The Museum of Mobile, Alabama
The Museum of Mobile, which covers some 300 years of south Alabama history, won praise from the Journal of American History for its "innovative exhibit design and imaginative interpretive strategies" and its success, "To degree that is rare in public institutions of the Deep South, [to] speak in a dmocratic voice" with "an eye for both diversity and commonality." One example: visitors walk past rows of bare feet in manacles in the hold of a slave ship before arriving before a simple but compleeing interactive -- a slave auction block. As mothers, fathers, and children take turns stepping up on the auction block, they confront "The Value of a Human Life" for people held as slaves.
The Value of a Human Life [Step-up Auction Block]
For the people who were held as slaves in the antebellum South, being sold was a constant, terrible fear.
Step up on the auction block. Can you imagine being sent away from family and friends to an unknown place, with no control at all over your fate?
While some plantation owners refused to split up families, others were uncaring. Individuals were sold to the highest bidder, with price depending on age, gender, size, health, and skills.
If you’re a strong, healthy male, you might fetch $1,300 or more, especially if you’re a trained carpenter or blacksmith. Women sold for $1,000 or so, and children for about $700. In contemporary dollars, that’s about $26,000 for a man; $20,000 for a woman; and $14,000 for a child.
Wheel of Mixed Fortune [interactive roulette wheel]
In days gone by, living in Mobile was a gamble, a sort of cosmic roulette. If you made it through your days in Mobile without suffering from a hurricane, a fire, or yellow fever, you were really lucky.
Life in Mobile is much safer today, thanks to storm-tracker technology, modern medicine, and speedy fire-fighters and equipment!
How would the “Wheel of Mixed Fortune” have changed your life in early Mobile? Spin the wheel three times, then add up your score.
Less than 0: You’re unlucky. Don’t strike any matches!
1 to 10: You have your share of joy… and sorrow.
Over 10: You win a long, happy, wealthy life.