PROVIDENCE — More than 240 years ago, John and Moses Brown financed a slave ship bound for Africa. They also poured money into Brown University in Providence. Slaves worked on the first building, now University Hall.

Yesterday, Brown University said it will recognize its slave trade past through a new memorial modeled on monuments and sites in New York City, Montgomery, Ala., and Liverpool, England.

But the memorial may not be built on the Ivy League school’s Providence campus.

Both Newport and Bristol played major roles in the slave trade, which continued into the early 1800s, long after the state outlawed it. Many reminders of the trade –– former auction sites, Colonial homes and Newport’s slave cemetery –– remain, Brown’s Commission on Memorials said.

“It may be appropriate, in memorializing Rhode Island’s role in the trade, to look beyond Brown’s immediate neighborhood,” the commission said.

For more than 75 years, Rhode Island ruled the American slave trade. Its merchants financed at least 1,000 voyages to Africa and helped enslave more than 100,000 men, women and children.

Slave ownership was also prevalent in the state. Before the Revolution, a third of all Newporters owned at least one slave. Slaves also worked on the large farms in Washington County.

Over the past year, Brown’s commission looked at six memorials, including the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in Montgomery, Ala.; the African Burial Ground Memorial, in New York City and the International Slavery Museum, in Liverpool, England.

However, “there was no concrete recommendation on what form a memorial should take,” said Brown spokeswoman Marisa Quinn.

Brown will work with state and city officials on how to best remember the region’s role in slavery and the slave trade.

“The state and the city should view this project as a true partnership with Brown University, given the significant history of slavery in Rhode Island and America,” the commission said. “The governor and the mayor should provide the initial leadership, and the Rhode Island congressional delegation, state, and city political leadership should be involved in understanding the significance of this project.”

The physical memorial is one of six recommendations by the commission.

It also said the college should teach about the state’s slave trade history to its own students and in the public schools; award a prize for research on the subject; consider a Native American memorial; and pay for seminars and events to “help the community reflect on the history of slavery in Rhode Island and on the importance of similar atrocities around the world.”

“It’s great news –– even if it’s 200 years late,” said Richard Lobban, a professor of African studies at the Naval War College in Newport.

“So far, the state of Rhode Island has been in deep denial” about its history, said Lobban who, along with others, has fought to have the topic taught in public schools.

The recommendations are in response to a 2006 report by Brown’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice, appointed by President Ruth J. Simmons.

According to the 107-page report, a handful of slaves helped erect the first Brown building in Providence, and Rhode Island slave dealers donated some of the labor, money and materials. Plantation owners in the South also gave money to the college, the report said.

John Brown financed and defended a number of slave voyages; his brother Moses later became a Quaker and an ardent abolitionist.

In response to the sweeping report, the university created the 10-member Commission on Memorials, made up of historians and experts on public art, memorials and community and government affairs.

The group met six times before making its recommendations.

Earlier, Brown agreed to create a $10-million endowment for Providence’s public schools, called the Fund for the Education of the Children of Providence.

So far, the university has raised $1.5 million. Officials will distribute the first grants this spring, Quinn said.

Brown also launched the Urban Education Fellows program, which rewards Brown graduate students who agree to work in Providence area schools for at least three years after they earn a master’s degree.

The university also plans to hire a director for its new Center for Slavery and Justice.Recommendations

•Commission a memorial that recognizes Brown’s ties to the slave trade.

•Include the state and communities in memorializing the region’s role in slavery and the slave trade.

•Determine how to teach the topic at Brown and in the state’s public schools.

•Provide money for lectures and events tied to the history of slavery in Rhode Island and to the importance of similar atrocities around the world.

•Recognize slavery and slave trade research with a prize.

•Address the need to memorialize Native American heritage in Rhode Island.

pdavis@projo.com