Claflin University, an engraving from Colyer Meriwether's "History of Higher Education in South Carolina," published in 1889. The Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church founded Claflin University in 1869, purchasing the buildings of the Orangeburg Female College. By the time Meriwether completed his study, the University had seventeen teachers, and 946 students in the combined grammar, normal, and college departments. In 1872, the State College of Agriculture and Mechanic's Institute was founded in Orangeburg adjacent to the Claflin campus; they shared some facilities, but continued to maintain separate identities, although both offered an agricultural and industrial training curriculum for African-Americans.
Courtesy of the South Caroliniana Library.
