Orte des Erinnerns und Vergessens:: Denkmäler, Museen und historische Schauplätze von Sklaverei und Sklavenhandel

Abstract

This paper refers to the „lieux de mémoire”, places of memory, of slave trade and slavery in some former colonial states which possessed plantations colonies in the Caribbean, England, France and Spain, and some former slavery societies, the U.S.A., the French and British West Indies, Cuba, and Brazil. It examines the development of the historiography on the topic, the development of memory practices from the honouring of white abolitionists to museums and monuments representing the slave´ s experience and resistance of slaves and maroons. Historical places where slavery took place (plantations, slave trade ports) or where it should be remembered in the context of colonial history (i. g. the Museo de América in Madrid), but where the memory is silenced because of political or commercial reasons, are also treated. The text tries to find out which social and political conditions lead to which forms of remembering or forgetting the history of slavery.