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Records prove Johns Hopkins U founder owned slaves, shattering belief he was a staunch abolitionist
https://www.baltimoresun.com/maryland/bs-md-johns-hopkins-slaveholder-20201209-54pkjy2a6jgrhkmpo6hub2lkuu-story.htmlThe narrative has stood as an unquestioned landmark of Baltimore history for at least nine decades: Johns Hopkins, the businessman who founded the university and hospital that bear his name, was more than just a big-time philanthropist. He was an abolitionist, a civic leader who actively opposed slavery and racism in all its forms.
Now a different picture has emerged. University historians have learned that the man who gave birth to the institution was an owner of slaves himself.
A team of researchers led by Johns Hopkins professor Martha S. Jones, who specializes in African American history, has unearthed U.S. Census returns revealing that Hopkins — whose Quaker father and grandfather have long been thought to have freed their slaves — led a Baltimore household that included at least five enslaved men, one in 1840 and four in 1850.
Because census enumerators would have asked household members not just about the presence of enslaved people in their home but also about who owned them, Jones says it’s a certainty that Hopkins, who is listed as the head, was in fact their owner.
Now a different picture has emerged. University historians have learned that the man who gave birth to the institution was an owner of slaves himself.
A team of researchers led by Johns Hopkins professor Martha S. Jones, who specializes in African American history, has unearthed U.S. Census returns revealing that Hopkins — whose Quaker father and grandfather have long been thought to have freed their slaves — led a Baltimore household that included at least five enslaved men, one in 1840 and four in 1850.
Because census enumerators would have asked household members not just about the presence of enslaved people in their home but also about who owned them, Jones says it’s a certainty that Hopkins, who is listed as the head, was in fact their owner.
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