Female Education

The South, which culturally Liberty, Missouri was very much a part of, had some of America’s most advanced education offerings for women in the mid-nineteenth century. Southern female seminaries were meant to educate the daughters of the mid to upper class of society; the desire for a classical education was a marker of gentility. The female academy was meant to be a symbol of class and to provide a moral, literary, and domestic education for young women of good breeding so they would make good Southern wives. Only the daughters of planters, prosperous slave owning farmers, prominent ministers, and elite urban business men and professional men could afford to attend school long enough for advanced seminary or college training. Female academies could charge up to $200 per year with board making it a luxury few could afford and popular in wealthy slaveholding counties. Since higher education was affordable only to the wealthier ranks of Southern white women, it did not threaten the status quo and helped maintain class distinctions in communities.

Female seminaries became popular in the South as communities and families demanded education beyond the primary level for their daughters ages 12-18. These institutions were meant to offer women an opportunity to maintain and nurture gender conventions that epitomized the Southern belle. Women were meant to have a cultural understanding and intellectual foundation to further their role in Southern society and to improve Southern society at large. A college education became a symbol of class status that labeled a lady of refinement, worthy of ambition, admiration, and chivalrous attention. Southern women were not expected to be employed before marriage; even to teach was seen as an embarrassment as it would signify financial misfortune or the inability of a father or husband to provide. In the antebellum South, female education was an emblem of high social status, not a means of economic survival. Women in the South had no expectation of using their training to earn a living. Women were to remain inferior to men in decision making for the household. Further, a male’s authority over women in the household was part of the greater hierarchy in the foundation of a slave society.

Female education, though not necessarily graduation, was valued as an intellectual and artistic endeavor. Facilities were built to make this female education process more formal and more academic. The terms female seminaries and academies were often used interchangeably. Seminary was typically reserved for schools of a higher grade. Southern female boarding schools were modeled after English ones which were also only for the upper classes of society. There were no public schools in the South for boys or girls until after the Civil War. One of the first female colleges in the United States opened in 1839 in Macon, Georgia, a Southern community with conservative views of white womanhood and a commitment to slavery. The South took the lead in formal female education; from 1850-1859 thirty-two of the thirty-nine chartered female colleges were in the South.

Female colleges pioneered the study of music and art. Piano instruction was often of high caliber with concerts being a major part of the college experience. Gender conventions in terms of the arts, especially decorative arts, were an area where male colleges were inferior to female colleges. Female students studied ornamental arts which included drawing, painting, music, “fancy” work such as lace work, hair jewelry, needlework, and the art of conversation. Music, and in particular piano instruction, was the most popular of the “extras” offered even though it came at an additional expense. Music was seen as home entertainment and female students were taught pieces that might be enjoyed in Southern social society and family life.

Closing ceremonies and public examinations often included musical selections; many were reviewed in local papers. Female students did not take final written examinations, but participated in public examinations where any man in the audience could ask a question or challenge an answer. For many female students this was a source of anxiety. Along with these examinations there were concerts, parties, and award ceremonies often lasting two to three days. These were important social events. Young men often made their rounds to several ceremonies at female colleges. Few women earned degrees as that was not seen as necessary; even families of means often periodically ran low on funds, early marriage, homesickness, loss of siblings or relatives, or any number of reasons kept many female students from returning or earning a degree. Attending a female seminary or college was in itself a sufficient marker of gentility and time spent was considered a valuable experience in transforming a girl to a Southern lady.