During the antebellum period almost all colleges restricted admission to white men. Common belief held that women were incapable of intellectual self-discipline and rigor. Attempts to impose higher learning on young women, it was feared, would prove debilitating to both the female mind and body. In this climate Oberlin College in Ohio stood out as an anomaly. In 1832 Oberlin's founder, the Reverend John J. Shipherd, proposed a school open to both sexes and all races, and in 1837 Oberlin became the first American college to admit women as well as men. It offered young women a choice of a "ladies' course" or the traditional classical curriculum. In 1842 four young women received bachelor of arts degrees from the Ohio institution. As one Oberlin student explained: "Women are to be educated because we choose civilization rather than barbarism." Over the following decades more...