Columbia Seminary produces timeline looking at the seminary’s links to slavery and racism

DECATUR, Georgia (PNS) — The C. Benton Kline, Jr. Special Collections is pleased to present A Window into the Breach: Theology and the Economy of Slavery at Columbia Theological Seminary, 1824-1899, a timeline consisting of 41 slides looking at racism and the institution of slavery in the 19th century as it relates to the history of Columbia Theological Seminary. 

Many of the slides focus on the earliest and largest donations that the seminary received prior to emancipation, as well as publications, events, and individuals associated with the seminary through this time, including Thomas Smyth, James Henley Thornwell, and John Lafayette Girardeau. Select post-Civil War events and individuals are also highlighted as specifically related to racism and the seminary, memory of the Civil War, and Presbyterian churches throughout the South.  

Enslaved Africans and African Americans contributed their lives while in bondage to the flourishing and growth of Columbia Theological Seminary in the Antebellum South and it is to this end that their names have been given when available. 

Please note that some of the slides that contain information that may be sensitive to some viewers.  

by Columbia Theological Seminary, special to Presbyterian News Service