User:PanosPanagioto/Slavery at American colleges and universities

Slave trade in the united states was mainly for Africans and black Americans. The expansion of the cotton industry in the united states led to an increased demand for slaves to work in the cotton fields. Some other slaves labored to build institutions for higher education in the united states. Another role for slavery in the universities and colleges was that the funds collected from the slave trade funded some universities and colleges. The slaves were seen as less human than other Americans and built academic buildings and residential halls for the lectures.            Buying and selling of slaves led some slave owners to become major donors towards the universities and colleges. However, when the slave trade was abolished, most colleges with legalized slavery enslaved people to later benefit from slave economics. Some university administrators also sold slaves to generate wealth for their institutions. Some wealthy students also brought in their slaves for their daily chores (Harris et al.,2016). Some of the universities and colleges that benefited from the slave trade include; Harvard University, Columbia, Yale Princeton and University of Virginia. The slaves also served the university administrators and students. Craig Steven, a historian says that the history of American universities is largely the story of the rise of the slave economy.

           Harvard University was funded by money made from running slave ships to Africa and milling cotton from cotton plantations in the American south. University from George Town offered free tuition to its pioneer students from the unpaid labor of Jesuit-owned slaves on plantations in Maryland. In the University of Virginia founded by Thomas Jefferson, slaves were the cleaners and cooks. Yale university inherited had a slave firm in Rhode Island, and funds from the slave firm funded first graduate programs and catered for its first scholarship.

            Not even one university has come out to show an account of how much money they got from slave economics. However, it is crystal clear that most universities formed before the civil war relied on funds derived from slavery. Institutions founded from slave economics should do something to apologize for taking advantage of the slaves for their gains. Some people argue that these institutions should at least even name these buildings. For example, Brown University has shown efforts. In 2003, Brown president Ruth Simmons appointed a group of investigators to investigate what better ways students can be taught about ethical conduct and tell the students the true story of how the university was founded on slave economics.         At Harvard University, a lecturer and his students investigated the university's past where they found out that slavery was used to support the university. The University of Virginia in the Charlottes has gone an extra mile to recognize the slaves by naming buildings after enslaved people who worked there. The university has also been teaching its students about racial inequalities. Georgetown is still in the process of creating an institution where slavery can be studied, and the university management has constantly apologized to family members of people they enslaved and sold.

           Georgetown is creating an institute to study slavery and has apologized to the families of enslaved people it sold. The president of Brown, Ruth Simmons, claims that the recent rise in racial conflicts results from the wrongs they did in the past, and that was not resolved. She suggests that colleges and universities can work towards reconciliation through doing a thorough examination of their past.

           Harvard was the first institution for higher education in America and was founded in 1636. Through the first 150 years of its existence, slavery and slave economics financed the institution, where slaves did most of the chores for the Harvard presidents (Andrioli,2016). At Harvard are two markers of slavery. one of the markers has the following words written on it  "Here is the body of Cicely, Negro, late servant to the Reverend Minister William Brattle; she died April 8, 1714. Being 15 years old. The other marker of slavery has the following words; Jane a Negro servant to Andrew Boardman Esquire Died 1740/1 Aged 22 years & three months.”. These two are evidence of Harvard's link to slavery. Even after the evidence of slavery, Harvard did not record slavery in the institution's history until 2007 when Sven Beckert, an American Professor, taught about the history of slavery in the institution to four of his undergraduate students. He taught the history, intending to dig deep into the institution's records to see whether they could trace slavery and slave economics linked with the institution. From the search, they found out that Cotton Mather, Puritan Minister, and John Hancock, the Declaration of Independence signatory, were slave owners.

           Georgetown College was founded in 1789 by Jesuit priests of Maryland. The Jesuit priests were among the well-known slave owners. They had several tobacco plantations within Maryland and owned slaves. The Jesuit priests generated income from the slave economy. They created Georgetown college to maintain and spread Catholicism in the U.S. Georgetown college also directly employed slave labor. The whole idea was that the plantations manned by the slaves would also financially support the learning institution. Unfortunately, at around the 1810s, the tobacco plantation failed; thus, Georgetown college was in debt for close to 20 years (Rothman,2017). To save the institution, the priests decided to sell their slaves, where they sold 272 men, women, and children. The money they got helped in offsetting the debts. The enslaved people were then sent to Louisiana by ship.

After two centuries, Georgetown president Jack DeGioia created a group to work on slavery and investigate and suggest ways to amend slavery. By 2015, DeGioia, decided that it was time they had a conversation on the history of Georgetown College. Students demanded that two buildings within the institution named after the Jesuit priests be renamed since the Jesuit priests they fueled slave sale.

           In June 2016, DeGioia traveled to Louisiana to meet descendants of the 272 persons sold out by the Jesuit priests. He announced that Georgetown would build a learning institution research center to specifically study slavery and work in collaboration with the descendant community to create a memorial to the slaves sold out by the Jesuit priests. DeGioia also announced that Georgetown would grant legal status to all the descendants of the 272 slaves and give the descendants the same preference in admissions that alumni are offered. He also stated that those were just the first steps towards compensating and apologizing for the slave sales. He also promised to continue working with the descendant community. However, some of the descendants are skeptical about it.

           Sandra Green Thomas who was the president of the descendant association. On behalf of the descendant community said that Georgetown's decision to offer legacy status to the descendants is insufficient and cannot be compared to the pain of enslavement. Georgetown held a ceremony in April 2016 to publicly and formally apologize to the descendants of the 272 men, women and children sold out as slaves.

           In August 2016, white nationalists protested against the city’s plan to remove a statue of a Confederate General. This was not the first time they marched out protesting against the removal of the statue. Slaves built the school University of Virginia. Slaves served the students and the lectures as the slaves worked as cleaners and cooks within the university. Just like Georgetown university, the school has continuously searched for the descendants of the enslaved people to apologize and try to make it up for them. In 2013, the university formed a commission to look into the university’s history with slavery, after which the institution has accepted to honor the people it enslaved. Students in the institution helped in honoring the enslaved by creating a slavery walking tour of the university. A prominent memorial stone will be planted in honor of the estimated 5000 slaves who worked at the institution between 1817 and 1865.

           The university has also honored the descendants of the slaves by dedicating new buildings to the campus. In April, the university's president Teresa Sullivan dedicated Skipwith Hall to commemorate an enslaved man named Peyton Skipwith. The building has been built at the exact location where stones to build the original campus were quarried.

           The university also runs a week-long camp for 30 high school students, specifically on the history of slavery. The camp is called the Cornerstone Summer Institute. Von Drake and Alison Jawetz, who were graduate students were the initial initiators of the program. They created it in 2016. the major goal of the program is to ensure that slavery is taught at a tender age, preferably in elementary or high school. The camp also educated the students on the disadvantages of racism.

            In conclusion, slavery was a major contributor to the growth of American universities and colleges. Universities and colleges that have a close association to slavery may grow stronger by acknowledging that the formation of the universities was at the expense of others. The major reason for confronting slavery is to create a historically aware generation and who will work for better lives.

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References

Andrioli, A. J. (2016). A Tale of Two Universities: Harvard and Georgetown Accept Their Ties   to Slavery.

Harris, L. M., Campbell, J. T., & Brophy, A. L. (Eds.). (2019). Slavery and the University:           Histories and legacies. University of Georgia Press.

Rothman, A. (2017). Georgetown University and the Business of Slavery. Washington     History.