William Greenleaf Eliot

For many years, Washington University has portrayed one of its founders, William Greenleaf Eliot, as an abolitionist. But, in 2021, a group of students and faculty disproved that notion and even showed Eliot was vehemently opposed to abolitionism.

Washington University students and faculty have lifted the veil from its co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot, who for years was known as an abolitionist. Although he held anti-slavery views, he vehemently opposed abolitionism and did not see a future for freed Black people in America.