Page 10 - UF Spring 2017

26Our first journey through the Museum was to travel 33

back to the beginning as housed in the chronological Photo Credit: National Museum of African
history concourse. Descending down the elevator American History and Culture (NMAAHC)
back in time as the years that were written on the
walls of the elevator shaft passed by like a time As a genealogist wondering through the diverse displays, I
machine seemed to ready my heart and quicken my could not quiet my mind from unceasingly questioning
sense of excitement. whether my ancestor could be hidden within the pictures
and neither could I stop myself from searching the faces of
At the bottom, as we exited the elevator, we were the slaves portrayed throughout longing to ask each one of
greeted by the year 1400. Africa was described as a them whether they were my family. I found myself all but
collection of city-states with the majesty of our great pleading from deep within my spirit that they help me learn
history depicted through the economic, social and of those now lost to me; to understand the lives that they
political achievements of a great continent of distinct once lived. Only by walking on in silence did my mind win
peoples in compelling video and exhibits.
Overwhelmed by the confusing sense of pride and 41the battle and remind me that they were only images that
deep loss, we were propelled to move forward as the
video came to an end. could hold no answers for me. So real and compelling is
the presentation that for a brief moment I surrendered
With my attention captured by the next series of reality and felt the weight of the times and the heartache of
exhibits that emphasized that the alliances between those who came before.
the European explorers and African rulers began on Passing through the years in the historical chronology, the
level ground as equals, though this answer was one constant that shown vibrantly through the records was
known in my head, my heart was ignited in a the courage, strength, determination and dignity of our
‘wondering’ about how such an equal partnership enslaved ancestors who never stopped fighting for their
could become a betrayal so quickly to have resulted freedom despite the threat of reprisal, punishment and
in the peculiar institution of slavery that would carry horrible death. Images of the New York Conspiracy and
a peoples through the horror, hardship , anguish and the fate that the conspirators suffered began the parallel
interminable struggle for freedom for far too many story of the fight for survival and the burning desire to own
years. the right to be human. This struggle is affirmed in a record
of the events of the conspiracy of June 1741 retold in a
These deep emotions of pride, loss and wonder work entitled The "Negro Plot Trials": An Account by
were evoked even before leaving the first exhibit Douglas O Linder:
area of Concourse 1 that was filled with so much to The motive behind the conspiracy?--for most slaves, it was
see—all of which challenged what we thought we a simple desire for liberty.
knew and established a foundation of understanding
that would carry us through the rest of the Museum. 63

56To speak of the Middle Passage awakens images

far to horrifying to comprehend until I stood in the
presence of pieces of the São José-Paquete de
Africa, a Portuguese slave ship that was sailing to
Brazil from Mozambique in December 1794 when it
was shipwrecked near the Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa with more than 400 enslaved people on
board. Being near enough to almost touch the
physical pieces of the vessel sent shivers down my
spine, but the sight that took my breath away and
turned the feelings of betrayal into a crushing reality
was just one image—shackles so small they would
barely bind the pinky fingers of an adult—shackles
created to constrain infants—babies whose lies
began in a trauma that would define all of the years
of their lives.