Elihu Yale: Ruthless philanthropist and slave trader who named one of the US’s most prestigious universities.

Last month, Yale University in the United States issued a formal apology to its early leaders and aides for links it had to slavery.

Since then, one name that comes under intense scrutiny in India is Elihu Yalewhich gave it its name as an Ivy League university (a group of eight American universities of academic excellence).

Yale was the all-powerful Governor-President British East India Company in Madras, South India (present-day Chennai) in the 17th century. And it was a donation of about US$1,486 that earned him the honor of bearing the university’s last name.

“Today that’s the equivalent of $264,000, if you adjust for inflation,” historian Joseph Yanelli, who teaches modern history at Aston University in Birmingham, UK and studies Yale’s links to the UK, told the BBC. Slave trade in the Indian Ocean.

It wasn’t a huge amount by today’s standards, but it helped the university Build a house Brand new.

Often described as a connoisseur and collector of fine things and a philanthropist who donated generously to churches and charities, Elihu Yale now The colonialist who looted India And, worse still, Trade in slaves.

The university’s apology comes after more than three years of investigations into its dark past.

Led by Yale historian David Blight, a team of researchers studied “the university’s history with slavery, the role of slaves in the construction of Yale buildings, and who were the workers who enriched the prominent leaders who gave gifts to Yale.” said in a statement.

With the release of the 448-page book with Apology, “Yale and Slavery: A History”.By Professor Blight, which gives an idea of ​​how Elihu Yale benefited from slavery.

“The Indian Ocean slave trade, which eventually equaled the Atlantic (slave trade) in size and scope, did not become widespread until the 19th century. But the human trade on the Indian subcontinent, along its coasts, as well as in the interior and islands, was very ancient,” He writes.

And it adds up Yale “supervised the sale, allocation, and accounting of many slaves for the East India Company.”

Yanili says that in the Atlantic trade they sold 12 million slaves in 400 years. He believes that trade in the Indian Ocean was greater because it covered a much larger geographical area, connecting Southeast Asia with the Middle East and Africa, and it continued for a longer period of time.

This past research is important. Founded in New Haven, Connecticut 1701Yale is the third oldest institution of higher education in the US, and there are many American presidents and other notables among their students.

And it is well documented that beginning in 1713, Elihu Yale sent hundreds of books on theology, literature, medicine, history, and architecture, a portrait of King George I, fine textiles, and other valuable gifts to the Collegiate School of Connecticut.

The money raised from its sale was used to build it New building A three-story building that was named Yale College in his honor.

Historian and family member Rodney Horace Yale, who wrote a 19th-century biography of Elihu Yale, says his “donation has given blessed certainty to the precarious existence of Yale University.”

He bought her too Immortality for Yale: Although he has no direct descendants, an Ivy League university perpetuates his name.

In its apology, the university said it would “work to improve diversity, support equity and promote an environment of welcome, inclusion and respect” and take steps to “promote inclusive economic growth in New Haven, where 30% of the population is black.”

But he did not say a name change was on the cards, and has rejected calls to do so in the past.

was born in Boston in April 1649Elihu Yale immigrated with his family England When I was three years old. came to Fort St. GeorgeThe white colony of MadrasWhen he was young, in 1672, with an administrative job in East India Company.

The pay offered by the company was “disgracefully and ridiculously small: the governor’s, $128 a year, the apprentice’s, $6.40,” wrote Rodney Horace Yale.

He and other historians say that he engaged in all kinds of business to get his employees private profit.

Over a quarter of a century, Yale rose through the ranks and was finally appointed governor-president in 1687, a job he held for five years until 1692, when he was accused of “using the company’s funds for private speculation, ruling arbitrarily and neglecting were dismissed. his obligations.” “.

In 1699, when he returned to England, he was 51 years old extremely rich. He built “a magnificent house” in Queen’s Square on Great Ormond Street and filled it with works of art and artifacts of great value.

After his death in July 1721, British newspapers described him as “a gentleman noted for his great charity”. But historians say that he was known to him even during his stay in Madras cruelty and greed.

His successors accused him of corruption and the unusual deaths of several councilors while he was governor, and he was once accused of ordering the execution of one of his stable boys “for riding his favorite horse without his permission,” Rodney wrote. . Horace Yale.

The historian says he has some doubts about the evidence in the case, but adds that he “does not disagree with its character.”

“His environment must have been a most effective defense to the record of arrogance, cruelty, sensuality and greed while in power in Madras,” he wrote.

But Rodney Horace Yale overlooks his ancestor’s role in the slave trade, of which many other Elihu Yale biographers and recent historians have also been accused.

Yanilli, who reviewed the colonial records of Fort St. George, says that “It’s all in black and white” And it cannot be denied that “Elihu Yale was an active and successful slave trader.”

Yannielli does not dare to speculate on how much money he made from slavery because profits “went up and down” and also because he traded in other commodities such as diamonds and textiles, making it “difficult to sort out the profits he made from each trade”. is

But he believes it was a fairly significant part of his fortune.

“I can tell that his ability to make money was enormous. He was in charge of running the slave trade in the Indian Ocean.”

“In the 1680s, a devastating famine (in southern India) caused labor shortages, and Yale and other company officials seized the opportunity to buy hundreds of slaves and ship them to the English colony of St. Helena,” he told me.

Yale, he adds, “participated in a meeting that ordered the shipment of at least 10 slaves on every European ship. In just one month in 1687, Fort St. George exported at least 665 slaves. As Governor-President of the Madras Settlement, Yale Implemented 10 slaves per ship rule.

The expert, Yale alumnus Elihu, began researching Yale’s connection to the slave trade more than a decade ago when he saw an image that featured the governor. Attended by a collared slave.

That famous painting (seen early in the story), he says, is some of the most damning evidence linking Yale to slavery. Between 1719 and 1721Shows Yale with three other white men served by a “page,” a term that usually means servant, but in this case, a euphemism for a slave.

“Slavery was widespread in England at that time. It is not clear whether he himself owned the slave or was a member of his family (who owned it). But the presence of the boy in the painting, serving him, already other, shows that slavery was in their daily life. was consolidated.”

Yannielli says that may be why some of Yale’s early biographers downplayed his relationship with slavery. Lack of access to historical material in the past.

But with detailed minutes of East India Company meetings now available in digital format, more recent scholars have chosen to ignore the evidence “because They didn’t want to see him Or they didn’t think it was important in the era before the Black Lives Matter movement.

Yanelli also claimed that Yale was an abolitionist who ordered a ban on the slave trade in Madras when he was governor.

“He says that what really ended slavery was an attempt to burn his effigy. If you look at the original documents, it was the Mughal rulers of India who told the company to end it. But Yale soon did it again and ordered his transport. Slaves from Madagascar to Indonesia a year later.”

“Resistance to slavery and imperialism began in the 15th century and there were abolitionists. But Yale certainly wasn’t.”

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