Many institutions of higher education have become conscious of the need to learn more and reflect on how their own histories are entangled with the development of colonial era practices and ideas which persist in the present and are implicated in contemporary structures of inequality and racism. An important component of this self-reflection for many universities in Europe and North America has been to investigate their own historical financial links with racial slavery leading to American universities including Yale, Brown, and Georgetown conducting research into their economic ties with the proceeds of slavery, alongside British counterparts such as Cambridge, Bristol, and Glasgow.

Balliol College commissioned this study in September 2019, to assess the extent to which it benefitted financially from slavery. Though there are other forms of non-financial connection between British universities and the institution of slavery, this study focuses on money received by the college from benefactors to ascertain the extent to which Balliol has financial ties to the proceeds of slavery. In addressing this question, this report has sought to define a set of research parameters which are both wide enough to capture the majority of relevant benefactions whilst narrow enough to remain practical given limited time and resources. In doing so, research has concentrated on the period from 1600 to 1919, and at benefactions worth in excess of £1000 when adjusted for purchasing power today. In cases where a benefactor gave the college land, shares, or other gifts such as artwork or books, an estimate of the benefaction’s value was made and the same standards applied. In addition to this, a separate and less in-depth survey of major benefactions received after this date has been completed to ensure that this report does not omit any large sums of money which were received by the college after 1919, but which have clear and obvious connections to the proceeds of slavery.