Frontispiece picture of “The American Instructor.”
The American Instructor promises to teach a little bit of everything except, perhaps, how to have a successful marriage: The American instructor, or, Young man’s best companion : containing, spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic, in an easier way than any yet published ; and how to qualify any person for business, without the help of a master ; instructions to write variety of hands … ; how to write letters on business or friendship ; forms of indentures … releases, &c. ; also merchant’s accompts, and a short and easy method of shop and book-keeping ; with a description of the several American colonies ; together with the carpenter’s plain and exact rule … ; likewise the practical gauger made easy … ; to which is added, The poor planter’s physician … and also prudent advice to young tradesmen and dealers ; the whole better adpated to these American colonies, than any other book of the like kind.
In 1770, this must have seemed like quite a deal: over 400 pages of instructions in one book. The author even takes the time to explain that the book has been specially edited for an American audience; information from a “British” edition that was of no relevance to North America has been left out. One wonders what a book like this would look like if written in 1780.
The opening section, on how “…to spell, read, and write True English” is a glimpse at the standardization and codification of the English language: there are paragraphs describing the silent ‘g,’ as in ‘reign’ and ‘sign’ and lists of words which must be written with a particular letter; for example, ‘cinnamon’ calls for ‘c’ although ‘s’ has the same sound.
Flip through the pages below or follow this link to read The American Instructor.