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By the time Phillips Brooks arrived at Virginia Theological Seminary in 1856, the institution was flourishing. Founded more than three decades earlier in the Sunday School Hall of a church in Alexandria, Virginia, the seminary was now located on a 60-hectare estate with lush meadows and a view beautiful on the Washington Monument.
School officials saw the transformation as a sign of divine blessings. But Mr. Brooks, a seminarian who was to become the bishop of his home state, Massachusetts, saw more than God's hand at work.
"There are a lot of slaves here," Brooks wrote in a series of letters describing life at school, the first episcopal seminary in the South. "This is one of the best places to witness the sad effects of slavery on the white population, degrading and removing it.
This month, more than a century after the last enslavement on campus, seminary leaders announced their intention to redeem this story. They create a repair fund of $ 1.7 million, becoming one of the first US institutions to allocate money specifically to the descendants of slaves. The fund will also provide financial support to Black seminarians and black followers who are discriminated against on campus.
"We have to deal with a past that has an ugly side, a bad side," said Reverend Ian S. Markham, Dean and Seminary Chair, in an interview.
"When you talk about something as odious as slavery, there really is no amount that can actually satisfy that sin," Dean Markham said. "It's so huge. But we are going to do the hard work, recognizing that our past is full of sin and grace. "
This move places the Southern Seminary at the forefront of a growing number of universities and religious institutions struggling to be forgiven for their involvement in the US system of involuntary servitude. And that happens when some groups go beyond the excuses, considering the real financial compensation paid to the descendants.
Last year, the Catholic sisters of the The Society of the Sacred Heart created a repair fund to fund scholarships for African Americans in Grand Coteau, Louisiana, where the nuns owned about 150 blacks.
This spring, students at Georgetown University, a Jesuit institution, voted in favor of creating a fund, funded by tuition, for the benefit of the descendants of the 272 people sold in 1838 to help to keep the college afloat. (The plan has not yet received approval from the Georgetown Board of Directors.)
The Jesuits, who founded and directed Georgetown and organized the sale of slaves in 1838, are now in talks with the descendants of the people they once owned. These descendants are looking for $ 1 billion for a foundation that would fund education, health, housing and other needs.
In a statement, Timothy P. Kesicki, President of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States, said that the Jesuits and Georgetown leaders "have engaged constructively in a constructive debate about the vision of the descendants of A way forward. "
The decision taken by Virginia Theological Seminary pushed the debate on reparations – which has erupted in recent months in presidential campaigns and congressional halls – from theory to reality.
"This is important because the discussion of institutional obligations to the descendants of slaves is generally limited to a discussion of research and fact-finding," said Craig Steven Wilder, a historian at MIT who has written extensively on universities and their links with slavery.
"It is religious institutions that have begun to chart a path to restorative justice," said Dr. Wilder. "It is much more difficult for religious institutions to remain silent about the moral implications of their own history."
The Virginia Theological Seminary Fund will be administered by Rev. Joseph Thompson, Director of the Office of Multicultural Ministries. The institution plans to spend about $ 70,000 a year.
The seminar hopes to identify descendants of slave laborers who have worked on campus and seminarians who are discriminated against at school. Officials intend to discuss their needs and provide financial assistance, officials said. "Everything is on the table," Dean Markham said.
Officials also hope to support local churches with historical ties to the seminary and African American alumni, especially the black episcopal clergy and those who work in black congregations.
Dean Markham said the decision to create the fund triggered "a lively debate" within the seminary community where members of the board, faculty and alumni spoke about it.
"People had a lot of questions to ask," said Dr. Thompson. "There are obvious logistical challenges and obvious philosophical issues. I am very happy to answer these questions with the Dean's working group. "
The seminar leaders are planning to start tracing the way forward by digging in the past. They plan to browse the archives to try to discover the names and stories of men and women slaves who have toiled on campus. Many of the founders of the institution were slave owners, including Francis Scott Key, who had written the lyrics of "Star Spangled Banner." According to censuses, at least five faculty members also owned blacks, according to Reverend Joseph M. Constant. the author of "No Turning Back: The Black Presence at Virginia Theological Seminary."
But most of the slaves on campus were rented to local plantations, including Mount Vernon, owned by George Washington. The enslaved workers allegedly built several buildings on campus, including Aspinwall Hall, which currently houses the seminary's administrative offices, said Christopher Pote, seminary archivist.
The sight of so many slave men and women on campus in the 1850s astonished Mr. Brooks, the young seminarian from Massachusetts.
"All servants are slaves," Brooks wrote to his father in 1856. And students who tried to minister to slaves faced threats and resistance.
A student from the North, he wrote, was organizing a meeting once a week for the enslaved people at the seminary, but he had been ordered to leave "where he will have to suffer".
"Another who preached in the neighborhood was informed that there was tar and feathers ready for him as he was moving away from the seminary," Brooks continued. "And in general, they were made to understand that their languages were related and that they were anything but free. A nice lifestyle, is not it?
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