Enslaved on Grounds: Slavery & the Experiences of Enslaved Laborers at UVA

Over 4,000 enslaved people helped to build, work the Grounds, and serve the students and faculty of the University of Virginia. During the early years of the University, these bondsmen and bondswomen prepared and served food, cleaned living quarters, and shoveled snow. They worked in skilled positions as stonemasons, blacksmiths, and carpenters. Enslaved men and women ultimately created the environment to fulfill Thomas Jefferson’s vision of the Academical Village. For over forty years, the University’s enslaved laborers endured the privations of enslaved life while working to construct one of the nation’s most prestigious public universities. Historians have begun to explore the experiences of enslaved people in the early years at the University of Virginia. The recently completed Memorial to Enslaved Laborers goes a long way in recognizing the contributions of the enslaved people owned by the University and members of the University community. Professor Justene Hill Edwards will discuss the experiences of the enslaved laborers whose work was fundamental to the University of Virginia during the nineteenth century. The complicated lives of the University’s enslaved laborers reflected the evolution of slavery in Virginia during a period of dramatic social and economic change, from the University’s founding in 1819 to the Civil War.

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