One of the most solemn sites in the United States waits for you here, the location of Gadsden's Wharf, where historians believe more enslaved Africans were disembarked than at any other point in North America. More than one hundred thousand human beings arrived at this waterfront after surviving the Middle Passage — weeks or months chained in the holds of ships, surrounded by suffering and death, emerging into a strange and terrifying world where they would be sold as property. They came from the Senegambia region, from the Gold Coast, from the Bight of Benin, from Angola — captured in wars and raids, marched to coastal forts, sold to European traders, and shipped across an ocean they had no way to comprehend to a destination they could not imagine.
Many did not survive the journey. Those who did were brought here, cleaned up as much as possible, and prepared for the auction block. For decades, this waterfront was simply a parking lot and industrial site — the enormity of what happened here was not publicly marked.
In 2023, the International African American Museum opened on this very ground, built on piers over the water so as not to disturb whatever remains beneath. It is one of the most important new museums in America, and it stands on the most important site in the history of African American life.