Latest news with #enslavement
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Harvard agrees to transfer photos of enslaved people to black history museum
Harvard University has agreed to hand over a set of historic photos believed to be among the earliest depicting enslaved people in the United agreement ends a long legal battle between the institution and Tamara Lanier, an author from Connecticut who argues she is a descendant of two people shown in the images, taken in 1850, will be transferred to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, where the people shown in the photos were said it had always hoped the photos would be given to another museum. Ms Lanier said she was "ecstatic" with the result. The images are daguerreotypes, a very early form of modern-day photographs and were taken 15 years before the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution abolished photos were rediscovered in storage at Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1976. The 15 images feature people identified by the Peabody Museum as Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem, and Renty. According to Ms Lanier, the settlement would mean the transfer of all the images not just the ones about Renty and Delia. The photos were commissioned by Harvard professor and zoologist Louis Agassizm as part of discredited research to prove the superiority of white people. He espoused polygenism, a now debunked belief that human races evolved case formed part of public debate around how America's universities should respond to their historic links to slavery. In 2016, Harvard Law School agreed to change a shield that was based on the crest of an 18th Century did not comment on the details of the settlement but a university spokesperson said it "has long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans."The spokesperson added that Ms Lanier's "claim to ownership of the daguerreotypes created a complex situation, especially because Harvard has not been able to confirm that Ms Lanier is related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes." Ms Lanier sued Harvard in 2019, arguing the images were taken without consent and accusing the university of profiting from them through large licensing 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld an earlier ruling that dismissed Ms Lanier's claim to ownership. She was, however, allowed to claim damages for emotional distress. It ruled Harvard had "complicity" in the "horrific actions" surrounding the creation of the images."Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses," it Lanier told the BBC, she was "ecstatic" about the settlement. "I have always known first of all that I could never care for the daguerreotypes at the level they would require," she said. "There are so many ties that bind Renty and Delia and the other enslaved people to that particular part of South Carolina that to repatriate them there would be like a homecoming ceremony."The South Carolina museum helped Ms Lanier with her genealogy claims but was not involved in the legal battle. Its president said they intend to hold and display the images "in context with truth and empathy.""These are not gentle images and the story behind how they came to be is even more difficult to hear," Tonya Matthews told the BBC. "So to be in a space that has already created room for conversations about the inhumanity of slavery and enslavement and how far those implications echo even to today is what we do and it's our mission."
CNN
2 days ago
- General
- CNN
Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a long legal battle
Human rightsFacebookTweetLink Follow Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with a woman who says she is one of the subjects' descendants. The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty, whom she calls 'Papa Renty,' and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved in 1850 when the photos were taken, a lawyer for Lanier said Wednesday. The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the esteemed university to release the 19th-century daguerreotypes, a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier's attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an 'unprecedented' victory for descendants of those enslaved in the US and praised his client's yearslong determination in pursuing justice for the people she had identified as her ancestors. 'I think it's one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people — that's never happened before,' Koskoff said. A key question of the case was whether Harvard could legally be allowed to continue owning dehumanizing images of enslaved people who couldn't consent to taking part. The Massachusetts court system ultimately sided with Harvard on the question of ownership, but allowed Lanier to continue to pursue emotional damages from the institution. Harvard said Wednesday that it had long been working to relinquish ownership of the images 'to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.' Negotiations between Harvard and Lanier lawyers resulted in a settlement that included the removal of the images from Harvard's ownership. On Wednesday, Lanier stood holding a portrait of Papa Renty while arm-in-arm with Susanna Moore, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, who commissioned the images on behalf of the university and whose theories on racial difference were once used to support slavery in the US. Both great-great-great grandaughters — one of enslaved people and another of a man who exploited them — praised the resolution. 'This is a moment in history where the sons and daughters of stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightfully proclaim a victory for reparations,' Lanier said. 'This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.' Moore called the images captured by her ancestor, Agassiz, a 'deeply racist project.' 'This victory reminds us that the meaning of such objects in museums can and should change,' she said. 'This woman standing next to me, she knew all along she was not small and she was not alone.' In 2019, Lanier sued Harvard, alleging the images were taken 'without Renty's and Delia's consent and therefore unlawfully retained.' The suit attacked Harvard for its 'exploitation' of Renty's image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a 'hefty' licensing fee to reproduce the images. Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially 'pure' enslaved individuals born in Africa, according to Lanier's suit. To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. 'To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,' the suit said. 'The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.' In 2021, a Massachusetts court ruled that photos are the property of the photographer, not the subject — a stance affirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. However, while Harvard sought to have the case dismissed, the state high court allowed the case to proceed on Lanier's claim to emotional distress damages. The state's highest court recognized 'Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,' saying that 'Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.' In a statement, Harvard said it had 'long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution.' 'This settlement now allows us to move forward towards that goal,' the university said. 'While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, this was a complex situation, particularly since Harvard has not confirmed that Ms. Lanier was related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.' Tonya M. Matthews, the CEO of the International African American Museum, called Harvard's relinquishing of the images a moment '175 years in the making.' 'The bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia's story to South Carolina is a model for us all,' she said in a statement. The South Carolina museum has committed to working with Lanier and including her in decisions about how the story of the images will be told. In Lanier's lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier's oral family history and pay an unspecified sum in damages. An undisclosed financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced Wednesday, but Koskoff said Harvard still hasn't publicly acknowledged Lanier's connection to them or its connection to perpetuating slavery in the US, Koskoff said. 'That is just left unanswered by Harvard,' he said. Koskoff said he wants to be clear that Lanier and his team 'firmly support' Harvard's current fight against the administration of US President Donald Trump as the White House moves to cut billions in federal aid and block the enrollment of international students, accusing the institution of being a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. 'We are not here today to bash Harvard… but that doesn't mean that they are perfect, and that doesn't mean that they don't have the obligation to tell a full history, even one that sheds poorly on their own veritas,' he said. He said Lanier isn't expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself. 'In the end, the truth will find you — you can you can only hide from it for so long,' he said. 'Yes, history is written by the winners. But over time, you know, those winners look like losers sometimes.'
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Harvard agrees to transfer early photos of enslaved people to African American museum
Harvard University has agreed to transfer possession of 19th-century photographs of an enslaved man and his daughter to the International African American Museum in South Carolina as part of a settlement with a woman who says she is a descendant of the enslaved individuals. Tamara Lanier, who lives in Norwich, Connecticut, who says that she is the great-great-great granddaughter of Renty Taylor and his daughter, Delia Taylor – two of the enslaved people featured in the daguerreotypes taken in 1850 that Harvard owned – sued the university in 2019 over 'wrongful seizure, possession and expropriation' of the images, which she says were taken without her ancestors' consent. In 2022, the Massachusetts supreme court ruled that Lanier could not claim ownership over the images, since she was not a descendant of the photographer or the photograph's owners, CBS reported, but it ruled that she could pursue damages and sue Harvard for emotional distress. The daguerreotypes, considered among the earliest known photographs of enslaved people, depict Renty Taylor and his daughter, Delia. They were taken in 1850, and were part of a collection commissioned by Harvard professor Louis Agassiz at the time who sought to use them to promote a pseudoscientific, white supremacist theory that falsely asserts that white people are genetically superior. In the photos, Renty Taylor was stripped nude and photographed, while Delia was naked from the waist up. This week, the years-long legal battle between Lanier and Harvard came to a close. As part of the settlement, a lawyer for Lanier said that the 175-year-old images will be transferred from Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, which is the state where Renty Taylor and Delia were enslaved when the photographs were taken. 'This is a moment in history where the sons and daughters of stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightfully proclaim a victory for reparations,' Lanier said on Wednesday. 'This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist pseudoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.' Lanier's attorney Joshua Koskoff, told the Associated Press that the resolution is an 'unprecedented' victory. 'I think it's one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people – that's never happened before,' Koskoff said. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion Another of Lanier's attorneys, Benjamin Crump, also said that the agreement also includes a confidential monetary settlement, according to CBS News. In a statement, Harvard spokesman James Chisholm told CBS News: 'Harvard University has long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans. Now that this lawsuit has been resolved, Harvard can move forward towards that goal. 'While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, her claim to ownership of the daguerreotypes created a complex situation, especially because Harvard has not been able to confirm that Ms. Lanier is related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes' he added.
CNN
3 days ago
- General
- CNN
Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a long legal battle
Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with a woman who says she is one of the subjects' descendants. The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty, whom she calls 'Papa Renty,' and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved in 1850 when the photos were taken, a lawyer for Lanier said Wednesday. The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the esteemed university to release the 19th-century daguerreotypes, a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier's attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an 'unprecedented' victory for descendants of those enslaved in the US and praised his client's yearslong determination in pursuing justice for the people she had identified as her ancestors. 'I think it's one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people — that's never happened before,' Koskoff said. A key question of the case was whether Harvard could legally be allowed to continue owning dehumanizing images of enslaved people who couldn't consent to taking part. The Massachusetts court system ultimately sided with Harvard on the question of ownership, but allowed Lanier to continue to pursue emotional damages from the institution. Harvard said Wednesday that it had long been working to relinquish ownership of the images 'to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.' Negotiations between Harvard and Lanier lawyers resulted in a settlement that included the removal of the images from Harvard's ownership. On Wednesday, Lanier stood holding a portrait of Papa Renty while arm-in-arm with Susanna Moore, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, who commissioned the images on behalf of the university and whose theories on racial difference were once used to support slavery in the US. Both great-great-great grandaughters — one of enslaved people and another of a man who exploited them — praised the resolution. 'This is a moment in history where the sons and daughters of stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightfully proclaim a victory for reparations,' Lanier said. 'This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.' Moore called the images captured by her ancestor, Agassiz, a 'deeply racist project.' 'This victory reminds us that the meaning of such objects in museums can and should change,' she said. 'This woman standing next to me, she knew all along she was not small and she was not alone.' In 2019, Lanier sued Harvard, alleging the images were taken 'without Renty's and Delia's consent and therefore unlawfully retained.' The suit attacked Harvard for its 'exploitation' of Renty's image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a 'hefty' licensing fee to reproduce the images. Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially 'pure' enslaved individuals born in Africa, according to Lanier's suit. To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. 'To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,' the suit said. 'The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.' In 2021, a Massachusetts court ruled that photos are the property of the photographer, not the subject — a stance affirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. However, while Harvard sought to have the case dismissed, the state high court allowed the case to proceed on Lanier's claim to emotional distress damages. The state's highest court recognized 'Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,' saying that 'Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.' In a statement, Harvard said it had 'long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution.' 'This settlement now allows us to move forward towards that goal,' the university said. 'While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, this was a complex situation, particularly since Harvard has not confirmed that Ms. Lanier was related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.' Tonya M. Matthews, the CEO of the International African American Museum, called Harvard's relinquishing of the images a moment '175 years in the making.' 'The bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia's story to South Carolina is a model for us all,' she said in a statement. The South Carolina museum has committed to working with Lanier and including her in decisions about how the story of the images will be told. In Lanier's lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier's oral family history and pay an unspecified sum in damages. An undisclosed financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced Wednesday, but Koskoff said Harvard still hasn't publicly acknowledged Lanier's connection to them or its connection to perpetuating slavery in the US, Koskoff said. 'That is just left unanswered by Harvard,' he said. Koskoff said he wants to be clear that Lanier and his team 'firmly support' Harvard's current fight against the administration of US President Donald Trump as the White House moves to cut billions in federal aid and block the enrollment of international students, accusing the institution of being a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. 'We are not here today to bash Harvard… but that doesn't mean that they are perfect, and that doesn't mean that they don't have the obligation to tell a full history, even one that sheds poorly on their own veritas,' he said. He said Lanier isn't expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself. 'In the end, the truth will find you — you can you can only hide from it for so long,' he said. 'Yes, history is written by the winners. But over time, you know, those winners look like losers sometimes.'
CNN
3 days ago
- General
- CNN
Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a long legal battle
Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history as part of a settlement with a woman who says she is one of the subjects' descendants. The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty, whom she calls 'Papa Renty,' and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, the state where they were enslaved in 1850 when the photos were taken, a lawyer for Lanier said Wednesday. The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the esteemed university to release the 19th-century daguerreotypes, a precursor to modern-day photographs. Lanier's attorney Joshua Koskoff told The Associated Press that the resolution is an 'unprecedented' victory for descendants of those enslaved in the US and praised his client's yearslong determination in pursuing justice for the people she had identified as her ancestors. 'I think it's one of one in American history, because of the combination of unlikely features: to have a case that dates back 175 years, to win control over images dating back that long of enslaved people — that's never happened before,' Koskoff said. A key question of the case was whether Harvard could legally be allowed to continue owning dehumanizing images of enslaved people who couldn't consent to taking part. The Massachusetts court system ultimately sided with Harvard on the question of ownership, but allowed Lanier to continue to pursue emotional damages from the institution. Harvard said Wednesday that it had long been working to relinquish ownership of the images 'to put them in the appropriate context and increase access to them for all Americans.' Negotiations between Harvard and Lanier lawyers resulted in a settlement that included the removal of the images from Harvard's ownership. On Wednesday, Lanier stood holding a portrait of Papa Renty while arm-in-arm with Susanna Moore, the great-great-great-granddaughter of Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, who commissioned the images on behalf of the university and whose theories on racial difference were once used to support slavery in the US. Both great-great-great grandaughters — one of enslaved people and another of a man who exploited them — praised the resolution. 'This is a moment in history where the sons and daughters of stolen ancestors can stand with pride and rightfully proclaim a victory for reparations,' Lanier said. 'This pilfered property, images taken without dignity or consent and used to promote a racist psychoscience will now be repatriated to a home where their stories can be told and their humanity can be restored.' Moore called the images captured by her ancestor, Agassiz, a 'deeply racist project.' 'This victory reminds us that the meaning of such objects in museums can and should change,' she said. 'This woman standing next to me, she knew all along she was not small and she was not alone.' In 2019, Lanier sued Harvard, alleging the images were taken 'without Renty's and Delia's consent and therefore unlawfully retained.' The suit attacked Harvard for its 'exploitation' of Renty's image at a 2017 conference and in other uses. It said Harvard has capitalized on the photos by demanding a 'hefty' licensing fee to reproduce the images. Agassiz came across Renty and Delia while touring plantations in search of racially 'pure' enslaved individuals born in Africa, according to Lanier's suit. To create the images, both Renty and Delia were posed shirtless and photographed from several angles. 'To Agassiz, Renty and Delia were nothing more than research specimens,' the suit said. 'The violence of compelling them to participate in a degrading exercise designed to prove their own subhuman status would not have occurred to him, let alone mattered.' In 2021, a Massachusetts court ruled that photos are the property of the photographer, not the subject — a stance affirmed by the Massachusetts Supreme Court. However, while Harvard sought to have the case dismissed, the state high court allowed the case to proceed on Lanier's claim to emotional distress damages. The state's highest court recognized 'Harvard's complicity in the horrific actions surrounding the creation of the daguerreotypes,' saying that 'Harvard's present obligations cannot be divorced from its past abuses.' In a statement, Harvard said it had 'long been eager to place the Zealy Daguerreotypes with another museum or other public institution.' 'This settlement now allows us to move forward towards that goal,' the university said. 'While we are grateful to Ms. Lanier for sparking important conversations about these images, this was a complex situation, particularly since Harvard has not confirmed that Ms. Lanier was related to the individuals in the daguerreotypes.' Tonya M. Matthews, the CEO of the International African American Museum, called Harvard's relinquishing of the images a moment '175 years in the making.' 'The bravery, tenacity, and grace shown by Ms. Lanier throughout the long and arduous process of returning these critical pieces of Renty and Delia's story to South Carolina is a model for us all,' she said in a statement. The South Carolina museum has committed to working with Lanier and including her in decisions about how the story of the images will be told. In Lanier's lawsuit, she asked for Harvard to acknowledge its complicity in slavery, listen to Lanier's oral family history and pay an unspecified sum in damages. An undisclosed financial settlement was part of the resolution with Harvard announced Wednesday, but Koskoff said Harvard still hasn't publicly acknowledged Lanier's connection to them or its connection to perpetuating slavery in the US, Koskoff said. 'That is just left unanswered by Harvard,' he said. Koskoff said he wants to be clear that Lanier and his team 'firmly support' Harvard's current fight against the administration of US President Donald Trump as the White House moves to cut billions in federal aid and block the enrollment of international students, accusing the institution of being a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. 'We are not here today to bash Harvard… but that doesn't mean that they are perfect, and that doesn't mean that they don't have the obligation to tell a full history, even one that sheds poorly on their own veritas,' he said. He said Lanier isn't expecting or waiting to hear from the institution, but that the settlement speaks for itself. 'In the end, the truth will find you — you can you can only hide from it for so long,' he said. 'Yes, history is written by the winners. But over time, you know, those winners look like losers sometimes.'
