The hands of enslaved people built the foundations of Florida State University. As a microcosm of Leon County and the state of Florida, the university sacrificed the freedom of African Americans to develop its economic prosperity. After entering the Union as a slave state in 1845, Florida made plans for supporting higher education in 1851. Political elites in Tallahassee used enslaved labor to construct a school building in 1854, hoping the state would officiate it as the location of the Seminary West of the Suwannee River. They succeeded in 1857, and the school became known as West Florida Seminary. Before and after the Civil War, African Americans janitors kept the building safe and clean. Yet even after emancipation, Florida excluded African Americans from attending. This exhibit explored the history of Florida State University during enslavement, emancipation, and the memory of those events.
In Spring of 2022, graduate students in HIS 6087 researched, wrote, and created on paper a plan for an exhibit on the history of FSU's residential housing titled "The Human Cost of Education: Enslavement, Emancipation, and Florida State University."
The students worked with FSU's Heritage & University Archives to make this happen.
