The International African American Museum

Earlier this year, I visited the International African American Museum (IAAM) in Charleston, South Carolina. The museum opened in June 2023 after two decades of planning and has a unique collection of artifacts covering several centuries. The museum is purposely built on the site of an old shipping wharf where hundreds of thousands of Africans staggered off ships which hauled human cargo from Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. Today, fronting the deep blue waters of Charleston harbor, the pleasant sight belies a terrible past which the museum collections describe in a tasteful, yet heart-rending manner. However, the artifacts go beyond the story of slavery and shed light on the culture the Africans brought to U.S. shores and provide rare views of antebellum America. There’s also another unique presentation by the IAAM which consists of a small, but growing collection of ancestral records. As the museum says, “For far too long, African American family histories have been obscured and buried. But there are records to trace and stories to uncover.” I agree. Increasingly, individual and family histories are coming to the surface and genuine genealogical research is happening here and bringing to life generations of Americans long forgotten and never known – until now.