Marker memorializing slavery at South Carolina College

Item

Legacies Classification
Memorial Object
Memorial Type
Plaque/Marker
Memorial Context
Reparative
Memorialized Subject
Acknowledgment of the contributions of enslaved workers at South Carolina College
Title
Marker memorializing slavery at South Carolina College
Background and Context
The marker is one of two that are the result of student research and activism. The USC Vision 2020 group formed to demand systematic changes to create a more representative, inclusive, and diverse campus climate. The protesters, dressed in black, marched peacefully from Longstreet Theatre, across the Historic Horseshoe, to the Osborne administration building where they presented a list of 12 demands to Provost Joan Gabel. Among the demands was that the university acknowledge the institution was built by enslaved labor, and include that information on markers and in campus tours. Student research on slavery at South Carolina College had been conducted in previous years, and presented on a student-created website hosted by the university libraries, but the university had not issued formal acknowledgment of the issue. An ad hoc committee of the board of trustee was established in 2016 to develop two markers acknowledging the contributions of enslaved workers and the last remaining slave quarters on campus. The markers were dedicated on Dec. 5, 2017, with a ceremony at Rutledge Chapel.
Physical Description
Bronze marker placed in the bricked path between the curve of the Horseshoe drive and McKissick Museum. It is placed so that as visitors read it, they are looking out on the Horseshoe and the buildings that the enslaved workers build and maintained.
Memorial Inscription
Slavery and the South Carolina College. The Horseshoe, the original campus of the University of South Carolina (established in 1801 as the South Carolina College), still appears much as it did in the mid-1800s. Its buildings and historic wall were substantially constructed by slave labor and built of slave-made brick. Enslaved workers were essential to the daily operations of the college, whether they were owned by the faculty or the college itself, or hired from private citizens. Enslaved people lived in outbuildings, one of which still stands behind what is now the President’s House. The University of South Carolina recognizes the vital contributions made by enslaved people.
Creator/Participating Person(s)
Ad hoc committee on slavery markers
USC Vision 2020
Date created, installed or dedicated
5 December 2017
Historical Period
2000-Present: Confederate Memorialization in the Era of Universities Studying Slavery and the Black Lives Matter Movement
Funded by
University of South Carolina
Location: Institution, City, State
University of South Carolina; Columbia, South Carolina
Learn More About this Subject
Slavery at South Carolina College website
Tags
Resistance Act

Position: 1936 (2 views)