WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — William & Mary has dedicated a brick memorial that recognizes people who were enslaved by the university.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the memorial is 20 feet high and 16 feet wide. It cost more than $2.9 million to build.
The university was chartered in 1693. It benefited from enslaved labor for 170 years. It’s unclear how many people the university enslaved, but historians have discovered the names of more than 100 people owned by the college or its employees and students.
Enslaved people made the bricks that built the Wren Building, and they erected the building itself.
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