
Some were known as field schools, because communities often built in a field by the community. Other schools were funded at least partially by parents within a community, and they also had control over the school as a community. Before the American Civil War, rich families employed private tutors.
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In addition to the free schools, "pay schools" also existed, particularly for education beyond simple literacy. The first free public school systems were established around 1851, although unlike Northern and Western states, public education was not required under the Virginia state constitution until 1870, after an innovation in the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1868 (although paying for such education became controversial in the next decade). Nonetheless, Thomas Jefferson started the first public university, The University of Virginia, in 1819. Thomas Jefferson drafted a "Bill for More General Diffusion of Knowledge" to create a universal public education, but most planters at the time did not want tax money to go to educating poor children. During the colonial period, Virginia was one of the first colonies to establish schools and colleges, such as The College of William and Mary in 1693. The second attempt, known as the "East India School", was meant to educate white children in the colony of Virginia. The first attempt was a move in 1619-1620 by the London Company to begin a school to educate Indian children in Christianity. The Syms School was founded in 1635, as the first free school in the Americas, but this was not the first attempt at establishing an education system.
