July 26, 1729 - Nicholas Brown, Sr.
His prominence in colonial Rhode Island rested on a merchant empire substantially built through the slave trade, making his civic legacy — including a founding role at what would become Brown University — inseparable from that commerce. The tension between his institutional respectability and the human cost of his commercial activities has made him a recurring subject in discussions of how slavery underwrote early American institution-building. "Nicholas Brown Sr. (July 26, 1729 – May 29, 1791) was an American merchant, civic leader and slave trader who was a co-signer of the founding charter of the College of Rhode Island in 1763." — Wikipedia
From Wikipedia
Nicholas Brown Sr. (July 26, 1729 – May 29, 1791) was an American merchant, civic leader and slave trader who was a co-signer of the founding charter of the College of Rhode Island in 1763. In 1771, Brown was instrumental in convincing Baptist authorities to locate a permanent home for the college in his hometown of Providence. In 1804, the college was renamed Brown University following a gift made by Brown's son Nicholas Brown Jr.
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