(St. Mary\u2019s City, Md) Feb. 2, 2017 \u2013 An anonymous gift to St. Mary\u2019s College of Maryland will aid the College with educating students and the public on its relationship to\u00a0slavery.<\/p>\n
A couple who wish to remain anonymous donated shackles over the summer they discovered in a barn in the Chaptico, Md., area. The shackles will be one of several items on display Jan. 31 through Feb. 18 at the Boyden Gallery\u2019s \u201cAfrica and the African Diaspora in Campus Collections\u201d exhibition in recognition of Black History Month. President Tuajuanda C. Jordan officially opened the gallery during a reception Wednesday, Feb. 1.<\/p>\n
During the receptions opening remarks, Dr. Jordan said, \u201cWhen the shackles were brought to my office to see, I could not bring myself to touch them. That period of Black America\u2019s history, although it can be colored with stories of resilience and strength, ingenuity and faith, is a dark period that became very real and personal when those shackles were unveiled to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The exhibition features objects held in campus collections that are relevant to teaching and learning about Africa, the African Diaspora and African American history, culture and experience.<\/p>\n
Julia King, professor of anthropology and Aldom-Plansoen Honors College Professor, said that preliminary research suggests \u201cthese iron foot or ankle shackles appear to date to the 19th century.\u201d King is in the process of researching the farm where the shackles were found and the history of the use of enslaved laborers on it.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s College Archivist Kent Randell said it was very generous of the couple \u201cto put the [shackles] in the public trust to be used for the educational and interpretive mission of the College.\u201d<\/p>\n
The shackles are not directly tied to the College; however, the College continues to collect information on the institution\u2019s history, its records and the history of St. Mary\u2019s County. The shackles may help to initiate a conversation, Randell said, of \u201cconfronting and reconciling the College\u2019s relationship with slavery,\u201d already begun by other colleges such as Georgetown University, Brown University, the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur nation\u2019s connections to slavery are difficult to grapple with, but history teaches us that every moment can be a learning experience. Although we cannot go back and change the past, we can use hard lessons from history to guide our collective path towards the future,\u201d said Jordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cNone of us living today are responsible for the fact of slavery, but we are responsible for trying to understand the structures we\u2019ve inherited that are the legacy of slavery,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
King said slavery was not uncommon in the St. Mary\u2019s City landscape.<\/p>\n
According to information from \u201cAll of Us Would Walk Together,\u201d a digital exhibit about the 19th-century component of Historic St. Mary\u2019s City, until 1864, most African Americans in St. Mary\u2019s County were enslaved in some form or another. For those who were not, they labored and lived only one step removed from bondage.<\/p>\n
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