what was the income of a teacher from the U.S. in the 1860s?

Question

i need to have this info for tomorrow morning...ive no idea where i can look up all of this...if u know any websites please write them...thanks

Answer 1

I suspect that most teachers of that era pretty much worked for room and board...

Meaning that the people who had them teach their kids would pitch in and give the teachere a place to live, food to eat, heating and cooking fuel... etc. I suppose that they might get a small stippend to buy some things but not a very big salary if they got one at all.

This would be the local teachers. I have no idea what a professor at a college might make.





g-day!

Answer 2

In the 1860s there was great variation in teacher income across the United States as there was great variation in teacher training. It depends a great deal on location where the teacher worked and whether that was in a private home, an urban area or in the country.

Schools were managed by local school boards and they set the income for the teacher. In a rural area this would be a school board with members of the local community (most likely a township) and comprised of the more successful and influential residents of that township. A lot would depend on the wealth of the township and could include a requirement for the teacher to do some traveling within the township where room and board would be supplied by local residents. Real income could be quite low.

As the local community increased in urbanization, teacher educational requirements would likely increase and so would income. Actual private schools would usually pay the better and of course high education institutions would most likely pay the best.

To get actual figures it is most likely your success would be to select a specific locality and seek general income statistics for that area. Within such figures would be teacher income. Or, if you have access to an American Heritage Library yo might search its all issue index for teachers or education or the articles of G. Gorden Steel to see if he did one on the economics of teaching in early America.


This will be an extensive search unless you can find U.S. Government economic statistics for the period.

Answer 3

Only web info I found: http://ci.madison.nh.us/historical/2006%20Summer%20Newsletter.html

"Teachers salaries in 1860 (in NH) were $19.33 per month for males and $12.42 for female teachers. "

But, the most common practice in the late 19th century was for a municipality to provide room and board (and some spending cash) for educated people to be teachers. In large cities, for public education teachers, not university level, I suspect that the salary range would be in the $100 - $200 / year range.

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

As close as I can get, in 1870 the average salary for Public Elementary and Secondary Day Schools was $189.

Answer 5

I dont think there was a good school system in place at that time to pay much of anything

they probably got room and board and
possibly some fresh veggies, fruit, eggs, milk, a chicken as barter