The following is a research paper that I wrote as an English assignment:

Working Towards Unity: Noah Webster
“Ar you havin a spelin B at yur hous tonite” 12-year-old Noah Webster read his friend’s note with difficulty. It was given to him on the way out of school. When he had finally made out what the note was supposed to say, Noah whistled.
“I already announced that we are going to have a bee tonight, but James sure won’t get along very far if he wants to spell in that style,” Noah thought to himself.
Webster’s friend James was not the only New England person that had difficulty with spelling.
New England truly was a land of new things. It was a new land, a new climate, a new culture to deal with, and many other things.
The Colonists had recently been liberated from Old England and they were determined to break all ties with the Old World. They not only wanted to be liberated, they wanted to be independent and they wanted their foundation to be built on the Bible. (Slater 12)
This included the way they spelt words. (Kendall 64) They thought that the British way was far too complicated. It used so many extra letters that no one knew how many letters a word had in reality.           Since there were no established rules, every man did that which was right in his own eyes in regards to spelling.
Noah was determined that, some time in the future, all of America would be united, not only with a strong political government, but a strong grammatical government as well. (Kendall 64)
He spent his whole life working toward this goal. At first, it was a spelling bee for his school chums, then a speller for the second generation, and finally, a dictionary that is still being used.
Noah Webster Jr. was born in West Hartford, Connecticut on October 16, 1758. (Bentley 177) His parents, Noah Sr. and Mercy, welcomed their second son with joy. The two girls in the family, Mercy, nine, and 2-year-old Jerusha, loved to kiss and cuddle him. Seven-year-old , Abraham was proud of his little brother. When Noah was four, he became the big brother to little Charles. (Myer)
Like most little boys that turned seven, Noah started attending the one-room schoolhouse. (Myer) The schoolroom was cold and ever so bare: no colorful pictures adorned the walls, no maps showed the land boundaries, and the books were precious few. (Bailey 4)
By the time he was twelve, Noah keenly felt the need for a renewed way of teaching. (“Noah Webster”) Although he realized that “Education is useless without the Bible. (Noah Webster),” he also knew that he could change things for the better in the education program. He decided to start with a spelling bee.
After thinking and planning for quite a while, he approached his parents with a plan. If they would give their permission, he would invite his schoolmates to their home once a week for a spelling bee. (Bailey 4) They gave their permission. So the next Wednesday, Noah, Jerusha, and Charles invited their friends for a spelling bee and taffy pull.

“What’s a spelling bee?” The boys and girls asked.
“Just wait and see. I know you’ll enjoy it.” Noah replied.
That evening the countryside was filled with swinging lanterns and chattering children. They were on their way to the Webster home for the first spelling bee, and they were excited. “What would it be like?”
As they entered the main room of the house, they were greeted with the warmth and light of a blazing fire in the fireplace. In the middle of the room was a half-circle of chairs. (Bailey 4) Noah, Jerusha, and Charles directed the children to sit down on the chairs. There was much jostling, laughter, and visiting as the children found their seats. They were soon quieted, however, since Noah had gotten up and was about to begin speaking.
“I want to welcome every one of you to this first spelling bee. My brother, sister, and I have been looking forward to this event for a whole week and now it is finally here. I see that you are all have a seat, but in order to stay in the circle, you will need to be a splendid speller. I have a list of words here that are of the simplest sort. I will begin with Charles here. As soon as I have said a word, I want the rest of you to begin counting. Charles only has 10 seconds to spell each word. (Bailey 5)
Okay, Charles, how do you spell ‘well’?”
“W-E-L-L,” Charles replied.
“Wonderful. You may take the chair at the other end, and the rest of you may all move over one chair.”
The children obediently moved over. Now a little girl named Mary was on the chair beside Noah.
“D-O-G,” Mary spelt the word correctly but the others had just counted to ten.
“I’m sorry, but you will have to sit outside of the circle now. You didn’t spell it quickly enough.”
Somebody else had taken up the word from the other end of the circle and the ‘game’ progressed. For truly it was a game. (Bailey 4)The children enjoyed this much more than doing ‘school’.
Noah dictated for a whole hour. As the evening progressed, only the ones that had a knack for words stayed in the circle. Finally, only Noah’s sister, Jerusha was left. Noah had to wrack his brain to get her out of the circle. She had taken over many of the words that the others had spelt incorrectly. The children cheered and clapped. Yet, what else could they expect from the sister of a genius? (Bailey 5)
Now the children were visiting and laughing over the taffy pot. As Noah skilfully pulled his string of taffy out of the pot, he thought of the wonderful evening that they had had. He hoped it would inspire them to do their part in provoking a change for the better.
Later in life, when he came across a misspelled word, he would think about that first spelling bee and a smile would make its way across his thin face and light up his grey eyes. (Kendall 62) He remembered other spelling bees as well.
He had been teaching the new and difficult words for quite a while. He would walk over to the pine walls with a piece of charcoal in his hand, and started drawing. (Bailey 5) Some of the children enjoyed this part far more than the bee itself because Noah showed them his artistic talent here.   First, he wrote one of the big words on the wall, making mention of the omissions and additions needed. After writing the definition on the wall, he drew a picture describing the word. Often the children did not even understand this strange word. These words took longer than the ones that just needed a ‘u’ omitted or another consonant added. These words needed a long explanation and more than one picture.
But Noah was not thinking how well he had drawn. Nor was he thinking of the scrubbing needed to get the charcoal off the walls. No, he was thinking of his friend James. James’ spelling had improved greatly with the spelling bees. However, he hadn’t progressed as far as Noah had hoped, as was proved by this bee. Someone had spelt ’color’ incorrectly and James thought he knew the correct way.
“C-O-L-O-U-R” James confidently punched out the letters. Immediately, the room burst into gales of laughter. James had spelled the word in the British way!
“Wh-what did I do wrong?” James asked after the laughter had subsided. “I thought I had done it correctly.” He looked so confused that another fit of laughter overtook the children.
Jerusha, who was sitting at the other end of the circle, took the word and spelt it correctly: Noah’s way. C-O-L-O-R. Noah had spent the most time on this word and words like it. He had told them over and over how to spell it. But James hadn’t remembered. That was his friend James.

To be continued in another post… 

Your feedback and suggestions are welcome. (as always) 🙂