Read on Twitter
. @UNC likely would not have survived after the Civil War, and @NCSU may never have existed at all, had the Univ. not profited from the sale of 270,000 acres of expropriated Indigenous land.
This thread builds on the groundbreaking work of Native scholars, esp. “Land-Grab University.” In solidarity with #ScholarStrike we uplift their work, as a reminder that U.S. universities must reckon with their past and present role in the settler state. https://www.landgrabu.org/
Original thread from @Tahtone with more on the "Land-Grab Universities" investigations. https://twitter.com/Tahtone/status/1248036325795729424
From “Land-Grab Univ.” project site @HighCountryNews: “To fund land-grant u’s, the US took 11 million acres of land from approx. 250 tribes, bands and communities through over 160 violence-backed treaties and land cessions…”
“The Morrill Act of 1862 granted that land to states to be sold for the benefit of fledgling universities; altogether, it would raise nearly $18 million for 52 institutions by the early 20th century.”
The Morrill Act, passed during the Civil War, “granted” land for sale in each state, 30,000 acres for each of the state’s Congressional representatives. NC with 7 Reps & 2 Senators was granted 270,000 acres, in the form of scrip.
States were to sell the land/scrip, invest the income, with proceeds going to creating and maintaining state universities. The Act also expanded US imperialism by stipulating those U’s were to offer military training (ROTC programs trace their origins to the Morrill Act).
The founding of NC State as a “land-grant” university from expropriated Indigenous lands is well-documented. But it has done nothing to reckon with this history. Instead it celebrates it each year by marketing the “land-grant” program’s populist bootstrap narrative.
Less well-known is how UNC Chapel Hill owes its existence to the “land-grant” program.
Post Civil War, UNC was in debt, had little public support, & it had lost a primary source of income: the sale of enslaved people thru the State’s “escheat system.” https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1087040500752887810
Post Civil War, UNC was in debt, had little public support, & it had lost a primary source of income: the sale of enslaved people thru the State’s “escheat system.” https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1087040500752887810
In 1866 the NC Gen. Assembly accepted the state’s “grant” of 270,000 acres. In 1867 it transferred it to the UNC Board of Trustees. The BoT sold the land at 50 cents per acre, netting $135,000 ($2.36million in 2020 buying power).
UNC spent some of these proceeds for operating expenses, to try to survive during Reconstruction. It was supposed to use the funds to start an Ag. School (NC State would have to wait), but used it to try to keep the flagship afloat.
UNC ran out of money & had few students, so it closed from 1871-1875. It was only able to open back up using the annual proceeds of the “land-grant” fund, with private donations, and w/ Klan-allied Dems. taking back control of the Gen. Assembly.
UNC received and profited from other tracts of expropriated Indigenous lands. Such as the first donation it ever received… https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1167794630022369280
UNC bankrolled construction of buildings through the sale of expropriated Indigenous lands, such as the 13,000+ acres of donated "bounty land" it sold to finance Gerrard Hall. https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1167794673064316928
Also we have documented how many of the families of UNC's Confederate dead honored by Silent Sam played key roles in the dispossession of Indigenous land. For example: https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1204958651963920386
Not to mention that UNC campus sits on lands dispossessed from thriving native communities via another “land-grant” system. https://twitter.com/sams_reckoning/status/1186104435187077120
@UNC is a #LandGrabU.
Also credit to these great scholars. Thank you! https://twitter.com/tahtone/status/1248036335149092865?s=21
