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In John Warner Barber. Our Whole Country: Or, The Past and Present of the United States, Historical and Descriptive. Cincinnati: H. Howe, 1861.

Even though our university's namesake, Rev. Richard Furman, did not get to take part of the planning stages of a new school, the convention honored him as the namesake of the new seminary: Furman Academy and Theological Institution. Throughout these early decades and relocations, Furman weathered financial straits and low enrollment. Its doors were kept open by donations from the Baptist faithful across South Carolina, a state dominated by the slave economy. Nearly all the university’s largest donors and trustees were slaveholders, and many of them were planters (a designation given to those who held twenty or more slaves).
It would take four relocations before formally becoming Furman University in the 1850s. Findings from the Seeking Abraham Task Force Report point to a racially-motivated Furman history of relocating and antebellum wealth-building, projects made possible in great part by slave labor. At a critical moment where Furman struggled financially, it was the enslaved who kept the doors open and paved a legacy.

It would take four relocations before formally becoming Furman University in the 1850s. Findings from the Seeking Abraham Task Force Report point to a racially-motivated Furman history of relocating and antebellum wealth-building, projects made possible in great part by slave labor. At a critical moment where Furman struggled financially, it was the enslaved who kept the doors open and paved a legacy.

In John Warner Barber. Our Whole Country: Or, The Past and Present of the United States, Historical and Descriptive. Cincinnati: H. Howe, 1861.