A number of US colleges have pledged funding to help descendants of slaves who were sold or forced to work to benefit the institutions.

Georgetown University in Washington DC and two theological seminaries’ promise of reparations open a new territory for colleges, which until now have responded to their links to slavery with monuments, building name changes and public apologies.

Students at Georgetown voted this year in favour of increasing their termly fees by $27.20, a figure symbolising the number of slaves the college sold in 1838 to pay off its debts, with the funds going towards projects in underprivileged communities home to the slaves' descendents.

John DeGioia, the university's president, responded instead with plans to raise $400,000 from donors, rather than from students, to support projects like health clinics and schools in those same communities.

Virginia Theological Seminary announced in September a $1.7m endowment fund in recognition of slaves who worked there.

Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival Show all 8 1 /8 Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 406961.bin Two Lanse Kod boys wear horns to terrify and carry ropes to symbolise their release from slavery Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405981.bin Two Lanse Kod boys wear horns to terrify and carry ropes to symbolise their release from slavery Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405982.bin The masked theatre of carnival traditionally frees participants from their everyday identities and allows them to make political statements without fear of reprisal Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405983.bin The 'judge' from the 'Wandering Jew' story, in which a Belgian court tries Isaac, the man who turned away Jesus from his home as he made his way to Calvary Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405984.bin Andre Ferner as Madame Lasiren, the underwater voodoo spirit, who has to disguise herself as a woman because she is actually a fish. 'I create Lasiren for Mardi Gras because my grandmother, father and mother all served the spirits,' he says. 'I love her and honour her' Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405985.bin Eugene Lamour as Chaloska - a satirical recreation of the military commander Charles Oscar, who was torn to pieces by the people of Haiti after taking advantage of political instability to kill 500 local prisoners. Chaloska has since come to represent various government figures held in contempt Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405986.bin 'People say peasants are like donkeys, and that they are very stupid,' says Tira Jorssend, pictured in this scene of Atibruno. 'But we know that peasants are not stupid. That's why we put the clothes on the donkey [and give him] a mobile phone… If you have trousers and shoes, you are not stupid.' Leah Gordon Sex, death and slaves: Welcome to Haiti's horror carnival 405987.bin Children dressed as anonymous slaves, wearing chains around their ankles Leah Gordon

It said annual allocations would go towards supporting African-American clergy in the Episcopal church and programmes that promote justice and inclusion.

The Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey followed with a $27.6m in scholarships and other initiatives after a historical audit revealed that some founders used slave labour.

"We did not want to shy away from the uncomfortable part of our history and the difficult conversations that revealing the truth would produce," M Craig Barnes, the seminary's president, said in October.

At some universities, discussions of reparations have been raised by individual professors, like at the University of Alabama, or by graduate students and community members, like at the University of Chicago.

At least 56 universities have joined a University of Virginia-led consortium, Universities Studying Slavery, to explore their ties to slavery and share research and strategies.

In recent years, some schools, like Yale University, have removed the names of slavery supporters from buildings.

New monuments have gone up elsewhere, including Brown University's Slavery Memorial sculpture — a partially buried ball and chain — and the Memorial to Enslaved Labourers under construction at the University of Virginia.

"It's a very diffused kind of set of things happening around the nation," said Guy Emerson Mount, an associate professor of African American history at Auburn University.

He said it is "really important to pay attention to what each of these are doing" because they could offer learning opportunities and inform national discussions on reparations.

In an October letter to Harvard University's president, Antigua and Barbuda's prime minister noted the developments at Georgetown and the seminaries and asked the Ivy League school to consider how it could make amends for the oppression of Antiguan slaves by a plantation owner whose gift endowed a law professorship in 1815.

Harvard's president wrote back that the school is determined to further explore its historical ties to slavery.

In 2016, the university removed a slave owner's family crest from the law school seal and dedicated a plaque to four slaves who lived and worked on campus.

The advantages that institutions received from the slavery economy are receiving new attention as Democratic presidential candidates talk about tax credits and other subsidies that nudge the idea of reparations towards the mainstream.

The country has been discussing reparations in one way or another since slavery officially ended in 1865.

William Darity, a Duke University public policy professor and an expert on reparations, said the voices of college students have helped bring attention to reparations but said they do not "constitute comprehensive reparations".

He believes it deserves a congressional response and said supporting a reparations program for all black descendants of American slaves "would be the more courageous act".

Few Americans support reparations, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.

It showed that only 29 per cent said the government should pay cash reparations to descendants of enslaved black people.

University of Buffalo associate professor Keith Griffler, who specialises in African and African American studies, said he sees the cusp of a movement on college campuses.

"The conversations, just acknowledging these kinds of things," he said, "I think would go a long way towards making students feel that at least their voices are being heard."