Slavery, Memory, and Justice Project

The Slavery, Memory, and Justice Project was founded in 2020 by William Jewell College students, alumni, and faculty dedicated to educating the Jewell community about the college's pro-slavery past and uncovering stories that illuminate the lives of the enslaved individuals whose exploitation made the college's founding possible. Our research proves that Jewell's major financial supporters held more than one thousand men, women, and children in slavery. Those enslaved people's coerced labor, and in some cases their sale on auction blocks, provided much of the wealth used to establish the college in 1849 and build Jewell Hall.  From 2021 to 2023, SMJP members presented their work in newspaper articles, interviews with Kansas City-area media, and at academic conferences. The SMJP's work will culminate in the creation of a documentary series highlighting our research into slavery's influence on Jewell's past. One episode has been completed, and others will follow.