Southern Educational Reformer

Early Life.

The life of Calvin Henderson Wiley, the most prominent antebellum Southern educational reformer, in many ways parallels that of his Northern counterpart, Henry Barnard. Born on a North Carolina farm to Scotch-Irish Presbyterian parents in 1819, Wiley prepared for college in one of David Caldwell's "log-college" academies and later studied law at the University of North Carolina. Graduating in 1840, Wiley practiced law for several years and gained prominence as editor of the Oxford Mercury. Politically associated with the Whig Party in a state increasingly loyal to the Democrats, he was elected to the state legislature in 1850 and sponsored a bill creating an office of state superintendent of schools, a position that he himself was elected to three years later. He served as state superintendent until the position was abolished in 1866 and was almost single-handedly responsible for creating the best public...