America's founders understood the importance of education in the colonies to sustain their form of self-government.
In addition to home schooling, tutors and academies, the purpose of institutions of higher learning in early America was "to train a literate clergy" or prepare missionaries to reach the Indians.
Harvard University (previously New College) Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1636;
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1693;
St. John's College (previously King William's School) Annapolis, Maryland, 1696.
When Harvard was thought to have drifted from teaching students Puritan orthodoxy, ten Congregational ministers, headed by Rev. James Pierpont, founded "Collegiate College," in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1701.
In 1718, it was renamed Yale College after large contributions from Elihu Yale, a Boston merchant who made a fortune in Madras, India, with the British East India Company.
Yale founder James Pierpont's daughter was Sarah Pierpont, who married Jonathan Edwards in 1727.
Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, and entered Yale in 1716, at the age of 13.
As a student, he was fascinated with the philosophy of John Locke and the discoveries of Isaac Newton.
In 1720, at age 17, he graduated valedictorian of his class.
In 1722-1723, Edwards was a pulpit-pastor at a Presbyterian Church in New York City.
He taught students at Yale from 1724 to 1726 as a as a "pillar tutor."
He was ordained in 1727, the year he married Sarah Pierpont.
Edwards served as a "scholar-pastor," studying 13 hours a day, at the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts.
There, he assisted the head pastor, his grandfather, Puritan Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the first librarian at Harvard University.
A church membership controversy, the "Half-Way Covenant," still simmered from the 1650s.
Edwards' wife, Sarah, was the great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the Congregationalist minister who founded Connecticut.
Where strict Puritans insisted that only church members could vote in community elections, Rev. Hooker advocated that anyone who was a Christian should be allowed to vote.
Hooker stated in a sermon in Hartford, Connecticut, May 31, 1638:
"The foundation of authority is laid firstly in the free consent of people."
This was a revolutionary idea at a time when most of the world was ruled "top-down" by kings, emperors, czars and chieftains.
Connecticut was to be a colony ruled "bottom-up" by the consent of educated Christian citizens.
Hooker's sermon became the basis for The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638-39, which according to historian John Fiske, comprised the first written constitution in history.
It became a blueprint for other New England colonies and eventually the United States Constitution.
Hartford's Travelers Square has a plaque which reads:
"In June of 1635 ... Thomas Hooker's congregation ... established the form of government upon which the present Constitution of the United States is modeled."
Connecticut's General Assembly designated Connecticut "The Constitution State" in 1959.
Rev. Thomas Hooker is considered the "Father of American Democracy," as memorialized on a plaque at the school he attended in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England.
Another marker where he lived in Shire Hall, Chelmsford, England, reads:
"Thomas Hooker 1586-1647, Curate of St. Mary's Church, Chelmsford and Town Lecturer 1626-1629, Founder of the State of Connecticut 1636, 'Father of American Democracy.'"
A statue of Rev. Thomas Hooker holding a Bible stands prominently in front of Hartford's Old State House.
In 1729, Solomon Stoddard died, leaving Jonathan Edwards as sole pastor of one of the largest congregations in Massachusetts.
In 1733, a revival began with 300 youth joining the church in just 6 months.
In 1737, Edwards wrote A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton.
In 1739-1740, during Rev. George Whitefield's tour through the colonies, Jonathan Edwards had him preach to his church in Northhampton.
In 1741, Edwards preached a sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" which began a Great Awakening in which tens of thousands came to Christ.
The revival, largely among young people, was so widespread that history credits it with helping to unite the colonies prior to the Revolution.
Edwards published a pamphlet denouncing the importation of slaves from Africa.
He preached to the Mohican and Housatonic Indians, criticized politicians who used their official positions to make fortunes off of them, and opposed encroachment on Indian lands.
He took care of dying missionary to the Delaware Indians, David Brainerd. Afterwards he published in 1749, An Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd.
The Treacherous World of the 16th Century and How the Pilgrims Escaped It: The Prequel to America's Freedom
Of the Great Awakening Revival, Jonathan Edwards wrote:
"God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town.
I have had abundant opportunity to know the effect it had, by my private conversation with many.
The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lighting upon the hearts of young people all over the town, and upon many others."
Ben Franklin wrote of the Great Awakening Revival:
"It was wonderful to see ... From being thoughtless or indifferent ... it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in ... every street."
The Great Awakening Revival led to the founding of more universities.
Ben Franklin raised money to build a "preaching house" (100 feet by 70 feet) for evangelist George Whitefield's revival meetings in 1740.
This "House of Public Worship" was the largest building in the Philadelphia.
There, Whitefield began a Charity School for blacks and the poor, but due to lack of funding it only lasted a few years.
Afterwards, Franklin used the building for the newly formed Academy of Philadelphia.
With Franklin as president of the board, it was supported by Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, Moravians and Quakers.
It was renamed the Academy and College of Philadelphia, then the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1742, Moravian missionaries founded Bethlehem Female Seminary, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was renamed Moravian College.
In addition to home schooling, tutors and academies, the purpose of institutions of higher learning in early America was "to train a literate clergy" or prepare missionaries to reach the Indians.
Harvard University (previously New College) Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1636;
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1693;
St. John's College (previously King William's School) Annapolis, Maryland, 1696.
When Harvard was thought to have drifted from teaching students Puritan orthodoxy, ten Congregational ministers, headed by Rev. James Pierpont, founded "Collegiate College," in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1701.
In 1718, it was renamed Yale College after large contributions from Elihu Yale, a Boston merchant who made a fortune in Madras, India, with the British East India Company.
Yale founder James Pierpont's daughter was Sarah Pierpont, who married Jonathan Edwards in 1727.
Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, and entered Yale in 1716, at the age of 13.
As a student, he was fascinated with the philosophy of John Locke and the discoveries of Isaac Newton.
In 1720, at age 17, he graduated valedictorian of his class.
In 1722-1723, Edwards was a pulpit-pastor at a Presbyterian Church in New York City.
He taught students at Yale from 1724 to 1726 as a as a "pillar tutor."
He was ordained in 1727, the year he married Sarah Pierpont.
Edwards served as a "scholar-pastor," studying 13 hours a day, at the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts.
There, he assisted the head pastor, his grandfather, Puritan Rev. Solomon Stoddard, the first librarian at Harvard University.
A church membership controversy, the "Half-Way Covenant," still simmered from the 1650s.
Edwards' wife, Sarah, was the great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Hooker, the Congregationalist minister who founded Connecticut.
Where strict Puritans insisted that only church members could vote in community elections, Rev. Hooker advocated that anyone who was a Christian should be allowed to vote.
Hooker stated in a sermon in Hartford, Connecticut, May 31, 1638:
"The foundation of authority is laid firstly in the free consent of people."
This was a revolutionary idea at a time when most of the world was ruled "top-down" by kings, emperors, czars and chieftains.
Connecticut was to be a colony ruled "bottom-up" by the consent of educated Christian citizens.
Hooker's sermon became the basis for The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, 1638-39, which according to historian John Fiske, comprised the first written constitution in history.
It became a blueprint for other New England colonies and eventually the United States Constitution.
Hartford's Travelers Square has a plaque which reads:
"In June of 1635 ... Thomas Hooker's congregation ... established the form of government upon which the present Constitution of the United States is modeled."
Connecticut's General Assembly designated Connecticut "The Constitution State" in 1959.
Rev. Thomas Hooker is considered the "Father of American Democracy," as memorialized on a plaque at the school he attended in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire, England.
Another marker where he lived in Shire Hall, Chelmsford, England, reads:
"Thomas Hooker 1586-1647, Curate of St. Mary's Church, Chelmsford and Town Lecturer 1626-1629, Founder of the State of Connecticut 1636, 'Father of American Democracy.'"
A statue of Rev. Thomas Hooker holding a Bible stands prominently in front of Hartford's Old State House.
In 1729, Solomon Stoddard died, leaving Jonathan Edwards as sole pastor of one of the largest congregations in Massachusetts.
In 1733, a revival began with 300 youth joining the church in just 6 months.
In 1737, Edwards wrote A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God in the Conversion of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton.
In 1739-1740, during Rev. George Whitefield's tour through the colonies, Jonathan Edwards had him preach to his church in Northhampton.
In 1741, Edwards preached a sermon, "Sinners in the hands of an angry God" which began a Great Awakening in which tens of thousands came to Christ.
The revival, largely among young people, was so widespread that history credits it with helping to unite the colonies prior to the Revolution.
Edwards published a pamphlet denouncing the importation of slaves from Africa.
He preached to the Mohican and Housatonic Indians, criticized politicians who used their official positions to make fortunes off of them, and opposed encroachment on Indian lands.
He took care of dying missionary to the Delaware Indians, David Brainerd. Afterwards he published in 1749, An Account of the Life of the Late Rev. David Brainerd.
The Treacherous World of the 16th Century and How the Pilgrims Escaped It: The Prequel to America's Freedom
Of the Great Awakening Revival, Jonathan Edwards wrote:
"God made it, I suppose, the greatest occasion of awakening to others, of anything that ever came to pass in the town.
I have had abundant opportunity to know the effect it had, by my private conversation with many.
The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of lighting upon the hearts of young people all over the town, and upon many others."
Ben Franklin wrote of the Great Awakening Revival:
"It was wonderful to see ... From being thoughtless or indifferent ... it seemed as if all the world were growing religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in ... every street."
The Great Awakening Revival led to the founding of more universities.
Ben Franklin raised money to build a "preaching house" (100 feet by 70 feet) for evangelist George Whitefield's revival meetings in 1740.
This "House of Public Worship" was the largest building in the Philadelphia.
There, Whitefield began a Charity School for blacks and the poor, but due to lack of funding it only lasted a few years.
Afterwards, Franklin used the building for the newly formed Academy of Philadelphia.
With Franklin as president of the board, it was supported by Presbyterians, Anglicans, Methodists, Moravians and Quakers.
It was renamed the Academy and College of Philadelphia, then the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1742, Moravian missionaries founded Bethlehem Female Seminary, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was renamed Moravian College.