An Overdue Accounting of Slavery at the University of Georgia

In 1858, forty-six University of Georgia alumni in Clarke County, GA, held 804 persons in bondage. The total tax-assessed value of this human property was $389,170. Enslaved persons accounted directly for 33.6 percent of the tax-assessed wealth of UGA alumni in Clarke County in 1858, but the true value of their stolen labor, knowledge, and skill is incalculable and likely orders of magnitude beyond official figures. The tax digests that provided this information are a problematic archive for studying slavery; they reinscribe the violence of slavery by transforming the lived experiences, personalities, and agency of enslaved persons into cold fiscal abstractions. Historians cannot use these records to understand the complex lives of enslaved persons. That important work requires a different set of records and tools. Tax records can, however, illuminate the direct and indirect relationships between universities, slavery, and enslaved persons. Through these connections, we can begin an accounting of the debt the university owes for its participation in slavery—even if we cannot yet completely answer who the debt is owed to and how it is to be paid. In this session, I will reflect on my experience as a student researcher for the UGA and Slavery project from August 2019 to May 2020 in three parts. First, I will present my research on University of Georgia alumni enslavers through nineteenth-century Clarke County tax digests. Second, I will discuss my work and research within the context of a complex multi-department university-wide project. Finally, I will discuss how I apply findings and experience from the project in the classroom—as an instructor at an institution literally and figuratively built by the labor of enslaved Georgians. Collectively, these reflections amount to a personal reckoning as well as an institutional one; both are long overdue.