The John Hay Library is displaying a pair of slave shackles, on loan from the International Slavery Museum, in a glass case at the entrance of the first-floor reading room.
The iron shackles are a type that were used on board slave ships during the brutal journey across the Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of Africa to the Americas, wrote Anna Ruchalska, collecting cultures project curator for the ISM, in an email to The Herald. The shackles were used to restrain and imprison Africans below decks in the ship’s hold, where cargo is traditionally stored.