About the Exhibit

Protesting Unfreedom at Revolution: Cultural Belongings of Black and Indigenous Histories in Early America explores Black and Indigenous narratives of freedom and unfreedom at the creation of the United States through belongings. An examination of these curated items of material culture raises critical questions about the importance of protest, dissent, violence, and force among those who were enslaved, indentured, or otherwise vulnerable. Through an exploration and emphasis on each cultural belonging, the exhibit examines how Black and Indigenous people experienced and shaped the Revolutionary era, as well as the founding of American democracy while challenging our understanding of freedom, belonging, and identity. 

The exhibit also features the work of a select group of artists, performers, curators, community members, students, and scholars who respond to individual pieces of material culture.

Through a diverse range of multimedia responses, the project aims to promote a plurality of voices and to present a stratified history in a digital exhibition that draws the past into the present. This dialogue seeks to disrupt accepted ideas surrounding this formative period in the history of the United States. We encourage you to consider each narrative and reflect upon questions of our shared past. 

Protesting Unfreedom at Revolution is part of a broader series of public programs presented by the National Park Service in conjunction with other cultural partners. 

This online exhibit draws from a variety of upcoming projects anticipating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and from time spent consciously planning better ways to tell a more complex, nuanced, and representative history of our very messy past.