African Slave Trade History Spots to Visit

Part of American and World history involves the purchase, transport and sale of slaves from Africa throughout the New World. Although most people don't enjoy the sad history of the slave trade, there is much to learn and appreciate when you do. One of my more memorable stops in Alabama was to see an old Plantation. The guard at the gate as we purchased our entry tickets nodded his head and said "built on the backs of hundreds of slaves," then moved his straw to his other cheek and said, "there's blood in them walls." I blushed, suddenly unsure whether I should go see or not. So if the whole sad business is embarrassing and sad and filled with horrible stories, why would you go?

Natchez Trace Parkway

Leaving from Hunstville on my way to visit New Orleans, Louisiana, I decided on the spur of the moment to take the Natchez Trace Parkway. It was a cross country shot straight to where I wanted to go and had dozens of exhibits along the way. I knew that many folks moving to the west followed the Natchez Trail and that it was a major trade route for years, so I wanted to see what I could learn. It's a beautiful peaceful drive, far removed from the usual highway traffic but it's also one of the routes used to transport slaves, which I learned years later at the National Underground Railroad Museum in Cinncinnati, Ohio. You can see fields of wild flowers, old Indian mounds, log cabins and have a picnic.

National Underground Railroad Museum in Cinncinnati, Ohio

This museum contains tons of information about the American Slave trade and the numerous people that helped slaves to freedom before the Civil War. You can see an old building used to hold slaves awaiting sale from Kentucky. You can hear or read the personal accounts of dozens of people that wrote their story down. You can see many pictures involving the slave traffic and much more, including some of the worst offenses involved with the traffic in slaves including splitting up families, beatings, shipping conditions. It's probably the best exhibit on the slave trade I've seen and the gift shop has some of the best selections of African American arts I've run into including literature, artwork, nonfiction accounts and much more.

Puerto Rico Monuments and Cultural Museum

Puerto Rico's documentation of the slave trade comes from the use of slaves in the sugar cane and other industries. We've run into several memorials related to the slave trade including downtown Ponce and San Juan, and at the Museum of The Americas located on the Plaza Quinto Centario, built in honor of the five hundredth anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America (or first landing). This small museum documents many of the cultures indigenous to the Americas in an entire floor of room topical exhibits, often showing items of dress, samples of housing, and unique cultural features. But one room recorded the history of the slave trades and the numerous slave revolts that occurred on the island of Puerto Rico. The exhibit held many samples of the chains and other equipment used to keep slaves under control. Exhibits at El Moro also shared information about the slave trade since the fort was built to protect the Spanish trade interests in the New World.

Zanzibar and Kigoma, Tanzania

Not all African slaves were transported to the New World from the East coast of Africa. On the west coast of Africa, many slaves were routed by Arab traders through Kigoma, Tanzania and downriver to the main port of departure and salve at Zanzibar, Tanzania. Kigoma (Ujiji) is a noted location because this is where the American news journalist Henry M. Stanley located Dr. David Livingstone who had gone missing for a number of years in his search for the source of the Nile. He found him held captive in Kigoma by local chiefs who became unhappy with his complaints about the slave trade. Shortly after, Dr. Livingstone's pleas to put an end to the slave trade in England with explicit details and heart rending stories that in turn raised the awareness of the populace. The Dr. Livingstone Memorial in Kigoma contains many of the newspaper accounts and writings from Dr. Livingstone while in Zanzibar, a memorial, a small pen contained in a church built on the former site and a holding pen in the Botanical Garden are among the sites where you can find out about the slave trade to the East.