Time is running out to see “Give Me Liberty: Fugitive Slaves and the Long Revolution Against Slavery” at the Hampton History Museum. The exhibit, which opened Feb. 25, 2017, comes to a close April 8.
If you’re not sure about attending, just remember going to a museum isn’t the experience it used to be. Today’s exhibits take advantage of today’s technology, with many interactive components.
“One of the things that we’ve attempted to do with this exhibition is to really get people involved in the exhibit itself,” said Seamus McGrann, the promotions director of the museum.
The exhibit highlights the slave resistance in Hampton in the time between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, with a focus on the Black Loyalists of the American Revolution and the Refugees of the War of 1812. Many of those slaves joined the British Army or Navy to achieve freedom. The exhibit ends with Hampton’s Contrabands, who escaped Fort Monroe, which was under Union control at the time, during the Civil War, and also shows the instrumental role the Contrabands and others slaves played in abolishing slavery. The exhibition is one that was created by the Hampton History Museum.
To take advantage of the interactive elements, people can play a snare drum similar to those used by the British and American forces for field and camp music. There’s also a goblet-shaped hand drum, as well as a device that allows visitors to decode and create secret messages. Both sides often used fugitive slaves as spies.
“Those, of course, are very popular with our younger students that visit the museum,” McGrann noted.
Another popular exhibit features knot-tying, which was an important skill for the slaves to learn since many of them joined the British and became sailors. That exhibit underscores another way this experience is different, according to McGrann. It follows the lives of more than 30 slaves and their road to freedom.
“That captures a lot of people’s imagination and is something a lot of other exhibitions
don’t do,” he said. “They don’t talk about individuals but more the broader brush strokes, and through this exhibition, it really comes through with stories of these different individuals.”
That personal element strikes a chord with visitors, McGrann noted.
“That really captures one’s imagination and makes it more personal and makes the story seem more real than just sort of an abstract notion about what slavery was. … This way you really are talking about different people and different stories of not only the people’s lives before and after slavery, but their journey to freedom.”
Artifacts from Europe and Canada also are on display, showing the struggle for freedom wasn’t confined to the United States. The popularity of the exhibit actually helped extend the display, which, originally, was scheduled to close in February. McGrann said representatives from numerous local school groups asked if the exhibit could stay on display longer. When the exhibit does close, that doesn’t mean all those artifacts will go into storage and never be seen again.
“The exhibitions that we do live on after they close in that we have a continuing Hampton history exhibition on the first level of the museum,” explained McGrann, who added many elements will be incorporated in that.
Meanwhile, the opening of “NASA: Hampton Takes Flight” on March 17 shows the city’s ground-breaking role in aeronautics and space exploration. It highlights 100 years of NASA history, beginning with its origin as NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). It also shows the contributions NASA has made to the Hampton community. On display are artifacts and images from NASA Langley Research Center. The latest exhibit complements “When the Computer Wore a Skirt: NASA’s Human Computers,” which opened in January 2017. Both are scheduled to last throughout the year.
“This really helps us tell a more complete story of NASA’s history and its overall impact on Hampton,” McGrann said. “It’s a way that we’re really striving more and more to more fully expand on the story of Hampton’s past, as well, and as importantly, the people who help make that happen.”
Admission is $5 for adults; $4 for seniors, active military, active NASA, AAA and ages 4-12; and free to those under 4. For more information on the Hampton History Museum, call (757) 727-1610 or visit www.hampton.gov/119/Hampton-History-Museum.
