Education and Culture in Ante-Bellum America

Writing in 1790, playwright and essayist Judith Sargent Murray inquired whether it was “reasonable that a candidate for immortality, for the joys of heaven, an intelligent being, who is to spend an eternity in contemplating the works of Deity, should at present be so degraded as to be allowed no other ideas, than those which are suggested by the mechanism of a pudding or sewing the seams of a garment?” Her questions echoed the growing sentiment favoring greater public education, especially for girls, who had lower levels of literacy than their brothers, were less likely to go to school, studied a more limited curriculum, and had fewer opportunities for advanced education.