The way we think..

I was talking with a friend today and in the course of conversation I said I was asked a question about a minister in the So. Killingly church ordained in 1785 wanting to know what college he went to, etc.   He was not listed in The Colonial Clergy book we have and the only reference I found was in Ellen Larneds' History of Windham County where she mentioned that he was ordained at the South Killingly church in 1785 and that Rev. Ebenezer Bradford of Rowley, Mass., with whom he had studied theology, preached the sermon.   So looks like he did not attend college.  
He had to have had a good education.   Where did this occur?  Most likely at home and then in a one room school house.  Perhaps he went to an Academy.  Aaron Brown, an early minister in Killingly, "fitted" boys up for college in his house.  A couple of them entered Yale when but fourteen years old.    Does this tell us something?  Yes, they had an excellent early education locally.  From what I have found in the early papers, students who graduated from  eighth grade were way ahead of 12th grade today.  But if these didn't get to college they studied under another minister, doctors studied under other doctors, lawyers did the same.   Was it always a good thing?  Of course not.   But back then there were people who were "naturals" when it came to being a great doctor or lawyer or teacher, etc.   Consider Dr. Sweet, the bone-setter.  He was locally famous for setting bones.  I have no idea if he attended any college or not, or if he was a "natural."  Or consider the young women and men who became teachers right out of school and did wonderful work with children.  Today you must go to college in order to be a doctor, teacher or lawyer, etc. but it wasn't always that way.  
  Another thing came to mind when I was thinking about the 1700 & 1800's..   Indentured servants who worked for someone a number of years and were then free to make their own way in the world.   There were a number of reasons why people were indentured, money was involved in one way or another.  A couple of my ancestors wanted to come to the New World but didn't have the money to do so, and became indentured servants in order to get  here.   After they served their time they were free and, if I remember correctly, were given a new suit of clothes.  
  Then there were children who were "bound out" to others.  Mostly for the boys it was to learn a trade so they would be able to support themselves and that was for a specific time frame also.  Usually when they reached a certain age.   Some were bound out because the family had too many children or the mother had died, etc. 
Some girls also were bound out to learn house-wifery.   But that was not as common.
  Was it a form of slavery?   I guess if you think about it in today's terms it was, but the difference between that and slavery was that you were free in a certain number of years or at a certain age, but a slave was a slave forever.   If you and I were living back in the 1700 & 1800's it was a perfectly natural and acceptable thing to do.  You wanted your children to learn a trade so they could support themselves. Was it always a wonderful experience?  Certainly not!  Some were mistreated.  But others came through the experience and went on to lead productive lives. 
 We have to remember when we compare these kinds of things that happened long ago with the standards of today, and say how awful it was to do this and that, we need to put ourselves in that time and realize that it was the acceptable way to do things.  And if we were honest, and you and I were living at that time, we would be doing the same things.   So we can compare things from long ago to now and see how far we have come, but we cannot put black marks against them for doing what was acceptable at the time.  
These are only two examples and there are many others.  Just remember, we cannot re-write history.   History has to stay the way it happened.  And we should never be ashamed of it because it has taught us to try for something better.  Life is a first-hand learning experience.  We don't get to do it over.