For "Children Who Vary from the Normal Type": Special Education in Boston, 1838-1930

2. Boston 1630-1930: An Overview

2 BOSTON 1630-1930: AN OVERVIEW In 1630 John Winthrop and his fellow English colonists established a settlement on a small, narrow peninsula extending into Massachusetts Bay. Over the next three hundred years this community, named Boston in honor of many of the settlers' hometown, would undergo a profound transformation from a quiet, seventeenth-century coastal village to a major twentieth-century metropolitan area. The city's physical geography would alter considerably, its economy and population would grow and diversify, and its cultural and intellectual contributions would achieve international renown. In the process, Boston's development would manifest many of the persistent problems as well as the boundless energy that characterized American history into the early twentieth century. The following briefhistorical overview will emphasize those aspects of the city's growth most directly related to the evolution ofthe Boston public school system in order to provide necessary background on that system and its eventual introduction ofspecial education programs. The Colonial Era The earliest permanent European inhabitant of the Shawmut peninsula was William Blackstone, "a solitary, bookish recluse" who supported himself tending apple trees and a garden and trading with his Native American neighbors. In 1630 he invited Governor John Winthrop to relocate his struggling Massachusetts Bay Colony to the peninsula. Winthrop accepted , and on September 7, 1630, the settlement was officially named Boston by an act of the Colony's General Coutt. Blackstone eventually 10 Boston 1630-1930: An Overview 11 sold all but six acres of the peninsula to the Colony in 1634. The property consisted ofthree prominent hills, "dales and lowlands," bordered by some adjoining marshland, with the Charles River to the north and west. Speaking ofBoston's early importance, a visitor stated that "this town, although it be neither the greatest or the richest, yet is the most noted and frequented , being the centre of the plantations where the monthly courts are kept."l During the colonial era, Boston solidified its position as the administrative , cultural, and economic center ofEuropean New England. It served as the capital ofthe Massachusetts Bay Colony and later the colonial province of Massachusetts. The town also assumed leadership in religious and educational affairs, with numerous churches and schools (including the Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, and Harvard College, founded in nearby Cambridge in 1636) sustaining the region's intellectual and social life. In addition, Boston's natural harbor guaranteed that the town would continue as the area's commercial and financial heart. Finally, the town and many ofits citizens played a vital role in the protracted struggles with England leading to the Revolutionary War and national independence. Economic, Social, and Intellectual Growth For several decades following independence, the economy of Boston and its surrounding region underwent a dramatic transformation. In colonial times Boston's livelihood depended on sea trade, especially the sale of rum and slaves between New England, Africa, and England's colonies in the West Indies; the town thus functioned "as an integral part of the British imperial system." Fishing, smuggling, and shipbuilding constituted the other basic components ofits economy. Regionally, agriculture and cottage industries were the primary economic enterprises. Following the Revolution , however, the triangular trade collapsed. That, coupled with an unsteady supply of regional products available for trade and the expansion of other American ports, reduced Boston's relative stature as an American seaport. To compensate, the city's merchants used much ofthe money previously invested in trade as capital for developing regional industries, which produced such goods as textiles and shoes. Boston thus became a major banking and financing center, second only to New York nationally. It supplied investment capital for much of New England's industrial 12 Education in Boston growth (although its own industrial capacity grew relatively slowly). Between 1830 and 1860 Massachusetts, fueled largely by Boston money, experienced a tremendous industrial expansion along with a decrease in agricultural output.2 This regional shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy continued throughout the nineteenth century, and its impact on Boston was profound and lasting. Much of the town's increasing wealth was used to enhance the urban environment and improve contacts with outlying communities. More importantly, the steady growth of its population, which was largely encouraged by the economic expansion, began to affect the town's social and political character. In 1822 Boston adopted a city government, including a new city charter, a mayor's office, a board ofaldermen , and a...