Telling the Truth: Understanding and Untangling Historical Facts and Interpretations

This facilitated conversation at Stenton will consider two documents from Logan family papers. These letters, written by white Quaker enslavers, James Logan and William Logan, reveal aspects of the lives of two enslaved Black people, Jack (teenaged in 1723) and Menah (aged 49 in 1756), who labored at Stenton. In the context of questions around understanding historical truth and interpretation, we will read into the biases of these letters to understand what they tell us and to consider how to talk about their contents.

This program is part of Stenton's Wrestling With Justice Project, supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.