![]() Africans were enslaved specifically for that knowledge."Ĭotton was king in most of the South, but Carolina Gold rice (a variety of rice, also known as golden seed) was the cash crop that made Charleston one of the richest cities in the world before the Civil War (1861-1865). The museum goes back to 300 BCE, the earliest documentation of rice cultivation on the African continent. "Slavery is not the beginning or the end of the African American journey," Matthews said. " is to create an experience that will be historically and emotionally important for all, but to particularly inspire those young people who may have never seen someone on the walls of a museum that looks like them, and who, as a result of seeing many, many examples of black achievement, will be inspired to think more expansively about the arc of their aspirations," he said.Īccording to Tonya Matthews, who succeeded Moore as president and CEO in 2021, the museum provides a broad context for the African American experience, a narrative that starts with ancient African civilisations and goes through modern times. The museum is a symbol of that progress, and, Moore hopes, a catalyst for further change. In recent years, Charleston has made efforts to reckon with its past: the Charleston City Council formally apologised for its role in the slave trade in 2018 the Confederate flag, the most divisive symbol of the Old South, was removed from the South Carolina State House in 2015 following the shooting of nine black churchgoers at Charleston's Emanuel A.M.E Church and a monument to slavery supporter and former vice president John C Calhoun was removed from a public square in 2020. "It is to create a more truthful and honest articulation of American history – of what happened in Charleston, in America and in the world." "The mission of the International African American Museum is to elevate the voices, contributions and history of the enslaved people who – more than any other place in America – landed on the very spot of the museum," Moore said. In the soon-to-open museum, their history will unfold across nine galleries and a memorial garden. This site is ground zero for the experience of Africans in America. Sometimes they were held for months, and hundreds froze to death. (In 1808, the United States banned the international importation of slaves, but the trade continued domestically until 1865.)Īfricans who survived the gruelling Atlantic crossing awaited their fate in the warehouses surrounding the wharf before being sold on the auction block. Historians estimate that of the approximately 388,000 Africans brought to America as enslaved people, 40% of them entered through Charleston between 17. Smalls' experience is one of many that will be shared in the $100m museum built on the site of Gadsden's Wharf on the Cooper River, once one of the most prolific slave-trading ports in the US.
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