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UNC exhibit, discussion explore
early university ties to slavery

By KELLY OCHS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL — The contributions of slaves to the early history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will be the topic of an exhibit opening and panel discussion Wednesday (Oct. 12) at UNC’s Wilson Library.

The exhibit, "Slavery and the Making of the University: Celebrating Our Unsung Heroes, Bond and Free," will open with a reception at 5 p.m. The documents, photographs, letters, bills of sale for slaves and student debates calling for the abolition of slavery will be displayed in Wilson through Feb. 28.

At 6 p.m. Oct. 12, four UNC professors will present a discussion titled "That the Truth May Set Us Free: Examining Our Slaveholding Past." Both events are free to the public and part of University Day, UNC’s annual birthday observation.

"I would hope (that visitors) come away with some sense of the complexity of the issue," said Susan Ballinger, assistant university archivist and a curator of the exhibit. "The university didn’t exist in a vacuum."

The display will examine slaveholding by university trustees and faculty and local townspeople; how profits from the sale of some slaves helped support the university; and the contributions of college servants and slaves to building and maintaining the university.

College servants were slaves and free black people who were hired to work at the university. The slaves were hired out by local townspeople, who received the servants’ wages.

"We never found any evidence that the university owned slaves," said University Archivist Janis Holder, also a curator of the exhibit.

The Carolina professors on the panel will be:

• Dr. William "Sandy" Darity, director of UNC’s Institute of African American Research, Cary C. Boshamer professor of economics and an adjunct professor of sociology.
• Dr. Joseph Jordan, director of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History and professor of African and Afro-American studies;
• Dr. Tim McMillan, adjunct professor of African and Afro-American Studies; and
• Dr. Heather Williams, history professor.

The exhibit, displayed in the library’s manuscripts department, includes materials from the University Archives, the North Carolina Collection and its photo archives and the Southern Historical Collection. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.

For more information, call (919) 962-0043 or (919) 962-1345.

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(Ochs is a senior journalism and mass communication major from Winston-Salem.)

Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/other/slavery.JPG

Eli Merritt, a college servant, sits in front of an unidentified student group in about 1886. Photo credit: North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, UNC.

Wilson Library contacts: Janis Holder, (919) 962-0043, holderj@email.unc.edu; Susan Ballinger, (919) 962-1345, scballin@email.unc.edu News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589