Research finds no evidence of direct slave holdings but gains accrued from investments and individuals involved in slavery
The University of Cambridge gained “significant benefits” from the transatlantic slave trade, although there is no evidence the university owned enslaved people or slave plantations, according to new research investigating its historical links to slavery.
The research, commissioned in 2019 by Cambridge’s vice-chancellor, Stephen Toope, highlighted the considerable investments made by Cambridge colleges in companies heavily involved in slave trading, such as the East India Company and the South Sea Company, as well as the wealth derived from slavery by the university’s graduates, fellows and benefactors as recently as the 1850s.
