The magazine of history with notes and queries (Vol. I, No. 2)

The Public School

One of the first claims made to the credit of New England was the early attention paid to public education. It is strictly true that, next to building a meeting house in a new settlement, a school was put up. But thorough investigation of this subject furnishes evidence that the chief purpose, at least, of these schools was to fit young men for the ministry and that they were not based, either in scope or object, upon the plan of the public school of the present day. The evidence of this lies in the fact that Latin, Greek and Hebrew were chiefly taught, as though to aid the study of the Scriptures in the original texts, and although boys and girls were doubtless also taught at these schools, to a limited number, previous to the Revolution, the salary of the schoolmaster was as a rule, if indeed the rule were not without exception, paid by division among the pupils themselves and not by the town. The famous Latin School of Boston, which is often held up to our admiration as the beginning of the public school system, was chiefly noted for its Latin course, and each scholar paid about five dollars a term.

Granting, however, full measure of praise to New England and with no desire to minimize the credit due her for her work in this cause, it is still in order for us to ask when has credit ever been given by any writer to South Carolina for the establishment in Charleston, about twenty years before the founding of the Latin School in Boston, of the first school approaching in character the public schools of to-day? The accompanying illustration is taken from a volume of the Charleston Gazette for the year 1743, once owned by the author but now in the possession of the Lenox Library of this city, showing the fac-simile of an account for building a negro free school house. Some years ago the author had in his possession a memorandum which stated that this school house, built in 1742–3, was the second which had been erected by the city of Charleston for the education of negro children, whose parents indeed represented the only portion of the community unable to educate itself. In these schools the pupils received gratuitous instruction and were obliged to attend regularly until the age of twelve years. If the difference in money value, then and now, be considered, it will be found that the cost of this building could not have fallen much below five thousand dollars.

It is evident, therefore, that the first public school, in the accepted sense, existed in Charleston, at least as early as 1743, and not in New England.

The Boston Massacre

The impartial student is fully impressed with the fact that, as his investigations approach the period just preceding the American Revolution, the claims of the New England people become more prominent. Here again, if the writers of our histories and especially of our school books have not given undue credit to those who were the chief actors in New England at this period, they have at least uniformly failed to do full justice to those who were quite as active in the cause in other colonies.

Account of Negro School-House Cost ]

Resistance to the Stamp Act had been quite general throughout the country and the Sons of Liberty in New York were particularly vigilant in seeing that the Non-importation Act was fully observed, although many of the merchants did not sympathize with the move. British soldiers were stationed in all the larger towns and they, taking their cue from those in authority, showed their enmity towards the people on all occasions. Particularly marked was this condition of affairs in the city of New York.

On the night of January 16th, 1770, the soldiers succeeded in destroying the Liberty pole in this city after having failed in several previous attempts, in which they had been driven off by the people. On the following day a public meeting was called, which at least three thousand sympathizing citizens attended. Resolutions were passed condemning the hiring of soldiers for divers purposes by the people, since this custom worked to the disadvantage of the laboring classes who were thus deprived of steady employment. A protest was also entered against allowing armed soldiers to wander freely about the city when off duty. The soldiers promptly resented this action of the people and a number of brawls took place in various parts of the town. At length the people concentrated their strength and, after disarming a number of the soldiers, drove them into barracks. The encounter in which the largest number on both sides was engaged, took place on what was called Golden Hill, a place situated on John Street between William and Cliff Streets. Miss Mary L. Booth, who wrote a most painstaking and reliable history of the city of New York, previous to the beginning of the Civil War, refers to this matter as follows: “Thus ended the battle of Golden Hill, a conflict of two days duration, which, originating as it did in the defense of a principle, was an affair of which New Yorkers have just reason to be proud, and which is worthy of far more prominence than has usually been given it by standard historians. It was not until nearly two months after that the “Boston Massacre” occurred, a contest which has been glorified and perpetuated in history; yet this was second both in date and in significance to the New York Battle of Golden Hill.”

It would be difficult to find a better illustration than this of the subject under consideration. The “Boston Massacre” was at best nothing more than a street brawl, in which five unarmed spectators were shot down without the slightest resistance having been made on their part; an affair with which at the time the people at large of Boston had nothing whatever to do. It was simply a brutal and dastardly act on the part of the soldiers, in retaliation for the annoyance offered by one or two irresponsible boys who had been throwing snow balls. Yet this affair has been magnified to such a degree of importance that if the Battle of Bunker Hill had not been fought in the same neighborhood, this occurrence would doubtless have been placed in history as the most important event in the Revolution. On the other hand, the conflict in New York, which lasted for over two days, was the first stand, and a successful one, made by the people against the British soldiers. It was an event of very great importance indeed, for not only was blood first shed but in it was life first lost for the Cause. Yet how little importance has any New England writer in the past ever attached to it! It has certainly never been pointed out that the “Battle of Golden Hill,” in contra-distinction to the “Boston Massacre,” was the beginning of the struggle.

In Parker’s New York Gazette or Weekly Post-Boy for Monday, February 5th, 1770, a full and detailed account of the Battle of Golden Hill can be found. The file of this paper is now in the Lenox Library and this special issue has been reproduced in fac-simile for the author; but it is so voluminous that it can not be given here as an illustration.[1]

If the quartering of troops in one section of the Colonies, rather than in another, may be accepted as evidence of disaffection among the people and of organized resistance to the acts of the British Government, then again full justice has not been done to New York. According to Bancroft British troops had already been quartered in this city as early as December, 1766, and were not sent to Boston until at least two years later.