The University of Virginia has announced that it has named a campus building in honor of Peyton Skipwith, a former slave who quarried stone for some of the early structures on the Charlottesville campus. Skipwith was owned by John Hartwell Cocke, one of the first members of the university’s board of visitors. The new building which houses administrative offices is thought to sit on the site of the original quarry.
In 1833, Cocke freed Skipwith, his wife, and their six children but with the condition that they move to Liberia in Africa. The special collections library at the University of Virginia contains more than 50 letters that the Skipwith family wrote to Cocke after they had settled in Liberia.
About 25 descendants of Peyton Skipwith attended the naming ceremony when it was held on campus recently. They are shown in the photograph below.
molly_millions_ on May 2nd, 2017 at 15:11 UTC »
The University of Georgia is trying to keep it on the low but 105 African-American slaves (women and children included), were founded buried near reconstruction of Baldwin Hall. It's insane this hasn't hit major news yet (as far as I know). There are already petitions on campus to halt all the reconstruction and tear the building down entirely to build a memorial.
rwhitisissle on May 2nd, 2017 at 13:27 UTC »
Most universities in the South that pre-date the Civil War were built using slave labor. It's a fact that not enough of them acknowledge when they write about their own histories.
VintaROss on May 2nd, 2017 at 13:22 UTC »
On one hand, I'm glad someone downtrodden is getting recognition. On the other hand, I can't help but see this as pandering.
"Oh, we totally care. Come, choose us, we're inclusive. Oh, you still have to pay for printing in the school library even though we're spending your life's blood on new buildings that you'll hardly get any use out of? Don't think about the money, think about how caring we are."
Disclaimer: bitter mid-20s male