The words of the biographer of Catherine Schuyler might truthfully have been applied to almost any girl in or near the quaint Dutch city:  “Meanwhile [about 1740] the girl [Catherine Schuyler] was perfecting herself in the arts of housekeeping so dear to the Dutch matron.  The care of the dairy, the poultry, the spinning, the baking, the brewing, the immaculate cleanliness of the Dutch, were not so much duties as sacred household rites."[49] So much for womanly education in New Amsterdam.  A thorough training in domestic science, enough arithmetic for keeping accurate accounts of expenses, and previous little reading—­these were considered ample to set the young woman on the right path for her vocation as wife and mother.

This high respect for arithmetic was by no means limited to New York.  Ben Franklin, while in London, wrote thus to his daughter:  “The more attentively dutiful and tender you are towards your good mama, the more you will recommend yourself to me....  Go constantly to church, whoever preaches.  For the rest, I would only recommend to you in my absence, to acquire those useful accomplishments, arithmetic, and book-keeping.  This you might do with ease, if you would resolve not to see company on the hours set apart for those studies."[50] In addition, however, Franklin seems not to have been averse to a girl’s receiving some of those social accomplishments which might add to her graces; for in 1750 he wrote his mother the following message about this same child:  “Sally grows a fine Girl, and is extreamly industrious with her Needle, and delights in her Book.  She is of a most affectionate Temper, and perfectly dutiful and obliging to her Parents, and to all.  Perhaps I flatter myself too much, but I have hopes that she will prove an ingenious, sensible, notable, and worthy Woman, like her Aunt Jenny.  She goes now to the Dancing-School..."[51]

II.  Woman’s Education in the South

It is to be expected that there was much more of this training in social accomplishments in the South than in the North.  Among the “first families,” in Virginia and the Carolinas the daughters regularly received instruction, not only in household duties and the supervision of the multitude of servants, but in music, dancing, drawing, etiquette and such other branches as might help them to shine in the social life that was so abundant.  Thomas Jefferson has left us some hints as to the education of aristocratic women in Virginia, in the following letter of advice to his daughter: 

     “Dear Patsy:—­With respect to the distribution of your time, the
     following is what I should approve: 

     “From 8 to 10, practice music.

     “From 10 to 1, dance one day and draw another.

     “From 1 to 2, draw on the day you dance, and write a letter next
     day.

     “From 3 to 4, read French.

     “From 4 to 5, exercise yourself in music.