Recovering the Histories of Seven Enslaved Americans

Date: 

Wednesday, April 7, 2021, 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Location: 

Online

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, 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 “The Columbia Seven":  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).

Presented by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology in collaboration with the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research 

Advance registration required. Please note that registration closes 30 minutes prior to the event start time.

To join the program, you will need to download the free Zoom app in advance. If you already have Zoom, you do not need to download it again. For details on how to improve your Zoom experience, visit the How to Attend an HMSC Program webpage.