Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past
A digital archive and collection created in Omeka Classic in 2018-19. The purpose of the project is to document, geolocate, describe, and interpret monuments, memorials, and sites of slavery. “Slave past” encompasses a broad range of commemorative works related to the Middle Passage and enslavement, the plantation as site of Black labor, the resistance to enslavement, the Underground Railroad, the participation of black soldiers in the Civil War, and emancipation and freedom. The project is most interested in telling stories about where, how, and why communities are engaging the slave past and memorializing it in public space including voices of stakeholders who engaged in the tasks of remembrance and commemoration of slavery.
The project database within this collection currently contains approximately 134 commemorative works to the slave past that are located in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, South America, and the United States. Each commemorative work includes photographs of the objects and landscapes in which they are located, collected through the PI's travels to visit the varied sites of slavery. The subcollections below highlight specific memorials or groups of commemorative works with similar themes. The project site (https://www.slaverymonuments.org/) is housed currently on Reclaim Hosting through a personal subscription.
Subcollections (12)
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Underground Railroad
...The memorial and monuments in this collection are dedicated to the Underground Railroad, an organized network of routes and safe houses that assisted freedom seekers [enslaved people] on their journeys northward. The Underground Railroad was part of the larger movement …
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United States Colored Troops (USCT)
Included in this thematic collection are seventeen memorials that honor the vital contributions of the United States Colored Troops (USCT) to the Union victory during the American Civil War. The first all-Black units formed unofficially in Louisiana (Louisiana Native Guard, …... -
Resistance
...The monuments and memorials in this section commemorate the enslaved and free men and women who resisted bondage and worked to end the institution of slavery. In her book, The Slave's Cause: A History of Abolition (2016), historian Manisha Sinha …
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Emancipation
The commemorative works under the theme of "Emancipation" include two different types of monuments and memorials: those focused on the end of slavery in the United States through the Emancipation Proclamation, and memorials to emancipation and liberation movements in the …... -
Burial Grounds
...The images here are just a fraction of the burial grounds dedicated to enslaved persons, "contrabands," and freed persons. Many of these cemeteries and memorial parks have suffered greatly over the years--some have been desecrated and destroyed while others have …
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Transatlantic Slave Trade
...This collection focuses on commemorative works dedicated to the transatlantic slave trade and the Middle Passage. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, between ten million and twelve million enslaved Africans were forcibly taken across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. …
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CMSP Documentations
This subcollection is a repository of text resources including guidelines, datasets, essays, and other materials created from and for the Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past project.... -
Sites of Slavery
...Sites of slavery are designated as historic places (including plantations, wharves, archaeological sites) where "slavery happened" and that commemorate enslaved Africans, their lives, and their labor. We include sites that act as memorials and often have sculpture, public art, or …
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African American History
...The monuments and memorials grouped under this theme acknowledge the important contributions of African Americans to American history. Slavery is anchored in the commemorative works as part of the larger story of Black existence in the United States. Some monuments, …
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Black Abolitionists: Tubman, Douglass, Truth
...The monuments and memorials in this collection commemorate the extraordinary achievements of three U.S. Black abolitionist and freedom seekers: Harriet Tubman, née Araminta Ross, (c. 1822-1913); Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895); and Sojourner Truth (1797-1883).
Born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern …
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Abolition of Slavery
...This grouping of commemorative works focus on the abolition of slavery in countries engaged with the slave trade including England, France, The Netherlands, and Spain. England enacted the Slave Trade Act of 1807, prohibiting the Atlantic slave trade in the …
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Universities and Slavery
...The monuments in this collection examine the intertwined histories of American universities and slavery. In his book, Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America’s Universities (2013), Craig Steven Wilder examines how universities and colleges were established …