The New England Primer

The New England Primer

by John Cotton


This was a standard reader in New England in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was apparently used in both public and Sunday (religious) schools. At that time children of all ages studied in the same classroom, so it has portions oriented towards younger and older students.


Besides instruction in the alphabet, the New England Primer also served to indoctrinate young minds in the stern and somewhat morbid Protestantism of that time and place. Depending on your viewpoint, it is either yet another example of how religion has been excised from the public schools in the United States, or a quaint sample of what our forefathers considered acceptable as 'moral education'.


The New England Primer also has examples of religious intolerance, specifically anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic statements, which reflect then-contemporary attitudes.