A group of African American Studies’ students in November, stepped back in time to study how the horrors of slavery impacts their lives and social injustices today.

They learned about these times and conditions while visiting two historical South Carolina sites – Boone Hall Plantation and the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston.

The fieldtrip was led by Assistant Prof. Deena Isom-Scott, who teaches AFAM 201: Introduction to African American Studies, Historical and Social Foundations and AFAM 397: Race, Crime, and Criminal Justice.

Isom-Scott said, “Students compared and contrasted how the stories and experiences of enslaved people in the antebellum South were portrayed at these vastly different places, critically assessing the authenticity and completeness of the narratives.”

Boone Hall Plantation is a critically acclaimed exhibit that tells its unique story through its nine original slave cabins built between 1790 and 1810, and each with a different theme to capture the black history story. Students observed how black Americans lived, daily struggles and followed the progression from slavery to present day circumstances.

At the Old Slave Mart, students learned of Charleston’s role in interstate slave trade, and how this building that served as the only known slave auction gallery, is still in existence.

Slave auctions at the Old Slave Mart ended in 1863.