Vazquez, Sergio

Period 3
11/26/16
Weekly Vocabulary Response

Lesson 15: Words Relating to Humility and Obedience

1. Compliant 2. Submissive 3. Fawning 4. Subordinate 5. Obsequious 6. Subservient

7. Servile 8. Sycophant 9. Slavish 10. Toady

Rutgers History

Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey is the eighth oldest university in

America dating back to 1766. In celebration of its recent 250th birthday, a research report was

recently released that underlies the slavish9 history of the school. It was discovered that the

university depended on servile7 slaves to build its campus. Sycophants8 , the slaves belonging to

the owners and founders of the university, were also sold to fund the construction of the

university itself meaning countless families were resold back into slavery or separated from their

families all to make the construction of this university possible. It was also uncovered that these

same obsequious5 African-Americans also became an important component of its internal

function by helping serve the students and faculty of the university. These submissive2 slaves

were the opposite of a toady10, however, as they were forced to perform these tasks without any

pay or benefits. Most if not all of the founders of the university were also found to have

subordinated4 a slave in one way or another and most were even affiliated with the American

Colonization Society who during this time period was attempting to relocate freed slaves back to

Africa. The famous abolitionist herself, Sojourner Truth and her subservient6 parents are
believed to have been owned by the father of of Rutgers first president himself. These helpless

blacks fawned3 for their survival and faced racism and a whip to the back in exchange for their

hard work in the construction of Rutgers. The compliant1 sacrifices of these ancestors is now

being paid off slowly by slowly as the university aims to place historical markers in recognition

of the contributions of these slaves around the campus and will name buildings after

African-American leaders.

Sources:

1)http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/rutgers-releases-report-detailing-school-history-sl

avery-article-1.2881303

2)http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/11/22/new-rutgers-research-examines-s

lavery-universitys-core/94312676/

3) http://www.nj.com/education/2016/11/rutgers_slavery_racism_report.html