent class, and lessens their ability forself-guidance.

The poor and the criminal were no longermerely depraved; they were

inferior.

51Board of State Charities,1866,pp.xxii-xxiii.

52Harold Schwartz,Samuel Gridley Howe,SocialReformer,1801-1876, Cambridge, 1956, pp. 271-272 and 275-276.

53Dain, on.cit., p.110

54Davis, 22.cit., p.82.

-.4-....A.1.1kse7.1=1.1C 239

contention thatcharacteristics ac- The Boardreinforced their with purportedlyscientific quired by parents wereinherited by children

Large doses ofalcohol stimulate"those evidence fromphysiologists. manifest in the"animal passions, and re- organs orthose functions" themselves in the higher orhuman sent- presses thosewhich manifest habit of yielding tothe "animal iment which resultin yin." The

passions" had horrifyingconsequencesfor posterity:

frequently repeated,becomes est- Any morbidcondition of body, it affects the manin various ablished by habit.Once established, . .This makes him moreliable to certaindiseases. . ways and his children, just as liability, or tendency,he transmits to .It is transmits likenessin form or feature. . . surely as he overthrow of that the frequent orthe habitual morally certain of them, soon and will, or thehabitual weakening the conscience appetites and tend- establishes a morbidcondition, with morbid surely trans- encies, and thatthe appetitesand tendencies are .a fathergives to hisoffspring mitted to theoffspring. . . surely to cravingfor stimulants. certain tendencieswhich lead indulged, grow to apassion, the vehemence The cravings, once of common men. of which passesthe comprehension

the Boardcontended, because Alcohol wasparticularly insidious, damaging consequencesthan occasional continued, smallintakes had more habitual, if mild,drinker never rid drunkenness. The body of the little danger thatthe drunk itself of alcohol. Moreover, there was drunkards since theprocreative powers would sire a legionof potential doses" alcohol drunkenness, but"taken in small werelessened during of procreativedesires and powers. "does not sensiblylessen the period

but the caseswhere it Procreation duringdrunkenness is rare, deformities andpassions in the is followed byfearful defects, 240

offspring are too numerous d well established to admit a doubt of the nature of the cause.

A difference in native and immigrantstock, the Board felt, was proved by Dr. Edward Jarvis'analysis of the registers of burial in

"Mount Auburn cemetery, used as a burialplace by American families of

Boston, in wealthy andcomfortable circumstances, and of the three great

Catholic cemeteries in Chariegtown,North Cambridge, and Dorchester. .

The results are presented asTable 3:

Table 3. Ages of Death of Burialsin Mount Auburn and Catholic Cemeteries (The figures represent the number ofburials in each age group per ten thousandburials. Note that the first four categories are cumulative, the last four,distinct.)

Age Mount Auburn Catholic Cemeteries

Under 1 1,163 2,877 Under 5 2,796 5,830 Under 10 3,332 6,319 Under 20 3,979 6;713 From 20 to 40 2,363 1,827 From 40 to 60 1,591 975 From:160 to:.80 447 252 80 and over 107

The far more frequent"deaths in infancy and childhood. . .among the

foreign population" were partly aproduct of the "greater skill and care"

received by more fortunate children;also it was partly a product of hereditary weakness. Although their argument had pessimistic impli-

cations, the Board did not want toinduce despair; "we may, by taking

55Board of State Charities 1866, pp.xxiii-xxix. 241

thought, during too orthree generations, correctthe constitutional tendencies to disease andearlydecay."56

Their attempt at optimism,however, was not convincing or, even,

natural law and precisely and clearlyargued. The Board relied on as in the contended that the bodyhad certain recuperative powers; margin of error oscillation of the heavenlybodies, it said, a certain

deviation of vice, that ishad not was permisSible;if the standard

of the body held outhope. been exceeded, thenthe healing powers could be asked toabstain The Board rejected thecontention that people

"a few generations,with from marriage and,instead, claimed that in will temperate life andwisely assorted marriage,the morbid conditions comparison disappear, - the medianline is regained."In a tasteless

the children of the"intemp- with a trained dog,the Board continued, in the wrong direction,but erate and viciousclasses do tend to point simultaneously. the tendency is not yet soestablished that they point

influences of education,and of moral They are stillsusceptible to the be brought to bear uponthem."57 and religious training,and these should

had not Frank Sanborn feltthat the influencesof education, indeed, He documented been brought to bear uponthe people whoneeded them most.

56Ibid.,pp. xix-xxxi.

57Ibid., pp.xxxi-xxxvii. The analogybetween dogs and children was education or training, ourpeople made explicitly:"So,when it comes to untrained pointer topoint, known that it is hard toteach the pup of an trained dog. Andfurther, that while it is very easy toteach the pup of a instinctively." the last. . .will point. If severalgenerations are trained, 242

an assertion that arelationship existed between crime and illiteracy.

In 1854 73.7% of the prisoners inMassachusetts County jails had been

illiterate; by 1864 the number had dropped to37.8 per cent. What sur-

prised Sanborn was a comparison of theMassachusetts to foreign figures.

In England and Wales, which lacked a system of commonschools, 33% of

the prisoners were illiterate as were50% in Ireland. But in Scotland

"not more than 25%" could not read and write. Sanborn felt these

figures showed that the illiteracy among thecriminals was much higher

than among the population as a whole; disappointing,however, was the

fact that the drop in the percentage of illiteratecriminals had not been

58 accompanied by a decrease in crime.

In spite of the gloomy and dishearteningtheory of the inheritance

of acquired tendencies toward vice, the Board retained afaith in the

ability of man to control society. The existence of crime and poverty,

claimed the Board, "is phenomenal - not eseential insociety. their

numbers depend upon social conditions within humancontrol.

The important truth, therefore, that thenumerical proportion of the dependent and criminal classes to the whole population issubject to conditions within human control,and may be rapidly intreasedl or lessenedby the actions of society,shyld be presented in every aspect on every properoccasion.

of crime; the The scientific study ofheredity had revealed the nature

58Board of State Charities, 1865(Secretary'sReport),pp. 71-72.

59 Ibid., p.xxii. 243

scientific study ofsociety would reveal thelaws of social control.

helped to found the To further these endsFrank Sanborn, in 1865,

American Association forthe Promotion ofSocial Science.

control society was Part of the programthe Board advanced to education was the best educational; for they sharedthe belief that

their program wasnoticeably weapon againstcrime. The other aspect of

the century. Paradoxically, like the progressivismof the latter part of ideology for which social the second reportof the Board delineated an used as a springboard Darwinism would bebut a veneer, yet the report was

activity; paradoxically for a programstralainSincreased governmental vice to argue the needfor social the Board used 4theory of hereditary The Board, that is, medicine based onenvironmental manipulation. which tempted and argued that it was necessaryto remove those causes

habits and tendencies, predisposed people toacquire the pernicious

which could becomehereditary. The Board called for: ownership of home- Improvement of dwellings;encouragement to wholesome steads; increased facilityfor buying clothing and and unwholesomefood; food; decreasedfacility for buying rum street, restriction of exhaustinglabor; cleanliness in every .and many other land and yard whichgge public arm canreach. . like measures.

the battery of weaponsin the These new measures wereto be added to

poverty.An older state's arsenal for thebattle against crime and

weapon was theState Reform School atWestborough.

60 Ibid., pp. xxxvi-xxxvii. 244

III. "at once a home and aschool"

legislative commissioners of In a truly memorablesentence the and virtues 1847(one of whom was RobertRantoul) described the nature of a reform school: sustained, in whole or in Of the many andvaluable institutions safely say that none is part, from thepublic treasury, we may connection with the of more importance, orholds a more intimate community, than one future prosperity andmoral integrity of the wandering, idle and whibh promises totake neglected, wayward, vicious boys, with perverseminds and corrupted hearts,and cleanse and purify andreform them, and thus sendthem forth, virtue, educated in the erectness ofmanhood and the beauty of citizens. and prepared to beindustrious, useful and virtuous

Commissioners to The words "reform" and"school" were chosen by the

the convey withprecision their idea ofthe distinctive nature of

new institution.

The purpose of theinstitution, stressed thecommissioners, was

"'the reformation of juvenileoffenders,'" which they understood to

62 Consequently, the reform- be distinctly differentfrom punishment. penitentiary;" the com- atory was "not to becalled a prison or a

missioners proposed "to give tothe external appearance ofthe buildings

entire security fromescape."" as little that of aprison as is consistent with

61Second Legislative Report,pp.12-13.

62Ibid., p.5.

"Ibid., p.11. The desire of the commissioners not tohave the Reform fact that School considered a penitentiaryis ironical in view of the "penitentiary" in the late eighteenthand early nineteenth centuries Lewis, denoted an advanced, enlightenedkind of penal institution. See 2.2. cit., onNewgate. 245

remarked, "the fact must never Likewise, in 1858the superintendent

of the school isthe reformation be lost sight ofthat the prime object .It is to preventhim from be- of the boy, and nothis punishment. . . 64 coming a criminal,and to make him aman."

objects of reformation werethe In terms offinished products the for authority,self- same as theobjects of publiceducation: respect self-respect. Without control, self-discipline,self-reliance and claimed the superintendent, "subjection of will toright control,"

. ." Indeed, "neglect of "no sure reformation canbe effected. . depraved inclination"had restraint," "unconqueredwill following But '!the erectnessof man- created "the demandfor ourinstitution."65

implied. more thanabject submission to hood and the beautyof virtue" important goal ofreformation. The authority; andself-respect was an

superintendent,"acquires a fixed properly reformedboy, claimed the he finds himself con- character; he findshimself worthy of respect;

himself."66The meaning of re- fided in; he respectsand confides in character. form, thus, wasthe totaltransformation of

reformation, 'theCommissioners "In order to securethe desired

school," meaning aformal' institution propose tocall the institution a

"Public Document 23, 1858,p.7.

"Ibid., p.9.

"Ibid., p.11. 246

for learning correct attitudesand useful skills, wrote the commission of

1847. Because education, as Part Two hasdescribed, was as much moral as intellectual, thereformation of character was an educative process.

The reformatory was in every sense aschool, yet a very special sort

of school. "For those who will avail themselves of ourschools, open

to every child, provision isalready made," noted the Commissioners.

"But for those who, blind to their own interests,choose the school of

vicious associates only, the Statehas yet to provide a compulsory

school, as a substitute for the prison, -it may be for thegallows."67

The State Reform School was thefirst form of compulsory education in

the United States. The Commonwealth discovered, however,that it had

more than the sixhundred inmates of Westborough who were"blind"

to their own interests,and in the 1850's compulsory education was

extended in the form of state-wide laws.

The words "reform" and "school" leftunsaid a third, crucial

part of the definition of the newinstitution. In their report arguing

the hereditary nature of crime and urgingsocial engineering the Board

of State Charities asserted the existenceof "a lever for the elevation

of the race, more potent than anyhuman instrumentality, to wit, the

lever of parentallove."68Parents who loved their children would see

67Becond,Legislative Report, p.15.

68Board of State Charities, 866, p. xxxvi. 247

the connection between their own habits andthe prospects of their future offspring; such parents would voluntarilyreform themselves.

But what if the all powerful force ofparental love were missing?What

if a child had no family worthy of thename?Then, almost surely, he would come to lead a life of crime andimmorality: almost surely,

unless he were provided with a home byloving foster parents. This

assumption dictated one of the major strategiesfor the reform of youth.

At the inauguration of a new superintendentin 1857, George Boutwell

said, "This institution is at once ahome and a school. . . ."69

"The State must supply the place of a lost, or whatis worse, a

drunken parent," wrote the committee of1846,70 and this assumption

was echoed invirtually all the literature surroundingthe reform school:

the first step in the strategy of reform wasfor the state to become the

actua: parent of tle boy. In terms of the prevalent conceptionof

crime the State had no other choicebecause reformers believed stat-

istics proved that familial viciousness orweakness was the most direct

cause of crime. But the assumption of aparental role was not to be

deplored; the reform school, claimedEmory Washburn, "presents the 71 State in her true relation, of a parentseeking out her erring children. . .

69 George Boutwell, "Speech at the Inauguration of Mr. Starr, in Services at the Induction of WilliamE. Starr, esq., as Superintendentof the State, Reform School atWestboro', January 15,1857, Boston,1857,p.13.

70 First Legislative Report, p.10.

71Washburn, Address, cle. cit., p.85. 248

The reform school marked the beginningof an epoch; it represented the first time "in our country. .a state, in thecharacter of a common parent, has undertaken the high andsacred duty of rescuing and restoring her lost children, not so much by the terrorsof the law, as by the gentler influence of theschool."72

The parental state was to give the youngoffender a home; thus, in 1861 Superintendent Joseph A.Allen emphasized that "the great design of the school should be to make it, asmuch as possible, like a family, - to have theboys stand to the officers in the relation of 73 children to parents." A distinguished group of men, including

John Philbrick, Superintendent of Schoolsin Boston, visited the reform school in 1863 and observed, "Heie is areal home, not costly, but 74 comfortable and satisfying. . . ." The parental manner was to extend

to discipline; causing each tofeel that he has a personal interest in

the welfare ofall."75 The idealwas never entirely attained,but in

1863 the trustees noted with pleasure progress in"bringing about a near approach to aparental government, and the abandonment of all

corporal punishment and restraint." Claimed the trustees, "the govern

ment is intended to be parental andkind, and the law of love should

72Ibid.,pp. 100-101.

73Public Document 24, 1861, p.35.

74PublicDocument 23, 1863, p.10.

"5House Document 22 1854, p.28. 249

be the ruling element in all thediscipline of theestablishment."76

The pleasure of the trustees in1861 resulted from the recent and successful introduction of the family system oforganization:

The experiment of subdividingthe institution, and establishing separate households, has beenfully tried during the year, and with most gratifying results. The farm house and gardenhouse, having been prepared for theaccomodation of thirty boys each: that number was selected from the mostdeserving, and sent out to colonize. Each house is under the chargeof a gentleman and his wife, who have control andmanagement of the boys, subject to the general rules of theinstitution, and subordinate to the Superintendent. They form, in reality, separateinstitutions. They have their own domestic arrangements,and their own school; and the boys come into the mainbuilding only for Chapel services on Sunday, and foroccasional lectures. They are under no physical restraint or confinement. Being employed moftly upon the farm they can run away at any time,if they like. /

Westborough; its The family system oforganization did not originate at

earlier and successfulintroduction at theCommonwealth's Industrial

School for Girls, at Lancaster,had spurred its establishmentin the

school for boys. The .family system was anadministrative reform based

on three importantcontentions.

The family system clearly wasthe logical outcome of thecontention

that delinquency stemmedfrom the lack of a realhome; it represented well in part a concrete attempt tomake reform familial in nature as

reformed as intent. A second and relatedcontention was, "Boys are not 78 in masses but by laboringwith them individually." Large, impersonal

76 Peblic Document 24, 1861, p.7.

77 Ibid., pp.4-5.

78 Public Document 24, 1862, p.37. 250

development of the time: institutions reflectedthe industrial

Partiality to them isfostered by a falseanalogy between material of organization, discipline, and moral forces. We see the effect enterprise, and infer that and combined effortfor any material Congregation in numbers, order, it is necessary for-reformation. discipline, absolute powersof officers andentire submission of and are soldiers, are essential tothe efficiency of an army; object of armies is to supposed to be so inreformatories; but the make machines; inreformatories it is tomake men.79

mixed its metaphors betweenthe The Board of StateCharities may have Reform schools were factory and the army,but its point wasclear.

tendencies of the time.The to counteract, notreinforce, the worst corporations that imported size of cities; thematerialism of greedy industrial communities: these were and exploited labor;the problems of thought of causes of crime; at nocost shouldreform schools ever be

as "moralmachinery."

of the family A third contentioninfluential in the institution Without system was anemphasis on the family asthe "social unit".

but a multitude of ind- the family therewould be "no real society,

older."The family ividuals .who hardeninto selfishness as they grow

. .by "must be at the foundationof all permanentsocial institutions.

effectual substitute befound for it." no humancontrivance should any public institutions, The conclusion wasobvious: "We shall find in our they approach to thefamily that, other thingsbeing equal, the nearer

80 Still, the family units system the better,and the contrary."

79Board of State Chgrities, 1866, lxiii-lxiv.

80Ibid., xlv-xlvi. 251

created at the reform school werecontrived, not real. To obtain the

full impact of virtuous,familial influence it was necessary toplace

the boy "in the quiet circleof a New England family;" and togive boys

this experience, as well as toplace them "under the steadyparental 81 control of a master," was a primary purpose,of apprenticeship. To

the best find a boy a true New Englandfamily with a foster father was

strategy of reform.

The location of the fosterfamily, however, was critical. Because

crime was an urban phenomenon,its cure could not takeplace in the

city. Throughout the theory of reform ranthe nineteenth century's became a idealization of the countryside;the countryside, in fact,

Most simply put, weapon in thebattle against juveniledelinquency.

"The farmer's life is beset withfewer temptations than mostmechanical 82 employnents, as they are usually moreretir-.1 from largevillages."

that "a much The experience of privatereformatories had indicated

.have fallen back into greater proportion of the caseswhere boys. .

been put to places their former vices, arefrom among such as have 83 villages. . . ." The assumption of I in cities, or large, compact

L the virtues of thecountryside and theinfluence of landscape upon provided by the 1847 leg- character were apparent inthe description,

; islative commission, of the siteselected for the reformschool:

81Senate Document 12, 1850, p.27.

82 Senate Document 14, 1851,p.16.

83Second Legislative Report, p..53. 252

Chauncy Pond, whichmakes its It is situated onthe borders of clear, pure water, about boundary on one side.The pond is of hundred and seventy-eight thirty feet indepth, and covering one by a gentle aclivity,from the acres of land. The ground rises, the beautiful shore of the pond, to aheight which overlooks beyond, embracing, in sheet of water, and anextent of country and gives a verypleasing part, thevillage of Westborough, There are nomanufacturing villages inthe vicinity, prospect. than in most of the and the farm-houses arenot more numerous proportion to the area. agricultural towns inthe State, in retired.84 The situation,therefore, is sufficiently chides," rhapsodized EmoryWashburn, Like "a mother whokisses while she of favor" to thedeserving" the State offers"hope, and the assurance this refuge fromtemptation. It but "it does more;it rears for them before them thesepleasant offers them thislandscape, and spreads their temporal and fields, and bids its ownservants to watch over plastic; "I have generally eternalinterest."85Juvenile nature was "that what have beenconsidered found," asserted MosesGrant of Boston,

when placed in a morefavorable circum- in this citythe worst of boys, character, have oftendone well and stance to thedevelopment of their 86 the influences aroundthem; become usefulmen." Children were molded by

theory of reform, thus, was achange in circum- an essentialpart of the die circumstances were moreimportant stances, and few,if any, aspects of influence of the country than the physical; exposureto the uplifting

became a key strategyof reform.

84 Ibid., pp.6-7.

85Washburn, Address, op. cit., p. 108.

86First Legislative Report, p.14. 253

The stress on reformation through kindnessand a proper environment was no more an uniquecharacteristic of institutions for juvenilesthan was the environmentaltheory of delinquency. For example, in the 1840's a reform movementreached adult prisons. In New York State, according to Lewis, prison reformersrejected the belief that rehabilitationshould be sought "by breaking the spirit of a man,subjecting him to a hard and humiliating discipline, and literallyburying him from the world."

For this harsh conception reformerssubstituted "a more positive approach of attempting to bring out thebest in an inmate through the useof kindness and the extension of privileges. ."87 In mental inst-

itutions moral as opposed to physicaltherapy, "that is, the creation of

a complete therapeuticenvironment - social, psychological,and physical"

had been growing in importancesince the early nineteenth century,

largely as a result of the influenceof European writers. During the

late 1830's and the 1840's innovationsspurred by a belief in moral

therapy entered asylums, which claimed'''annual recovery rates of 80 to

90 per cent of patients brought in soonafter falling ill, or 40 to60

per cent of all patientsadmitted in a singleyear."88 Attempted in-

novations in adult and juvenilepenal institutions and mentalhospitals

were the attemptedrealization of the "soft-line"discussed in the

previous part of this study.They were the counterparts of commonschool

reformers' attempts to reduce corporalpunishment, to recast the role of

87Lewis, op. cit., p.201.

88Dain, 92. cit., p. 13 and pp.119-120. pedagogical the teacher in ahumane and benevolentmold, and to introduce

the children. Like the common techniques proceedingfrom the interests of reflected the paradox school reforms otherinstitutional innovations deviant behavior of trying to instilrestraint and prevent or cure

through appealing to theaffections, the very facultieswhose indulgence

allegedly bred immorality,crime and insanity.

Another strategy of juvenilereform was the intellectualeducation

offered the boys. Education, some said, wasthe best weapon against

that superintendents tried to crime. It was, at any rate, a weapon reform school the classes, wield with skill; fromthe inception of the

trustees and superintend- attended four hours aday, were graded, and the

high schools in the large ent claimed their 1-..dool was comparable to made a cities and towns ofthe state= Moreover, superintendents

available, and Superin- persistent effort toobtain the best teachers

tendent Allen, who wasespecially well versed inmodern educational 89 theories, introducedobject teaching and oralinstruction.

of the The feminization thatcharacterized the teaching force

State also marked thestaff of the reformschool:

Experience teaches thatthese;boys, many of whom neverhad a

89 On formal educationin the reform school andits importance see, daily routine; Public Senate Document 6,1849, pp.9-10, which gives the obtain the best Document 15, 1857, p.6,which emphasizes the effort to claims the school available teachers; PublicDocument 23,1858, p.13, which 1862,p.5, which dis- is as good as mosthigh schools; Public Document 24 teaching and oral instruction;Public cusses theintroduction of object Document 23, 1863,p.8, which discusses the gradingof the school; Public grading and reports good progress ; Document 20, 1865,which also discusses relation of and Board of StateCharities,1864,ix, which discusses the education and crime. 255

mother's affection, or feltthe kindly atmosphereof woman's love, which woman alone can need the softeningand refining influence substituted female of- give, and we have,wherever practicable, ficers and teachersfor those of theother sex."

schools differed in theduties However, the reformschool and the public

the teacher, like areal required of teachers. In the reform school Itlth the boys in a var- mother, was to establishintimate relationships the boys in the iety of activities;"teachers are required to oversee charge of them in part, yards during hours ofrecreation, and to take On the "Sabbath, whenthe during out-door andin-door labors. . . building and yards, theteachers boys are kept withinthe limits of the

school rooms, exceptduring have charge of themin their respective Superintendent, "the relationof chapel hours."Therefore, claimed the

class, is veryintimate."91 the teacher. . .to his or her

an analogybetween The comprehensiverole of the teacher suggests Public school; the the reform school and aboatding,or even British comment that*our best analogy is not farfetched. The superintendent's good order and adegree of boys become activeassistant in sustaining introduction of a modifiedprefect decorum among themselves"suggests the

92 1861 the superintendentcommented that system. More explicitly, in "families" were "not boys living in one ofthe recently created

90Public Document 20,1865, p.8.

91Public Document 23, 1858, p.14. as a 92Report of the Superintendent for1852, p.29(not numbered state document) 256

even subject to any more strict discipline or supervision than is

desirable in well-managed boarding schools."Truly, the reform school

was not intended as a penal institution; it was to be an academy for

delinquents.93

Authority, kindness, enlightenment of conscience and constant employ-

ment: these, observed the superintendent in 1858, were four of the most

94 important means of reform. The agency for employing the first three

means was the combination of parental, kindly discipline; the family

system and fethale teachers. But the fourth, constant employment,was

equally important, as the superintendent stressed suggestively: "the

old couplet hath truth, if not poetry,

'Satan finds some mischief still For idle hands to do.'"

Labor, however, was more than busy work to keep boys out of mischief:

Labor, to employ the hands, and busy the mind, and awaken ingenuity, and produce results, is a demand of our constitution; is needfulto the maintenance of virtue; and surely is needful to therecovery of the dissolute and vicious. Without this, the other means of discipline would surely fail, or would only half complete their work. The health of both body and mind is dependenton purpose and exertion of labbr . And the habit of industry,nurtured and strengthened by years of trial in our institution, will not only be a safeguard by a youth when he goes forth from us, but will be his assurance of independence and position in his after life.9.5

.1111111111}MIMmillamMon.

9 3PublicDocument 24, 1861, p.5.

9 4PublicDocument 23, 1858, pp.8-10.

95 Loc.cit. On the pr.oblem of masturbation in prisonssee Lewis, 22.cit.,p.131. 257

A precise and tightly packed dailyschedule provided one means of as- 96 suring that no hands wouldbe idle. Another was to engage the boys

in productive labor. Farming, it was generally agreed, was the best

possible occupation; but only the mostreliable boys could be trusted,

on the school farm. Until 1860 shoe-making was the occupationin which

the largest number of boys wasemployed; but in the 1860's it was drop-

ped and chair-making emphasized inits place. In 1863 roughly 20% of

the boys worked on theschool farm; this comprised 75% ofthose living

in the farm houses.About thirty per cent "wereemployed in sewing and

knitting;" about 22% in "chair-work;"and roughly 22% in "various

domestic avocations."The chair-making was performedfor a contractor who 97 paid the school but 13/4 cents perhour for the labor of each boy.

The strategies employed withinthe reform school were a meansof

attacking the problems of crime,poverty and social disorderthrough

re-making the individualdelinquent. But by the mid-1860s.the reports

of the trustees of the reformschool and the Board of StateCharities

reflected a realization thatsocial reform must comethrough "enlight-

enment of conscience" ofthe prosperous andlaw-abiding as well as of

96Senate::Document 6, 1849, pp.9-10: Rise at 5 or 5k o'clock,according to the season of the year - and, after attending to theirmorning &cies, repair tothe school room, where theylabor from 7 to 10; schoolfrom that time to 12; then one hour for play anddinner; commence work again at1, and From work till 4, when they haveanother hour for play and supper. 5 to 7 is for school, andfrom then till their bedtime,is for examination of the misdemeanors of theday,moral instruction,and devotional exercises. 97 Board of State Charities(Secretary'sReport), 1865, p.176. 258

and the Boardused their reports the individualoffender; the trustees but also recommendations tothe legislature not only as meansfor making The trusteesconcluded their as aspark to kindlesocial conscience. pointed than anythey had prev- 1865 report with anexhortation more iously made: living in the midst citizens ofMassachusetts, who are Think of it, stone's splendor, there areboys, perhaps within a of luxury and whose heads press nodowny throw of yourstately residences, the shades of night arecreeping pillow, who have noresource when shelter of somefriendly pile oflumber, on, but tocrawl under the luxurious couch in ahayloft, or in by chance tofind a more criminals, old and young,to seek thestation-house. company with beloved daughters mothers, whotenderly provide your Think of it, slumbers with prayers, with all that moneycan buy,who bless their from everytemptation,- there and shield them sofar as you may, . .who know community daughterswith souls aswhite. are in the table to eat an lay their heads;who never sit at not where to insufficient to preservethe orderly meal; whpseragged dress is survived evilassociation; and remnants ofmodesty which have oaths and curses,instead of whose slumbers aremade horrible by blessings. What can they do being sweetenedwith prayers and destructione but enter on theroad which leads to Charities and FrankSanborn What indeed? TheBoard of State that their stress onthe "import- hinted at an answer. The Board revealed

understand fully the causesof differencein ance ofhaving the people people themselves to"take interest social condition" wasto exhort the upward." improvement, bylevelling from below and direct actionin social which excludeseducation, which Wherever existsthe "degree of poverty which breedsdiseases, indo- abases and finallydestroys self-respect, "property is unsafe lence and vice,"_Frank Sanbornwarned ominously,

`..1MIMOINIM

98 Public Document20, 1865, p.14. 1 259

" Especially pernicious wasthe accomp- and morals are weakened. . class of wealthy animent of poverty.by "a heartlessand unscrupulous

wealth to repose on thedegredation men, whofoolishly su ppose their constituted," continuedSanborn, of the poor."Against "a society so "issued his terrible decree - "the Divine Judge" twicein modern history

American revolution. If we now fail in the firstFrench and the last

because they have notbeen promulgated in to read Hislaws, it is not 99 than those ofSinai." fire and blood,with terrors greater

following the Civil War, Sanborn, in thedislocations immediately

fair wages toevery laborer, to wanted to arouse thepeople, "To secure

and promote temperance. . . ." discourage monopolies,foster education, enlightenment. To Sanborn it was aquestion of education,of public

attention to otherprinciples and If "our peoplewould give as much the department ofpolitics," laws of sociology, asthey have given to excel" and the conditions claimed Sanborn, publicinstitutions "would 101 be elminated. The fears of the of potentialsocial disaster would that the commonschools, Board and of Sanbornrepresented confessions

institutions hadfailed. They had the reform schooland other charitable with the problemsof social and been created asstrategies for coping lavish expenditure of economic transformation,but in spite of often

99 )1866, p.219. Board of StateCharities(Secretary's Report,

la 1865, p.410.

101Board of State Charities, Report,1866, xviii. Some money andrhetoric the problemsmounted in scope and intensity. institutions to cf the reasons for thefailure of public charitable

encountered in the perform miracles areillustrated by the problems

the reform school defined the reform school. In fact, the problems of outer limits ofachievement for innovationsbased on the flawed theories of mid-nineteenth centuryreformers.

Size was the first majorproblem of the reform school. Designed for

three hundred, the enrollmentquickly exceeded this number and an exten-

in 1857 sion had to be constructed. Even the extension was overcrowded;

and 1858, the years ofmaximum enrollment, there were oversix hundred

and managing the enrolled boys was inmates. The problem of accomodating

intensified in 1859 whenDaniel Creeden, one of the inmates,burned the

102 problem. new extension tothe ground. The burning highlighted another

Boys were usually committed tothe reform school for theirminority and

A sentence of this given an alternative,shorter sentence in a prison.

length was particularly onerousbecause boys were committed, for the most 103 part, between the agesof ten and fourteen. Frequently boys tried

1020n the size issue see, Second Legislative Report,p.11; Senate Doc- ument 12,x,1850, p.3;Public Document 15, 1857, p.4;Public Document 23,1859, pp.3, 7-10 and 14-15.

10 3.Agesof boys committed 1864-65and all previous years: Age # past year #previously Total 5 6 0 5 18 7 1 18 8 i 82 85 9 5 174 179 308 10 4 304 11 21 404 425 12 14 467 481 553 13 27 526 14 11 486 497 15 0 532 532 16 0 122 122 17 0 40 40 261

to appear soincorrigible that they would beejected from the reform school and sent to theprison, from which they wouldbe released in considerably less time. Credden had been deliberatelytrying to be thrown

committal. out. The fire prompted changesin the legislation concerning

The alternative ssatence wasabolished, and to alleviate the size

and problem the power of committal wasremover; from local magistrates placed solely with the countyand probatecourts.104

Finding suitable apprenticeships wasanother problem. Part of the

difficulty, claimed thesuperintendent in 1851, was thatolder modes

lived of apprenticeship werechanging. Previously the apprentice had and as a son withthe family,which wasconcerned with his intellectual

moral, as well as occupational,training. Now masters treated apprentices

like0,and, outside like any other employees;they could live where they

scarcely of working hours,do as they pleased. This kind of situation

provided the parental restraintand familial influence thereformers

singled out for sought fromapprenticeship.105 One town particularly

Marblehead, where quite anumber of poor treatmentof apprentices was left virtually former inmates wereplaced. In Marblehead the boys were

....1!1111., 'VENN*, deliberate. It The shift away from theolder and younger age groups was that over was felt thatthe school was inappropriatefor the younger, and Public Document 20,1865, p.37. 14 reformation wasprobably impossible.

104Public Document 19, 1864, pp.184 -186..

105 Senate Document 12, 1850,p.19. 262

unsupervised and provided withalmost no form of intellectual or moral education, such a situation wasconducive to a return to old, vicious 106 habits and could undo the workof the reform school.

Simply finding enough people totake apprentices was also a problem; am: most difficult of all waslocating sufficient farmers.Those who

ran the schoolargued that the location ofsuitable and sufficient ap-

prenticeships and the visiting ofapprenticed boys required the appointment of an additional memberof the staff. In their proposals the origins

of the parole officer wereevident. Another proposal to cope with the

apprenticeship problem contendedthat the State should offer to pay

families willing to take andadequately care for a boy. The payments,

proponents held, would beless than the cost of the boy's upkeep within

the reform school; and theproposal, thus, offered an economical way

for increasing the amount offamilial influence, the best strategy for

107 the reformation of the boy. Depression and Civil War also brought

difficulties. During the depression of 1857 thesuperintendent had

difficulty finding paid employment forthe boys and idleness was the

result.108The situation persisted, and some yearslater Frank Sanborn,

visiting the reform school, washorrified to find large numbers of boys

with absolutely nothing to do.The Civil War did not bring economic

J06 House Document 2, 1857, p.43.

107 Loc. cit., and Senate Document2, 1859, pp.14-16.

108Public Document 23 1858, p.15. problems; but the public agitation reached the reform school,which had

109 to cope with a sudden spurt of escapes.

Another non - economic problem was discipline. The reform school had four different superintendents in its first sixteen years.Three had left, claimed Sanborn, from differences of opinion with the trustees

110 concerning discipline. Mr. Starr, who served from 1857-1861, was the least effectual. Part of Starr's troubles was attributable to the overcrowding, at its peak during his tenure; but his ineffectualand somewhat negligent administration contributed to theability of Daniel

Creeden and his five associates to carry out their work of arson. At his inauguration Starr had told the boys,"1 come here to do you good."

Why had he come to do them good? "There can be but one motive to induce a person to enter uponthis work with any prospect of success; and this

is love, - love of those committed to ourcharge, love of one another, 111 love of the right, love to God and loveto.man." Apparently, love was not enough. Three years later Starr's long solitary confinementof a

group of boys manacled in dismal, unsanitary cells became a public 112 scandal and a grounds for his censure by theGovernor's Council.

109Public Document 24,, 1862, pp.4-5.

110Board of State Charities(Secretary'sReport), 1865, p.177. 111 Services at the Induction of William E. Starr, op.it,, pp.8-9.

112The report to the Governor's Council asserted: The material facts were:- Tat That the inmates of the school had been imprisonedin solitary The theory of reform through loving, parental governmentand constant employment was an ideal; but it was an ideal that the reformschool could only approximate. Except for the boys who lived in the family units set up in 1861, the reform school was,in reality, more like a prison than either a home or a school.

lodges; some of them manacled for periods varying from 8 to 16 weeks. 2nd That the cells were without sufficient light or air. 3rd That no official record whatever was kept, bywhich the character, duration or cause of such punishment canbe ascertained. 4th That it appears to the Committee that these punishments were inflicted by the Superintendent alone, without interference by the Trustees. 5th That authority to punish in the manner described had beendelegated and exercised by subcrdinate officers. 6th That it was stated by the Superintendent, that he had employed a boy, as a spy upon these offenders both before and after their confinement; and the Committee believed that the boy so employed, had advised and assisted in the commission of some of the offenses for which punishment was inflicted and; 7th That.neither the cells nor the prisoners were exhibited to the Governor and Council, except upon direct questions put to the Sup- erintendent after the general examination had been finished, and the Lieutenant Governor and some C ouncillors had left the institution,

In the same report Nathaniel Banks added, "I have visited most of the Houses of Correction and Jails and the State Prison and neverfound one such cell; there is no such punishment inflicted in any prison of the

State. . . .they were unfit habitation for boys or men. They were impure, without sufficient light or air." Records of the Governor' Council, 1860, pp.205-207, manuscript, Massachusetts State Archives. 265

That the reform schoolfaced problems of size,apprenticeship, employment and disciplineis not surprising. A more unpredictable instance, "about four- difficulty was posed by parents. In 1854-55, for "were committed on the sevenths" of the boys chargedwith stubborness

request."To some complaint of their parents orrelatives, or at their

year's report, "the complaint wasmade, extent, revealedthe following 113 preferred by others." But to prevent a moreserious charge being investigating a moremalignant reason wasunearthed by the committee

public charities:

it is necessary toadopt The experience ofnine years shows that the State, in some means toprevent abuse ofthe benevolence of The place is styled maintaining the institutionat Westborough. a'school: purposely to relieveits inmates fromthe stigma of not unwilling to criminals; it follows thatparents sometimes are trouble - send their sons thither,especially those that are keeping them at home. If some, in order tosave the expense of prevented this (whichit the affection ofnatural parents always still frequently does not), guardiansand step-fathers would instances, even, asappeared treat their wardsthus harshly, in some the poor before us in evidence, actuallytaking pains to tempt offenses - assault or boy into the commissionof some technical him before a mag- theft, perhaps, -inorder to be able to carry Reform School at istrate and cure hiscommittal to the State Westborough. reflected in stillanother The Mephistophelean natureof some parents was earnings they either way; greedyfor the money fromtheir children's from beneficent tried to obtain theirrelease or to lure them away

in 1864, the statecontained a apprenticeships. Claimed the trustees

113House Document 2,1856, p.36.

114Senate Document.2, 1859, p.15. 266

their childrenuntil a classof parents who"apparently care little for "endeavored to they are large enough to earns011e.thing." Then they Faced with the procure theirrelease from this institution. . . ." parent, asserted its grasping natural parent,the State, the adopted duty generally to decline superior claim: "wehave felt it to be our placed as many of them as we giving them up to theirparents, and have 115 could, with farmers andmechanics in thecountry."

Superintendents, finally, weretroubled by what they considered

claimed Superintendent unfair publicity. Frank Sanborn's report, boys had declined Allen, had unfairly claimedthat the earnings of the

education. and th*tan over emphasis wasbeing given to intellectual countered Allen, had Changes in the nature ofcontracting and payment, number of hours accounted for the apparentdecrease in earnings; the

throughout the history per day devoted toschooling had remained constant frequently a of theschoo1.116 The desire to make a prison pay was 117 reforms in prisons. tenet of those opposingthe more humanitarian

115Public Document 20, 1864, pp.3-4.

116Sanborn's charges are in Board of StateCharities(Secretary's Document 20,1865, Report), 1865, pp.174-176. Allen's answer is in Public the result of the p.9. Allen claimed thatthe decrease in earning was the running of fact that the StateBoard of Agriculture turned over Previously, the Board of the school farm to theReform School itself. Agriculture had paid theschool ten cents per day forthe, labor of each boy; now nothing wasbeing received.

117Lewis, 22. cit., pp.100-101. 267

The attack on the In this senseSanborn's attack is indeed surprising. allegedly inadequate earningof the pupils wasprobably an expfession of

Sanborn was generol hostility towards theschool in its current form.

who, it has been notedearlier, a close associateof Samuel Gridley Howe, wrote the report ofthe Board of State Charities,and Howe, for reasons

about the that will be discussedshortly, had serious reservations virtues of reform schools.

Superintendents alsocomplained of a lack of publicappreciation

boys who had become virtuous, of the school. Unmindful of the hundreds of according to productive citizens thepublic pointed with derision,

complaints, at every instance ofthe re-arrest of a reformschool 118 11 skeptical tax-payers wanted some 'graduate. In all probability, and the assurance thatthey were receiving somevalue for their taxes, to the historian: question behind theircomplaints is of equal importance

what were the resultsof the reform school?

Epilogue: The Results ofReform

school Six hundred and twenty-nineex-inmates of the reform behavior of some of served in the Civil War. The trustees hailed the

and in their 1865 these soldiers as evidenceof true reformation

reports presented aselection of cases:

WM.

House Document 118For complaints about unfairpopular opinion see, 2, 1856, p.22 and PublicDocument 23, 1858, p.33. who had a sisterand three J.G., an orphan, notyet seventeen, faithfully working at brothers, having leftthe institution, was hundred days' men came,he enlisted, at trade. When the call for for the war. His pay serving his time out,and then enlisted responsible parties, andwhen he and bounties weredeposited with Before reenlisting, was musteredout amounted toquite a sum. in Boston, and gaveher he sought his sister,found her at work and five years, His brothers, agedrespectively nine, seven, $25. place for the eldest he found in analmshouse. He secured a good of attending school,agreeing with his master,with the opportunity leave the two youngestwhere to pay hisboard. He was advised to intends to obtain situations they were for one yearlonger, when he and is now employed for them. At the close ofthe war he returned, by his former master. Regiment, left his bounty W.H. enlisted inthe 35th Massachusetts Knowxville, in 1863. with the Superintendent,and was killed at The mother would havebeen His father diedabout the same time. left by this son, which was utterly destitute,but for the money used to purchase ahome.119

In his report for1857 The other casesreported were similar. of the best teachersin the the superintendentproudly noted that one 120 he had noted thatthree school was an ex-inmate; in the previous year 121 education. graduates were undertaking aliberal, pre-collegiate

been the interpretationthe Surely, too, realreformation must have his mother. superintendent gave aletter sent by an inmate to part the lettersaid: unjust I have been to you,in dis- It pains me tothink how cruel and these things, it makes regarding your kindadvice. When I think of ou mother;but I hope the me feel asif I were unworthy tocall the pleasure ofseeing you time will soon come,when I khan have institution asthis.122 bless the day, thatthere ever was such an

119Pui,iic Document 20,_1865, pp.13-14.

120Public Document 15,1857, p.7.

121 House Document 2,1856, p.39.

122Senate Document 12 a,1850, p.40. 269

about financial What more could thetax-payers ask? If they inquired

had an answer. In his address advantages, GeorgeBoutwell, as usual,

Mr. Starr Boutwellobserved that at the inaugurationof the ill-fated dependent consumers toproducers. the reform schooltransformed boys from

"reclaimed," he calculated,estimated for The labor of athousand men

equal to the labor oftwenty thousand a period of"twenty years only, is dollars each, yields twomillions men for one year;which, at a hundred

ofdollars."123

Superintendents also tried toprovide more formaldemonstrations

After the fire of1859 Mr. Starr of the results ofthe reform school. evidence for theappeal to the leg- realized that heneeded to provide portion of theschool. He islature for funds tore-build the burned

the subsequent careersof all therefore traced ascarefully as he could

former inmates. Heconcluded: 1,653 Whole number of casesinvestigated 281 Turned out badly, 17 percent 1,372 Reformed, 83 per cent

difficulties with thelaw. Surely, "Turned out badly" meantgetting into

"a better result. ..rhan the claimed thesuperintendent, this was

ever dared tohopefor.!'124 truest friends ofthe school.

of State Charities Not everyone wasconvinced. In 1866 the Board tend to virtue" wondered if thosereformed were notthose "who naturally

..11101.11=1.=.11en 22.cit., 123George Boutwell's address at theinauguration of Starr,

pp11-12.

1241Waairalinzarosaill. 1859,PP.6-7- 270

vir- or "who need onlyremoval from vicious associatesin order to become

tuous?" Would not "most of them," askedthe Board, have done quit

as well if theyhad been put in the country,without the long and ex

pensive sojourn of years in thereformatory?" Some people, continued

the Board, even claimed thatapparently good results were achieved

"in spite of, rather than by reasonof, the influence of the reform-

. atory." Such a person was AY. Goodspeed,superintendent of the State

Almshouse at Bridgewater. Goodspeed, who had personally undertaken the

education of many delinquents,asserted, "he would rather take a boy

immediately after his sentence bythe court, all ragged and dirty,than

take the same boy after two orthree years' residence in anordinary

house ofreformation."125Some of Goodspeed's sentiments were most

likely shared by Howe, author ofthe report. In 1854 Howe had unsuc-

cessfully opposed the creation of agirl's reform school at Lancaster.

The effect of the congregationof a large number of delinquentsiu one 126 school, Howe felt, could beproductive only of increased vice. In

this sense, criticism of reformschools was couched in terms of the crit-

icisms of academies, discussedearlier. Both were seen as potential

breeding grounds for immorality.

=1.....4...... C.41, 4 125Board of State Charities,1866, pp. lxxv-lxxvi.

126Schwartz, op.cit., pp. 273-274. impos- school., the Boardconcluded, it was In evaluatingthe reform results as yetobtained, and we must sible to be guided"by any actual principles ofeducation, andapply rely upon wellestablished general The most importantgeneral principle these to the caseinpoint."127 reformation is about of repression as anagency of was thatthe "doctrine control a largemmber of delinquent exploded."128Because it had to its intent, hadto be a repressive boys, a reformschool, whatever the heart theory ofreformatories, and institution. Needed was a new the desire tobe "rid of the of this newtheory, claimedthe Board, vas altogether; or, atleast, to so"reduce 'the central establishment be merely temporaryreceivingstations." number of inmatesthat they will the feature of thechange wouldbe torenounce The principal length of time and train thechildren for any attempt to instruct private families -; and to committhe charge to in the reformatory numbers, then to or, if theycould not be foundin sufficietlt societies ofbenevolentpersons.129

school as solely areception center The conceptionof a reform when he opposedthe creationof had been advocatedby Howe in 1854 bore a similar 130 The receptioncenter concept the- girls'reformatory. school that thehigh schoolidea relation to criticismof the reform

127Board of Scat' t Charities,1866, p. lxxvi.

128Ibid., p. lxxvii.

129Ibid., p. lxxviii.

130Schwartz, 22' cit., pp.273-274. 272

attempted did to the criticism ofacademies. In both instances critics to insure thatadolescents would spend only partof their time with peers and thatthey would have the benefitof the influence and example of a family, the mostbasic, natural and virtuous humanrelationship.

The controversies concerningthe academy and high school andthe nature

of reform schools revealagain the pervasive concern withadolescence

in this period. The proper handling ofadolescents, many people seemed

to agree, was toprolong dependency, to make surethat the adolescent

came into daily contactwith a virtuous family. Since morality was

internalized by associating withmodels not by listening tolectures,

it was necessary to provideadolescents with a a)nstant example strong

enough to curb the passions ofyouth. And nothing, it was believed,

better exemplified moralitythan a New England family.

The reaffirmation.ofHowe's reservations in 1866 was, in a sense,

a claim by theBoard that over the last twodecades the state had

developed a strategy for dealing with urban,juvenile crime that was

of uncertain success and unnecessary expense. Two decades of reform

schools had not eased the problemsof crime and poverty in the Common-

wealth; indeed, they had increased in intensity. At the close of nearly

two decades of expensiveadministrative reform the parental state was

still searching for a satisfactory meansof restoring tranquility and

stability to its unruly family.

By the 1860:s other institutionshad also fared badly. Perkins 273

131 Institute had become too largeand impersonal; State Insane Asylums built in the flush of optimismhad been transformed fromtherapeutic

132 prison to custodial institutions; and in New York, at any rate, the 133 reform movement was dead.

Writing of the period 1880-1930 RoyLubove has described a change

from in social work organization as atransition froM cause to function, the enthusiasm of reformers tothe dispassionate performanceof pro- 134 fessionals circumscribed bybureaucracy. In a sense the transformation from cause to function was thetrend tint Rowe perceivedand lamented.

blaze of In the mid-nineteenth century newinstitutions started in a reformist zeal; promoted bytalented general reformerslike Howe, they expanded more rapidly than anyof their founders hadanticipated.

Expansion was accompanied by thegrowth of a professional,bureaucratic managerial group: warden ofprisons, wardens ofreform schools; wardens

135 a of asylums and their assistants. In part, bureaucratization was

131 Schwartz,p. cit.,p.272.

132Dein, op. cit., p.xiv. 133 Lewis, op. cit., p.256.

134Roy Lubove, The Professional Altruist, TheEmergence of Social Work as a Career, 1$80 -1930,Cambridge, 1965, passim. left 135For instance, the first twosuperintendents of Westborough schools elsewhere: Board to become superintendentsof newly founded reform Likewise, Damn, of State Charities(Secretary'sReport), 1865, p.175. of psy- 22. cit., reports the developmentof a self-conscious group chiatrists, or superintendentsof insane asylums. 274

necessary concomitantof managing large, specialized institutions. But

size and professionalismimplied the development of the lack of warmth

inherent in all large institutions. And, after all, it was warmth that was the essentialingredient in the 1840 formulae for the re-making of

criminals, delinquents and the insane. In the absence of warmth and

amidst an increase in size, in thetransition from cause to function,

institutions like Westborough, notcompletely overburdened by numbers,

could do a routine job. Others, like the State mental hospitals,

became mere receptacles for human misery.

The course of the educational reform movement as awhole is not as

clear cut as that of one institution. But the same trends were visible.

By the 1860's the beginning ofeducational bureaucracy, routine and

sterile, was evident, as Part Two hassuggested. Moreover, there were

other indications that the courseof educational reform was losing

some of its charismaticcharm. During the '60's measures of innovation

and spending, like general economic measures,slackened. Of course the

Civil War caused dislccation, but it islikely that the slowing started

before the war.' Compare, too, JosephWhite, appointed in 1860, with the

three previous secretaries of theBoard of Education. Mann, Sears and

Boutwell had been poor,rural boys whoseambition and skill raised them

to state-wide eminence. All three were important public figures through-

out the state when they wereappointed secretary of the Board; all three

went on to eminent,national positions. They were unusual, talented men,

in a word, statesmen. White came from a wealthy, urban family. He had 275

been agent for a large cottonmill before his appointment. He was, not at the time ofhis appointment norafterwards a figure of much imp-

not a man of ortance in the state, letalone the nation, and he was

outstanding talent.

Another evidence of generalreformist retreat was thegrowing

fails importance of heredity insocial thought. To stress that a boy

to reform because heis innately wicked, or tostress that a child

fails to learn because he wasborn stupid, is to throwin the towel.

educational failure, that It is a kind ofrationalisation that excuses It is an lets the teacher or the reformschool warden off the hook.

assertion that one expectswill follow a period ofreformist innovations

that did not work.Thus, it is no surprisethat the environmentalist pessimism of the optimism of the 1840's wasfollowed by the hereditary squarely on 1860's. Environmental stress placesthe responsibility looks to the possible the teacher, on the reformer;it is optimistic, it environmental and it is a call for action. Predictably, then, a return to great period causation marked reformistthought in the 1890's, the next

over-optimism was followed of innovation; just assurely this period of under the guise within a few decades by a returnto hereditary arguments

today, during of individual differences. Again, the cycle is upon us: American history, environ- the third great educationalreform movement in fully this time,too? ment is again thevillain. Will the wheel spin

December 7, 1848, At the opening of the StateReform School on

by the Reverend C. the inmates sang a hymnwritten for the occasion 276

Thurber's hymn is the best pos- Thurber of Worcester. Surely, Er,

with which Massachusetts sible summary statementof the assumptions

urban delinquents: reformers commencedthe re-making of

This pleasant homeof pricelessworth - By friendship'shand is given, To train the erring sonsof earth, For usefulness andHeaven: The place wherelittle wanderers come, And taste the sweetsof friends and home.

The hapless boy whohas no guide, Or brutal, fiendish one, From Virtue's pathhas stepped aside, Or wicked act hasdone; This nursery homereceives with joy, And makes the child avirtuous boy.

Within the home of wantand woe, The boy of promisesighs, He thinks thehaughty world his foe, And quick for vengeanceflies; This sweet abodeunfolds its door, And soothes himtill he strays no more.

The wayward youththat spurns control, 'And in dishonor gropes; That wings with grief aparent's soul, And ruins all hishopes, Retires beyond thefurious storm, And gathers strengthfor sweet reform.

Kind father, wreathethy blandest smiles, Around this sweet retreat, That it may winfrom folly's wiles, The littlewanderer's feet; Then from thisguardian home will rise 1.36 The good and great,refined and wise.

could not distinguish Mid-nineteenth centuryMassachusetts reformers Inextricably bound together, clearly between arelationship and a cause.

136 of Robert Rantoul's The poem is insertedbetween pp.440 and 441 In Rantoul's handwriting autobiography, mss.,Beverly HistoricalSociety. dedication of the on the poemis, "Sung by theboys (inmates) at the house at Westborough,December, 1848." 277

intemperance, immigration, they perceived, werecities, crime, poverty, underlay parental vice and lack ofeducation. Which factor, if any,

they tried the rest? They 'had, as we dotoday, no answer; instead, products of to break thevicious circle byproviding the youthful combination home and urban depravity with achange cf circumstances: a

had produced abad boy; school in a ruralsetting. A bad environment

The theory wassimple, a goodenvironment wouldproduce a good boy. of all boys was but at least it wasdemocratic. The moral potential

school considered theirtheory proved equal. Advocates of the reform had not beenre-arrested. by statistics thatindicated most ex-inmates and the supposedproof. Others perceived theinadequacy of the theory in unfavorablesurroundings; Boys were bad onlypartly because they grew up They had inherited they were bad mostlybecause they wereinferior. acquired by their parents. Yet the pernicious habitsand tendencies not completely pes- the reformers whoadvocated the new theory were parental love andthe simistic; they offered a vagueoptimism based on

They, too, proposed achange natural recuperative powersof the body.

Only they perceivedthe weakness in circumstances asthe key to reform. proof of theworthiness of the in the statisticalevidence offered as economical and, theypredicted, more reform school andadvocated a more

Board of State Charitieswent beyond effective system. In one way the removal of thoseconditions the earlier reformers;it called for the capable of hereditarytrans- that tempted individualsto acquire vices problems, reflected mission. Two or three decadesof mounting social

and crime, hadgiven reformers a in increased ratesof pauperization 278

heightened perception of the evils they needed tocombat. However, the assumptions they brought to the task of reformlimited their effectiveness; all problems became essentially problems ofeducation, education of the public in the laws of sociology,education of the delinquent in the laws of morality. in its broadest sense, reformers equated education with all learning and hence with home as well asschool But their writings clearly implied and often stated, that the home was the scene of the wrong sort of learning, and the problem of educationbecame the marshaling of social resources other than the family for theinculcation

of a commitment to virtue. Only in the educational area, in fact, in

the reform of human nature rather: than in the reform ofsocial systems, were reformerswilling to apply c oercion or conceive radically new

solutions. Unfortunately, education by itself was inadequate. More

than that, the diffusion of an utopian andessentially unrealistic

ideology that stressed education as the key to socialsalvation created

a smokescreen thatactually obscured the depth of the social problems

it proposed to blow away and prevented therealistic formulation of

strategies for social reform. Conclusion. Educational Reform: Myths and Limits

Urban education is a fashionable cause,today as only twice before in the Americanpast.1The second great outpourring ofreform spirit upon the urban schools wasthe progressive movement of the late nineteenth and early twentiethcenturies. The first was the educational revival ofthe mid-nineteenth century, the movement that hasformed the subject of this study. All three movements to improve theurban schools have been part of abroader attempt to solve the problems of industrial society.The extent to. which, those problemspersist forms an ironic epilogue to the storyof the optimism and efforts of earlier reformers.

Today, as in the first great reformistoutburst, a variety of motives impel reformers, but thesimilarities between the movements

is striking. In much the same way as JamesBryant Conant, the

earliest urban schoolmen, like HoraceMann, were stirred to action by

the "social dynamite" they saw intheslums.2 In both instances the

reform effort has been spearheaded bythe socially and intellectually

11111011.

1 I omit the Lancasterian phase,first, because I am concerned with movements specifically directed aturban education in periods of industrialization and, second, because myimpression is that educational reform then was not as much a part of alarger attempt at social reform, not as much a"cause."

2James Bryant Conant, Slums andSuburbs, New York, 1961, p.2. 288

prominent concerned for the presevationof domestic tranquillity and an

ordered,, cohesive society. In both cases this group has beenjoined

and supported by middle-class parentsanxious over the status of their

children and, for the most part, somewhattardily by the teaching

profession, which has had its ownimpellingmotives.3 Today, ofcourse,

the cause of urban reform has beencomplicated by the racial issue,

only tangentially important in theante-bellum North.Because of the

racial issue, many urban middle-class parentshave had an ambivalent attitude toward reform, seeking to bettertheir schools but to keep them

white, and thus dissenting from oneimportant set of goals formulated

by reform leaders. Convsersely, spokesmen for minority groupshave

been far more active in the cause ofreform than before.

Yet basic similarities remain. We have still to see a movement

driven by a desire to bring joy anddelight to the life of theindividual,

to enrich experience solelyfor the purpose of making life morefull

and lovely.The goals of both movements,quite to the contrary, have

been extrinsic; they have stressedthe needs of society and the economy.

They have also been utilitarian,stressing the concrete cashvalue of

schooling to the individual. In both movements goals havebeen formulated

with scant regard to the indigenousculture, even the aspirations, of

the working class groups to bereformed.Very largely both movements

3 Two prominent educators who areexceptions to the "tardy" generalization are James Carter andFrancis Parker. 281

of urban reform have beenimpositions; communal leaders have mounted an ideologicaland noisy campaign to selleducation to an often skeptical, sometimes hostile andusually uncomprehending workingclass.

The reformers have beendetermined to foist their innovations uponthe community, if necessary byforce; when permissiveness failed in the

1840's, the state passed compulsoryschool laws in the 1850's. Today, as drop-outs ignorethe economic statistics supplied bythe Office of

Education and the Department ofLabor, some people call for the extension of compulsory schooling to ageeighteen.

The limits of forced andessentially conservative reform have been

apparent in both the previous attemptsto improve urban education.

One consequence has been the estrangementof the school from the life

of the working class community. In the mid-nineteenth century reformers

harangued the masses, excoriated parents,shuddered at immigrants.

Ignoring the reactions of the people tobe reformed they forced, fast

and hard, new institutions that soonwere made compulsory. Out of

deference to religious rivalry, sectarianteaching was banned; but the

cultural attitudes of the reformers wereexpressed in their pedagogical

theories, in textbooks, in the trainingthey gave to teachers, in

their reports: all said to the childand parent from the working class,

"You are vicious, immoral, shortsightedand thorwghly wrong about most

things. We are right; we shall show you thetruth."

Literacy was not required to pick upthe message, neither was

sophistication. It takes no background in socialpsychology to imagine sik

282

the feelings of those who becamethe objects of reformistdiatribes.

Little has changed; despite theintellectual's.acceptance of cultural

relativity, first apparent in the workof many of the intellectual

reformers of the progressive era,it has been the mentality ofcultural

absolutism that has persisted. Be it in the outraged cries ofprofessional

patriots or the indignant wrath of censorswho find pornography on

every page, onegets the impression that, supported bythe public,

most people concernedwith schools are as sure they seemorel truth as

were Horace Mann andthe founders of the state reformschool.

In both earlier reform movementsprofessionalization had some

unfavorable consequences. In the mid-nineteenth centuryteacherS

staked the rationale for their ownexistence and their increasing

command of community resources to animplausible ideology that assigned

them the critical role inthe salvation of individualsand of society.

As the ideology became ever moredivorced from reality, as crimeand

poverty increased despitethe extension of schooling,teachers turned

inward, and their growingnetwork of bureaucracies within acouple of

decades became private worlds,sterile and rigid. Lawrence Cremin has

shown eloquently the fateof progressive education whenthe educators

turned inward and deliberately cutthemselves off from the coalitionof

reformers that had been trying tobreak through the crust ofsterility

and rigidity in which urbaneducation hid become trapped. the roots

talking more and of the movement shrivelled,and educators again were 283

4 more in termsthat bore little relevance tothe world around them.

Once more, in the past few years,education has been infused with an

element of zeal, it has become onceagain a cause as thenon-professionals

have taken an interestand driven spurs into lethargicbureaucracies.

But this movement has justrecently begun. Must it follow the course

of the last two?

Even if disappointing, itwill be fascinating to watch the movement

unfold.As we saw in the last partof this study, there exists one

especially good indicator of thestrength of the reformist cause. In

the 1830's and '40's reformstarted in a passionate blazeofoptimism

resting on the assumptionthat environment has primeinfluence in

forming mind and character. The beginning of disenchantmentin the

sixties was signalled bythe appearance of theoriesstressing the

theorizing may importance of heredity.Whatever scientific basis new

failure, an excuse have had, clearly itprovided a rationalization for

late in the for some relaxation ofeffort. When reform began anew darwinism that used century, the typicalcredo was a variant of reform

evolutionary theory to argue the powerof mind over nature andthe

primacy over environment overheredity. When the theory of individual

differences became popular, it wasbased on scientific experiments;

nevertheless, it was again kithereditary theory, and itwould probably

decline be possible to plot a rough curvebetween its ascendance and the

commitment of reform. Once again, environmenthas beopme the rgge, the

4 Lawrence A. Cremin, TheTransformation of the School,Progressivism in American Education, 1876-1957,,New York, 1961. See e.g., p.350. 2814

of reformers. If it again passes from fashion,if we view a strong and pervasive reassertion ofhereditary stress, then we shallknow that this reform movement has gone the courseof its predecessors.

One danger then is disenchantment.Educators have always been too

optimistic, especially in periodsof reform.Repeatedly we have been

asked to believe that educationwould usher in anew and better society.

To ask that a little skepticismand realism temper the'messianic

tendencies of schoolmen is not todowngrade education. By itself ed-

ucation would not create themorality of an idealized countryside in

the heart of the city; butthis is a fact that mid-nineteenthcentury

education promoters refused to see,and by refusing to see thisfact

they obscured the depth ofsocial problems and becameincapable of

formulating effective strategies ofsocial reform. Of course, they

had reasons for theirblindness. Aside from the educatorsthemselves,

people providing the most vocal advocatesof school reform were the very

Deeply the talent and money thathelped usher in an industrialsociety.

ambivalent towards the societyfcr which they wereresponsible, social

promote economic leaders sought for innovationsthat would simultaneously brought in growth and prevent the consequencesthat industrialism had

for other societies, especiallyEngland. Education became the means their achieving this end. To have looked longand hard at the flaws in with its ideology, or to have comparedthe goals of their movement

achievements,, was not ipssiblefor these promoters. It would have raised

about the real nature oftheir too many hauntingdoubts, too many questions 285

likewise had own impact uponsociety. Educators, as we .have seen, admit the possibil- too great apersOnal stake in the reform movement to

ity that schools wereimpotent to alone curesocial disease.

becomes Here, then, is anotherdanger.When educational reform

it loses the capacity too bound up withpersonal and group interests,

diversionary activity turning for self- criticism. It can be a dazzling

heads away from the realnature of social problems. It can become a

vested interest in its ownright, so pious andpowerful that it can

direct public scorn to anyonewho doubts. But the doubters are es-

sential; for someone must try tokeep the claims of educationin

of interest upon the causeof proper perspective,to loose the hold

But the notion of a war onpoverty, .reform. This has yet to be done. only a many sidedattack in which educationis a component, not the

balloon in-American has weapon; ispromising. Still, the educational sailing high, away from a way of gettingloose from its mooring and

flexible but securely tied its companions. To keep it on a long and

today. string is' one of the .greatproblems facing urban reformers

The thrust of this studyhas been to try to dissolvethe myths

enveloping the origins ofpopular education in America. Very simply,

mid-nineteenth century was the extension and reformof education in the

It was not a potpourriof democracy, rationalismand humanitarianism.

the attempt of acoalition of the socialleaders, status-anxious parents

education, each for their own and status hungryeducators to impose' But why pierce such a warmand reasons, upon areluctant community. the vapor pleasant myth? Because, first ofall, by piercing through fundamental patterns and of piety we have beenable to see certain

reform. We know problems in the course ofAmerican urban educational confront earlier urban better of what to beware. Because, secondly, to romanticism present in even so reform is to dispelthe kind of nostalgic 5 not be acerbic a critic asPaul Goodman. Our reform movements must schooling to whose inspired'by a vision of a oncevital and meaningful

We must face thepainful nature if notspecific features we mustreturn.

large scale, knownvital urban fact that this countryhas never, on any by the mass ofthe tom- schools, ones: whichembrace and are embraced

. of the joy of theindividual munity, which formulatetheir goals in terms economic instead of the fearof social dynamite orthe imperatives of

have no models; totruly reform we growth. We must realize that we

we mustconeeive and build anew.

5 Mis-education, NewYork,1964,pp.178-180. Paul Goodman,Compulsory Appendix A Massachusetts Social, Economic andEducational Statistics

Table 1. Growth of MassachusettsPopulation, 1810-1860

Year Population(to nearest thousand)Percent Increase Preceding Decade

1810 472,000 9.3 1820 523;000 8.7 1830 610,000 15.2 1840 738,000 14.0 1850 994,000 30.8 1860 1,231;000 23.8

(from Percy Wells Bidwell, "Population Growth in Southern .New England,1810- 1860," Quarterly Publications of the American Statistical Association, New Series, No..120, December, 1917, p.817-

Table 2. Number of Alien Passengets Landed atBoston and Charlestown, 1831 -1855

Year Number 1831 1,417 1835 3,168 1840 5,361 1845 10,281 1850 26,612 1855 17)735 (from MassachusettsSenate Documents, NO.2.1 January, 1859,pp.142-143) 288

Table 3. Concentration of Population in UrbanCommunities, Southetn New England

Groups 1810 1840 1860

All towns and cities Population 811,000 1,15720001,8662000 Number of towns and cities 437 479 526

I. Towns and Cities with a populationgreater than 10,000 Number 3 9 26 Ptpulation 56,000 214,000' 681,600 Percentage of total population 6.9 18.5 36.5

II. Towns with a population 3,000 -10;000 Number 49 74 129 Population 210,300 340,000 620,700 Percentage of total population 25.9 29.4 33.8

III. Towns witha population less than3,000 Population 544,700 602,730 536,700 Number 385 396 371 Percentage of total population 67.1 52.1 30.1

(from Bidwell, p.816) 289

Table 4. Value of Agricultural Products asPercentage of Valuc of Manufactured Goods

Year Percentage

1845 34 1855 17 1865 14 (computed from statistics in John G. Palfrey, Statistics of the Condition and Products of Certain Branches of Industry in Massachusetts.77152)137=on, 1846; Francis DeWitt, Statistical Information Relating to Certain Branches of Industry in MassachuseTEE7770355, Boston,1856; and Oliver. Warner, Statistical Information Relating to Certain Branches of Industry in Massachusett,

. . .165, Boston, 1866)

Table 5. Railroad Mileage in Massachusetts, 1835-1860

Year Mileage

1835 113 1840 318 1845 567 1850 1,035 1855 1,264 1865 1,264

(from Edward C. Kirkland, Mhn, Cities and Transportation: A Study in New England History, 1820-1900, Cambridge,7548, v.1, p.284)

Table 6. Ratio of Value of Goods Manufactured to Capital Invested

Type of Goods 1845 1855 1865

Cotton .65 .81 1.63 Wool 1.58 1.65 3.28 All types 1.94 2.13 2.91

(from Palfrey, cm.cit.; De Witt,ET:cit.; and Warner,Ez. cit.) 290

Table 7. Massachusetts EducationalStatistics, 1840-1865 1840 % 1845 % 1850 Change Change }public schools 3,072 13 3/475 12 3,870 #studentslwinter 142,22a 17 174,270 12 194,403 #teachers 6,306 20 7,582 11 8,427 ibale teachers 2,378 2,585 2,442 #female teachers 3,928 4./997 5,985 male/female teachers .61 .52 .41 at. length schools mos. and days 7-10 7-25 7-12 ay. male teacher salary $33.08 -4 $31.76 10 34.89 ay. female teacher salary $12.75 3 $13.15 10 14.42 #high schools 18 47 %towns complying with high school law 36.4 55.3 hincorporated academies78 67 67 #pupils at incorporated Academies 31701' 3,726 3,717 funincorporated academies,private SchooIsletc.11368 1,091 845 fpUpils at unincorporated academiesletc. 28,635 .24,318 19/534 all academy pupils/ill public school pupils .22 .16 .12 40rAised for schools through taxation $4771221 $611,652 school tax rate(mills per. dollar of valuation) 1.59 2.04 1.44 per pupil expenditure 2.71 12 3.04 49 4.52 Wan average attendance ratio .59. .73 .72 Valuation of property in Massachusetts $299,878,329 $597/936/995 Cost of Living indx (1913: 100) 60 Table 7 Continued

1855 % 1860 % 1865 Change Change Change

`public schools 11 4,215 11 -4,487 6 4,749 #students,winter 7 207,709 5 217,334 6 229,514 #teachers 12 9,447 9 10,311 7 11,002 kale teachers 2,114 1,908 1,377

#female teachers ,333 8,403 9,625 male/female teachers .729 .23 .14' ay. length schools mos. and days 7 -16 7-18 7-17 ay.male teacher salary 19 $41.45 22 $50.56 8 $54.77 ay.female teacher salary 20 '$17.29. '10 $19.08 14 $21.82 Pligh schools 87 102 108 %towns complying with high school law 67.2 68.o 1Y-incorporated academies 71 65 59 pupils at incorporated academies 4,716 3,561 3,190 #unincorporated academies,private schoolsletc. 646 640 682 pupils at unincorporated academiesletc. 17,571 15,933" 21,334 all academy pupils/all public school pupils .11 )09 .11 $raised for schools through taxation $1,137,407. $1,428,476 $1,782,624 school tax rate 1.92 1.59 1.80 per pupil expenditure 19 5.36 12 6..55 12 7.36 mean ay. attendance ratio .74" .75 .73 valuation of property in Massachusetts $897,795,326 $1,009,709 5 cost of living index (1913:100) 67 61 102

(Most of the figures in the table are from the annual reports of the secretaries of the Board of Education. The figures for high school establishment are from Alexander James Inglis, The Rise of the Hi z School in Massachusetts, New York, 1911, pp. 42-45. The cost of living index is from Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1222.). Washington, 1960, p. 127. APPENDIX B. Communities and Education: An Analysis of Variance*

The statistical computations in this chapter were partially supported by a National Science Foundation' Grant, GP- 2723. 293

Even a cursory examination of Massachusettseducational statistics in the mid-nineteenth century reveals a vide variationbetween communities.Then as now, some towns expended moreof'their resources on education than others;

some had higher perpupil expenditures; some introduced more innovations;in

some more pupils were inprivate schools. Today one would expect that these variations between communities were not random. One would look at the kind

of town, the nature of the population, the degreeof wealth, the economic

features; one would look at these characteristics andpredict certain associ-

ations between them and educational measures. But were there significant

associations in the mid-nineteenth century?Were there significant patterns

of relationships between educational and social,demographic and economic

features.of Massachusetts communities?This is the basic question that this

appendix attempts to answer.

If one were to investigate the communal correlates ofeducational

measures today, one would predictthat certain patterns would emerge. So,

too, one can make certain predictions about theassociations that will be

found in an investigation of the same topic a century ago. The first chapter

of this study has revealed that in the state as a whole measuresof educational

change increased at roughly the same time as measures or urbanand industrial

growth.Therefore, one hypothesis is that an increase in measuresof educa-

tional expenditure and measures of :;.renovation (feminizationand high school

establishment) within a community will be positively associated with measures

of urban-industrial growth.This hypothesis raises certain questions.

Massachusetts was marked by an increase in population concentration, manu-

facturing and property valuation. Were all three associated with each other? 29I

Were all three related to educational measuresin the same way? Were the extent and pace of urbanism and industrialismequally related to educational measures?Were educational measures associated with eachother? That is, were the development of highschools, the feminization of the teaching force and measures of educational expenditure allpositively associated? Did-high teacher salaries, high per pupil expenditure and highschool tax rate tend to occur together?

The increase in educational measures throughoutthe state was accompanied by a decrease in the value of agricultural goodsproduced relative to the value of manufactured articles. It can be predicted, then, that all measures of educational innovation and expenditure willbe negatively associated with agricultural variables. Since the number and enrollment of incorporated academies remained relatively stable an additionalhypothesis is that little relationship will be found between theseschools and social and economic measures.On the other hand, the number andenrollment of unincorporated

academies and private schools droppedmarkedly during the time that high

schools were being established. This suggests that unincorporated academies

declined in communities establishing public highschools. But was there a

relationship between academies of either type andthe absence of a high school

in a community?Was there any relationship between anyparticular occupational

group and the presenceof academies of either type? A varietyof statistical

tests provide evidence related tothese hypotheses and answers to thesequestions. 295

I.High. School Defined

clearest criterion The presence orabsence of a highschool providesthe

In mid-nineteenthcentury Massachu- for dividingcommunities into categories. committee answeredprecisely. setts what was ahigh school?The Manchester school

A High School is noambiguous thing. It is a term that possesses primary or a an exact andwell defined meaning.It is neither a without any regard to graminar school, nor acompound of the two, distinct by itself, towhich there age orattainment, but a school Thus, the High School is no access exceptthrough the two first. definition of them is has been definedfor years past and this whenever schools are recognized in our RevisedStatutes (1835) and spoked of, 'for thewhole town,' as thesayingis.1

students from fourteen tonineteen years The high school,usually attended by intermediate betweenthe common old, was designed as aninstitution roughly the high school toprovide, school and thecollege.2Some people intended entering commercial andtech- primarily, a terminaleducation for students

preparation forcollege.4 However, nicaloccupations.3 Others emphitsized high school, even inthis 'curricula and.school reportsindicate that the

period, was acquiringbothfunCtions.5

School in Massachusetts, Alexander James Inglis,The Rise of the High New York, 1911, p.36. ibid., pp. 35-37. 20n the definitionof the high school see

School Report, 1864-65, p.24. 3See,e.z.., Winchendon

4 See, e.is.,...EighteenthReport, p. 259.

5 curricula see Inglis,22.cit., pp. 71-78, andEmit . For details of of the High School in Newkraland Duncan Grizzell, Orin and Development The following passagefrom Before 1865,Philadelphia, 1922, pp,286-330, cited in EiolteenthReport,p. 201. the BrookIne school committee report, high school. The committee reveals the concept ofthe dual role of the "different classes-ofpupils." maintained that the highschool would contain Thus, would seem to be,firdti to The proper functionsof a High School school pupils continue the education ofthat .portion of the Grammar whose talents fitthem of both sexes, whosecircumstances allow, and give to thosedesiring it a for further training;and, secondly, to Scientific, or the. thorough preparation forthe College, or the Normal School. 296

The high school, thus, was definedby its function and place in the hierarchy of the school system. The high school was alsodefined by law; it was to be open to all the inhabitantsof a town and administered by a town committee, as opposed to adistrict committee.In addition, the curriculum was to include certain specifiedsubjects and the school was .6 to be maintained at least tenmonths a year, "exclusive of vacations,-

A. Massachusetts law of 1827 containedthe first legal provisions for high schools. The law required towns of a certainsize to maintain an institution later termed a high school, but theprovisions of this law were alternately suspendedand reinvoked until 1859 when theybecame 7 a permanent featureof the state's legislation. There were to be two

grades of high schools, according to the1827 law.Lower grade high

schools were to be established in townsof five hundred or more families

and higher grade ones in townsof four thousand or more inhabitants.

In the latter, Latin and Greek wereto be included in the curriculum.

In 1859 Latin was also requiredin lower grade high schools. Inglis,

in his book on the Massachusetts highschools claims that the definition

sometimes was applied rather loosely."Cases are numerous," he wrote,

"where we find the name 'HighSchool' applied to higher grades in

various districts," and, Inglis continued,"still more frequently in

cases where the soi.called'High School' dia not offer all of the Studies

prescribed by law."8 By, no means did all townsrequired to establish

Inglis,22.cit., p. 8.

7Ibid., pp. 24-34.

p. 8.

...... 7:mmr;amminmilimMONERwol===Nigga 297

a high school comply withthe law. The degree of compliance grew steadily but, by 1865, was still only sixty-eight per cent.

The law which established' high schools in1827 fundamentally altered the administrative control of localeducation. Historians have treated the 1827 law as paradoxical. They have pointed out that the law at once weakened the district system by stipulatingthat the high school was to be administered by the town as a wholewhile, on.the other hand, the law strengthened the district systemby permitting each district to elect a prudential committeeman whowould have con-

9 siderable power over the schools in his area. Hinsdale resolved the

contradiction by noting that the 1827 law was retrogressive, for it

released all but seven towns from the provisions of the law of 1789, which had required one hundred and seventy-two towns tomaintain a

school which taught Latin and Greek.To Hinsdale the 1827 law was a

victory for the districtsyStem.10However,. Raymond Culver has pointed

out that the 1827 law evolved as acompromise. In the previous year a

law had been passed requiring towns to elect school committees totake

complete charge of education in each town.But the law was so vehemently

opposed that the next year the legislature compromisedby allowing the

districts to elect prudential committeemen with certainspecific privi-

11 leges and duties. Since most towns did not adhere to the law of 1789

9George H. Martin, The Evolutionof the Massachusetts Public School System, New York, 1894, pp. 92 and 97.See Law of theCommonwealth of Massachusetts Providing for the Instruction of Youth,passed March 10, 1827.

10B. A. Hinsdale, Horace Mann andthe Common School Revival in the United States, New York, 1913, pp. 16-17.

11_Kaymond Culver, Horace Mann and Religion in theMassachusetts Public Schools, New Haven, 1929, pp. 21-28. requiring them to maintain a grammar school, the 1827 law was realistic and, probably, intended to insure that some public institution of higher learning would exist in the more populous areas.Moreover, the power which the new law gave to town committees combined with the fact that the prudential committees were established as a concession indicates that the purpose of the 1827 law was to modify the district systems_ and hence the law's various provisions were consistent with each other.

State law prescribed curricula as well as administrative organization. Table 1 lists the legal requirements for the high school curriculum in Massachusetts. Subjects marked with an asterisk, unless otherwise noted, were required only in high schools of the higher grade, that is, ones located in towns containing four thousand or more inhabitants:

12 Table 1.Legal Requirements for Massachusetts High School Curriculum, 1865

Subject Date required by Law

United States History 1827 *General History 1827 Algebra .1827 Geometry 1827 Surveying .1,827 *Latin 1827 (required in all high schools in 1859) *Greek 1827 *Logic 1827 Bookkeeping 1835 *French 1857 *Rhetoric 1857 Natural Philosophy 1857 Chemistry 1857 Botany 1857 *Astronomy 1857 *Geology 1857 *Intellectual Science 1857 *Moral Science 1857 Civil Polity 1857 *Political Economy 1857

12Inglis, 221.. cit., pp. 71-73. 299

Even in this sketchy form thecurriculum requirements indicate that the legislature expected the composition as well asthe administrittve form of education to alter. Until after-1835 the curricular requirements alb reflect the concerns of a pre-industrial, commercial economy,for the emphasis is on mathematics, bookkeeping and surveying.The addition of the sciences may reflect the perception of the needfor additional knowledge related to understanding, controlling and fosteringthe economic changes in the state.Civil polity, moral science, political economy and intellectual science reflect the importanceattributed to education for character development and the fear of social disintegrationand the decline of morality, themes discussed elsewhere in this study. The process of curriculum change, it isinteresting 'to observe, seems to have followed the same pattern that has continually markedthe growth of the curriculum in America: namely, the processof accretion. Instead of re-thinking the structure and nature of the curriculum as awhole,

educators tacked subjects onto the existing course. The high school

course at the start of the period,according to Inglis, was generally

three years in length add, at the close, commonlyfour.13Most high

schools employed, at best, a few teachers,_ and, consideringthis fact,

the coverage of the legally comprehensive curriculum musthave been

skimpy, to say the least,

Part of the reason for the inclusion of Latinand Greek in the 14 curriculum undoubtedly was the entrance requirements of thecolleges.

13 p. 12.

14 Ibid., pp. 65-70,, 300

However, the preparation ofstudents for college was not thesole purpose of high schools. In many instances the high school wasperceived as an institution directly related to the preparationof 'students for immediate employment.The high school, finally, was thedeliberate creation of a law, and, for those interested inbeginnings, the Massachusetts school law of 1827 was the legal origin of theAmerican high school. The

American comprehensive high school has twooutstanding characteristics: it is open to all qualified studentswithin a given area, end it caters to both terminal and collegebound students.The high school, characterized by these features, emerged in Massachusettswell before the Civil War.

A division.of towns on the criterionof high school establishment

immediately reveals one relationship: size. By 1865 every city or town with a population of 6,200 or more didestablish a high school; no town with a population of less than 711 did so.. Forthe purposes of this

analysis the extremes were eliminated, and the samplebecame each of the

259 towns between the smallest which hadinstituted a high school by 1865

and the largest whier _led to meet its legal obligation to establish

one. These limits were chosen in order to includethe'possibility of

variation within each town.That is, the object was to study the differing

patterns of relationshipswithin towns which might or might not have

established, igh schools.Fifty-five of the towns chosen for study

were eventuallyeliminated from consideration, because it was notpossible

to obtain accurate information onall the variables considered.This

left a final sample of 204 towns. 301

gathered for 48variables, listed Information for eachtown was below 'as Table 2.

Table 2.Roster ofVariables

1840

1. Population population per squaremile 2. Density of 3. Total employedin manufacturing occupations, excluding 4. Total employedin non-agricultural professionals Total employedin agriculture 5. agricultural employees 6. Ratio ofnon-agricultural to 7. Per capitavaluation 8. ftmber ofincorporated academies 9. Number ofunincorporated academies 10. Miles from Boston 11. Dependency rate Winter of total numberof teachers in 12. Femoled as per cent (feminization) salary of maleteachers 13. Average monthly salary of femaleteachers 14. Average monthly Per pupilexpenditure. 15. raised for schoolsupport 16.Mills per dollarof. valuation through taxes(school tax rate) 17. Number employedin commerce 18. Number employedin navigation 19. Number in professions 20. Number over 16 inpublic schools 1865 21. Population population per squaremile 22. Density of Total employedin manufacturing 23. occupations 24. Total employedin non-agricultural Total employedin agriculture 25. agricultural employees 26. Ratio ofnon-agricultural to 27. Pertill:ay.:Valuation Number ofincorporated academies 28. and privateschools 29. Number ofunincorporated academies 30.Total number ofprivate schools 31. Dependency rate winter of total numberof teachers in 32. Females as per cent (feminization) salary of maleteachers 33. Average monthly of femaleteachers 34. Average monthly'salary Per pupilexpenditure 35. raised for schoolsupport 36.Mills per dollarof valuation through taxes(school tax rate) 37. Number of foreignborn (commerce, navigation,sometrades) 38. "Other occupations" employed inmanufacturing 39. Number of females school 40. /limber over 15attending public 302

Al.Number of workers permanufacturing establishment

Increases 1840-1865

42. Increase in population 43. Increase in density, 44. Increase in total numberemployed in manufacturing 45. Increase in total numberof non-agricultural employees 46. Increase in total numberof agricultural employees employees 47. Increase in ratioof'non-agricultural to agricultural 48. High school establishment by1865 (coded as 1 for non- establishment, 2 for establishment)

The fact that a legal obligation toestablish a high school is not

be included in the roster of variablesrequires explanation, for it may asked: was not the law the mostimportant factor in highschool establish-

reflection of a ment?Was not high schoolestablishment generally the legal obligation?If the answer to this question,is affirmative, then a detailedanalysis of the social andeconomic factors associated with high school establishment issuperfluous. However, it is assumed that the answer to the questionis generally negative. First of all, law had not been a particularly,effective means of insuring themaintenance

of certain kinds of schoolsin Massachusetts towns. Historians agree

that throughout the eighteenthand early nineteenth centuriesthe number

of towns maintaining grammarschools as required bythe law of 1647 modi-

fied by the law of 1789 declinedquite markedly and that thelaw was la generally not obeyed.

Second, little evidence ofthe importance of law is providedby an

analysis comparing the datethat towns were legally required toestablish

1 5Ibid., pp4 2-5; B. A.Hinsdale, Horace Mann and theCommon School Revival in the United States,New York, 1913, pp. 13-17;Robert Middlekauff, England, Ancients and Axioms: SecondaryEducation in Ekahteenth-Century New New Haven, 1963; pp.128-137. 303

actually institutedthem, as Table 3, high schools withthe date they 16 Table 3. includesonly compiled fromInglis' results,indicates. required to establish ahigh school and those towns whichby 1865 were

by that date. It does notinclude those 'which met theirlegal obligation but were notlegally required todo towns whichestablished 'high schools Thus, the table,unlike sothroughout the periodunder consideration. of this chapter,is based on all the statisticalanalysis in the rest

the towns' and citiesin the state:

Legal Obligationand Date of Table 3. Comparison of Date of

Compliancein HighSchool Establishment Number of Towns Time periodbetween legal obligation and Cities and establishmentof a hi &h school (in years) law) 29 Minus (establishedbefore required by 18 One 3 Two 3 Three 2 Four 3 Five 5 . Six to Ten 10 Eleven to Fifteen 5 Fifteen to Twenty 11 Twenty -one or more 89 Total

nearly one thirdestablished a Of the townsconsidered in Table 3, do so by law.'Twentp=nine per high school beforebecoming required to yeare. .If a newlegal centsdid not complywith the law for ten or more would it.take for atown to obligation had an.immediateimpact, how long possible here; butthree establish a highschool?Approximation only is' ascertained'in a census years seems reasonable. Eligibility would be

16Inglis, 22.. cit P.42-45. 3014

year; one year later the townmight vote on establishment at itsannual meeting; during the next yearpreparations for opening could be made; and a third year may be allowed forexigencies. Twetty-seven per cent of the towns fall withinthe three yearlimit.

Still, establishment of a.high school .withinthree years is no

evidence that towns acted because of the law. Establishment even in

these towns may have been the reflection of someunderlying dimension.

Population, for !Lnstance, is one obviouslyimportant factor. Towns of a

certain size were required to establishhigh schools, and legal obliga-

tion, therefore, reflects growth. But population growth itself is

related to other social and economic measures. In short, no evidence

exists that makes it reasonable to assumethat legal obligation was

generally the most important factor in high schoolestablishment.On

the other hand, so far there is noevidence that legal obligation was

not of prime importance. A town mayhave complied with the law at a

later date because at that time the county courtdecided to enforce the

law more stringently, or, as in the case ofBeverly discussed in the text,

because a group of townspeople brought suitagainst the town for non-

compliance. However, even in cases such as thelatter the enforcement

by the court or the bringing of suit mayreflect, as it did in Beverly,

fundamental social and economic alterations withinthe community.Thus,

the role of legal. compulsion cannot betested statistically with any

accuracy. It is hard to imagine how compultioncould be entered meaning-

fully into the roster .of' variables.More promising, instead, is looking

for patterns of relationships betweenquantitative social and economic

measures andhighschool establishment. If relationships are found,

then establishment more safely can be assumed tobe primarily, the result "305

of factors otherthan legalcompulsion. will be used as measuresof Density, populationand their increase precisely is, as a recent urbanism andurbanization. To define urban probably impossible. conference on thehistorian and thecity discovered,

of population areaspects of most Nevertheless, sizeand concentration precise figure forpopulation conceptUalizations. Aproblem is that no standard for urbanismbecause size or density canbe taken as a minimal of population con- the term iS arelative one. That is, concentrations

of their contrast to,surrounding sidered urban in onecontext by virtue In this study, units might notbe considered urbanin another setting. larger and denserpopulation urban refers to townswhich had a relatively 12 were used tosupply than others in thesample. Five principal sources

States censusesof.1840 and 1865; statistical data. They were the United school returns for 1840 and1865; and the the abstracts ofMassachusetts

Massachusetts state censusof industry for1875.

II. First Relationships

performed to determinethe A number ofstatistical analYses.'were 18First, the towns were relationOip betimen thevarious measures.

urbanism see, JohnBurchard, 17On the problemof the definition of John Burchard,eds.,.The "Some Afterthoughts,"in Oscar Handlin and Historian 11and theCity,Cambridge, 1963, pp. 254-257. discussed, in thischapter, 18Not all thestatistical tests performed are be most relevant.All analysesdiscussed which considersonly those felt' to For most teststhe NSA main in the chapter wereperformed by computer. of these programsand link tape and programswere used.For a discussion Multivariate Statistical, their usage see,Kenneth J. Jones, The a guide to means, 1964. For thecorrelation' and division'into Analyzer, 'Cambridge, designed by A. Beatonand discussed within thischapter, the SLURP program variable from another wasper- used.The subtraction of one H. Glauber was Allan Ellis. formed by means of a,program writtenfor the author by Dr. and instructionin statisticalmatters Dr. Ellis hasprovided the guidande However, any re- without which thisstudy could not havebeen performed. inaccuracies andother barbarisms mainingstatistical misinterpretations, areentirely my ownresponsibility. 306

divided into two groups on the basis of whether or not they had established a high school by 1865.Hereafter these groups will be 19 referred to as high school and non-high school tbwns. Table 4 presents the means and standard deviations for the two groups and for the sample as a whole:

19. Population and dependency rate (computed as the number of children under fifteen divided by the total population) were taken from the general censuses. From the 1840 c lsus came also the total employed in manufacturing, agriculture, commerce, navigation and professions; these measures were used to derive the total employed in non - agricultural occupations and the ratio of this figure to the number, employed in agriculture.From the 1865 census came the number of foreign-born. The state census of industry for 1875 contained data compiled from the state census of industry for 1865, which merely listed but did not compile information on each town. From the 1875 census were taken the 1865 figures for total employed in manufacturing, agriculture, and 'Jther occupations" (a category comprising navigation, commerce and a number of trades).* In addition, the 1875 census provided information concerning the number of women employed a decade earlier in manufacturing and, finally, the number of manufacturing establishments. The last measure was divided by the number of people employed in manufacturing and the result used as a variable.Unfortunately, there is no source for the number of professionals in each town in 1865 nor for a separate consideration of commerce and navigation. To determine whether or not a town had established a h.gh school by 1865 Inglis' results, 22. cit., were used.All of Inglis' results were not checked; but spot-checking revealed accuracy.The school return abstracts of both years contain the number of incorporated academies; the numbers of unincorporated academies and private Schools (in 1840 this category also included schools kept to prolong the common schools); the average monthly salary, including board, of both male and female teachers; per pupil expenditure; and mills per dollar of valuation raised through taxation for school support.This variable will hereafter be termed school tax rate. The data in the returns were used to compute the per cent of females teaching in the winter, hereafter referred to as feminization. Population figures from the census and valuation figures from the school reports mere used to determine per capita valuation. The use of valuation is open to the objection that towns assessed their property differently, and that hence the recorded valuation of two or more towns of actually similar real valuation might be different. EL wever, Charles J. Bullock in Historical Sketch of the Finance and FinanciaPolicy of Massachusetts from 1780 to 1905 (New York, 1913, pp. 13 and4), has pointed out that the valuation of towns was determined at 4 year in- tervals. Al special valuation committee was appo=ted for this purpose. The committee recognized that towns might undervalue their property and, consequently, the committee tried to correct for inaccuracies and to arrive at a uniform standard. Therefore, the valuation reported is a reasonably accurate figure to employ. (continued on next page) 19 (continued) The 1840 abstract contained acategory of the numberof students the category had been over 16 attendingpublic school, and by 1865 changed to the number ofstudents over fifteen.Miles from Boston; another measure used wasderived partly from a g$Lateerof Massachusetts published in 1828 (JeremiahSpofford, A Gazeteer ofMassachusetts, Newburyport, 1828); in partfrom atlases; and in a few casesthrough of considerable measurements made-directlyfrom a map. A final measure by square miles importance was density,computed as population divided mileage that could be of territory. The earliest figures for square located were in the Massachusetts censusof 1915.Towns were created but, fortunately, and various boundariesaltered between 1865 and 1915 pamphlet listing in great the state governmentpublished an excellent detail all name and boundarychanges in towns and cities. (See, Massachusetts, Secretary ofthe Commonwealth,Historical Data Relating Boston, 19267. This to Counties, Citiesand Towns in Massachusetts, pamphlet was used to determineboth certain necessaryalterations which could be made with accuracy inthe 1915 figures and certainsituations in which the town had tobe dropped from the samplebecause of boundary small changes.The density figuresare notabsolutely accurate since that most boundary changes-could.notbemeasured, but it is assumed boundary adjustments were notlargecenough to invalidatethe results. 1865 were computed. The variables measuringdifferences between 1840 and Table 4.. Means and Standard Deviations of Towns in Sample Variable Towns a high which did not establish N at 150 school by 1865 Towns which adid high N m 54 school by.1865 7. difference 2nd/ 1st establish Entire sample ki.2K 204 DensityPopulationTotal1840 employed in manufacturing. 1536 125 61.83 689105 31.24 2023 259 95.46 817168 68.96 5432 1.07 1665 161 70.74 755138 46.68 AgriculturalTotal employed employees in non-professionalsagriculturaltions, excluding occupaew 287168 152156' 273363 140314 -.051.16 219283 226149 RatioIncorporatedPer non-agriculturalcapita valuation Academiesployeesto agricultural em- $245 .17.78 $65: 1.08 .38 $269.56 1.77 .28 $74.95 2.18 .45 1.26 .64.09 $251.79 1.04 .20 $68.56 1.51 .40 UnincorporateDependency RateAcademiesprivateschoolslong theschools, kept comma to andproschools 3.43 .35 3.45 .05 4.59 .34 3.93 .02 -.03 .33 3.74.35 3.61 .04 FemalesAverage as monthly % total salarymaleteachers teacher in winter $24.74 23 $4.24 .20 $27.65 . .26 $5.11 .20 11. .13 $25.51 .24 $4.65 .20 ,TaxationAveragePer pupilas monthly expenditure, salary'female teacher mills/dollar $11.71 $2.00 $2.10 .61 $12.1942.32 2.36 $1.98 .92.75 ,07.04.16 $184 $2.09 2.23 $2.08 .76.66 NumberNumber employed employed in innavigationcommerceof valuation 31.37-6.842.19 102.52 9.11 .70 16.3052.02 130.44 21.01 1.38 .62 36 .84 9.34 110.64 13.92 Table 4 (continued) Variable Towns which /lid not establish a ILO school N is 150 by 1865 Towns which N 54 dll % di fermata bestablish2nd/lst 1865 Eaktsar plc N sr 204 NumberNuniber1840 (continued) overin proiessions 16 in school 40.95 6.42 25.63 4.00 42.39 9.35 31.50 5.44 .,03 .45 41.33 7.20 27.27 4.60 Variable1865 XNon-establishing S.D. EstablishingM S.D. % difference .77 2081 M. Total1127 S.D. TotalDensityPopulation employed non-manufacturing 1728 224 77.11 869366 57.38 3060 616175 1191. 490138 1.271.75 328103 437 96 RationAgricultural non-ag. employees to gig.pationsagricultural occu- 218260 1.79 112382 4.19 229700 6.62 465152 11.65 269169 .05 .$478 22137fi 3.07 $156 449123 7.27 Nuaber.incprporatedPerNumber capita unincorporated valuationacademiesacads and private $471 .19 $151 .40 $498 .13 $171. .34 -.32 .05 .18 .38 ',malesDependency as %Rate all teachersschools in winter 1.26 .31.75 1.56 .03.18 1.30 .81.31 1.77 .18.03 .03.08 00 1127 .77.31 1.61 .16.03 AverageAveragePer pupil monthly monthly expenditure salary salarymalefemale teacher teacher $17.44$$0.19 03.79 $9.64$1.14$2.69 $19.13$47.17 $4.60 $14.12 $1.53$2.43 56 .09.21 $17$34 .69.89 4.00 $13.29 $1.30$2.73 Table 4 (continued) Variable1865 (cont.) MNon-establishing S.D. MEstablishing S.D. % difference M. Total S.D..53 Hills/dollar"Other0 Foreign occupations" born in taxes- trades 195 30 1.85 208118 .54 498 70 2.17 355169 .42 155133 17 275 40.19 1.94 133.80287 FemalesWorkers/mfg. employed inmanufacturingover 15 in school 5185 228 35 210 72 232 41 147 4193 118 5719.27 23 3826.64 population1ncrease.1840-865 (1865establishment minus 192 15.76 1840) 549 23.82 1037 29 830 31 433*439 416 32 .735 73 ratio#Density non-ag.inagriculture manufacturing non-agri/ occs. -69 991592 359345143 39 357-44338 80 '114 476406148 267260 37 -62157167 407379144 agriculturalTheoccupationstotal difference area of betweensome towns percentage 1.00 between 1840 and 1865. increases in3;90 population and 4.86 10.27 density reflect the changes 386 2.03 in the 6.45 311

Table 4 reveals dramatic differences between the two groups of towns.

In brief, high school towns were larger,denser, luxe irdustrial and more commercial.Within these categories there uas more discrepancy between the towns in1865 than in 1840. in 1840 the high schoatowns had a mean population 32% greater than the others,By 1865 the figure was 77%. Similarly, the mean density of the high st:hool towns was 547. greater in 1840 and 127% larger in 1865. For total employed in manu-

facturing, in non-agricultural occupations, and ratio of non-agricultural

to agricultural employees the 1840 differences were 107%,116%, and 1267.,

respectively, between the towns. Iu 1865 these differences had increased

to 1757., 169% and 269%. The high school towns also grew more rapidly

than did the others; their increases in population, density, number

employed in manufacturing, number employed in non-agricultural occupa-

tions and ratio of non-agricultural to agricultural employees were,

respectively, 4397., 433%, 260%, 2677., and 3867. greater than the increases

in the non-high school towns.

Other related differences could not be measured for both years,

but in the year in which they could be gauged similar discrepancies

occurred. In 1840 the mean number employed in commerceinthehigh

school towns was 138% greater than in the other group; the number in

professions in the same year was 45% greater, the number employed.in

navigation 627. larger. Similarly, in 1865, the number in the category

"other occupations," comprising commerce, navigation and trades was

133% larger in the high school towns; the number of femalesemployed

in manufacturing was 1477. greater and the number of workers per manu-

facturing establishment, 93% larger. 312

The groups of towns differed onlyslightly in per capita valuation; the figure for 1840 was 9% higher inthe high school towns and 5% higher in 1865.The differences in dependency rate werenegligible, and only small differences existed in thenumber employed in agriculture. The mean number ofagricultural employees was 5% smaller in highschool towns in 1840 and 5% larger in 1865. In both groups of towns the mean number employed in agriculture declined between 1840and 1865, but in the high school towns the fall was 37% smaller.

High school towns spent on the averageslightly more per pupil.The difference in per pupil expenditure rate was 16%in 1840 and 21% in 1865.

Similarly, in high school towns the school tax ratewa07% greater in

1840 and 17% greater in 1865.Female teachers' salaries, on the average, differed slightly between the two groups of towns;in high school towns the figure was 4% greater in 1840 and 9% in1865. Male teachers'

salaries differed markedly. On the averagehigh school towns in 1840

paid male teachers 11% more but by1865 the difference had increased to

56%. .Although both groups of towns hiredincreasingly higher proportions

of female teachers, the degree offeminization differed but little between

the two groups. In 1840 23% of the winter teaching force wasfemale in

non-high school towns and 26% in high school towns;in 1865 the proportions

had increased to 75% and 811, respectively. A moremarked difference

occurred in the number of older childrenremaining in public schools.

In 1840 the number of children overSixteen.years old who attended

public school was only 3% greater in thehighschool towns; by 1865 the

difference in the number over fifteen whoattended was 41%. From a simple division on one criterion, highschool establishment, marked relationships emerge. In terms of the grossest distinctions and measures, towns that established ahigh school were noticeably more urban, industrial and rapidly expanding than those which did not. This general impression is borne out by a correlation of high school establishment with the other forty-seven variables. The results of this correlation are presented in Table 5. Table 5 is drawn from an analysis in which all the variables were correlated with each other.Hereafter, this inter-correlation analysis of all forty-eight variables will be termed the GCA (general correlation analysis).

Table_5, Rank Order of Correlation Coefficients with High School

Establishment as Dependent Variable

Rank Variable Correlation coefficient

1. Average monthly salary,male teachers, 1865 .5650 2. Population, 1865 .5223 3. Increase in population,1840 to 1865 .5082 4. Number of foreign born,1865 *.4658 5. Density, 1865 .4490 6. Total employed non-agricultural occupations, 1865 .4343 7. Total employed in manufacturing, 1840 .4286 8. Total employed in manufacturing, 1865 .3966

9. Increase 'in density, 1840 to 1865 . .3891 10. Total employed in non-agricultural occupations, 1840 .3806 11. Density, 1840 3186 12. Increase employees manufacturing, 1840 to 1865 .3020 13. Number employed in commerce, ,1840 .3005 14. Ratio non-agricultural to agricultural employees,1865.2938 it it 15. tt it tr , 1840 .2880 16. Population, 1840 .2880 17. Number in professions, 1840 .2821 18. Average monthly salary, male teachers, 1840 .2852 19. Average monthly salary, female teachers, 1865 .2757 20. Per pupil expenditure, 1865' .2750 21. Taxation as mills/dollar for schools, 1865 .2686 22. Increase total employed non-agricultural occs. 1840 to 1865 .2671 23. Increase ratiot non-agr. to agric. employees, 1840 to 1865 .2637 24. Number over 15 in school, 1865 .2384 3114

.Table 5. (continued)

Correlation coefficient Rank Variable

.2350 25. Females employed inmanufacturing, 1865 26. Number of workers./.manufacturing establishtents, .2201 1865 .2142. 27. Per 2u2i1ex1enditure, 1840 Saab amr Not significant at.05 or better -.1797 28. Miles from Boston .15.90 29. Females as % totalteachers in)winter, 1865 .1558 30. Per capita valuation,1840 schools and 31. Unincorporated-academies, private schools kept to prolong commonschools, 1840 .1428 .1323 32. "Other occupations,"1865 .1150 33. Incorporated academies,1840 .1038 34. Average monthly salaryfemale 'teacLer, 1840 -.0986 35. Dependency rate, 1840 .0970 36. Taxation'in mills/dollarfor schools, 1840 .0825 37. Number employed in navigation,1840 .0771 38. Per capita Valuation,1865 .0763 39. Increase number inagriculture, 1840 to 1865 -.0737 40. Number incorporatedacademies, 1865 .0622 41. Females as per cent .teachersin winter, 1840 -.404it 42. Number employed.inagriculture, 1840 .0385 43. Number employed inagriculture, 1865 .0379 44. Dependency rate, 1865 .0234 45. Number over 16 in school,1840 -.0104 46. Total private scbools,1865 .1011 47. Number unincorporatedacademies and private schools, 1865

Significance .05 = .195 .01 = .24

differences, Table 5 reinforces theimpression gained by comparing mean of the High school establishment wassignificantly correlated with each

larger mean in social, economic anddemographic measures that bad a'

differences between per high school towns. spite of the small mean

pupil expenditure andschool tax rate these measures weresignificantly

correlated with high schoolestablishment.Measures of agricultural

employees remain neutral,apparently by themselves having nosignificant

bearing on high schoolestablishment.Likewide neutral are academies,

both incorporated andunincorporated, andper capita valuation. III. Factor Analysis

A division by means and even a correlationanalysis present a somewhat oversimplified picture of the relationshipsbetween educational and other variables. The distinction between urban-industrialand non- urban industrial hides shades of difference which maybe very relevant to discerning more precisely thecharacteristics of the relationships under consideration.To discern the patterns of relationshipswithin the variables vore subtly a factor analysis was performed. The factor analysis is a test which asks: what are the underlying dimensionsin the data and how much does each variable contribute to eachdimension?The factor analysis assumes that underlying a large group ofobservations are certain fundamental unities,that a seemingly chaotie group of events can lie reduced and described by certainunderlying traits.Thurstone provides a concrete example of what factor analysis attempts:

...let us consider a set of gymnastic stunts that tightbe given to a group of several hundred boys of comparable age. A factor analysis starts with,a table ofintercorrelations of the variables. If.there were twenty different stunts, we should have a square 20 X 20 table showing the correlationof every performance with every otherperformance.Our question now is to determine whetherthese relations can be comprehended in terms of some underlying order, which is simplerthan the whole table of several hundred experimentally determined coefficients of correlation.Let us suppose that some of the stunts require principally strength of the right arm,that others require principally a good sense of balance, thatstill others require speed of bodily movement. Several tests that require a good sense of balance might not require armstrength while those which require a strong arm might require verylittle bodily balance. We might then find that the correlations can be comprehended in term of a small number of functional unities, such as sense of balance, arm strength, or speed of these functional unities; but it is not likely that every testwill require every one of the functional unities that arerepresented 316

by the whole set of gymnastic tests.A factorial analysis would reveal these functional unitiessand we would say that each of them is a.primary factor in thebattery oftests.2°

factor analysis begins with acorrelation, matrix. It assumes that a correlationbetween variables means that thosevariables have something in common. That which the variables have in commonis referred to as e factor. To conceptualize factoranalysisconceive of a set ofcorrelation coefficients represented by lines wbith plotthe relatiOnship between'two sets of points, each setof points. representing the scores forindividuals

(here single towns) on a singlevariable. The lilies form a space, and each line adds another dimension to the total space. That is, a pia of six different correlationcoefficients will produce asix-dimensional figure. A factor is represented by an axiswhich runs through the x-dimensional space created by plotting thecorrelation coefficients.

The first factor is an axis that intersects as manyof the lines as possible, ia other words, which accounts for asmuch of the variance between the correlations as 'possible. The second factor will be an axis,

orthagonal to the first, which accounts.for asmuch more of the variance

as possible, and so on.The scores, or "loadings," oneach factor repre-

sent the degree of associationbetween the distribution 0 the scores on 21 each individual variable and the axis, orfactor.

20I.L. Thurston,_ Multiple-factorAnalysis, a Development and Expansion of the Vectors f the Mind, Chicago, 1947, p. 57.

210n ;actor analysis see William W. Cooley and Paul R. Lohnes, Multivariate Procedures for the BehavioralSciences, New York, 19629 pp. 151-172; and J. P. Guilford,PsychometricMethods, New York,. 1954, pp. 470-535. Factor analysis is ,anextremely. important test and is superior, for a large group, to partialcorrelation since it reduces the number of variables to a manageablesize and, in effect, partials outthe dimensions or factors ofsignificance. However, the dimensionsoriginally

identified by a factor analysishave a drawback.The first factor is

always a general one which representsonly gross differences and obscures

known as some subtlerelationships.To overcome these drawbacks a test

a varimax rotation wasused on the factors.The rotation distributes

the loadings (Or weights of contributionof each variable) of the general

factor among the Dthers and accentuatestheir differences. In a sense

the factor analysis and rotation are tests. closelyresembling the thoUght

processes of thehistorian; they look for significantrelationships among

disparate phenomena and leave. thehistorian with the problem of determining

the nature of 'the relevant dimensions.

The Varimax rotation deals witha maximum of ten factors. In this

analysis, all ten factors rotated werestatistically significant in'terms

of contributing to the variation among towns onthe measures under con-

sideration.Factors, it must be emphasized,should not be taken as literal

examples of towns.No town is characterizedexclusively by only one or

two factors. What the factors do represent areunderlying patterns of

relationship among the variables, pattethsthat combined in different

degrees within each town.

Table 6 presents the significant factorloadings for factor one.

This and .all subsequent factortables present the factors afterrotation. Factor Loadings inRat* Order Table 6.Factor One: Significant

Positive: manufacturing, 1840-1865 .96 Increase totalnumber employed in occupations, Increase totalemployed in oun-agricultural 1840-1865 .92 Total employed inmanufacturing, 1865. 1865 .88 Total employed innon-agricultural occupations, .74 Number of workers permanufacturing establishment,1865 .55 Increase inpopulation, 1840-1565 Increase in ratioof non-agricultural.toagricultural .47 employees! 1840 to 1865 .44 Number of foreign'bom,1865 .41 Population, 1865 .40 Increase in amity,1840 to 1865 .34 Density, 1865 .29 Total employed inmanufacturing, 1840 .26 Female teachers salary,1865 .24 High school established,1865

Negative:.

None of industrial The five dominantloadings, it is clear, are measures employees, growth ana industrialsize in 1865: increasein manufacturing total employed inmanufactur- .96; increase innon-agricultural.employees, .95; 1865, .88 and numberof ing 1865, .92; totalnon-agricultural employees, Other measures workers per manufacturingestablishment in 1865,.14. in the ratio of related to manufacturing arealso important: the increase total employed in non-agricultural to agricultdralemployees, .47 and the with manufacturing in 1840,.29.. Since foreign bornis highly correlated inmanufacturing measures in theGCA (for instance,its correlation with

.47, of this crease inmanufacturing employees is.48), the high'loading, Demo- variable can be explainedby the increase inindustrial measures. dominate: population graphic ueasures are ofimportance, though they do not

increase in density, .41and increase loads .55;population in 1865, .44;

loadings for educationalvari- density in 1865, .40. The two significant school establishment, .24. ables are female teachersalary, 1865, .26 and high 319

The former is significantlycorrected in the GCA with industrial vari-

manufacturing employees, ables. Its correlation with increasen rumber of

for instance, is .33. High school es ablishment, ithas been noted earlier,

is also highly associated withindustrial variables. Thus, the significance

of these two variables on factor oneis understandable.

Factor one represents anurban-industrial dimension of aspecial

sort. The most important feature ofthe factor is industrialgroWth.

Second, is industrial size in 1865.Third is growth in populationand

density, or urban growth. Of lesser importance are thevariables for

1840. Indeed, only the number employed inmanufacturing in that year is

significant. In the GCA manufacturingemployees and density in 1865 are

significantly correlated, .50, as arethe measures for the increase in

each variable, .45. Since the loadings of industrialcharacteristics

are so high onfactor one, it is probable that these werethe dominant

characteristics, bringing with them associatedgrowth and magnitude in

population and density. Hence, factor one will betermed the manufacturing-

growth factor. Table 7 presents the significantloadings for factor two:

Table 7. Factor Two: Significant FactorLoadings inRank Order

Positive:

Total employed inmanufacturing, 1840 .77 Population, 1865 .74 Total in non-agriculturaloccupations, 1840 .66 Foreign born, 1865 Density, 1840 .60 Density, 1865 .58 High School establishment, 1865 .57 Population, 1840 .56 Number in professions, 1840 .56 Number in commerce, 1840 .55 Increase in population, 1840 to1865 .55 Average monthly salary of maleteachers, 1865 .53 Increase in density, 1840 to1865 .39 Unincorporated academies, 1840 .35 320

Table 7. (continued)

1865 .34 Total employed innon-agricultural occupations, .32 Total employed inmanufacturing, 1865 Ratio ofnon-agricultural toagricultural employees, .31 1840

liqg40_-Yg°

None

urban-industrial characteristics are In factor two, asin factor.one, different underlying relation- dominant, but theircombination reveals a

first of all, are moreimportant ship. In factor twothe 1840 variables, highest loading, .77,is than in factor one.The variable with the Second in importanceis popu- number employed inmanufacturing in.1840. total employed in non- lation in 1865; thirdanother 1840 variable,

is-significant. For 1840 agricultural occupations,.66. Density, too,

for the increasebetween the two, its loading is.60,-for 1865, .58 and loading of .62, isanother .39. Foreign born is1865, which has, a 1840, .56, and important demographicvariable. Similarly, population in related to menu -. its increase, .55, aresignificant. Three other variables employees 1865, .34; facturing have significantloadings: non-agricultural ratio of non-agricultural total employed inmanufaCturing 1865, .32 and

but, it is important tonote, no to agriculturalemployees 184031, loading. Given increase in a manufacturingvariable has a significant represented by factor twoit is the general urbancharacteristics in 1840

professionals and numberin commerce, both not surprisingthat number of

with loadings of .56,are significant. 321

high The important educationalcharacteristics of factor two are

.53 and number of school establishment, .56,male teacher salary, 1865, unincorporated academies, 1840.High school establishment, ithas been

industrial noted, was significantlycorrelated with all of the urban and variables of importance in factor two. As well, in the GCA high.school establishment was significantlycorrelated, .30, with numberemployd in commerce in 1840 and .28with number of professionals in1840. The importance of the social, economic andoccupational characteristics associated with high schoolsexplains the high loading of thelatter variable on factor two.Male teacher salary issignificantly correlated,

.56,with high school establishmentin the GCA, and the highloading of

the latter undoubtedly contAbutes tothe former's significance onfactor

aCademies is two.. At first glance,the significance of unincorporated

somewhat surprising on a factorcontaining high school establishment-

since academies were consideredinimical.to the expansion of the public

1840 educational system.However, it isunincorporated academies for

(not for 1865) that issignificant. In 184.0, the GCA shows,unincor-

porated academies were significantlycorrelated with number in commerce,

of .48 and number in professions,.31. The pattern of relationships

unincorporated academies in 1865 was verydifferent, as will be shown

presently, and the differences suggestthat the relation of theseprivate

institutions to the rest of thecommunity altered marizedly inthe inter-

character- vening years. In factor two, finally,-both urban and industrial

1840 isti7s P"' present. However, the size ofmanufacturing variables in

is more important than their sizein 1865, andtheicgrowth is not

significant.On the other hand, in1865 demographic, urbanvariables 322

weigh more heavily than themanufacturing ones and their growthis significant.That is,- the dominant 1840characteristics represent manufacturing; the dominant 1865 andgrowth characteristics represent urbanism. Thus, factor. two will be termedthe urban-growth factor.

Table 8 lists the significant factorloadings for factor three.

Table 8.Factor Three: Significant FactorLoadingsin Rank Order

Positive:

Per pupil expenditure, 1865 .80 Per pupil expenditure,1840 .78 Average male teacher salary, 1840 .75 Per capita valuation,1865 .74 Average female teacher salary,1365 .72 Averageemale teacher salary, 1840 .58 Average male teacher salary, 1865 .52 Per capita valuation,. 1840 - .48 School tax rate,:1840 .30 High school established, 1865 .26 Increase in density, 1840 to1865 .24

Negative:

Miles from Boston -.45

In factor three thedominant loadings are educational.The two highest

loadings are per pupil expenditure in1865 and 18409 .80 and .78,

respectively.Likewise, salaries of both male and femaleteachers for

1840 and 1865 have high loadings; for male teacher in1840 the loading

is .75, in 1865, .52.For female teachers in 1865 it is.58, in 1865, .72.

Significant also in this dimension iscommunal wealth, represented byper

capita valuation with albading of .74 in 1865 and .48 in 1840. The

association of per capita valuationand per pupil expenditure is predictable from the correlation between the two2 .41 on the GCA; but the significant loading of school tax rate in 1840, .30, is surprising because the correlation between tax and per capita valuation is -.46. Factor three,, thus, represerts an exceptionally high level of educational expenditure.

This conclusion is reinforced by the significance of high school establishment, .26, which, in the GCA is significantly associated with measures of educational spending in 1865 and with male teacher salary in 1840.

Particularly revealing in factor three are the significant demographic loadings, increase in density, .24, and the significant geographic loading, miles from Boston, -.45. FLstor three represents an increasing clustering of population near Boston and probably reflects the growth of suburban areas in this period.This is the dimension most characterized by measures of both educational expenditure and innovation; it will be termed the wealthy suburban factor.

Factors one, two and three represent varieties of urban dimensions.

By contrast factors five, six and seven (four will be returned to) represent varieties of agricultural dimensions.The significant factor loadings of factor five are listed in Table 9:

Table 9.Factor Five: Significant Factor Loadings in Rank Order

Positite:

Per capita valuation, 1840 .38 Feminization, 1865

Negative:

Number employed in navigation, 1840 -.90 "Other occupations," 1865 -.81 Ratio of non-agricultural to agricultural employees, 1840 -.73 Number over 15 in pub15,c school, 1865 table 9. (continued)

Unincorporated academies, 1840 -.56 Ratio of non-agricultural toagricultural employees, 1865 -.55 Pdpulation, 1840 -.52 Total employed in non-agriculturaloccupations, '1840 -.46 School tax rate, 1840 -.44 Increase in ratio ofnon-agricultural to agricultural employees, 1840-1865 -.44 Density, 1840 -.41 Number.employed in commerce, 1840 -.37 Average monthly salary of maleteachers, 1840 -.32 Number over 16 in public school,1840 -.31 Population, 1865 -.29 Dependency rate, 1840 -.24 Total employed in non-agriculturaloccupations, 1865 -.24

Striking in factor five are thesignificant negative loadings of both measures associatedwith urbanism and occupations other thanagriculture.

Particularly dominant negatively arenumber employed in navigation in

1840 and "other occupations"1865, -.90 and -.810 respectively.The ratio of non-agricultural toagricultural employees is also significantly negative, -.73 in 1840 and -.55 in1865. Not surprisingly, number employed in commerce, -.37, isalso significantly negative as is the increase in the total number ofnon-agricultural employees, -.44. That

this is a dimension characterizedby small population size andrelatively

few children is attested by theloadings ofpopulation in 1865, -.29

and dependency rate in 1840,-,24. Yet it is not a dimensioncharacter-

ized by a lack of communal wealthsince the loading of percapita.valua-

tion in 1840 is .38.

Given the dominant socialand demographic characteristics of this

dimension most of the educationalfeatures are predictable from the

general correlation analysis. Forinstance the correlation coefficient

of number employed in commerce in1840 with male teacher salary in1840

-.32. is .26. In this, factor the loadingof male teacher salary is negative,

-Se.T..'"'!IIMattSsts 325

Likewise, the correlationbetween number over 15 in publicschool and

ratio of non-agricultural toagricultural employees in 1065 is.32,

and the loading of theformer is negative, -.67. Similarly, the correla-

tion coefficient of per capitavaluation and school tax rate in1840 is

-.46, and the loading ofthe latter is -.44.Feminizetion in 1865, with

a loading of .24,is less readily explicable sincethere is no signifi-

cant correlation betweenthis measure and any variable inthe GCA. However,

academies the polarity noticeablebetween feminization and unincorporated

be returned is a relationship that appearsalso in another factor and will

to. The negative loading of unincorporatedacademies for 1840, -.56, is

understandable in light of its positivecon:elation with number employed

in commerce, .48, averagemale teacher salary in 1840, .24, andnumber

employed in navigation, .54. A. somewhat surprisingfeature of factor

five is the absence of per pupilexpenditure in 1840 as significantly

positive since this variable wassignificantly correlated, ;41, with

per capita valuation.The absence of per pupil expenditure aspositive

combined with the negative significanceof number over 16 and 15 in

school and of school tax rateindicates a low level of expenditure on,

and perhaps a lack of interest in,public education as a characteristic

of factor five. Besides a low expenditure onpublic education, factor

five represents smallness, an absenceof sea-faring and commercial

activity and at the least abalance between non-agriculturaland agricultural

enterprise resistant to change. It mill be termed thesmall, static non-

commercial factor. 326

Table 10 presents the significant factorloadings for factor six.

=11111=11N

Table 10.Factor Six: Significant Factor Loadingsin Rank, Order

Positive:

Number employed in agriculture, 1865 .79 Increase in agriculturalemployees, 1840-1865 .40 Number employed in agriculture;1840 .27

Negative:

Increase in the ratio ofnon-agricultural to agricultural employees, 1840-1865 -.59 Ratio bf non-agricultural to agriculturalemployees, 1865 -.59 Density, 1865 -.50 Increase in density, 1864-1865 -.50 Ratio of non-agricultural to' agriculturalemployees, 1840 -.32 School tax rate, 1840 -.28 Density; 3.840 -.26

The dominant characteristic of factor six isclearly agricultural.

Significantly positiveare number employed in agriculture in 1865, .79; increase in agriculturalemployees, .40 and.number.employed in agriculture in 1840, .40. By contrast the significant negativeloadings are, predictably, the ratio of non - agricultural to agriculturalemployees for 1840,

1865 and the increase between the two years with negativeloadings of

-.32, -.59 and -.59, respectively.The negative loadings of density measures indicate the sparsenessof population that accompanies agricUlture;

the loading of density for 1840 is -.26; for 1865, -.50and for the in-

crease also -.50.

The only significant educational variable in41ctor six is school

tax rate for 1840 which has a negativeloading of -.28, a loading ex-

pected because of the significant correlation, .50,between it and ratio 327

It is important to note of non-agricultural toagricultural employees. of increase are more that within factor six measuresfor 1865 and measures heavily weighted than are measuresfor 1840. No measures ofmanufacturing,

It is an moreover, areassociated, even negatively,with this factor. Likewise, it is not agricultural, not an anti-manufacturingdimension.

level of school tax in itself an anti-educationfactor, although the low rate indicates atendency towards a.low levelof educational expenditure.

Tractor six will betermed the agriculturalgrowth factor. in The significant factorloadings for factor seven are listed

Table 11.

Order Table 11.Factor Seven: SignificantLoadings in Rank

Positive:

Increase in agriculturalemployees, 1840-1865 .81

Negative:

Number of agriculturalemployees, 1840 -.81 Number over 16 in school,1840 -.62 -.31 Population, 1840

agricultural Factor seven is alsoclearly agricultural.Only the number of

employees and the population in1840 are negarlve, -.31and ..81, respec-

1840 and 1865 tively, while the increase inagricultural employees between

the emergence of a numerous is positive.Factor seven, then, represents It will' be termed group ofagricultural employees between1840 and 1865. Again, only one educational the growing agriculturalpopulation faCtor.

variable, this time number over16 in public school in1840, is significant,

of its association with -.62, and this significanceis explicable in terms 328

agricultural employees in 1840, .31 inthe GCA.As in factor six, agricultural characteristics bythemselves neither fostered nor precluded manufacturing development or a highlevel of educational spending.

Only one other factor, numbereight, lends itself to a non- educational characterization.Table 12 lists the significant fadtor loadings:

Table 12.Factor Eight: Significant Loadingsin Rank Order

Positive:

Dependency rate, 1865 .75 Dependency rate, 1840 .61 Miles from Boston .57 Feminization, 1840 .34 Average monthly salary offemale teachers, 1840 .32 Feminization, 1865 .26

None itawiimi.iii7milwassimissa.rijor;

Factor eight is characterized .by ahigh dependendy rate for both 1840

and 1865, .75. and .61; and it isassociated with distance away from

Boston, .57. The educational characteristics offactor eight all relate

to female teachers: thedegree of feminization has a loading of.34 in

1840, .26 in 1865; andthe average monthly salary of female teachers in

1840 has a loading of .32. The association of variables in thisfactor

is somewhat surprising in lightof the correlation analysis.None of the

educational variables are significantlycorrelated either with *eachother

or with the significantdemographic -mriables.Again, the role of

feminization is puzzling, and this variablewill be analyzed by itself

later in the chapter.Factor eight will be termedthe dittance-dependency

factor. 329

The three remainingfactors tepresent educationaldimensions.

Table 13 lists thesignificant loadings forfactor four.

Table 13.Factor Four: SignificantLoadings in Rank Order

Positive:

Number of unincorporatedacademies and private schools, 1865 .97 Total number of privateschools, 1865 .95

Negative: -.24 Feminization, 1865

and private The dominant ,.aaracteristichere is unincorporated academies unincor- schools in 1865 whose loading is.97. This will be termed the

porated academy factor.As in factor threefeminization and unincorporated

academies tend to have oppositeloadings; andfeminization in 1865 has

the only significantly negativeloading on the factor,-.24.

listed in The significant factorloadings for faCtor nine are

Table 14.

Order Table 14.Factor Nine: Significant Loadings in Rank

Positive:

Incorporated academies,1865 .78 Incorporated academies,1840 .74 Number of professionals,1840 .50 Population, 1840 .30 Feminization, 1840 .25 peatiale

None .1111.1.111

Factor nine is dominated byincorporated academies whichhave a loading

of .74 in 1840 and .78 in 1865. The significance of numberof professionals, 330

.50, is comprehensible fromthe correlation between it and incorporated academies: .45 in 1840 and .30 in1865. Population in 1840, whose loading is .30, is also significantlycorrelated, .30, with incorporated academies in 1840.Feminization in 1840 has a significantfactor loading of .25 but is significantlyassociated in the GCA with none of. theother

significant variables in factor nine,which will be termed the incorporated

academy factor.

Table 15 lists the significant factorloadings for factor ten.

Table 15.Factor Ten: Significant Loadingsin Rank Order

Positive:

Per capita valuation, 1865 .37 Per capita valuation, 184& .34

pegative:

School tax rate, 1865 ai.82 School tax rate, 1840 -.59 Feminization, 1865

Dominant in factor ten is the lowschool tax rate in both 1840,-.59,.and

1865, The significantly positive loadingsfor valuation, .34 in

1840 and .37 in 1865, arepredictable from the correlation between valua-

tion and tax measures, -.46 in1840 and -.42 in 1865.Again, feminization

in 1865 has a negative loading of-.26 but is not significantly correlated

with any of the significant variables infactor ten, which will be termed

the low school tax rate factor. IV. Patterns of Variance

Feminization has been a puzzlingvariable throughout the analysis of factors. Although its correlations in the GCAfor both 1840 and 1865 are almost entirelybelow significance, it has appeared as asignificant variable in five, or half, of the tenfactors. Four of the five appear- ances of feminization suggestthat it is associated with a low level of expenditure on public education.Feminization was positively significant on the small, staticnon-commercial factor, a factor on which two measures of educationalexpenditure also had significantly negative loadings and none positive. .Feminization for1840 was positivelysigni- ficant on the incorporated academy factor.Since no measured of educational expenditure are significant on thisfactor and incorporated academies have no significant relationshipswith such measures on the

GCA, these institutions are notassociated' with high levels of school spending.Feminization was significantly positivealso on the dependency- distance factor.Although one measure of educational expenditure, average female teachersalary in 1840, was significant on thisfactor,

.distance itself was negatively associated with perpupil expenditure in the GU: -.48 for 1840 and -.45 for 1865.Likewise, dependency in both years, was negativelycorrelated with per pupil expenditure, -.25 in1840

and -.27 in 1865.Thus, in this case feminization appearedwith vari-

ables noticeably associated with a low levelof educational spending.

In the low tax rate factorfeminization for 1365 and school tax rate for

both 1840 and 1865 had significantly negativeloadings. In part, at

least, feminization thus may be considered avariable associated with a 332

low level of expenditure onpublic education. Since female teachers' salaries were roughly half aslarge as those of male teachers,feminization probably represented aneducational economy. This conclusion is reinforced by the absence of aclear relationship between feminization and social and economic measures.

Twice feminization has apolar relationship with unincorporated

academies in the factor analysis. In the first case, feminizationis

positive on the small, staticnon-commercial factor, which suggests an

association with agriculturalcharacteristics. This is reinforced by

the negative significance ofincorporated academies in1840 on this

factor, for in that year the latter werepositively associated in the

GCA with measures ofurbanism and manufacturing. On the other hand,

feminization for 1865 is negative onthe unincorporated academy factor,

positive at an in which unincorporatedacademies for 1865 is significant and

extremely high level. By this year, unincorporatedacademies had no signi-

ficant associations with any social andeconomic measures, and the altera-

tion in their relationships withthe latter variables suggests thatthey

were becomingincreasingly characteristic of non-urbanand non-manufacturing

areas. If this is the case, then thenegative significance of feminization

suggests that it may have beenassociated with denser and moreindustrial

areas. This conclusion is supportedby the positive significance of

feminization on the distance-dependencyfactor which, it will be argued

shortly, was associated withmanufacturing measures. Thus, the relation-

ship of feminization to the social andeconomic clairacterir*Ics of a

community remains ambiguous, and theambiguity reinforces the conclusion

that the most important variablesrelated.to feminization were measures

of educational expenditure. High school establishment is aless ambiguous variable. Three types of urban dimensiny: havebeen identified: manufacturing growth, urban growth and wealthy suburban;high school establishment is signi-

ficantly weighted on each and on noothers. It is most heavily weighted,

however on the second, the urbangrowth factor.Although high school

establishment is significantly correlatedwith both urban and manuw

facturing variables in the GCA, it isassociated rather more markedly

with the former.The correlation of high schoolestablishment with

population in 1865, .52 is second only to itscorrelation with average

male teacher salary in the save year,.56. The increase in population

and the density in 1865 both rahk aheadof measures of manufacturing

employees, and the increase in density ranksahead of the increase in

variables relating to manufacturingemployees.Thus, high school

establishment was relatively more associated withurban than with

manufacturing characteristics.

The relationships of school tax rate areless clear. In general,

the wealthier a town in terms of propertythe less of that property it

raised for schools. In the GCA the coefficientbetween per capita valu-

ation and school tax rate is -.42 for1865 and -.46 for 1840. Similarly,

in the school tax rate factor the two measureshave significant and

opposite loadings.Yet, the normal relationship betweenwealth and tax

apparently varied in two kinds of circumstances.First, a high school

tax rate is characteristic ofthe wealthy suburban dimension and a low

school tax rate part of the agriculturalgrowth factor.

The relationship of per pupil expenditure toother variables is only

partly. clear. It appears only in the wealthy-suburbanfactor and there, for both years, its loading is extremelyhigh. This high loading is understandable in light ofthe correlation inthe GCA of per pupil expenditure with per capita valuation, .55 for 1865. The relationship of per pupil expenditure to communal wealththen is the opposite of school tax rate. In no factor is per pupil expenditurenegatively significant, and in the GCA it is negatively andsignificantly correlated with only one variable, dependency rate for 1865, -.27.Dependency rate, in turn, was positively associated withmanufacturing and urban variables; its correlation for 1865 with total employed inmanufacturing is .20, for foreign born it is .34, for population increase, .30,and for both' increase in number employed in manufacturing and totalnumber of non- agricultural employees, .21. Per pupil expenditure, thus, was probably

depressed by an increase in dependency rate which, in turn, wasassociated with manufacturing and urban characteristics.It is likely, therefore,

that per pupil expenditure would be relatively low in a towncharacter-

ized by a rapid and sharp development of manufacturing. The social and

economic determinants of both per pupil expenditure andschool tax rate

would be clearer if more were known about the relationshipsof per capita

valuation to other variables. However, neither the factor analysis nor

the GCA provide the necessary illumination..

The salary of male teachers was significant and positivein factors

two and three, the urban growth andwealthy suburban factors.This

suggests that high male teacher salary isrelatively more closely asso-

ciated with urban than with manufacturing characteristics, andthis

hypothesis is reinforced by the GCA, from which Table 16 is derived: 335

Average Male TeacherSalary, Table 16. Significant Correlations of 1840 and 1865 Teacher Average MaleTeacher Average Male - 1865 Salary - 1840 Salary Variable

.28 .52 1. Population .35 .52 2. Density .29 .32 3. Manufacturingemployees 4. Totalnon-agricultural .33 .32 employees not significant employees -.23 5. Agricultural .32 6., Ratio of "4" to"5" .39 .37 7. Ntimber in commerce .26 8. NUmber*innavigation .20 9. Number ofprofessionals .26 .52 10. Increase inpopulation .36 .44 .11. Increase indensity employed 12. Increase total .23 manufacturing not significant 13. Increase ratio non- agricultural to .28 agricultural employees .37

of male teachersalary Table 16 revealsthe relativelyhigher correlation density and populationin 1865 and with demographic measures,as .52 with respectively, than withmanufacturing .44 and .52 fortheir increase, manufacturing and .23With its variables, .32 withtotal employed in

of male teacherssalary are likewise increase.The urban associations 1840, withagricultural reflected in its negativecorrelation, -.23 for non-.commercial employees and in itsnegative loading onthe small, static

factor. shows, was alsorelated to urban Female teachersalary, Table 17

and manufacturing measures:, 336

Table 17. Significant Correlations of Average Female Teacher Salary in 1865

Population. .31 Density :31 Total number employed in manufacturing .36 Total number employed. in non-agricultural occupations .36 Females employed in 'manufacturing ".25 Population increase .35 Density increase .33 Increase in total number employed in manufacturing .3b Increase in total employed in non-agricultural occupations .26

Table 17 indicates that manufacturing variablesare relatively more associated with female teacher salary than with male teachersalary in 1865.

Its correlations with urban and manufacturing variablesare nearly identical.

This conclusion is reinforced by the significant loading of femaleteacher salary on the manufacturing growth factor. The connection of female teacher salary with manufacturing helps to explain itsimportance on the dependency-distance factor, since in the GCA, both dependencyand female salary are associated with measures of manufacturing. However, the significant loading of female teacher salaryon the wealthy suburban factor indicates that it was subject to influences besidesmanufacturing, namely wealth and high per pupil expenditure.

Unincorporated academies had a significant loadingon three factors: positive for 1840 on urban growth and for 1865on the unincorporated academy factor and negative for 1840on the small, .static non-commercial dimension. Earlier it was suggested that these weightings reflecteda change in the relationship of unincorporated academiesto social and economic measures.Table 18 reinfOrces this conclusion: 337

Table 18. Significant Correlations of Unincorporated Academies

and Other Private Schoola with Social and Economic

-Variables, 1840 and 1865

Correlation of with Unincorporated Academies, 1840

Population, 1840 .36 Density, 1840 .33 Total employed in non-agricultural occupations,1840 .39 Ratio of non-agricultural to agricultural employees,1840 .34 Number of people in commerce, 1840 .48 Number employed in navigation, 1840 .54 Number in, professions, 1840 .31 Population, 1865 .36 "Other occupations," 1865 .36

with Unincorporated Academies, 1865

Population, 1865 .22 /11.1=1,

In 1840 unincorporated academies, Table 15 shows, weresignificantly

related to measures of urbani. m and manufacturing; for instance, their

correlation with density was .33, with total employed. in non-agricultural

occupations, .39. In 1865 unincorporated academies were no longersigni-

ficantly associated with these measures.Likewise, unincorporated

academies were.significantly correlated in 1840 with numberemployed in

commerce, navigation and professions,.34, .48 and .54, respectively, but

academies in 1865 were not correlated with the variablesfrom the earlier

year nor with "other occupations"(commerce, navigation and trades).

Howevert unincorporated academies in 1840 was significantlycorrelated

with "other occupations" in 1865 and this suggests thatthese schools had

been discontinued in communities where they had previously existed. In

fact, unincorporated academies in 1840 are correlated with variables

similar to those associated with high schools in 1865. This suggests that 338

academy in 1840 kinds of communities thatsustained an unincorporated

that people employed in had often establishedhigh schools by 1865, and These conclu- commerce andnavigation were associated.withthe movement. first, no significant sions are reinforced by twoadditional observations:

1840 and in 1865. correlation exists betweenunincorporated academies in

Second, in 1840 male teachersalary was significantlycorrelated with

unincorporated academies, .24;male teacher salary in 1840 wasalso

significantly correlated withhigh school establishment by1865, .28;

whatsoever with in 1865 unincorporatedacademies had no correlation

male teacher salary, but, ashas been noted, thecorrelation between

the latter and high schoolestablishment was .56.

academies have The most importantassociations of incorporated

already been discussed.These institutions, unlikethe unincorporated In ones, were notassociated in 1840 withurban-industrial measures.

correlated, .21, fact, in 1840 incorporatedacademies were significantly between incor- with agricultural employees.The other principal contrast

porated and unincorporatedacademies is in theirrelationship to

people employed in commerce are professionals. Both professionals and

significantly correlated withunincorporated and incorporatedacademies

1840 is signi- in 1840. However, in 1865 thenumber of professionals in

ficantly correlated only withincorporated academies.Yet both professionals

and number employed in commercein 1840 are correlatednearly identically

This suggests Limit in com- with high scl..00ls, .28 and.30 respectively.

munities where professionals were numerousin 1840 an incorporated

academy tended to exist and tocontinue its existence through the next 339

two and one half decades. The correlation between incorporated academies

in 1840 and 1865 is .52.However, in communities where incorporated

academies did not exist: professionals tended to be associated with the

shift from unincorporated ones to public high schools.

In 1840 the number of children over 16 attending school was associ-

ated with agricultural characteristics. In the growing agricultural

population factor both school children over 16 and number of agricultural

employees were negatively loaded. In addition, the two were significantly

correlated, .31, in the WA, and number over 16 was negatively correlated,

-.19, with increase in the number of manufacturing employees. However,

the negative loading of number aver 16 in school on the small, static

non - commercial factor is somewhat harder to explain since one would pre-

dict differently from the general association of the measure with agri-

cultural variables.Two reasons account for its presence on the factor:

first, number over 16 was positively correlated, .,22, with population,

which was also negatively loaded on the variable.Second, it waz

correlated, .35, with number over 15 attending school in 1865. The

latter measure was significantly correlated with population, density,

number employed in manufacturing, and ratio of non-agricultural to

agricultural occupations in 1840, ,47, .23, .35 and .46 respectively.

Likewise, it was correlated with all of the same variables, except density,

in 1865, .39, .29, .32, respectively, and with increase in the ratio of

non-agricultural to agricultural employees, .26. This suggests that in

.both 1840 and 1865 older children tended to be in school in the larger 340 communities, but that in 1840 more children over16 years of age attended school in predominantly agriculturalcommunities whereas the communities

in which the largest numbers ofchildren over 15 attended school in 1865 were in 1840, andcontinued to be in 1865, relativelynon-agricultural.

V. Conclusions and Limitations

The hypotheses and questions concerningthe relationship between

educational and social, economic aud demographicvariables, posed at the

start of this chapter, have beenexamined from three directions; by an

examination of mean differences betweenhigh school and non-high school

towns; by the results of a factoranalysis and by an examination of the

associations of individual variableswithin the factor taalysis and a

correlation analysis.This examination suggests certainconclusions,

summarized below:

I. Feminization

1. Feminization was associated with a lowlevel of expenditure on

public education.

2. The relationship of feminization tosocio-economic measures is

ambiguous and appears to be a product ofthe level of educational

expenditure within the community.

3. In towns distant from Bostonfeminization was associated with

a high dependency rate.

II. High Schools

1. High school establishment was related toall the dominant patterns

of urbanism and industrialism.

2. Hlgh school establishment was relatively moreassociated with

urban than with manufacturing characteristics. 3142

VI. Average Female Teacher Salary

1. A high female teacher salary was associated nearly equally with

manufacturing and urban measures.

2. Independently of manufacturing, a high female teacher salary

was associated with high per capita valuation and high per

pupil expenditure.

VII.Unincorporated Academies

1. In 1840 unincorporated academies were significantly related to

measures of urbanism and manufacturing.

2. In 1865 unincorporated academies were not related to measures

of urbanism and manufacturing.

3. Unincorporated academies lost their significant association with

number engaged in commerce and professionals between 1840 and

1865.

4. Kinds of communities that had sustained an unincorporated academy

in 1840 had often established a high school by 1865.

VIII. Incorporated Academies

1. In communities where professionals were numerous in 1840 an

incorporated academy tended to exist and to continue its

existence through the next two and one-half decades.

2. In communities where incorporated academies did not exist in 1840

professionals tended to be associated with the shift from unincor-

porated academies to public high schools.

IX. Number over 16 in public school in 1840 and over 15 ia 1865.

1. In both 1840 and 1865 older children tended to attend public

school in the more populous towns. 333

2. In 1840 more children over 16 attended school in predominantly

agricultural towns.

3. Towns in which the largest numbers of children over 15 attended

school in 1865 were in 1840, and continued to be in 1865,

relatively non-agricultural.

Although this investigation has yielded significant conclusions, a greatly expanded analysis might produce results both more definitive and more extensive. The analysis could be expanded profitably in three ways.

First, additional variables could be added to the study. If the year 1860, as well as 1865, is included then it will be possible to obtain information on additional occupational groups: particularly merchants, shoemakers and laborers.Moreover, manuscript census records contain the number of church seats claimed by, each denomination in each town.The utilization of this data as a rough indication of denominational strength would provide some empirical evidence for the assertions frequently made concerning the role of religion in the mid-nineteenth century educational reform movement. It would be well, too, to include the figures in the 1845,

1855, and 1865 censuses of industry for the value of agricultural and manufacturing (perhaps broken down by categories) goods produced. These measures might illuminate the determinants of communal wealth, a key variable which this analysis has handled most inadequately.

A second way in which the investigation could be profitably extended is through the introduction of more derivative variables. That is, the preset& analysis has determined that the degree of change between certain 344

variables as well as static differences wasof considerable importance.

Additional socio-economic as well aseducational variables could be like - wise derived and important informationobtained on topics such as the relationships of the degree of change in perpupil spending and school tax rate. In all, the expanded analysiscould profitably utilize over twice the number of variables in the presentstudy.

A final way in which this study couldbe extended is through the addition of the very large and very small communitiesomitted from the

present analysis. Ideally, the expanded analysis would consider sepa-

rately the sample as defined in the present analysis,all the towns and

cities for which data is obtainable and the citiesand towns in the

extreme categories.Particularly useful in this connection wouldbe to

study the effect of the pace of urbanism andindustrialism on levels of

educational spending and on educational innovation. It would be

necessary to include the verylarge cities in order to determine whether,

past a certain degree of development,the impact of. mbanism and industrial-

ism on education altered. In this connection, a set of graphsshould be

constructed plotting the relationship between the variouseducational and

socio-economic measures.

No matter how this analysis is extended, no matterwhat degree of

refinement is introduced, the utility of statistics willstill have

severe limitations. This appendix commenced with a question: werethere

significant pattetns of association between educational andsocial, demo-

graphic and economic features of Massachusettscommunities?The answer

is clearly affirmative, and some of therelationships have been discovered.

But to discover a relationship is not toexplain its meaning. To find the

meaning of historical relationships is thetask of the historian, not the

computer. Appendix C. Social Composition of High School Enrollment

Table 1. Town Size and Estimation of Proportion of Eligible Children Attending High School, 1860, based on 107. random sample of communities with high schools.

Note: The proportion was figured as the number of childrenat- tendiag during the winter or third (dependingon how year was divided) session divided by 4/5 of the average of children 10-15 and 15-20.

Population Proportion attending

Small Towns 1,129 70 1,348 22 2,912 28 3,296 28 3,333 20 Medium Size 6,272 20 7,261 11 Large 14,025 6 15,376 7 19,083 7 24,960 11

(Source: State census of 1860 and town school committee reports) -.mons* - oa

4=1111.1.1

346

Table 2a. Occupations of Fathers of Graduatedof Chelsea High School, 1858-1864

(The 43 families in thistable represent 49 children,39 girls and 10 boys. These 49 children makeup 697. of the 71 graduates during the period.)

Upper middle class Professional and public employee 2 Owner of business, store, manufacturing operation or financialconcern (merchant or broker) 19 Business employee 3 Master mariner, shipping master, shipwright, shipsmith 5 Total 29 Middle class Artisan 11 Farmer 0 Total 11 Lower class Operative 0 Laborer 0

No occupation listed for parent 3

Total 43

Table 2b. Occupations of Fathers of StudentsEntering Somerville High School, 1856-1861

(The 111 Families in this tablerepresent 135 children, or 757. of the 181 who entered duringthis period.)

Upper middle class Professional and public employee 11 Owner of business, etc. (as above) 44 Business employee 8 Master mariner, shipwright 2 Total 65 Middle class Artisan 26 Farmer 9 Total 35 Lower class Operative 0 Laborer 0 Farm Laborer 1 Total 1

No occupation listed for parent 10

Total 111 3147

(Based on records in possession ofChelsea and Somerville high schools and Somerville high schools andmanuscript census for 1860)

A valid question is: did the students about whom noinformation was

obtainable represent a sociallymarginal group whose inclusion would

Some stu- (I-e theresults?My feeling is that the answer is no.

dents were not included becausespelling ambiguitiesin the census

and school records made identification toouncertain. As for the ones

who left the high school before1860, the census year--these may have

been the most successful graduatedin terms of finding good employ-

ment in other cities. In general, towever, my feeling isthat the

gaps are random.

Table 3. Estimation of Numbers in Lowest Socio-Economic Categories, Chelsea and Somerville, 1860

Chelsea Somerville Foreign born (1865) 2,839 2,290

Laborers (1860) 391 316

Shoemakers (1860) 58 10

Mariners (ordinary, 1860) 261

Number employed in manufacturing (1865) 599 681

Farm laborers (1860) 0 36

Population (1860) 13,395 8,025 (1865) 14,403 9,353 Number of families (1860) 2,596 1,564 (1865) 3,034 1,807

% in Lower Class--RoughEstimation 43 62 (# in occupations listedabove/ # of families, 1865)

(Based on state censuses of 1860,1865 and 1875.) Appendix D.Haverly and the Vote to Abolish the High School:

Relevant Statistics 1840-1865 TableCharacteristicPopulation 1: Selected Social and Economic 4.689 1840 Characteristics of 1845 5,396 1850 Beverly, Maasachusetts, 5,944 1855 6,154 1860 5942 1865 NumberNumber in in As 7. of population Agriculturemanufacturing 345657 7% 1,032 215 37. 225928 37. No. of Asand 7. trades of population shoemakers 14% 736 157. 811 177.13% 589 97. 494 157. 87. QuantityForeignQuantity/no. ofBorn shoes shoemakersas 7. of population made 210,880 286;52 287,600 354.62 528 382,700 774.69 460 NumberNumberNtmiber engaged aged aged 20-30 in (merchants) 30-40 commerce 107 1,121 75 765 RawCorrectedRaw Value value value shoes goods produced made 203,910170)905110,185 488,482537,330155,455171,000 589,411518,800318,601280,432 CorrectedCorrectedRaw value value value minus shoes . 132,753 60,72073,157 3330217366,330126,400 164,95070,61138,168 RawRawCorrectedCorrected capital agricultural capital agriculture invested product 163,20525,36121,05094,659 114,90141,724138,890 474,848320,84389,162 ND.pr-Lo RawCorrectedNo. value of shipsof value fishin fishingcaught fleet 89,34374,155 46 172,775157,068 48 184,630 99,800 24 350

Table 2:Wholesale Prices of Hides and Leather Goods, 1845 -1862.

1910 -14 = 100

1845...... r 63

1850...... , 67

1851...... 65 1852 70 84 1854 100 1855.) 104 1856 121 139

1858... 110

1859....OOOOO 115

1860OOOOO 102

1861OOOOO 90

P 1862... OOOOO 108 1863-133 i864 164 1865 152 1866. 146 of Vote on High School Issue, Beverly 1860 District Table 3: N Resential DistributionVotes to Retain% of all votesin district votestain toin re-town% of all N Votes to Abolish% of all votesin district in 7.abolishvotes of all to town Total N vote in% all town Grammutr 79 57 61 4 5852 4391 2427 137 57 4017 CoveSouth 22, 5 4433 9 17 9 2824 5667 1113 5036 1510 WashingtoaBassBald RiverHill 12 4 2230 33 15 9 7870 47 1'19 45 WestEast Farms Farms 01 50 .1 0 1911 100 95 59 2011 63 352

Table 4: Occupational Distribution, Vote onHigh School Issue: Beverly, 1860

Occupation Votes to Retain Votes to Abolish TotalProportion Number Proportion Number Proportion No. all votes all to retain all to abolish

Professional and Public 17 .1318 2 .0094 19 .0556

"Gentlemen" 4 .0310 0 .0000 4 .0117

Business 30 .2326 24 .1127 54 .1579 - shoe manufacturer 5 .0388 9 .0423 IA .0409 - merchant or trader 10 .0775 7 .0329 17 .0497 - proprietor or business 1 .0078 4 .0188 5 .0146 - business employee 4 .0310 0 .0000 4 .0117 - retailsales 7 .0543 6 .0282 13 .0380 - house to house sales 3 .0233 2 .0094 5 .0146

Sea Captain and Master Mariner 8 .0620 1 .0047 9 .0263

Artisan 30 .2326 34 .1.596 64 .1871

Farmer 7 .0543 37 .1737 44 .1287

Shoemaker 29 .2248 80 .3662 1.109 .3129

Mariner or Fisherman 3 .0233 21 .0986 24 .0702

Laborer or Farm Laborer 0 .0000 10 .0469 10 .0292

Unknown 1 .0078 5 .0235 6 .0175 .3,53

Table 5: Distribution of Wealth, High School Vote:Beverly, 1860 Proportion Category Vote to Retain Voteto Abolish Total Number Proportion amber Proportion No. or mean or mean of all or mean of all of total to retain to abolish

Value of $1431.59 real estate $1892.09 $1152.70

Valua of $1203.12 personal estate $2107.18 $ 655.59

Value of 2633.1: total estate $3999.26 $1806.88

Value real estate 183 .5350 - 0-000 75 .5814 108 .5070 136 .3977 - 1,000-4,999 38 .2946 99 .4601 .0321 23 .0673 - over 5,000 16 .1240 7

Value personal estate 245 .7164 - 0-999 76 .5891 169 .7934 .1831 73 .2135 - 1,000-4,999 34 .2636 40 .0235 24 .0702 - over 5,000 19 .1473 5

Value total estate 148 .4327 - 0.999 54 .4186 94 .4413 145 .4240 -1,000-4099 42 .3256 104 .4836 49 .1433 - over5,000 33 .2558 16 .0751 354

Table 6: Distribution ofDependency and Age, High SchoolVote: Beverly, 1860

Catf4ory Vote to Retain Vote to Abolish Total Proportion NumberProportion Number Proportion No. or mean or mean or mean Has no school age children 56 .4341 120 .5634 176 .5146 The number of children,12-17, who attended school past year 45 .3448 52 .2441 97 .2836 The number of children, 12- 17, who did NOT attend school past year 16 .1240 30 .1408 46 .1345 The number of chi1drena5-11 91 .7054 105 .4930 196 .5731 Age 42.6047 42.5728 42.5848 355

Table7. Artisans: Wealth and Vote on High School Issue: Beverly, 1860

Retain Abolish Category N % of all N % of all artisans artisans voting voting

Real Estate

$0-999 21 33 19 30

$1,000-4,999 9 14- 13 21

$5,000 atld over 0 0 1 2

Total 30 33 63 100%

Personal Estate

$0-999 21 33 25 40

$1,000-4s999 7 11 8 13

Over $5,000 2 3 0 Ors

Total 30 33 63 100%

Total Estate

$0-999 15 24 17 27

$1,000-4,999 12 19 13 20i,

Over 45,000 3 5 3 5

Total 30 30 63 100% 356

Table 8.People: Business Wealth and Vote on HighSchool Issue, Beverly, 1860

Category Retain Abolish N % of all in N % of all in business voti: business voti:

Real Estate

$0-999 13 24 7 13

$1,000-4,999 8 15 12 22

Over 5,000 9 17 5 9 54 100%

Personal Estate

$0-999 12 22 12 22

$1,000-4,999 12 22 9 17 54 100%

Over $5,000 6 11 3 6

Total Estate

$0-999 7 13 5 9

$1,000-4999 9 17 12 22

Over 5,000 14 26 7 13

30 24 54 100% 357

School Age Children Table 9 Artisans and Business Lltople: Vote and Absence of

Artisans (N-63)

Retain Abolish

% of all N % of all N voti voti

No school age 35 children 13 21 22

Business (Na54)

30 19 35 16 358

District: on HighSchool IssIle in Grammar Table 10. Distribution of Votes Beverly, 1860

Vote toabolish Vote toretain Proportion or Variable Proportion or Number Number mean of votes mean of votee to abolish to retain

Professional and .0346 .1481 2 public employees 12 0 0 0. 0 Gentlemen

SeaNCaptaina and .0182 .0988 1 .1 MasterMariners 8 .1818 .2346 10 Business 19 .1636 .2222 9 Artisans 18 .0182 0 1 Farmers 0 .4545 .2593 26 Shoemakers 21

Mariner or .0909 .0247 5 Fisherman 2

Laborer or Farm .0182 0 laborer 0 .0182 .0123 Unknown 1

Categories ofBusiness .0909 .0370 5 Shoe manufacturer 3 3 .0545 Merchant or Trader 5 .0617

Proprietor of .0545 .0123 3 business 1

.0370 0 0 Business employee 3 .0545 .0741 3 Retail sales 6 0 0 House to housesales 1 .0123

55 81 (continued) 359

Table 10.Grammar DistrictVote - continued

Abolish Variable Retain $1014.55 Value of real estate $2085.19

Value of personal $2232.42 4 654.00 . estate $1668.55 Value of total estate $5417.59

Value of real estate, 30 .5455 $0-999 50 .6173

Value of real estate 24 .4364 $1000-4,999 20 .2469

Value of real estate, .0182 $5000 up 11 .1358 1

Value of personal. .7818 estate, $0-999 50 .6173 43

Value of personal .2000 estate,$1000-4,999 20 .2469 11

Value of personal .0182 estate, $5,000 up 11 .1358 1

Value of total estate, .4545 $0-999 35 .4321 25

Value of total estate, .4727 $1,000-4,999 27 .3333 26

Value of total estate, .0727 $5,000 up 19 .2346 4

39 .7091 No school agechildren 35 .4321

.1455 Number 12-17 in school .3333

Number 12-17 not in school .1481 .0909

.3818 Number children 5-11 .6914 41.15 Age 42.75 360

District, Table 11.Distribution of Vote onHigh School Issue, South Beverly: 1860

Abolish Variable Retain # Prop./ # Prop/ mean mean

Professional and 0 public employee 2 .0909 0

0 0 Gentleman 4 .1818

Sea Captain and 0 Master Mariner 0 0 0 .2593 Business 9 .4091 7 .0370 -shoe manufacturer 0 0 1 .1111 -merchant 5 .2273 3 .0370 -proprietor 0 0 1 0 -employee 1 .0455 0 .0741 -retail sales 1 .0455 2 0 -house to house sales 2 .0909 0

.2593 Artisan 4 .1818 7

.1111 Farmer 1 .0455 3

.1481 Shoemaker 2 .0909 5

2 .0741 Mariner/Fisherman 0 0 .1481 Laborer/Farm laborer 0 0 4

0 Unknown 0 0 0 $1848.15 Real Estate $2042.28 $1274.07 Personal Estate $3263.64

$3122.22 Total Estate $5305.92

Ingpieomptamminerweespovi 361.

Tehle 11. South District am continued

Variable Retain Abolish Prop./mean # PrcEltmean

Real estate -$0-999 10 .4545 11 .4074 -$1000-4,999 8 .3636 12 .4444 -$5,000 up 4 .1818 4 .1481

Personal estate -$0-999 6 .2727 16 .5926 '41,000-4,999 9 .4091 9 .3333 -$5,000 up 7 .3182 2 .0741

Total estate -$0-999 6 .2727 10 .3704 -$1,000-4,999 6 .2727 10 .3704 -$5,000 up 10 .4545 7 .2593

No children of school age 14 .6364 15 .5556

Number 12-17 in school .1818 .2963

Number 12-17 not in school .0455 .0370

Number children 5-11 .3636 .3333

Age 44.68 45.04

Number 22 27 362

Table 12.Educational Statistics forBeverly, Massachusetts, 1840-65

1840 1860 1865

Per pupil expenditure 1,79 5.71 5.69

Amount, in mills, per dollar of valuation raised for school support 1.71 3.01 2.08

Male Teachers' Salaries (monthly) 28.43 53.73 61.11

Female Teachers' Salaries (monthly) 9.00 17.52 18.10

Female Teachers as % of total teachers in winter 23 54 73 Bibliography

I. Note drawn on a varietyof types of source In writingthis study I have

fact-sbout the sourcesconcerning the ideology material. The striking that is, whereverI looked the same argu- of reform'wastheir similarity; primarily concernedwith ments occuredagain and again. Fbr the sections reports of thesecretaries ideology four kindsof sources weremost useful; the

reports; edUcationaljournals and mis- of the Board ofEducation; local school The reports of thesecretaries, cellaneous pamphlets,books and speeches. before, and especially those of HoraceMann, have beenused by historians

theory and developments. Local school they provide anexcellent overview of Besides reflecting thegeneral reports. have beenused too infrequently. pictures of the problemsen- ideology of the movement,they provide vivid be used with caution. countered by schoolcommittees.However, these must

views of developmentsand.COntro- They, present onlythe school committees' really begin to comprehend versies, and more variedmaterial is necessary to the Common what is going on in agiven town. Thc., educational journals, have been touched Schocil Journal and theMassachusetts Teacher, scarcely prominent and experiencedin by historians. They weregenerally edited by men the annozymous authors educational affairs, and mayimpression is that most of

extraordinarily clear were practicingteachers. These journals provide an tell what went picture of leading pedagogicalattitudes, and their reports 3614

on at teachers' institutes,conventions and other important educational

gatherings. They are, .really, a key source for the period.

From censuses of industry and popUlation,state cuments and schOol

reports comes a wealth of statistical information, againmined most inad-

.equately in the past. One question that immediately. arises concerningthese

statistics is their accuracy. Probably they are not absolutely accurate,

but they do reflect differences and trends that make minorinaccuracies

unimportant. indeed, since inaccuracies are random, the factthat'stat-

istically significant results are obtained in tests that' usethe figures

indicates that they are generally correct, for inaccuracieswoad tend

overall to lower the significance of the results.

A particularly valuable source of statisticalinformation is the

manuscrlpt census., Obtainable either in the Library ofCongress 10T the

Massachusetts State Archives. .This provides someinformation, such as the

number of church seats of various denominations and farmingconditions, that

was not tabulated in the publishedabstracts. As well, it provideb a wealth

of demographic and social information concerning, individuals inspecific

towns and is essential for certain tasks: like analyzing a voteor determin-

ing the social composition of schools.

Writing local educational history is difficultoften frustrating

but ultimately rewarding. Local history provides the best way ofldetermining

the dynamics of reforM and its results, anddetailed local history is nec-

essary to obtaining the data on whichgeneralizations about the period can

be based.The sources in communities vary. In this study the sections on communities reveal the differences in available source material. The richest cache was located in Beverly, whose historical society has a fine collection of unpublished material relating to local history. School reports, as I noted above, must be used with caution. In most communities local newspapers, read carefully and sensitively, provide a slightly different perspective and a corrective. However, local controversies often are not treated, or else they are touched on very lightly. In towns like Beverly, with one newspaper, the editor tried to offend no one; and his attempt to produce a non-partisan, "family" newspaper resulted in_ a cloying blandness.Never- theless, relevant data can be mined by the patient reader. Town records for the most part are disappointing.They do provide a formal recording of important decisions, but they do not usually provide much clue to the nature of the process of decision making. However, the occasional treasure, like the recording of the names on the high school vote in Beverly, is reward enough for many fruitless days of searching. Where school registers have been preserved, they are a most useful source when used in conjunction with the manuscript census. Otherwise, the local historian must depend on chance and hope to find letters, diaries, school committee minutes and other miscellaneous sources.

The section of this study that deals with the reform school points up the vette of institutional as well as local history in this.period. Virtually no historian has studied the internal operations of institutions in Massa- chusetts during this period. For an overview of their history the reports supplemented by other of their superintendentsand Boards of Trustees,

Some of the controversiessurround- state documents, arefrequently.exzellent. leading reformers like ing institutions areilluminated by the papers of such as records Mann and Howe as wellas by unpublished state documents, the legislative acts in the of the governor'scouncil and papers filed with

state archives. II. Sources

1. Primary Sources A. Unpublished

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"Town Records," 1826-1865,vs.10-12, Beverly City Hall.

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Beverly, South DistricL,School Register,1865-66, Beverly Historical Society. Boston School Department Boston School Committee,Records, 1844, 1845, Archives. June 10, 1834, Channing, William Ellery,letter to Nathan Appleton, Appleton Papers,Massachusetts HistoricalSociety.

High School. "Chelsea High School GraduatesSince 1858," Chelsea

25, 1841, Lawrence Green, Thomas, letter toAmos Lawrence, September Papers, MassachusettsHistorical Society.

19, 1841; March 4, 1843; Green, Joshua, letters toAmos Lawrence, April Historical Society. December 2, 1843, LawrencePapers, Massachusetts

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B.A. 1961, History 1957-1961 Harvard College and Literature

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1962 Intern Teacher,Winchester High School

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1962-1963 England: Frank KnoxTraveling Fellowship

Harvard Graduate Schoolof Candidate for the Ed.D. 1963-1966 philosophy Education in history and of education

1963 Playschool Director, (summer) Cambridge NeighborhoodHouse

Education, 1963-1965 Teaching Fellow in Harvard

Education, 1964-1965 Research Assistant in Harvard

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