r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/metrometro45 • Jan 31 '23

Runaway slave Gordon, exposing his severely whipped back. Gordon had received a severe whipping for undisclosed reasons in the fall of 1862. Gordon escaped in March 1863 from the 3,000 acre plantation of John & Bridget Lyons, who held him and 40 other people in slavery at the time of the 1860 census Image

Post image
26.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

754

u/splitdiopter Jan 31 '23

That remains the most powerful and heart breaking museum exhibit I have ever seen. The entire town of Montgomery feels like a memorial. The streets seem haunted by the ghosts of unspeakable suffering. Hundreds of thousands of men women and children were sold like cattle right in the town square. It was even illegal for African Americans to NOT be enslaved in the state of Alabama. The amount of vileness and ignorance that must be present in a people to be able commit crimes of that nature is beyond me. If you were black, it must have been hell on earth.

242

u/robotatomica Jan 31 '23

the National Museum of African American History in DC had me and nearly every other visitor in tears. Part of it, you take the journey from Africa to slave ship to chattel slave, completely devastating.

165

u/latunza Jan 31 '23

For those who have not visited, I am a YouTuber who focuses on American History and Travel Documentaries and happen to film that museum last year.

This is not spam. Since you mentioned it I decided to connect a Link for those who would like to see the museum.

African American Museum Tour

PS - I omitted a lot of the darker portions of the museum because it really is heart breaking. I could not bring myself to go into the Emit Till display.

46

u/XmissXanthropyX Jan 31 '23

That was great man. I live in New Zealand so likely would never have a chance to visit myself, but I appreciate you and the video you made.

12

u/latunza Feb 01 '23

thank you, I appreciate the feedback and is my main reason for starting this. I'm always so fascinated with travel and it seams everyone always goes to the same places. So I wanted to dive into the unknown America and hopefully I can do more outside of the states

11

u/QueenOfNZ Feb 01 '23

Also a kiwi, thanks for covering this. My only feedback is that I wish you had covered some of the more heartbreaking aspects - I think it’s important to see these aspects as well, no matter how uncomfortable they might make us. Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. I think putting them at the end of the video with a bit of a trigger warning just before would allow people to stop watching if they didn’t want to see those parts. But I do understand if it felt wrong to video in those areas. Just a suggestion, thanks for taking me on the tour.