A few years ago, Brown University commissioned a study of its own historical connection to the Atlantic slave trade. The report found that the Brown family the wealthy Rhode Island merchants for whom the university was named , were "not major slave traders, but they were not strangers to the business either."

So you might think that Brown or the College of Rhode Island, as it was known in the early days would figure prominently into Craig Steven Wilder's new book Ebony & Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities. And while Brown does make an appearance, so does Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Dartmouth, Pennsylvania, and William and Mary.

Wilder, who chairs the history department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, wasn't lacking for material."The academy never stood apart from American slavery," Wilder writes in the book. "In fact, it stood beside church and state as the third pillar of a civilization built on bondage."

But those early colleges also made a point to reach out to wealthy families in the Caribbean, where there were few colleges and universities.Wilder argues that the academy was also central to the development of scientific racism pseudoscience meant to establish the provable inferiority of certain racial groups that would serve as a pretext for enslavement.

American farmers would leave to study in Europe, and they would be seen as experts on Native Americans and Africans because of their closer contact with them. Those people gave lectures and dissertations on the bodily and mental inferiority of these various groups.But the relationship those institutions had to slavery was not neatly pro- or anti-slavery. At one early Yale event, honorary degrees were bestowed to both a slave owner and to an abolitionist.A group of slave traders at what is now Columbia University created a medal to be awarded to the author of the best essay arguing against slavery.

The official histories of Northern universities have long failed to describe the role of slaves. Early on, these histories included descriptions of the black slaves on campus as caricatures. "By dehumanizing them, you can actually make their presence unremarkable," Wilder said. "Through a kind of comedy and lampooning, they were barbaric figures that no one needed to take seriously."

Even tho the universities had different beliefs about slavery they still "did their job" heres an example of Yale University presenting degress to both parties ;(slave owners), (Abolitionists)

A list of the colleges Ill be refering too throughout my annotations

Some evidence thatt many colleges tried to acheieve what the ones talked about throughout the article did ,but were often times unsuccessful

This is from a flier that was published by thr New-York Post Boy and Weekly Gazette that announced the swearing -in ceremony for the trustees of Kings College (Columbia University) his point was to demonstrate just how ingrained slavey was to the 18th centyury academy.

Evidence that agains backs up Wilders knowledge and education on the topics dicussed thorughout this article.

This is saying that the report showed that the Brown family which the university is named after had some experience with slavery.

This is very intriguing to me, europeans thought that just because american farmers owned slaves , they thought that they understood them more; which confuses me .

This is one of Wilders important arguments ;that the academy was also central to the development of scientific racism, they started to use pseudoscience to try to try and come up with another way to exert their prejudice .

This is key information because Wilder is the chair of the history department at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology,and this shows his knowledge and vouches for his crediability.

This is giving the main idea of the article ;esentially the who;what;when;where, and why of the article. This introductory line sets the reader up for the rest of the article

This show how african amercians never changed who they were at heart or how they went about living internally , even with all the racism and hatred going on throughout the world at that time.

Here the author is telling us how both oral history and archaeology are important in obtaing history , but archaeology can open our eyes a bit more and provide actual physical evidence, which is always better and more reliable than oral history

This passage throws me off because negative evidence is "evidence for a theory provided by the nonoccurrence or absence of something", and its saying even though the photograph of the Burr house shows a small chimney projecting the roof, there was neither evidenve nor space for a hearth and chimeny of the sort seen in american houses of the period

Latin for "limit after which," is used to indicate the date after which an artifact must have been deposited." “TPQ.pdf.” Accessed September 7, 2016. http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/comic/activity/pdf/TPQ.pdf.

the earliest possible date for something. Origin

Latin, literally ‘end after which.’

the earliest possible date for something. Origin

Latin, literally ‘end after which.’

I think its cool how these archaeologists can determine how and when the building was destroyed all from small compenents such as , charcoal,ash deposits, etc.It really shows how much skill and experience they have aquired from their profession.

I find it kind of neat how they just come uopn new evidence and artifacts , and all i can sum it up to is pure luck , because if they would have went looking any other time Im almost certain they would have never found it .

This shows how if you wanted to be known of some sort;or just to have record kept of you and you were african american you had to become a soilder and go to war for america to care about you.

This is key information , its showing how there was literally no record kept of colored people before a certain time..

Here the author is trying to give a bit of insight on how credible Cato Howes and his fellow blacks of plymouth, and all the oral history and artifacts thats are found throughout the reading

something