<P> Much more important were schools of New Orleans , under Spanish and French control until 1803 . Well - to - do families sent their children to private Catholic schools run by Ursulines and other orders of nuns . The Sisters of the Holy Family brought literacy and training in job skills to both free and enslaved black girls . The earliest continually operating school for girls in the United States is Ursuline Academy in New Orleans . It was founded in 1727 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula . The Academy graduated the first female pharmacist , and the first woman to contribute a book of literary merit . It contained the first convent . It was the first free school and first retreat center for ladies , and first classes for female African - American slaves , free women of color , and Native Americans . In the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley , Ursulines provided the first center of social welfare in the Mississippi Valley , first boarding school in Louisiana and the first school of music in New Orleans . </P>
<P> Much more important were schools of New Orleans , under Spanish and French control until 1803 . Well - to - do families sent their children to private Catholic schools run by Ursulines and other orders of nuns . The Sisters of the Holy Family brought literacy and training in job skills to both free and enslaved black girls . The earliest continually operating school for girls in the United States is Ursuline Academy in New Orleans . It was founded in 1727 by the Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula . The Academy graduated the first female pharmacist , and the first woman to contribute a book of literary merit . It contained the first convent . It was the first free school and first retreat center for ladies , and first classes for female African - American slaves , free women of color , and Native Americans . In the Gulf Coast and Mississippi Valley , Ursulines provided the first center of social welfare in the Mississippi Valley , first boarding school in Louisiana and the first school of music in New Orleans . </P>
who started the first catholic school in america
who started the first catholic school in america
Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula
Sisters of the Order of Saint Ursula