Heavy Burden
From Student Link
Heavy Burden: Digital Collage Examination of African-American Forced Labor
Description:
A mixed media, digital collage exhibit—depicting imagery of African-American labor during the Trans-Atlantic Slavery Period through Reconstruction in the South.
Slavery played a profound role in the history of the United States. The wealth created by the unpaid labor of African Americans helped to underwrite the country's industrial revolution and subsequent economic strength. That wealth created tremendous political power for slaveholders and their representatives. African slaves brought with them their many cultures, languages, and values, which helped to shape America and its unique culture. Enduring a brutally oppressive system, African slaves developed a deep commitment to liberty and became a living testament to the powerful ideal of freedom.
This exhibit means to examine the determination of African-Americans to have our nation live up to the principals embodied in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and our other founding documents during slavery and its aftermath.
In delivering the content about slavery and freedom in our nation’s history, special attention will be paid to helping teachers present this information as a unifying theme. It is important for teachers and students to understand and be able to deliver dialog that acknowledges the interconnected nature of historical events and themes that all too often are presented as disconnected. Through the use of collage as a medium, the exhibit will seek to help the audience view history not only as patchwork but, as a continuum—with issues of slavery, freedom, and civil rights as a central theme to understanding who we are as a nation.
Goals:
1. Help create visibility, both in the African American community and in the general community, for slavery and its legacy, emphasizing its interrelationship with politics, economy, labor movement, religion, ideologies, culture, family life, migrations, and international relations. 2. Inspire this audience to independently and actively seek out more information as it relates to African Americans and Slavery. 3. Open up dialog in communities and dispel myths about Slavery. 4. Create a tribute to the ancestral community that have lost their lives due to Slavery and its horrific history.
