South Carolina Public Radio: Charleston’s International African American Museum reflects bondage, bravery and resilience
By Victoria Hansen
Charleston, S.C. – A long, shallow pool shimmering in the sun reflects the horrors of what happened at Gadsden’s Wharf, the site of the city’s new International African American Museum that opened this week.
“Now what you’ll see on the ground are outlines of these human bodies,” says museum public historian and tour guide Brandon Reid.
Reid points to engraved figures along the pool’s bottom, evoking the earliest experiences of Africans taken from their homes to lives of slavery. Each figure represents a man, woman or child who was packed in the hull of a slave ship, chained for weeks or months.
