Museum highlights

Museum highlights

Photograph © Redman Design/International Slavery Museum

Find out more about some of the highlights from the International Slavery Museum's collections and displays by following the links below.

Galleries in the museum

The International Slavery Museum has three main galleries on the following themes:

• Life in West Africa - exploring the story of Africa and its peoples, who are central to the story of transatlantic slavery
• Enslavement and the Middle Passage - revealing some of the brutality and trauma suffered by enslaved Africans on the voyage across the Atlantic; then the oppression of their lives on plantations in the Americas
• Legacies of slavery - which details the continuing fight for freedom and equality; the contemporary impact of transatlantic slavery, such as racism and discrimination; and the achievements of the African Diaspora

Other major features

In addition to the three galleries in the museum, visitors encounter two major standalone features at the entrance:

• Freedom and Enslavement Wall
• Freedom! sculpture

The history of the slave trade

Further information about the history of the slave trade and suggestions for further reading are available on this website:

• History of the transatlantic slave trade
• Transcripts and podcasts of lectures, speeches and talks about or relating to the International Slavery Museum and the themes and collections within it
• Book list
• Websites

Slaves' stories

You can also follow four Africans as they are taken and sold into slavery in our online feature Slaves' stories.