History of ASL and Deaf Education in the U.S.

Before 1817  Bolling Family (1750”s to 1800)  Descendants of Pocahantas and John Rolfe  Several Deaf family members  Originally sent children to Braidwood School in Scotland  Hired John Braidwood to come to America to establish a school for well-to- do deaf children in Virginia

Before 1817  Attempt to establish Virginia school failed because John Braidwood was a gambler and a drinker  Did not live up to his contract to establish school

Before 1817  Most Deaf people were uneducated  No schools for the Deaf in the U.S.  Wealthy families could hire tutors for deaf children or send them to Europe to be educated  Poor families kept their deaf children at home  No standardized signing system  Only home or area signs in existence  Martha’s Vineyard – approx. 30% deaf population…everyone signed

1814  Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet - recent graduate from seminary visits parents’ home in Hartford, Connecticut  Meets neighbor’s 9-year-old daughter, Alice Cogswell (deaf)  Begins teaching her written words  Her father, Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, offers Gallaudet opportunity to go to Europe to learn methods of teaching deaf children.  Gallaudet will come back and help establish school for the deaf here in U.S.

 Gallaudet goes to England and is rebuffed by Braidwood family  Meets Abbé Sicard in London who is giving lectures with two former pupils, Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc  Sicard invites Gallaudet to come back with him to France to study instructional methods  Gallaudet studies with Sicard, observes classes and learns French signs for 6 months  Invites Clerc to come back to America with him to help set up school

1817  Dr. Cogswell collects money from wealthy Connecticut patrons to fund school  Gallaudet and Clerc set up first school for the Deaf in the U.S.  American Asylum for the Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons – Hartford, CT  Three students, one of whom was Alice Cogswell  Now called American School for the Deaf – West Hartford, CT  Used Manualism as instruction method – no teaching of speech or lipreading

After 1817  ASL begins as a combination of LSF signs and those already in use here in the U.S.  Graduates from American School go out and establish Deaf schools in other areas (KSD, OSD, PSD, etc)  Manualism remains the major instructional method in schools for the deaf in the U.S. until approximately 1880