RICHMOND, Va. — Shockoe Institute President and CEO Marland Buckner said the message of the new exhibit ‘Expanding Freedom’ inside Richmond’s Main Street Station is clear: Americans have nothing to fear from the facts.
The institute received an $11 million grant from New York based-Mellon Foundation to tell the story about the evolution, consequences and enduring impact of America’s unique brand of racial slavery.
“The Shockoe Institute did what it said it was going to do. It built Expanding Freedom on time, on budget, without a penny of public money, not one penny, and it did it in a way that we believe Richmond and the region can be proud of,” Buckner said.
Buckner said ‘Expanding Freedom’ isn’t a museum with artifacts, but instead, a forward thinking, future facing, solutions-oriented organization.
Its location was intentional for the historians and creators of the exhibit.
“[Shockoe Bottom] was the epicenter of the Upper South slave trade. Hundreds of thousands of people over the course of the first half of the 19th century were sold into slavery from these very grounds. It is essential that we tell that story here,” Buckner said.
CBS 6 toured the exhibit with Buckner as he presented the story of slavery that flowed through the former capital of the Confederacy and sent enslaved men, women, and children through America.
It highlights facts in bright and bold colors.
One states, "by 1790, 39% of Virginia’s 747,6109 inhabitants were enslaved."
Another stated, "Europeans, Americans, Africans trafficked an estimated 12,500,000 Africans to the Americans between 1501 and 1866. About 10,700,000 survived the journey."
In one poignant video that spanned an entire wall, dozens of slaves are showed chained together marching 1,000 miles from Richmond to Nachez, Mississippi.
Sixty students across Virginia joined Governor Abigail Spanberger and Richmond Mayor Danny Avula for a ribbon cutting Thursday morning.
The free exhibit is open to the public starting on Sunday and registration by time slot is required online.
The city received a total of $16 million in grants from the Mellon Foundation to fund other projects including the reinterpretation of the Wickham House at The Valentine Museum and Cary Forward, to support a multidisciplinary arts space, interpretive center, artist/scholar residency, and archival library.
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