The remarkable, untold story of New York’s deep involvement in the slave trade is the focus of a major multi-media exhibition, Slavery in New York, which opens October 7, 2005 and runs through March 5, 2006 at the New-York Historical Society, at Central Park West and 77th Street in New York City.
The 9,000 square-foot exhibition (the largest in the Society’s 200-year history), incorporates historically detailed video re-enactments, audio narrative and interactive video displays, along with rare, primary source materials (paintings, original documents, artifacts) to detail this remarkable, dark time in America’s history.
Exhibition highlights include: giant billowing sails and voices (speaking a dozen African dialects) suggestive of the harrowing Middle Passage; a multi-media installation portraying a local well where slaves met as they gathered water and (in 1712) fomented a slave rebellion; and wire sculptures, which evoke the toil of the faceless, voiceless peoples whose histories were (nearly) erased. The rarely seen, original hand written draft of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation will be on display from October 7-16.
Bills of sale for the human slave trade; advertisements offering rewards for runaway slaves; original 18th century maps detailing farmland (in what is now Soho) dedicated to freed blacks; letters revealing the details of daily life of slaves and slave holders; and objects such as a silver tea service crafted by slaves from Africa’s Gold Coast, offer a window into another time.
For additional information visit: http://www.nyhistory.org/ . New-York Historical Society170 Central Park West at 77th Streetadmission: Members and Children Under 12: Free Adults: $10 Teachers, Students, Seniors: $5Directions: To get to The New-York Historical Society take B or C trains to 81st Street or M10 bus to 77th Street; M79 to 81st and CPW.