Freedom fighters understand that people need to care about and help each other. When we do not care about others, injustices can happen. We all have the responsibility to make sure every person has the same freedoms.
This self-guided tour includes 8 Conversation Stops for visitors with young children.
Each Conversation Stop includes brief information to share, and one or more questions to start conversation about freedom and responsibilities to others. You may choose to respond to each stop, or only a few – how much time you spend on this experience today can meet the needs of your group.
Not every gallery (or room) includes a Conversation Stop. This tour includes basic wayfinding information and a short content summary to help your group get started if you’d like to explore more.
Context to share
What is slavery?
Slavery is when a person owns another person as property. The main purpose of enslaving people is to make money by forcing enslaved people to work without pay. When people are enslaved, their enslavers control their actions and can say where they move, what job they do, what food they will eat, what clothes they will wear, with whom they will live, whether they can learn to read and write, and much more.
In the past, white Europeans and Americans believed they had the right to enslave Black men, women, and children from Africa. From the 1500s to the 1800s, millions of people were brought against their will from Africa and enslaved in the Americas.
Why should we learn about slavery?
Today, slavery is illegal*. However, slavery was allowed in many societies throughout human history, and for hundreds of years slavery was legal in what is now the United States. It is important to understand how and why slavery was allowed for so many years so we can learn how to protect freedom for everyone today and in the future.
*The 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits slavery and involuntary servitude except as a punishment for a crime. Some state governments have abolished all forms of slavery, and some have not.
Questions to discuss
The sculptures and backdrop in this gallery represent people at an Atlantic Slave Trade port. Look at the sculptures.
How has the artist depicted these people’s clothes and the ways they sit or stand?
Who has freedom and who does not?
Who is making decisions here?
Who has the power?
How can you tell?
How does this exhibit make you feel?
What questions do you have?
This gallery explores Atlantic Slave Trade routes. Enslavers forced people to cross the ocean in ships.
This gallery honors African people who died during the journey across the ocean.
This gallery talks about the very hard, physical work enslaved people did.
Context to Share
What are the responsibilities of leaders?
When the United States became a country, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution promised freedom to all. The men who wrote the rules argued about slavery. Some wanted to allow it. They were pro-slavey. Some did not. They were anti-slavery. In the end, pro-slavery won, and white people were still allowed to enslave Black people in the U.S.
This desk represents a place someone sat when writing the Declaration of Independence or United States Constitution. These documents tell us the rights we have and the rules we must all follow.
Questions to discuss
What are things you should think about if you are a person who helps write the rules for all people?
What would be your responsibilities?
Context to Share
How did abolitionists work for freedom for all?
Abolitionists were people who believed slavery was wrong. Since the beginning of the United States, abolitionists worked to end slavery. Their stories can teach us how to be freedom fighters.
This is a printing press, which was used to make many copies of newspapers, pamphlets, or other paper messages and stories. Spreading printed information to many people is one way abolitionists helped inspire and organize people to take action and work to end slavery.
Not all Americans lived in places where slavery was allowed. Reading printed stories helped people understand it.
Questions to discuss
How do people share information today?
What types of stories do you think are important for many people to know about?
How can printed stories help us understand what we cannot see for ourselves?
Context to Share
In the 1800s, women in the United States did not have all of the rights that men did. Women were not allowed to vote, but women found ways to support abolition (the movement to end slavery). Some women shared important messages in small groups or wrote books. Some gave speeches to large audiences. Some raised money or taught in schools for Black children. And some helped freedom seekers (people escaping enslavement) during their journeys.
Questions to discuss
If you are not yet allowed to vote, what are other ways that you help in your community?
How can you act responsibly to help others?
Context to Share
This sculpture represents a freedom seeker (someone who is escaping enslavement). When the enslavement of Black people was legal in the United States, a person who ran for their freedom was breaking the law. If they were caught, they would be punished.
Questions to discuss
What are visual cues that the artist uses to tell us about this person? What do you think he is thinking and feeling?
If someone was caught helping a freedom seeker, they would also be breaking the law and would be punished. Still, many abolitionists believed the law was wrong and helped freedom seekers in secret.
If someone saw this freedom seeker, how might they help them? What would he need as he escaped?
Context to Share
This gallery shares people’s views about slavery, including the first 15 presidents of the United States.
What is Racism?
A long time ago, a group of white people made up an idea called race. They sorted people by skin color and said that white people were better, smarter, prettier, and that they deserve more than everybody else. This idea is wrong and unfair and many people believed it. When people believe this untrue story about race, that’s called racism.
(Madison, Ralli, & Roxas, Our skin: A first conversation about race, Rise & Penguin Workshop, 2021.)
In the United States, only Black men, women, and children could be enslaved. People who were pro-slavery believed in racism and that Black people did not deserve freedom. Pro-slavery people did not care about all others. They did feel responsible for all others.
Questions to discuss
Think about what you have learned. What can happen when people do not care about other people’s freedom?
Not all white Americans believed white people were better than Black people and they worked hard to end slavery. What can happen when people work together to create freedom for others?
Context to Share
This display talks about Frederick Douglass—one of the most influential abolitionist leaders. He was a Black man who led people to stand up for freedom by writing books, giving speeches, and talking with politicians and other people with influence.
He is also the most photographed American of the 1800s. At that time, photography was a new technology. Douglass posed for at least 160 portraits between 1841 and 1895 – you can see an example of one of these inside the display case. Douglass wrote about how photography shows someone’s humanness, and he used his pictures to show himself as a person with dignity (worthy of respect).
Questions to discuss
Why do you think Douglass wanted to world to see images of a respected Black man?
What are ideas you hope people have when they see a picture of you?
What are ways pictures or photographs can help convince people to understand or help others?
Context to Share
This gallery shares information about the United States Civil War.
Why did the U.S. fight a Civil War?
By 1861, each state had decided if they were or were not going to allow slavery. There were many arguments amongst pro-slavery and anti-slavery leaders. Anti-slavery ideas were spreading, and pro-slavery believers feared that slavery would become illegal everywhere. When the United States elected anti-slavery leader Abraham Lincoln President, the pro-slavery states decided to separate and form their own country. This led to a Civil War. The anti-slavery states won, and the United States government took actions to end slavery in all states.
Context to Share
What are our rights and responsibilities in the U.S.?
Displays in this gallery talk about work people did after the Civil War to make sure that people who had been enslaved would have all of the rights and opportunities of United States citizens.
Questions to discuss
Look at the pictures along the wall – what are some of the things these people are doing?
What are the rights we have as free people?
Who is responsible for protecting those rights?
Thank you for participating in this tour! We value your feedback and would be very grateful if you complete a short 3-minute survey about your experience.