do teleworking and to bring conferences of public safety, telemedicine, all of the initiative they keep our country robust and had he make sure that policymakers the infrastructure beyond just a road and a bridge. announcer: 8:00monday night at eastern on c-span2. >> each week, american history tv's american artifact visits archives and historic places. the national museum of african american history and culture opened in september of 2016. located on the national mall near the washington monument, the museum has quickly become one of the most visited in the nation's capital with capacity crowds almost every day. next we visit the museum to tour , the history galleries, which begin three stories underground.

mary: welcome to the slavery and freedom exhibition. my name is mary elliott and i am a museum specialist and co-curator of the slavery and freedom exhibition, which is one of three exhibitions in the history gallery. we have three exhibitions in this gallery and those exhibitions cover 15th-century africa and europe all the way to today. some of the themes we cover include holding onto humanity under some of the most inhumane conditions. we look at the harsh realities of slavery and freedom, the resistance and survival of a people. we look at africans and african americans shaped the world as well as a nation. we look at how they shaped the the landscape and were shaped by the landscape. that means socially, politically, economically, geographically, as well as culturally and intellectually. what is important for people to

understand is we look at these stories that are american stories. they are human stories. they are told through the african-american lens. equally important to understand is this is a shared history and you will see yourself throughout this exhibition. let's start looking at one of the opening labels for the slavery and freedom exhibition. behind me is the label that speaks to the making of the atlantic world. it is powerful because we feature a story of someone who was one of the leaders along the west african coast. she strategically aligned with the portuguese, dutch, and turks -- and the church to avoid her people being enslaved as well as being involved in the slave trade. right below her story is a quote from a gentleman of european descent.

the statement says, "while i admit i am sickened at the purchase of slaves, i must be mum because how would we do without sugar or wrong? -- without sugar or rum? what is important about that statement is to think about the morality of this particular story. what moral obligations do we have to each other? concentrate on the opening line. i admit that i am sickened at the purchase of slaves. then again, i must be mum because how would i do without sugar and rum? very important that we look at those moral issues as we go through that exhibition. i have to point out we do not start this exhibition with the story of slavery. we start with the story of humanity and we start in africa looking at it as a continent made up of many people, places, intellects. let's look at some of the other objects in the exhibition. as we discussed, we just came through the beginning of the

transatlantic slave trade, looking at the making of the atlantic world and a global economy. the driver of trade was sugar and that moved forward the effort to ship as many human beings across the atlantic ocean forced into slavery. now we come to the story of the middle passage. the middle passage being the space transporting africans from the west coast of africa throughout the americas across the atlantic ocean. we are fortunate to features and really dynamic objects in this artifactscluding found off the coast of south africa. it is from a slave ship found off the coast of south africa. it left lisbon, went to mozambique, africa, picked up captive africans on its way to brazil to sell them as enslaved africans. the ship crashed off the coast

of south africa. we are very fortunate to have organized with george washington university, the university of cape town, and partners in mozambique as we were able to identify the slave ship wreck on the ocean floor off the coast of south africa. one of the key markers to identify this as a slave ship wreck is some of the research revealed there were 1400 ballast stones on the ship. those were used to offset the human weight. we know there were balanced stones on the ship because we found them on the oceans floor. we are excited to feature those in the middle space in middle passage. one thing visitors will note is we do not have images in this space. we chose to allow the first-person voice to carry the space. we wanted those who went through the experience to speak for themselves. the human story extends to everybody. you will hear voices of those

who were enslaved but you also hear voices of crew members. you hear voices of slaves ship surgeons. all discussing the horrors of the experience but also understand there is an important understanding of the resistance, resilience, and the survival. we think of human suffering you but you also have to think of the resilience of someone who can hold on during that experience. >> the despondency when confined soon becomes fatal. every morning, perhaps more than one are found of the living and the dead bound together. mary: across the way from the middle passage space is the transatlantic slave trade space. profit and power juxtaposed

against the human cost. we haven't designed where you see the business of the trade, the development of the plantation system and how everyone benefited from the trade. we also look at the human cost through the voices of those enslaved and the process of enslavement. one of the objects i would like to point out is the fox's wage book. it features the wages given to crew members on a slave ship. again, looking at the human story. that document tells us two things. one, it lets us understand that everyone benefited from the trade. but then you have to ask yourself, why would someone serve on a slave ship? we often think perhaps they wanted to gain passage to the new world or they needed to feed their family or going back to that moral issue, perhaps they thought it was just fine to make money and profit off the sale of

humans. it is important to note when he opened the book you will find many crewmembers committed suicide or ran away. this goes to the human experience. the human experience extends to everybody. looking at the people below in hold of the ship, slave ship crew members would pack the ship s tight or loose packing. and that experience oftentimes, slave ship captain said, how much cargo you can bring depends on how many small enslaved , people you can fit into the hold of a ship. it is a very powerful story. now we are going to go into the colonial north america space of the exhibition. allow me to explain to use some of the design treatment we used to unpack this story. in fact, we break up the sections by region because this

is not a monolithic story. africans in america shaped the landscape and were shaped by the landscape. the reasons we break out include the chesapeake, where we look at the making of race. then we move into low countries, down into the carolinas and call -- gulla islands and georgia area. that allows us to look at enslaving skill. then we come to louisiana. finally we come to the north and look at the urban environment and the merchant system. what is important to note is that in each of these spaces the treatments are done in a pattern but they have their unique features. it is important for me to let you know about that pattern. beginning, you see some of the regions of africa where people came from and to the specific regions in the americas. you also see how the laws change over time and start to define

whiteness and you start to see how africans become black herbal -- black in america. you start to see the status development of all people in north america, from plantation a elite, to yeoman white farmer, free blacks, and africans. you look at life in the space, escape in the space, and we start to unpack the story of freedom through the story of rebellion. of course, we humanize everything. personal stories about people who lived, labored, and rebelled in the spaces during this time. all of this is foundational to the development of the nation. what comes next is the fight for liberty. remember i said slavery and freedom was from the beginning. the fight for freedom is one that had been going on amongst africans from the time they were carried from the interior all the way to this point.

why don't we go to the section on the paradox of liberty where we start to unpack the story of what liberty and freedom mean in this pivotal moment in time as the nation is taking shape. we come from colonial north america and we are passing story aboutpowerful the revolutionary war. now we are entering into the paradox of liberty. first, let me show you a powerful object that is personal and speaks to genealogy and the importance that the role of genealogy plays in helping to tell this story. we enter into this revolutionary period and there is freedom everywhere, or so one would think. freedom and liberty are the call of the day. we have a space that looks at free communities of color that were all over the nation at the time. believe it or not. one of the poignant objects we have also shows that while there were free communities of color, there were limits to that

freedom. we were fortunate to be contacted by elaine thompson, a wonderful woman in virginia who took the time to really take care of her family heirlooms. it is this handmade tin owned by her ancestor, joseph trammell. he made that to protect the freedom papers from 1852. those freedom papers were vastly important to him because at any moment's notice someone could challenges freedom and he would have to prove that. he had to register every two years in virginia and it gives us more insight on the personal experience of being free during this particular time. sadly, she has passed on but she was steward of her family's history and she was able to unpack quite a bit of her family's story. we are very fortunate because at

this point, her great-niece has picked up the mantle and is carrying it forward. she wrote a book at nine with unt assistance of her great a and now she's getting ready to rewrite that book at age 16 and carry that genealogical information further. we are looking forward to finding out about joseph trammell and his status as a free black man. let's look over at the paradox of liberty. we talked about the stories of free communities of color. hadine at the time, you free african americans who aligned with enslaved african americans, again, a collective voice fighting for freedom. they are fighting for freedom in a nation founded on liberty but still maintaining slavery. directly behind me, you see the

figures of benjamin banneker and thomas jefferson. we really unpack the story of voices of freedom. areuded on the platform others as well as phyllis wheatley. all voices of freedom. what is powerful to me about the connections between banneker and jefferson include banneker sending his almanac to jefferson and stating that african americans are brilliant. they are human. they contribute to the development of the nation and deserve to be free. excuse me if i paraphrase, but thomas jefferson essentially said you are the exception and freedom was not going to come during his particular time in life. why don't we go forward and look at making a way. remember, this is a human story. in the midst of all of this inhumanity, you still have

african americans again fighting for freedom, fighting for liberty, fighting for the nation to recognize them as citizens in this world. but as we go forward, we look at while there were laws restricting them, african americans found ways to go around those laws and hold on to their humanity. understand that many things happened after the revolutionary war, including the development of the cotton gin in 1793 and the louisiana purchase in 1803 and the end of the international slave trade in 1808. what did all of that mean? please note the space we are in right now. directly in front of me is a tower of cotton which is a marker as the driver of the trade. no different than sugar was

during the early period. as we come out of the paradox of liberty and we look directly to my right all the pieces of declaration of , independence, the constitution, the dred scott decision. and then you see paired with those excerpts from speeches, sermons, newspaper articles , all written by african americans speaking back to the moment. to my left is the story of the domestic slave trade. again, remember 1793 the cotton , gin is produced. 1803, the louisiana purchase takes place. that means there is more land to cultivate cotton and cotton is high demand and being produced more efficiently. that demand has an impact on african american bodies and mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, and wives

are being sold away from the upper south to the lower self to produce more cotton in the fields. remember this is a story of slavery and freedom. those same men, women, and children are fighting for their freedom all along the way. defining freedom for this nation. one of the more pivotal stories and iconic stories is that of nat turner. we are fortunate to be able to feature a bible owned by turner at the time of his escape and the time of the rebellion. nat turner is pivotal because like other rebellions that took place throughout the nation and the african diaspora, it made an impact on this country. laws tightened up. while those laws tightened up, african americans found ways to go around those laws. we have a section directly behind me called making a way out of no way, where we look at the black code and slave code,

codes defined status, ability, and autonomy. african americans, free and enslaved, were often times restricted more than you can imagine. illegal to read, illegal to gather, illegal to practice their faith. one of the objects i would like to point out is again a family object. we were fortunate enough to be contacted by shirley burkett of detroit who reached out to us and donated her ancestor's violin that was given by a slave owner to perform during gatherings at the plantation site. we were fortunate to restore the violin and have it on display here. the violin is important to the law regarding illegal together. oftentimes african american would find ways to gather and leisure and love one another at the same time. allow us to go down the hall and see the slave cabin next, which

is a poignant story and it is a community story. again remember, this is a shared history. we come from the story of the driver of the trade being cotton and we are in antebellum period. again, we see the nation and the cacophony of activity going on and the development of legislation all deeply embedded with slavery. we look at the human story of african men, women, and children finding ways to go around black codes and slave codes, but that speaks to the personal experience of being sold away on the auction blocks and the juxtaposition of profit and power. it is important to note that one of the design features we have in this exhibition is we have a wall filled with sales and broadsides. you will see a young boy sold for five dollars.

five dollars for a young black boy is what the excerpt said. five dollars is the monetary value but the value of the boy's -- the young boy to his mother or brother or sister is immeasurable. that gets us to the story of life, work, and enslavement, and looking at the many complexities of the human experience during the antebellum period. we were fortunate to receive a call from a historic preservation society that wanted to donate a slave cabin to our museum. they knew we were looking for a slave cabin to tell the story in a powerful way and they had one. it was from a plantation in south carolina. what is powerful about this is on the front side, we interpret at slavery.

on the backside, we interpret it looking at freedom. the union army camped out here during the civil war and you see where land is given to the african american community and taken away several times until it is ultimately taken away for good. let's talk about the interpretation in terms of slavery. notice the cabin behind me. what is important about the , not unlike how people locked up animals at night, this could be considered a pen, but african american men and women with resilience and holding onto their humanity found ways to love one another, practice their faith, grow gardens, and create new cultural practices. , and we look at life, work enslavement, in the same space we break down members of the community. the nurturers, the cultivators.

allow me to speak about the builders as one example. the story of solomon williams who was a blacksmith on a plantation. ornate drillbit used practically every day for work on the plantation site. this is a gentleman who had no education. an this drillbit is architectural feat. you look at the same skill set he used to create an ornate grave marker for his wife. used those same skills to create grave markers for members of the enslaved community throughout the plantation site. he also no doubt also created the shackles that were used on the enslaved on the plantation site. that gives us more depth. we don't look at just broad strokes. we don't look at just what he wore, what he ate, what he got up in the morning, how much land he cultivated. this is a man and his story is

told through life in terms of how he designed the ornate grave markers. work, in terms of his inability to be educated but still being able to create that detailed double helix. creating thent restraints on the plantation site. that takes us to the story of the civil war. we will talk about the coming of the civil war and how complex that story is. it is not just north versus south. there were many voices involved in this fight. we've just come from the slave cabin. we can talk about objects and their importance in the historical context but what is also important to note is how we acquire these objects. in the process of dismantling the slave cabin, we had community members come out and help us unpack the story of the community. included in that community are

the descendents of the enslaved as well as the descendents of the slaveholding family. we were fortunate to meet with both groups together and talk about the importance of this history coming to the general public to get a deeper understanding of what it needs -- what it is to be american at all the complexities and nuances of this particular story of slavery and freedom in the u.s. we know about slavery and freedom and know there was a civil war which had a major impact on this nation. we look at the story of the civil war and keeping the union together. embedded in the secession papers is slavery. but understand african americans fled to the union line as they came closer to where many of the plantation sites were located. at that time, the confederates demanded their property back at the union army declared them

contraband of war. and as such, they were able to keep them as contraband of war. these men, women, and children turned the fight to keep the union together into a fight for freedom. one of the greatest speakers of our time one of the most and one of the most influential members of the african-american community and america itself is frederick douglass. frederick douglass led the charge on pushing for freedom and in constant dialogue with abraham lincoln ensured that african-american men could fight on the battlefield for their freedom. behind me is a dynamic broadside that we were fortunate to receive where you see a call of r men of color to arms. you can only imagine how powerful that was for african-american men to understand they could suit up and fight for freedom and ensure the freedom of generations that follow them. again, frederick douglass played a pivotal role.

while he insured african american could fight in the union army, he was also influential in a constant dialogue with president lincoln to ensure that freedom came through the emancipation proclamation and ultimately the 13th amendment. we would be remiss if we told the story of the civil war and left out his involvement. when you visit you will see artifacts that speak to the efforts of charlotte grimke. she educated many people at the contraband camps. you will also see the story of harriet tubman. she also served as a union spy. finally, you will see the story of susie taylor who served as a nurse and opened up her own hospital. why don't we go forward and look at some of the artifacts that really speak to freedom during the period of emancipation? how do you tell a whole population of people that they are now free?

in fact those same men that , frederick douglass fought for to ensure they would be able to fight for freedom on the battlefield were responsible for carrying things such as this, the very important, tiny, the but powerful, handheld emancipation proclamation. handheld in a method patient proclamation from plantation to plantation and told men, women, and children they were no longer enslaved. what does that mean at this point in time? the space we are in is quite powerful. behind me you see the legislation that started with declaration of independence and carries all the way through the exhibition until you come to this point. we see through the agency of african-american men and women, we come to the emancipation proclamation, the 13th amendment, 14th amendment, and 15th amendment. all of those are powerful and important to us even today. but notice the space we are in speaks to the reconstruction

period. we are fortunate to feature an original campaign button owned by william beverly nash, one of the several african-american men who ran for office and secured a -- successfully campaigned and secured positions in their local legislature and congressional members. william beverly nash was based in south carolina. it is important to note that women, men, and children fought to reconnect with family members sold away. behind the slave cabin where we interpret freedom and emancipation, you may recall i mentioned the union army camped out at the point of pine plantation. land was given to those formally the less -- land was given to those formerly enslaved and taken away at least three times. ultimately it was taken away for good. a co-op was formed amongst nine men who were able to secure 900

acres of land and create their own community. i have to point out something very important because this takes us into the segregation era. this is something that occurred during the period of slavery. you will note the church is featured here. the church is featured in our story as well. the church is at the center of the community development. the church was a site not just for sanctuary but for community organizing, civic engagement, for gathering, for education. it was a place for leadership development. the church plays a pivotal role and we are excited to feature the story of metropolitan ame church in washington, d.c. in fact the church attended by , frederick douglass. it has been my pleasure to take you on this tour, one of three exhibitions in the history gallery at the smithsonian's

national museum of african american history and culture. we look forward to having you here and having you look through some of the exciting objects in our exhibition and learning more about the american experience, the human story, indeed a shared history. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> next on american history tv, steve young, a former advisor. he talks about how the conflict in southeast asia evolved over time and the role president johnson played in the decision-making process. mr. young also contrasts president johnson's policies with those of his successor, richard nixon. the humphrey school of public affairs at the university of minnesota in minneapolis posted this hour and 15 minute event. [applause] >> good afternoon, welcome.