History from Below 2020

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Fort Montego Memorial

Nyah Avila, Morgan Pierce, Kennedy Robertson, and Nasya Williams

The place we have decided on is Montego Bay, Jamaica. More specifically, Fort Montego. This was originally a British fort during the early 1800s. With this site, we can turn around its European meaning and make it known who was really important to remember for their heritage. In Montego Bay, it had the most enslaved people embarked/disembarked, as well as the majority of them were in the Caribbean in general.
Columbus River Walk Enslaved African Memorial

Jacob Bolar, Kyndall Cason, Brittany Hart, and Kameren Wesley

Our memorial is placed at the steps of the Columbus Riverwalk. There are ten steps, including stepping into the water. Each step will mark a significant time period in African American History. We chose the steps and the river for historical and symbolic purposes. The river was used for moving enslaved Africans down the river. Getting out of the water is symbolic for getting out of danger, and climbing each steps is symbolic for conquering every time period described. Once you get to the top, there will be a taller statue representing the present day African American, along with a big plaque that describes each time period represented on the staircase. Another symbolic note our memorial represents is when the river floods. When the river floods, most if not all the statues will be under water. This can represent the state in which who gets hurt by floods the most, poverty stricken Africa Americans living in government housing.
Steps They Took

Victoria Buchanan, Jamesha Smith, and Katelyn Mullins

Port Royal Jamaica was a popular landing location for the Transatlantic Slave Trade due to its close proximity to Africa and Europe and Sugarcane profitability. Among the enslaved people aboard the ships, children were included in the demographics. Two popular ships that landed at Port Royal were the Worsley Gally and the Alert. The Worsley Gally landed with 18 children out of the 294 enslaved people on the ship. Children were not as prominent as the adults going to the Caribbean due to the short life span and heavy workload of the Sugar Cane Plantations. Children were seen as a liability and burden to Plantation Owners.
Bunce Island

Sharon Carney, Kristal Colberg, Raven Watkins, and Victoria Jackson

The design of the memorial is a ship to represent the meaning behind the island. Bunce Island was a location where enslaved Africans were brought to be inspected before being brought over to the Americans. This island was one of the most profitable slave trading posts in the world.
Globe of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

Melissa Champion, Gabby Sande, Katherine Samuelson, and Molly Strozier

Essentially, what we were thinking is to suspend a globe and have inscriptions of slave ships going to and from in the Transatlantic Slave Trade written in the margins of the sea. Even though there are no "official" records of the names of enslaved individuals, the next best thing is the name of the ships they were transported on. It will also showcase the amount of the ships that contributed and also the amount of enslaved Africans that were on each ship, if possible.
Freedom Angel Memorial

Israel Cordero, Oluwayemisi Odeboh, Jequan Dean, and Jacreyn Felder

For our project, we decided to memorialize the trans-Atlantic slave trade in Columbus, Georgia. At the intersection of 11th Street and Broadway, an infamous tree was uprooted. With our research, we found that adult males were dominant on these slaves ships so diving into this, we decided to design a plaque wrapped with chain with a praying angel mounted on top to symbolize the hanging of two enslaved male Africans that occurred in this city. At night, the plaque will begin to glow (yellowish/gold) and the chain will seem like it is in the process of breaking (white light/dim), to signify freedom. A brick pathway that has lights leads to the plaque so that people can learn more; with the fountain on the other side so they can sit and reflect on the city's past events.
Fountain of Legacies

Karmen Johnson, Carrington Perry, and Loren Weaver

We located our memorial design in Savannah, Georgia on the Rousakis Riverfront Plaza, a place where many slaves were once delivered. We want to put a water fountain in the center of the Plaza, and inside the fountain will be two replicas of the slave ships, one for each side of the fountain. In addition to the fountain, we will also place four informational posts around the memorial. On each post there will be a list of all 115 ships that transported slaves to Savannah. It will include the names of the ships and the number of slaves aboard. The fountain is a simpler memorial, but it still speaks volumes. The fountain brings attention to the informational posts that help illustrate how major the transatlantic slave trade was, even in smaller areas.
Sugar Cane Memorial

Amber Mazzola, James Ellerbee, Ashley Adamian, and Octavia Jenkins

A statue of an enslaved sugar cane worker is situated at the entrance of the Sao Marcelo Fort. This location was chosen for its seclusive geography, encompassed by the surrounding ocean. The memorial located at this location would be of a sugar cane worker encircled by sugar cane stalks. The physical statue of the emaciated man draws a striking comparison to the skinny shape of the sugar cane. The sugar cane encircling the worker is representative of the enslaved man's withering and deteriorating life will, and body trapped within a cell. He is but a tool for the sugar cane and the physical comparison establishes that he is worth no more than the sugar cane either. The statue is thoroughly life sized in every dimension, bringing attention to realistic physical attributes where the viewer could compare themselves physically to that of the worker. The memorial aims to achieve an emotional effect in the viewer, enlightening those of the turmoil of slavery and the impact it had on the lives of the enslaved.
Saint Domingue Memorial Statue

Franklin Mixon, Jessica Featherngill, Justin Baker, and Arrionna March

Saint Domingue, which is now Haiti, was one of the major islands that participated in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. This island was considered one of the richest colonies that were under the French colonies. Haiti was a great place to put our memorial because it was an island that received many slaves. Our memorial statue is dedicated to the enslaved people and leaders that took place in the Haitian Rebellion. This rebellion was one of the most important aspects of Haitian History because it emerged from a slave rebellion and it was the slaves' way of gaining their freedom.
Three Captives Memorial at the Porte du Non Retour in Ghana

Samuel Owen, Alexandria Dyer, Aubree Mitchell, and Makenzie Harrison

We chose our memorial to be in Ouidah, Ghana. It's important because of its history of supplying the new world with African labor, with an estimated 673,759 enslaved Africans disembarking from the Gold Coast. More specifically, it is going to be at the Porte du Non Retour. The beaches of the port are where many Africans had their journey before embarking onto the ships that sent them away. It was the last bit of Africa that they would see before boarding the slave ships. The Porte du Non Retour, or Door of Not Return, is a gateway symbolizing when slaves would walk away from their homeland and never see it again. The memorial would be near this because it shows the conditions that a slave went through during their journey and what they were put through. A common slave route left from the town of Ouidah and went straight to the Porte du Non Retour, which was a distance of three miles. The slaves would walk straight from Ouidah and onto the ship, where they had only a space of five spare feet to themselves, on average.

The design we chose for our memorial is interactive, giving visitors a real representation of how small the ships were that the enslaved people were on. The design is a five-foot squared marked-off area with two bronze statues on either side. Four plaques in front of the space would have each of our four exhibits printed on them and would encourage visitors to lie down in the space to experience what life aboard a slave ship would be like.
Born into a Generational Curse

Taurean Reeves, Lia Boyce, Nyx Daugharty, and Jason Dine

Our memorial was birthed from the idea that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was being overshadowed in history. After much research, we wanted the memorial to represent the women of all ages. The memorial's location in this park in Charleston, SC, was chosen because during the western slave trade, the majority of enslaved Africans were deported to the ports of Charleston, SC. Moreover, Americans associate Charleston as a major port of entry for African slaves.
Walker-Peters-Langdon House

Kewanee Story, Jacquelyn Felton, Bianca Johnson, and Aliyah Spivey

We will be placing our monument at one of the houses in Heritage Corner in Columbus, Georgia. It's the Walker-Peters-Langdon house. It's the oldest house in Columbus and has a slave cottage in the backyard. This site is historically important because it shows where the slaves actually were housed and where the slave master resided. It shows kind of how the slaves lived once they researched their destination.
Strange Fruit

Makayla Styles, Jamia Stewart, Donavon Hobley, and Destiny Lockhart

Our group will place our monument on the corner of 11th Street and Broadway located in Columbus, Georgia. Today, this is home to a growing city. There are restaurants, clothing shops, and the downtown campus of a local college nearby.

However, historically, this location was the site of two murders of Africans. The two men, Jesse Slayton and Will Miles, were hung upon a tree by an angry mob. They were then left to rot. This was a continuation of dehumanization of Blacks in the south from the transatlantic slave trade in which nearly nine million Africans were taken from their homes. Of that, 305,300 were brought to the United States.

By doing this memorial, we hope to bring light to Columbus' dark past and to honor the many whose fate was the same.
Forgotten Victims

Shelby Taft, Claire Patterson, Winnie Snyder, and Joshua Thompson

Location: In Columbus, Georgia near the intersection of 11th Street and Broadway on the grassy median located between Mama Goldberg's Deli and Freeze Frame Frozen Yogurt Shop. Over 20,000 enslaved Africans were sent to ports in Georgia and in 1860 1/2 of Columbus' population were enslaved Africans. The memorial's location is significant because a large oak tree used to lynch African Americas once stood there. Two auction houses that sold enslaved Africans were located between 10th and 12th street. A memorial here would educate people about the past events that took place in their city.
Portugal in the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Mattea Twigg, Brelynn DaQuilla, Naomi Masuoka, and Marstydia Ware

Why Lisbon, Portugal?
- We have a memorial located in the commerce square port.
- It will be a visual representation of the events that took place here.
- Commonly known as Terreiro do Paco, which means "Palace Yard."
- Thousands of slaves transported through here.