1871, February 1 - The University Closes for Four Years
During Reconstruction the University faced a variety of financial difficulties, including a lost endowment and reduced enrollment numbers. The faculty consisted of only six professors in 1869, and only 55 students were enrolled. Politics also played a role in closing the University. Because President Pool was regarded as allied with a radical Republican government in Raleigh, his administration was challenged, and eventually rendered unsustainable, by former Confederates and sympathizers who at the time made up the majority of the Democratic party and were the largest supporters of the University.
SOURCES
Battle, Kemp P. History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II: From 1868 to 1912. Raleigh: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1912. 41. Rpt. in Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/battle2/battle2.html.
Leloudis, James L. “Civil War and Reconstruction.” The First Century of the First State University. Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006,https://docsouth.unc.edu/unc/browse/civilwar_recons.html.
Lindemann, Erika. “Aftermath of the Civil War.” True and Candid Compositions: The Lives and Writings of Antebellum Students at the University of North Carolina. 2005. Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, https://docsouth.unc.edu/true/chapter/chp06-02/chp06-02.html.