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Process Note

A Note on Process

Overview

  • 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 has engaged in active and long-term work to cast light on the legacies of slavery at Harvard and address enduring consequences through purposeful change. This work is grounded in Harvard’s educational mission and is realized through the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, which was created to advance the long-term implementation of the recommendations of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery, as outlined in the Report. These include Recommendation 4, which called for the creation of the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program (HSRP).
  • This HSRP Database includes the most recent research updates provided by American Ancestors – the nation’s oldest genealogical nonprofit – our partner in advancing this work. The Database builds on the research included in Appendix I of the 2022 Report and compiles ongoing genealogical research on enslaved individuals who labored on Harvard’s campus as well as those enslaved by Harvard leadership, faculty, or staff from 1636 to 1865. In line with Recommendation 4, the Database is a key component of the Initiative’s ongoing implementation work.

Methodology

  • The Database includes only those enslaved individuals for whom specific historical documentation has been identified, to date. Led by our partners at American Ancestors, HSRP’s research methodology relies on a wide range of evidence, including: wills, journals, letters, land deeds and property, marriage, court, church records, etc. to identify documentation that indicates an enslaver, the individuals enslaved, and the enslaved individuals’ 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. This database relies on the archival historical documentation described above in order to confirm relationships and support further research.
  • Please see this article for a full description of the research approach.
  • Appendix I in the Report included information on more than 70 enslaved individuals, which was based on research conducted by the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery at that time. The Committee anticipated that this number would grow with additional research.
  • In the years following the Report’s 2022 release, the HSRP proceeded with ongoing research in line with Recommendation 4. The “Current State of Research” section below, along with the database itself, reflects the most recent status update.
  • Information in this database relates specifically to the years that the individual was enslaved by a Harvard affiliate or labored on Harvard’s campus. Ongoing research will be used to develop family trees of enslaved individuals and, working forward to present time, eventually identify their direct descendants.
  • This database should be treated as a work-in-progress with possible errors. As research continues, we anticipate finding additional information and individuals who were enslaved by Harvard leaders, faculty, or staff.

Current State of Research

  • As of 1 April 2026, researchers have identified 2,945 Harvard leaders, faculty and staff between 1636 and 1865. Researchers are currently examining these individuals to uncover who among them may have enslaved people.
  • So far, researchers have identified that at least 259 of these Harvard affiliates who enslaved individuals.
  • Researchers have currently identified 1,613 people who were enslaved by these Harvard affiliates or who labored on Harvard’s campus.
  • These individuals were enslaved in a variety of different locations, not just Cambridge, Massachusetts, or Boston, Massachusetts. We have found evidence that Harvard affiliates enslaved individuals in at least 50 different towns in Massachusetts, 12 states, and 12 countries.
  • HSRP’s research into these 259 enslavers and others among identified Harvard leaders, faculty and staff is ongoing and this database will continue to be updated with the results of that work going forward.

Column A: Enslaved Person(s)

  • This column includes the first name and surname, when identified, of the enslaved individual.
  • Records often include different spellings of an enslaved person’s name, for example “Cesar” and “Ceasar.” In such cases, we have recorded the most common use.
  • In cases where an enslaved person had different names or aliases, not just different spellings of the same name, we have included both.
  • While the database focuses on the years in which an individual was enslaved by a Harvard affiliate, we have included surnames adopted after emancipation. In these cases, a record is cited. However, other sources may be required to understand how researchers know the enslaved individual is the same person as the individual with the recorded surname.
  • When we have not been able to identify the name of an individual enslaved by a Harvard affiliate, we have written “Name Once Known.” Where we have been able to identify gender or other characteristics, we have included these, e.g. “Name Once Known, Man.”
  • In the case that a Harvard affiliate enslaved several people who we have not been able to identify names for, we have consolidated these individuals into a single row. For example, “Names Once Known, 11 Enslaved People.” However, we have counted them individually when trying to determine how many people were enslaved overall.

Column B: Documentation Date(s)

  • This column includes the year or date range where we have documented evidence that the individual was enslaved by a Harvard affiliate or labored on Harvard’s campus.
  • In the case that the only documented evidence we have of a Harvard affiliate enslaving an individual is after the affiliate’s death, for example in an estate inventory, we have included the year the affiliate died as the documentation date.

Column C: Location

  • This column includes any towns, states, or countries where we have documented evidence that the individual was enslaved by a Harvard affiliate.

Column D: Harvard Enslaver(s) and Harvard Position(s)

  • This column includes the name of the Harvard affiliates who enslaved the individual, their birth and death dates, all positions held at Harvard University, and years of service in each position.
  • If an individual is enslaved by more than one Harvard affiliate, both are included.
  • Where we have only been able to estimate the years of service, we have used Bef. (before) and Abt. (about).

Column E: Documentation Citation(s)

  • This column includes citations for all sources that show evidence that the individual was enslaved by a Harvard affiliate or labored on Harvard’s campus. Outside of these records, we have only included additional citations which record a name for the individual adopted when they were a free person.

Contributions

At Harvard, the following people contributed to the research reflected in this database: Catey Boyle, Gabriel Raeburn, Janika Dillon, Jerrad Pacatte, Jessica Wang, Joseph Weisberg, Kabria Baumgartner, Lucy Hornby, Raymond Wilkes III, Richard Cellini, Sarah DeMott, Sharon Murphy, and Wayne W. Tucker.

At American Ancestors, the following people contributed to this research: Abe  Laxague, Aidan Walsh, Anjelica Oswald, Anna Ruane, Beck Green, Christine Bachman-Sanders, Collen Alm, Cynthia Evans, Danielle Rose, David Shaw, Gabriel Raeburn, Gabrielle Orr, Hunter Moskowitz, Jennifer  Shakshober, Jonathan Hill, Julia Williams, Justin Peavey, Kate Gilbert, Katie Hendrick, Kiera Breitenbach, Kim Mannisto, Lindsay Fulton, Natalia Vega-Munguia, Paul Sanborn, Peggy Polydoros, Rebecca Kelly-Bowditch, Sarah Dery, Twink  Williams Burns, and Zobeida Chaffee-Valdes.

This Database builds on the research included in Appendix I of the 2022 Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery. Members of the Committee included: Tomiko Brown-Nagin (chair), Sven Beckert, Annette Gordon-Reed, Stephen Gray, Evelynn M. Hammonds, Nancy F. Koehn, Meira Levinson, Tiya Miles, Martha Minow, Maya Sen, Daniel Albert Smith, David R. Williams, and William Julius Wilson. In Memoriam: Paul Farmer. Read more about Committee’s research process for the Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery in the Acknowledgements and Appendix II: A Note on Process.