The story of America is the story of the struggle to expand human freedom.
Expanding Freedom
A Shockoe Institute exhibit
Expanding Freedom, the Shockoe Institute’s 10,000 square foot exhibit, immerses you the visitor in the history of America's struggle to expand human freedom. Through seven distinct sections, you will learn about the origins and growth of racial slavery in America. You will witness Richmond’s rise as an epicenter in the national trade of enslaved people. You will get a glimpse into how racial slavery touched virtually every aspect of American life before the Civil War, and you will grapple with its enduring impact.
CLASH OF CULTURES
The exhibit begins with the profound effects European colonization has on the indigenous cultures of the Americas and Tsenacomoco – the native lands of Eastern Virginia. Visitors will learn how the Powhatan people flourished and how the colonists’ ingrained notions of superiority led to conflict, repression, and enslavement, setting the stage for later forms of racial control.
'The Massacre At Jamestown, Virginia, 1622. Line Engraving, 1628, By Matthaeus Merian, the Elder. A 1628 woodcut by Matthaeus Merian published as plate 7 in Theodore de Bry’s America, Part 13 (German edition, 1628)
CREATING A SLAVE SOCIETY
The exhibit continues by introducing visitors to a brutal transformation: Virginia’s evolution from a fluid society with relatively few enslaved people to a Commonwealth fully reliant on the lifelong, hereditary enslavement of Black people. Once enslavement emerges as the nation’s economic engine, Virginians quickly adapt their laws to codify racial slavery.
A Tobacco Plantation, engraved and sold by Bowles and Carver, London, ca. 1793-1832. Peter Newark American Pictures / Bridgeman Images.
THE AGE OF REVOLUTIONS
Visitors will interrogate the compromises at the heart of America’s creation and reflect on our founding documents. Colonists demand freedom, but who is silenced? Black people and Indigenous nations fight for their freedom, but often against their colonial enslavers. At every turn, racial slavery remains central to American prosperity. Once the trans-Atlantic slave trade ends, an internal trade, more massive in scope and scale, rises to take its place.
The Battle of Vertières (French: Bataille de Vertières), Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), November 18, 1803, engraving by Jean-Jacques Frilley.
EMPIRE OF SLAVERY
Visitors bear witness to the cruel auction block as Richmond becomes a center of an American empire built on human bondage. More than 850,000 Black people were trafficked from the upper south into the lower south. The internal trade fuels nationwide growth, further entrenching an economy powered by racial slavery and creating wealth in places as far-flung as Massachusetts, New York City, and Liverpool, England.
Eyre Crowe, Engraving, Slave Auction at Richmond, Virginia, published in the Illustrated London News on September 27, 1856
THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICAN SLAVERY
Visitors find a nation on the brink. After the highest court affirms that Black people are not citizens and Lincoln wins the presidency, 7 southern states seek to establish a new nation explicitly founded on white supremacy. Visitors will reflect on the debate facing Virginians: Union or Secession? Fulfilling the fears of many, secession brings Civil War and the demise of American slavery, assisted by thousands of Black Americans who take up arms for the Union.
District of Columbia. Company E, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, at Fort Lincoln. Photograph by William Morris Smith. Washington D.C, ca.1864-1866. Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
FREEDOM’S PROMISE NULLIFIED
Visitors witness the promise of a world where the formerly enslaved are now citizens. Yet the post-Reconstruction nation sees Black Americans’ newly won rights quickly dismantled by white supremacist violence and laws. Black communities in the South are left vulnerable yet hope endures and the fight for justice continues. Visitors will learn that rights won can be easily lost.
Marriage Certificate of Thomas Harris and Jane Harris (Shute) Issued April 28, 1866 Tennessee, Lebanon, Wilson County, sent to Freedman's Bureau Headquarters, Washington, DC M1875, roll 4, National Archives and Records Administration
AMERICAN APARTHEID
The exhibit culminates with the ongoing battle for equality. Visitors learn about the rise of segregation, disenfranchisement, and racial violence in the 20th century. The legacy of this era endures, serving as the foundation upon which we stand. Visitors are invited to reflect on startling statistics that reveal the realities of Black life in America today, from farmland loss to maternal mortality to household wealth. You are invited into the Institute’s Lab to consider these questions and continue your learning journey.
IEC (Caldwell, A. B. History of the American negro and his institutions) v. 5 [Image: John Mitchell, Jr., p. 123]