New Exhibit: Slavery at William & Mary

A new exhibit in Swem Library is now open through September 2011. “Prejudice So Prevalent in the Present Generation”: Slavery at William &Mary offers an overview of slavery at William & Mary through letters, documents, and publications. The history of slavery at William & Mary is almost as old as the university itself. It is documented through university records, debates in the Virginia General Assembly, essays, letters of faculty and students, and even the university's oldest student newspaper, The Owl. William & Mary owned slaves on its plantation at Nottoway Quarter, leased land to farmers, had slaves cut wood and run errands into Williamsburg, and even let students bring their own slaves to campus (provided they paid a fee). During the Civil War, the university closed because faculty and students joined the Confederate Army. But William & Mary was not unique; as judge and professor of Law St. George Tucker wrote, slavery was a "prejudice so prevalent in the present generation." The exhibit is open to the public in the lobby of Swem Library’s Special Collections Research Center Monday-Friday 10am-5:45pm (Wednesdays until 8:45pm) and Saturdays 10am-1pm. Hours vary during semester breaks.