Imagine humans penned like livestock right here. This is 1315 Duke Street. It is Alexandria VA in the shadow of the nation’s capital. Today we stand before the Freedom House Museum.
The Freedom House Museum is what remains of a large complex. It trafficked thousands of Black men women and children between 1828 and 1861. The Freedom House Museum honors the lives of enslaved and free Black people. They lived in and were trafficked through Alexandria. Alexandria was once America’s busiest domestic slave market. The Freedom House Museum seeks to reframe white supremacist history. It provides visitors opportunities to learn reflect and advocate for change.
Visitors to the Freedom House are often astonished. They are surprised by what they didn’t know about slavery in the United States. Popular textbooks teachers documentaries and mythologies have suppressed many details.
Did you know Alexandria was once part of the District of Columbia? Citizens chose to leave D.C. for Virginia because it still permitted slavery.
In 1808 the country outlawed the international import of enslaved people. This wasn’t for humanitarian reasons. It was for economic ones. Cutting off the outside supply allowed the domestic slave trade to flourish. Fortunes were made off the sale and transport of human flesh. African Americans were raised like crops to be sold at markets. They were displayed in showrooms.
An estimated 388000 Africans came to what would become the United States. This was a result of the transatlantic slave trade. An estimated 650000 African descendants were bought and sold domestically. This fed the forced labor machine in the Deep South.
The enslaved held by Franklin and Armfield operated the site at 1315 Duke Street. They were headed to Louisiana. Frederick Douglass said in 1852 they were food for the cotton field and the deadly sugar mill. He spoke of seeing drives sold and separated forever. Douglass urged people to never forget the deep sad sobs that arose.
These were people although not in the eyes of the buyers and sellers. Some were sent by ship. Others went overland in coffles. Coffles were iron chains with attached collars. Long rows of enslaved people were connected and marched.
They walked from Alexandria to Natchez MS or New Orleans. That’s 1000 miles away. It was a second Middle Passage. It was a descent into hell. Word of mouth informed enslaved people that the fields of Louisiana were killing fields. An enslaved man in South Carolina revealed Louisiana was considered a place of slaughter. Those going there did not expect to see their friends again.
The legacies of that barbarism can still be found across Louisiana today.
Learn about Mary and Emily Edmonson. They were 15 and 13 years old respectively. They were purchased for transport to New Orleans. Their future was as sex slaves a common practice. This is another detail of the slave trade in America too grisly for wide attention.
Twenty minutes at Freedom House exposes countless hours in classrooms. These hours were utterly wasted in understanding the human tragedy. It shows the causes and effects of slavery in the United States. It challenges the idea that all men are created equal.
The Freedom House Museum reopened in the summer of 2022. This followed a COVID closure and a renovation. The City of Alexandria purchased the building from the Urban League of Northern Virginia.
The Freedom House Museum site is integral to understanding Black history in Alexandria. It is also key to understanding the United States and American history broadly.
It was here in 1939 that attorney Samuel W. Tucker led five young African Americans. They participated in a sit-in at the segregated public library. It was the first organized act of civil disobedience in what became the Civil Rights movement.
Now as you leave the Freedom House Museum take a moment to reflect. Consider the weight of history contained within these walls. Think about the stories of resilience resistance and the ongoing pursuit of equality. Let this experience inspire you to learn reflect and advocate for change in our world.