Mistresses in the Negro School
Mistresses devoted their abilities also to the instruction of the Negro children. Sarah Dougherty was for a time (about 1790) employed in the Negro School, but for some reason, unexplained, Elizabeth Meccum was employed in her stead.[1033] Elizabeth Meccum remained in that capacity till the time of her death, which occurred between 1795 and 1798.[1034] Joseph Foulke, in a letter concerning his schooling at Gwynedd Meeting, mentions Hannah Lukens who kept a “family school” and also Hannah Foulke,[1035] both of whom were members of Gwynedd, but further information of them the writer does not have.
Teachers rated by the frequency with which they are mentioned by well recognized writers
If one were to measure American Quaker schoolmasters as some American men of science have been measured, by the amount of space they have gained in literature, they would not stand out very strikingly. Of fifty-five male teachers in and around Philadelphia, but twenty-one of them are mentioned in five standard works on local history and genealogy. None of the fifty-five teachers receive mention in all five of the works; three of them are chronicled in four; seven are mentioned in three of the five; ten are spoken of in two, twenty-one are given a place in one; and thirty-four receive no notice. If rated according to such a scheme, Pastorius, Benezet, and Charles Thompson would head the list, while quite a number group themselves at the other end of it. The scheme, though it has not been carried out fully, for example no attempt has been made to measure the length of the notice, does seem to favor those who stood high at the time of their service.[1036]
Individual notice to be very brief
In the brief notices following, concerning the male teachers, it is not intended to write biographies. Some of them have already been written, and to them the reader is directed, if he or she wishes a full account of the man’s life. Others will not, cannot, ever be written for obvious reasons. In the space allotted to them here, there is set down only what has been found of interest concerning them as teachers.
Anthony Benezet
Given charge of Girls School
In 1742 Anthony Benezet came from Germantown where he had been engaged in a school,[1037] to be employed by the Board of Overseers of Philadelphia. He was employed at a salary of £50 to teach arithmetic, writing, accounts, and French.[1038] He appears to have given very satisfactory service and to have remained in the same position until 1754 when he was placed in charge of the Girls School, under the Board’s direction.[1039] Some students have been under the impression that the Girls School was entirely independent and a private venture;[1040] but this could not have been true, for the Board named the subjects he should teach and specified that he receive at the school “no more than thirty scholars.”[1041] The school was, however, the result of Benezet’s proposal.
Attitude as a teacher