If you think I'm about to turn my University into a secret society infested nest of debauchery and insanity, you're correct. I'm also thinking of another chapter solely devoted to exploring all the secret societies, including rituals, short histories, and structure. When we get further along, I have an idea for a Duke-UNC style rivalry, but it has to wait because Duke as we know it only came to be in the 20's.
Lux Libertas: The History of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Part I
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has the distinction of being the oldest public university in the former United States, founded on December 11th, 1789. The construction of the University heavily depended on slave labor, and Black servants quarters were among the first buildings built. The University first began admitting students in 1795. As the Adams Administration continued to be a disaster, Chapel Hill became a breeding ground for secessionist sentiment. The Revolution had been fought so the colonies could become independent, not so they could be welded together into a superstate. When the Shatter of 1801 happened, the students were extremely enthused, and quickly hoisted a Moon and Stars banner over the University. The flag would remain in that famed spot indefinitely, actually being specially designated in the University by-laws soon afterward by University Founder and President William Richardson Davie.
The War of 1812 and the rise of the French Empire meant that UNC began offering in depth French lessons, another first in the old US. While many of the University's wealthy students found such training unnecessary, for the handful of students of humbler means at the University, including 1820 graduate and future Chancellor and Restorer of the Confederation James K. Polk, it was an invaluable tool for induction into the highest echelons of international culture, politics, intrigue, and business. As the 1820's dawned, the rise of Beutelism and American Fundamentalism intrigued the students, and for a few happy years, both ideologies were openly, vehemently discussed in the Diaclectic and Philosophic Societies, the school's debate club. There was a crackdown in later years, which also correlated to a decline in importance for the DiPhi as other, more secretive and mystical organizations took over. This kind of secret society first began to thrive in the aftermath of the Cuba War, aka the War of Virginian Aggression. The War sent virtually the whole student body away to war, and a good portion never came back. The end of the war saw the boom of UNC's first secret society, which had always existed: the Masonic Lodge of Chapel Hill.
Most of the Founders of the Old Republic and the Confederation, including Andy Jackson himself, had been Freemasons. The lodge was as old as the University, but wasn't as popular as the DiPhi because the secretive organization "was shrouded from the Light, and thus Liberty." The War changed that. The boom in membership was originally because the traumatized young veterans wanted a place to gather in secret and bemoan the brutality and outcome of the war. However, over the course of their ceremonial induction process conducted by none other than an ailing William Davie, the veterans of the year-long war became fully devoted Masons. Members debated philosophy, art, music, and although technically against lodge rules, politics. The aftermath of the war hardened the crackdown on Beutelism and Fundamentalism, so any discussion of these topics was done in the secrecy of the Lodge. Of course, none of these members actually ever believed in Beutelism or Fundamentalism, if only because Cokie nationalism and love of Chancellor had been drilled into their heads. However, future students would believe differently and found their own secret societies. Despite the proliferation of such societies, the Masonic Lodge retained a dominant position, and shaped the nation's future. Membership in the lodge was considered a must for up and coming political leaders in NC, with non-Masons or non-graduates being shut out of the halls of power.
In fact shortly before the last veterans left in 1833, a new society was founded: The Order of the Fallen Chancellor. Dedicated to the preservation of Jackson's memory, they would be responsible for getting the wealthy families of the coast to chip in for a huge, French made bronze sculpture of the Chancellor, which was placed prominently across from the Old Well. The Order also became a hotbed of ultranationalism, which would cause splintering later on.
The ancient Jackson Family Coat of Arms, which became the Crest of the Order of the Fallen Chancellor
President Davie in Masonic Apron overseeing the laying of the Cornerstone of Old East in 1795
For most of the post-war era, UNC Chapel Hill was relatively quiet. The school expanded to accommodate roughly 450 students by 1850, and expanded its educational offerings drastically. Under the Presidencies of Thomas Winthrop Campbell (1829-1845) and Israel Smithson (1845-1858) UNC began offering courses in agriculture, engineering, bookkeeping, shipbuilding, and even military academy style training. This also represented a small but noticeable influx of middle class and even some exceptional poor whites, who demanded an education that included practical matters, not just philosophy and history. This era also saw the formation of two new secret societies, the Beutelist Commune of Freedom's Sons (which was illegal) and the Greco-Roman Society (which would become infamous for their orgiastic recreations of Roman Bacchanalia and animal sacrifices). The University Administration attempted to suppress these two organizations, but were less than successful. The Beutelists were easier to pin down because their adoption of an ideology meant they had to have read illicit materials that could be traced on occasion. The Greco-Roman Society, with its decadent Classical themed parties and love of wine, managed to find unique ways of evading significant danger from the authorities, including an early version of the so-called honeypot, utilizing "ladies of the night" (or "sodomites" depending on the professor or officer's tastes) to create blackmail material. Both institutions were able to survive, and the Greco-Romans even thrived. The Beutelists too would survive, but constant pressure from the authorities would make the Commune a paranoid and secretive bunch, even by secret society standards. The initiation rites into the Beutelists became brutal tests of loyalty, intelligence, and toughness, resembling the kind of torture employed by many police departments.
When the Great American War struck, UNC's fine young men formed the First Chapel Hill Volunteers, and fought in West Carolina. So great was their doggedness that Yankee compatriots gave "those North Carolina boys" the title of Tar Heels. Andrew Jackson had made similar remarks during the Cuba War. The moniker stuck, with the North Carolina House of Citizens designating NC the "Tar Heel State" and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the "North Carolina Tar Heels."
The official logo of the UNC Tar Heels
The aftermath of the war saw a powerful wave of patriotism wash over the school. Membership in the Order of the Fallen Chancellor skyrocketed. Flags were everywhere, and President Jebediah Beauregard IV commissioned yet another bronze sculpture in 1863 dedicated to "all those Tar Heels past, present, and future who serve in our nation's armed forces." The statue would later be named "Silent Sam," and the popular joke on campus went that Silent Sam was silent "cuz his gun only goes off when a virgin walks by." The school also began a small rounders league, and the sport proved quite popular. However, the happy times of expanding enrollment, new sports, and patriotism would soon end. The Great Disturbance hit Carolina hard, and the works of a former UNC student named Zebulon Vance soon caused trouble on campus.
Zebulon Vance was a vicious anti-AFC radical who hated the "negrified religion." He also felt that the Yankee Anglo-Saxons were inferior to the Cokie "Anglo-Normans." His ideology of Normanism soon swept the nation, and across campus. Like the nation, Chapel Hill's student body was divided on the subject. As the 1880's ground on, several small scuffles broke out between the Normanists and the Jacksonians. The Normanists founded the Society of Norman Sons on campus, a secret society which had a deadly rivalry with the Jacksonian Order of the Fallen Chancellor. In fact, the Sons were a splinter group from the Order. Duels between members of the societies happened in the lead up to the 1887 election, and the chaotic aftermath of that election culminated in a vicious riot between Red Shirts and Jacksonians, that famously included the Jacksonians firing a 6 pound smoothbore cannon at a group of Red Shirts. After the party was declared a terrorist group things died down on the surface, even as the SNS planned to try and commit a terrorist bombing of the House of Citizens. Thankfully, it was not to be. The group was too distracted by trying to stay secret to fully plan the bombing, and when Adelbert Upjohn Gamble V (himself a Tar Heel) became Protector of Public Virtue in 1891, he used sheer brutality and clever investigate tactics to ferret out the remaining Normanists. The group folded, and the triumphant Order of the Fallen Chancellor publicly burned all Normanist materials in Chapel Hill, and hanged Vance in effigy. The OFC would quickly transition to being a Common Senser organization, as the decline of the Jacksonians disgusted these hyper-patriots. When Gamble V ran for Chancellor he made a point to stop in his old school, and Chapel Hill's student body unanimously voted for Gamble in the election.
The increasing amount of political activity on campus somewhat alarmed the university administration. While most of it was unilaterally patriotic, the Commune managed to keep finding members, even if there were only 6 or 7 at a time in some cases. Even worse, a cell of the Second Order of the Illuminati, dubbed the Tar Heel Society for Light and Liberty, had become active on campus. A Fascist pro-American society appeared as well, called Carolinians for a Greater America, although they were relatively unpopular for their embrace of pro-black America. Wanting to channel all of these impulses, the University created a Student Government in 1902. The first Student President was none other than Freemason and Order of the Fallen Chancellor member Johnny Gamble, future Chancellor of the Confederation. He directed the government with a surprisingly iron fist, and used his (rather limited) powers to root out Fascists (ironic given his future position as a Yankee lackey) and Illuminists on campus. While neither society was fully destroyed, mainstream Cokie nationalism and Presbyterianism quickly reasserted nigh total dominance on campus. The school was on the grow again, and opened the state's only Pharmacy School in 1910.
When the Great War broke out, countless Tar Heels again left their studies and sweethearts behind to fight for their country. The necessities of the Great War meant that UNC actually developed an extremely good military academy, although it had been developing this way for quite a while. The new Pharmacy School helped make poison gas for the war effort. The OPV made raids on campus targeting the Beutelists and Illuminists with the help of the Order and the Freemasons. Despite this intensifying repression, neither group could be totally destroyed by external forces. However, the Embassy Massacre eventually doomed the Tar Heel Society for Light and Liberty to extinction, as the sheer anger inspired by the event actually encouraged many members to revert back to Cokie nationalism, with some enlisting in the Wade Hampton Brigade as penance. With that, we shall end this part of UNC Chapel Hill's history. The 1920's would be a pivotal decade in Tar Heel history, including the rise of the school's most hated rivals...
Local residents gawk at the damage to Silent Sam in the aftermath of a Normanist rally turned violent (1887)
A 1908 postcard featuring lyrics from the school's fight song, which was an almost direct copy of the national anthem. The school became notorious for its rowdy students, who often mixed Tar Heel pride and Cokie nationalism.
A sketch of the Masonic Lodge of Chapel Hill, circa 1839