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Carolina Story: Virtual Museum of University History

Paul C. Cameron (1808-1891)

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University trustee Paul Cameron was North Carolina's largest slaveholder in 1860 and one of the wealthiest men in the South. He owned 12,675 acres of land and 470 slaves in Orange County and more plantations in Alabama and Mississippi. Cameron was a political ally of President David Swain, who contributed funds to reopen the university after the Civil War and then to construct Memorial Hall. A street named for him runs through the central historic campus.