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, 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, seven Black men and women who were 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).

Gregg Hecimovich, Professor and Chair, Department of English, Furman University 

Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director, Hutchins Center for African & African American Research, Harvard University 

Advanced registration required. Visit the event registration page to register for this free virtual event. Registration closes 30 minutes before start time. 

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