Schooling in the Antebellum South: The Rise of Public and Private Education in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama by Sarah L. Hyde (review)

Asserting that "one must jettison the historiographical bias that measures all academic progress in relation to the establishment of schools in Massachusetts," Sarah Hyde treats us to a long-due examination of white education in the antebellum South (170). Such a conceptual reorientation is fundamental to Hyde's central claim that education was valued and sought by Southern inhabitants during this period, a conclusion that has been obscured in critical comparisons of Northern and Southern educational achievement. Hyde's referenced body of literature further makes the point; the topic appears to have long ago fallen out of vogue under the presumption of Southern apathy toward education—there's nothing to see here, folks. Stepping back from the customary focus on outcomes as a means for determining inhabitants' intentions, however, the author reopens the conversation by highlighting Southerners' persistent efforts to expand schooling during this period.

Hyde chooses Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as representative settings by which to better understand the broader Southern educational context during this time. Several common threads run throughout these three cases. Most notably, schools were established at the insistence of community members. According to Hyde, in the 1840s Southerners began to see access to schooling as a right, and they "demanded that their state governments provide it" (105). Hyde traces the roots of statewide public schooling to early successful urban efforts in New Orleans, Mobile, and Natchez. These efforts provided blueprints for schooling across each state as lawmakers and citizens agitated for state-sponsored public schooling. Interestingly, Carl Kaestle (1980, 1983) and Nancy Beadie (2008) have pointed out a reverse trend, but a common process, in the North; common schooling began not in the cities, but in rural locales. In the urban South constituents were able to exercise their consolidated political will to move local and state governments on their demands. Likewise, Northern rural communities rallied their collective will and resources around the local schoolhouse.

To this end, Hyde uses governmental and voting records, to illuminating effect. In all three locations, governors regularly lobbied state legislatures for greater action in establishing state-sponsored school systems. Nonetheless, progress was consistently achieved as a result of community will. As evidence, Hyde points out that Louisiana and Mississippi governors held much greater power than did Alabama's governor, yet Alabama alone ultimately realized a stable statewide system. The author reasons that this was because Alabama legislators were more directly accountable to the public will. Moreover, Hyde contends that local administrative control was instrumental to the quality and operation of schools across the state; absent local administrations accountable to state-level authority, many schools foundered and closed.

This work promises to open up renewed inquiry as it presents several opportunities for further study. To begin with, although the title alludes to a focus on schooling, the author takes an expansive view of education in the South. A full chapter is spent on home instruction. Indeed, universal common schooling was yet a relatively new innovation and children received formal instruction in myriad ways prior to its advent. Relying on modest evidence, exploration of informal education is difficult, but it is an integral part of the American educational legacy ripe for further exploration. Likewise, the author spends some time exploring private schooling, and there is still much to be known about this venue in the Southern antebellum context. Until the development of state-sponsored public schooling, formal education was obtained almost entirely in private schools. In many states, such as Louisiana, this mode of education proliferated even after the advent of public schooling, further supporting Hyde's claim that Southerners valued education.

One difficulty touched upon by the author also begs further study: class certainly played a substantial role in the Southern social and economic hierarchy. Hyde points out the wealthy elite's frequent opposition to public school funding as the larger community...