Advocacy Group Calls For Exhibit On Slavery To Be Removed From Boston's Faneuil Hall
An exhibit scheduled to open at Boston's Faneuil Hall is getting push back by activists who are protesting that it is to be held at a venue named after a slave owner.
Peter Faneuil owned enslaved people and amassed a fortune in the sugar industry. The official website notes, "The building was named in Faneuil’s honor but a significant portion of his wealth came directly as well as indirectly from human enslavement."
"We believe an exhibit such as this is appropriate although we totally disagree with the fact that this exhibit around slavery or enslavement in Boston is being held at a place built and supported by a slave owner, Peter Faneuil," said Reverend Kevin Peterson, the founder of civic and racial justice advocacy group the New Democracy Coalition, per ABC News.
"It's a total contradiction," he added.
Fanueil Hall Marketplace is one of Boston's busiest tourist destinations. The destination features more than 80 businesses where tourists watch street performers and exhibitors amid restaurants, pubs, and in the world-famous Quincy Market Colonnade.
According to an ABC News report, the National Parks Service issued a statement saying in part, "Faneuil himself owned enslaved people of African descent in his household... and his capital directly funded several voyages to purchase enslaved Africans off the coast of Sierra Leone."
Several advocacy groups are calling for the building to be renamed and the exhibit to be postponed until a process for the renaming is in place.
"The reason the exhibit is in Faneuil Hall is because a lot of artifacts, particularly those things connected to the sugar trade, were found right there in the mud at Faneuil Hall," said Reverend Mariama White-Hammon, with Boston's Office of Historic Preservation.
White-Hammon believes that the destination is appropriate because of its significance in the slave trade.
She added, "People know a lot about our abolition history but they don't know enough about how complicit Boston was in the slave trade and that complicity was right there at Faneuil Hall."
