This image is Harvard Law School’s symbol. It is controversial
because it shows three bundles of wheat, an image borrowed from the family
crest of Isaac Royall, Jr. This benefactor donated his estate to create the
first law professorship at Harvard University. His father, Isaac Royall Sr.,
made much of the family wealth from slaves on Caribbean sugar plantations and
Massachusetts farms.
Do you think it matters that Royall Jr. did not own slaves
himself? Does it matter that the money he gave came from slave labor? For my
part, I am ambivalent. My father was a laborer in a Nazi concentration camp;
and for years, he refused to buy anything German. Before he died, he bought a new
Mercedes Benz, and said it was time to forgive—and not visit the sins of the
father on the son.
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