Rare Slave Photos Return Home to Charleston Museum

0:00This is Durham News Today, powered by AI and presented by the Daily News Now. Harvard University has transferred rare, degueral-type photos from 1850 to the International African-American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. These images show seven enslaved people, including a man named Renti and his daughter Delia, taken from multiple angles with the subject's shirtless, the handoff ends a seven-year legal battle. The photos were commissioned by a Harvard biologist for race's research that supported slavery before the Civil War. A woman named Tamara Leneer sued the university, claiming Renti was her great-great-great-grandfather, and pushing for the images to return to South Carolina, where they were made. Descendants and supporters fill a deep sense of relief, describing the return as the ancestors finally coming home to breathe freely. Leneer's attorney highlighted how the university had profited from licensing the photos while the family sought control over their story. The case moved through Massachusetts courts before the two sides settled earlier this year in 2025.

1:04Harvard said it always wanted to donate the originals to a proper museum, but disputed the family connection. Now at Gadsden's Wharf, where nearly half of enslaved Africans first arrived in America, the museum will preserve the originals and use copies in an exhibit to tell the stories of these seven individuals. This episode is supported by a sponsor, see details in the description. You know what is better than earbuds and bed? No earbuds at all, S-O-L-L-I, solelypillow.com.