Institutional Figures
The initial phases of the exhibit cover the lives and influence of 19th-century leaders Jeremiah Bell Jeter, Robert Ryland, James Thomas, Jr., Thomas C. Williams, Sr., Bennet Puryear, and Sarah Brunet, as well as 20th-century leader Douglas Southall Freeman; their roles at the institution and in the Baptist church; their professional roles and accomplishments; and the roles of the 19th-century figures in enslavement and of Douglas Southall Freeman in the public promotion of segregation and eugenics in the 20th century.
The Institutional Figures section will expand as the site extends to later eras of our history. Other institutional leaders, as well as faculty, students, staff, and individuals who have strengthened the institution, helped it achieve important milestones, or represent key part of the University’s history, will be added in future phases.
Jeremiah Bell Jeter (1802-1880) was a Baptist minister and a founding trustee of the Virginia Baptist Seminary and Richmond College, where he was later president of the Board of Trustees. A prominent Baptist leader, he served as pastor of First Baptist Church and Grace Street Baptist Church in Richmond and as senior editor of the influential Religious Herald. An enslaver himself, in his role as editor, Jeter publicly advocated for enslavement and promoted views of white racial superiority.
Robert Ryland (1805-1899), a Baptist minister, was the principal, steward, and an instructor at Virginia Baptist Seminary, the first president of Richmond College and its Board of Trustees, and a professor of moral philosophy and other subjects at Richmond College. He also served as pastor of First African Baptist Church in Richmond and as a visiting minister to numerous congregations. An enslaver, he “hired out” some that he enslaved to the seminary and Richmond College, oversaw institutional use of enslaved labor, and offered theological and economic defenses of enslavement.
James Thomas, Jr. (1806-1886) was a tobacco magnate and Baptist lay leader. He was a founding member and later president of the Richmond College Board of Trustees and a benefactor of Richmond College and the Richmond Female Institute. His generosity allowed Richmond College to reopen following its financial devastation in the Civil War. In his extensive tobacco enterprise, Thomas was a large-scale enslaver and exploiter of leased enslaved men, women, and children.
Bennet Puryear (1826-1914) was a faculty member at Richmond College from 1848 to 1858 and 1866 to 1895 and an administrator from 1869 to 1885 and 1888 to 1895. His academic positions included tutor, professor of natural sciences, and professor of chemistry, and following the elimination of the role of president, he served in the administrative role of chairman of the faculty, providing day-to-day oversight and management of the institution and serving as the public face of the college during decades of growth. Prior to Emancipation, he directly enslaved individuals and participated in the slave hire system; after Emancipation, he widely published his views on race, which focused on claims of white superiority and denying Black children access to public education and Black men the right to vote.
Sarah Williamson Brunet (1799-1888) was a supporter of Baptist causes, including Richmond College, and lived most or all of her life in Norfolk, Virginia. Her late-life gifts and bequest to Richmond College provided both student aid and property. While few details of her life can be reconstructed, evidence suggests she was married to Peter Brunet, Jr. (1798-1830) and inherited from him control of a household and assets, raising at least two children while steering a real estate portfolio that included properties in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia. Records indicate that between 1835 and 1862 Brunet enslaved between one and four children and adults each year.
Thomas C. Williams, Sr.(1831-1889), a late-19th-century Richmond College trustee and donor, provided funds to the institution at crucial times, exhibiting a particularly strong interest in the nascent law program. He amassed considerable wealth through tobacco manufacturing enterprises of international reputation. From the beginning of his business career in the early 1850s through the end of the Civil War, in his roles as James Thomas, Jr.’s clerk and as a partner in two other tobacco businesses, Williams was deeply involved in the exploitation of enslaved individuals’ labor.
Douglas Southall Freeman, a 1904 graduate of Richmond College who served as a trustee for 25 years and as rector for more than 15, was likely the University’s most widely known alumnus in the middle of the 20th century. He was editor of the Richmond News Leader and a popular radio commentator, positions that afforded him significant public influence. His national reputation as a historian of the Confederacy and as a public intellectual grew substantially, particularly after his receipt of the Pulitzer Prize for his four-volume biography of Robert E. Lee in 1935. He received a second Pulitzer posthumously for his seven-volume biography of George Washington. Freeman leveraged his influence to benefit the University of Richmond and helped guide the University through the Depression and World War II. In his scholarship and public commentary, Freeman both reflected and molded attitudes about the Confederacy and Civil War, racial segregation, and eugenics. His perspectives were deeply entwined with his conviction of white superiority and his lifelong belief in the role of so-called “clean blood” in determining character and achievement. While these beliefs were shared by many white Virginians of his day, Freeman used his public platform to advocate for his views and related public policy.
