The story of America is the story of the struggle to expand human freedom.
Visitors to the Shockoe Institute’s 10,000 square foot, museum-like experience in Richmond will learn about the origins and growth of racial slavery in America, Richmond’s pivotal role in the trade of enslaved people within the United States, and how racial slavery touched virtually every aspect of American life before the Civil War.
CLASH OF CULTURES
The exhibition 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.
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.
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.
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 are trafficked from Richmond into to the 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.
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.
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.
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.