The man's name was Abraham. In a grainy 1889 photo of the plantation home belonging to Furman University's namesake family, he appears standing by the portico with his face obscured in foliage and shadows.

Under the system of apartheid and chattel slavery that defined the United States economy from its early days, Abraham had lived part of his life as the legal property of James C. Furman, the university's first president. Researchers only know his first name because someone wrote it on the back of the photograph. The rest of his life remains hidden from view.

In the fall, faculty and students at Furman University began sifting through their own history to more fully tell the stories of Abraham and other slaves like him whose labor helped establish the school. They will present their findings and recommendations in the spring.