In the meantime the demand for education grew rather rapidly, and the task soon became too big for the churches to handle. For long the churches made an effort to keep up, as they were loath to relinquish in any way their former hold on the training of the young. The churches, however, were not interested in the problem except in the old way, and this was not what the new democracy wanted. The result was that, with the coming of nationality and the slow but gradual growth of a national consciousness, national pride, national needs, and the gradual development of national resources in the shape of taxable property—all alike combined to make secular instead of religious schools seem both desirable and possible to a constantly increasing number of citizens.
II. AWAKENING AN EDUCATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS
Between about 1810 and 1830 a number of new forces—philanthropic, political, social, economic—combined to change the earlier attitude by producing conditions which made state rather than church control and support of education seem both desirable and feasible. The change, too, was markedly facilitated by the work of a number of semi-private philanthropic agencies which now began the work of founding schools and building up an interest in education, the most important of which were: (1) the Sunday-School movement; (2) the City School Societies; (3) the Lancastrian movement; and (4) the Infant-School Societies. These will be described briefly, and their influence in awakening an educational consciousness pointed out.
THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL MOVEMENT. The Sunday School, as a means of providing the merest rudiments of secular and religious learning, had been made, through the initiative of Raikes of Gloucester (p. 617), a very important English institution for providing the beginnings of instruction for the children of the city poor. Raikes's idea was soon carried to the United States. In 1786 a Sunday School after the Raikes plan was organized in Hanover County, Virginia. In 1787 a Sunday School for African children was organized at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1791 "The First Day, or Sunday School Society," was organized at Philadelphia, for the establishment of Sunday Schools in that city. In 1793 Katy Ferguson's "School for the Poor" was opened in New York, and this was followed by an organization of New York women for the extension of secular instruction among the poor. In 1797 Samuel Slater's Factory School was opened at Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Though there had been some Sunday instruction earlier at a few places in New England, the introduction of the Sunday School from England, in 1786, marked the real beginning of the religious Sunday School in America. After the churches had once caught the idea of a common religious school on Sundays for the instruction of any one, a number of societies were formed to carry on and extend the work. The most important of these were:
1808. The Evangelical Society of Philadelphia.
1816. The Female Union for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools (New
York).
1816. The New York Sunday School Union.
1816. The Boston Society for the Moral and Religious Instruction of
the Poor.
1817. The Philadelphia Sunday and Adult School Union.
1824. The American Sunday School Union.
These different types of American Sunday Schools, being open to all instead of only to the poor and lowly, had a small but an increasing influence in leveling class distinctions and in making a common day school seem possible. The movement for secular instruction on Sundays, though, soon met in America with the opposition of the churches, and before long they took over the idea, superseded private initiative and control, and changed the character of the instruction from a day of secular work to an hour or so of religious teaching. The Sunday School, in consequence, never exercised the influence in educational development in America that it did in England.
THE CITY SCHOOL SOCIETIES. These were patterned after the English charity- school subscription societies, and were formed in a number of American cities during the first quarter of the nineteenth century for the purpose of providing the rudiments of an education to those too poor to pay for schooling. These Societies were usually organized by philanthropic citizens, willing to contribute something yearly to provide some little education for a few of the many children in the city having no opportunities for any instruction. A number of these Societies were able to effect some financial connection with the city or the State.
One of the first of these School Societies was "The Manumission Society," organized in New York, in 1785, for the purpose of "mitigating the evils of slavery, to defend the rights of the blacks, and especially to give them the elements of an education." Alexander Hamilton and John Jay were among its organizers. A free school for colored pupils was opened, in 1787. This grew and prospered and was aided from time to time by the city, and in 1801 by the State. Finally, in 1834, all its schools were merged with those of the "Public School Society" of the city. In 1801 the first free school for poor white children "whose parents belong to no religious society, and who, from some cause or other, cannot be admitted into any of the charity schools of the city," was opened. This was provided by the "Association of Women Friends for the Relief of the Poor," which engaged "a widow woman of good education and morals as instructor" at £30 per year. This Association also prospered, and received some city or state aid up to 1824. By 1823 it was providing free elementary education for 750 children. Its schools also were later merged with those of the "Public School Society."
"THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY." Perhaps the most famous of all the early subscription societies for the maintenance of schools for the poor was the "New York Free School Society," which later changed its name to that of "The Public School Society of New York." This was organized, in 1805, under the leadership of De Witt Clinton, then mayor of the city, he heading the subscription list with a promise of $200 a year for support. On May 14, 1806, the following advertisement appeared in the daily papers: