Larry Bacow just sent out this "I believe" email about loving the American Dream or whatever that doesn't make any mention of the ways that Harvard has specifically profited from the enslavement and exploitation of Black people, nor what reparations he intends to pay.
I was the Harvard and Slavery Research Associate for two years and have taught a seminar called "Harvard and Slavery" twice, so let's dispense with the "I Believe" and go to "I Know."

I know that Harvard was complicit in the enslavement of Black and Native people.
I know that Harvard benefited from donations from slave traders, sugar planters, and other enslavers.

I know Harvard invested its endowment in slavery-related industries.

I know that affiliation w/Harvard subsidized slave ownership by its faculty through tax exemptions.
I know that Harvard faculty dissected the bodies of Black people in the service of race science.

I know that Harvard faculty promulgated racial science that demeaned and demonized Black people.

I know that Harvard still has enslaved people's body parts on shelves in its museums
I know that Harvard has demeaned the claims made by the descendants of the enslaved people it exploited and continues to exploit. (see Lanier v. President and Fellows of Harvard College)

I know that Harvard has congratulated itself for erecting a couple of plaques.
I know that Harvard has repeatedly ignored calls for practical reparations from Antigua.

I know that Harvard has ignored the calls of @HarvardPDC, @Free_Renty, and other coalitions that have asked the institution to do better.
I know that Larry Bacow lives at Elmwood, a house built by Antiguan sugar planter Thomas Oliver in 1767 and inhabited by at least 11 enslaved people:

Buff
Cato
Jerry
Jeoffrey
Samuel
Mira
Jude
Sarah
Jenny
Violet
Young Jerry
More mail from @Harvard President Bacow. The university is celebrating Juneteenth! Not by, like, committing to reparations or anything. Just celebrating in a ponder-y sort of way.
Some ways Harvard could celebrate Juneteenth:

- apologize to Tamara Lanier and give back the daguerreotypes of her ancestors

- bury the remains of enslaved people currently sitting in museum storage

- destroy the nude anthropometric photos of Black alumni like WEB Du Bois
- divest from prisons and related industries

- disband the Harvard police

- re-invest money in Black communities and businesses

- stop ignoring the calls for reparations from the government of Antigua

- stop delaying reparative action with endless, aimless study
- partner with HBCUs to attract and administer federal grants in order to support the financial viability of HBCUs and support HBCU students and faculty

- invest in projects like the HBCU Green Fund to help HBCUs maintain financial stability and independence

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More from @cgdhopkins

11 Sep
I just received an email re: Harvard's plans to hire graduate students to continue the Harvard and Slavery research that I worked on for two years as the Harvard and Slavery Research Associate. Since Harvard thrives on obfuscation, let me speak clearly to anyone applying: ImageImage
1) Your research will be a smokescreen for Harvard to say they are working on Harvard and Slavery, but you will not receive the resources and opportunities you need to be successful. Your cheap ($20/hr) labor will cover for Harvard's failure to invest in long-term sustainability.
2) Since 2007, Harvard has fobbed off this work on students rather than investing in the sort of faculty committees doing similar work at places like UVA, Wm&Mary, Georgetown, etc. Harvard has repeatedly refused to hold public events, or even create a stable website.
Read 12 tweets
24 Jan
This conversation has me thinking about Prince Demah, the enslaved portrait painter from Boston whose enslaver, Henry Barnes, brought him to London in 1771 (before the Somerset decision). Barnes definitely worried about Black antislavery activism in London in 1771.
Prince Demah (1741-1778) was a talented artist (one of his portraits is currently on display at the Met). His mother, Daphney, was enslaved by Henry and Christian Barnes, a rich white couple from Marlborough, Massachusetts.
In 1769, Prince made a sketch of Christian Barnes and Henry liked it so much that he bought Prince with the “design of improving his genius in painting.”

Sources: Murray-Robbins Papers @MHS1791, “Prince Demah Barnes” by Amelia Peck and Paula Bagger themagazineantiques.com/article/prince…
Read 14 tweets
27 Dec 19
In honor of the #1620project and other 19th-century fables, allow me to tell you about the legend of Mother Goose and how it is actually about Antebellum Bostonians denying their complicity in slavery.

#vastearlyamerica
In 1860, a column ran on the front page of the Boston Evening Transcript: “Many persons imagine that Mother Goose is a myth — that no such person ever existed. This is a mistake. Mother Goose was not only a veritable personage, but was born and resided many years in Boston.”
The writer, John Fleet Eliot, claimed that the first edition of Mother Goose’s Melodies was printed in Boston in 1719 by Thomas Fleet, based on the songs and stories that Fleet’s mother-in-law, Elizabeth Foster Goose, sang to Fleet’s nine children.
Read 27 tweets
6 Nov 19
Harvard’s profits from Caribbean slavery go much further than this article acknowledges. Donors and alumni with plantations in Antigua, Jamaica, and Suriname gave gifts to Harvard, and Harvard invested its early endowment in slavery-dependent industries.

washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/11…
This isn’t the first time Harvard has ignored Antigua’s call for reparations (a similar letter in 2016). Meanwhile, the Harvard president lives in a house (Elmwood) built by Antiguan sugar planter Thomas Oliver, who enslaved 11 people there and hundreds more in Antigua.
Next Thursday (Nov 14) I’m giving a lecture at the Longfellow House in Cambridge on the Vassall Family, the Jamaican sugar planters and Harvard alums/donors who built the house. One Vassall literally paid his Harvard tuition by giving the College a barrel of sugar.
Read 14 tweets
11 Sep 19
I’ve been waiting for a day when the light would be right to take photos of the gravestones of enslaved people buried in the Old Burial Ground in Cambridge.

Jane, died 1741, age 22, enslaved by Harvard Steward Andrew Bordman
Another stone nearby is for Cecily, who was 15 when she died in 1714 (enslaved by Harvard Treasurer William Brattle).

This stone is at a slightly different angle, so I’m going to wait a little while to see if the sun hits it better soon.
In the 19th century, someone decided it would be a good idea to plant several large trees, which makes this a very challenging graveyard for photos.

In the 18thc, Harvard had exclusive permission to graze its sheep in the burying ground.
Read 10 tweets
11 Mar 19
Today, I am learning about Joshua Bowen Smith (1813-1879).

Smith was a black abolitionist and member of Boston’s Vigilance Committee, protecting fugitives after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

photo from @MHS1791 Image
Smith worked as a waiter and later opened his own catering business.

I came across his name in the Harvard records because he catered the Harvard Commencement dinners in the 1850s and 1860s. He also rented his catering space on Brattle St from Harvard

nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH… ImageImage
I am just starting my research here, but the secondary references I’ve seen claim that Smith was directly involved in relief work, giving fugitives jobs, inviting them to his home, and paying passage to Canada for some.

books.google.com/books?id=v5aZr… Image
Read 11 tweets

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