Harvard Law Acknowledges Ties to Slavery With New Plaque
“We should not hide that fact nor hide from it”
Will this be acceptable to the left? It’s a small gesture but better late than never.
Smithsonian Magazine reports:
Harvard Law School Marks Ties to Slavery in New Plaque
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Harvard Law School, which has planned a program of performances, exhibitions and talks celebrating its rich legacy. But on Tuesday, the school launched the observance of its bicentennial by acknowledging a thorny chapter of its history. According to Harvard Law Today, university officials have unveiled a plaque honoring the African-Americans enslaved by one of the school’s early benefactors.
Affixed to a large stone in the Law School’s outdoor plaza, the plaque reads: “In honor of the enslaved whose labor created wealth that made possible the founding of Harvard Law School. May we pursue the highest ideals of law and justice in their memory.”
Harvard Law School was established in 1817 with funds from Isaac Royall, Jr., who had bequeathed a portion of his wealth to the university. Royall was a prosperous slaveholder; he owned a sugar plantation on the island of Antiqua, and held enslaved people on his farms in Massachusetts. Royall’s ties to the slave trade are in fact well documented. As Daniel R. Coquillette and Bruce A. Kimball write in On the Battlefield of Merit, local newspapers in Antigua “repeatedly carried advertisements from Royall, buying and selling horses, cattle, and people.”
One such advertisement offered “A Likely Negro Wench to dispose of who understands Household Business, and something of Cookery, also Four of said Wench’s Children, viz three Girls and one Boy,” according to Coquillette and Kimball.
Speaking at the dedication of the plaque, Dean of the Law School John F. Manning said that Harvard Law “was founded with wealth generated though the profoundly immoral institution of slavery.”
“We should not hide that fact nor hide from it,” he added, according to Harvard Law Today. “We can and should be proud of many things this school has contributed to the world. But to be true to our complicated history, we must also shine a light on what we are not proud of.”
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Comments
Did Harvard promise, pinkie swear, not to do it again ever ever ever?
where to begin ?
slavery and indentured servitude was a fact of life =to apologize for it is disingenuous.
but as a child of an Auschwitz survivor, this as if Germany ‘just put up a plaque’ and did not pay reparations.
the problem for Harvard is that they want to virtue signal.
if they were serious, they would open a series of private schools (free for those proving their connection to pre-1865 America) which would include free tutoring services)
this actually needs to be done by all the Ivys.
if I were A Black (and not a rece hustler) I would find this gesture disgusting – hope Black lives Matter start picketing these Ivys on a daily basis.
I am a conservative but right is right.
I’m just waiting for the ancestors of Isaac Royall or such to demand their donations back (with interest).
This year on my trip to St Martin (before Irma), I came across stories of Britain selling Irish political prisoners as slaves to owners on Montserrat.
Apparently, there is a snoopes page supposedly debunking this, but this seems to have more legs than they give it credit.
http://www.snopes.com/irish-slaves-early-america/