Northern Universities: Complicity Beyond the South
While much focus is placed on Southern institutions, Northern universities—including Ivy League schools like Brown and Yale—were also deeply entangled with slavery. These schools benefited financially from industries such as shipping, banking, and textiles, which were themselves reliant on slave labor and the transatlantic slave trade.
Endowments, student tuition, and even faculty salaries were boosted by profits from these connections. Investigations, such as Brown University’s comprehensive report, reveal the far-reaching impact of slavery in shaping higher education across the United States. Read Brown’s full findings.
