Footsteps to You: Chattel Slavery

Historian Jerry Gore’s lifelong goal was to illuminate the horrors of slavery so that visitors to his hometown of Maysville, Kentucky could appreciate the daily perils experienced by enslaved people as well as the strength it required to fight for their freedom. A partnership with the Black Voice Foundation and the San Bernardino County Museum now brings the unique artifacts collected by Jerry Gore to the Inland Empire.

 The Gore Collection of documents and artifacts helps us understand and explore the institution of slavery in America. It brings to light more than 200 years’ worth of abuses inflicted on people of color and helps us appreciate the courage and strength that enslaved men, women, and children had to possess in order to endure, overcome, and fight against the physical and psychological terrors of forced servitude.

 Since 1996 the Black Voice Foundation has hosted over 2,000 educators on the Footsteps to Freedom, Underground Railroad tour where they have walked the steps of past enslaved freedom seekers. These tours strive to build historical empathy amongst participants. That is, the ability to have an emotional experience and thus better contextualize a historical figure’s lived experience.

Footsteps to You – Chattel Slavery now allows visitors of the San Bernardino museum to build and experience the same historical empathy by immersing them in a world where people were considered objects – a prejudice that was entirely based on the color of one’s skin. Visitors will learn that these injustices not only affected those who were actively oppressed, but that slavery’s lingering effects have haunted people even decades after it was abolished. Visitors are challenged to ask themselves “what side of history would I have been on?”