A GROUNDBREAKING report has revealed that the University of Glasgow received financial support that would be worth up to nearly £200 million today from slave-trade profits.
The year-long investigation into bequests and gifts made in the 18th and 19th centuries means that the university has become the first in the UK to investigate the full impact of donations from slavery-related wealth.
It has now embarked on a programme of “reparative justice” as a result of its research.
This includes the creation of a centre for the study of slavery and a memorial or tribute at the university in the name of the enslaved.
In addition, the university is also working with the University of the West Indies (UWI) and hopes to sign a memorandum of understanding to strengthen academic collaboration between the two institutions.
It has also made a commitment to strive to increase the racial diversity of students and staff, and to reduce the degree attainment gap, in line with its equality and diversity policy.
This will include awarding scholarships to black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) students of Afro-Caribbean descent to help address their under-representation at the University of Glasgow.
The study acknowledges that while the university played a leading role in the abolitionist movement, it also received significant financial support from people whose wealth, at least in part, derived from slavery in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Co-authored by Professor Simon Newman and Dr Stephen Mullen, both from the University of Glasgow, the report estimates the present-day value of all monies given to the university which might have been fully or partly derived from slavery to be in the order of tens of millions of pounds, depending on the indexation formula.
“The university deeply regrets this association with historical slavery which clashes with our proud history of support for the abolition of both the slave trade and slavery itself,” said Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Glasgow.
“The University of Glasgow has a proud record of anti-slavery activity including petitioning Parliament to abolish slavery and awarding an honorary degree to the emancipationist William Wilberforce.
“Glasgow also educated James McCune Smith, a formerly enslaved New Yorker who became the first-ever African American to receive a medical degree.
“This report has been an important undertaking and commitment to find out if the university benefited from slavery in the past. Although the university never owned enslaved people or traded in the goods they produced, it is now clear we received significant financial support from people whose wealth came from slavery.”
Muscatelli added: “Looking to the future, the university has set out a programme of reparative justice through which we will seek to acknowledge this aspect of the university’s past, enhance awareness and understanding of historical slavery, and forge positive partnerships with new partners including the University of the West Indies.”
Newman said the university had made history in the UK by acknowledging that alongside its “proud” history of abolitionism is “an equally significant history of financially benefiting from racial slavery”.
“In doing this, Glasgow follows in the footsteps of leading American universities which have confronted the role of slavery in their histories,” he said.
“The University of Glasgow is an institution that grew in a city tied to the trade in tobacco, sugar and cotton, all of which were initially produced by enslaved Africans.
“Launching an in-depth investigation to look at how the university might have benefited from the profits of racial slavery was, in my opinion, a brave decision.
“But it is a decision rooted in the core values of an educational institution dedicated to the pursuit of truth and social justice.”
The report was welcomed by Professor Sir Hilary Beckles, the vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, an external adviser to the report along with Professor Sir Geoff Palmer, a leading civil rights and equality campaigner.
Graham Campbell, a Glasgow City Council councillor and an activist for African-Caribbean issues in Scotland, also welcomed the report.
“The approach adopted by the University of Glasgow is commendable and is endorsed by the UWI as an excellent place to begin,” said Beckles. “Both universities are committed to excellent and ethical research, teaching and public service.
“I celebrate colleagues in Glasgow for taking these first steps and keenly anticipate working through next steps.”
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