Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America: Literacy Instruction and Acquisition in a Cultural Context

APPENDIX 1: Signature Literacy in Colonial America, the United States, and the AtlanticWorld, 1650 to 1810

APPENDIX 1 Signature Literacy in Colonial America, the United States, and the Atlantic World, 1650 to 1810 Graph 1. Rates of Signature Literacy among Men as Reported for the Atlantic World, 1650 to 1810 Sources: VT will signers, VT deed singers: William J. Gilmore, Reading Becomes a Necessity of Life: Material and Cultural Life in Rural New England, 1780–1835 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), 122–23, graphs 3-1 and 3-2 (deeds and wills). N.E. rural signers, N.E. urban singers: Kenneth A. Lockridge, Literacy in Colonial New England: An Enquiry into the Social Context of Literacy in the Early Modern West (New York: Norton, 1974), 24, graph 3 (wills). VA signers: For 1650–1720: Darrett B. Rutman and Anita H. Rutman, A Place in Time: Explicatus (New York: Norton, 1984), 167, fig. 29 (various legal documents); for 1750–1810: David A. Rawson, “Guardians of Their Own Liberty” (Ph.D. diss., College of William and Mary, 1998), chap. 1, fig. 29 (various legal documents). VA census: Rawson, “Guardians of Their Own Liberty,” chap. 1, fig. 29 (self-reported literacy). Scotland signers: R. A. Houston, “The Literacy Myth? Illiteracy in Scotland 1630–1760,” Past and Present 96 (1982): 86–90, tables I and II (various legal documents). PA wills Chester, PA wills Lancaster: Alan Tully, “Literacy Levels and Educational Development in Rural Pennsylvania, 1729–1775,” Pennsylvania History 39 (1972): 304, table I (will-makers). England signers: For 1650–1720: David Cressy, “Levels of Literacy in England, 1530–1730,” Historical Journal 20 (1977): 11, table 3; for 1750–1810: R. S. Schofield, “Dimensions of Illiteracy, 1750–1850,” Explorations in Economic History 10 (1973): 445, fig. 2 (various legal documents). U.S. Army recruits: Lee Soltow and Edward Stevens, The Rise of Literacy and the Common School in the United States: A Socioeconomic Analysis to 1870 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981), 52, tables 2.2 and 2.3 (enlistment papers). Wampanoag signers: David J. Silverman, “Conditions for Coexistence, Climates for Collapse: The Challenges of Indian Life on Martha’s Vineyard, 1524–1871” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2000), 367, fig. 2 (various legal documents). France rural signers: Thomas F. Sheppard, Lourmarin in the Eighteenth Century (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971), 69–72, tables III-4 and III-5 (marriage act signatures). Quebec urban signers, Quebec rural signers: Allan Greer, “The Pattern of Literacy in Quebec,” Historie Sociale/Social History 44 (1978): 299, table 1 (marriage contract signatures). Graph adapted and expanded from Rawson, “Guardians,” table 29, following p. 69. Graph 2. Rates of Signature Literacy among Women as Reported for the Atlantic World, 1650 to 1810 Sources: CT deed signers: Linda Auwers, “Reading the Marks of the Past: Exploring Female Literacy in Colonial Windsor Connecticut,” Historical Methods 13 (1980): 205, table 1. (Because Auwers’ figures are for the dates of the women’s births, I have arbitrarily added 30 years to her data to approximate the date of signing given by other sources.) VT will signers: Gilmore, Reading Becomes a Necessity, 122–23, graphs 3-1 and 3-2. VT deed signers: Gilmore, Reading Becomes a Necessity, 122–23, graphs 3-1 and 3-2. N.E. rural signers: Lockridge, Literacy in Colonial New England, 41, graph 8 (wills). N.E. urban signers: Lockridge, Literacy in Colonial New England, 41, graph 8 (wills). VA signers: For 1650–1720: Rutman and Rutman, Place in Time, 167, fig. 29; for 1750–1810: Rawson, “Guardians of Their Own Liberty,” chap. 1, fig. 29 (various legal documents). VA census: Rawson, “Guardians of Their Own Liberty,” chap. 1, fig. 29 (self-reported literacy). Scotland signers: Houston, “The Literacy Myth?” 86–90, tables I and II (various legal documents). PA wills Chester: Tully, “Literacy Levels,” 304, table I. PA wills Lancaster: Tully, “Literacy Levels,” 304, table I. England signers: Schofield, “Dimensions of Illiteracy,” 445, fig. 2 (various legal documents). MA widows: Gloria L. Main, “An Inquiry Into When and Why Women Learned to Write in Colonial New England,” Journal of Social History 24 (1990–91): 585, table 4 (letters of guardianship, etc.) (Because Main’s figures are for the dates of the women’s births, I have arbitrarily added 30 years to her data to approximate the date of signing given by other sources.) France rural signers: Sheppard, Lourmarin in the Eighteenth Century, 69–72, tables III-4 and III-5 (marriage registers). Quebec urban signers: Greer, “Pattern of...