Elon Cook created the College Hill and the International Slave Trade Walking Tour in Providence after researching the crucial and massive role that Rhode Island played in the history of slavery.
The walking tour covers an an area of about one square mile in and around Brown University. Here, wealth and stability were created off of the buying and selling of enslaved people in Rhode Island and elsewhere.
The built landscape of Providence serves as a museum without walls, and Elon considers each of the stops on the tour to be a different mini-exhibition.
In this episode, Elon talks about creating the walking tour, the glossing over of local history, and tracing her ancestors’ genealogy before the 1860s.
Elon Cook is the program manager and curator for the Center for Reconciliation, a non-profit focused on educating the public about the United States’ history of slavery, slave trading and resistance.
This episode was recorded immediately after a walking tour on June 22nd, 2017. Tickets to the next walking tour on July 14, 2017 can be found here.
Topics Discussed:
00:00: Intro
00:14: Elon Cook, Program Director and Curator at the Center for Reconciliation
00:40: Slavery in Maryland and Local Education
01:50: Learning Rhode Island’s Role in the International Slave Trade
03:10: The Way Slavery is Taught
05:10: The First Walking Tour
06:00: Future Museum
07:00: Using the Built Landscape of Providence as an Exhibition
08:15: Genealogy Before the 1860s
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