John Harris
@drjohnaeharris.bsky.social
Historian of slavery and abolition. Author of The Last Slave Ships: NYC & The End of The Middle Passage (Yale, 2020). Working on a new book Spying on The Slave Trade 🕵️. Rep’d by Deirdre Mullane
N. Ireland - U.S.
https://www.johnaeharris.com/
N. Ireland - U.S.
https://www.johnaeharris.com/
In May I knocked on a door in Brooklyn. Thrilled to see that adventure become a New York Times article in print this weekend.
August 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
In May I knocked on a door in Brooklyn. Thrilled to see that adventure become a New York Times article in print this weekend.
Reposted by John Harris
It's Harrison Ford's birthday today, thus we are contractually obligated to point you to this ridiculous classic from our archives.
Back from Yet Another Globetrotting Adventure, Indiana Jones Checks His Mail and Discovers That His Bid for Tenure Has Been Denied
January 22, 1939 Assistant Professor Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr. Department of Anthropology Chapman Hall 227B Marshall College Dr. Jones: As chairman...
buff.ly
July 14, 2025 at 1:30 AM
It's Harrison Ford's birthday today, thus we are contractually obligated to point you to this ridiculous classic from our archives.
Reposted by John Harris
Check out a @nytimes feature from John Harris, author of The Last Slave Ships, a history of illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy
An antislavery spy who worked for the British in New York in the 1800s lived in a house that is now home to an allergy doctor descended from Horace Greeley.
www.nytimes.com
July 11, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Check out a @nytimes feature from John Harris, author of The Last Slave Ships, a history of illegal transatlantic slave trade in the United States
I enjoy mazey bookstores (Edisto Island SC)
July 9, 2025 at 8:44 PM
I enjoy mazey bookstores (Edisto Island SC)
Reposted by John Harris
Absolutely incredible graphic from 1880 tracing the history of political parties in the United States.
July 6, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Absolutely incredible graphic from 1880 tracing the history of political parties in the United States.
Grateful to the New York Times for covering my research.
I am referred to as a potential “nut case” in the first paragraph, which is also pleasing.
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/r...
I am referred to as a potential “nut case” in the first paragraph, which is also pleasing.
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/r...
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy
www.nytimes.com
July 6, 2025 at 1:29 PM
Grateful to the New York Times for covering my research.
I am referred to as a potential “nut case” in the first paragraph, which is also pleasing.
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/r...
I am referred to as a potential “nut case” in the first paragraph, which is also pleasing.
The Brooklyn Allergist’s Office That Was Once Home to a Spy www.nytimes.com/2025/07/06/r...
Reposted by John Harris
Trump says the U.S. military has just attacked three Iranian nuclear sites:
June 21, 2025 at 11:51 PM
Trump says the U.S. military has just attacked three Iranian nuclear sites:
Revealing to read these “universities partner with AI companies” articles and discover that faculty are nowhere to be seen, either in the articles or, apparently, in the universities’ decision making process.
The faculty; you know, the folks who do the educating
www.thestate.com/news/local/e...
The faculty; you know, the folks who do the educating
www.thestate.com/news/local/e...
$1.5M partnership with AI company will offer USC students, faculty free access
“The campuswide adoption of secure enterprise AI technology puts USC on the leading edge of higher education institutions.”
www.thestate.com
June 21, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Revealing to read these “universities partner with AI companies” articles and discover that faculty are nowhere to be seen, either in the articles or, apparently, in the universities’ decision making process.
The faculty; you know, the folks who do the educating
www.thestate.com/news/local/e...
The faculty; you know, the folks who do the educating
www.thestate.com/news/local/e...
Reposted by John Harris
Today's complaint about the AI in education discourse: Too much of it is framed around a future that is going to happen to us, as opposed to seeing the future as something we may have some agency to shape. I reject the deterministic view of AI, particularly genAI. It's a tool, not our master.
June 18, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Today's complaint about the AI in education discourse: Too much of it is framed around a future that is going to happen to us, as opposed to seeing the future as something we may have some agency to shape. I reject the deterministic view of AI, particularly genAI. It's a tool, not our master.
Reposted by John Harris
i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!
Everyone Is Using A.I. for Everything. Is That Bad?
www.nytimes.com
June 18, 2025 at 12:55 AM
i just find this so bizarre. searching through texts and doing the reading for myself is how i actually think through ideas! trying to put together a sentence is how i figure out what i actually want to say!
Reposted by John Harris
PUBLICATION DAY!
_I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom_ is now available from @yalepress.bsky.social
To celebrate, I am going to post some of the most extraordinary Dessalines quotations below!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
_I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom_ is now available from @yalepress.bsky.social
To celebrate, I am going to post some of the most extraordinary Dessalines quotations below!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
I Have Avenged America
A moving and humane portrait of the abolitionist revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who led Haiti’s fight for independence from French colonial rule ...
yalebooks.yale.edu
June 17, 2025 at 10:00 AM
PUBLICATION DAY!
_I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom_ is now available from @yalepress.bsky.social
To celebrate, I am going to post some of the most extraordinary Dessalines quotations below!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
_I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti's Fight for Freedom_ is now available from @yalepress.bsky.social
To celebrate, I am going to post some of the most extraordinary Dessalines quotations below!
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
Got a call from the New York Times today. Something cool coming, hopefully this week…
June 16, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Got a call from the New York Times today. Something cool coming, hopefully this week…
3,000+ at No Kings in Greenville SC
June 14, 2025 at 8:27 PM
3,000+ at No Kings in Greenville SC
Reposted by John Harris
The situation at historic preservation offices is growing more dire. The nation is turning away from its 60-year commitment to preservation not through elected reps, but through OMB's intransigence.
Still can't get anyone to bite on my piece about this issue!
preservewa.org/advocacy-ale...
Still can't get anyone to bite on my piece about this issue!
preservewa.org/advocacy-ale...
June 12, 2025 at 12:15 PM
The situation at historic preservation offices is growing more dire. The nation is turning away from its 60-year commitment to preservation not through elected reps, but through OMB's intransigence.
Still can't get anyone to bite on my piece about this issue!
preservewa.org/advocacy-ale...
Still can't get anyone to bite on my piece about this issue!
preservewa.org/advocacy-ale...
At a time when early studies are showing that AI weakens student learning outcomes like critical thinking, it feels like universities that go all in on AI are cheapening their product.
June 7, 2025 at 2:07 PM
At a time when early studies are showing that AI weakens student learning outcomes like critical thinking, it feels like universities that go all in on AI are cheapening their product.
Less than 6% of college students in the US are international students. I don’t see that as a major problem in higher ed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...
Opinion | Don’t Let Trump’s Brutality Fool You. The Internationalization of American Schools Is a Real Issue.
www.nytimes.com
June 2, 2025 at 7:59 AM
Less than 6% of college students in the US are international students. I don’t see that as a major problem in higher ed.
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/01/o...
Do Irish if you can swing it
A record number of Americans applied for British citizenship in the first three months of this year, and for the right to live and work in Britain indefinitely, according to official data.
Record Number of Americans Apply for British Citizenship
www.nytimes.com
May 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Do Irish if you can swing it
Reposted by John Harris
THE DRIVER'S STORY (@pennpress.bsky.social) has won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal for World History. 🎉
May 23, 2025 at 11:03 AM
THE DRIVER'S STORY (@pennpress.bsky.social) has won the Independent Publisher Book Awards Gold Medal for World History. 🎉
The Center for Brooklyn History does not disappoint!
May 14, 2025 at 11:09 PM
The Center for Brooklyn History does not disappoint!
Update: Got a house tour from the Horace Greeley descendants - several of whom are named … Horace Greeley. It was Horace mania inside!
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
May 14, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Update: Got a house tour from the Horace Greeley descendants - several of whom are named … Horace Greeley. It was Horace mania inside!
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
Update: Got a house tour from the Horace Greeley descendants - several of whom are named … Horace Greeley. It was Horace mania inside!
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
May 14, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Update: Got a house tour from the Horace Greeley descendants - several of whom are named … Horace Greeley. It was Horace mania inside!
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
Very cool to see where my subject (Sanchez) lived & to briefly walk in his footsteps. Got a sense of his living situation / stylistic interests (Italianate) /1
I was at a conference this morning in NYC where we heard about the impact of the elimination of the National Weather Service and of the privatization of weather info. Grim predictions: Paid access for weather forecasts and little info for rural communities bc fewer subscribers.
May 13, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I was at a conference this morning in NYC where we heard about the impact of the elimination of the National Weather Service and of the privatization of weather info. Grim predictions: Paid access for weather forecasts and little info for rural communities bc fewer subscribers.
Reposted by John Harris
Publication day! A four-year voyage comes to an end as *Freedom Ship* sails into port. Published by @VikingBooks. Thanks to all of you for your interest along the way. Available for purchase here:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566407...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566407...
May 13, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Publication day! A four-year voyage comes to an end as *Freedom Ship* sails into port. Published by @VikingBooks. Thanks to all of you for your interest along the way. Available for purchase here:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566407...
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566407...