This dissertation addresses the cultural, economic, and geographic factors that politically affected the development of schooling in Floyd County, located in southwest Virginia, from its formation in 1831 to the beginning of the twentieth century. Floyd County was formed in 1831 during Virginia's quasi-system of education. This quasi-system was created due to the "peopling" of early Virginia. Colonial Virginia provided educational opportunities for the rich and poor. The General Assembly, which was dominated by the planter-aristocrats, opposed state education. These aristocrats saw no reason to tax themselves for educational opportunities they would not patronize. As settlers of Swiss, German, and Scotch-Irish descent migrated into the backcountry of Virginia, they brought with them a desire for universal education. The conflicts between the eastern and western portion of the state resulted in the Literary Fund Act of 1818 which provided funds to educate Virginia's poor. The wealthy continued to educate their own with the middle class left to their own devices. This quasi-system of education lasted until the Civil War. At the end of the war, conservatives, still in control of the General Assembly, were forced to accept state supported education due to the Underwood Constitutional mandate. Separate schools for blacks and whites were begun under the state plan in 1870. By July 1876, Floyd County had 52 schools in operation; but this expansion faced ruin when the General Assembly used funds to pay off the state's debt. The debt issue split Virginians into two political camps, Funders and Readjusters. It was not until the Readjuster victory in the early 1880's that Virginia's state system began to stabilize. Political decisions continued to affect education in the late nineteenth century. District boards hired teachers and located schools for political and social reasons which were often tied to community loyalties. Superintendents licensed and examined teachers based on their own standards. The General Assembly denied teachers the right to meet during school terms. No public money could be used to finance their meetings. What education teachers did receive was financed by local efforts and Peabody funds. By the 1890's, over 4000 teachers in Virginia had not attended State Summer Normals. Floyd County had a higher percentage of teachers attending Normals due to its third superintendent bringing a Normal to Jacksonville in 1889. By 1900, schooling in Floyd County had survived its first 30 years, but with only partial success. Political entanglements, dating back over two centuries, had affected public education at the state and local level with the results that by the beginning of the twentieth century, half of the school age population in Virginia had never attended school. / Ed. D.