Liberal Forum

Blackvegetable » 9 minutes ago » wrote: ↑

9 minutes ago

We've been through this...

Really now?? So you want ANOTHER massive *** KICKING, ****??

Brown university was built by SLAVE TRADERS, ****!! PERIOD!!

Prove me wrong!!

The Brown Family and the Slave Trade
The university is named after the Brown family of Providence, a prominent merchant family whose wealth underwrote the university’s creation and early expansion.

• The Brown Brothers: Four brothers—Nicholas, John, Joseph, and Moses—were instrumental in securing the charter and moving the college to Providence in 1770.
• The Slave Ship Sally: In 1764, the year of the university's founding, Nicholas Brown and Company financed a disastrous slaving expedition aboard the slave ship Sally. Commanded by Esek Hopkins, the voyage resulted in the acquisition of 167 African captives, more than 100 of whom died from disease, suicide, or a failed mutiny before reaching the Caribbean.
• John Brown: The most aggressive slave trader of the family, John Brown served as the college’s treasurer for 21 years. He continued to traffic enslaved people even after it became illegal under federal law. In 1797, he became the first person prosecuted in U.S. federal court under the Slave Trade Act of

Enslaved Labor and University Construction
The connection to slavery extends beyond financial donations to the physical infrastructure of the campus: 

• University Hall: The university's oldest structure, built in 1770, was partially constructed using the labor of enslaved people.
• Recorded Labor: Archival construction records identify at least four enslaved men who built the hall: Pero (enslaved by Henry Paget), Abraham (enslaved by Martha Smith), "Mary Young’s Negro Man," and "Earle’s Negro"
• Donations in Kind: Because physical currency was scarce, some wealthy donors paid their university pledges by supplying timber from slave-trading firms or by loaning out their enslaved workers for construction.