Report ties Brown Univ. to slave trade

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A descendant of Brown University’s founding family praised a new report that examines the school’s early ties to the slave trade.
Sylvia Brown, a member of the 11th generation of the Brown family, said she flew in from London to attend last Wednesday’s public forum on the 106-page report, which recommends that the university create a slavery memorial and commit to recruiting and retaining minority students.

She said the report did “an excellent job of setting in context the uncomfortable realities of both the slave trade and the institution of slavery in 18th-century New England.

“It highlights both the absolute economic dependence and the ambiguity in attitudes even of those who were supposedly on the side of angels,” said Brown, a writer and economic development consultant, who said she was writing a book on the Brown family history.

About 175 to 200 people attended the forum.

Brown President Ruth Simmons appointed a committee in 2003 to examine the university’s historic relationship to slavery and recommend how the school should take responsibility. A committee of faculty, students and administrators released its report two weeks ago.

The report made no recommendation on whether or how the university should make monetary reparations.

Slave labor was used in constructing University Hall on Brown’s campus, and the committee says much of the money used to create the university came either directly or indirectly from the slave trade.

Nicholas Brown, a wealthy merchant, was listed in the school’s charter. His brother, John Brown, a slave trader, paid for half the cost of the college’s first library.

While John Brown defended slavery until his death, another brother, Moses Brown, and Nicholas Brown’s son, Nicholas Jr. — the university’s namesake — became ardent abolitionists.

(Associated Press)