Exciting emulation: Academies and the transformation of the rural north, 1780s-1820s

Journal of American History

Volumn 91, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 445-470

  Opal, J M ^a  

^a Colby College

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EID: 40449113448     PISSN: 00218723     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3660707     Document Type: Review

References (176)

1. James Morris, Memoirs of James Morris of South Farms in Litchfield (New Haven, 1933), 46, 47, 54, 55, 56-59.
2. There were 168 incorporated academies in New England by 1830, the vast majority of them founded after 1780. See Barbara Nolen Strong, The Morris Academy: Pioneer in Coeducation (Torrington, 1976), 68-69.
3. See also Richard G. Durnin, "New England's Eighteenth-Century Incorporated Academies: Their Origin and Development to 1850" (Ed.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1968);
4. James McLachlan, American Boarding Schools: A Historical Study (New York, 1970);
5. Theodore R. Sizer, The Age of the Academies (New York, 1964);
6. Harriet Webster Marr, The Old New England Academies Founded before 1826 (New York, 1959). The exact number of academies is very difficult to determine, because many never received a state charter. Southern academies, which also burgeoned in the early national period, merit separate consideration.
7. See Mary Carroll Johansen, "Female Instruction and Improvement: Education for Women in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, 1785-1835" (Ph.D. diss., College of William and Mary, 1996).
8. James A. Henretta, "Families and Farms: Mentalité in Pre-industrial America," William and Mary Quarterly, 35 (Jan. 1978), 3.
9. For fine treatments of relevant literature, see Michael Merrill, "Putting 'Capitalism' in Its Place: A Review of Recent Literature,"
10. Michael Merrill, "Putting 'Capitalism' in Its Place: A Review of Recent Literature," ibid., 52 (April 1995), 315-26;
11. Paul A. Gilje, ed., Wages of Independence: Capitalism in the Early American Republic (Madison, 1997);
12. and Christopher Clark, The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 (Ithaca, 1990), 3-19.
13. Allan Kulikoff, "The Transition to Capitalism in Rural America," William and Mary Quarterly, 46 (Jan. 1989). 120-44;
14. Richard Lyman Bushman, "Markets and Composite Farms in Early America,"
15. Richard Lyman Bushman, "Markets and Composite Farms in Early America," ibid., 55 (July 1998), 351-374
16. See also Winifred B. Rothenberg, "The Invention of American Capitalism: The Economy of New England in the Federal Period," in Engines of Enterprise: An Economic History of New England, ed. Peter Temin (Cambridge, Mass., 2000), 69-108.
17. Catherine E. Kelly, In the New England Fashion: Reshaping Women's Lives in the Nineteenth Century (Ithaca, 1999);
18. David Jaffee, "The Village Enlightenment in New England, 1760-1820," William and Mary Quarterly, 47 (July 1990), 327-46;
19. David Jaffee, "Peddlers of Progress and the Transformation of the Rural North, 1760-1860," Journal of 'American History, 78 (Sept. 1991), 511-535
20. Joyce Appleby, Capitalism and a New Social Order: The Republican Vision of the 1790s (New York, 1984), 36.
21. On historians' handling of social emulation, see Kelly, In the New England Fashion, 216-218
22. The definition from the Encyclopédic is quoted in Martin S. Staum, "The Enlightenment Transformed: The Institute Prize Contests," Eighteenth-Century Studies, 19 (Winter 1985-1986), 163.
23. Bernhard Fabian, ed., The Philosophical and Critical Works of James Beattie (4 vols., New York, 1975), III, 292-93, 288;
24. Thomas Reid, Essays on the Active Powers of the Human Mind, ed. Baruch A. Brody (1788; Cambridge, Mass., 1969), 163, 164-165
25. Ezra Stiles quoted in Mary Beth Norton, Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800 (Boston, 1980), 272.
26. On access to formal education in the early republic, see Joseph F. Kett, The Pursuit of Knowledge under Difficulties: From Self-Improvement to Adult Education in America, 1750-1990 (Stanford, 1994).
27. Joseph S. Wood, "The Origins of the New England Village" (Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1978);
28. J. M. Opal, "Beyond the Farm: Ambition and the Transformation of Rural New England, 1770s-1820s" (Ph.D. diss., Brandeis University, 2003).
29. "History of the Founding of Deerfìeld Academy," in History and Proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, 1870-1879 (Deerfìeld, 1890), 397-405;
30. Charles B. Updike, "A History of Deerfìeld Academy, 1797-1878" (B.A. thesis, Amherst College, 1961), 1-17;
31. Charter, [1784], Trustee Records, 1784-1826, vol.I, Leicester Academy Records, 1784-1963 (American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.)
32. "Petition for an Act of Incorporation for the Academy, Dec. 18, 1793," in Town Papers: Documents Relating to Towns in New Hampshire, ed. Isaac W. Hammond (39 vols., Concord, 1883), XII, 184.
33. D. Hamilton Hurd, comp., History of Rockingham and Strafford Counties, New Hampshire (Philadelphia, 1882), 199;
34. Emory Washburn, Brief Sketch of the History of Leicester Academy (Boston, 1855), 9.
35. On the Coopers-town academy, see Alan Taylor, William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic (New York, 1995), 210.
36. Compare the size of the academy buildings with that of common school buildings cited in Emory Washburn, "Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Town of Leicester," Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal, 2 (June 1826), 77;
37. and Alonzo E. Locke, "The Early Schools of Lexington," Proceedings of the Lexington Historical Society, 4 (1912), 5-13.
38. References to academies as "public" include Samuel Tenney, "A Topographical Description of Exeter in New Hampshire," Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 2 (1795), 97;
39. John Melish, Travels Through the United States of America, in the Years 1806... 1811 (London, 1818), 65;
40. Edward Augustus Kendall, Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States, in the Years 1807 and 1808 (3 vols., New York, 1809), 1, 304.
41. Aaron Bancroft, Importance of Education Illustrated in an Oration Delivered Before . . . Leicester Academy (Worcester, Mass., 1806), 12; "A General Plan of Government and Instruction for the Marblehead Academical School," Marblehead Academy (Marblehead, Mass.) Records, 1789-1792 (Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.).
42. For sample descriptions of instruction offered, see Charter, Trustee Records, 1784-1826, vol.I, Leicester Academy Records;
43. Joseph Lathrop, A Sermon Preached at Westfteld. . . At the Dedication of the Academy (Suffield, Conn., 1800), 10-11.
44. On books available, see Washburn, Brief Sketch of the History of Leicester Academy, 23.
45. On astronomical apparatus, see George Sheldon, A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts (2 vols., Greenfield, Mass., 1895-1896), II, 844-846
46. I draw from the phrase "in the town, but not of the town" in Gregory Nobles, "The Rise of Merchants in Rural Market Towns: A Case Study of Eighteenth-Century Northampton, Massachusetts," Journal of Social History, 24 (Fall 1990), 15. (There the phrase refers to a dam.)
47. On tuition and other costs, see Marr, Old New England Academies, 107-120
48. Catherine E. Kelly, "Visualizing a Self in the Early Republic: Art and Self-Fashioning in the Provincial North," paper delivered at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Boston, March 2004 (in J. M. Opal's possession).
49. Thomas Green Fessenden, Original Poems (Philadelphia, 1806), 141n.
50. To discover how many local Amherst students were villagers, I matched fathers' names to Hampshire County Deeds Records (Microtext Center, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass.); and James Avery Smith, Families of Amherst, Massachusetts (4 vols., Amherst, 1984). Wealth of the Dewey family is from 1816 State Tax List for Amherst (Department of Special Collections, Jones Library, Amherst, Mass.). For Dedham, see Petition, Town Meeting, May 1801, p. 112, Dedham Town Records (Norfolk County Clerk's Office, Dedham, Mass.). I matched the 34 names with Norfolk County Deeds Records (Norfolk County Registry of Deeds, Dedham, Mass.).
51. On the uncharrered academy, see "Dedham Academy," Columbian Centinel (Boston), Oct. 29, 1806. On the wealth of the Hitchcock family, see 1795 Town Valuation, Deerfield Tax and Valuation Lists, 1787-1812 (Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, Deerfield, Mass.).
52. On Elisha Creshore, see land transfer, Ebenezer Wight to Elisha Creshore, April 5, 1796 (recorded Jan. 1, 1801), p. 223, book 12
53. Norfolk County Deeds Records; and land transfer, Elisha Creshore to Calvin Whiting, Dec. 2, 1800 (recorded Dec. 11, 1800), p. 218
54. Norfolk County Deeds Records; and land transfer, Elisha Creshore to Calvin Whiting, Dec. 2, 1800 (recorded Dec. 11, 1800), p. 218 ibid.
55. At the time of the school petition, Creshore had just sold his one-acre plot; he likely lived on the half-acre plot of village turf that he had purchased in 1796.
56. Clark, Roots of Rural Capitalism, 21-117.
57. Silas Felton, "The Life or Biography of Silas Felton, Written by Himself," ed. Rena L. Vassar, Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 69 (April 15-Oct. 21, 1959), 127, 130, 132.
58. For the family property, see "Real Estate of Mr. Jacob Felton, ca. 1789," Documents and Correspondence, 1750-1883, box 1, Felton Family Papers, 1750-1883 (American Antiquarian Society);
59. and "Inventory of Estate of Jacob Felton [Feb. 1790],"
60. and "Inventory of Estate of Jacob Felton [Feb. 1790]," ibid.
61. For Stephen Felton's important purchases, see land transfer, Mathias Felton et al. to Stephen Felton et al., Jan. 8, 1790 (recorded June 28, 1790), pp. 497-498, book 102, Middlesex County Land Records, Deeds (Microtext Center, New England Historic Genealogical Society);
62. and land transfer, George Williams to Stephen Felton, Sept. 1, 1790 (recorded Sept. 14, 1790), pp. 171-74, book 103
63. George Williams to Stephen Felton, 1790, pp. 171-74, ibid.
64. For his purchase of goods, see "Mr. Stephen Felton, Bo of Eben' Kingsbury, Spencer, Feb. 17, 1804, " in Receipts and Documents, 1789-1861, box 1, Felton Family Papers.
65. For the value of the Felton home, see "Stephen Felton," District 10, 5th Division, Middlesex County, p. 119, vol.10, Massachusetts and Maine Direct Tax 1798 (Microtext Center, New England Historic Genealogical Society).
66. For the Feltons, see also JafFee, "Village Enlightenment in New England," 340-46.
67. Joyce Appleby, ed., Recollections of the Early Republic: Selected Autobiographies (Boston, 1997), 7, 10;
68. [John Fisk], "Autobiographical Sketch by John Fisk, 1789-1844," manuscript (American Antiquarian Society);
69. George F. Magoon, "Asa Turner and his Time," box 1, Academies and Seminaries Records, 1810-1917 (Archives and Special Collections, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.);
70. Biography of Mr. Jason Fairbanks and Miss Eliza Fales (Boston, 1801), broadside.
71. I take the phrase "inheritors of the Revolution" from Joyce Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (Cambridge, Mass., 2000).
72. "Plays Performed, August 20, 1799," in Sally Ripley Diary, 1799-1801, 1805-1809 (American Antiquarian Society);
73. Julia Cowles, The Diaries of Julia Cowles: A Connecticut Record, 1797-1803, ed. Laura Hadley Moseley (New Haven, 1931), 26.
74. On fears of"unsexed" ladies, see Norton, Liberty's Daughters, 263-64;
75. and Susan Phinney Conrad, Perish the Thought: Intellectual Women in Romantic America, 1830-1860 (New York, 1976), 17-18.
76. Lathrop, Sermon Preached at Westfìeld. . . At the Dedication of the Academy, 9-10;
77. John Woodbridge, A Sermon Preached at Hadley . . . at the Opening of Hopkins Academy (Northampton, Mass., 1818), 11;
78. Timothy Dwight, Travels in New England and New York, ed. Barbara Solomon Miller (4 vols., Cambridge, Mass., 1969), IV, 213;
79. Lathrop, Sermon Preached at Westfìeld. .. At the Dedication of the Academy, 10.
80. For emulation as an enlightened and republican ideal, see Staum, "Enlightenment Transformed"; J. H. Plumb, "The New World of Children in Eighteenth-Century England," Past and Present, 67 (May 1975), 70n;
81. and Jay Fliegelman, Declaring Independence: Jefferson, Natural Language, and the Culture of Performance (Stanford, 1993), 180-184
82. On the spread of gentility, see Richard L. Bushman, The Refinement of America: Persons, Houses, Cities (New York, 1992).
83. Robert Hallowell Gardiner, Early Recollections of Robert Hallowell Gardiner, 1782-1864 (Hallowell, Maine, 1936), 32.
84. On classing by age or ability level, see Catharine Maria Sedgwick, A New England Tale; or, Sketches of New England Character and Manners, ed. Victoria Clements (1822; New York, 1995), 50;
85. S. G. Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime; or, Men and Things I Have Seen (2 vols., New York, 1857), I, 139-140 (S. G. Goodrich described his experience at a "leading seminary" that had "not arrived at the honors of an academy.")
86. For a summary of academy attendance policies, see Joseph F. Kett, Rites of Passage: Adolescence in America, 1790 to the Present (New York, 1977), 18-21, esp. 20.
87. "Constitution, May 3, 1815," pp. 26-27, vol.I, Atkinson Academy Record Book, 1803-1945 (American Antiquarian Society);
88. "Rules and Regulations of [Milton?] Academy, 1807," box 1, Thomas Thacher Sermons, 1777-1812 (Massachusetts Historical Society);
89. Bancroft, Importance of Education, 16;
90. "Eliphalet Nott to Editor," in Noah Webster et al., "Elementary Schools as they Were-Described," American Journal of Education, 5 (March 1863), 132-33.
91. For the Marblehead incident, compare William W. Story, ed., Life and Letters of Joseph Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University (2 vols., Boston, 1851), I, 37-38; with "General Plan of Government and Instruction," Marblehead Academy Records.
92. David Tappan, Copy of an Address Delivered. . . in Andover, Immediately After the Yearly Examination and Exhibition (Exeter, N.H., 1794), 8-9;
93. Joseph Lyman, The Advantages and Praises of Wisdom: A Sermon Delivered at Deerfield at the Opening of the Academy in That Town (Greenfield, Mass., 1799), 12.
94. "General Plan of Government and Instruction,"
95. Woodbridge, Sermon Preachedat Hadley . . . at the Opening of Hopkins Academy, 11;
96. Morris, Memoirs, 47;
97. Marr, Old New England Academies, 272-78
98. For an example of prize competitions at a southern academy, see "Rules and Regulations of Richmond Academy, Georgia, 1819," in A Documentary History of Education in the South before 1860, ed. Edgar W. Knight (5 vols., Chapel Hill, 1949-1953), IV, 28.
99. Alden Bradford, An Address Delivered at the Opening of the Academy in Wiscasset, Maine (Wiscasset, 1808), 10-11.
100. For the claim (exaggerated, I would argue) that academy preceptors were "hopelessly divided" over the efficacy of emulation, see Marr, Old New England Academies, 272.
101. Psalm 144:12 (Authorized [King James] Version);
102. Lathrop, Sermon Preached at Wesţfield. . . At the Dedication of the Academy, frontispiece;
103. Bradford, Address Delivered at the Opening of the Academy in Wiscasset, 12-13;
104. James Morris, A Farewell Address to his Pupils... at the Close of School, March 8, 1797 (Litchfield, 1797), 16;
105. Bancroft, Importance of Education, 12.
106. For forms of competition among female students, see Lynne Templeton Brinck-Iey, "Sarah Pierces Litchfield Female Academy," in To Ornament Their Minds: Sarah Pierce's Litchfield Female Academy, 1792-1833. ed. Catherine Keene Fields and Lisa C. Kightlinger (Litchfield, Conn., 1993), 36-38;
107. Kelly, In the New England Fashion, 206-207
108. For later debates over competition among female students, see Nancy Green, "Female Education and School Competition, 1820-1850," in Woman's Being, Woman's Place: Female Identity and Vocation in American History, ed. Mary Kelley (Boston, 1979), 127-141
109. Elizabeth Bancroft Diary, 1793-1795, July 9, 1794 (Massachusetts Historical Society);
110. William Nutting Diary, 1772-1804, April 15, 1788, ibid.;
111. Nahum Jones Diary, March 9, 1797, Nahum Jones Diaries, 1779-1807 (American Antiquarian Society)
112. Ruth Henshaw Bascom Diary, May 22, 1792, box 1, Ruth Henshaw Bascom Papers, 1789-1848, ibid.
113. For an example of exhibitions at an unincorporated "private" school, see Frederick Tup-per and Helen Tyler Brown, eds., Grandmother Tyler's Book: The Recollections of Mary Palmer Tyler (Mrs. Royall Tyler), 1775-1866 (New York, 1925), 144-145
114. On college commencements, see Christopher Grasso, A Speaking Aristocracy: Transforming Public Discourse in Eighteenth-Century Connecticut (Chapel Hill, 1999), 404.
115. Washburn, Brief Sketch of the History of Leicester Academy, 22;
116. Nichols Academy: Order of Exercises at Exhibition, November 20, 1822 (Worcester, Mass., 1822), broadside.
117. Jemina (Bliss) Brewer Diary, April 1, 1800, box 2, Samuel L. Ward Family Papers, 1800-1919 (Massachusetts Historical Society); Thomas Robbins, Diary of Thomas Robbins, D.D., 1796-1854, ed. Increase N. Tarbox (2 vols., Boston, 1886-1887), I, 125.
118. Bascom Diary, May 23, 1792 (the crossing out appears in the original). Washburn, Brief Sketch of the History of Leicester Academy, 21;
119. Goodrich, Recollections of a Lifetime, I, 150.
120. Bascom Diary, Feb. 29, 1792.
121. Edward Hitchcock, Reminiscences of Amherst College, Historical, Scientific, Biographical and Autobiographical (Northampton, Mass., 1863), 282;
122. Sheldon, History of Deeŗfield, II, 827-28;
123. Records of Social Fraternity, 1798-1824, vol.III, Leicester Academy Records.
124. For further evidence of such fraternities, see Marr, Old New England Academies, 145-155
125. "Massachusetts-Elementary Education," American Quarterly Register, 5 (1833), 287-88; "Register of Students, 1790-1807," Nahum Jones Diaries.
126. For one of Nahum Jones's exhibitions, see Jones Diary, May 10, 1798. For examples of emulative contests in common schools, see "Report of School Committees, March 12, 1823," folder 17, [Concord] Town Records, c. 1797-c. 1907 (State of New Hampshire, Division of Archives and Records Management, Concord); William Bentley, The Diary of William Bentley, Pastor of the East Church, Salem, Massachusetts (4 vols., Salem, Mass., 1905-1914), III, 185-186
127. For Tom Paine's statement, see Joyce Appleby, "Commercial Farming and the 'Agrarian Myth' in the Early Republic," Journal of American History, 68 (March 1982), 849;
128. [William Manning], "On Learning," in The Key of Liberty: The Life and Democratic Writings of William Manning, "A Laborer," 1747-1814, ed. Michael Merrill and Sean Wilentz (Cambridge, Mass., 1993), 182;
129. Robert Coram, Political Inquiries (Wilmington, 1791), 103.
130. On Coram, see Melvin Yazawa, From Colonies to Commonwealth: Familial Ideohgy and the Beginning of the American Republic (Baltimore, 1985), 172-73, 190-191
131. Daniel Vickers, "Competency and Competition: Economic Culture in Early America," William and Mary Quarterly, 47 (Jan. 1990), 3-29;
132. Susan Geib, "Changing Works: Agriculture and Society in Brookfìeld, Massachusetts, 1785-1820" (Ph.D. diss., Boston University, 1982).
133. Stephen Peabody Diary, Nov. 30, Dec. 7, 1802, June 2, June 1, 1789, Sept. 20, 1786, Stephen Peabody Diaries, 1767-1814 (American Antiquarian Society). On the town, see Charles A. Hazlett, History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire, and Representative Citizens (Chicago, 1915), 213-20;
134. Heads of Families at the Second Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1800: New Hampshire (Chicago, 1973), 8.
135. This census counted 474 persons in Atkinson. Stephen Peabody was not the only minister to campaign aggressively for an academy; see Ellen D. Larned, History of Windham County Connecticut (2 vols., Worcester, Mass., 1874-1880), II, 377.
136. Land transfer, Jesse Sawyer to Samuel Noyes Little, April 23, 1792 (recorded Dec. 3, 1792), book 132, p. 378, Rockingham County (N.H.) Land Records, Deeds (Microtext Center, New England Historic Genealogical Society);
137. land transfer, Jesse Sawyer to Jonathan Sawyer, May 7, 1792 (recorded Nov. 12, 1792), book 135, p. 284, ibid.;
138. land transfer, John Knight Jr. to John Knight, April 19, 1791 (recorded Nov. 20, 1799), book 153, p. 138, ibid.
139. For the men's town offices and help with district schools, see Nov. [?], 1792 and Dec. 11, 1793 meetings, [Atkinson] Selectmen's Record Book, 1767-1832, p. 100
140. New Hampshire Town Records, Atkinson, ibid.
141. On Caleb Noyes, see Helen F. Evans, comp., Abstracts of the Probate Records of Rockingham County, New Hampshire, 1771-1799 (2 vols., Bowie, 2000), II, 681. For more on these families, see ibid., I, 537, 538-39, II, 678-81, 761-62. Given the density of surnames in country towns, it is difficult to know if a transaction involved, for example, Jonathan Sawyer or his father. Yet deed records permit a basic re-creation of a family's economic assets and social standing.
142. Peabody Diary, June 9, Oct. 17, Dec. 4, June 1, 1789.
143. On perceptions of a zero-sum economy among rural peoples, see Alan Taylor, "The Early Republic's Supernatural Economy: Treasure Seeking in the American Northeast, 1780-1830," American Quarterly, 38 (Spring 1986), 18.
144. Felton, "Life or Biography of Silas Felton," ed. Vassar, 139-140
145. Felton, "Life or Biography of Silas Felton,", Ibid., 140-141
146. Morris, Memoirs, 54, 52.
147. For the Calvinist aversion to the self, see Philip J. Greven, The Protestant Temperament: Patterns of Child-Rearing, Religious Experience, and the Self in Early America (New York, 1977
148. See Psalm 75:7 (AV) as quoted and discussed in Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783 (Chapel Hill, 1979), 200.
149. Alfred Ely, A Sermon Delivered at Monson Academy (Hartford, 1818), 13;
150. "On Ambition as a Motive in Education," Christian Observer, 17 (1818), 517-519
151. See also "College Honors," New England Magazine, 2 (1832), 107-112
152. "On Ambition as a Motive in Education," 519; Church Covenant, [1772?], Church Records, Atkinson Congregational Church, 1772-1843, New Hampshire Town Records, Atkinson;
153. [Elizabeth Taylor], "Dialogue on Monitorial Schools," 1828 Compositions, box 1, Sanderson Academy Records (Archives and Special Collections, Mt. Holyoke College).
154. For the early members of Atkinson's church, see Manual of the Congregational Church of Atkinson, New Hampshire, 1772-1898 (Haverhill, Mass., 1898), 33.
155. For an insightful analysis of Calvinism as the small producer's faith, see Daniel Walker Howe, "The Decline of Calvinism: An Approach to Its Study," Comparative Studies in Society and Culture, 14 (June 1972), 306-327
156. Robert A. Gross, The Minutemen and Their World (New York, 1976), 68-108;
157. Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution, 90-128;
158. Jay Fliegelman, Prodigals and Pilgrims: The American Revolution against Patriarchal Authority, 1750-1800 (New York, 1982).
159. James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers; or, The Sources of the Susquehanna, ed. James Franklin Beard (1823; Albany, 1980), 101-2;
160. Sedgwick, New-England Tale, ed. Clements, 53.
161. For the piece in the Harford Connecticut Courant, see [Abiel Abbot], "Education Makes the Man," Dec. 1794, series C, subgroup I, Abiel Abbot Papers (Andover Historical Society, Andover, Mass.).
162. "The Principle of Emulation Illuminated," Christian Observer, 13 (1814), 493.
163. Felton, "Life or Biography of Silas Felton," ed. Vassar, 138;
164. Charles Hudson, History of the Town of Marlborough (Boston, 1862), 217-18.
165. On Felton's career, see also JafFee, "Village Enlightenment," 344-46;
166. and Opal, "Beyond the Farm," chap. 5
167. Wilkes Allen, An Address Delivered Before the Western Society of Middlesex Husbandmen (Concord, Mass., 1819), 3-4;
168. Oscar Handlin and Mary Handlin, Commonwealth (New York, 1947), 201;
169. "On Ambition as a Motive in Education," 518.
170. See also George W. Livermore, A Valedictory Address Delivered Before the Social Fraternity of Leicester Academy (Leicester, Mass., 1818), 9.
171. The sample of Andover graduates and occupations is from C. C. Carpenter, ed., Biographical Catakgue of the Trustees, Teachers, and Students of Phillips Academy, Andover, 1778-1830 (Andover, Mass., 1903), 25-118. Among graduates, 1801-1810 (N=350), about 7% became ministers; 12% merchants; 25% doctors, lawyers, or teachers; and 12, or 3.43%, farmers. Given the scantiness of information on many graduates, it is certain that more former students farmed at some point in their adult lives. And the descriptions of some men defy easy categorization; for example, an 1816 graduate was "in mercantile business for a time; a leading farmer [now?] in Plymouth County." Ibid., 83.
172. For female graduates' careers, see Norton, Liberty's Daughters, 287-289
173. Henry Vanderlyn quoted in Stuart M. Blumin, The Urban Threshold: Growth and Change in a Nineteenth-Century American Community (Chicago, 1976), 37;
174. Enos Hitchcock, The Farmer's Friend (Boston, 1793), 14.
175. Emulation also became a central theme of the new agricultural societies of the 1810s; see especially Elkanah Watson, History... of the Berkshire Agricultural Society (Albany, 1818).
176. On the distinction between succeeding parents and succeeding in society, see James A. Henretta, "The Study of Social Mobility: Ideological Assumptions and Conceptual Bias," Labor History, 18 (Spring 1977), 165-178