August 26, 2024
New exhibition in Hale Library shares the story of food and forced labor
A new exhibition on the second floor of Hale Library, "Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America," explores ways in which meals can tell us how power is exchanged between and among different peoples, races, genders and classes.
Curated by historian, author and educator Psyche Williams-Forson, the exhibition focuses on the Chesapeake region during the colonial era, when European settlers relied upon indentured servants, Native Americans and enslaved Africans for labor and life-saving knowledge of farming and food acquisition. The exhibition also looks into life at George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation and the labor of enslaved workers to inform the ways that meals transcend taste and sustenance.
The exhibition will be available at the Libraries until Oct. 5.
The National Library of Medicine produced this exhibition and companion website.