Recovering the Histories of Seven Enslaved Americans

For seven seasons, award-winning Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. has uncovered the ancestral stories of celebrity guests on his hit-television series, "Finding Your Roots." In this program on Wednesday, April 7, Gates Jr. will be joined by Dr. Gregg Hecimovich to discuss the process of unearthing the histories of formerly enslaved people. The focus will be on Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jim and Renty, the seven Black men and women photographed against their will in Columbia, South Carolina in 1850. These controversial photographs are the subject of a new book, "To Make Their Own Way in the World" (Peabody Museum Press/Aperture 2020). Registration is required and will close 30 minutes before the start time.

Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a professor at Alphonse Fletcher University and the director of Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Gregg Hecimovich is a professor and chair of the Department of English at Furman University. This talk is presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology in collaboration with the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research.