International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., pays new respect to the enslaved Africans who landed on its docks

One of the exhibits of notable Black people on display at International African American Museum. courtesy of v2com/International African American Museum

Before Congress ended the transatlantic slave trade in 1808, the Port of Charleston was the nation’s epicenter of human trafficking.

Almost half of the estimated 400,000 African people imported into what became the United States were brought to that Southern city, and a substantial number took their first steps on American soil at Gadsden’s Wharf on the Cooper River.