Earnest Efforts to Be Friends: Teacher-Student Relationships in the Nineteenth-Century South.

This article discusses the history of teacher-student relationships in the Southern United States during the 19th century. The author comments on the state of the education system in the U.S. at the time, in which most teachers were female, and examines the rise of the importance given to the education of women, as promoted by religious institutions. Particular focus is given to teacher Maria Louisa Spear and her experiences teaching in North Carolina and Virginia.