Education of the Negro slave had been looked upon as dangerous and had been generally forbidden.

A small number of Negroes could read and write, but there were at the close of the war no schools for the children.

Before 1861, each state had developed at least the outlines of a school system.
Though hindered in development by the sparseness of the population and by the prevalence in some districts of the Virginia doctrine that free schools were only for the poor, public schools were nevertheless in existence in 1861.

Academies and colleges, however, were thronged with students.

When the war ended, the public schools were disorganized, and the private academies and the colleges were closed.