Ivy League institutions are some of the most prestigious places for higher learning in the country. They’re highly exclusive and have quite interesting pasts. One thing I’ve always wondered about was how slavery played a role in their existences so I did a little digging.

An interesting tidbit I came across while researching doesn’t involve an Ivy League, but a similarly prominent school. In 1838, Jesuit priests at Georgetown sold 272 of their slaves to save the school from closure. You can read that fascinating story over at New York Times.

References

• Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and The Troubled History of America’s Universities (Craig Steven Wilder)
• Harvard’s Eugenics Era

• Another Ivy League School Is Addressing Its Dark History With Slavery

• Georgetown joins Brown, U-Va. and others in looking anew at slavery