Name | Public Positions on Slavery | Yale Honors | New Haven Honors |
John
Davenport (1597-1669) Founder of New Haven |
Slave Owner | Davenport College | Davenport Ave |
Abraham
Pierson (1645-1707) First Rector of Yale |
Unknown | Pierson College | None |
Jonathan
Edwards (1703-1758) Preacher, theologian |
Slave Owner | Jonathan Edwards College | None |
George
Berkeley (1685-1753) Famous philosopher |
Slave Owner. Donated a slave-worked Rhode Island plantation, the profits from which endowed the first Yale Scholarship. Publishes and preaches in favor of slavery. Tries but fails to establish college in Bermuda, for which he advocates kidnapping Native American children. | Berkeley College | None |
Jonathan
Trumbull (1710-1785) Connecticut Governor |
Slave Owner. Presided over Connecticut while slavery at its peak, but also during its decline. | Trumbull College | None |
Ezra
Stiles (1727-1795) President of Yale |
Slave Owner, but also preached against slave trade in Newport. Later, presides over society that enforces gradual emancipation law. | Stiles College | None |
Timothy
Dwight (1752-1817) President of Yale |
Slave Owner. Defends American slavery, but attacks slave trade and slavery in Britain and West Indies. During his tenure, Yale graduates more pro-slavery clergy than any other college. | Timothy
Dwight College* Dwight Hall* |
Dwight
Street Dwight School Dwight Neighborhood |
Benjamin
Silliman (1779-1864) Scientist & Yale Faculty |
"Statutory Slave" Owner. Later a colonizationist. Supported 1831 rejection of "Negro college" in New Haven. | Silliman
College |
None |
John
C. Calhoun (1782-1850) U.S. Vice President |
Slave Owner, and plantation master. Uses 40 years of national political power to advocate preservation and expansion of States' rights, and slavery, throughout the nation. Criticizes idea of democratic equality. | Calhoun College | None |
Samuel
F. B. Morse (1791-1872) Inventor of the Telegraph |
Publishes that slavery is a positive good, ordained by God and the Bible. Abolitionists should be excommunicated. Attacks Lincoln and Declaration of Independence. | Morse College | None |
* Timothy Dwight College and Dwight Hall are each named after both the Timothy Dwight named here and his grandson, Timothy Dwight, who became Yale's president in 1881 |
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