. Colonial Virginia . i-tion to pay for their own tuition. It is an interesting fact that the percentage of illiteracyamong the whites in Virginia before the war was very littlemore than the present percentage of illiteracy, although forthe last twenty years v^e have been v/aging an active cam-paign in favor of education. If this chapter on education in Virginia seems to be atrifle polemic, let it be remembered that it is concerning amatter about which there has been much unnecessary misin-formation and misrepresentation on the part of those whomight have known better. To quote the saying of S
. Colonial Virginia . i-tion to pay for their own tuition. It is an interesting fact that the percentage of illiteracyamong the whites in Virginia before the war was very littlemore than the present percentage of illiteracy, although forthe last twenty years v^e have been v/aging an active cam-paign in favor of education. If this chapter on education in Virginia seems to be atrifle polemic, let it be remembered that it is concerning amatter about which there has been much unnecessary misin-formation and misrepresentation on the part of those whomight have known better. To quote the saying of Sir Wil-liam Berkeley as given in the beginning of this chapter,without explanation or qualification, is to make the inevitableimpression that there was no appreciation of education in theVirginia Colony. Precisely this many historians have beenwilling to do; indeed, this impression has been given so often,that one must have far more equanimity of spirit than theaverage Virginian is ever supposed to have, not to resent. James Blair. Commiaaary William and Mary College. ?--1 BEGINNINGS OF EDUCATION IN VIRGINIA. 113 an imputation for which there is so little basis of fact in ahistory easily tjO be known and understood. This utterancemust not be taken as a disparagement of educational move-ments in other parts of colonial America. The superb edu-cational work of our feliow-countrymen of New England hasbecome at once the heritage and the pride of all patrioticAmericans. The plain truth is that, living in such an era andbeing fresh from the atmosphere of Europe in the sixteenthcentury, it were not possible, either at Jamestown or at Ply-mouth, to be other than interested in education and the ad-vance of letters. On anything like a close scrutiny it will bediscovered that here, as elsewhere, the life of the colonistsmoved along parallel lines. This must needs be so, becausethere was to them both a common ancestry and, in thingsvital arid essential, a common environment. CHAPTER
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