January 27, 1736 - John Brown
His prominence in civic life — co-founding a university, establishing a bank, serving in government — ran in direct parallel with his role in the slave trade, and he used all of it to defend the institution aggressively. When Rhode Island passed one of the first anti-slave-trade laws in the new republic, Brown worked systematically to undermine it, bringing his wealth, political connections, and public platform to bear against his own abolitionist brother and others who challenged him.
From Wikipedia
John Brown (January 27, 1736 – September 20, 1803) was an American merchant, politician and slave trader from Providence, Rhode Island. Together with his brothers Nicholas, Joseph and Moses, Brown was instrumental in founding Brown University (then known as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) and moving it to their family's former estate in Providence.
Brown laid the cornerstone of the university's oldest building in 1770, and he served as its treasurer for 21 years, from 1775 to 1796. He was also one of the founders of Providence Bank and served as its first president in 1791. Brown was active in the American Revolution, notably as an instigator of the 1772 Gaspee Affair, and he served in both state and national government. At the same time, he was a powerful voice of proslavery thought, clashing aggressively in newspapers, courts and the political system with his brother Moses, who had become an abolitionist.
Brown's home in Providence is now a museum and National Historic Landmark. His personal desk and bookcase reside at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut.
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