In the more than 15 years since Doug Wilder floated the idea of building a slavery museum, nearly nothing has come of the notion. Momentum in Fredericksburg -- Wilder's odd choice of location -- has deflated. In the meantime, Richmond is moving forward with efforts to improve the Shockoe Bottom area and to preserve the nationally significant history there: the Lumpkin's Slave Jail, recently unearthed and now an archeological dig site.
The developments have produced renewed calls for bringing the slavery museum to Richmond -- where, by all lights, it properly belongs.
Fredericksburg is a fine city, but its claim to history is a faint shadow of Richmond's, the recounting of which here would fill this page. There is also a poetic symmetry to placing the slavery museum in Richmond; doing so would enable the city -- long the home of the Museum of the Confederacy -- to tell a more complete story of the region's people.
Further: The slavery museum would sit below the lofty heights of Church Hill, where in St. John's Church Patrick Henry spoke so eloquently on behalf of a liberty denied to the one-fourth of colonial Americans who lived in bondage -- many of whom came to this nation's shores at the Manchester docks. The museum would tie neatly in to the American Civil War Center at Tredegar. And it would lie within walking distance of the Virginia Holocaust Museum -- offering visitors an opportunity to reflect on the cruel parallels between two of world history's darkest chapters, and the progress that has been made since they were written.
Another point arguing in favor of locating the slavery museum here is the Smithsonian's plans for a national museum of African-American history and culture in Washington, D.C. That museum will include material on slavery, and it seems doubtful tourists in the nation's capital would make a one-hour detour south merely to see the story recapitulated in Fredericksburg. But for tourists who come to Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy, to explore the history of the Civil War, a slavery museum would form a seamless part of a rich tapestry.
Logistical questions arise. Should the resources plowed into the Fredericksburg project be redirected to Richmond? Are the principals in the museum effort up there -- most notably Wilder -- willing to shift their focus here? If not, can Richmond move forward regardless?
Addressing those questions requires leadership, especially from Mayor Dwight Jones. The mayor has a great deal on his plate. The slavery museum question is a thorny one whose resolution will require imagination and tact. But bringing the museum to Shockoe Bottom, where it rightfully belongs, could become the crown jewel of Jones' mayoral legacy.
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