"age of consent" legislation in most States and in the Territories
under the jurisdiction of the national government. In 1885 the age in
Delaware was _seven_.

[Sidenote: Age of Legal consent.]

[Sidenote: The beginnings of higher education for women.]

The Puritans, burning with an unquenchable zeal for liberty, fled to
America in order to build a land of freedom and strike off the
shackles of despotism. After they were comfortably settled, they
forthwith proceeded, with fine humour, to expel mistress Anne Hutchinson
for venturing to speak in public, to hang superfluous old women for
being witches, and to refuse women the right to an education. In 1684,
when a question arose about admitting girls to the Hopkins School of New
Haven, it was decided that "all girls be excluded as improper and
inconsistent with such a grammar school as ye law enjoins and as in the
Designs of this settlement." "But," remarks Professor Thomas, "certain
small girls whose manners seem to have been neglected and who had the
natural curiosity of their sex, sat on the schoolhouse steps and heard
the boys recite, or learned to read and construe sentences from their
brothers at home, and were occasionally admitted to school."

In the course of the next century the world moved a little; and in
1789, when the public school system was established in Boston, girls
were admitted from April to October; but until 1825 they were allowed to
attend primary schools only. In 1790 Gloucester voted that "two hours,
or a proportional part of that time, be devoted to the instruction of
females." In 1793 Plymouth accorded girls one hour of instruction daily.

The first female seminary in the United States was opened by the
Moravians in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1749. It was unique. In 1803,
of 48 academies or higher schools fitting for college in Massachusetts,
only three were for girls, although a few others admitted both boys and
girls.

The first instance of government aid for the systematic education of
women occurred in New York, in 1819. This was due to the influence of a
remarkable woman. Mrs. Emma Willard had begun teaching in Connecticut
and by extraordinary diligence mastered not only the usual subjects of
the curriculum, but in addition botany, chemistry, mineralogy,
astronomy, and the higher mathematics. She had, moreover, striven always
to introduce new subjects and new methods into her school, and with such
success that Governor Clinton, of N