Taking on the Tough Stuff of History

West Baton Rouge Museum will host a Lunchtime Lecture called Taking on the Tough Stuff of History: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, with Dr. Erin Greenwald, the curator and historian for the Historic New Orleans Collection. She will discuss the research behind the Purchased Lives  exhibition, and the importance of grappling with the complex histories of race and slavery in the twenty-first century. Purchased Lives is a traveling exhibition from the Historic New Orleans Collection with support from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

From the colonial period and into statehood, slavery was a ubiquitous element of everyday life in New Orleans and Louisiana—affecting all parts of the local community, economy, and culture. The official end of the international slave trade, marked by the signing into law of An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves on the second day of March 1807, dramatically altered the way slaves were bought and sold in the United States. In New Orleans, this meant an increase in sales of slaves brought to the city from the Upper South, and eventually the establishment of the city as a primary hub of the domestic slave trade. 

Visitors are welcome to bring a bag lunch to enjoy during the lecture, which begins at noon. Free. westbatonrougemuseum.com or (225) 336-2422 Ext. 15.