Annette Gordon-Reed

An article by Annette Gordon-Reed: Thomas Jefferson began life in a monarchy, under the reign of George II, in one of Britain’s North American colonies—Virginia. In this monarchical system everyone knew his or her place, with little expectation of being able to move very far outside of it. Though the American provincials were not on a par with the aristocrats in the mother country, they had developed their own version of hierarchy. Jefferson, by dint of his family ties, was born at the top, and there would have been no reason to suspect that he would ever come to be associated with the idea of equality. This is especially so given that he was born into a slave society, and his family fully participated in the institution of slavery. From an early age, he would have understood what unequal status meant, with his lifelong involvement in the most extreme version of it as a slave owner. The equality of humankind was simply not an expectation in his world.

Sarah Elizabeth Adams was around 5 when her mother was sold to a slave dealer in Lynchburg, Va. The auction took place in the mid-1840s, in the town of Marion, Va. Sallie, as she was called, was herself sold that day, but not with her mother: A man named Thomas Thurman purchased Sallie to take care of his sick wife. Sallie and her family were among the 1.2 million enslaved men, women and children sold in the United States between approximately 1760 and 1860, according to the historian Michael Tadman. After the American Revolution, cotton production grew rapidly, and demand for enslaved workers on the vast plantations of the Deep South intensified...Even well-known sites of slave labor look different when seen through the lens of the auction. When Thomas Jefferson died, on July 4, 1826, the enslaved people he owned at Monticello suddenly faced a perilous future...Spurred on by the pioneering research of Annette Gordon-Reed, Lucia Stanton, Niya Bates and others, Monticello has more fully acknowledged Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as not just the writer of the Declaration of Independence but also an enslaver. At his plantation, the auctions are described in an exhibit, but in downtown Charlottesville, where the second occurred, there is no specific mention of the auction.

Historian Jon Meacham, Harvard Law School Professor Annette Gordon-Reed and CNN Presidential Historian Tim Naftali discuss with Fareed what makes President Trump's impeachment unique to past presidents. Naftali tells Fareed the House withholding the articles of impeachment from the Senate has never happened before in an impeachment crisis because this is the first time control of Congress has been split during an impeachment.

President Lawrence S. Bacow emailed the community on November 21 to announce an “initiative on Harvard and the legacy of slavery,” backed by an initial $5 million in funding and overseen by a faculty committee led by Radcliffe Institute dean Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Paul professor of constitutional law and professor of history. ... Joining Brown-Nagin and Beckert on the presidential committee are: Annette Gordon-Reed, Warren professor of American legal history and professor of history; ... Martha Minow, 300thAnniversary University Professor (former Law School dean);

A book review by Annette Gordon-Reed: Thomas Jefferson had a severe case of New England envy. Though that region had formed the most consistent bloc of opposition to him and his political party, almost from the beginning of his time on the national stage, he admired many things about the place. First and foremost, he looked with longing toward New England’s system of town meetings, which gathered citizens together to discuss and make decisions about their local communities. Jefferson considered this form of participatory democracy crucial to building and maintaining a healthy republican society. And then there was the region’s profusion of educational institutions. Jefferson admired those as well—even if he did not always agree with what was being taught there. The hard work of democracy, including well-ordered community decision making, required an educated populace. That is why he waged a campaign for a system of publicly supported education in Virginia for many years.

An article by Annette Gordon-Reed: Andrew J. Torget begins his 2015 book Seeds of Empire: Cotton, Slavery, and the Transformation of the Texas Borderlands, 1800–1850 with the story of five people whose journey into what was then “northern New Spain” effectively captures the origins of what would become the largest of the contiguous states of the American Union. In 1819 “Marian, Richard, and Tivi” escaped from slavery on a plantation in Louisiana, hoping to find freedom in Spanish territory. The following year, James Kirkham, the man who claimed ownership of them, went looking for the escapees, and on his way encountered another Anglo-American, Moses Austin. Austin, a Connecticut-born Missouri transplant, would gain a place in history for getting the first land grant “from Spanish authorities to begin settling American families in Texas”—the name the Spanish had given the region that they had fought to take from the Comanches for over a century. Austin’s task was not just to convince whites to move to Texas. He also had to encourage “the Spanish government…to endorse the enslavement of men and women like Marian, Richard, and Tivi, since American farmers would not abandon the United States if they also had to abandon the labor system that made their cotton fields so profitable.”

...This month is the 400th anniversary of that ship’s arrival. To commemorate this historic moment and its legacy, The New York Times Magazine has dedicated an entire issue and special broadsheet section, out this Sunday, to exploring the history of slavery and mapping the ways in which it has touched nearly every aspect of contemporary life in the United States. The 1619 Project began as an idea pitched by Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of the magazine’s staff writers, during a meeting in January.  ... Those involved knew it was a big task, one that would require the expertise of those who have dedicated their entire lives and careers to studying the nuances of what it means to be a black person in America. Ms. Hannah-Jones invited 18 scholars and historians — including Kellie Jones, a Columbia University art historian and 2016 MacArthur Fellow; Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law and history at Harvard; and William Darity, a professor of public policy at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University — to meet with editors and journalists at The Times early this year.

A week before the public opening of "Hamilton: The Exhibition" -- the brainchild of "Hamilton" composer/lyricist/writer Lin-Manuel Miranda and his team -- exhibition creative director David Korins insisted everything was on schedule. A 360-degree, immersive, football field-sized homage to Alexander Hamilton, the exhibition opened Saturday on Chicago's Northerly Island. It represents a "deeper dive" into the life and times of the Founding Father and first treasury secretary depicted in Miranda's blockbuster musical. ...More than two years in the making, the exhibition is a collaboration between Miranda, Korins, director Thomas Kail, producer Jeffrey Seller and orchestrator Alex Lacamoire with assistance from Yale University historian Joanne Freeman and Harvard Law professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed.

With its unique blend of music, dance and history lesson, the musical “Hamilton” proved to be something new and innovative for the stage. Now the team behind that mega-hit has created “Hamilton: The Exhibition,” touted as something else new and innovative. ... But does the general public want more Hamilton? That’s the question that will be answered as the exhibit makes its debut in Chicago. ... To bring more depth and an academic accuracy to the museum-quality exhibit, Yale University historian Joanne Freeman and Harvard law professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed served as consultants.

Virginia’s Democratic governor declared this weekend that he’s “not going anywhere.” Refusing to resign, the 59-year-old promised to pursue racial equality during the final three years of his term. ... More than a dozen scholars sent suggestions for what the governor should be reading. ... To understand that awful chapter, Ayers recommends Northam looks at “Life in Black and White,” which focuses on Northern Virginia, by Brenda Stevenson. He also suggests “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family,” by Annette Gordon-Reed. ... Gordon-Reed, a Harvard historian who earned the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for “The Hemingses,” suggests a book by Philip Morgan that might appeal to Northam: “Slave Counterpoint: Black Culture in the Eighteenth-Century Chesapeake & Lowcountry.”

Ever since the historical musical “Hamilton” began its march to near-universal infatuation, one group has noticeable withheld its applause — historians. Many academics argue the portrait of Alexander Hamilton, the star of our $10 bills, is a counterfeit. Now they’re escalating their fight. Ishmael Reed, who has been nominated twice for a National Book Award, has chosen to fight fire with fire — collecting his critique of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s acclaimed show into a play. ... Harvard Law professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed, who has criticized the show in the past and is offering her historical consultation for the exhibit. She attended a reading of Reed’s play and sounded a hopeful note that both sides can come together. “There’s room for my earlier commentary, Mr. Reed’s take, the grand musical itself, and now a good faith effort to consider the musical’s subject in his real-world historical context— which is what the exhibit Is designed to do,” she said.

Hamilton: The Exhibition takes visitors deeper into the life and times of Alexander Hamilton, while at the same time chronicling the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America. ... Hamilton: The Exhibition is a collaboration between Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, director Thomas Kail, creative director and set designer David Korins, producer Jeffrey Seller, orchestrator Alex Lacamoire, and Yale University historian Joanne Freeman. Harvard Law Professor and historian Annette Gordon-Reed is also providing historical consultation.

Harvard history professor Annette Gordon-Reed previews a lecture she’s giving in Houston on the impact of Confederate symbols on display in the public square. ... In the audio above, Gordon-Reed tells Houston Matters producer Maggie Martinabout the messages—both explicit and hidden—that Confederate icons convey to the public.

... Remy, an orange tabby, wanders the school in search of patches of sunlight, snuggly boxes, and friendly interactions. He’s wildly popular — a Facebook page dedicated to “Remy the Humanities Cat” has more than 2,500 followers. He was featured in a Harvard Gazette article in the fall that was among the campus news site’s best-read stories of 2018. And he recently was the star of his own Twitter moment. ... Still, not everyone is familiar with Remy. Law professor Annette Gordon-Reed tweeted a photo Tuesday of Remy slinking along a hallway at the law school and said this was the first time she had seen the feline on campus. Remy’s many fans and supporters quickly spoke up to let Gordon-Reed know that the kitty is well-traveled and a Remy appreciation fest promptly began.

By Annette Gordon-Reed: The documents most closely associated with the creation of the United States—the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—present a problem with which Americans have been contending from the country’s beginning: how to reconcile the values espoused in those texts with the United States’ original sin of slavery, the flaw that marred the country’s creation, warped its prospects, and eventually plunged it into civil war. The Declaration of Independence had a specific purpose: to cut the ties between the American colonies and Great Britain and establish a new country that would take its place among the nations of the world. But thanks to the vaulting language of its famous preamble, the document instantly came to mean more than that. Its confident statement that “all men are created equal,” with “unalienable Rights” to “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness,” put notions of freedom and equality at the heart of the American experiment. Yet it was written by a slave owner, Thomas Jefferson, and released into 13 colonies that all, to one degree or another, allowed slavery.

Jan Ellen Lewis, a historian whose fascination with Thomas Jefferson and his family led her to organize a groundbreaking conference to reassess his legacy after DNA testing showed that he had fathered children with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves, died on Aug. 28 in Manhattan. She was 69...“The stories that had been told about the women in Jefferson’s life had this almost honeyed, treacly portrayal of his relationship with his daughters and granddaughters,” Annette Gordon-Reed, a professor of law and history at Harvard, said in a telephone interview. “Jan saw there was much more substance to them. Jefferson helped raise them to be his intellectual equals, and he treated them that way.” In her own book “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy,” published in 1997, Professor Gordon-Reed wrote that there was strong proof of a relationship between Jefferson and Hemings even before the DNA testing.

On April 13, the Cambridge Police Department arrested a Harvard College student, a development that sparked concerns on campus and in the larger community. In the days that followed, then-President Drew Faust sent a message to the community expressing her concern, noting that the student was in obvious distress. She called for a better understanding of how that had happened and whether authorities could have interceded earlier and more effectively. To help ensure that the facts surrounding the arrest are clear and that recommendations are made for the future, a review committee was established, chaired by Annette Gordon-Reed, Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School and professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The committee worked through the summer and plans to issue a final report and recommendations this fall. The Gazette spoke with Gordon-Reed about the committee’s activities so far, and its next steps.

An op-ed by Annette Gordon-Reed. Sally Hemings takes center stage in Monticello on Saturday when the Thomas Jefferson Foundation opens an exhibit in a space where she is said to have lived for some time. Her story is told through the recollections of her son Madison Hemings, the third of four children she and Thomas Jefferson had who lived to adulthood. His memoir, published in an Ohio newspaper in 1873, gives vital information about the Hemings family genealogy, his mother’s life and the course of his own history. As part of a major renovation of the plantation’s southern wing, visitors will for the first time see Sally Hemings depicted as a central figure in life on the mountain.