The Welsh and American Slavery
Places to Visit - The Cincinnati Area
The Freedom Centre
Pont dros yr Afon Ohioyn Cincinnati
Before bridges like this were built, the River Ohio was the last obstacle for many slaves as they fled on the "Underground Railroad".
Therefore, the city of Cincinnati on the banks of the river is a natural choice as the location of this new museum. The first turf was cut on the site by Muhamed Ali back in 2002
The Freedom Centre,Cincinnati
The museum places slavery in the context of a wider discussion on racism and human rights today. However, it includes a number of exhibitions which try to convey the cruelty of slavery in the past.
The "slave pen" atthe Freedom Centre
The centre point of the museum is this building, a "slave pen" from Kentucky, where slaves were kept before being sold on as part of their journey on the second "middle passage". Buildings like this would have been common in the slave states, a century and a half ago, but today this rare example, which is one of only a few to survive, bears powerful testimony to the immoral regime of yesteryear.
Some of the buildings in theHeritage Village, Cincinnati
Heritage Village, Sharon Woods, Cincinnati
Twenty miles north of the city, you can wander in and out of eleven houses from the19th century; they come from different parts of Ohio, and have been rebuilt on the site. They have no specific connection with slavery (as Ohio was always a free state), but occasionally "the story of a slave's escape" is presented here.
America Gaeth a'r Cymry © S4C 2006