Freedom House Museum
The Freedom House Museum examines the domestic slave trade and the lives of enslaved people in the Washington, DC area
The Freedom House Museum is located in the basement of the former northern headquarters for the largest domestic slave trading company in the country, Franklin and Armfield. During their eight years of operation in this location, they bought thousands of slaves from Virginia, Maryland, and DC and resold them to plantations in Mississippi and Louisiana. In addition to the building, a brick wall was built around the yard so it could be used as a slave pen. After Franklin and Armfield retired, the location was used by other slave traders until Alexandria was occupied by Union troops at the beginning of the Civil War.
Although the National Museum of African American History and Culture provides a more comprehensive look at slavery in America, the Freedom House Museum focuses on the local slave trade and its impacts on the economy and lives of the enslaved people living in the District of Columbia and the surrounding area. The museum uses first-person narratives and business records to describe the experiences of enslaved people who would have passed through the slave pen. I had no idea that Alexandria played such a large role in the slave trade, and many of the facts displayed throughout the Freedom House Museum about the scale of the domestic slave trade business in the Washington, DC area were quite shocking.
The museum takes up just two rooms in the basement of the building and requires a lot of reading, but it is worth paying attention to learn from the details in the museum. As you walk down the stairs to the basement, the names of individual slaves and the price they were sold for are painted on the wall. One section of brick wall in the basement is original, and it is unnerving to imagine the enslaved people who would have touched those very same bricks less than 200 years ago. Solomon Northup, whose autobiography Twelve Years a Slave was turned into an award-winning movie, was held here in the slave pen before being sold and shipped to New Orleans.
The Freedom House Museum can be difficult to find as it does not show up on Google maps, and there is no sign on the building. Look for the building number above the red door and the historic sign out front. The museum hours are limited and the museum is small, but it is worth making an effort to visit this one-of-a-kind museum offering a unique perspective on local history.
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Address
1315 Duke Street
Metro Station
- King Street-Old Town (BL, YL)
Cost
$5.00
Hours
Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 – 5:00 pm
Length of Adventure
45 minutes
Website
https://www.alexandriava.gov/historic/info/default.aspx?id=101647
