How have slavery and colonialism shaped our world? What are practices and global legacies of Black freedom-making? These are some of the many questions explored in the traveling exhibition In Slavery’s Wake: Making Black Freedom in the World. A dynamic mix of history, art, and media, In Slavery’s Wake makes connections between Black freedom-makers across time and invites visitors into a global conversation on the continued impacts of slavery and colonialism. This multilingual experience features over 100 objects, 250 images, and 10 multi-media interactives and films. Alongside historic artifacts are the works and perspectives of international contemporary artists, bridging art and history. The exhibition also features voices and stories from descendant communities interviewed as a part of a new oral history archive called The Unfinished Conversations Series.

Co-convened by the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University and the Center for the Study of Global Slavery at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, In Slavery’s Wake grew out of a decade-long collaboration between curators, scholars, and community members. In 2014, the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice invited key staff from several world museums to address the topics of public history, racial slavery, and colonialism. Over several years, more museums entered the network and began to imagine this exhibition.

Collaboratively curated and constructed to travel from 2025–2028 to partner institutions in Belgium, Brazil, England, Senegal, and South Africa, the exhibition will traverse to four continents reaching hundreds of thousands of visitors globally, and even more online. In Slavery’s Wake—and the partnership at its heart—provides an innovative model of how museums and research institutions can employ public history to catalyze international conversations, connect the past with our present, and uplift histories centering Black voices.