Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) was founded in 1853 and developed over its first half-century in downtown St. Louis before relocating to a new "Hilltop campus" west of the city in 1905. Several of the institution's founding leaders derived their wealth and power in part through the dispossession of Native Americans and exploitation of enslaved African Americans, and were otherwise invested in the perpetuation of white dominance, through slavery and other means.
Pictured: Dred and Harriet Scott, who in 1846 filed lawsuits seeking freedom from enslavement at St. Louis' Old Courthouse.
The university emerged amid numerous "freedom suits" and the infamous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857). That case began in the St. Louis courthouse in 1846, within a mile of WashU's original downtown campus, and the university would be significantly shaped by the U.S. Supreme Courts' ruling that African Americans were not citizens recognized or protected by the U.S. Constitution.
Pictured: William Greenleaf Eliot, the co-founder (with Wayman Crow), initial president, and third chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis.
There has been little consideration of WashU's entanglements with histories and legacies of slavery, including struggles for freedom, aside from exaggeration of the anti-slavery position of co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot. This is beginning to change. In Spring 2021 WashU joined Universities Studying Slavery (USS), the global consortium of colleges, universities, libraries, and other academic institutions examining and addressing relationships between our institutions and the history and legacy of slavery.
Pictured: The view from the newly constructed Brookings Hall, looking east onto the grounds being developed for the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
The first half century of WashU's history ended with relocation to the "Hilltop campus," providing open space, distinction, and resources that fueled its growth into a prestigious academic institution. This came in part through further investments in racial capitalism. Whereas WashU admitted some African American students in its first few decades that stopped in the 1890s and did not resume until the mid-20th century, with this exclusion becoming part of its pursuit of distinction. Further, the financially distressed institution was buoyed by leasing parts of the new campus - including Brookings Hall and Francis Field - to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The new campus would stage some of the 1904 Fair's infamously racist spectacles, including "Anthropology Days" and the 1904 Olympics, and financial returns on this lease enabled further development of what is now the Danforth Campus.
The WashU & Slavery Project began in Fall 2020 when the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity & Equity (CRE2) convened a working group to explore participation in Universities Studying Slavery (USS). This group began exploring relationships between slavery, its legacies, and our institutional history, and several courses that year engaged students in related research, including a review of USS projects at other universities. A proposed initial phase of the WashU & Slavery Project was enthusiastically supported by Chancellor Andrew Martin and Provost Beverly Wendland, and WashU formally joined Universities Studying Slavery at the end of Spring 2021.
The WashU & Slavery Project is based in CRE2 to support integration across the institution, an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, and related strategic plans of the center and other campus and community partners. The initial phase emphasizes research and teaching, including supported student research and creative projects, in close partnership with the university libraries, archives and museum. We will conduct foundational research, further organize and contextualize relevant collections in the university archives, libraries, and museum, create a digital project infrastructure, and facilitate an array of campus and community engagements. The project's scope and impact will grow through wide-ranging research, collaborative campus and regional efforts, and a reparative commitment. This website tracks the progress of our efforts, shares what we are learning, and invites members of the campus and broader community to participate in the WashU & Slavery Project.
Pictured: The courthouse in St. Louis photographed ca. 1861, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857), a case that began in this St. Louis court in 1846. Founded in 1853, Washington University in St. Louis emerged in this historical and social context, its original campus footprint within a mile of the court.
WashU’s founder was not an abolitionist: Who was William Greenleaf Eliot?
Understanding Eliot will help us to better understand our university, its relationship with slavery and the history of St. Louis, for these histories are inextricably linked. If WashU is truly committed to examining those links, the way the University addresses the fraught legacy of the institution’s founders must be a critical starting point for that work.
We are revisiting connections between slavery and WashU's earliest leaders, including less recognized figures like John O'Fallon (1791-1865). A founding trustee and key benefactor, O'Fallon was one of the wealthiest men and largest slave holders in nineteenth century Missouri. Pictured: Colonel John O'Fallon Residence in O'Fallon Park, illustrated by Sallie O'Fallon, 1939 (Credit: Missouri Historical Society).
Landscape Backstories of the WashU Campuses
WashU's campuses have occupied landscapes deeply connected to histories and legacies of empire and slavery in St. Louis. We are beginning to trace these connections and their implications.
Faculty and students are partnering to locate, digitize and visualize extensive records of slave ownership, manumission, self-liberation, and other information essential to understanding WashU's connections to slavery and its wake. A highlight here is the St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement (SLIDE), which makes historic Census and other key data searchable online.
In commemoration of Juneteenth, a pop-up display organized around the practices of storytelling and remembrance.
View Event
Jun 18-Jun 19
Juneteenth Pop-Up Display
In commemoration of Juneteenth, a pop-up display organized around the practices of storytelling and remembrance.
Kemper Art Museum | 11:00 AM Saturday
In commemoration of Juneteenth, we bring together works by four contemporary American artists of African descent—Torkwase Dyson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Joyce Scott, and Danny Tisdale—for a pop-up display organized around the practices of storytelling and remembrance. While viewing the display, we invite you to reflect on what histories we are taught, whose stories matter, and how we remember. An accompanying reading table contains multiple points of entry for learning about the historical events surrounding emancipation as well as their legacies in the present, offering context for understanding the ongoing struggle for Black liberation and racial justice through the lenses of historical texts, personal narratives, and children’s literature.
Image credit
Torkwase Dyson (American, b. 1973), A Place Called Dark Black (Bird and Lava), 2020. Acrylic and ink on canvas, 96 x 80 x 2". University purchase, Parsons Fund and Bixby Fund, 2021.
Counter/Narratives of Independence: Celebrating Juneteenth
John M. Olin Library, Level 1, Washington University
View Event
23June
Counter/Narratives of Independence: Celebrating Juneteenth
John M. Olin Library, Level 1, Washington University | 3:00 PM
Join the University Libraries, in partnership with the Department of African and African-American Studies and the WashU & Slavery Project, for a special Juneteenth celebration. Come together as a community to learn more about the holiday and enjoy refreshments. The event will begin with an introduction to Juneteenth and its importance in history and today. Following the introduction, activities for all ages will be available, including a dramatic reading of Frederick Douglass’s speech “What to a Slave is the Fourth of July?,” children’s story time, interactive stations, and a viewing of current exhibitions.
There are many ways to participate in the WashU & Slavery Project, including through supported research and creative projects, related courses and other teaching and learning opportunities, and project related events. For more information about ways to get involved, follow the link below.