Recently we realized that neither of us had been to the
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center! It's been open since I moved here in 2004 - so in my anniversary year - we decided to head to the Museum and finally check it out.
The Freedom Center is located on The Banks between the baseball and football stadiums. Parking is available under the center in a fairly new parking garage that brings you right up to the main entrance.
The first floor has a lot of traditional slavery exhibits. This image of a slave boat is pretty startling - thinking about real people packed in like this.
This slave pen was built in the early 1800s in Mason County, Kentucky and was moved to the Freedom Center. It's also part of the Solomon Northup Tour experience and there are docents nearby to tell you more of the story.
There are a lot of interactive areas as well - this video experience was really fun. It's sort of a Choose Your Own Adventure path on trying to free yourself. We almost made it...blergh. While it is light-hearted - it's definitely a way to bring it the struggles they faced to light.
Upstairs is the
Invisible Slavery: Today exhibit and it was incredible. Just like the rest of the exhibits - the reality hits you hard. I have been a supporter of
Women At Risk for a long time now - so the stories aren't new - but still startling.
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is educational and interesting - while not someplace I'm going to visit often - I'm glad we finally went.
Thanks to the Freedom Center for providing us tickets in exchange for this post. All opinions are my own.
No comments
Post a Comment