There are at least 44 million descendants of enslaved individuals living today, but slavery separated families, erased names, and obscured facts. The 10 Million Names Project, launched by American Ancestors and its partners in 2023, aims to connect the family stories of these descendants to the 10 million men, women, and children of African descent who were enslaved in the U.S. prior to emancipation and to restore their names to history. Hear from Dr. Vincent Brown, Dr. Kendra Field, and Dr. Kerri Greenidge, members of the 10 Million Names scholars council, as they share histories and legacies of slavery in New England, the ongoing research of the 10 Million Names project, and ways to get involved.  

This event is made possible by the 10 Million Names Project, in partnership with the Slave Legacy History Coalition, a descendant-led history organization; First Church in Cambridge; and Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site.

This is a hybrid event! Registrants may either attend online from home, or join the event at First Church in Cambridge (11 Garden Street), Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dr. Kendra Taira Field, Chief Historian, 10 Million Names - Dr. Kendra Taira Field is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at Tufts University. Field is the author of Growing Up with the Country: Family, Race, and Nation after the Civil War (Yale, 2018). Her current book project, The Stories We Tell (W.W. Norton) is a history of African American genealogy and storytelling from the Middle Passage to the present. As a public historian, Field co-founded the African American Trail Project and the Du Bois Forum, a retreat for writers, scholars, and artists of color; served as project historian for the Du Bois Freedom Center; and co-curated “We Who Believe In Freedom: Black Feminist DC,” the inaugural exhibition (2023) of the National Women’s History Museum.

Dr. Vincent Brown, Scholar, 10 Million Names - Vincent Brown is Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. He teaches courses in Atlantic history, African diaspora studies, and the history of slavery in the Americas. Brown is the author of the two award-winning books The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (Harvard University Press, 2008) and Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (Belknap Press, 2020), and he is producer of Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness (2009), an audiovisual documentary broadcast on the PBS series Independent Lens, as well as the short video series The Bigger Picture (2022) for PBS Digital Studios.

Dr. Kerri Greenidge, Scholar, 10 Million Names - Kerri Greenidge is Mellon Associate Professor in the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University. She teaches courses on Black and Native New England, Black Boston, and the history of Slavery, Reconstruction, and their aftermaths in the United States. At Tufts University, she co-directs the African American Trail Project with Dr. Kendra Field. Greenidge is the author of the award-winning Black Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter (Liveright Norton, 2019), and the recently released, critically acclaimed, National Book Award nominee The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family (Liveright Norton, 2022).

In partnership with the Slave Legacy History Coalition, a descendant-led history organization; First Church in Cambridge; and Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site