In the 17th century, the schoolbooks in use had been Bibles brought over from England. By 1690, Boston publishers were reprinting the English Protestant Tutor under the title of The New England Primer. The Primer included additional material that made it widely popular with colonial schools until it was supplanted by Noah Webster's Blue Back Speller after 1790.
History
The New England Primer was first published between 1687 and 1690 by printer Benjamin Harris, who had come to Boston in 1686 to escape the brief Catholic ascendancy under James II. It was based largely upon The Protestant Tutor, which he had published in England,[1] and was the first reading primer designed for the American Colonies.
The selections in the New England Primer varied somewhat over time, although there was standard content for beginning reading instruction. Included were the alphabet, vowels, consonants, double letters, and syllabaries of two letters to six letter syllables. The 90-page work contained religious maxims, woodcuts, alphabetical assistants, acronyms, catechism answers, and moral lessons.
The primer remained in print well into the 19th century and was even used until the 20th century. A reported 2 million copies were sold in the 18th century. No copies of editions before 1727 are known to survive; earlier editions are known only from publishers' and booksellers' advertisements.
David H. Watters argues that the Primer was built on rote memorization, the Puritans' distrust of uncontrolled speech, and their preoccupation with childhood depravity. By simplifying Calvinist theology the Primer enabled the Puritan child to define the "self" by relating his life to the authority of God and his parents.[2] Emory Elliott argues that the Primer was part of the transformation that turned Puritans away from an angry and wrathful God the Father to the embrace of the gentle and loving Jesus Christ.[3]
Contents of the Primer
Two of the most famous example verses are as follows
There have been many reprints of The New England Primer.
New England Primer: Improved for the More Easy Attaining the True Reading of English: To Which Is Added the Assembly of Divines, and Mr. Cotton's Catechism (1991, WallBuilders; note that this is the 1777 edition). ISBN0-925279-17-X
Fort, Paul Leicester. The New-England Primer (NY, 1899)
Monaghan, E. Jennifer (2006) Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America
Roberts, Kyle B. "Rethinking The New-England Primer," Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 104 (Dec. 2010) 489–523
Smith, N. B. (2002) American reading instruction / Nila Banton Smith; [with prologue by Richard D. Robinson, epilogue by Norman A.Stahl, and history of reading since 1967 by P. David Pearson].
Watters, David H. "'I Spake as a Child': Authority, Metaphor and the New England Primer," Early American Literature, Dec 1985, Vol. 20 Issue 3, pp 193–213
David H. Watters, "'I Spake as a Child': Authority, Metaphor and the New England Primer," Early American Literature, Dec 1985, Vol. 20 Issue 3, pp 193–213