Introduction:

Here Cleary discusses the laws and funding for women's education.

For definitions of unfamiliar terms please see our glossary.

Excerpt:

“Laws in the Puritan colony required towns of over one hundred families to establish schools; Latin schools were required by the 1730s. Yet statutory endorsements for schools did not necessarily translate into uniform approval of female education. While some communities provided funds as early as the 1760s for teaching girls basic literacy skills, others, including Boston, did not do so until decades later.”