Reexamining the history of the university's founder, Johns Hopkins

No. The university and hospital were opened in 1876 and 1889 respectively, after the death of our founder Johns Hopkins and after the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

No. The university and hospital were founded after the death of our founder Johns Hopkins, and after the end of the Civil War and the adoption of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.

We are at the beginning of our inquiry into this new information, and we do not yet have any details into the identities or lives of these enslaved people, other than their ages, but that is a focus of our research.

Since at least 1929, our understanding of our namesake’s connections to slaveholding and abolitionism appears to have come from a short book written by Johns Hopkins’ grand-niece Helen Thom that describes him as “a strong abolitionist.”

As far as we are aware, Johns Hopkins’ personal papers were either destroyed prior to his death or lost subsequently, and our primary, foundational reference documents have been Johns Hopkins’ will and letter to Hospital trustees which lay out his extraordinary act of philanthropy as well as his vision for our institution and its mission of research, education and service. New documents that are under analysis now from later in our founder’s life describe him as holding antislavery views and include comments by his contemporaries, including prominent Black leaders, lauding his philanthropic support for the establishment of an orphanage for Black children.

These findings call upon us to investigate—with diligence and openness—the full scope of the connections of Johns Hopkins and his family to the institution of slavery, which we are fully committed to continuing, wherever it may lead to bring us closer to the truth.

In May, the university first heard of the possible existence of a census record indicating that Johns Hopkins had four enslaved people living in his house in 1850. Hopkins Retrospective Program Manager Allison Seyler was able to locate the record through extensive searching of online genealogical records compiled by the LDS church. The university then sought the guidance and expertise of historian and KSAS faculty member Professor Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History and the SNF Agora Institute. The painstaking process of confirming the record and its significance was slowed by COVID-related restrictions on use of the Maryland State Archives and other repositories.

At the university’s request, Professor Martha Jones, Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History and the SNF Agora Institute, has taken up this issue. She is also engaged in a previously announced “hard history” project related to Johns Hopkins University’s legacy on discrimination in many forms, first and foremost race. Hopkins Retrospective Program Manager Allison Seyler and colleagues in the university’s archives are also contributing to this work and investigating the historical records.

For a number of years, through the Hopkins Retrospective program, we have engaged in a university-wide initiative to explore the history of our university. As soon as we heard of the possible existence of a record linking Mr. Hopkins to slaveholding, we engaged in an intensive research process to find and verify that and other such documents. We are sharing this information at a relatively early stage in order to begin together a journey of further research and understanding. We have much more to discover, but we believed it was essential to inform our community as soon as we were confident in the basic facts.

Since 2013 Hopkins has undertaken efforts to examine more fully its history through the Hopkins Retrospective project and other initiatives, including several to look at the role of enslaved labor on the land that would later become the Homewood campus, and this summer it announced a project by Professor Martha Jones to examine Johns Hopkins University’s legacy on discrimination in many forms, first and foremost race.

The fact that Mr. Hopkins had, at any time in his life, participated in the practice of slavery has been a disappointing revelation for us, as we know it will be for our community. It calls to mind not only the darkest chapters in the history of our country and our city, but also the complex history of our institutions since then – the legacies of racism and inequity, and the institutional and personal imperative to pursue truth.

These findings call upon us to investigate – with diligence and openness – the full scope of the connections of Johns Hopkins and his family to the institution of slavery. We will engage the Hopkins community, including neighbors in Baltimore, in a rigorous and unflinching reexamination of our institution’s origins. We will work together to acknowledge and account for the complex picture that is emerging of our namesake, his participation in slaveholding and relationship to anti-slavery politics and post-war reconstruction. We will engage hard questions about the implications of Johns Hopkins’ life and legacy over the course of our institution’s history and for its future.

This multi-year project will be closely linked to the longstanding Hopkins Retrospective and will likely encompass additional research, scholarly lectures and forums, an online archive, and commemorative events or public art in recognition and acknowledgment of our history, and remembrance of those who were enslaved by our founder and his family. It also will include a number of opportunities for the broad and meaningful participation of our community.

We believe it is critically important for our entire community to be involved in this important work. That’s why we will engage the Hopkins community, including neighbors in Baltimore, in a rigorous and unflinching re-examination of our institution’s origins. We are fully committed to continuing this research wherever it may lead to bring us closer to the truth. We will begin seeking your ideas for this initiative at a town hall this week, and will maintain an open comment and suggestion line on the Hopkins Retrospective website. We will work together to acknowledge and account for the complex picture that is emerging of our namesake, his participation in slaveholding and relationship to anti-slavery politics and post-war reconstruction. We will engage hard questions about the implications of Johns Hopkins’ life and legacy over the course of our institution’s history and for its future.

This multi-year project will be closely linked to the Hopkins Retrospective and will likely encompass additional research, scholarly lectures and forums, an online archive, and commemorative events or public art in recognition and acknowledgment of our history, and remembrance of those who were enslaved by our founder and his family. It also will include a number of opportunities for your broad and meaningful participation, ideas and input as part of an open and inclusive process.

The process of finding and verifying information about our founder’s life more than a century and a half ago is painstaking, and we are dedicated to providing the resources necessary to complete it.

There are several immediate steps that we are taking. We are committed to continuing this research wherever it may lead and will fully support Professor Martha Jones and the work of the Hopkins Retrospective project to ensure that the history of our founder undergoes a rigorous and unsparing review.

• Continued research: We will delve deeply into the historical record, work to build a public repository of documents and knowledge, and ensure rigorous, scholarly engagement with, and interpretation of, these materials. We have also asked our historians under the leadership of Professor Martha Jones to propose a set of initiatives that explore the historical connections of our early donors, trustees and others to slavery. We anticipate that we will have a draft of that plan for public feedback this spring and to launch this series of initiatives by the end of the spring semester.
• Community involvement: We will begin seeking your ideas for this initiative at a town hall this week, and will maintain an open comment and suggestion line on the Hopkins Retrospective website. In coming months, there will be further opportunities for community engagement and dialogue on this issue.
• Tie in to ongoing DEI efforts: We also will work closely with our chief diversity officers, Katrina Caldwell (JHU) and Sherita Golden (JHM) to align our ongoing efforts and strategic priorities in diversity, equity and inclusion with this important new history initiative.
• Universities Studying Slavery: Johns Hopkins University and Medicine will join the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) project, which will allow us to work with a consortium of peers who have embarked upon similar efforts in recent years.

We will work together to ensure the participation of our full community—faculty, staff, students, alumni, and Baltimore neighbors—at every step along the way. We will begin seeking your ideas for this initiative at a town hall this week, and will maintain an open comment and suggestion line on the Hopkins Retrospective website. In coming months, there will be further opportunities for community engagement and dialogue on this issue. Opportunities for engagement and further exploration will be available online and members of the community are encouraged to follow Professor Jones’ work for her hard history project.