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US, VA – “12 Years a Slave” movie: Museum
VA Exit 177B: The movie, “12 Years a Slave” has a connection to a slave site, now a Virginia museum, called Freedom House Museum. In 1808, a US law outlawed the importation of slaves. Still so necessary for plantation life, clever entrepreneurs did not let this stop the sale of slaves – they simply bred them! The slaves were encouraged to have as many children as possible so they could be auctioned off.
The last slave trader at this site, James H. Birch, was the same dealer who, in the movie, paid kidnappers $250 for Solomon Northup of Saratoga Springs, NY; They then sold him into slavery in Louisiana. “What is unique about this building is it’s one of the few remaining buildings that the slave trade actually took place in.” said curator Julian Kiganda” who designed the exhibits here.
This building was once headquarters for the Franklin and Armfield Slave Pen, the largest and most successful domestic slave trading firm in America. “We will give Cash for one hundred likely YOUNG NEGROES”, read one of their ads in the Alexandria Gazette in 1828. “Persons who wish to sell, would do well to give us a call, as the negroes are wanted immediately. We will give more than any other purchasers that are in the market or may hereafter come into the market.”
Between the 1830’s and 1860’s Virginia exported more than 10,000 slaves a year to the Deep South, and the total may have reached 300,000, tearing families apart forever. The FREE museum is a must to absorb the personal stories of this black mark on the country’s history. “Everyone who comes through there, they feel moved.” says Kiganda.
Location: . 1315 Duke St., Alexandria, VA
Tel: 703-836-2858
www.freedomhousemuseum.org
Bruges Frites and Chocolate Museums
Every other shop in Bruges, it seems, is a chocolate shop – 50 or so but who’s counting? Bruges, known for its medievalness, has a playful side when it comes to tourist museums, with one for chocolate and another for fries. The chocolate museum started out as a private collection of everything to do with the history and making of chocolate.
You will learn that milk chocolate is 45% sugar, and that when chocolate made its way to Europe by the Spanish explorers, it was a drink with a secret recipe for making it – til the 1800’s. The process of conching was invented around then, which made it possible to create hardened chocolate for eating. You can see the cups they drank it in, and they sure were super-sized. Fries with that?
Chips (fries) were created in the US in 1852 in Saratoga, NY all because of a dissatisfied customer. When he complained to George Crum about his potato, Mr Crum sliced it into little pieces to annoy him. Instead he loved it! French fries were possibly misnamed during WWII when American soldiers, hearing Belgians eating fries and talking French, thought they were French food.
Potatoes around the world are covered too – see if you can find the pink and purple ones. If all this fry talk has gotten you a bit hungry, don’t worry, there’s a fries shop in the basement where you can have them with the traditional mayonnaise or pickle sauce, mustard or curry ketchup.