The University of Virginia Library with Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is thrilled to present the 2026 Thomas Jefferson Foundation Distinguished Lecture "How Do You Remember the Days of Slavery?: A screening and discussion" with Dr. Vincent Brown, Charles Warren Professor of American History, Harvard University.

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Join us for a 20-minute documentary following Professor Vincent Brown, as he travels to Jamaica at the invitation of the Jamaican Ministry of Culture, to speak at the island’s second annual Chief Takyi Day in St Mary Parish. The little explored history of Chief Takyi has long fascinated Professor Brown. In 2020, after more than a decade of dedicated research across multiple continents, he published his award-winning book, Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War, shedding crucial light on the brutally suppressed revolt which paved the road to abolition.

Vincent Brown is Charles Warren Professor of American History, Professor of African and African-American Studies, and Founding Director of the History Design Studio at Harvard University. His research, writing, teaching, and media pursuits are focused on the political dimensions of cultural practice in the African Diaspora, with a particular emphasis on the early modern Atlantic world. A native of Southern California, he was educated at the University of California, San Diego, and received his PhD in History from Duke University, where he also trained in the theory and craft of film and video making. He has published two prize-winning books about the history of slavery:  The Reaper’s Garden: Death and Power in the World of Atlantic Slavery (2008) and  Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (2020). A co-founder of  Timestamp Media, which explores the history that connects people and places across the world, Brown recently appeared in Ken Burns’s PBS documentary The American Revolution.

For more details and registration info, visit the event registration page.