Education in the Chesapeake Colonies by Ashleigh H.

The Chesapeake colonies were a tobacco-producing and money driven society. A crop that required many laborers and much time and effort left education of their young at the wayside. There were no urban centers most appropriate for schools, so families had to do their best to teach their children basic reading, writing, and mathematics. Wealthy planters might employ tutors and have plantation schools for their children and neighbors (Land, 1983). Some financially prosperous planters chose to send their children to preparatory schools and colleges in Europe.

The people in London province raised funds to erect the second higher learning institution in British North America, the College of William and Mary, which was founded in 1693. It was built just 5 miles from what would become Williamsburg, Virginia. (“Hornbook Virginia,” 1965). It still stands today as a prestigious university which educated many well-known people in American history. Public elementary education was addressed by Thomas Jefferson in the Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge in the 1770s. This would give 3 years of basic elementary education in reading, writing, and mathematics for all children. Virginia lagged behind other colonies in terms of public education (Rubin, 1977).

(Image:College of William and Mary, 1723)

References

A Brief History of Virginia. (1965). In J. Macgruder et al. (Eds.), A Hornbook of Virginia History (p. 68). Richmond, Virginia: Virginia State Library Publications

Land, A. C., (1983). Provential Maryland. In R. Walsh & W. Fox. (Eds.), Maryland, a History (p. 35). Baltimore, Maryland: Press of Schneidereith & Sons.

Rubin, L.D., (1977). The Revolutionary Era. In J. Smith et al. (Eds.), Virginia (p. 86). New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.