Abstract:
This article examines the history of North Carolina's Bingham School, a private classical academy that ran from 1793 to 1928. During the school's first 80 years, it focused on a classical education while fending off claims that a more practical curriculum was needed. It was claimed by headmasters up to 1873 that classical study remained central to the training of a Southern gentleman and expressed the conservative nature of South both politically and socially.