CHARLESTON, S.C. — The first time I viewed the Charleston Harbor, I was standing at the former site of Gadsden’s Wharf, where more than 40% of the nation’s enslaved Africans had arrived centuries ago when they were forced into chattel slavery.
I stood with my 12-year-old daughter facing the water at precisely the point where thousands of captured Africans likely began their journey in America. Like many Black Americans, I can trace at least one of my ancestors to the area, and I believed that my great, great grandmother could somehow feel our presence.
This, I imagine, is what many other Black people will feel when they visit the International African American Museum (IAAM), which opened in June in Charleston. “When any visitor comes, and particularly when visitors of African descent visit, there’s a kind of reclamation,” said Malika N. Pryor, chief learning and engagement officer of IAAM, who gave us a tour of the museum during our weeklong trek across three states to visit five Black history museums in the South.
