All throughout history, education has most definitely been used to suppress society expand opportunities simultaneously. This fact is first extremely evident in early Colonial education systems. At that time, the primary reason for citizens to attend school was for the purpose of gaining the ability to read and write to understand the words of the bible. Much of the distinction between types of schooling in Colonial times had to do with one’s social status and place in society. The Puritans wanted all of their citizens to be able to read and understand the bible, to ensure their goal of a perfect religious community. Essentially, the Puritans wanted to establish a strong relationship with God and their citizens. In attempting such a goal, the …show more content…
This encouraged the communities to have school houses, teachers and enroll the citizens in the school to learn the words of the bible. In my opinion these schools seem very similar to today’s bible schools and Sunday schools that many children attend in the summer and on weekends of religious families. The primary goal of education of these colonies was to spread the knowledge and understanding of the bible, whereas today’s schools encourage creative and critical thinking skills involving real-world scenarios. However, with this law in place, adolescents and adults, no matter their social status, were encouraged to learn to read. For example, if one was taking part in an apprenticeship, the master would still hold the responsibility of teaching the apprentice to read and write. However if one was of higher social status, a grammar school would be attended and these schools would prepare the students to be leaders in society and to attend a college. This is a perfect example of the control that education placed on society, not allowing for social class mobility. This oppresses the lower class and provides many opportunities for growth to the elite. This system, closely modeled the system used around Europe around the time of emigration to the United …show more content…
In the late 1700’s the American government was wanting to obtain the Native American land, and wanted to do so peacefully. Jefferson’s main goal in obtaining this land involved altering the culture of the Native Americans. He wanted them to change their cultural practices and adapt to the “American” way of life. In changing their ways of life, Jefferson encouraged schools to be built to teach the citizens what everyone else was learning in America. With these schools the Native Americans would learn the American way, including the religious practices. To the Native Americans this was a huge invasion of privacy and not respecting the ancient tradition and culture of the Indians. They started to become angry that their culture was being taken from them, and that they were having to change their practices. While the Native Americans did not want to relinquish their rich culture, they were willing to read and write to assist with the trading of goods. The Native Americans did not want to give up their precious land that had so much history and tradition to people who did not honor the land in the way that it should be honored. While the Americans simply wanted to expand their country and their power over the continent of North America, the Native Americans wanted to shield their history and tradition from the
The generalization that, “The decision of the Jackson administration to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s was more a reformulation of the national policy that had been in effect since the 1790s than a change in that policy,” is valid. Ever since the American people arrived at the New World they have continually driven the Native Americans out of their native lands. Many people wanted to contribute to this removal of the Cherokees and their society. Knox proposed a “civilization” of the Indians. President Monroe continued Knox’s plan by developing ways to rid of the Indians, claiming it would be beneficial to all. Andrew Jackson ultimately fulfilled the plan. First of all, the map [Document A] indicates the relationship between time, land, and policies, which affected the Indians. The Indian Tribes have been forced to give up their land as early as the 1720s. Between the years of 1721 and 1785, the Colonial and Confederation treaties forced the Indians to give up huge portions of their land. During Washington's, Monroe's, and Jefferson's administration, more and more Indian land was being commandeered by the colonists. The Washington administration signed the Treaty of Holston and other supplements between the time periods of 1791 until 1798 that made the Native Americans give up more of their homeland land. The administrations during the 1790's to the 1830's had gradually acquired more and more land from the Cherokee Indians. Jackson followed that precedent by the acquisition of more Cherokee lands. In later years, those speaking on behalf of the United States government believed that teaching the Indians how to live a more civilized life would only benefit them. Rather than only thinking of benefiting the Indians, we were also trying to benefit ourselves. We were looking to acquire the Indians’ land. In a letter to George Washington, Knox says we should first is to destroy the Indians with an army, and the second is to make peace with them. The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793 began to put Knox’s plan into effect. The federal government’s promise of supplying the Indians with animals, agricultural tool...
In this letter Banneker expresses to Jefferson that blacks as well as other racial groups are also human and points out the struggle that Blacks have faced throughout history like being unequally treated and being used for slavery. On the other hand Jefferson supported and defended the Native Americans when the white settlers wanted to take over their lands. Later when Jefferson became president, he doubled the size of the land when he decided to purchase the Louisiana territory from the French. In Chapter 7 titled “As long as Grass Grows or Water Runs” Howard Zinn emphasizes the poor treatment that presidents Madison and Jackson were giving to the Native Americans. Madison and Jackson main objective was to remove as many Native Americans from the lands. That way leading to having more power and more territory. After Jackson and Madison presidency terms were over The Indian Removal act was approved by the congress as part of the Jackson
People know about the conflict between the Indian's cultures and the settler's cultures during the westward expansion. Many people know the fierce battles and melees between the Indians and the settlers that were born from this cultural conflict. In spite of this, many people may not know about the systematic and deliberate means employed by the U.S. government to permanently rid their new land of the Indians who had lived their own lives peacefully for many years. There are many strong and chilling reasons and causes as to why the settlers started all of this perplexity in the first place. There was also a very strong and threatening impact on the Native Americans through the schooling that stained the past and futures of Native Americans not only with blood but also with emotion. It was all a slow and painful plan of the "white man" to hopefully get rid of the Indian culture, forever. The Native American schools were created in an attempt to destroy the Native American way of life, their culture, beliefs and tradi...
Jacksonian Democracy Between the years of 1775 and 1825, the United States government was hypocritical with respect to their Native American policy. The government, at most times, claimed to be acting in the best interest of the Native Americans. They claimed that their actions were for the benefit of not only their own citizens, but for the Native Americans, too. These beneficial actions included relocation from their homeland, murder in great numbers, rape, and a complete disregard for the various cultures represented by the Native Americans. While the nation was still very young, it issued the Northwest Ordinance. This document told the Native Americans that they should not feel threatened by this new nation because good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians. The United States told the Native Americans, with this document, that they were dealing with a just and humane country. Despite these humane intentions, in 1790, Native Americans pleaded with President Washington about the cruel treatment they were receiving. The Indian chiefs wrote to Washington to inquire as to why they were being punished. They referred to the American army as the town destroyer. Obviously the Untied States was not acting in the good hearted manner and just way it had declared it would in 1787. Americans, as they moved westward, tried to rationalize its brutal treatment of the Native Americans. In 1803, Jefferson set two goals in regard to dealing with the Native Americans. His first goal was to convince them to abandon hunting and become educated in the ways of the white man (i.e. agriculture or raising stock). He said that they would see the advantages of this better life. In reality, Jackson wanted to control the amount of land the Native Americans occupied. He also spoke of leading them to civilization and to the benefits of the United States government. Jefferson presented these goals as being advantageous for them. In actuality, these goals put the Native Americans at a sizable disadvantage. In 1811, an Indian chief
Thomas Jefferson and Robert Coram both had different plans for education in colonial America. Jefferson was the most well known advocate for education while Coram was the least famous devisor of educational plans. Jefferson, as we all know, wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became the third President. Robert Coram was a young man who worked for a Republican newspaper in Delaware. He based most of his plan on the works of Noah Webster, who was a supporter of public schools.
In contrast, church attendance was compulsory and education was a high priority in Puritan society because literacy was essential to Bible study. Laws were passed calling for the creation of grammar schools to teach reading and writing, and Harvard College was founded in 1636 to train the
The Antebellum period was a time of reform and improvement. After the War of 1812, America went through a period of westward expansion, patriotism and an economic emergence as a world power. Their new found power as a country inspired reformation. Abolitionists worked to end the institution of slavery through protests, rallies, and the formation of societies; women’s rights activists advocated in a similar way. Simultaneously, many Americans supported the government’s efforts to remove Native Americans from their own land. Americans during the Antebellum period were ambitious, but contradictory in their activism; while many activists fought for the rights of slaves and women, others sought to curtail rights of Native Americans.
Johnson, Michael P. "Document 10-1 President Thomas Jefferson’s Private and Public Indian Policy.” Reading the American Past Selected Historical Documents. 5th ed. Vol. 1. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 188. Print. (From The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, vols. 3 and 4, ed. Henry A. Washington. Washington, DC: Taylor and Maury, 1853-1854).
Education did not form part of the life of women before the Revolutionary War and therefore, considered irrelevant. Women’s education did not extend beyond that of what they learned from their mothers growing up. This was especially true for underprivileged women who had only acquired skills pertaining to domesticity unlike elite white women during that time that in addition to having acquired domestic skills they learned to read a result becoming literate. However, once the Revolutionary War ended women as well as men recognized the great need for women to obtain a greater education. Nonetheless, their views in regards to this subject differed greatly in that while some women including men believed the sole purpose of educating women was in order to better fulfil their roles and duties as wives and mothers others believed the purpose of education for women was for them “to move beyond the household field.” The essays of Benjamin Rush and Judith Sargent Murray provide two different points of view with respects to the necessity for women to be well educated in post-revolutionary America.
Today, students attend school in large brick buildings with several classrooms and many highly trained and specially licensed teachers, learning a wide variety of subjects. They are required by law to attend from kindergarten to twelfth grade, riding on school buses, walking short distances, or taking a parent’s car back and forth every day. Compared to those of today, schools in the 1800s were vastly different in many ways. School buildings, laws and policies regarding education, transportation, subjects taught, school supplies, and teacher license requirements have all changed in the past two centuries.
The northern colonies badly needed the services their isolation denied them. The people needed doctors and surgeons and carpenters and blacksmiths. And although they could survive without many of the manufactured goods available only at high prices, they dreamed of owning these things. They dreamed also of luxury items-perfume, spices, silk cloth.
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Originally founded by Mary Lyon as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary on 8 November 1837, it is the "first of the Seven Sisters" and is the oldest continuing institution of higher education for women in the United States. In addition, according to the United States Department of Education, "Mount Holyoke’s significance is that it became a model for a multitude of other women’s colleges throughout the country." (contributors, 2008) 1834 was a turning point for Mary Lyon. She decided to leave Ipswich Female Seminary, where she was assistant principal, and focus all of her time and efforts on founding an institution of higher education for women. For the next three years, she crusaded tirelessly for funds and support. It was not the best time to ask people for donations, the U.S. was in a severe economic depression. But Mary Lyon persisted. She wrote circulars and ads announcing the plan for the school, raised money, persuaded prominent men to back her enterprise, developed a curriculum, visited schools and talked to educators as far away as Detroit, chose the school's location, supervised the design and construction of a building, brought equipment, hired teachers, and selected students. She endured ridicule from those who felt her ambitious undertaking would be "wasted" on women. Her constant travels often left her in a state of exhaustion. Yet, Mary Lyon never doubted her belief that women deserved to have the same opportunities for higher education as their brothers.
...forbade black education. Besides that, very little of the white population went to schools anyway. Establishing school systems in these areas was a tricky job. Despite problems in the South and West with education, America had grown into a more learned nation. Over 80% of the population (excluding the slavery population) were literate, compared with a much lower literacy rate prior to the 1800’s. Americans had once again worked hard in order to enhance their societies’ standards.
The intellectual culture expressed in literature and education was for the Americans to receive the basic reading level skills. In 1647 Massachusetts established a law, which required each town to support a public school. Others who did not support public schools, had church schools and “dame”, or private classes in the instructor’s house. Even though this does not sound familiar, people of the white race were the only ones to receive education, especially white males. Men had a higher degree of literacy than females, but Americans had a higher rate of literacy than most European
Gender, social status, and the region in which a child lived determined how much schooling a child would receive and where and how they would get it. Children of the upper class were either taught in private schools or by a tutor. They were taught reading, writing, prayers, and simple math ("Education") . They were taught using repetition from the Bible, a religion-based reading supplement called a primer, and/or a paddle-shaped (also religious) horn book ("Schooling"). The upper-class boys were taught more advanced academic subjects, and may have been sent to boarding school in England or another state. The girls were taught to assume the duties of a wife and mother and obtained basic knowledge so they could read the Bible and record expenses ("Education"). While the south had very few laws for education because of its population, the middle and northern colonies (and then states) had established guidelines for their citizens. Pennsylvania's Law of 1683 set a monetary penalty for any parent whose children could not read and write by age twelve, and who were not taught a useful trade. By 1642 the northern colonies had already mandated a public education or apprenticeship for children, one grammar school for towns with more that one-hundred families, and an elementary school for towns with more than fifty.