occupations as well as a just legal structure. Education
As John Winthrop sailed toward New England in 1630, he exhorted his fellow passengers that the settlement of New England would be like a “City upon a Hill,” a pure community of Christians who would set an example to the rest of the world. To achieve this goal, the colony leaders would educate all Puritans. These men of letters, who viewed themselves as a part of an international world, had attended Oxford or Cambridge (mostly Cambridge) and could communicate with intellectuals all over Europe. Just six years after the first large migration, colony leaders founded Harvard College.
By the 1670s, all New England colonies (excepting Rhode Island) had passed legislation that mandated the literacy for children. In 1647, Massachusetts passed a law that required towns to hire a schoolmaster to teach writing. Different forms of schooling emerged, ranging from the “dame” or “reading” school, a form of instruction conducted by women in their private homes for small children, to “Latin” schools, a school for boys already literate in English and ready to master grammar through Latin, Hebrew, and Greek. Reading schools would often be the single source of education for girls, whereas boys would leave their reading mistresses to go to the town grammar schools. Indeed, gender largely determined educational practices. Women introduced all children to reading, and men taught boys in higher pursuits. Since girls could play no role in the ministry, and since grammar schools were designed to “instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university,” Latin grammar schools did not accept girls (nor did Harvard). Evidence mostly suggests that even in the less ambitious town schools, the