Harvard Outsources Program to Identify Descendants of Those Enslaved by University Affiliates, Lays Off Internal Staff

By Neil H. Shah, The Harvard Crimson

Harvard University has laid off the staff of its Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program, the unit of its $100 million Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery initiative tasked with identifying the direct descendants of those enslaved by Harvard affiliates.

Instead, the work will be continued by American Ancestors, a New England-based genealogical nonprofit. American Ancestors is currently one of HSRP’s external research partners, and they will now be leading the project in full.

Employees were notified Thursday shortly after 11 a.m. that they had been terminated, effective that day, according to HSRP Director Richard J. Cellini and research fellow Wayne W. Tucker. They were not given any advance notice of the decision or informed that the layoffs were being considered, Cellini and Tucker added. Cellini was notified of his termination less than one hour before the remainder of the team.

The sudden move came just one week after HSRP researchers met with the prime minister and governor general of Antigua and Barbuda to discuss a potential ground research presence in the country. Cellini and his team visited the island nation after HSRP discovered “several hundred people” enslaved by Harvard affiliates in the region between 1660 and 1815.

That number added to the more than 300 individuals enslaved by Harvard affiliates that HSRP had already identified. As of September, the team had also identified more than 100 living descendants.

Staff members were not given a reason for the team’s disbanding, according to three people who were laid off Thursday. 

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ABHM has an online exhibit about the centuries of enslavement.

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