Charleston, SC Old Slave Market (Old Slave Mart)
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It’s a somber switch to write one week about independence and the next to write about slavery. Such is the dichotomy of the history of our country. Freedom was established early for some, but not all. We can take pride and solace in the fact that over the generations that idea of freedom has been expanded to all citizens. It’s a somber feeling to be in the Old Slave Market of Charleston. I remember visiting there about 12 years ago. It’s very humbling and there is a sense of heartbreak and pain in every stone. I seem to recall being left speechless just being there.
If you are visiting Charleston, South Carolina, make plans to visit the Slave Market and plan on being deeply moved by the experience.
Today, The Old Slave Mart Museum is now open at 6 Chalmers Street in Charleston, SC. The Old Slave Mart Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The museum will be closed on Thanksgiving day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day and Sundays. (Hours taken from the website at the link above).
It is a strange and surreal experience to consider what it might have been like to live during that time in our country in which one person could buy and sell another as they would cattle. What is most frightening is that the human heart may not have changed much in the last 150 years. Slavery is still practiced in some places in the world, perhaps not in the same scale as we imagine from the Ante-bellum days in the United States, but it is no less jarring to a sense of equality and fairness.
May we always remember the lessons learned and not return to relive the anguish of those days.
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