This project addresses the changing relationship between Protestant denominations and state universities in the nineteenth-century American South, specifically at four schools: the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Georgia. These schools, among the oldest state universities in the nation, were founded largely upon Enlightenment ideals. Thomas Jefferson and his allies engaged in running battles with Protestant clergymen over curricula, hut Jeffersonian ideas about religion and education proved unpopular in the South during the powerful revivals of Jefferson’s later years. In the period immediately preceding the Civil War, clergymen held sway at Southern state universities; however, by the close of the nineteenth century Jefferson’s ideas were pervasive and influential once again. Both the scarcity of funding in the postwar South and the establishment of denominational schools had a profound impact on state universities. By the end of the century, even as church membership reached new heights, church influence at state schools waned, creating a paradox of Protestant triumph and defeat. Focusing primarily on four universities will define an otherwise very broad task; focusing on public education will shed new light on the emerging discussion of religion and higher education; focusing on the South will provide a backdrop of increasingly Protestant cultural identity.