Letter

2100 W. Fairy Chasm Rd   Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53217 February 2, 2009 Ms. Vonita Foster Executive Director 1320 Central Park Boulevard, Suite 251 Fredericksburg, VA 22401 Dear Ms. Foster: Hello from University School of Milwaukee! Our eighth grade English classes are working on a unit all about slavery. Students were split up into four different books, //Copper Sun, Send One Angel Down, Chains// and //47.// Our group read //Copper Sun// by Sharon M. Draper, which talks about a fifteen-year-old girl getting taken away from her homeland and becoming a slave. Draper showcases the hardships and disasters that occurred during slavery. The fifteen-year-old girl, Amari, soon has enough of the plantation that she is working on as a slave, so she runs south to a place called Fort Mose. Along the way, an indentured servant, Polly, and a little boy called Tidbit join her quest for freedom. So, after completing the book, we were given a project to create a virtual exhibit with one specific theme, which we had to elaborate on when doing the exhibit. Our theme was about the process Africans took to becoming slaves in America. Our mission is to showcase to everyone how slaves felt on the trip from their homeland of Africa to arriving in a new world. We hope that any kind of audience from young to old can enjoy this exhibit, because by educating everyone overall, more people will understand how difficult and cruel slavery was to African Americans. When we were researching for information, we landed on your website. On your website, it says that “ The mission of the Center for Learning on Slavery - the educational arm of the museum - is to promote greater understanding of the history and effects of slavery.” So here it is. We have answered your call for an exhibit showcasing the horrors of slavery. In the beginning of our exhibit, we plan to introduce the audience what it was like as an African American living in Africa with their family. We would include houses that showcased what African American’s ate, where they slept, and their life overall. The exhibit would also show what people in Africa saw everyday when they woke up. In our second room, we would show how African Americans were taken from their homeland by white people and then locked up with a coffle. A coffle is a set metal rings that were attached to other slaves around their neck so they wouldn’t run away. The exhibit would have games and dummies showing the audience what African Americans had to endure on their twenty mile walk to the wharfs. Next, we would build a pretend boat allowing people to see what slaves had to endure for a month while on the sea. They would be put under stacks of wood underneath each other for the men while the women were put in just a disgusting, smelly room. After arriving on land, slaves would be treated with salve to cool their wounds and then would be sold. Finally, we would build a slave auction with dummies bidding for slaves. This auction would change the African American’s life forever. Many families or friends never saw each other again. When they were sold many of them gave up hope and just let their masters do what their masters wanted to do.

We hope that this letter will give you a good idea of what our exhibit is about. Our exhibit is really trying to prove that slavery was terrible and not something that was fun. Thousands of African Americans died from either the trip to American, getting beaten, or just giving up. We hope that you enjoyed our little preview of what we were thinking for our exhibit. Sincerely,

Jessie Bekker, Andrea Roos, Peter Ruvalcaba, Zack Schultz, Bill Wong University School of Milwaukee Students