New International African American Museum opens at prominent site of the slave trade
By Scott Tong The new International African American Museum , which opened last month in Charleston South Carolina, stands at a location that is itself drenched in history. The museum is on Gadsdenâs Wharf, where ships carrying enslaved people from Africa arrived to bring them into bondage in America. Gadsdenâs Wharf was one of the nationâs largest trans-Atlantic slave ports, says Tonya Matthews, president of the museum. Historians estimate nearly half of enslaved Africans who came to America arrived and entered at the port complex in Charleston. âIt was a major point of commerce,â Matthews says. âAnd a big part of that commerce