An Experience of Consciousness: Remembering Cincinnati's Pivotal Role in Underground Railroad
March 16- The class arrived at our first major destination of the trip, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Cincinnati's positioning as the first city across the Ohio River into the North made it a critical location for escaped slaves on their quest towards freedom. Thus, capitalizing upon the political space of being the gateway to freedom, Cincinnati provided a perfect location to commemorate the passage to freedom. With Kentucky having jurisdiction over most of the Ohio River, was the first taste of freedom for escaped slaves, and this museum provides a way to not only reconcile with the past and a way to move forward.
The experience begins before even entering the building. Near the entrance stands a section of the Berlin Wall, and as the placard notes, "we bear witness to this symbol of the ultimate triumph of the human spirit." Surrounding this commemoration lie literal stepping stones identifying the figurative steps that allow this same sort of ideological and political discrimination to take place: ignorance, indifference, doubt, judgment, distrust, prejudice, control, selfishness, fear, and intolerance.
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Moving indoors, the tour begins with a remembrance of the Transatlantic slave trade. This section succinctly compiles a large swath of the history of American slavery. In brief, this tour pays homage to the individual slave narrative of people like Phyllis Wheatly, Yarrow Mahmoud, Abdul al-Rahman Ibrahim, and Olaudah Equiano. After detailing the plantation products that created the demand for chattel slavery, the experience moves on to recognize the efforts of known abolitionists like Henry Blackwell, Isabella Van Wagner, and Frederick Douglass. Contrasting many slavery narratives, the Underground Railroad Museum details the suffering of indigenous populations during slavery's beginnings in the United States. The museum also highlights the importance of rebellion throughout the slavery era, and the tools of resistance. Some examples of these were the New York Conspiracy of 1741, the Great Dismal Swamp maroon community, and the Nat Turner Rebellion. Remembering these individual stories of slavery in the United States reminds us how our past is not so distant.
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Moving forward, the next section of the museum was dedicated specifically to the underground railroad, and the movement of escaped slaves to the North. The legacy of people like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, William Lloyd Garrison, and John Brown provide a glimpse into the collective efforts against slavery in the United States. Equipped with crates of varying sizes and structures resembling safe houses, the museum illustrates the raw reality of the dangerous travel that was the passage to the North. This is paired with modern examples of slave occurring around the world today. From literal slave-trading occurring in Libya, to human trafficking across the globe, slavery in a variety of forms has persisted for centuries following the abolishing of chattel slavery in the United States.
Finally, at the end of the museum was a section dedicated to implicit biases in society. Utilizing resources like the Implicit Project from Harvard University, a museum-goer could explore their own implicit biases along lines of race, gender, and sexuality. This was especially important in reestablishing that the same beliefs held by pro-slavery forces still manifest today in the forms of manipulated stereotypes. Although slavery may have been abolished in the United States 150 years ago, it serves as a reminder that racism is still alive and well in society today.
This museum provided an opportunity to explore such a critical piece of American history, highlighting the ongoing history of violence and racism in the United States. Cincinnati served as a perfect vehicle for this information, considering its pivotal location in the context of the Underground Railroad. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center truly was an experience of consciousness that effectively explored Cincinnati's political space in America's slavery era.
Finally, at the end of the museum was a section dedicated to implicit biases in society. Utilizing resources like the Implicit Project from Harvard University, a museum-goer could explore their own implicit biases along lines of race, gender, and sexuality. This was especially important in reestablishing that the same beliefs held by pro-slavery forces still manifest today in the forms of manipulated stereotypes. Although slavery may have been abolished in the United States 150 years ago, it serves as a reminder that racism is still alive and well in society today.
This museum provided an opportunity to explore such a critical piece of American history, highlighting the ongoing history of violence and racism in the United States. Cincinnati served as a perfect vehicle for this information, considering its pivotal location in the context of the Underground Railroad. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center truly was an experience of consciousness that effectively explored Cincinnati's political space in America's slavery era.