Educational Choice in the Era Before Free Public Schooling *

The growth of literacy and the expansion of the educational system was important to the formation of human capital, the socialization of the American work force, and the economic development of nineteenth-century America. ¹ How, when, and why education expanded is not well understood, however. Mass literacy among white males (more than 65 percent in rural areas and 80 percent in urban areas) had been achieved in most colonies by the Revolution. Although less is known about white female literacy, it appears to have lagged behind male literacy in most colonies prior to the Revolution. By the 1840 census, the first to measure literacy, universal literacy (more than 90 percent) had been achieved in the northeast by white males and females in both urban and rural locations. ² Exactly when female literacy caught up with male literacy—and when rural literacy achieved parity with urban—is unknown. How much literacy was achieved through formal schooling—as opposed to informal instruction at home or at work—is likewise unknown. Neither do we know when formal schooling became available and when it replaced informal instruction.