On August 31, Deacon Charles Williams, interim director of the diocesan Office for Black Catholics, led 50 participants along Richmond’s three-mile Slave Trail for the second Slave Trail Walk hosted by his office this summer.
Deacon Charles Williams, interim director of the Diocese of Richmond’s Office for Black Catholics, speaks to participants in the Slave Trail Walk sponsored by the office on Saturday, Aug. 31. (Photo/Brian T. Olszewski)
Deacon Williams urged participants to empathize with the enslaved men and women by setting the scene for how they arrived in Virginia and were transported along the trail, in shackles and at night, “so high society would not have to see them.”
“You don’t know where your wife is. You don’t know where your children are. You don’t know where your grandmother is. You don’t know where your aunt and uncle are,” he said. “All you know is you’re lying in the bottom of a boat heading to who knows where to do who knows what. Think about the psychology of that. Think about that in your mind for a second that you’re going through that. How does that affect your mind?”
Throughout the walk, Deacon Williams described the history of slavery in Virginia, explaining how slaves first worked tobacco farms until the fields were farmed out. Eventually the need for cotton grew – an industry that led to Richmond becoming the second-largest market for exporting enslaved Africans after New Orleans.