Harvard University has agreed to hand over a set of historic photos that are considered one of the first to portray enslaved people in the United States.

The agreement ended a long legal battle between the agency and Connecticut author Tamara Lanier, who believes she is the descendant of two people in the photo.

The images, taken in 1850, will be transferred to the International African American Museum in South Carolina, where the people shown in the photos are enslaved.

Harvard University said it has always hoped that the photos would be handed over to another museum. Ms. Lanier said she ended up being "ecstatic".

The images are Daguerreotypes, an early form of modern photographs, taken 15 years before the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The photos were rediscovered in 1976 at the Harvard Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

These 15 images are identified by the Peabody Museum as people of Alfred, Delia, Drana, Fassena, Jack, Jem and Renty. According to Ms. Lanier, the solution means transferring all images is not just about Renty and Delia's images.

The photos were commissioned by Harvard professor and zoologist Louis Agassiz, part of a well-known study that demonstrates the advantages of white people. He advocates polygenics and now exposes the belief that human race develops separately.

The case forms part of a debate on how American universities should respond to their historicity and slavery. In 2016, Harvard Law School agreed to change the shield based on the pinnacle of slave owners in the 18th century.

Harvard did not comment on the details of the settlement, but a university spokesman said: "There has long been aspiration to place Zealy Daguerreotyp in the right context with another museum or other public institution and to increase the chances for all Americans."

The spokesman added that Ms Lanier “has claimed ownership rights of DaguerReotypes to create a complex situation, especially since Harvard did not be able to confirm Ms Lanier’s connection with individuals in Daguerreotypes.”

Ms. Lanier sued Harvard in 2019, believing that the images were alleged to profit from large licensing fees without consent.

In 2022, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld an earlier ruling that dismissed Ms. Lanier’s claim on ownership. However, she was allowed to claim damage from emotional distress. It ruled Harvard had a "co-conspiracy" in the "terrible action" surrounding the creation of images.

It added: “Harvard’s current obligations cannot be associated with past abuse.”

Ms Lanier told the BBC she was “ecstatic” about the settlement. "I always knew I would never care about the daguerreotypes they needed," she said.

“There are so many connections that tie the lease and Delia and other enslaved people to that particular area of ​​South Carolina that it’s like a return to school.”

The South Carolina Museum helped Ms. Lanier make a genealogical claim but was not involved in the legal battle. Its chairperson said they intend to preserve and display the images “with truth and empathy as the background.”

"These are not gentle images, but stories of how they become are harder to hear," Tonya Matthews told the BBC.

“So, in a space that has laid the dialogue space for dialogue about slavery and slavery inhumanity, even today, these meanings reverberate today, what we do, it’s our mission.”