Adolescent Honor and College Student Behavior in the Old South

Killough's prank demonstrated his adolescent immaturity, his continued connection to childhood.2 Baptist's rebuff, however, was a more adult response that propelled the two into the complex world of adult antebellum social relations and expectations. The incident between Baptist and Killough illustrates the collision between the two main forces that affected student life in the antebellum South: the code of honor and natural adolescent development. A second critical struggle for antebellum college men was the need to become a part of the culture of their authority figures, while also creating an “adult” culture of their own that focused on their peer group and involved a peer-designed code of honor. By pushing and pulling, they forced the calf to the apex of the building's dome, then tied it to a lightning rod.6 William Bagley described student behavior at the University of North Carolina in a letter written in 1844 to his father: “The rowdyism and low dissipation of the students is still another objection whose highest ambition seems to be, to be expert in shuffling cards, turning off a dose of liquor, or engaging in any low revelry.”