Database of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program

In 2022, the Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery (“the Report”) outlined the University’s direct, financial, and intellectual ties to slavery. Since that time, Harvard – through the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative (H&LS) – has been engaged in active and long-term implementation work to cast light on its legacies of slavery and address enduring consequences through purposeful change. This work is grounded in Harvard’s educational mission and the recommendations from the Report. The ongoing research of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program (HSRP), which compiles ongoing genealogical research on enslaved individuals who labored on Harvard’s campus as well as those enslaved by Harvard leadership, faculty, or staff (Harvard affiliates) from 1636 and 1865, is a key part of this ongoing work.

American Ancestors is the nation’s oldest genealogical nonprofit, based in Boston, MA. With a team of over 100 that includes historians, genealogists, educators, archivists, librarians, and data specialists, they are dedicated to the study of family history, heritage, and culture.

American Ancestors has been a partner in the HSRP since 2022, when the H&LS Initiative was first established, working to identify the individuals enslaved by Harvard leaders, faculty, and staff, and their descendants. In February 2025, Harvard expanded the partnership with American Ancestors who now leads the continuing descendant research.

HSRP’s research methodology relies on a wide range of documented evidence, including wills, journals, letters, land deeds and property, marriage, court and church records to identify documentation that indicates a Harvard affiliate enslaver, the individuals enslaved, and where enslaved individuals recorded their life events.

HSRP’s researchers rely on these types of evidence because enslaved individuals were not named in censuses until after emancipation, and because federal censuses only began in 1790, after the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts. To the extent that documentation can help shed light on family lore and oral tradition, we fully support doing so. However, this database, while not setting aside family lore and oral tradition, relies on the archival historical documentation described above to confirm relationships and support further research.

For more information on the research methodology, please read A Note on Process.