UGA looks to explore its history of slavery

UGA was founded in 1785, and it wants research from that year to 1865, when the Civil War ended.

Some students, faculty, alumni and community leaders say the school needs to commit more money for the work and extend the time period of research past the Civil War.

“It’s not a lot of money for this sort of research, but it’s a beginning,” said UGA associate history professor Chana Kai Lee, who is part of a team working on a proposal to investigate that history.

Researchers have created some websites that show the names of slaves who performed tasks at the University of Georgia for slaveholding faculty that included cleaning buildings and starting fires to keep students warm.

UGA said in its request for proposals that it wants one or more scholarly publications from the research.