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America has and always will be a center of diversity of culture, ideas, and religions. Many ventured to the New World beginning in 1607 with Jamestown, bringing with them not only their families, but their European roots, religions, and gender and class distinctions as well. These newcomers saw education as an important means to make their children strong and straight, yet their idea of who should be educated was rather narrow. Similar to Europe, only wealthy, white males were educated, and this was for the purpose of learning or teaching the Scriptures in the pastorate. However, sentiments from the Peace of Westphalia in 1649 carried over to the colonies in that nations religious freedom not for purposes of religious tolerance, but for religious absolutism. Each colony and grouping of colonies (New England, Middle, and Southern) varied in religious convictions and educational provisions. For instance, the South relied on private tutors to educate due to large distances separating plantations; the middle colonies were so diverse that each area taught in its native tongue and religion. It was only in New England, much due to the homogeneous population and development of cities and industry, that education first began to cent