This history of the University of South Carolina began in the 18th century when intersectional differences arose between the Lowcountry and the Upstate. It was conceived that a state supported college located in the center of the state at Columbia, South Carolina, would foster friendships between those of both regions thus allowing the state to present a united front to the nation when threatened with issues jeopardizing the South Carolina way of life. The University of South Carolina's history can be described in four distinct phases: a firebrand college (1801–1862), constant reorganization (1865–1891), college to university (1891–1944) and the state's university (1944–present).
Firebrand college, 1801–1862
South Carolina College
The university was founded as South Carolina College on December 19, 1801, by an act of the General Assembly after Governor John Drayton pushed for its foundation on November 23, 1801. The establishment of a publicly funded college at the capital was intended to unite and promote harmony between the Lowcountry and the Backcountry. On January 10, 1805, having an initial enrollment of nine students, the college commenced classes with a traditional classical curriculum. Jonathan Maxcy was its first president and served until his death in 1820.
With the generous support of the General Assembly, South Carolina College acquired a reputation as the leading institution of the South and attracted several noteworthy scholars, including Francis Lieber, Thomas Cooper, and Joseph LeConte. However, the college suffered greatly and lost most of its prestige when it closed during the American Civil War.
Civil War
The students formed a cadet company in December 1860 as national tensions rose following the election of Abraham Lincoln as President, but an order by Governor Pickens prevented them from leaving Columbia. Undeterred, the students disbanded their company on April 12 and formed a new company while en route to Charleston so that the governor's previous holding orders would be invalid. Once in Charleston, General Beauregard assigned the company to guard Sullivan's Island, much to the dismay of the students who greatly desired to be a part of the Battle of Fort Sumter. After three weeks of guard duty, the student cadet company returned to Columbia to a hero's welcome.
Later in June 1861, the students reformed the company and requested to be accepted for service. Governor Pickens accepted their request provided that the faculty also approved the venture, but the faculty did not give its consent because they did not want the college to needlessly be closed. The frustrated students even went as far as negotiating service of their unit with President Jefferson Davis, who agreed, but again Governor Pickens denied their use because the faculty was not willing to let them go.
When the students returned in October, they reorganized their military unit as the "third company." The Union attack of the South Carolina coast in November at the Battle of Port Royal led Governor Pickens to agree to their request to be mustered for active duty, but President Longstreet and the faculty steadfastly maintained their opposition to the students leaving for service. However, with the support of the governor the students ignored the protests of the faculty and departed for the Lowcountry. Governor Pickens kept the student company in Charleston to serve as his bodyguard and because the Union forces at Port Royal did not press their advantage, he released the students from military service on December 10.
Seventy-two students were present for classes in January 1862 and the college functioned as best it could until a call by the Confederate government for South Carolina to fill its quota of 18,000 soldiers. A system of conscription would begin on March 20 for all men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, so on March 8 all of the students at the college volunteered for service in order to avoid the dishonor of having been conscripted. Despite the depletion of students, the professors issued a notice that the college would temporarily close and would reopen to those under eighteen. When the college reopened on March 17, only nine students showed up for classes and it became quite apparent to all that the college would not last past the end of the term in June.
On June 25 with the consent of the state government, the Confederate authorities took possession of the college buildings and converted them into a hospital. After many unsuccessful attempts to reopen the college, the trustees passed a resolution on December 2, 1863, that officially closed the college. By February 1865, Sherman's army had reached the outskirts of Columbia and the college was spared from destruction by the Union forces because of its use as a hospital. In addition, a company of the 25th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment was stationed at the campus on February 17 to protect it from harm and to thwart pillaging by other Union soldiers.
Reorganization, 1865–1891
Radical University The Union army took possession of the college on May 24, 1865, and although the future for the college under military control, General John Porter Hatch sent a letter on June 19 to the remaining professors at the college that it should reopen as soon as possible. The appointment of Benjamin Franklin Perry as provisional governor of South Carolina on June 30 by President Andrew Johnson restored civilian rule to the state. Perry reinstated the trustees to their positions and the board met on September 20 to authorize the college to reopen on the first Monday of January in 1866.
In a message to the legislature in October, Perry sought to convert the college into a university because with the state in an impoverished situation, it would provide a more practical education. The model that he wished to follow was the elective system used by the University of Virginia. Perry was succeeded in November as governor by James Lawrence Orr, a graduate of the University of Virginia, who also wished to see the college adopt the curriculum of his alma mater. Little opposition developed to change the college into a university and bill to establish the University of South Carolina was passed by the General Assembly on December 19, 1865, sixty-four years after the institution's foundation.
The schools of the university remained largely the same as they were in the college, with the addition of a school of engineering and mathematics. For the students, the difference was great because they were given much more freedom than afforded in the college, and they were given the ability to choose their classes rather than having to submit to a compulsory curriculum identical for all. Perry and Orr believed that the relaxed atmosphere at the university would allow it to prosper and reach three or four hundred students in a few years.
The reopening of the university was pushed back to January 10 due to the dilapidated condition of the buildings on the campus and to celebrate the anniversary of the original opening of South Carolina College. Fewer than fifty students attended in the first term, which alarmed Governor Orr. He recommended to the General Assembly that schools of law and medicine be added, which the legislature established in 1866. Despite this step, the university faced an ominous future as the state was beginning to undergo Reconstruction.
After Radical Republicans gained control of the state government in 1868, they sought to integrate the university; the constitution of 1868 had stated that all universities of the state should be "free and open to all the children and youths of the State, without regard to race and color." Former Governor Orr urged the legislature to preserve the university as an institution for the whites and to convert the dormant campus of The Citadel into a college for the blacks. Governor Robert Kingston Scott ignored this request and recommended that the legislature bring the university into compliance with the Morrill Act to make it qualify as a land grant college and accept federal aid; it had to remove race as an admissions criteria.
The University Act of 1869 reorganized the university and provided it with generous state financial support. An amendment was added to the act by W. J. Whipper, a black representative from Beaufort, to prevent racial discrimination from the admissions policy of the university. The legislature elected two black trustees to the governing board of the university on March 9, 1869. Franklin J. Moses, Jr., state representative and speaker of the house, also supported admission of all races to the state school. In October 1873, Henry E. Hayne, the Republican secretary of state, was admitted as the first black student; he was of mostly white ancestry with a white politician father.
The admission of black students to the university was inevitable, and three factors contributed to this. First, the university never achieved a level of enrollment that was commensurate with its financial backing by the legislature. Enrollment never exceeded one hundred students, whereas the enrollment at Wofford College exceeded that mark in 1870. White students were believed to avoid the university from fear it would be integrated. The second reason was the failure of the state to provide an adequate public university for the education of blacks. It was trying to compensate rapidly for the state's failure to educate blacks in the antebellum years. In 1872, funds were allocated for the Agricultural and Mechanical Institute at Orangeburg, but they were badly mismanaged. Black legislators called for the opening of the university to black students. Finally, the state Republican party split for the election of 1872 between Radical and moderate factions. The Radicals won and pressed their advantage by electing four blacks to the Board of Trustees, thus constituting a majority.
The legislature established a normal school to train teachers for the lower grades on the campus of the university as well as a preparatory school, since most black students of the state had been deprived of strong academic training in years past. In addition, to encourage enrollment by blacks, tuition and other fees were abolished. On October 7, 1873, Henry E. Hayne, the Secretary of State of South Carolina, became the first black student when he registered for the fall session in the medical college of the university. As a result of his enrollment, three professors resigned, and some white students left.
On October 8, enrollment stood at eight students, seven of whom were the sons of professors. The number increased to twenty-two students after many politicians registered with the university to show that it was open for both races, yet few of the politicians attended classes. Troubled by the low enrollment, State Treasurer of South Carolina, Francis L. Cardozo went to Washington and persuaded a handful of students at Howard University to transfer to the university. Drastic measures were required to increase the number of students and the legislature passed an act in February 1874 to provide for 124 scholarships of $200. The conservative press denounced this move because with the absence of tuition, it meant that students were effectively being paid to attend the university, but poor students were often critical to family support, and scholarships helped them cover living expenses. Many of the scholarship students could not meet the entrance requirements into the freshman class, so the faculty assembled them into a sub-freshman class. This plan was abolished in 1875 as the legislature had not authorized it.