James Bradley, Oberlin College’s ‘First’ Black Student

James Bradley was not the first African American to study at Oberlin College, but chroniclers and historians of abolition have long mistaken the facts of his life.

The Massachusetts Historical Society will host “If Wishes Were Sources: Speculation and the Saga of James Bradley, Oberlin’s ‘First’ Black Student,” a program with John Frederick Bell, Assumption University with comment by Julie Winch, University of Massachusetts Boston, set for Thursday, January 12th.

This program will reinterpret the available evidence, not simply to correct the record but to critique the appropriation of freed people’s life narratives in antislavery storytelling. Scholars of slavery have shown the value of fabulation or speculation for addressing omissions and suppressions of enslaved voices in the archive.

Bradley’s case suggests that the inverse can also be true, that endeavoring to fill gaps in the stories of freed people can reproduce harm rather than redress it.

This program will be held both in-person and virtually. The in-person reception will begin at 4:30 pm, with the program starting at 5 pm. For more information or to register, click here.

Photo provided.