"I Likewise Give To Indiana & Elizabeth The Following Slaves...": The Founding of Sweet Briar College and its Racially Charged History

Summary

In 1858, a transplanted Vermonter, Elijah Fletcher, died in Amherst, Virginia, leaving his antebellum plantation and over 140 enslaved individuals to three of his children. His oldest daughter, Indiana Fletcher Williams, combined this inheritance with some of her own wealth and founded Sweet Briar College in 1900 through a directive in her will. In 2001, I began researching the descendants of the enslaved community, studying an on-campus slave cemetery, and designing brochures and exhibits to raise awareness about this complicated past. One of the most surprising results of this research has been the realization that today about 40% of the college's hourly workers are descended from the African American men and women owned by Fletcher. I connected with one of these families, the Fletchers, helped them locate Lavinia and James who lived on the Sweet Briar Plantation until 1865, and joined them for three family reunions held on campus.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Laboring in the Landscapes of Learning: The Archaeology of Slavery at Virginia’s Colleges and Universities   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2016

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 251