亨利克学院的生与死——英属北美高等教育被遗忘的起点(1617-1624)

Birth and Death of Henricus Colledge: Long Forgotten History of the Proposed First University in British America(1617-1624)

学术界通常都把哈佛学院的建立看作是英属北美建立高等院校的肇始或美国高等教育史的开端。其实,早在哈佛学院建立的十多年前,英国人就已经尝试在弗吉尼亚殖民地建立一所高等院校亨利克学院。由于殖民政策的失误、印第安人的破坏以及客观环境的不足,这次努力被迫夭折,美国高等教育史著作大多对此语焉不详,研究者对此也避而不提。尽管如此,对这次尝试进行回顾仍是必要的。亨利克学院是英国在北美殖民地上高等教育政策和实践的起点,其生与死都与英国的殖民政策有着密切关系,对该事件的梳理和回顾,有助于反思殖民政策与高等教育发展的关联和理解英属北美殖民地高等教育发展和学院建立的宗教、政治和历史渊源。

Harvard College founded in 1636 is normally believed to be the first higher education institution established in British America. However,it was more than a decade before the establishment of Harvard College that the British colonists had proposed building a Henricus Colledge in Colonial Virginia. Due to an Indian uprising,failure in British colonial policy and circumstances beyond one's control,such a proposal of America's first college was finally abandoned. Today most books on the history of American higher education make no mention at all of Henricus Colledge. Nevertheless,as Henricus Colledge was British first attempt to establish a higher education institution in British North America,a historical review of its birth and death would help us better understand the complex relation between colonial policy,religious faith and development of higher education in the US.