After Congaree National Park, Mike and I visited Charleston, South Carolina. The vibe I get from this town is a less drunk family friendly New Orleans; beautiful architecture, water fronts, quaint shops and restaurants, and an incredible, but typically white-washed, history. 

We chose to visit sites that would teach us about the deep history of slavery in Charleston, and our country.  First stop was the Old Slave Mart Museum. This moving and sad museum is so informative and so important. We easily spent an hour here reading all the history and stories of the people that this slave auction site impacted. And considering that 40% of the Africans that were forced here came through Charleston, this city and site impacts millions of people today through their descendants. 

When auctioning off slaves in the streets became a bit too gauche and contradicted the image that Charleston was trying to portray of being civilized, auctions moved indoors. This mart was one of the largest, and is believed to be the last standing slave auction building. 

I won’t share everything I read – mostly because I won’t do it justice and you should just go there immediately – but this public-emotion-phobe was moved to tears. This museum taught me more about slavery and this ghastly part of our history than my entire childhood schooling ever did. So often, this part of our history gets told from the perspective of white people. What good does that do? I know it’s uncomfortable, but learning about our real history, our mistakes, and the lasting impact makes it easier to not repeat it, right? Honestly, this place should be a required field trip for all white people. 

After the Old Slave Mart, we visited the McLeod Plantation.  We chose this plantation because they share the stories of not just the plantation owners, but the enslaved workers. And woof, it’s hard to hear. The stories here overlapped a little chronologically from the Old Slave Mart, but then continued through the 1990s, making these two visits great complements. Confused on how the stories continue through the 90s when slavery was abolished over a hundred years before that? (Spoiler – it’s because the system has continued to suck for black people.) 

If you can’t make it here to visit, then I highly recommend watching the Netflix documentary, 13th. It’s eye opening – especially for people like me that have been cloaked in comfort and white privilege my whole life. This film is political – but it’s so much bigger than the left or right (another spoiler – both sides have f***ed up real good). When I see things like this or this or this still making headlines, it’s clearly not just one person or group making our society cruelly unjust… it’s all of us. Once we come to terms with that, we can change. We can make the world a better place – and that starts with listening and gaining knowledge.  Then we can finally correct our mistakes, together.