page_title: Sewanee: The University of the South
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sewanee: The University of the South / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Image first published as promotional material in 1871. kids book From: http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/broadsides/B03/B0349/B0349-150dpi.html
context_page_description: Sewanee: The University of the South, commonly known as Sewanee, is a private Episcopal liberal arts college in Sewanee, Tennessee. It is owned by 28 southern dioceses of the Episcopal Church and its School of Theology is an official seminary of the church. The university's School of Letters offers graduate degrees in American Literature and Creative Writing. The campus consists of 13,000 acres of scenic mountain property atop the Cumberland Plateau, with the developed portion occupying about 1,000 acres.
context_section_description: On July 4, 1857, delegates from ten dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas—were led up Monteagle Mountain by Bishop Leonidas Polk for the founding of their denominational college for the region. The goal was to create a Southern university free of Northern influences. As one of its founders, Bishop James Otey of Tennessee, put it: the new university will "materially aid the South to resist and repel a fanatical domination which seeks to rule over us." John Armfield, at one time co-owner of Franklin and Armfield, "the largest and most prosperous slave trading enterprise in the entire country", was by far the most influential in bankrolling the new university. His purchase of the site where the university continues to exist today and his promise of $25,000 per year far exceeded any other donations and was considered a "princely offer" by a Nashville newspaper. Today, Sewanee admits students from all backgrounds and downplays the role of this slave trader in the university's founding.
  The six-ton marble cornerstone, laid on October 10, 1860, and consecrated by Bishop Polk, was blown up in 1863 by Union soldiers; many of the pieces were collected and kept as keepsakes by the soldiers. A few were donated back to the university, and a large fragment was eventually installed in a wall of All Saints' Chapel. Several figures later prominent in the Confederacy, notably Bishop-General Leonidas Polk, Bishop Stephen Elliott, Jr., and Bishop James Hervey Otey, were significant founders of the university. Generals Edmund Kirby Smith, Josiah Gorgas and Francis A. Shoup were prominent in the university's postbellum revival and continuance.
  Because of the damage and disruptions during the Civil War, construction came to a temporary halt. Polk died in action during the Atlanta campaign. He is remembered always through his portrait Sword Over the Gown, painted by Eliphalet F. Andrews in 1900. After the original was vandalized in 1998, a copy by Connie Erickson was unveiled on June 1, 2003.
  In 1866, building was resumed, and this date is sometimes used as the re-founding of the university and the year from which it has maintained continuous operations (though official materials and anniversary celebrations still use 1857). The university's first convocation was held on September 18, 1868, with nine students and four faculty members present. Presiding was the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, vice chancellor (chief academic officer) of the university, Second Bishop of Tennessee and "Chaplain of the Confederacy" (compiler of the Confederate Soldiers' Pocket Manual of Devotions, 1863). He attended the first Lambeth Conference in England (1868) and received financial support from clergy and laity of the Church of England for rebuilding the school. Quintard is known as the "Re-Founder" of the University of the South.
  During World War II, the University of the South was one of 131 tertiary institutions nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
  Schools of dentistry, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing once existed, and a secondary school was part of the institution into the second half of the 20th century. However, for financial reasons it was eventually decided to focus on the college and the School of Theology. In June 2006, Sewanee opened its School of Letters, a second graduate school. The School of Letters offers a Master of Arts in American Literature and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
caption: 1871 Poster for Sewanee
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