Slavery Funds Helped Found Brown University

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Proceeds from the slave trade were used to found Brown University and slaves helped build the campus, according to a report released yesterday.

The 106-page report, which documents the university’s ties to the New England slave trade and makes recommendations on how to right historical wrongs, was produced by Brown’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice.

When the university’s president, Ruth Simmons, convened the committee in 2004, she said she wanted it to explore Brown’s links to slavery and the possibility of granting reparations.

“We were able to show that it was possible for an institution in our society not only to take a forthright look at its own history, but also to engage with questions that are awkward and painful and controversial in a reasoned and thoughtful way,” a professor at Brown and the chairman of the steering committee, James Campbell, told The New York Sun.

The committee’s recommendations to the Providence, R.I., university, include publicly acknowledging its involvement with slavery, building a slavery memorial on campus, creating a research center on slavery and justice, and continuing to vigorously recruit African and African-American students.

Although the committee did not recommend monetary reparations, Ms. Simmons called the report “provocative.” In a statement released yesterday, she lauded the committee for demonstrating that “there is no subject so controversial that it should not be submitted to serious study and debate.”

The Brown report comes after a number of Northeastern institutions have confronted, under varying circumstances, their ties to slavery. The New-York Historical Society featured a “Slavery in New York” exhibit in 2005, and the bank J.P. Morgan investigated its founders’ involvement with the slave trade in 2003. Yale University became embroiled in a bitter debate in 2001, when three of its doctoral candidates published a report on the school’s ties to slave owners, after whom many campus buildings are named. That same year, Yale founded America’s first center for the study of slavery.

Asked about other institutions’ possibly doing similar self-examination, Mr. Campbell said: “I’m certain that other institutions would find things to study, but it’s not for us to tell them to look at their own history.”


The New York Sun

© 2025 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use