Slavery at American colleges and universities

Dartmouth College president Nathan Lord defended slavery in the lead up to the American Civil War, causing controversy and leading to his eventual resignation.

In 2004, Ira Berlin wrote that the study of slavery at universities can be controversial and can lead to, tense debates "accompanied by the charge that the interpreters have said too much (why do you dwell upon it?) or too little (why can’t you face the truth?)".[6]^:1260 Berlin states that by reckoning with slavery “Americans — white and black — can have a past that is both memorable and, at last, a past.”[6]^:1268

In 2011, professors Sven Beckert and Katherine Stevens wrote a report about Harvard University and its ties to slavery. The report begins by locating Harvard’s ties to slavery in the larger concepts of American slavery, Northern slavery, and Triangular Trade. The report notes that “By the mid- seventeenth century slaves were part of the fabric of everyday life in colonial Massachusetts. They lived and labored in the colony. Their owners were often political leaders and heads of prominent families.”[7]

At Harvard University, slaves “served Harvard leaders" and "slave labor played a vital role in the unprecedented appreciation of wealth by New England merchants that laid the foundation of Harvard.” [8] Furthermore, “Harvard students slept in beds and ate meals prepared by slaves, and many grew up to be prominent slave-holders and leaders in early America.[9]

Isaac Royall Jr. was a wealthy merchant who donated lands and funds to the university. He also funded the first professorship in law. The Royalls were so involved in the slave trade, that, “the labor of slaves underwrote the teaching of law in Cambridge.” [10] The Royall’s legacy at Harvard is lasting, Harvard Law School adopted the Royall family crest as a part of its school crest. That crest features as blue background, with three bushels of wheat. Until recently the connection of the seal to the slave owning Royalls was unknown to many. According to The Harvard Crimson “Most Law School alumni and faculty were unaware of the story behind the seal.” [11] After it was revealed that Harvard Law had historic ties to slavery, then Dean Martha L. Minow began telling incoming 1Ls about the school’s past. The Law school scrapped this seal and has not designed a replacement. Additionally, at HLS’s bicentennial in 2018, President Drew Faust, Dean John Manning and Professor Sodas unveiled a new commemorative plaque to the slaves who helped build one of Americas best law schools. At the ceremony Faust said of the law school, “How fitting that you should begin your bicentennial with this ceremony reminding us that the path toward justice is neither smooth nor straight. Let us dedicate ourselves to the clear-eyed view of history that will enable us to build a more just future in honor of the stolen lives we memorialize here.” [12]

Harvard was sued in 2019 by descendants of a slave whose photograph the college has in its collection.[13]

Yale University is named for slave-trader and merchant Elihu Yale. Yale has established the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. The slavery legacy at Yale has been addressed in the Yale Alumni Magazine.[14]

At Brown University, a wealthy merchant family accumulated wealth and gave often to the university. The Brown family were slave traders and often brutal ones. On one voyage aboard the slave ship Sally, 109 of 196 captured Africans died.[15]^:3

Wealthy individuals gave money, or loans their slaves to the university. Additionally, during Brown's inaugural fundraising campaign many people without direct links to the university gave money, including many slave owning Southerners. As for those who attended or worked at the university, Brown’s first president, Rev. James Manning “arrived in Rhode Island accompanied by a personal slave”.[15]{{cite web^:12–13

Brown University also published a major report about its ties to slavery as a first step in remembering its past connections to slavery. Brown's report was not its first discussion of slavery. Rather, Brown's report was predated by a political firestorm on its campus. Just prior to Brown appointing Ruth Simmons as its president, a man named David Horowitz wrote an column in the Brown Daily Herald which denounced reparations for slaves. He argued that it was not in the best interest of the descendants of slaves to receive reparations from Brown.[16] This column raised the issue of Brown's ties to slavery.

Soon after her appointment, President Simmons, a descendant of slaves, appointed a steering committee to examine Brown's ties to slavery. Brown was among the first institutions to undergo this reckoning. Simmons said of the committee's work, "To understand the effect of the committee's work, we underline the lack of knowledge and reliable research that preceded it, … basically the uncovering-the-truth- and-stating-it committee because really that has yet to be done."[17]

Georgetown University was struggling financially when in 1838 its president Thomas F. Mulledy developed a rescue plan. On June 19, 1828 Mulledy sold 272 enslaved people owned by the Jesuits of Maryland to slave traders in Louisiana.[18] Georgetown also sold another group of 64 enslaved people in November 1838.[19] In 1821 Georgetown’s Procurator objected to the food served to the enslaved peoples who were on campus as being too expensive and nice for the enslaved peoples. He wrote that the slave rations were “carried there in abundance” and called for more austere food provisions.[20]

In response to the revelations, Georgetown University held a service called the "Liturgy of Remembrance, Contrition and Hope". At the liturgy Fr. Timothy Kesicki, the president of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States said, “Those 272 souls … received the same sacraments, read from the same scriptures, prayed the same prayers, sang the same hymns, and praised the same God — how did we, the Society of Jesus, fail to see us all as one body in Christ? We betrayed the very name of Jesus for whom our least society is named.” [21]

The treatment of Samuel Osborne, a former slave who attained notoriety at Colby College has been controversial.[22]

Columbia University (then known as King's College) was formed in 1754. Between that year and the end of the Civil War, ten men served as president of the school; of those, at least half were slave-owners, as were the first four treasurers of the school.[23][24] The school does not appear to have ever owned any slaves directly.[25] Following a 2015 course on the school's connections to slavery, Columbia has maintained a website with the findings.[26]