Training for the Ministry: Shorthand and the Colonial New England Manuscript

abstract:Shorthand, which dates back to antiquity and stretches to the present day, witnessed widespread interest in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England and New England, especially among students as a tool to take sermon notes. Among the few considerations of early American shorthand, most have overemphasized the use of stenography for recording secrets. But such uses were not typical. Outside of the classroom, many schoolchildren mastered shorthand, which they used to record sermons. These notes were organized in a notebook, which served to teach future generations shorthand, and thereby create more notebooks, more knowledge. Shorthand thereby enabled a virtuous circle of pedagogical potential, leaving an unmistakable—yet underappreciated—mark on early American archives and culture alike.