James H. Johnston, an attorney and journalist, has published extensively on national affairs, law, telecommunications, history, and the arts. His contributions include papers on local Washington, D.C., history, Yarrow Mamout, and an edition of The Recollections of Margaret Cabell Brown Loughborough.
An American Family’s Multigenerational Rise from Slavery to Harvard University
In the account below, attorney and historian James H. Johnston describes six generations of descendants of Yarrow Mamout, a Muslim slave made famous by Charles Willson Peale’s 1819 painting of him in Georgetown in the District of Columbia. Johnston’s discussion of the evolution of his … Read MoreAn American Family’s Multigenerational Rise from Slavery to Harvard University