slavery virtual tour

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Slavery and Freedom

Slavery and Freedom explores the complex story of slavery and freedom, which rests at the core of our nation’s shared history. The exhibition begins in 15th-century Africa and Europe, extends up through the founding of the United States, and concludes with the nation’s transformation during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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An introduction to the David M. Rubenstein History Galleries Slavery and Freedom exhibition by Mary Elliott, NMAAHC Curator of American Slavery.

About the Exhibition

• When: Ongoing
• Where: Concourse 3 (C3), History Galleries
• Curator: Mary Elliott

Through powerful objects and first person accounts, visitors encounter both free and enslaved African Americans’ contributions to the making of America and explore the economic and political legacies of the making of modern slavery. The exhibition emphasizes that American slavery  and  American freedom is a shared history and that the actions of ordinary men and women, demanding freedom, transformed our nation.

Priceless objects provide the visitor with a personal experience with the past. One cannot view Harriet Tubman’s shawl, Nat Turner’s Bible, the small shackles made for the fragile ankles of a child, or a slave cabin without contemplating the individuals who owned or encountered such objects. Such powerful artifacts bring to life the stories of inhumanity and terror, and of resistance, resilience and survival. Objects open up conversations and dialogue and provide a space for Americans to reach out beyond themselves to recognize a shared past.

Main Messages:

• Slavery is a shared story resting at the heart of American political, economic, and cultural life.
• African Americans constantly and consistently created new visions of freedom that have benefited all Americans.
• African American identity has many roots and many expressions that reach far back into our past.

Silk lace and linen shawl given to Harriet Tubman by Queen Victoria, ca. 1897

Exhibition Experience

The exhibition explores the following themes:

• The Making of the Atlantic World (15th -18th centuries)
• African Peoples
• European Peoples
• Trade and Contact
• The Middle Passage and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Colonial North America
• The American Revolution
• The Paradox of Liberty and The Founding of America
• Free Communities of Color and the Limits of Freedom
• Slavery and the Making of a New Nation
• The Domestic Slave Trade
• African American Freedom Struggles
• Abolitionist Movements
• Slave Resistance
• Everyday Acts of Rebellion
• Life and Work during Slavery
• The Civil War and the Coming of Freedom
• Emancipation and Reconstruction

Striking a Mighty Blow to Slavery

To freedom: voices of the formerly enslaved.

Searchable Museum

The Museum  launched its newest digital initiative, The Searchable Museum in November 2021. The project’s first digital exhibition to be shared is  Slavery and Freedom , a foundational feature from the museum’s David M. Rubenstein History Galleries, entirely reimagined for the digital space.

Charleston slave badge from 1850 for Porter No. 75

Charleston slave badge from 1853 for Mechanic No. 171

Charleston slave badge from 1857 for Servant No. 2010

Charleston slave badge from 1844 for Fruiterer No. 80

Charleston slave badge from 1811 for Carpenter No. 27

Charleston slave badge from 1823 for Fisher No. 88

Subtitle here for the credits modal..

Deepen your experience with a 15-minute boat ride on the Alabama River to Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

The Legacy Museum

The legacy museum offers a powerful, immersive journey through america’s history of racial injustice..

On the site of a cotton warehouse where enslaved Black people were forced to labor in bondage, the Legacy Museum tells the story of slavery in America and its legacy through interactive media, first-person narratives, world-class art, and data-rich exhibits.

Travel through a comprehensive history of the destructive violence that shaped our nation, from the slave trade, to the era of Jim Crow and racial terror lynchings, to our current mass incarceration crisis—and find inspiration in our soaring Reflection Space and world-class art gallery.

“A full-spectrum, mind-blowing narrative dedicated to telling the most comprehensive story imaginable about the Black experience in America.”

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

“The Legacy Museum deftly uses technology, via holograms and videos, to “listen” to the enslaved and incarcerated.”

“every room offered a historical journey, from enslavement to modern-day mass incarceration … each also stirred an unshakable belief in black dignity.”.

The Washington Post

Continue your journey of learning and reflection outside the museum

Steps outside the Legacy Museum is our memorial honoring victims of racial terror lynchings between 1865 and 1876.

Five hundred documented victims and more than 30 massacres during the Reconstruction era are memorialized here.

Located next to the museum, Legacy Plaza is a 2.5 acre park where visitors can gather to reflect and discuss their experiences at the sites.

A digital billboard and sculpture honors local civil rights legends Claudette Colvin, John Lewis, Rosa Parks, E.D. Nixon, Joanne Robinson, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Jonathan Daniels.

Grab a quick and delicious lunch at the Legacy Café food truck and eat at shaded picnic tables.

Located in the museum building, Pannie-George’s Kitchen features soul food from local award-winning chefs.

From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration

Between 1501 and 1867, nearly 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. Two million people died during the barbaric Middle Passage.

An elaborate and enduring mythology about the inferiority of Black people was created to legitimate, perpetuate, and defend the violent, brutal realities of slavery in America over the next two centuries.

During Reconstruction, the 12-year period following the Civil War, lawlessness and violence perpetrated by white leaders created an American future of racial hierarchy, white supremacy, and Jim Crow laws.

Lynching emerged as a vicious tool of racial control in the South after the Civil War. Lynchings were violent and public events designed to terrorize all Black people in order to re-establish white supremacy and suppress Black civil rights.

Most white Americans supported segregation. Millions of white parents voted to close and defund public schools, transferred their children to private, white-only schools, and harassed and violently attacked Black students while their own children watched or participated.

The false racial narrative that justified slavery evolved into a presumption of guilt and dangerousness that makes people of color vulnerable to racial violence, wrongful convictions, and unfair treatment today.

A tragic, false narrative of racial difference was created in America that has resulted in centuries of racial bigotry and injustice.

This belief in racial hierarchy was used to legitimate, perpetuate, and defend slavery—and it survived slavery’s abolition, fueling racial terror lynchings, demanding legally codified segregation, and spawning our contemporary mass incarceration crisis.

The Legacy Museum traces the evolution of this dehumanizing myth from our nation’s founding to today.

Explore the Legacy Sites

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

HISTORY & LEGACIES

Whitney plantation, the plantation every american should visit, -national geographic.

THE WHITNEY INSTITUTE EDUCATES THE PUBLIC ABOUT THE HISTORY AND LEGACIES OF SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES

Whitney Plantation (legal name The Whitney Institute) is a non-profit museum dedicated to the history of the Whitney Plantation, which operated from 1752-1975 and produced indigo, sugar, and rice as its principal cash crops. The museum preserves over a dozen historical structures, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Whitney Plantation Historic District.

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Your support matters, in these uncertain times, our mission continues., @follow us on instagram, whitney plantation on social media, events & seminars, whitney plantation events, temporary exhibit on view march through august 2025, extractivism.

Film Screening and Discussion

Film screening: behind and beyond ‘modern slavery’: riverine communities of lake volta, ghana.

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Welcome to the Searchable Museum

A place to explore history and culture through an African American lens

Kevin Young, Andrew W. Mellon Director Of The Smithsonian's National Museum Of African American History And Culture

The Era of Segregation

Learn how African Americans defended their freedom against oppression. Explore the communities and culture African Americans built during segregation.

Make Good the Promises

Learn about Reconstruction and its legacies. Explore the African American experience after the end of slavery.

Constellations

Artifacts and topics illuminating connections to history

Shining a new light on the African American past and its people.

Octavius V. Catto

Octavius Catto was a civil rights activist in Pennsylvania. Learn about his life and impact in Philadelphia’s Black community during Reconstruction.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

The Brown v. Board decision overturned segregation in public schools. Learn how the Legal Defense Fund built lawsuits to challenge segregation in the courts.

Bridget "Biddy" Mason

Entrepreneur and philanthropist Bridget “Biddy” Mason helped to establish the First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles.

The Water Spirit Will Take Us Home

The mass suicide by captive Africans at Igbo Landing marks one of the most significant acts of resistance by enslaved people.

How We Know What We Know

Methods, tools, and sources used to study African American history and culture

Visit the Museum

Tour Experience

Aerial shot of Harvard Yard. Courtesy of TimeStamp Media

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Tour Experience

The Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery Tour Experience explores Harvard University’s entanglements with the institution of slavery through a 10-stop tour in Cambridge, MA.

You can experience the tour entirely online via the links on this page, or you can use the app on your personal device to guide you when you visit the stops in person.

The stops on the tour reexamine familiar campus terrain, providing an opportunity to learn about a part of Harvard’s history that has long been hidden in plain sight. In addition, the tour elevates stories of Black women and men whose resistance and leadership have shaped the University—and our nation. The app also offers an opportunity to reflect on the history presented through a selection of curated art.

We welcome members of the Harvard community—and others—to learn more about the Harvard & the Legacy initiative and how the history and legacy of enslavement can be traced in our physical environment.

Please note: Although the tour is available on iOS, some users have reported minor issues. If you experience problems with the "iOS App" version, we recommend that you choose the "Web Experience" below, which may provide a more user-friendly experience.

Download the App or Explore on Desktop

News & ideas.

Student Spotlight: Mellen Masea ’26

An Expanded Historical Narrative

"Working … to Give People Back Their Stories"

Explore more.

Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Film

A Legacy of Leadership

We Claim/Reclaim Space

Report of the Presidential Committee on Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery

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11 Self-Guided and Virtual Black History Tours

Tonya Abari is a classroom teacher-turned-intersectional freelance writer. She is originally from Maryland but is currently based in Nashville, Tennessee.

Black history is American history. And across the United States, cities are filled with rich African American history and culture. From landmark homes to nationally recognized museums, visitors and residents alike can learn how Black Americans have impacted our society. Many places offer local walking tours that deep dive into the city’s Black history and culture.

Now, many attractions and tours are on pause because of the pandemic. However, you can still celebrate Black history through a self-guided or virtual walking tour. And although Black History Month is a time to celebrate, immerse yourself in Black history year-round.

The Black Heritage Trail

Offering audio-guided and self-guided tours, the Black Heritage Trail is an interactive trail packed with information about African American history in Boston. The tour highlights Boston’s free Black community during the 18th and 19th centuries, including homes, places of worship, schools, and stops along the Underground Railroad. Can’t make it to Boston? In conjunction with Boston’s Museum of African American History, The Black Heritage Trail also offers virtual tours so that you can learn about Boston’s Black history from the comfort of your own home.

African American Heritage Trail

dctourism / CC BY-NC 2.0 / flickr

Cultural Tourism DC, in cooperation with the DC Office of Planning, created a self-guided tour of nearly 100 African American history and cultural sites in our nation’s capital. Learn a brief history of African Americans in Washington, D.C., and download the self-guided tour guide, divided into 15 unique D.C. neighborhoods, to get started!

Fort Monroe, Virginia

Located in the southern tip of the Virginia peninsula, Fort Monroe is the largest stone fort built in the United States. Completed in 1834, President Obama designated Fort Monroe as a national monument in 2011. On the eight-stop self-guided walking tour, learn about the first Africans to land at Old Point Comfort and the “Contraband Hospital” site where Harriet Tubman was a nurse and cook.

College Park, Maryland

The University of Maryland at College Park’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion created a guided African American History Virtual Walking Tour . Go for a “stroll” on this beautiful campus while exploring how Black history has shaped the university. A companion to the in-person, self-guided tour is the perfect way to learn how African Americans have not only shaped UMD but how their contributions have impacted colleges and universities all over the world.

Atlanta, Georgia

If you want to experience Atlanta Black history icons, look to Roundabout Atlanta . This family-owned and operated tour guide is all about Southern hospitality. Operating for a decade, this travel company offers private, Black history tours in Atlanta. Experience sites like the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. or the expansive Tyler Perry Studios.

Bowling Green, Kentucky

LuAnn Snawder Photography / CC BY-ND 2.0 / Flickr

Ernest Hogan, considered to be the founder of Ragtime music, was born and raised in the ShakeRag District of Bowling Green , which is placed on the National Register of Historic Places recognized for its significance to African American history. Travelers can immerse themselves in the local history of ShakeRag through a self-guided walking tour of the historic district, passing through historic homes and buildings, as well as landmark spots like Alice’s Beauty Shop, which employed young college graduates starting in the 1940s.

Nashville, Tennessee

Nashville isn’t only about hot chicken and country music. And United Street Tour’s owner, Chakita Patterson, is committed to showcasing the deep Black history, food, and culture that often gets overlooked. While this co company’s traditional walking tours are on pause, United Street Tours is now offering “The Black Experience,” which is completely virtual so that you can learn about Nashville's treasures from the comfort of your living room.

Edgard, Louisiana

Located one hour from New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Whitney Plantation is the only museum in Louisiana that focuses solely on the lives of people who were enslaved. It offers a self-guided audio tour about slavery on the grounds of a historical sugar, rice, and indigo plantation. The tour includes a memorial that honors over 100,000 enslaved people of Louisiana. 

Detroit, Michigan

The Detroit Experience factory has a donation-based virtual tour on the city’s Black history and communities. This tour focuses on systemic racism (segregation and redlining) and its effects on Detroit throughout the last century.

Oxford, Ohio

Tmariemdith, CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons

A virtual self-guided tour to learn about Oxford, Ohio’s Black history is free and available through Enjoy Oxford’s official website . Along the tour, visitors explore sites like the B. First Baptist Church and the E. Sycamore Carwash.

Oakland, California

Although in-person tours through Oakland Urban Paths are currently on pause, they offer a digital Black History tour. The tour can be viewed from a computer or phone and details the rich African American history of Oakland, California. Amongst many important facts, learn about the Black Panther Party, Elizabeth Flood, and the Paul Robeson Administration Building.

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• virtual field trip

Virtual Field Trip Spotlight: Slavery and Freedom

September 21, 2020

• Mary Anne Lane

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Whether students are learning virtually or in the classroom, GPB Education's virtual field trips are an excellent resource to help them understand certain topics and concepts. This week's Virtual Field Trip Spotlight highlights slavery and freedom in Savannah, Georgia.

This virtual journey explores the complexities of slavery and freedom in antebellum Savannah through the lens of the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarter s. Students can learn about the connections between the institution of slavery and the global economy and discover how one city can teach us about society and culture before the Civil War. 

Key concepts are presented through interactive elements like:

• primary source letters and images 
• navigable maps
• a virtual walking tour

Not only can users explore the lives of the people who lived and were enslaved here, users can also look at two larger views: the economy of coastal Georgia and how all of these systems and interactions played out in the city of Savannah.   This virtual learning experience is rather robust. At its heart there are essentially three separate explorations to give users a rich perspective of what this area really looked like:

• Main House and Slave Quarters 
• City of Savannah
• Lowcountry Economy 

Click here to launch the Slavery and Freedom Virtual Learning Journey.

Want to explore more of Georgia? View all of GPB's virtual field trips here.

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About the author.

Mary Anne serves as the Director of Educational Content at GPB, where she oversees the development of content and resources for educators and students.

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GPB is committed to bringing you comprehensive news coverage from Georgia, across the country and around the world.  Your support makes this possible.  Please consider making a gift today to support this vital public service.

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Eight Online Exhibits to See Right Now on Black History, Racism and Protest

Educating yourself with these shows is one more way to understand the current moment

Jennifer Nalewicki

Travel Correspondent

Over the past few weeks, supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement have worked tirelessly to advance the conversation on racism and equality in the United States. Through protests in cities and towns across the country, along with primary voters casting their ballots, the rallying cry is loud and clear. Even before the protests began, many museums around the country had begun hosting exhibitions—online-only, due to COVID-19—that cover black history, racism, protest and other important topics that pertain to the movement at large.

Here are eight you can see right now.

“Jordan Casteel: Within Reach,” New Museum, New York City

Jordan Casteel’s body of work reads much like a visual diary of the many people she’s crossed paths with over the years. Focusing solely on people of color, the Denver-born artist has documented everyone from musicians performing in the streets of her Harlem neighborhood to students she’s taught at Rutgers University-Newark, where she’s an assistant professor in the arts department. Now in her early 30s, the painter has been honored with her first solo museum exhibition in New York City at the New Museum. Called “Jordan Casteel: Within Reach,” the exhibition features 40 color-saturated oversized portraits that capture daily life through the lens of the black community, with special focus on individuals who often get overlooked by society in general. In an interview in the New York Times , Casteel said, “To have an immigrant story so prominently placed at this time in this world, in New York City—it just feels right." Watch the virtual tour above. On view through September 1.

“Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle,” Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts

From 1954 through 1956, while the civil rights movement was unfolding right before him, the late artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings called “Struggle: From the History of the American People.” Now, for the first time in more than 60 years, 30 panels from the original collection have been reunited for an exhibition titled “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle” at the Peabody Essex Museum. Beginning with the American Revolution and working its way through 1817, Lawrence directed his attention on such important events as the Boston Tea Party, examining the struggles of a young nation getting its footing from the perspectives of African Americans, Native Americans, women and anyone else whose stories are rarely told in history class. His works are interspersed with those of other contemporary artists, including Derrick Adams and Bethany Collins . Take this virtual tour of the exhibit. On view through August 9.

“Chez Baldwin,” National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.

Even after his death, novelist, playwright, poet and activist James Baldwin remains an important black cultural icon, with his writings on class and race in America still capturing the attention of audiences around the globe. (You’ve probably heard of one of his most famous works, If Beale Street Could Talk , a 1974 novel that was adapted into a Oscar-winning film in 2018.) While people may be familiar with his work, Baldwin's life outside the spotlight is lesser known. For “Chez Baldwin,” an online exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, viewers can become acquainted with the life he made for himself in the South of France, where he lived the final years of his life from 1971 until his death in 1987, through a collection of objects, including photographs from his travels and playbills. On view now.

“African American History in Colorado,” History of Colorado Center, Denver

African American communities have played a crucial role in the settlement of Colorado, from the time it became a territory in 1861 to its admission into the union as a state in 1876 to the Black Lives Matter movement that’s taking place today. “African American History in Colorado,” an online exhibition at the History Colorado Center, a Smithsonian-affiliated museum, brings the stories of civil rights leaders, cowboys, Buffalo Soldiers and mountain men to life through photographs, interactive maps and timelines. The exhibit also extensively covers Lincoln Hills, a vacation resort open from 1925 to 1965 that was specifically geared toward African Americans and served as a respite from the racial tensions that permeated cities. On view now.

Using eye-popping geometric shapes that capture viewers’ attention, painter Nina Chanel Abney tackles important contemporary topics like gender, race, politics and homophobia in her artwork. For her latest piece, a massive, site-specific abstract mural housed inside the lobby of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the New York-based painter wanted to “investigate some of the subtleties of systemic racism and cultural racism” that are embedded in today’s society. Her piece is especially pertinent as the Black Lives Matter movement continues to gain momentum. “I was very excited about creating a piece that might really encourage some kind of dialogue for people who are in the lobby, they can start to engage as soon as they walk in the door,” she says in a video , which now serves as a virtual tour. On view through January 3, 2021.

“Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words,” Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, during the height of the Jim Crow era is how most people know Rosa Parks. But there’s more to this civil rights icon than a single courageous act. In “Rosa Parks: In Her Own Words,” an exhibition at the Library of Congress, viewers can find out more about the bus boycott that made news headlines while also learning about her upbringing on a farm in Alabama and her decision to move to Detroit to further the civil rights movement. The online collection features the outfit she wore during the bus boycott as well as dozens of photographs, financial documents and handwritten recollections that help tell the story of her many accomplishments during a trying time in our nation’s history. On view through December 5.

“Photos from the Civil Rights Movement,” High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA

The civil rights movement endured from 1954 to 1968, but the fight for racial equality still surges to this day, with organized marches continuing in cities and towns across the United States. “Photos from the Civil Rights Movement,” an online exhibition from the High Museum of Art, helps bring the battle for change full circle. From photographs documenting Rosa Parks’ arrest to the moment Martin Luther King learned that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize, the comprehensive collection—nearly 20 of the more than 300 on social protest at the High Museum of Art—shines a light on an era in U.S. history that must be remembered, especially right now. On view now.

“Portraits of African Americans,” National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

From former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama to poet Langston Hughes to entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, the National Portrait Gallery's comprehensive exhibit , "Portraits of African Americans," serves as a who’s-who of both well-known and lesser-known history makers. The museum holds, after all, more than 1,000 portraits of African American notables who have made significant contributions to science, the arts, politics and sports. Each portrait includes biographical information about each individual and their importance in history. On view now .

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Jennifer Nalewicki is a Brooklyn-based journalist. Her articles have been published in The New York Times , Scientific American , Popular Mechanics , United Hemispheres and more. You can find more of her work at her website .

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello

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Virtual Tours of Monticello

The Stone Declaration of Independence

An online companion to a new onsite exhibit at Monticello featuring a rare, early copy of the Declaration of Independence.

A Nation Divided: The Election of 1800

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An interactive look at Jefferson's consequential first year as President of the United States.

The Art of Citizenship

A digital resource that explores the modern-day relevance of Thomas Jefferson's ideas about the American experiment in self-government through a hub of stories, quotes, videos, biographies, podcasts, and timelines.

The Declaration Around the World

Slavery at Monticello Mobile Guide

Our mobile guide, Slavery at Monticello: Life and Work on Mulberry Row , now works in your browsers, phone or desktop! Explore before, during and after your visit.

Paradox of Liberty Virtual Exhibition

Explore the paradox of the American Revolution—the fight for liberty in an era of pervasive slavery—through the lens of Monticello in this new virtual exhibition.

The Life of Sally Hemings

Getting Word: African American Families of Monticello

Mulberry Row at Monticello: The Landscape of Slavery

ADDRESS: 931 Thomas Jefferson Parkway Charlottesville, VA 22902 GENERAL INFORMATION: (434) 984-9800

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New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

A Virtual Walking Tour of Slavery in NYC

July 15, 2020 by Editorial Staff 14 Comments

When schools reopen, Health Sciences students hope to lead in-person walking tours and contribute to rewriting the historical narrative to show how the city benefited from the labor of enslaved Africans and from the sale of slave produced commodities in the American South and Caribbean. The students hope many of these sites will be recognized with plaques.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police has led to a national movement to recognize the impact of racism on American society and to redress past wrongs, including the removal of statues and monuments celebrating a racist past.

Sites highlighted on the tour include the African Burial Ground on Duane Street which is a now a national monument. It was used between the late 1600s and 1796 and originally contained between ten and twenty thousand burials. Despite the harsh treatment that these African people experienced in colonial America, the 427 bodies recovered from the site were buried with great care and love. They were wrapped in linen shrouds and methodically positioned in cedar or pine coffins that sometimes contained beads or other treasured objects.

At what is now Foley Square, enslaved Africans, free Blacks and White supporters accused of plotting the 1741 Slave Conspiracy were executed. White New Yorkers, afraid of another slave revolt, responded to rumors and unexplained fires with the arrest of about 150 enslaved Africans, the execution of 35 Blacks and four Whites. Historians continue to doubt whether a slave conspiracy ever existed.

St. Paul’s Chapel is the oldest church building in New York City. Enslaved Africans helped build St. Paul’s and the original Trinity Church but had to pray in separate section and could not be buried in the cemeteries.

Illustrations, from above: Foley Square; St. Paul’s Chapel, the New York Slave Market, and South Street Seaport.

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Reader Interactions

July 16, 2020 at 8:11 AM

Wow, love this, Thanks for publishing it. It shows one of the positive activities that has taken place as a result of this awful COVID19 season, so to speak. I have been on the lookout for the “silver lining” of the corona-virus in my own life and in the actions of other people. What a great way to spend some of this time doing historical research into the roots of slavery in NYC, with a virtual (an later an actual) walking tour of these sites, mostly on the southern tip of Manhattan. I will plan to take this tour when this season is over! I have a grandfather who was a very public figure in Tudor City, just W of the United Nations, so I have my own “walking tour” of Manhattan related to his journey in life, so this one attracted my attention. Good work on this, with one of the difficult impacts of the Covid season highlighting how African Americans and Hispanics have been much more heavily impacted as a result of this history you are bringing to light.

July 16, 2020 at 1:33 PM

Very excited to see the work of Alan Singer’s students, reflecting his many years of extremely powerful work to excavate these histories. Singer has been extremely influential for so many educators like myself, who started on their path of teaching these histories by accessing his work.

July 16, 2020 at 2:49 PM

“rewriting the historical narrative to show how the city benefited from the labor of enslaved Africans and from the sale of slave produced commodities in the American South and Caribbean”

The “city” did not “benefit” – a certain class of people who amassed their fortunes from this trade and the exploitation of chattel labor, benefited. I think this is an important distinction and should be part of any historical “rewriting.” The African American population of the city was around 20% – were they not part of the “city?” Did free or enslaved African Americans “benefit?” The newly arrived Irish in the early 19th century comprised a large % of the population. How did they “benefit” from the trade in human beings and chattel slavery?

July 16, 2020 at 3:13 PM

The city corporation and the population more generally (some directly in big ways, others indirectly in small ways) was benefited by the use of slave labor. People certainly argued that at the time. Irish immigrants were not all Free Soilers, they had split views on the benefits of slavery. Slavery (and low paid labor) was a pervasive part of the economic growth of the city.

John Warren

July 16, 2020 at 5:31 PM

People certainly presented the view, in the past and in the present, that slavery was a benefit to the city but who are these “people?” If the present project is to raise awareness today, it might be useful to consider the counter arguments of the abolitionists who claimed that slavery was not a “benefit” to the “city” or the majority of its residents, in “big” or in “small” ways. Indeed it was this belief that slavery was not a “benefit” combined with the resistance of the enslaved and moral outrage that helped end racial slavery.

July 16, 2020 at 5:35 PM

Yes, that’s the point of the project. To show that many powerful people and institutions got that way because they benefited from slavery.

July 17, 2020 at 7:03 PM

I did a walking tour of slavery with Professor Singer a couple of years ago. Although it was actually planned and scheduled for his Hofstra students, residents of the local Hofstra community were invited and encouraged to participate. I traveled in from Long Island on the LIRR. So glad I did. Thanks Professor Singer and thanks also to Hofstra University for reaching out to the community and including us in these types of events.

July 17, 2020 at 8:07 PM

Mr. Ahearn is quite right to demand precision in the discussion of who actually benefited from slavery: it was not the city as a whole, but a certain specific class of people in the city. ,

July 18, 2020 at 1:14 PM

New York was the largest slave-owning colony in the north and slavery was an significant source of the city’s labor force, economy and social structure. At one point 40 percent of white households in the city of New York owned slaves. A slave market was located at the foot of Wall Street. Were there some people who didn’t benefit? Surely, slaves for example, and low wage workers competing with slaves for work did not directly benefit.

But the city corporation itself and public benefit institutions used or profited from slavery in addition to the wealthy. Even what we think of as private corporations now, had to argue then that they were a public benefit to be incorporated. Those who worked for the city, took city money, used city property, or engaged in greater access to, or lower priced, goods and services thanks to slavery also benefited, albeit in a smaller way.

John Warren Editor

July 18, 2020 at 7:21 PM

If 40% of households owned people, that means that 60% did not. I do not know where the enslaved people figured into these numbers. Those who own the means of production always claim that benefits for them benefit the society as a whole. If we want to understand the costs to society of institutions, such as slavery, or finance, or war production, it behooves us to be precise about how money and institutions are used, to what ends, whom they benefit, and whom they do not benefit.

July 18, 2020 at 8:28 PM

That’s literally the point of this tour.

July 18, 2020 at 9:56 PM

Ira Berlin and Leslie Harris write in their introduction to Slavery in New York:

“…every major political figure in New York’s history from the 17th through the 19th centuries confronted slavery as opponent or apologist and as an advocate of white supremacy or champion of racial equality…New York was a house divided.” (p.5)

The point is that if one wishes to gain a deeper awareness of our history, it is best understood as a struggle between contending forces, classes and views. To describe slavery as a benefit “large” or “small” to the “city” masks the actual struggles that occurred between pro and anti slavery forces and perpetuates ignorance of our past.

Worse still, by proceeding from the unexamined assumption that slavery was a “benefit,” to the “city,” inquiry is framed to reproduce pro slavery arguments. “…show how the city benefited from the labor of enslaved Africans and from the sale of slave produced commodities in the American South and Caribbean.” It sounds like an assignment that could have been written by Tammany Hall or Mayor Fernando Wood or any other booster of racial slavery.

If such an essay question was offered to NYC HS students taking the US History Regents I think there would be good basis to criticize the un-examined “lens” at work here.

Opponents of white supremacism and champions of racial equality in the past rejected the notion that slavery was a “benefit.” It would have been self defeating for them to do otherwise. They lambasted the minority who benefited and appealed to the majority who didn’t. I think it is plain that the younger generation today is also rejecting the notion that racial oppression in its new forms is a “benefit.” Hopefully their inquiries into the past may shed some light on our present and future course.

August 22, 2020 at 5:21 PM

I agree with the critiques of this piece in the comments section, while also thanking the folks who put this virtual tour together. I work in a Brooklyn elementary school and we may very well use this as part of our new anti-racist curriculum. But we will not talk about how New York City “benefitted” from slavery; rather, how it is a stain on our city that continues to hurt us all to this day. I think we will probably frame it for kids as “slavery was used to give more power to the rich white people in charge of the city, while also holding down Black and indigenous people; and this is the same as what we see today such as police brutality, school-to-prison pipeline, less tax money given to Black and brown neighborhoods than to white neighborhoods, and other kinds of systemic racism. When there is systemic racism like this in our society, both in the past and in the present, no one wins. We all lose. That’s why we need to work to take it apart.”

Perhaps you could reword your phrase “show how the city benefited” to something like “show how the white owning class of New York City amassed more resources and power”?

October 29, 2020 at 6:37 PM

Hi. It was my students that created this tour. The purpose of the project was to shed light on an important piece of little known NYC history and challenge students to think about how we pay homage and memorialize the past. The sites speak to places connected to the abolitionist movement and institutions that supported and benefited from the slave trade.

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