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History of Adult and Community
Education: 1860-1870
Robyn Spoon
Ball State University
EDAC 631
February 12, 2017
Abstract
This
paper explores adult education in the time period between 1860-1870 using
information gathered from the Morrill Act of 1862 (also called the Agricultural
College Act), and supporting documents, which detailed the history of the time
and the impact of this key legislation. With the United States at a precocious
point in its history, this legislation acted as a catalyst to show the strength
of the federal government and to provide for a strong system of higher
education for decades to come. Individuals such as Amos Brown, President of
People’s College of New York had a lasting impact on both higher education and
adult education in general. In addition
to Brown, Justin Morrill, whom the Morrill Act of 1862 was named after was
instrumental in changing higher education in America. The Morrill Act of 1862
proposed and ultimately provided for the funding of state institutes of higher
education through federal gifting of land for state’s use in the formation of
these colleges and universities. This
paper explores this challenging time period in history and the lasting impact
the Morrill Act had on adult education.
Introduction
The
decade between 1860-1870 was the most tumultuous period of time in American
History after its founding. During this
time period, America was struggling to determine its national identity. Would
the United States simply be the congregation of many individual states or would
there be more of a national identity? Would the United States include the
southern states? One of the biggest struggles facing the nation was determining
the role of the federal government versus the role of individual states. James
Buchanan, possibly the worst president in America’s history (History.com, 2009),
was on his last legs as the country heated up towards civil war, with state’s
rights front and center.
According to the History Channel (2009), “Buchanan, a Democrat who was morally opposed to slavery
but believed it was protected by the U.S. Constitution, was elected to the
White House in 1856. As president, he tried to maintain peace between
pro-slavery and anti-slavery factions in the government, but tensions only
escalated.”
The situation worsened when Buchanan supported the Lecompton
Constitution, “which would have allowed Kansas to become a slave state”
(History.com, 2009). Slavery was just one of many issues dominating the
discussion in the United States at the time concerning state’s rights. Along with many other issues of the day, my
research found the decision about whether or not an issue was the
responsibility of the federal government often fell off a state responsibility
or a state’s right during the Buchanan Presidency, leaving the Morrill Act dead
on President Buchanan’s desk during his last days as President.
Education was one of many issues put
to the test of federal or state responsibilities during the Buchanan
Presidency. While education has always held a place of significance in America,
it grew in both formal and informal ways throughout the Colonial Period leading
up to the Civil War. Wilton (2010) shares that “During this period, the family,
church, school and college—and to a lesser extent, the newspaper—were the
primary educative institutions” (p. 89). The structure of higher education in
America still had much growing to do. A wide variety of both public and private
institutions already existed throughout the United States, with Harvard
University being the first of such schools. University of Georgia is considered
the first state school and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the
second, both in the south. While all of
this expansion of higher education was taking place, the Dred Scott Case determined
according to Morton (1991) “slaves were not citizens and as such had no rights”
(p. 4). In the south, anyway, that
included the right to learn how to read. Morton further displayed in a timeline
of African American milestones in education that in 1860 only 5% of African
Americans were considered literate.
Soon after Abraham Lincoln was
inaugurated as President in the spring of 1862, the Civil War broke out. The country fully understood the position the
new President, and the Republican Party, had on state’s rights and particularly
promised to defend the union. Embroiled
in a Civil War, the new President sought to bring meaning to the federal
government. The country was divided
bitterly and fought amongst itself. He attempted to bring about unifying the
divided citizens through several key pieces of legislation, one of which would
impact higher education well into the future.
Highlights
Prior to the 1860’s, there were a variety of ways
Americans sought out education and there was a growing body of individuals
interested in broadening access to education. The main focus of adult education
during this time period was the lyceum movement. Until and through The Civil War, the lyceum movement was flourishing,
bringing high quality speakers and debates on important topics of the day to
adults in communities across the country.
According to the Columbia Online Encyclopedia:
Lyceum groups were concerned with the dissemination of
information on the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs. The National
American Lyceum (1831) developed from the lectures given by Josiah Holbrook at
the first lyceum group in Millbury, Mass. (Columbia Online Encyclopedia, 1826).
Many
speakers included authors that are well-known and still read today, including
Ralph Waldo Emerson. In addition to philosophy and literature, a hot topic of
discussion at lyceums was public education and a desire to bring it to children
throughout the United States. Beyond
education, a topic of interest to attendees at lyceums was slavery. This lyceum
movement would continue through the 1860s and begin to merge with the Chatauqua
movement as the Civil War came to a close.
In addition to Amos
Brown, there were other individuals interested in expanding a more formal
movement in education during that time period. In particular, the idea of
educating people about agriculture had been long considered along with other
content areas. In his book Amos Brown and
the American Land Grant College Movement (1997), Lang shared that “various attempts had been made to reform the American college…”
He later expanded by sharing that “successful reforms were few in number and
insignificant in terms of practical effect” (p. 3). While the country as a
whole was embroiled with divisiveness concerning slavery and state’s rights,
there were those concerned with higher education and adult education.
Influential Factors:
In the late 1850’s, while much of
the country was concerned with the possibility of entering a civil war,
individuals like Amos Brown, President of The People’s College of New York,
were concerned with educating people in the areas of agriculture and science. The
concept of mechanic arts was vague in terms of its broad understanding of
exactly what it would mean to teach mechanic arts. According to Lang (1997), “The People's College's first objective was to provide
an education that would prepare a student to enter a mechanical trade or take
up scientific farming immediately after graduation” (p. 6). This educational opportunity extended beyond
young white men and included women and adults. The People’s College was named
such because it was meant to be a college for the people. The goal was to train individuals to become
better farmers and mechanical technicians.
The People’s College also offered a variety of courses for adults in the
local area in the form of lectures. According to Lang (1997), both agricultural
education and mechanic arts instruction was taking on a similar style at the time
with both making use of a variety of instructional methods, such as journals,
fairs and other (p. 6). Brown desired to
expand on the typical university teaching of the day by including a requirement
that the students not only understand topics covered in books, but they also had
to learn to use the equipment they learned about. Eventually, the Land-Grant
Colleges created from the Morrill Act would take on many of these same features
and include much of the same content of instruction as The People’s College,
making Amos Brown an important figure in adult education.
As stated earlier, an attempt was made to pass the Morrill
Act in 1859, but was vetoed by then President Buchanan. Many continued on with
efforts to pass the Morrill Act in the hopes that they might expand access to
higher education to a more diverse group of people in a more diverse geographic
region of the United States. However, the new President, Lincoln, was eager to
show the states that the federal government had value. In addition to the
Homestead Act, he also pushed through a land grant to fund railroad expansion
and finally, the Morrill Land Grant Act to help fund higher education through
the northern states. The political
climate was ripe for the vision Brown had for the future of higher education in
the United States. It hadn’t been an
easy journey to get there, however. The
only true addition to the original Morrill Act that Buchanan had previously
vetoed was military tactic instruction. In
a bulletin created by the Department of the Interior entitled The Land Grant of 1862 and Land Grant
Colleges (1918), Andrews clearly defines
the purpose of the Land-Grant Colleges in the following way:
…without excluding other
scientific and classical studies and including military tactic, to teach such
branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in
such manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe, in
order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes
in the several pursuits and professions in life (p.8).
It is impossible to discuss the
Morrill Act of 1862 without discussing Justin Morrill, a congressman from
Vermont. While Amos Brown prepared to
share his work with others concerning the People’s College in the hopes of
creating federal support for his project (and others like it), Justin Morrill
was busy doing the same in Washington DC.
Brown joined Morrill’s efforts to support the Morrill Act for a
successful passage. (Lang, 1997).
Implications
The
period of time between 1860-1870 was a dramatic time period to be alive in
America. It is amazing to consider the astronomical
fracture the nation faced. More significant is the fact that while the country
endured war and division, many individuals fought on other battlefields. The work done by Amos Brown, Justin Morrill
and others has had a significant impact on our educational system. My research
revealed that this worthwhile and lasting piece of legislation was hard fought.
Living in Indiana, I was reminded through my research of the great impact the
Morrill Act of 1862 has on daily life in Indiana through Purdue University and
its extension offices that provide educational opportunities. However, my
research uncovered that we have more than the Morrill Act of 1862 to thank for
these extension services in our communities. In their article titled, The Land-Grant Model (1990), Jones, Oberst and Courtland noted the following:
Morrill's fine idea might
have died on the vine had it not been for two additional pieces of legislation,
the Hatch Act of 1887 and the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. By providing for
experiment stations and extension services, this "three-legged stool"
of legislation ensured that knowledge coming from these colleges and
universities could be tested in a real-world setting and effectively transmitted
to a public beyond enrolled students.
We
could all learn something today from these major pieces of legislation and
their impact. This same vision laid out
many years ago to extend learning from the classroom, test it in the world and
share the information beyond the college campus itself can be applied to other
areas of content beyond agriculture. This same type of extension could be
applied to engineering and other concepts (Jones, Oberst &Courtland, 1990).
Social
Background
|
State’s Rights,
Buchanan Presidency, Lincoln Presidency, Civil War Begins
|
Highlights
|
Lyceum movement,
Chatauqua movement, Amos Brown
|
Influential
Factors
|
Amos Brown,
The People’s College of New York, The Morrill Act of 1862
|
Implications
|
Lasting
Land-Grant Colleges, Extension Offices, Future possibility of extension
offices
|
References
Andrews,
B. F., & Department of the Interior, B. (1918). The Land Grant of 1862 and
the Land-Grant Colleges. Bulletin, 1918, No. 13. Bureau Of Education,
Department Of The Interior.
Jones,
R. C., & And, O. (1990). Building U.S. Economic Competitiveness: The
Land-Grant Model. Change, 22(3), 10-17.
Lang,
D. W. (1997). Amos Brown and the American Land Grant College Movement. ASHE
Annual Meeting Paper.
Lyceum,
19th-century American educational association. (2016). Columbia Electronic
Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1.
Morton,
S. T. (1991). Charting the Course of Lifelong Learning for Blacks.
