The descendants of enslaved Black people responsible for the building of a Missouri-based university are requesting the amount of stolen labor – and it is in the billions .
Descendants of the St. Louis University Enslaved have calculated the school’s stolen labor is worth as much as $74 billion. On Feb. 8, the group reached out to St. Louis University, formerly Jesuit University, to follow up on commitments made in 2016. The Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project found the institution used beatings and family separation as a form of harsh punishment.
Between 1823 and 1865, universities in Missouri borrowed, rented, and owned close to 200 enslaved Black people. Three enslaved families from the White Marsh Plantation in Maryland were removed in 1823 and delivered to Florissant. Those same people helped build the St. Stanislaus seminary and plantation. More slaves arrived from Maryland in 1829 – the same year the Jesuits took over St. Louis College – later becoming St. Louis University, where some enslaved people were forced to work.