The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-12-10
NEGLECTED A
OF STATE r
tContlued from Page Six

w lHe lie OF the new region.
Economic problems were not the
only phenomena of the Piedmont sec
tlon during the middle period. 1t is
very significant that while improve
ments were being made in transpor-
tatlon from 1880 to 1860, a CORE
spono1n was made in intel
lectual conditions. The public school
laws of 1888 and 1S4O were the first
OF their kin in the South and they
STIMULATED the cause Of education else
Where. But Of the intellectual equip
ment OF the schools We know very
iittle' what, Tor instance, was the cur
rlculum, what were the
and how did these compare with the
educatlonal activity in other States?
Older than the public schools. and
surviving long after they were estab-
llshed, were the private academies.
~ them ever less is known than Of
the public schools. What were the
influences that established them, and
me relation of these Influences to the
movement for public education?
Via were the curriculum and equip
ment Of the private academies? The
descent Of the academy in New Eng
IAN from the EngliSh-Latin schools
has been established; were the acad-
emles in North Carolina an isolated
phenomena, or have they, too, a part
in the evolution Of education in the
United States?
quCStiou Oh tlfc SCHOOLS JdluT-
ally leads to that Of popular standards
of education and illiteracy. Much light
on these matters might be found in
the local records One of the lead
ing investigators Of Virginia history
has examined the court records and
noted the educational requirements in
the bonds given by those to whom
children were ~apprenticed or bound
out. Thus a conception is obtained
of n andar Of educational needs
of the common a How far that
standard was effective, SO far as illit-
eracy was concerned, is then ascer-
tanned by taking a thousand sigma
lures in the court records and noting
how man Of them were made by
mark. The proportion of this litter
acy to the thousand is taken for the
average of the county. Would not a
similar examination of the court
records of certain typical counties in
North Carolina give a better idea than
we now have Of the educational eff
ficiency Of the old time schools?
Intellectual life, both in the sense
of the development of ideas and the
story of a cultivated class, has not
been the subject of extensive histori-
cal inquiry. What aid it's investiga-
ton would give in understanding man.
kind, past and present. remains to be
realized.
Any inquiry into the educational
history of a people necessarily in
wolves questions pertaining to religion:
The more primitive the conditions OF
life, the more powerful are the relig-
iOus perceptions. Comparative relig-
ion explains this by finding that creeds
grow up Of customs, and in the early
STAGES of religion customs are shaped
by social needs; as, protection against
the blind forces of nature, pubic
enemies, or 1.-The peStilence OF noon
day Consequently in the transfer
:~cvr frNvr Ofhor
colonies and the Old World to North
Carolina, creeds had a larger hold
on the minds Of the people than to-
day, because religion was a social
bond as we'll as IN attitude toward
the Infinite. A familiar example is
the Ouakers of Albemarle: less wide
Nv known Is tina of the Baptists OF
the Piedmont. About h middle OF
the eighteenth century a group or
New Jersey Baptists settled on the
Yadkin and two other groups lett
Virginia and found new homes IN
Alamance and Arson unit Here
are examples of that colonization by
groups and congregations which CHAR
acterized New England; a further
study of the matter you'd doubtless
between the cavalier Of the South
and the Puritan Of New England. The
same bond that caused sucn Settle-
ments welded the people together IN
later years. Around 1t developed an
educational sentiment when public
schools were a dreamer's vision. 1t
shaped opinions on such important
social questions as Free Masonry, the
morality of slavery, and pronloltion.
Finally 1t became a factor IN poll1lcS'
David Caldwell had a part in fran
ing the first constitution. of the State
and did much to save the Piedmont
Tor the revolution. Elkanah Watson
heard a sermon against the Eeoerai
county: a number Of ministers were
elected to the Legislature and two to
Congress. But the story OF religion
as a large social bond among people
does not only remain to be written.
but the sources from wnicn u In3ene
he written are widely scattered or lost.
I believe that the records can best De
rescued and h story written oy smaA