Shreve Memorial Library is excited to host Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America, an exhibit produced by the National Library of Medicine and guest curated by historian, author, and educator Psyche Williams-Forson, Ph.D. The traveling exhibition and companion website asks, “What stories can meals tell us about people and places?” The exhibit will be on display at the Shreve Memorial Library Broadmoor Branch, located at 1212 Captain Shreve Drive, beginning Monday, November 20 through Saturday, December 30. The exhibit is free and open to the public for viewing.
Fire and Freedom: Food and Enslavement in Early America explores ways in which meals can tell us how power is exchanged between and among different peoples, races, genders, and classes. In the Chesapeake region during the colonial era, European settlers relied upon indentured servants, Native Americans, and enslaved Africans for labor, life-saving knowledge of farming and food acquisition, and to gain economic prosperity. Fire and Freedom looks into life at George Washington’s Mount Vernon plantation and the labor of enslaved workers to learn about the ways that meals transcend taste and sustenance.
Patrons of Shreve Memorial Library can view and explore the exhibit at the Broadmoor Branch during normal business hours. The branch is open Monday through Wednesday 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Thursday through Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., and Sunday 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The National Library of Medicine produced this exhibition and companion website. For more information and to view the companion website, visit www.nlm.nih.gov/fireandfreedom.
For more information on this and other Shreve Memorial Library programs, please visit www.shreve-lib.org.