THNOC examines the domestic slave trade in exhibition opening March 17

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:
Teresa Devlin, The Historic New Orleans Collection
(504) 598-7170 | teresad@hnoc.org

Sarah Chambless Federer, Gambel Communications
(504) 324-4242 | sarahc@gambelpr.com

WHO: The Historic New Orleans Collection

WHAT: "Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade," a free exhibition

WHEN: On view March 17-July 18, 2015
Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (excluding holidays)

WHERE: The Historic New Orleans Collection's Williams Research Center
410 Chartres St., New Orleans, Louisiana

HOW: Admission is free.

WHY: In 1808, America abolished the international slave trade, ending the export of people from the African continent to the Americas. The domestic slave trade, however- the buying and selling of slaves within the U.S.-continued until the close of the Civil War in 1865.

During those 57 years between 1808 and 1865, an estimated one million people found themselves at the center of a forced migration that wrought havoc on the lives of enslaved families, as owners and traders in the Upper South-Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington, DC-sold and shipped surplus laborers to the expanding Lower South-Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Many of those individuals passed through New Orleans, which was the largest slave market in antebellum America.

The exhibition "Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade" examines the individuals involved in the trade and considers New Orleans's role in this era of U.S. history. Erin M. Greenwald, a historian at The Historic New Orleans Collection, curated the display, which includes period broadsides, paintings and prints illustrating the domestic slave trade, ship manifests and first-person accounts from slave narratives and oral histories.

The objects on view represent items from THNOC's holdings as well as artifacts from Belmont Mansion in Nashville; Evergreen Plantation in Edgard, Louisiana; the Louisiana State Museum; the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans; the National Archives and Records Administration; the New Orleans Notarial Archives; Touro Infirmary Archives and private collections.

"Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808-1865" opens Tuesday, March 17, and will remain on view through Saturday, July 18, at The Historic New Orleans Collection's Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres St. The galleries are open Tuesday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Admission is free. Call (504) 523-4662 or visit www.hnoc.org for more information, including details on exhibition-related programming.

The Historic New Orleans Collection-Preserving our Past for a Brighter Future