Johns Hopkins acknowledges ‘difficult revelation’ founder was slave owner

Johns Hopkins University released a statement on Wednesday acknowledging the “difficult revelation” that its founder was a slave owner.

“For most of the last century, our institutions believed Johns Hopkins to be an early and staunch abolitionist whose father, a committed Quaker, had freed the family’s enslaved people in 1807,” said the university. “But over the past several months, research being done as a part of the Hopkins Retrospective has caused us to question this narrative.”

According to the statement, census records showed that Hopkins owned one slave in 1840, four slaves in 1850 and no slaves in 1860. It is currently unknown why Hopkins had no slaves by 1860.

Maryland, where Johns Hopkins is located, outlawed slavery in 1864, one year before the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery nationwide, was passed. Hopkins would go on to found his eponymous university in 1876.

The school said there is no “comprehensive biography” on its founder and that it would be “vigorously” pursuing additional research in the near future.

“We felt it was important to share this new information with you now, as part of our ongoing work, announced last summer, to deepen our historical understanding of the legacy of racism in our country, our city, and our institutions,” said Johns Hopkins.

The long-standing belief that Hopkins was an abolitionist stemmed from a biography penned by his grandniece Helen Thom that was published in 1929. It featured several family stories, including one that said Hopkins’s parents freed the “able-bodied” slaves from the Anne Arundel plantation due to their Quaker beliefs. 

This action was supposedly undertaken at great financial cost to the family, leading Hopkins to leave home and move to Baltimore. Thom claimed that Hopkins later became “a strong abolitionist.”

The university’s research found no evidence to support the claims, and the school said it will be joining the Universities Studying Slavery project.

The statement was signed by Ronald Daniels, the university’s president; Paul Rothman, the dean of the medical faculty; and Kevin Sowers, the president of the Johns Hopkins Health System.

“We are not alone in undertaking the difficult but essential work of reckoning with a complex history and the legacy of racial injustice,” Johns Hopkins said.

“This is a solemn responsibility and an important opportunity not only to seek truth but also to build a better, more just, and more equitable future for our institution and all we serve,” it added.