Ann Yale Hopkins was said to be sick of mind.  She claimed that girls should have educational opportunities equal to that of boys.  Puritan leader and first governor of Massachusetts, John Winthrop, wrote of Mrs. Hopkins in his Journal, April 13, 1645: "If she had attended her household affairs, and such things as belong to woman, and not gone out of her way and calling to meddle in such things as proper for men, whose minds are stronger, she would have kept her wits, and might have improved them usefully and honorably in the place God had set her."

These dark notions prevailed for many years. Following the Revolution, led by progressive thinkers like Benjamin Franklin, Benjamin Rush and Britisher - Mary Wollstonecraft, a ray of dawn came to American. New attitudes about female education and woman's role in society were introduced.  Dress was liberalized. Hobbling corsets and petticoats were set aside for freer clothes. It became accepted that woman could travel without a male companion.  In this era of flickering enlightenment, tiny girl's schools expanded into large Seminaries and Academies.