The University of Cambridge plans to open a new research centre exploring the history of slavery, after a study found the university indirectly benefited from the Atlantic slave trade.
The two-year study by an interdisciplinary group of Cambridge academics found that while university institutions had not directly owned slave plantations, they benefited through investments in colonial companies that were central to the trade.
The advisory panel found colleges purchased South Sea Company shares and annuities, also receiving gifts from major investors in the Royal African and the East India companies and tuition fees from parents who owned slave estates.
