History
As with America’s founding, the origins and development of the institution that would become Washington and Lee University is connected to the institution of slavery. Our on-going research has focused on African and Native American families who were enslaved or, in the case of free or manumitted individuals, employed by members of the W&L community in Lexington between c .1780 and 1865. Starting with the first Lexington-based President, Rev. William Graham (the founder of Liberty Hall Academy), the school relied on labor from enslaved and free African Americans. In 1799, Rev. George A. Baxter began his presidency and oversaw the multi-decade evolution of the academy into Washington College. During this time, President Baxter owned up to a dozen people, who lived with him at the then “president’s house” (located in a building that was once located on the site of today’s Lee House). At his death, in 1841, we read in his Estate Inventory about the people he owned, including Duke, Thornton, Alfred and John and, Rachel, Hannah, George Ann, June, Susan, and Adiline.
After Liberty Hall burned in 1803, a Lexington farmer named Andrew Alexander took ownership of the lands in and around the ruins of the Liberty Hall Academy. For the next 50 years, dozens of African American men, women, and children were enslaved at the Alexander Plantation. Today, archaeologists at W&L continue the research into the lives of the enslaved families as well as the enslavers who lived at this site.
Under Baxter’s leadership, the school undertook multiple construction projects, creating the outlines of what would become the Colonnade. The labor of enslaved men was critical in several of these efforts, including the workers who made the bricks for the Center Building (today called Washington Hall). During this same era, John Robinson gave the College lands, monies, and 84 enslaved people who had worked on his plantations in Rockbridge County. A decade later, the college sold all but two dozen people from this bequest. For the next three decades, other enslaved individuals were forced into servitude in faculty houses and some students brought enslaved men with them to assist them at school.
Every W&L President during this period owned enslaved people. While we search for descendants to learn more about these families, the documentary record provides some insights into their lives and challenges. For example, President George Junkin (who served as College president between 1848-1861) lived with Free Blacks and enslaved people. And while Junkin left after Virginia seceded from the United States of America because of his pro-Union stance, he remained a supporter of the institution of slavery.
Off campus, in Lexington and Rockbridge, Enslaved and Free African Americans were integral to other aspects of everyday life and industry. They were builders, iron workers, midwives, farmers, housekeepers, preachers, and teachers. They played critical roles in the growth and maintenance of the community. This project, and the research of descendants and many other members of the W&L community, will add to our understanding of thousands of local citizens who have often been overlooked orerased from the history books.