Harvard and slavery
Harvard College came of age in the 17th and 18th centuries, a period with values often very different from our own. Slavery — which was legal in Massachusetts until 1783 — is a case in point. Did this dark chapter of American history affect Harvard? Yes. That entanglement is the point of “Harvard and Slavery: Seeking a Forgotten History,” a booklet launched on Wednesday by the Harvard and Slavery Research Project. Involved were 32 students, one faculty historian, and a graduate student. “The history of slavery,” write authors Sven Beckert and Katherine Stevens, “is also local history.” The 34-page study packs into its economical format details of what will be historical surprises to most readers. It reports that three Harvard presidents owned slaves; that slaves worked on campus as early as 1639; that among the first residents of Wadsworth House (built in 1726) were two slaves, Titus and Venus; that slave labor...