Elite schools and slavery in the UK – capital, violence and extractivism

ABSTRACT

Elite schools in the UK are bound to the history of British colonialism. This paper examines the material ties between these schools and the transatlantic slave trade. We combine multiple sources to examine which schools and their alumni accrued substantial economic capital derived from the enslavement of Black people. We find two principal connections: first, in donations and foundations of schools from those who made their fortune in the slave trade; and second, through income of boys attending these schools. Drawing on the Legacies of British Slavery dataset, we show that schools with alumni benefitting from the slave trade include the most prestigious British private schools. Moreover, this paper traces the histories of several secondary schools founded by, or in receipt of, substantial donations from slave-owning families. We argue that extractive, violent forms of colonial capital accumulation have been central to, the formation and maintenance of these elite educational institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Elites
• school
• slavery
• colonialism
• philanthropy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All following references to equivalent costs were calculated used the measuring worth website. Labour cost was chosen as the donations for buildings as this represents the cost of a project measured as a multiple of the average wage of workers over time. In some cases other measures were used to indicate income or commodity values (where reference is made to purchasing property, regular annual income from land or annuities or payment to individuals).