Relics of a Painful Past

The OAAHM has two categories of objects that serve as evidence of an inhumane past in a region that has, through both fate and concerted effort, erased its history of slaveholding: chains and quilts.

These two types of objects further serve to illustrate the strength of will that led to freedom for African Americans. The chains are weighty reminders of the reality of chattle slavery, while the telling-quilts illuminate the creative intelligence and perserverance of African Americans who risked their lives to help those still enslaved find their own freedom.