Antebellum Mindset
The North
This is an education reform pamphlet written by Horace Mann
The North encouraged education reform because of its push toward modernization and because of the influence of Calvinist preachers. The North was eager for change and reform. McPherson writes on the contrast between Northern and Southern values, "the North's modernizing culture enshrined change as progress and condemned the South as backward" (McPherson). Clearly, this mindset of looking forward and changing is what fueled the education reform in the North. The North was ready for change and reform. Other reform movements such as the abolitionist movement and the women's rights movement are a clear testament to that. The North was also influenced by Protestant Calvinist preachers, who stressed the importance of education. John Calvin, the founder of Calvinism, once stated that "a true faith must be an intelligent faith" (Boettner). The Calvinist Bible also preaches that, "While near her school the church spire stands...While near her church spire stands a school" (Boettner). The stress and significance of education in Calvinsim is very clear through these quotes. This importance of education in Calvinist faith was the "push for literacy and education in the North" (Levi Biel, 20).
The South
William Harper had strong opinions on who should be educated.
The South was not as successful in the education reform movement because of the value of "folk culture" and the idea that only the upper-class needed schooling. The South, in contrast to the North, did not feel the same push for change or modernization that the North did. In fact, the South wanted things to stay the same. McPherson writes, "the South's folk culture valued tradition and stability, and felt threatened by change" (McPherson). This "folk culture" is what limited the expansion and reform movement of education to continue throughout the South. McPherson supports this, saying, "While this ideology [an ideology to improve education] also existed in the South...it was much weaker there and made slow headway against the inertia of a rural folk culture" (McPherson). Although this folk culture was one of the reasons why the South did not encourage broad education, there was also a lack of willingness to offer education to the lower class by the upper class. William Harper, a highly educated Senator of South Carolina once stated his opposition to free, public schooling. He wrote, "The Creator did not intend that every individual human being should be highly cultivated...It is better that a part should be fully and highly educated and the rest utterly ignorant" (McPherson). It is clear through this that he (and probably many powerful Southerners, as he was amongst them) did not support education for all.