A Difficult, Yet Undeniable, History

A Difficult, Yet Undeniable, History. . Washington and Lee University's involvement with slavery is a regrettable chapter of its history that must nonetheless be confronted and examined. The most well-documented episode in that chapter is the 1826 bequest of 84 enslaved African Americans to Washington College from "Jockey" John Robinson, a prominent Rockbridge County landowner., Robinson's estate included "all the negroes of which I may die possessed together with their increase," and his will directed that these enslaved people "shall be retained, for the purposes of labour,... for the space of fifty years after my decease.... At the expiration of these fifty years the trustees aforesaid are released from all restraint as to the disposal of the negroes and may sell or retain them as the results of their labour shall demonstrate to be best.", "A list of negroes belonging to the Estate of John Robinson recd at death time" from 1827 contains the names of 84 men, women, and children along with their ages, appraised value, and such additional details as whether or not they had been hired out by the college to members of the Lexington community, and for what amount of money. (See document at left.), "A list of slaves belonging to Washington College" from July 1834 shows that the college owned 67 enslaved persons. (See document at right.) The first half of this list includes each individual's name, age, and "supposed value," while the second half comprises the names of 28 individuals who were then being hired out by the college, along with the annual income they were earning for the institution., In 1836, the Washington College trustees sold a large majority of the slaves it had received from Robinson to Samuel S. Garland, of Lynchburg, Virginia. During the ensuing 20 years, the college sold additional enslaved persons to local residents. Records indicate that as late as 1857, the college still owned three elderly, incapacitated people., Kenneth P. Ruscio, Washington and Lee University's 26th president (2006-2016), addressed this history in 2016 when he said: "At Washington and Lee, we learn from the past, and this is an episode from which there is much to learn. Acknowledging the historical record, and acknowledging the contributions of these individuals, requires coming to terms with, and accepting responsibility for, a part of our past that we wish had been different, but that we cannot ignore."