From the very founding of the United States, education's actual influence on American society has not measured up to Americans' belief in education as a vehicle of meritocracy. Shortly after the American Revolution, the lexicographer, editor, and would-be education reformer, Noah Webster noted that in the United States "The constitutions are republican and the laws of education are monarchical." For Webster, this paradox threatened to destroy the American republic. He and many others believed that education inculcated societal morals that were the foundation of republican government. Americans did not adopt any of Webster's proposed solutions--namely a public school system--until the nineteenth century. Yet the republic survived anyway. This dissertation argues that Americans' very desire for geopolitical independence explains their continued deference to European education. Rather than revolutionizing American social order, education became a primary means for reconciling traditional hierarchy with the republican political culture born of revolution. Based on archival research in over twenty libraries in eight states, this dissertation explains the origins of "monarchical education" in colonial America and explores the consequences of its persistence into the early republic. In particular, this dissertation focuses on academies, high-level secondary schools, in the mid-Atlantic and upper South from 1730 to 1810. The religious revivals of the Great Awakening fueled most of the early development of academies. Both British and colonial officials, though, sought to use education not only to establish domestic social order, but also to convince the world that British North America belonged in the world of "civilized nations." The term "civilized nation" described societies that contained the requisite institutions, culture, and manners to follow the law of nations and command diplomatic recognition. Ironically, many of the colonists reared in this Europeanized educational culture became the vanguard of the revolutionary movement. Desperate to cement their independence, Americans in the early republic continued to use education to demonstrate that the United States was a "civilized nation." This explains why early American educators continued the "absurdity of...copying the manners and adopting the institutions of monarchies," as Webster noted. American independence rested on a foundation of conformity to European precedents. Large scale systems of public education did not emerge in first decades of independence. Instead, local civil associations and religious groups, with some state-level governmental support, built numerous academies throughout the region. In this way, local communities and state governments took part in the broader process of post-revolutionary state formation. At the same time, the broader goals of state formation impacted local education, often stifling curricular development and educational innovation. Ultimately, these educational practices undermined some of the Revolution's most democratic impulses. Education shaped the structure of inequality on the grounds in hundreds of American communities, establishing the boundaries of participation in public life along explicit class and gender, and implicit racial, lines. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]