The Differences Slavery Made: A Close Analysis of Two American Communities
Return to Comparison Statements: Religion and School

The white literacy rates and educational opportunities in both places were relatively high, but substantially better in Franklin.

Although the nearly universal literacy ascribed to both places by the census taker seems unlikely, whites in both Augusta and Franklin enjoyed standards of literacy high by international standards. Franklin County maintained a school system of much greater reach than its Augusta counterpart, which relied more on private schools and academies rather than public schools. Elite white Southerners had ample educational opportunities, but their poorer neighbors had less of a chance of getting schooling than their northern peers. In Augusta in 1850 only 745 pupils attended 23 public schools, and these schools received just $1,423 in public funding, none of it from taxation. In Franklin nearly all children were enrolled in free public schools paid for with taxation. Taxpayers contributed $19,764 to fund 177 public schools in the county, and over 8,500 students were enrolled in them. Even Augusta's private academies were less substantial than Franklin's, where 174 students attended and over $3,500 was paid in tuition. Augusta could claim just 226 students in private schools and $210 in private school funding through endowments.

Supporting Evidence

Augusta County, Va., Churches and Voting Precincts (map)

Churches and Voting Precincts, Augusta (table)

Comparison, Churches and Schools (map)

Franklin County, Pa., Churches and Voting Precincts (map)

Franklin County Churches and Voting Precincts (table)

School and Literacy, 1850 (table)

Related Historiography

Vernon O. Burton, In My Father's House Are Many Mansions: Family and Community in Edgefield, South Carolina (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1985)
William H. Pease and Jane H. Pease, The Web of Progress: Private Values and Public Styles in Boston and Charleston, 1828-1843 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985).


Citation: Key = TAF26
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