Today in Focus How the University of Edinburgh helped create scientific racism
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Aug 11, 2025 AI Snips
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University Trained Staff For The Slave Economy
- Edinburgh trained doctors, lawyers and administrators who staffed plantations and slave ships across the Atlantic.
- Those graduates helped operationalise the transatlantic slave economy worldwide.
Enlightenment Thinkers Taught Racial Hierarchies
- Dougal Stewart and Adam Ferguson publicly opposed enslavement but taught racial hierarchies to students.
- That duality helped embed early forms of what we now call scientific racism.
Huge Donations Tied To Slavery Funded Edinburgh
- Researchers estimate Edinburgh received the modern equivalent of tens to hundreds of millions from slavery-linked donors.
- The university actively solicited funds from former students profiting in imperial economies.