West Baton Rouge Museum Podcast

Presented by Dr. Erin Greenwald. Dr. Greenwald is the curator and historian for the Historic New Orleans Collection. She will discuss the research behind the “Purchased Lives” exhibition and the importance of grappling with the complex histories of race and slavery in the 21st century. The exhibit, “Purchased Lives,” is a traveling exhibition from the Historic New Orleans Collection with support from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. From the colonial period and into statehood, slavery was a ubiquitous element of everyday life in New Orleans and Louisiana—affecting all parts of the local community, economy, and culture. The official end of the international slave trade, marked by the signing into law of An Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves on the second day of March 1807, dramatically altered the way slaves were bought and sold in the United States of America. In New Orleans, this meant an increase in sales of slaves brought to the city from the Upper South, and eventually the establishment of the city as a primary hub of the domestic slave trade.