Yale and Slavery: A History

Yale and Slavery explores Yale University's historical involvement with slavery, the slave trade, and abolition, drawing on archival materials and engaging with the legacies and remembrance of this complex story. It highlights the enslaved and free Black people who have been part of Yale's history, including those who worked at the university, petitioned and fought for freedom and dignity, built churches, schools, and antislavery organizations, and were among the first Black students to transform the institution. The book presents a richer and more complete history of Yale, showing how pillars of American higher education emerged intertwined with the national and international history of racial slavery.

Format: Hardback
Length: 448 pages
Publication date: 14 May 2024
Publisher: Yale University Press

  The book also explores the complex and often contentious relationship between Yale and the slave trade,the slave trade,and abolition. It reveals how the university was deeply involved in the slave trade,the slave trade,and abolition,and how it responded to the abolitionist movement.
Slavery and resistance to it have played a significant role in shaping Yale University's past. Award-winning historian David W. Blight, with the Yale and Slavery Research Project, has undertaken a comprehensive examination of this topic, resulting in a narrative history that highlights the importance of slavery in the founding and development of the university. Drawing on extensive archival materials, Yale and Slavery spans from the century before the college's founding in 1701 to the dedication of its Civil War memorial in 1915, while engaging with the legacies and remembrance of this complex story. The book brings to light the enslaved and free Black people who have been part of Yale's history from the beginning, but who have often been ignored in official accounts. These individuals and their descendants worked at Yale, petitioned and fought for freedom and dignity, built churches, schools, and antislavery organizations, and were among the first Black students to transform the university from the inside. Yale and Slavery presents a richer and more complete history of Yale, the third-oldest college in the country, showing how pillars of American higher education, even in New England, emerged intertwined with the national and international history of racial slavery. The book also explores the complex and often contentious relationship between Yale and the slave trade, the slave trade, and abolition. It reveals how the university was deeply involved in the slave trade, the slave trade, and abolition, and how it responded to the abolitionist movement.

Weight: 828g
Dimension: 164 x 249 x 32 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300273847