to the people, so chartered academies were not popular.
It would seem that while the Cape Fear largely patronized Boston, the northeastern section sent her sons to England and the Presbyterians of the interior sought higher education at Princeton.
About 1767, says Foote, Joseph Alexander, a fine scholar, in connection with Mr. Benedict, taught a classical school of high excellence and usefulness--this was at Sugar Creek, in the vicinity of Charlotte.
In 1766, Dr. Caldwell opened his classical school in Guilford. This, says Foote, was the second permanent classical school in the upper part of Carolina--that at Sugar Creek being the first, and that of Mr. Pattilo, in Granville, the third. Five of his scholars became Governors, a number Judges, about fifty were Ministers of the Gospel, and a large number physicians and lawyers. The number of pupils averaged fifty or sixty and came from different parts of the State. About the same time, Dr. Pattilo taught in Granville; in 1761, Rev. William Richardson, the uncle of General Davie, located at the Waxhaws, and doubtless he also taught school.
Large Scotch-Irish settlements in central Carolina, began probably in 1747, and continued up to the Revolutionary War. Says Foote:
"almost invariably as soon as a neighborhood was settled, preparations were made for the preaching of the gospel by a regular stated pastor; and wherever a pastor was located, in that congregation there was a classical school; as in Sugar Creek, Poplar Tent, Centre, Bethany, Buffalo, Thyatira, Grove, Wilmington, and the churches occupied by Pattilo in Orange and Granville." And when we consider the very considerable number of well educated men who lived in this western section, and the number who patronized Princeton college, we are prepared to say that this part of Carolina must have had a good record in regard to education. About the same time the Moravians settled Salem, and they early established a boarding school for girls, which has continued in existence to this day, and is still youthful in vigor.
It is freely admitted that in the matter of schools a great difference is observable between the colonies of Massachusetts and of North Carolina. For that difference there were several causes. Massachusetts was settled by colonies--North Carolina was occupied by individual families. The people of Massachusetts were forced by circumstances to remain in communities; those of North Carolina being under no such pressure, lived apart. In the former the establishment of towns was coeval with the settlement; in North Carolina, there was no town until Bath was located in 1704--probably fifty years after lands were first taken up in the province. The people were scattered sparsely here and there along the shores of the sounds and on the banks of water-courses. Again, the people were not all of the same religious faith, while in Massachusetts the local preachers were the teachers. From letters printed in Hawks' history, we obtain a fair view of the condition of North Carolina in 1709. The section north of Albemarle Sound was, at that date, divided into four precincts--Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan. Currituck had a population, children included, of 539, whereof 97 were negroes. Pasquotank had 1,332, of whom 211 were negroes. It was "closer seated than the other and better peopled in proportion to its bigness."
Perquimans probably had about the same population. Chowan was the largest but "thinnest seated." There were "no inhabitants on the road, for they plant only on the river, and they are planted in length on these rivers, at least twenty miles." The Albemarle section probably had at that time about 3,500 inhabitants. Immediately across the sound there seemed to have been no settlers--but there was "a new colony of Pamplico, to reach which there are about fifty miles desert to pass through without
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