Antebellum Georgia

The University of Georgia was established in 1785 in Athens, Georgia, as Georgia became the first state to charter a public university in the United States. After the doors were opened to the school, the university became an icon for future political southern leaders and other type of leaders in the south. As the 1830s came along the southern religion groups grew more disgruntled with the university and its bad influence on the local town and students. As a result, denominational colleges started rising up in the state. Three of these schools became powerful competition for the public university. The 1830s through the 1860s maintained a vital part of higher education in the state of Georgia, and as a result, laid the foundation for colleges and universities for years to come. It seemed the dominance maintained by the University of Georgia was finally going to face a strong competition in three newly found private institutions: Oglethorpe University which was founded by the Presbyterians, Emory College which was associated with the Methodist, and Mercer University which was a Baptist school.1

The University of Georgia was a key figure in higher education during the antebellum period in Georgia resulting in the school producing most of the state’s political leaders during this time.2 Not only did the university play a major role in education, it became a major reason for the development of Athens and the area around it.3 As the school continued to grow, so did the city; in fact to the point, it became a major commercial city. The university sold the selected lots around the university to chosen families for profit and city growth. This is something Mercer, Oglethorpe, and Emory used as an example to build the cities around their schools. The difference between Athens and their cities was the development of Athens into “one of the most elegant and attractive places in Georgia, and indeed of the entire South” as described by university President Moses Waddel’s son.4 When picking the spot for the school, the founding fathers of the university wanted an area “free of pernicious influences,” meaning a school safe in a physical and moral aspect. The University of Georgia had different standards to meet from the private denominated schools in the state. For instance, the university did not have many restrictions on religion even though many of its students were Presbyterians.5 The University of Georgia followed the trend of the early established universities in the United States by having the majority of its students Presbyterian.6 I speculate that not having a certain religion assigned to the university helped its cause because it was able to maintain its appeal to all instead of just one group.

Naturally if the city of Athens and university were to continue to grow the enrollment of students were of major importance. During the antebellum time period, more than nine hundred graduated from the University of Georgia, far more than Emory, Mercer, or Oglethorpe. During this time the average age of a student at the university was seventeen to twenty-one years old when they graduated.7 Other changes happened to the school during this time period to help make the University a better place. For instance, in the 1830s a new chapel was added along with the botanical garden and later on a medical college, law school (1859), agricultural school, and school of engineering were added to the campus.8 The University of Georgia was becoming a multipurpose university, something rare but yet not uncommon in America during the later antebellum period. The multipurpose college fulfilled a major role in learning because they allowed students to gain knowledge beyond the traditional cultural degree offered by one dimension schools.9 Another thing that was put in place was the high standards of knowledge needed to gain admittance into the university. Students had to be able to “read, translate, and parse Cicero, Virgil, and Greek Testament; write true Latin in prose; and know the rules of vulgar arithmetic,” and had a blameless life.10 Compared to other higher education institutions during this time, I feel these requirements were hard but at the same time fair, because they did not have any extra requirements added in to get certain people into the school. I also feel, admitting only certain people into the colleges would have added another form of discrimination to the program, something a public university did not need or want.

It is obvious to me that the financial status of the University of Georgia fluctuated during the antebellum times but the university was able to take the hardships in stride and end up with a superior campus and school. While the school was adding on in the 1830s, it formed the Alumni Society in 1834 to promote the school.11 An Alumni Society was not a new concept though, as schools in the North, such as Yale and Dartmouth had all ready formed such societies.12 Also at this time, the school was receiving great economical benefits from the state and profits gained by the school itself. For several years the university was riding high, so well that the editor of the Southern Banner stated the school “had achieved great public confidence” in 1841.13 I believe the two most important words stated by the editor was public confidence, the highest compliment , a public institution can receive. If the public lends their support and show their respect with this confidence, it can only prosper in the long run. Unfortunately, the success of the school had its peaks and valleys during the antebellum period, and in the mid-1840s, the university hit a low point. The state legislature decided to take funds from the University of Georgia in 1842 because they felt education was drawing too much money from the state. As a result, they reduced the funds paid out to the amount they received in 1801. Fortunately, the trustees and faculty decided to take matters into their own hands in 1854 and delivered a study which showed the university with proper support would flourish. I speculate, this study was very accurate because the school showed it could do well with the proper support and the only time it struggled during the antebellum years was the time the state legislative took their money away. The University of Georgia did better than the other higher education institutions during this period of time, but with proper support throughout the antebellum years, one has to wonder how much it would have crushed the private colleges. As a result of the study, the legislature turned the operation of the school over to the trustees as long as they reported back annually on the conditions of the school. Once again the school started doing better and by the time the Civil War came along the school, once again, began prospering.14

While the success of the University of Georgia was going on in Athens, another school, which was a manual labor school, was beginning to emerge in the city by the Presbyterians during 1833. In 1834 it was decided to move the school to a different location by the Presbyterian Education Society, in Midway, Georgia, two miles from Milledgeville the state capital and near Lawrenceville, Georgia in Gwinnett county. The Midway branch was to be a literary school and was later transformed into Oglethorpe College.15 Even though the school was issued a charter as a university, it clearly was more of a college. The campus officially opened on January 1^st, 1838, giving the University of Georgia another competitor. Oglethorpe set up their school in the same process as the University of Georgia selling lands around the school for profit. The only difference being they did not want merchandise sold within a mile and a half of the school.16 The school was so strict about this rule that they even took the lots back from the violaters.17 This continued a trend that was going on throughout the nation. Newer colleges in a state or region were often depending on the established school to be used as a model for success.18

Although Oglethorpe University graduated almost three hundred students before the Civil War, this was only one third the amount produced by the University of Georgia.19 Like the University of Georgia, Oglethorpe faced hard financial times in the antebellum period before they started prospering. Another major problem they faced during this time was lack of quality professors due to the lack of funds. Ironically, some of the teachers they lost gained their background in teaching skills from the University of Georgia.20 This was another trend that carried across the United States—newer schools hiring teachers from their schools that had gained their education from the previously formed institution in the area.21 I would have to speculate that it is hard to maintain a high quality of classes if an institution can not keep good professors very long. Later on the school did not have as great of turnover with their professors, but for antebellum purposes, the instability had to hurt the ending results and quality of the school.22

Like Oglethorpe University, Mercer started off as a manual labor school and opened by a religious group, the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1833.23 The original location of the school was eight miles from Greensboro, Georgia in Penfield. Like the other denominational colleges during this time, it modeled its surrounding town after the University of Georgia and Athens but kept the evil sources of temptation away from the nearby campus. The city of Oxford also did the same for the college of Emory.24 When I think about this, I have to wonder if putting restrictions and limitations on the city by campus was good or if the colleges besides the University of Georgia took it too far. In the long run, I would speculate, it cut the growth of the city and limited the growth of their students. Once a student leaves the institution of higher learning, they do not get these restrictions where they return to set up their resistance and this can result in quite a shock. I ask, “Isn’t a college or university suppose to prepare a student for life after college?” If the student has the knowledge but does not know how to use it in certain atmospheres what good is it? The University of Georgia might have had some bad influences such as billiard halls and taverns, but the combination of Athens and the university permit a student to grow as a whole and ready the student for any situation that they may face, in the future.25

Mercer University started off as an institute in 1833 but opened its doors as a college in January of 1839. One advantage Mercer had over the other universities in the antebellum period was sufficient funding from individuals like founder Jesse Mercer. The school got off to a better start financially than Oglethorpe but faced other problems of instability. One problem that arose for Mercer was the burning down of their major school building in 1843. However, they were able to rebound well from it without any lingering effects besides despair. The biggest problem came when the entire faculty resigned in 1842. “They gave as their reason their discouragement over the lack of patronage and support.” I must speculate, how can a college teach and keep their students happy if they can not keep their own faculty happy. If the atmosphere is not good on campus then the students will not be able to learn to their maximum capacity. Besides the students having to take classes, they required the students to do two other things, attend regularly evening and morning prayers and Sabbath School once each Sunday and preaching twice along with labor five days a week. I have to wonder why a university would add so much extra activities for students on top of classes.26

Emory also started off as a manual labor school in 1834 in Newton County near the small town of Covington.27 While Mercer and Oglethorpe Universities started off because their manual labor schools were faltering, Emory College grew out of the practice of the manual labor school. Like the other religious and private schools of the time Emory set rules on the land around the college. They wanted an area full of Christianity free of all the public sins other places had by placing rules on things such as liquor shops. Once again I point out, if you shelter your students so much, how can they succeed in life later when they are forced to be exposed to such “sins?”28

Emory felt they were in major competition with the University of Georgia. Their President Longstreet of the 1840s stated his school was “the rival of the State University in reputation and patronage.”29 This statement was made after the school was open for ten years; and I speculate, how can an university that has been open for ten years say they are even with a university that has been open over fifty years? This is not possible especially when students take four years to graduate from college. Also, Emory took short cuts to get to where they were. Often the college let students into the school that did not meet the requirements they set for entrance. These students were called “Irregulars” and were usually too weak to graduate from the school, but Emory needed their money and tuition.30 No wonder a school can claim to be an equal if they are taking short cuts to gain money and students. The University of Georgia by comparison held some of the highest requirements in the United States after 1857. The university was fully confident it possessed one of the best programs of education in the nation.31 The University of Georgia was not the only institution in America that was raising its requirements throughout the antebellum time period, as universities and colleges throughout the nation continued to raise their goals and requirements to achieve higher goals.32 Historians may argue that Emory’s top enrollment figure of the antebellum time was 160 which is comparable to the University of Georgia’s 159, but there was a major difference; the University of Georgia did not omit students that did not meet their requirements.33 In an article in the Southern Banner, Emory college says it is a “flourishing institution” but how much of that statement is true and how much of it is propaganda?”34 Also, Emory and the University of Georgia differed on their curriculum offered to their students. Emory offered only a Bachelor of Arts degree during the antebellum period with the main focus being on classics, religion and mathematics.35 The University of Georgia offered a large variety of degree programs to their students and options grew when the law school and medical school were added near the end of the antebellum period.36 Once again this goes against President Longstreet’s statement about being able to compete with the University of Georgia because a school with one degree can not compete fairly against a school that is growing and adding more degrees and programs through the years.

Not only was the University of Georgia drawing comparisons with Emory and other private schools in Georgia, but it was also, drawing national attention. The university was proving it could be a success and still find better ways for students to learn. It was not long before the university was prospering so well that it soon was rated on the level of a “top four school” in the nation. The end results are that many of the University of Georgia’s students graduating end up moving on into high profile jobs in Congress, Courts, Governor, and major parts in other institutions of higher education.37 I can speculate, many schools in the United States were unable to match these students including Emory, Mercer, and Oglethorpe. In addition, the students were being assured a quality education because the professors were a “guarantee” of high intelligence and moral behavior.38 I for one, would have to wonder how a school like Mercer could compete against the University of Georgia, which had high quality professors when Mercer could not even keep their whole staff from resigning in one year.

Mercer, Oglethorpe, and Emory Universities were religious, private schools that rose up during the antebellum period in the state of Georgia to compete with the public University of Georgia. After 1830, the up rising of religious, private schools were not restricted to Georgia but were occurring all over the South. Denominational colleges were being established to compete with the state universities while spreading the goodness of their religion, something the Southern schools stressed far more than the religious colleges in the North and Midwest.39 In the end, they were no match for Georgia’s powerful public institution. Emory claimed to be equal but a lot of that appeared under false pretenses. At the beginning of the antebellum period the private colleges tried to keep their tuition lower than the public university, but in the end, all the tuition’s were about equal, resulting in one of the advantages they had to dissolve against the University of Georgia. In fact, at the end of the antebellum period, only Mercer could claim a lower price than the University of Georgia, and that was by a mere eight dollars.40 By 1860 the size of the graduating classes had remained a consistent average. That year the University of Georgia graduated the most students, twenty-five. This was five more than Mercer and Oglethorpe and almost twice as much as Emory.41 A lot of speculation could be made from the results that occurred from the competition of these schools. Some say the competition from these schools caused the University of Georgia to rise to new levels. They would not have reached these goals if they had been the only dominate university, as they were in the early 1800s. Others, like University of Georgia President Alonzo Church stated in 1840 that he felt the private schools raised little challenge for the public university. He felt unless the private schools combined their power and challenged the University of Georgia together they would never be a true threat.42

Overall, I can make many speculations leading to the University of Georgia being a dominant university compared to Emory, Mercer, and Oglethorpe Universities. This follows the trend of state universities characterizing the southern states during the antebellum period.43 The first, major point is that religious colleges were spin-offs of the University of Georgia because people wanted a stricter regimen on religious beliefs and wanted the town around the college to have more moral values. These two main things, I feel, led to the major foundation of Mercer, Emory, and Oglethorpe. Their competition with the University of Georgia was one they could never win. I do speculate they had strong competition with the public school and each other, but the University of Georgia had so much more to offer. While the private schools usually offered only one program of Bachelor of Arts, the University of Georgia was adding programs throughout the antebellum period. The university was breaking grounds in the area of law, medical, and agriculture programs of study and adding more buildings including a gymnasium. If the state legislature would have not cut the funds for the University of Georgia they would have crushed the state’s three major private schools. Plus, the University of Georgia played an important role in the faculty of all the schools. A lot of the professors for Mercer, Oglethorpe, and Emory Universities were educated at Franklin College of the University of Georgia. This enabled the University of Georgia to obtain some of the best professors from the private, religious schools, including Joseph LeConte, the man whom the history building at the University of Georgia is named after.44 The large teacher turnover could not help the atmosphere or quality of teaching for the private schools. Did the private universities give the University of Georgia a challenge? Yes. However, they were not able to overtake the University of Georgia. During the 1840s the competition between the schools were close, but the public university was able to pull away in the 1850s when they gained more state support and funds leading to the addition of more buildings, teachers, and degrees while the student population grew. I would have to speculate, it is clear that Emory, Mercer, and Oglethorpe could not even come close to matching these improvements made by the University of Georgia showing off the power of the public university.

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