“The old times have passed away,” an observer wrote in De Bow’s Review in 1868, “when Betsey was content to learn reading, writing and arithmetic at the parish school house in order that John might enjoy the advantage of a college education. Now-a-days, Betsey wants a college education too, and it is very probable she will make a far better use of it when once acquired than John ever will. In fact, if it can be accorded but to one, Betsey should have it.” Typical of nineteenth-century calls for greater educational opportunities for white women, this passage from one of the South’s leading magazines is evidence of the commonplace paeans made to a substantive education. As scholars such as Mary Kelley and Christie Anne Farnham have pointed out, southerners increased the length of schooling and the sophistication of the curriculum for girls and young women in the decades leading up to the Civil War.