Letter

2100 Fairy Chasm Rd. Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53092 February 3, 2009 Board of Directors The US National Slavery Museum 1320 Central Park Boulevard, Suite 251 Fredericksburg, VA 22401

“From Africa to America” Dear L. Douglass Wilder and Board of Directors,

We have a great idea for a national slavery museum exhibit because of your request. Our museum’s goal is to increase the awareness of slavery and publicize the horrors of slavery. The museum’s mission is to inform the public about slavery so “slavery won’t repeat itself”.

As Vonita Foster states, the “creation of our Museum will present the complete heretofore untold story of slavery in America”.

Our museum feels very confident that we can accomplish our goals. Specifically, the museum will focus on the transportation of slaves to the New World. Our goal is to explain slave trade, slave auctions and laws surrounding slave ownership. This museum is to serve as a constant reminder of what life was like for captured African Americans**. How will the exhibit accomplish its purpose? What will make this better than an average museum exhibit?** The museum plans to fulfill its promise by being interactive. It will appeal to the human senses. Our museum exhibit feels that the interactivity will make it more enjoyable to the viewer. The interactivity will help our museum exhibit accomplish its purpose. The museum exhibit plans to appeal to everybody in the museum and not just the average person. Everybody will understand slavery better and reinforce their understanding of slavery.

The museum plans to be interactive by appealing to the senses (auditory, olfactory, visual, tactile, gustatory, thermal, and kinesthetic). The museum plans to appeal to the ear by adding a surround system. The surround system would have the rumbling of the ship that is battling against the relentless waves, sharks circling around the ship waiting unfortunate slaves, etc. Our museum will also have a touch system. Our museum has a great way of being interactive with the tactile, visual, and auditory senses. The viewer will touch the slave and hear about the lives of the unfortunate who suffered. This would allow one to learn about the life of a slave. This would definitely accomplish our goal. The visitor will also be able to hear the footsteps of the slaves, sailors, the transportation of the slaves to the auctions etc. The museum plans to appeal to the ear in various ways.

The museum plans to appeal to the sense of smell, as well. It would be distasteful to put the horrible stench that the slaves endured. Instead, our museum exhibit will have the smell of the ocean and the smell of the blood from “the slaves”. It is nauseating, but realistic. Most importantly, our museum exhibit will appeal to the visual senses. It will have captions on the slave in case you didn’t hear exactly what they did. The viewer will see the ship, the slaves, the setting, and see the slaves move to the New World. That will appeal to the visual and kinesthetic senses. The museum exhibit plans to measure and vary the heat of the exhibit. The ship will change the temperature to correspond with the climate. By being interactive, the viewer will be able to learn more about slavery.

The museum feels that the horrors of slavery will be evident. The interactivity of this project should communicate the message across to the viewer: “slavery should not repeat itself.”

Sincerely,

USM 8th Grade

-Kern K.