A new perspective on American colleges and universities in the nineteenth century is presented. Attention is directed to denominational colleges, colleges by region, and student groups, including such issues as who attended college, enrollments, student age at college entrance, geographic origins, parental occupations, subsequent careers, and professional choices. The focus is upon the presentation of new facts in comparison to the series used in the established historigraphy. Two reference works are critiqued: Bailey Burritt's "Professional Distribution of College and University Graduates" (1912), and Donald G. Tewksbury's "American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War" (1932). The antebellum experience is placed in perspective by reexamining post-Civil War American higher education. It is suggested that viewing the colleges in the context of a longer time span and in the social and economic conditions of the antebellum period leads to an understanding of the constraints of educational change and the evolutionary rather than the revolutionary character of education after the Civil War. Appendix A alphabetically lists and briefly describes schools in operation during 1800-1860, while appendix B contains the names and very brief notes on noncollegiate institutions during the same period. (SW)