Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past

A digital archive and collection created in Omeka Classic in 2018-19.  The purpose of the project is to document, geolocate, describe, and interpret monuments, memorials, and sites of slavery. “Slave past” encompasses a broad range of commemorative works related to the Middle Passage and enslavement, the plantation as site of Black labor, the resistance to enslavement, the Underground Railroad, the participation of black soldiers in the Civil War, and emancipation and freedom. The project is most interested in telling stories about where, how, and why communities are engaging the slave past and memorializing it in public space including voices of stakeholders who engaged in the tasks of remembrance and commemoration of slavery.

The project database currently contains approximately 115 commemorative works to the slave past that are located in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico, South America, and the United States. All commemorative works in the project have an Omeka record with identifying data, description, and geolocation information. Each commemorative work also includes photographs of the objects and landscapes in which they are located, collected through the PI’s travels to visit the varied sites of slavery. Also included on Omeka are exhibits that highlight specific memorials or groups of commemorative works with similar themes. The project is housed currently on Reclaim Hosting through a personal subscription. 

Contributors to this project include Renée Ater (PI), Mairelys Lemus-Rojas, Justin Uhr, Khanh Vo (CDS lead), Elizabeth Yalkut, Grace Yasumura (former project lead), Yui Suzuki (editor/data cleaner), and Nélari Figueroa Torres (undergraduate researcher)

Funding for this iteration of the project comes from The Office of the Provost, Brown University. The project has received funding from National Endowment of the Humanities-Mellon Foundation, Getty Research Institute, and the Smithsonian Institution Office of Fellowships. It has also been supported by the Michelle Smith Collaboratory of Visual Culture, Department of Art History at the University of Maryland and the National Humanities Center with Duke Digital Art History and Visual Culture Research Lab.