A panel version of the powerful and poignant traveling exhibition “Purchased Lives: The American Slave Trade from 1808 to 1865” will be on display at the Slidell Library from December 1, 2017 through January 12, 2018. Presented by Entergy Corporation with additional support from the National Park Service, National Endowment for the Humanities and The Kabacoff Family Foundation, “Purchased Lives” examines one of the most challenging eras of U.S. history between America’s 1808 abolishment of the international slave trade and the end of the Civil War, during which an estimated two million people were forcibly moved among the nation’s states and territories. The domestic trade wreaked new havoc on the lives of enslaved families, as owners and traders in the Upper South—Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC sold and shipped surplus laborers to the developing Lower South—Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Many of those individuals passed through New Orleans, which was the largest slave market in antebellum America. The exhibition’s narrative is not limited to New Orleans, however. It examines a complex and divisive period of American history, helping viewers learn about the far-reaching economic and heartbreaking personal impact of the domestic slave trade.
The display is made up of 10 panels featuring reproductions of period artifacts such as broadsides, paintings, and prints illustrating the domestic slave trade, as well as ship manifests, financial documents and first-person accounts conveying the trade’s reach into all levels of antebellum society. Large-scale reproductions of post–Civil War “Lost Friends” ads depict the attempts of former slaves to reunite with loved ones, even as much as 50 years after the war.
An overview of the program schedule is listed below, but follow this link for more detailed information and to register for individual programs.
December 4 from 6-7:30 pm film screening of Many Rivers to Cross: The Black Atlantic (Part 1) at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 5 from 6-7:30 pm Opening Reception with Dr. Erin Greenwald presents, "Taking on the Tough Stuff of History" at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 6 from 6-7:30 pm Photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales presents her book, Through Darkness to Light: Seeking Freedom on the Underground Railroad at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 8 from 2-3 pm Looking at Digital Archives of Slavery at the Madisonville Library, 1123 Main Street
December 8 from 3-4 pm Help Me to Find My People book discussion for adults at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 11 from 6-7:30 pm film screening of Many Rivers to Cross: The Age of Slavery (Part 2) at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 13 from 5-6 pm Help Me to Find My People book discussion for adults at the South Slidell Library, 3901 Pontchartrain Drive
December 14 from 2-3 pm Virtual Field Trip to the Underground Railroad at the Madisonville Library, 1123 Main Street
December 18 from 4:30-5:30 pm The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Book 1) book discussion for teens at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
December 18 from 6-7:30 pm film screening Many Rivers to Cross: Into the Fire (Part 3) at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
January 9 from 2-3:30 pm Proofs of Purchase: Documenting Enslaved Ancestors presented by Jari Honora at the Slidell Library, 555 Robert Blvd.
January 11 from 2-3:30 pm Dr. Ibrahima Seck presents A Journey Through Slavery at the Whitney Plantation
