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The historical role of college libraries has seldom been investigated on a regional or state level in the United States, but such studies are valuable in explaining the cultural infrastructure of education and print culture. State and regional studies also set the context for future research on individual libraries and colleges as well as histories on a larger level. This work examines how college libraries developed in North Carolina from 1800 to 1860 and illustrates the growth and ambience of education and print culture during a formative period of the antebellum South.

While little has been published on libraries and print culture in the antebellum South, citizens were aware of the need to accumulate and disseminate knowledge in the form of books and magazines. North Carolina was not renowned for its schools or literary culture but it did witness over thirty attempts to establish community libraries between the American Revolution and the Civil War. This paper examines this library movement in its historical and cultural context as a reflection of the importance of print culture and voluntary associations within American civil society. By surveying a wide range of often-neglected primary and secondary literature, this article stands as a model for further research. Law to establish the Allemance [sic] Library Society, Guilford County: "For the purpose of procuring and establishing a circulating Library of Useful Books..." Laws of the State of North Carolina... 1.