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Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park

The Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park was established in 2003, the 100th anniversary of Tubman's death, in rural Dorchester County. In 2017 the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Visitor Centre was officially opened. The visitor centre was a collaborative project between the US National Park Service and the Maryland Park Service. The building houses exhibition space, a research library and gift shop. Also on location is a public pavilion and legacy garden.

The design of the site was built around the importance of northward movement in the slave's quest for freedom. The legacy garden stretches out north between the buildings, offering an expansive and hopeful view. The view south is more enclosed and fragmented, reflecting the intolerable existence for those enslaved. The visitor centre houses an exhibition that chronicles the life and accomplishments of Tubman; her birth into slavery, escaping and subsequently returning to free friends and family, her work as a Union spy and her activism after the Civil War. The story is told through a combination of interpretive text, videos, murals, dioramas and her own powerful words.

The park and visitor centre are open seven days a week and are free to the public. The visitor centre also provides further information on the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway Driving Tour, which has 36 stops throughout the Eastern Shore of Maryland linked to Tubman's life.

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Het Scheepvaartmuseum

Het Scheepvaartmuseum is the National Maritime Museum of the Netherlands. Housed in a seventeenth-century naval storehouse, the museum showcases the ways in which Dutch culture has been influenced by the sea. A vast array of collections, including paintings, maps, maritime instruments and weapons illustrate these stories. Just outside the museum, there is a replica of an eighteenth century ship, the Amsterdam, which once sailed between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies. With fifteen permanent exhibitions and a free audio tour, the museum's four million annual visitors are exposed to over five hundred years of both Dutch, and world, history.

Dutch involvement in slave trading is highlighted in the 'See you in the Golden Age' exhibition. The interpretation here focusses on the seventeenth century, a time when the Netherlands was one of the most economically and culturally rich countries in the world. While the exhibition reflects this boom period through a variety of collections, it also illustrates the darker side of Dutch prosperity. By making use of contemporary narratives, the museum provides its visitors a chance 'meet' historical characters including Amimba, a young African girl who was forced into slavery.

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House of Negritude and Human Rights

The House of Negritude and Human Rights opened in 1971 in the former Champagney town hall. It relocated to its present site in 1995. The museum was founded after local historian René Simonin discovered a document in the Haute-Saône departmental archives. This document is known as 'Article 29' of the Champagney Register of Grievances. In 1789, the inhabitants of Champagney, drew up their list of grievances at the request of King Louis XVI. This document would be used to prepare the meeting of the Estates General that would open the process of the French Revolution. 'Article 29' was a one-of-a-kind request to abolish black slavery on humanitarian grounds.

The museum is a tribute to the "Champagnerots" (people of Champagney) who made this extraordinary request. Text interpretation explores the context of the request, examining the french slave trade and the movement for abolition in other European countries in the nineteenth century. There are artefacts that highlight the terrible conditions faced by the enslaved, including a replica slave ship and items recovered from plantations in Haiti.

The interpretation also goes on to examine other forms of slavery in the contemporary world. This is embedded into the museum's popular education programmes that reflect on the development and importance of human rights around the world.

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House of Slaves

The museum is located on Gorée Island, 3 km off the coast of Senegal. The structure was built in 1776 as a holding centre for Africans waiting to be exported across the Atlantic. It was converted into a museum and memorial in 1962. According to the original curator of the museum, Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, the island played a pivotal role in the containment and transportation of slaves to America during the transatlantic slave trade. The aim of the museum and memorial is to help its visitors come to terms with the extent of the transatlantic slave trade and the effects of the trade on Africa and its people. It was designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1978.

The content of the museum includes murals and artwork showcasing traditional African techniques, and depicting the process of enslavement. There is also a variety of objects such as chains, manacles, and cages which emphasise the brutal nature of slavery. The site itself is accessed via a ferry and the tourism industry of nearby Dakar is linked closely with the island. The key voices addressed within the museum are those of the enslaved; the museum brings visitors into close approximation with the living conditions faced by the enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade. One of the most poignant features is the 'Door of No Return' which is said to be the point where enslaved Africans were boarded onto ships ahead of the Atlantic voyage.

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Kura Hulanda Museum

Situated on the grounds of a nineteenth-century merchant’s house and slave quarters, Kura Hulanda is an anthropological museum that focuses on the cultures of Curacao. Its displays examine a wide range of subjects from the origins of man, the African slave trade, and West African Empires, to Pre-Colombian gold, Mesopotamian relics and Antillean art. The museum is located in the central harbour of Willemstad, where Dutch merchants traded enslaved Africans and commercial goods. Kura Hulanda Museum demonstrates the influence that African and other diverse cultural heritages have had on Curaçaoan and Caribbean societies through time to the present day. It is managed by the Curaçao Tourist Board.  The museum's exhibits trace Curaçaoans African roots and the legacy of the slave trade in the region with collections of art and artefacts from West Africa, illustrating the African influences on Caribbean culture. Displays chart African civilisations, the Middle Passage, life on the plantations, abolition and apprenticeship. There is a model of a slave ship, alongside examples of African bronze work, and instruments that showcase the brutal nature of enslavement. Other displays bring the narrative closer to the present day, examining the Civil Rights movement in the USA with panels relating to the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. 

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Legacy Museum

Open since April 2018, the Legacy Museum is built on the site of a former warehouse where enslaved Africans were imprisoned. The site is located between an historic slave market and the main river dock and train station where tens of thousands of enslaved people were transported through at the height of the domestic slave trade. Today it is a short walk from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in the heart of downtown Montgomery, Alabama. The museum’s mission is to acknowledge and present the legacies of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation in the United States. The Legacy Museum is used to educate people about long-standing racial inequality in America and prompt them to search for truth and reconciliation with the aim of developing real solutions to contemporary problems. Its managing organisation, the Equal Justice Initiative, was founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson and was initially set up to help the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned. In continuing this spirit of active community engagement, the museum also runs concerts and academic summits, and actively participates in human rights campaigning in Alabama.

The museum exhibition begins by showing replica constructions of slave pens, accompanied by unique audio and visual effects, attempting to allow visitors to empathise with an imprisoned slave waiting to be sold at the nearby auction block. There are also first-person accounts from enslaved people, portrayed on film by actors. Alongside these audio-visual experiences there are also more traditional exhibits that examine America’s history of racial injustice and its legacy, drawing connections across generations of Americans impacted by racial difference. These exhibits feature artefacts and archival materials. The museum also includes pieces of contemporary art, commissioned with creative partners to depict contemporary responses to the ongoing legacies of slavery and racial inequalities.

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M Shed

M Shed opened in 2011 and is housed in a warehouse on Bristol’s dockside, a clear and tangible link to the history it interprets. The free-to-enter museum focuses on social history, exploring the development of Bristol as a city through people, places and daily life. It is a popular site, attaining over half a million visitors per year since 2013.

Through this local viewpoint, the museum explores Bristol’s involvement with the transatlantic slave trade and the abolition movement in its ‘Bristol People’ gallery which aims to ‘explore the activities past and present that make Bristol what it is.’ Voices from all factions of the slavery debate feature in the display, with proslavery, the enslaved, particularly those who fought for emancipation, and abolitionists all interpreted within dedicated cases. Each case contains a mix of objects, archive materials and text panels to tell the story. Quotations from key figures also bring to life the voices of those who were personally involved: for example, John Pinney, a plantation owner and sugar agent; Hannah More, a writer and Abolition campaigner; John Kimber, a slave ship captain accused (and acquitted) of murder; Silas Told, an ordinary sailor on slaving voyages. These Bristolian voices give different perspectives on how those involved in the trade saw it at the time. Quotations printed around the gallery also provide the views of today’s visitors to the trade. The exhibition also has sections about the legacies of the slave trade within Bristol, particularly in relation to the representation of African or Afro-Caribbean communities in popular culture, the presence of racism in the city, and the legacies of prominent slave owners in some of Bristol's public institutions.

The theme of antislavery also features as the starting point for a display on public protest movements. One case focusses on Thomas Clarkson’s visit to Bristol to collect information against the trade, another on the campaign to abstain from slave-produced sugar in the 18th century and the Bristol bus boycott against racist employment practices in the 20th century. This display then goes on to look at other popular campaigns and protest movements including women’s suffrage, riots, strikes and the Occupy movement. This perspective, situating the abolition campaign as the beginning of a British tradition of society campaigning, is a unique one across UK museums.

In the Bristol Life gallery, the stories of two Black Bristolians look at the new life for the runaway enslaved man, Henry Parker, and the Windrush generation Princess Campbell.

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Memorial ACTe

On the former site of a sugar factory, Guadelopue's Memorial ACTe stands as a cultural institution that aims to preserve the memory of those who suffered during slavery, as well as to act as a space for discussion on the continuing repercussions. Part of UNESCO's Slave Route project, its main focus is on the challenges of bondage in the Guadeloupe islands. Memorial ACTe was opened in 2015 by then French President, Francois Hollande, and nineteen other heads of state.

The Memorial ACTe is a unique museum, both internally and externally, through its architectural design. It is also a centre for live arts and debates. It aims to provide interpretation through a variety of viewpoints and disciplines, using not only history but ethnology, social anthropology and history of art as well. The history of slavery and the slave trade are explored through a range of archival material, images and artefacts, with visual and audio installations too.

The permanent exhibition space examines the history of slavery from antiquity to the present day, using objects, reconstructions, visual and audio installations and digital interactives. The temporary exhibition space focusses on contemporary forms of artistic expression in relation to slavery around the world. In addition, there is a research centre where visitors can look into their genealogy, as well as a library and a conference hall.

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Mercado de Escravos

The Mercado de Escravos (or Slave Market Museum) is situated in the center of Lagos on the site of a fifteenth-century slave market, believed to have been the first in Europe. The museum building itself was built in the seventeenth century on the remains of the market, first as the Royal Overseer's Office, and then as the Customs House from 1755. The museum seeks to highlight the history of Portuguese involvement in the enslavement of African people.

The opening displays in the museum provide the visitor with detail about the process of enslaved Africans being transported from Africa to Portugal, and how they were then integrated into Portuguese society. There is also a panel which provides information linking this to the slave trade in Brazil, which was then a Portuguese colony.

On the second floor of the museum, there are further displays about the slave trade. The collections include books, artefacts, archival material and pieces of art (both contemporary and historic). There are tablets available so that visitors can view more of the museum's collections that are not out on display.

The Slave Market also provides visitors with information about archaeological excavations on the medieval rubbish tip of Lagos, which have led to the discovery of skeletons thought to belong to enslaved Africans.

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Mobee Royal Family Orginal Slave Relics Museum

The Mobee Royal Family Original Slave Relics Museum is a small museum housed in a nineteenth century colonial building. It showcases the role of the local 'Chief Mobee' in the enslavement of local Africans during the transatlantic slave trade, as well as the role of his son (and successor) in abolishing slavery in the area.

The museum houses one exhibition which discusses the arrival of Europeans to the Badagry area and the origins of the trade in human beings. Artefacts highlight the brutal nature of the capture and the enslavement of African people. These include yokes, chains, a mouth lock that presented the captives from speaking, and handcuffs for children. Other objects are examples of trade goods that were received by the Chief in exchange for a supply of people. Text interpretation also provides visitors with information about the terrible conditions faced by the enslaved during the Middle Passage, and images provide representations of life on the plantations.

The museum is often visited as part of a 'Black History Tour' with the former slave market and the Black History Museum.

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Musée d’histoire de Nantes

Musée d’histoire de Nantes (Nantes History Museum) was originally the residence of the Dukes of Brittany and the castle was restored in the 1990s. It opened to the public as a museum in February 2007. The museum is not wholly dedicated to looking at slavery, but explores the history of the castle and the city. However, it is acknowledged that the Atlantic slave trade is a key part of that history. The themes covered within the museum begin with the construction of the castle in the 13th century, and then follow the development of Nantes as part of Brittany through the ages until the 17th century. The museum also examines trade, the impact of the French Revolution, industrialisation, the two world wars and a contemporary look at Nantes as an ‘Atlantic City’. The museum added several rooms in 2016 that looked with greater detail at modern history. It has been designated a 'Monument Historique' by the French government. In addition to the historical artefacts housed in the museum, interactive and digital media is incorporated throughout as a part of the museum's aim to showcase the history of the city not only through objects and art work, but also contemporary technology.

Slavery is mainly addressed in the exhibition ‘Trade and Black Gold in the 18th Century’, where the displays address the role Nantes played as a key French port for vessels embarking on the Triangular Trade. Objects on display include maps, paintings and a collection of printed canvases produced in Nantes that would have formed a significant proportion of the cargo taken on the first leg of the trade voyage, from France to Africa. As well as examining France’s role in the logistical aspects of the trade, this exhibition also includes interpretation about Haiti. This interpretation has a dual focus, with Haiti as the destination for most of the ships originating in Nantes and the site of the most successful slave revolt in the western hemisphere.

Other exhibitions within the museum also look generally at the larger events in French history and how they changed Nantes’s relationship with slavery. Within the exhibitions on Nantes and the Revolution, the long process of abolition and then re-entrenchment of slavery under Napoleon are discussed in the interpretation. Until 1831 Nantes was still France’s largest slave trading port despite the activity being previously outlawed in 1816. Similar to the Memorial to the Abolition in Nantes, the Nantes History Museum intends to provide a reflection on local history both good and bad.

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Museo Nacional Ruta del Esclavo

The Museo Nacional Ruta del Esclavo (Slave Route National Museum) is housed in San Severino Castle, in the Matanzas district of Cuba. It opened in 2009, as the product of UNESCO's Slave Route project. Off the beaten tourist track, the museum in the seventeenth-century castle receives few visitors.

The museum itself houses an important exhibition, aimed at showcasing the horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade in order to prevent the like ever happening again. The museum has four exhibition rooms with photographs, objects and archaeological items accompanied by interpretive text. These rooms address the origins of slavery, the plantation systems, abolition and emancipation, and the ongoing legacies affecting people of African heritage around the world.

After being selected by UNESCO to house interpretation for the Slave Route project, the museum has supported a number of African cultural groups in the local area, as well as hosting activities for the nearby university. In the exhibition space itself, there are fourteen African sculptures donated by Cuban artist Lorenzo Padilla.

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Museu Afro Brasil

First opened in 2004, the Museu Afro Brasil is a contemporary museum which seeks to showcase the contributions of black communities to Brazil and its culture. There are over six thousand objects in the collection, including paintings, sculpture, photographs, ceramics and textiles. Through all of these items the museum illustrates the creative nature of Brazilian people. The exhibitions grew from the private collection of visual artist Emanoel Araujo who has led the museum as Director since its opening. The site also houses a theatre and a specialised library.

In its permanent exhibition space, which displays around seventy percent of its collections, the Museu Afro Brasil emphasises the rich culture of the African continent from the fifteenth century through to today. There are a variety of art mediums and artefacts on display, including masks, sculpture, jewellery and archival material.

These objects link to social themes, such as celebrations and religions, amongst communities of African descent in Brazil. There is also a section that explores the memory of key figures in the Afro-Brazilian community. Another explores the work done by these communities. Historically, this area examines the work done when many African people in Brazil were enslaved. The display features a model sugar mill, different kinds of tools for use on plantations, and sugar loaf moulds.

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Museum of Antigua and Barbuda

Housed in the former courthouse of Antigua's capital, St John's, the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda opened in 1985. Managed by the Historical and Archaeological Society, it interprets the history of Antigua from the island's geological birth until its political independence in 1967. Collecting is central to the museum's ethos and it has developed a large collection of items relating to its local history through acquisitions and donations. It also has a digital records library with over 25,000 records available to browse.

The exhibits themselves trace the history of Antigua chronologically. The first gallery maps the geological development of the island using natural history specimen and artist interpretations alongside text panels. There are also displays that showcase the traditional crafts of the island, including basket weaving.

The second gallery then explores the arrival of the Europeans to the island and the development of the plantation economy fueled by the transatlantic slave trade. Here the displays examine what life was like on the plantations, using objects that highlight the brutal nature of enslavement, as well as archaeological samples that provide an insight into the everyday life of the enslaved. Some text panels provide information about instances of resistance, alongside images of supporting archival sources.

The final gallery explores how the island developed following the abolition and then the emancipation of the slave trade, two world wars and political independence. Here, objects are complemented with oral testimonies from local people.

The museum also has a gallery for temporary exhibitions focussing on different aspects of Antigua and Barbuda's local history. It also runs a programme of community events, and a series of education sessions for schools.

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Museum of Modern Day Slavery

The Museum of Modern Day Slavery opened in 2014. It is managed by Elijah Rising, a prayer gathering that aims to end sex trafficking through prayer, awareness, intervention, and restoration. The museum is a big part of that mission and is housed in a former brothel that Elijah Rising negotiated the closure of in 2012. It is the only museum in the USA dedicated solely to interpreting and raising awareness for slavery in the present day.

The location of the museum provides visitors with a rare opportunity to see inside a brothel. Throughout, there is text interpretation that provides information about sex trafficking in Houston. This is supported by a small collection of artefacts that have been collected by the museum's staff and volunteers when conducting field research with victims of trafficking in the city. The museum also draws attention to the victories of abolitionists in the past through text panels to inspire visitors to take action to end slavery in the present.

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Museum of Saint Helena

The Museum of Saint Helena originated as a small natural history collection in 1854. Over the last 150 years it has moved three times before being officially opened in its current site in 2002 to mark the 500th anniversary of the island's discovery. It is housed in an eighteenth-century former power station in the island's capital, Jamestown. The museum explores the history of St Helena and it's position in the world. It has a large collection of physical artefacts supplemented by a digital archive of images, videos and audio.

The permanent exhibition offers a chronological view of Saint Helena's history, beginning with its geological development. The displays then explore the discovery of the island by European's, the role of the East India Company and migration. There is also a display about Napoleon Bonaparte's exile to Saint Helena.

Within the displays about colonisation and the East India Company are mentions of enslaved Africans brought to the island. Abolition and emancipation are also examined, as the interpretation moves on to explore the diverse make up of Saint Helena's population into the twentieth century. These displays are supported with artefacts and finds from recent archaeological digs on the island.

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Museum of Slavery

The Museum of Slavery in the village of Albreda first opened in 1996. It is housed in the Maurel Fréres building which was built by the British colonial government in the 1840s. Only a short distance from Juffure, the home of Kunta Kinte - the main character of Alex Haley's 'Roots' - the museum is dedicated to interpreting the history of transatlantic slavery in the area. It is a hub for students and researchers.

The museum's displays use a collection of artefacts to examine the process of enslavement, with particular focus on capture and the Middle Passage. These artefacts include chain neck collars, foot cuffs, yokes and manillas. The museum also has a display about 'Roots'.

Guided tours are regularly welcomed to the museum. Visitors are also frequently taken to visit the nearby 'factory' ruins which was once used as a slave station by French and British colonial administrations.

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National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum

The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum occupies the upper floor of the former Presbyterian Church of Smithfield, built in 1820. In 1835 it was the site of the first complete meeting of the New York State Anti-Slavery Society, and it opened as a museum to represent the history of the abolition movement in 2004. The lower floor houses the Smithfield Community Centre. In 1994, the building was added to the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. In 2004, it was designated as a site on the New York State Underground Railroad Heritage Trail.

The Hall of Fame and Museum honours abolitionists and their achievements, periodically inducting new members. It also aims to educate about the legacy of the movement and to inspire its visitors to engage in the 'new struggle' to end racism. The museum features an introductory film that provides background context to the abolition movement, regarding the transatlantic slave trade. Written text panels, archival materials and art are used to add further depth to the narrative of the American abolition movement.

The museum also runs a programme of visitor events, and education activities.

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National Civil Rights Museum

The National Civil Rights Museum is housed in the Lorraine Motel, where civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on 4 April, 1968. It was founded in 1991 with the mission of sharing and raising awareness about the lessons and legacies from the Civil Rights Movement. The museum makes use of historic collections and a range of interactive exhibits, including film and audio, to tell these stories. Recently renovated in 2013-14, the museum is one of the top rated by the American Alliance of Museums and was a founding member of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

The museum has five permanent exhibitions that include 260 artefacts, 40 film installations, oral histories and interactive media to guide visitors through five centuries of history. The exhibitions explore Civil Rights protest techniques- including sit ins, bus boycotts and freedom rides- as well as the Black Power movement and the assasination of Martin Luther King Jr. and its aftermath on the Civil Rights movement.

The first exhibition that visitors enter explores the longer 'Culture of Resistance' that was present in the United States prior to the Civil Rights movement, as seen through resistance to the system of slavery that dominated the country for centuries. Focussing on the period 1619-1869, the exhibition includes large scale interactive maps that emphasise the global impact of the transatlantic slave trade. There are films and art installations in the form of sculptures that show the terrible conditions inflicted on the enslaved people. Illuminated channels provide statistics and further information, including the number of people captured, goods cultivated and wealth created.

The museum also has facilities for temporary exhibitions, both on the site and online, and runs an immersive education programme for both children and adults.

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National History Museum

The National History Museum of Mauritius opened in 1948. It is housed in an French colonial villa built in 1772 that was formerly used as a military hospital, a naval museum and the Museum of Historical Souvenirs. It is managed by the Mauritius Museums Council, under the governance of the Ministry of Arts and Culture. The museum explores the social and cultural history of Mauritius; from its discovery by the Portuguese at the start of the sixteenth century, through its successive colonisations by the Dutch, French and British, up to the end of the nineteenth century.

The first floor of the museum exhibits the Dutch, French and Anglo-French wars. Each room explores a different era with artefacts from the period; these range from furniture and decorative arts to weapons, maritime equipment and ceramics.

On the second floor of the museum there is an exhibition dedicated to the British rule of Mauritius, from 1810 until 1968. The interpretation examines the transformation of Mauritius from a maritime economy to an agricultural one, with a key focus on the production of sugar. Alongside this is a discussion of the use of slavery and the development of the slave trade, indentured labour and Indian immigration. Artefacts here include agricultural tools, paintings and drawings depicting the changing landscape and the workforce, and archival documents.