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Silent Sam's Reckoning

20 Jan 19, 8 tweets, 2 min read

Let's take a moment to consider the main way #UNC, as an institution, participated in the slave trade - not just implicated in the actions of slaveowning students/faculty/administrators - but the actual buying and selling of human beings. Let's talk about the "escheat" system.

Back to 1776...the NC Provincial Congress mandates establishment of a university "paid by the public." UNC chartered in 1789 by act of Gen. Assembly, but no funding appropriated, instead gave Board of Trustees right to profit from "all property that shall escheat to the state."

What is escheat? A concept from English common law meaning any unclaimed property from an estate reverts to the Crown. Applied in the US, revert to the State. In the South, if you were a slaver and died without a will, guess who'd take over your "human property?" The University.

But UNC just wanted the money. So escheated lands, property, and slaves were sold on the State's behalf, & then the profits funneled into the University's endowment. "These liberal provisions made UNC one of the most richly endowed institutions of learning in the American Union."

Interesting that in the 1790s the law became highly unpopular with citizens, seen as unlawful seizure of property, so legislators tried to repeal it. The University fought back and brought legal case, UNC v. Foy, which it eventually won and the escheat system was reinstated.

Knowing a good development opportunity when they saw it, the Board of Trustees didn't just wait for $ from sales of unclaimed property and enslaved people to come, but set up a network of attorneys (one in each judicial district, later one in each county) to pursue these funds.

From 1790-1840 UNC collected $134k (over $4 million in 2019) from escheated estates. More than what was collected from tuition ($111K). Not known what percentage was from sale of enslaved people. If ever there was a case for reparations!

There's a longer political and legal history about the escheat system in NC. For extra credit, check this out: docsouth.unc.edu/unc/uncbk1012/… Or these related original documents: exhibits.lib.unc.edu/exhibits/show/…

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More from @sams_reckoning

Silent Sam's Reckoning

@sams_reckoning

23 Jul

@UNC

This week @UNC sent out a fundraiser asking folks to donate money for bottles of “Old Well water"... that don't actually have water from the Old Well in them.

So, it's time to talk about how the Old Well’s history, symbolism & traditions are rooted in white supremacy.

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https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1186104427951857664

Most campus histories like to start with this 1792 founding myth. As the story goes, a major reason Davie chose the site was due to an abundance of natural springs in the area.

https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1186104427951857664

What these retellings of the Davie myth whitewash is that he wasn’t the 1st person to recognize the value in this land & water…for thousands of years native communities thrived here before being dispossessed of the land in the early 1700s.

Read 18 tweets

Silent Sam's Reckoning

@sams_reckoning

3 Dec 19

@UNC

Many alums are saying they'll never again donate $ to @UNC because of the Board of Governors' shameful $2.5million payout to the SCV.

You reap what you sow.

All three of UNC's Confederate memorials were development and alumni relations initiatives.

1/

Silent Sam was proposed by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, but it was the University that raised the bulk of the money for the monument. UDC donated only 1/3rd of the cost, the rest was raised from UNC alums and Trustees.

2/

Also the vision for the Confederate Monument was that its unveiling would attract alumni back for a "great reunion" at the 1911 commencement ceremony - the year that UNC bestowed degrees on students who left for the Civil War.

Slow fundraising delayed the unveiling to 1913.

3/

Read 6 tweets

Silent Sam's Reckoning

@sams_reckoning

31 Aug 19

@UNC

The very 1st financial donation to the University of North Carolina came in the form of 20,000 acres of stolen Chickasaw land located in what is now northwest Tennessee.

The gift was made in 1789 by Benjamin Smith, a founding @UNC trustee & the largest slaveholder in NC by 1790.

Benjamin Smith was born in 1756 in SC into a dynasty of major slavers. (He was named for his uncle, who was a slave trader in Charleston). In the 1790 Census, Smith is listed as enslaver of 221 men, women & children in Brunswick County, NC.

Smith served as an officer in the Revolutionary War. As a “thank you,” veterans of the war received claims, or “bounty warrants,” for huge tracts of land, specifically in areas where the new American empire was dispossessing Native people of their land.

Read 13 tweets

Silent Sam's Reckoning

@sams_reckoning

26 Jan 19

James Johnston Pettigrew, #UNC Class of 1849. Born 1828 to Ebenezer and Ann Shepard Pettigrew. Pettigrew Hall on UNC’s campus is named for him (building adjacent to where #SilentSam stood). His family’s involvement in the slave trade is deep and well-documented. #samsreckoning

James Johnston’s grandfather Charles was an Anglican minister in Edenton, N.C. Finding it difficult to make ends meet as a religious leader, he decided to start a plantation. In 1778 Charles married Mary Blount, a wealthy heiress, and received 9 slaves and land from her family.

Three of Charles’ parishioners started the Lake Company, land venture to buy up 100,000 acres of swamps around Lake Phelps and convert to usable land. To do this they needed (free) labor. They sailed a slave ship from Boston to Africa, captured 100 people, transported back to NC.

Read 22 tweets

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