Sarah Pierce

Sarah Pierce (June 26, 1767 – January 19, 1852) was a teacher, educator and founder of one of the earliest schools for girls in the United States, the Litchfield Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. The school having been established in her house in 1792 became known as the Litchfield Female Academy in 1827. The school for girls attracted an estimated 3,000 students from across the U.S. and Canada. Some of her most famous attendees and protégés were Catharine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Sarah Pierce, also called Sally, born in 1767, was the fifth child and fourth daughter of Litchfield farmer and potter, John Pierce, and his wife Mary Paterson. Sarah’s mother died in 1770 and two years later her father remarried and had three more children. Her father died in 1783, leaving her brother John Pierce, responsible for his step-mother and seven younger siblings. During the Revolutionary War, John had a distinguished record, rising to become the Assistant Paymaster of the Continental Army, and personal friend of General George Washington. Following the close of the war, he was named Commissioner of the Army, responsible for settling the army’s debts. John Pierce became engaged to Ann Bard, the daughter of Dr. John Bard, Washington’s personal doctor in New York. In order to marry, Pierce sent his younger sisters Mary and Sarah to New York City schools specifically to train to become teachers so that they could help support their step-mother and younger half-siblings. Returning to Litchfield, Sarah Pierce brought a few students with her from New York and established her school in order to help support her family. It was a family undertaking as her sister Mary handled the boarders and the school accounts, while her sister Susan’s husband, James Brace, also taught in the school.

Sarah Pierce seized upon the post-revolutionary rhetoric of Republican Motherhood, which stressed the responsibility of women to provide the early intellectual and moral training of their children so they could provide adequate and intelligent opinions to politics which was believed to be crucial for the survival of the country. She deeply believed in the intellectual equality of the sexes, while holding increased educational opportunities for women would not jeopardize the status quo of separate spheres of activity for men and women. Pierce did not believe women should enter the all male colleges or professions, but believed their work as mothers and in benevolent, charitable and reform organizations was equally, if not more, important, than the work of men. Also, she believed that women should be educated enough to provide their own opinions, in the confines of their own home, to their husbands to help men control their new republican duties that would benefit the republic rather than themselves. Sarah believed the most important roles a woman had in her life was to be a wife and a mother and to do so needed to be educated as the new republic would provide new and growing responsibilities for the women in it. Not only did Pierce believe women were to educate the youth but she also believed that the future of the new republic depended on them to be spiritual and moral guardians in society. She preached this to her students and pushed them to lead lives of moral, intellectual, and spiritual growth because of the importance of their role in the survival of society.

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