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More disturbing information has emerged unlocking Yale University’s (YU) unsavoury links to the slave trade, as well as the involvement of Wrexham.
The founder of the prestigious American university is buried in the city’s churchyard, and he comes from a Welsh family, but he had connections to the slave trade.
A petition protested at the naming of the city’s Elihu Yale pub in his honour, saying people like that should not be commemorated.
Students at YU have pointed out that many of its colleges have been named after slave holders and pro-slavery leaders, including John C. Calhoun College in 1933, and Samuel F.B. Morse College in 1961.
In April a book laid bare the university’s appalling past.
It was called ‘YALE AND SLAVERY: A HISTORY’, and perhaps in recognition of what happened, was published by Yale itself.
The first sentence reads like a confession: “A multitude of Yale University’s founders, rectors, early presidents, faculty, donors and graduates played roles in sustaining slavery, its idealogical underpinnings and its power”.
However it seems that Elihu Yale was honoured in Wrexham despite his controversial background.
The family’s connection with the city began in the late 16th century when his great grandfather bought what is now part of the Erddig estate, run by the National Trust (NT).
A number of locations in Wrexham adopted Yale’s name, including a college campus and private hospital.
The Wetherspoon pub there said proudly about its premises on its website: “This is named after the founder of Yale University, who lies buried in Wrexham churchyard. Born in America, of an ancient Welsh family, Yale worked in India, where he rose to become Governor of Fort St George…”.
The petition several years ago, was signed by almost 200 people, and suggested renaming the pub to “Old Man Spoons”, or the Welsh language equivalent.
Organiser Eleanor Lee said at the time that Yale and his family “made their fortune within the slave trade and has since been glorified”.
“This is not what our town (then) and local pubs should be commemorating.”
Wetherspoon said at the time of the huge row, that it was willing to consider changing the pub’s name as it was “not aware of any connections with the slave trade”.
YU acknowledges its namesake’s involvement in slave trading, but took his name due to the donations he made to the then fledgling institution.
This is a controversy that looks likely to run and run, as more alarming information about the founder of YU’s links to the slave trade, and Wrexham’s commemoration of him, continue to come out…
The memories of our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry’s, astonishing, decades long award-winning career in journalism (when uncovering awkward facts was paramount) as he was gripped by the rare neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A Good Story’. Order it now.
The author of the book ‘YALE AND SLAVERY: A HISTORY’ is David W. Blight.
Tomorrow – why news of how an operation is underway to save the job of the man in charge at the BBC, Tim Davie, after a string of extraordinary scandals, and of how journalist analysis shows that the cost to the taxpayer has been millions of pounds, once again shine the spotlight on the corporation’s REFUSAL to answer The Eye’s questions about them.
