Missouri History Museum

In the years between 1441 and 1888, Europeans and their descendants enslaved many millions of Africans. Torn from their homeland, men, women, and children were shipped to the Americas and forced into slavery. Without African slaves, the potential economic value of the Americans could never have been realized. Slaves made possible the taming of the wilderness, construction of cities, excavation of mines, and the establishment of powerful plantation economies.

Captive Passage examined the transatlantic slave trade and seeked to increase the understanding of this maritime epic and its legacies in the modern world. Visitors to the exhibit viewed Katanga crosses; ship models; lithographs, paintings, and photographs; historic charts, maps and slave documents; shackles and a branding iron. Through the recreation of the hold of a slave ship, we recreated the lives of the slaves whose contributions to America's history were so crucial.

For more information please visit www.mariner.org/captivepassage.