Reunion 004: Social Standing, Identity, and Material Culture with Laura Arnold Leibman

In a quiet attic in New York, Blanche Moses carefully preserved two miniature ivory portraits. She believed they depicted her noble Jewish ancestors, that is to say, in the best light possible: refined, European, and elite. For Blanche, these portraits were more than heirlooms. They were proof of belonging, of status, of a family history that fit neatly into the story she had always been told. But when historian Laura Arnold Leibman followed the trail, she uncovered a very different past. The portraits were not of European aristocrats, but of Sarah and Isaac Brandon, siblings born into slavery in Barbados. They would later become free, wealthy, and Jewish in New York, navigating a world where race, religion, and class collided in complex and often hidden ways. In Once We Were Slaves, Leibman traces the extraordinary journey of the Brandon family, revealing how identity is not fixed but forged, through migration, reinvention, and the stories families choose to tell. Today, Laura joins us to explore how family history can challenge the narratives we inherit and reshape our understanding of who we are and where we come from.