Lest we forget (Curaco' slavery museum)

The most disturbing thing we have done in a long time was visit the museum of slavery. Curacao was the center of the Dutch slave trade and many artifacts are on display. This image is of the bowels of a slave ship. The Ships had many levels where the slaves were shackled hand and foot for the trip of 8 weeks from Africa. Approximately 12,000,000 slaves were officially accounted for in the 400 years of the trade. That number only accounts for the slaves who actually survived and were sold to a master. When all the ones who died or were killed during the hunt, it is estimated that 50,000,000 human beings died during those 400 years.

Rodger Richards is one of my favorite racing photographers. Recently, he was in Curaco shooting their spring drag races, and did a nice photojournal of the trip. Roger was formerly a big-money wedding photographer, and his "people pics" are one of the best things about his work. He was obviously quite moved by this image.
The whole journal is at http://competitionplus.com/drag-racing/race-coverage/17446-curacaos-international-drag-fest-event-notebook

And is worth a look for both the "tourist" and racing pictures.

"Pretty fly - for an old guy."

used those same ships with the same accommodations to move the starving Irish offshore. It's no mystery why they were called "coffin ships," the starving and sick stacked the way the slaves had been, minus the shackles.

Charleston, SC has a museum of one of the slave auction houses. It remains one of the spookiest places I've ever been in and I swear you can still smell the despair in that place. Books describing the "property" up for sale are on display and reveal much more about the sellers than their human animals.

If you can go to either museum, please do. We should never forget the truth of what happened to these people.

(those accommodations look plush compared to what I've seen. There was barely 18 inches between the planks the people were shackled to, 3 or four tiers of them midship.)