Florida Slave Trade
Documentation and Education Center
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Meet 25 Objects

The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum’s transatlantic slave trade artifact collection contains rare tangible evidence of a cruel period in history. These objects document an era that history books all too often ignore.

More than thirty years of research, conservation, and exhibition have brought us to this online virtual exhibition.

We have selected twenty-five objects to chronicle the history of the trade.


Letter from a slave ship, 1819

A Royal Directive, 1673

Blunderbuss barrels c. 1700

Cape Corse Castle, 1743

Captives aboard the Wildfire, 1860

Copper Cauldron c. 1700

Cutlass c. 1700

Dispatches concerning the Peter Mowell, 1861

Don Alvaro King of Kongo, 1642.

Elephant Tusk c. 1700

Glass Beads c. 1700

Grenades c. 1700

Iron Cannon c. 1700

Letter from Key West, 1827

Manillas (date unknown)

Map of the Bight of Benin, 1780

Mirror Frames c. 1700

Pewter Basin c. 1700

Rat Bone

Scale Weights c. 1700

Schooner Josefa Maracayera, 1822

Shackles (bilboes) c. 1700

Ship's Bell, 1699

Slave deck of the Brookes, 1788

Slave ship, Vigilante, 1822

Spoon from the Brothers, 1858

Trade Iron Bars, c. 1700

The Florida Slave Trade Documentation and Education Center is funded in part by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.
A Project of The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, Key West, FL