Image from the River Road African American Museum |
The River Road African American Museum in Donaldsonville, Louisiana has created a fascinating garden which is has called the Freedom Garden, and which 'reveals the history of Louisiana’s Underground
Railroad and shows a variety of vegetation that was cultivated through
the use of slave labor. Freedom seekers might have used the edible and
medicinal plants displayed in this garden as a mechanism of survival
while escaping from the plantations in the region. Some of the plants
are indigenous to Africa, some were domesticated on the plantations, and
many could be found in the wilderness along the bayous, rivers and
swamps.
Here is a piece in The New York Times featuring the garden and Kathe Hambrick-Jackson, the museum's founder and executive director.
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