13/05/2026
Harvard University has released a public database identifying 1,613 people who were enslaved either on campus or by individuals connected to the university, marking a major step in its ongoing effort to confront its historical ties to slavery. The database was created by the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program (HSRP), which since 2023 has been researching people enslaved by Harvard leaders, faculty, and staff between the university’s founding in 1636 and the end of slavery in the United States in 1865.
The project also seeks to trace descendants of those enslaved individuals. Harvard says researchers have already identified around 600 living descendants, though the university has not yet begun formal outreach. Officials say future engagement with descendants will be developed collaboratively rather than imposed unilaterally.
The work emerged from the Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Initiative, launched in 2022 after the university published a major report detailing its extensive connections to slavery. The report showed that Harvard’s wealth and development were tied not only to slavery in New England and the American South, but also to Caribbean plantation economies that generated enormous fortunes through enslaved labor.
One prominent example was Isaac Royall Jr., a Harvard Overseer whose wealth from plantations in Antigua helped establish Harvard Law School. Other Harvard affiliates owned plantations in Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and St. Croix, while university leaders throughout New England and the South also enslaved people directly.
In response to the findings, Harvard committed $100 million to implementing recommendations from the 2022 report, including efforts to identify and support descendants of enslaved people connected to the university.
The release of the database follows internal controversy surrounding the HSRP. In early 2025, Harvard dismissed the program’s in-house research staff and transferred control to American Ancestors, a Boston-based genealogy organization already involved in the project. Richard Cellini, the program’s former director, accused Harvard administrators of discouraging researchers from identifying “too many descendants,” an allegation university officials denied.
Harvard administrators have acknowledged that the research is incomplete and that the number of identified enslaved people and descendants will likely grow substantially. Researchers believe Harvard affiliates may have enslaved hundreds or even thousands of people in the Caribbean alone.
The database currently includes records connected to at least 50 Massachusetts towns, 12 U.S. states, and 12 countries. Researchers assembled the information by first identifying roughly 3,000 people who served as Harvard leaders, faculty, or staff between 1636 and 1865. They then examined archival materials such as probate records, church documents, bills of sale, deeds, cemetery records, and plantation records to identify enslaved individuals linked to them.
Many of those records are fragmentary. Enslaved people often appear only by first name—or not by name at all. The database contains numerous entries labeled “Name Once Known” or descriptions such as “Name Once Known, Female Infant” and “Name Once Known, Negro Boy,” reflecting how incomplete and dehumanizing historical records of slavery often were.
Harvard is one of more than 100 universities investigating historical ties to slavery, but only a small number have undertaken extensive genealogical efforts to identify descendants. Comparable initiatives at Georgetown University and the University of Virginia have already led to scholarship programs and financial commitments benefiting descendants of enslaved people connected to those institutions.
Harvard officials say the database will continue to expand as new discoveries are made. Historian Henry Louis Gates Jr., who serves on the initiative’s advisory council, described the project as an effort to demonstrate “institutional honesty and humility” in confronting Harvard’s past and understanding the full complexity of its history.
Here are BRAC University admission test and SAT style Reading & Writing questions based on the passage.
Question 1 (Main Idea)
Which choice best states the main purpose of the passage?
A. To argue that Harvard should pay reparations to descendants of enslaved people
B. To describe Harvard’s ongoing efforts to research and document its historical connections to slavery
C. To compare Harvard’s slavery initiative with those of European universities
D. To criticize Harvard for limiting access to its slavery database
Answer: B
Question 2 (Detail)
According to the passage, what is one challenge researchers faced when identifying enslaved individuals?
A. Most archival records were destroyed during the Civil War
B. Enslaved individuals were often recorded only by first names or not named at all
C. Harvard refused to provide access to faculty records
D. Descendants frequently rejected participation in the study
Answer: B
Question 3 (Function)
The passage’s discussion of Isaac Royall Jr. primarily serves to:
A. demonstrate how Harvard’s wealth was entirely based on Northern industry
B. illustrate a specific example of how individuals connected to Harvard benefited from slavery-linked wealth
C. show that Harvard Law School was founded after the Civil War
D. argue that Caribbean slavery was less significant than Southern slavery
Answer: B
Question 4 (Inference)
It can reasonably be inferred from the passage that Harvard’s database project is:
A. nearly complete and requires only minor updates
B. focused exclusively on enslaved people in Massachusetts
C. likely to expand as more historical records are analyzed
D. limited to individuals whose descendants have already been identified
Answer: C
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