For decades, the University of North Carolina had an active slave leasing program, whereby the University “leased” hundreds of enslaved black people to students for a fee. On November 25, 1829, after a black man escaped the University grounds and sought his freedom, rewards were issued to effectuate his recapture and re-enslavement on UNC grounds.
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Through the program, UNC trafficked enslaved black people, by collecting fees from students to “lease” the enslaved back to them. Students paid a yearly fee in their tuition for their labor. UNC had contract agreements with plantations and local enslavers in Orange and Chatham County, as well as the school’s employees, trustees, and presidents, who “leased” the enslaved to the University. Through this trafficking program, UNC not only increased its revenue, but also enriched local enslavers.
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On November 25, 1829, a graduate of UNC issued rewards for the capture of a black man named James who had been trafficked to work at the University for the prior four years. James had sought his freedom from enslavement and ran away from campus. The ad was placed in several local newspapers, and encouraged people with information about James’s whereabouts to direct their correspondence to UNC to effectuate his recapture.
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In its founding charter in 1789, the University was given the right to sell enslaved black people who had been enslaved by local white people who died without heirs. Under this agreement, white enslavers’ “property,” including enslaved black people, was escheated to the University’s Board of Trustees. 10 years after the reward for James was announced, following the death of a local enslaver, the University sold the black people that person had enslaved, earning $2,800, which amounts to approximately $83,000 dollars today.

The ad 👇🏾 :

TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.
Ran off from the University, on the night of the 20th instant a negro man by the name of JAMES, who has for the last four years attended a Chapel Hill in the capacity of a college servant. He is of dark complexion, in stature five feet six or eight inches high, and compactly constructed; speaks
quick and with ease, and is in the habit of shaking his head while in conversation. He is doubtless well dressed, and has a consideradle quantity of clothing. It is presumed that he will make for Norfolk or Richmond with the view either of taking passage for some of the free states, or of going on and associating himself with the Colonization Society. It is supposed that he has with him a horse of the following description: a sorrel roan, four feet six ar seven inches high, hind feet white, with a very long tail, which where it joins the body is white or flax colour. A premium of twenty doliars will be given for the apprehension of said slave. The subscriber would request any one who may apprehend the boy to direct their conmunications to Chapei Hill. ~ S. M. Stewart.