Before the common school, there were academies. North Carolina schools and academies, 1790-1840 follows the paper trail of early American schooling as the state moved from the Revolutionary aftermath into the early republic South, when schooling shaped politics, work, and worship daily. The records speak for themselves. Ambition, religion, and civic duty meet hard arithmetic. In these decades, communities tested models of instruction and the meaning of public learning. Charles L. Coon assembles a documentary history collection that reads like a map of people learning to organise themselves: academy and school records, notices, and commentary shaped into a primary source anthology. Trace the mechanics of learning, from curriculum and textbooks history to the rules that defined attendance, conduct, and examinations. Hiring, salaries, and schoolhouses appear alongside ideals. Just as revealing are arguments over school governance and funding, showing how local initiative and state interest slowly aligned in north carolina 1790-1840, a crucial prelude to the common school movement. Essential for education history research, it is also an archival education sourcebook for north carolina local historians and collectors who want evidence, not hindsight. For the casual reader, the pleasure is in the immediacy; for collectors, in the rarity of assembled sources. Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today -- a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike. Its significance lies in keeping this documentary record in circulation for present study and future shelves.