University of Virginia Library

I. COLLEGES.

The first college established in the Free States was Harvard
University, founded in 1636; which was sixteen years
after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. The first college
in the Slave States was that of William and Mary, in Virginia,
founded in 1692, or eighty-four years after the settlement
of Jamestown. The number of students in the former is now
365; in the latter, 82. The number of alumni of the former,
6,700; of the latter, 3,000. The number of volumes in the
library of the former is 101,250; of the latter 5,000.

It will be seen by Tables XXXIII and XXXIV, taken from
the American Almanac for 1856, and showing the present condition
of the colleges in the two great sections, that the number
of colleges is nearly the same in each. The comparative character
and efficiency of these institutions, may be in some measure
learned from the following facts. The number of volumes
in the libraries of the Southern colleges is 308,011; in
those of the northern, 667,297; over two to one. The number
graduated at the South is 19,648; at the North 47,752;
about two and one-half to one. The number of Ministers educated
in the Southern colleges is 747, and in the Northern,
10,702; a ratio of fourteen to one.

It would indeed be interesting, were it possible, to compare
these institutions in respect to value of buildings, apparatus,
cabinets, &c.; but the statistics of these cannot be readily obtained.
Still more difficult would it be to compare statistically
the ability of professors and the standard of scholarship.

TABLE XXXIII.
Colleges in the Slave States.

                           

SLAVE STATES.	No. of Colleges.	No. of Instructors.	No. of Alumni.	No. of Ministers.	Students.	Volumes in Libraries.
Delaware	2	18	83	42	137	11,500
Maryland	5	69	607	13	399	33,292
Virginia	10	72	9,528	146	1,174	65,875
North Carolina	3	24	1,406	123	469	23,700
South Carolina	2	14	3,124	3	190	23,800
Georgia	5	34	1,359	133	643	25,700
Alabama	4	40	676	28	333	23,200
Mississippi	4	16	252	16	315	10,700
Louisiana	4	26	94	10	157	9,000
Tennessee	8	39	838	74	570	29,744
Kentucky	7	54	1,342	130	700	27,900
Missouri	5	44	339	29	568	23,600
Total	59	450	19,648	747	5,655	308,011

TABLE XXXIV.
Colleges in the Free States.

                               

FREE STATES.	No. of Colleges.	No. of Instructors.	No. of Alumni.	No. of Ministers.	Students.	Volumes in Libraries.
Maine	2	15	1,418	303	274	43,150
New Hampshire	1	12	4,187	883	258	31,900
Vermont	3	16	1,536	527	228	21,650
Massachusetts	4	47	9,404	2,612	807	122,750
Rhode Island	1	10	1,860	500	225	34,000
Connecticut	3	43	7,407	1,956	669	91,000
New York	8	84	6,888	1,461	1,080	80,516
New Jersey	3	54	3,855	837	449	28,000
Pennsylvania	9	66	8,298	741	959	71,180
Ohio	12	88	1,958	644	1,191	92,191
Indiana	4	27	546	158	300	19,600
Illinois	4	30	257	79	245	15,860
Michigan	2	14	130		180	13,000
Wisconsin	5	11	8	1	30	2,500
Total	61	517	47,752	10,702	6,895	667,297