The Classics in Pre-Revolutionary America
What we define today as a “classical curriculum” was for centuries the average, dominant, and expected curriculum one would find at any collegiate institution—extensive scholarship of Latin and Greek grammar and vocabulary with further emphasis on the reading of ancient and antique authors such as Cicero (106-43 BCE), Livy (59 BCE-17 CE), and Plato (427-348 BCE). It is through engagement with these texts one discerned the great truths of early modern living: virtue, honor, civility, piety, and responsibility.[2]
Classical learning formed the backbone of the lives of almost every major figure in America’s colonial history. Figures such as Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618 CE) and James Oglethorpe (1696-1785 CE) are but two notable individuals who played crucial roles in the establishment of English colonies in North America with backgrounds in the classical education. As quickly as the colonies were established so too was the classical curriculum transported to what would eventually become the United States. Institutions such as Harvard (f. 1636 CE), College of William & Mary (f. 1693 CE), and Yale (f. 1701 CE) all taught the classical curriculum. In fact for much of America’s colonial and early-republic history, the classical curriculum was the only curriculum one would be able to expect.[3]
This abundance of classical thought permeated into every aspect of American society. In the American South, enslaved persons were often given names which found their origin in classical works and figures.[4] Many notable formerly enslaved and enslaved persons continue to bear their classical names in the pages of history: Horace King (1807-1885 CE), Caesar Nero Paul (1741-1823 CE), Hercules Posey (1748-1812 CE), and Jupiter Hammon (1711-1806 CE) stand as testaments to this practice. Different phrases, mottos, and quotes from classical authors received constant popularity and parroting. Classical authors were frequently read and passages from their works recited.
It is important to remember that classical education was first and foremost only accessible to the wealthy and elite—education was highly restricted in America as it was in Europe.[5] Yet for these wealthy and elite individuals, a classical education offered them everything: piety, discipline, honor, civility, and perhaps most importantly civic responsibility. As America inched towards independence and the notions and ideals of self-rule grew stronger, the only suitable model which could be found for the Americans in a self-governing state could be found in Ancient Rome and Greece.[6] Special attention was given to the Republic of Rome over the democratic Greece—the downfall of Athens’ direct democracy a potent warning for idealizing American statesmen.[7] Through the careful cultivate of reading lists of Cicero, Cato, and others, classical curriculums in America along with other notable individuals read works which directly supported the notions of civic responsibility, honor, justice, and self-governing which would become foundational for the zeitgeist of early America, both politically and morally.[8] By the eve of the Revolution and throughout the Revolution itself, America’s leading individuals were all deeply indebted to the classics.