5 must-see museums dedicated to slavery around the globe

Marked annually on 23 August, the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is a day for reflection on this dark period in history and its ongoing ramifications.

The date was chosen to coincide with the beginning of the Haitian Revolution on the night of 22-23 August 1791, which was a key event in the transatlantic slave trade’s eventual abolishment in the 19th century.

One element of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that spans three castles, 15 forts and half a dozen ruins, Cape Coast Castle played a significant role in the transatlantic slave trade on the West African coast. The sites were recognised by UNESCO as a collective historical monument to the evils of the slave trade in 1979.

Today, visitors can take a guided tour around the castle to visit the slave dungeons and to see the Door of No Return, through which slaves were forced on their way to slave ships. Cape Coast Castle is also home to the West African Historical Museum, which has artefacts including old muskets and shackles.

More information: visitghana.com

Once the largest slave-trading centre on the African coast, Gorée Island was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. The island is home to numerous sites, including slave houses, a castle, and former residences of those who ruled over the island, as well as the Maison des Esclaves, or House of Slaves.

Converted into a museum in 1962, before being revitalised between 2015 and 2022, the Maison des Esclaves tells the story of those who lived here and their role in the wider slave trade. Now a pilgrimage site for the African diaspora, who come here to see the slave cells and the Door of No Return, around 200,000 people visit every year, and world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II, and Barack and Michelle Obama have all visited the site.

More information: maisondesesclaves.org

While not strictly a slavery museum, the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien gives an overview of Haiti’s history from the pre-Columbian period to the current day. The only country to have been established as a result of a slave revolt, that history includes Spanish colonisation of the native Taíno people and the use of enslaved Africans in plantations and mines, and the subsequent Haitian revolution.

Artefacts on display include the anchor of the Santa Maria ship, on which Christopher Colombus arrived in Haiti, shackles used on slaves, and instruments of torture. The collection also includes the bell that was rung to announce that the country’s population were claiming their independence.

More information: visithaiti.com

Founded by the Equal Justice Initiative, a Montgomery-based nonprofit law office that works to expose racial bias in the criminal legal system and provides representation for those facing the death penalty, this trio of sites includes The Legacy Museum, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

The Legacy Museum, which is on the site of a cotton warehouse, covers the story of slavery in America, the era of Jim Crow and lynchings, as well as the current mass incarceration crisis, while the National Memorial for Peace and Justice features the names of the more than 4,400 Black people killed in racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950, engraved on 800 corten steel monuments, which represent the county in which they took place.

The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, which officially opened in March 2024, is centred around the National Monument to Freedom, a 155-foot-long wall featuring the 122,000 surnames used by the 4.7 million formerly enslaved African Americans listed on the 1870 United States census. The 17-acre site was chosen as it is along the river where tens of thousands of enslaved people were trafficked, and the wider park includes sculptures from artists such as Charles Gaines, Alison Saar and Simone Leigh, as well as replicas of train cars used to transport slaves and slave dwellings.

More information: legacysites.eji.org

The four heritage homes that make up Msheireb Museums are dedicated to different topics, including the history of oil in the region, the development of Msheireb, and traditional life in Qatar. At Bin Jelmood House, which was once owned by a slave trader, the focus is on the slave trade around the Indian Ocean, rather than the transatlantic slave trade many are more familiar with.

Through the museum’s various wings, you’ll learn about the ancient slave trade across the wider region as well as slavery in Qatar, with a particular focus on the country’s pearling industry. Exhibitions cover the formal end of slavery in 1952, as well as modern slavery, which talks about human trafficking, contractual enslavement, and the kafala system.

More information: msheirebmuseums.com

Read next: 7 of the world’s best places to learn about Black history