Documents the history of Rutgers's connection to slavery, which was neither casual nor accidental - nor unusual. The book uses the Rutgers colours, scarlet and black, to signify the blood that was spilled by those dispossessed of their land and the bodies that laboured in bondage so that Rutgers could be built and sustained.
Scarlet and Black documents the history of Rutgers’s connection to slavery, which was neither casual nor accidental—nor unusual. Like most early American colleges, Rutgers depended on slaves to build its campuses and serve its students and faculty. The contributors offer this history as a usable one—to strengthen Rutgers and help direct its course for the future.
The work of the Committee on Enslaved and Disenfranchised Population in Rutgers History.