Mercado de Escravos - Núcleo Museológico Rota da Escravatura

Historic place that's oozing with history, but the displays are disappointing with dark cabinets and captions hard to read. Interesting historically but could be so much better.

Careful — although the posted hours say they’re open until 1pm, if you arrive around 12:15pm you won’t be allowed in because it’s considered “too late.” I explained that I had driven an hour to get there and asked politely for a quick viewing, but they still refused. Very disappointing and not reflective of good customer service.

Overall a quick stop - you can do everything in 30 minutes. The only thing that made this place 5/5 was a worker Miguel. He had interesting stories and actually was interested in the topic himself, which made the visit much more memorable.

Words fail me qhen I think of what happened on these grounds. So very glad to have been able to see this in person.

Honestly shocking how they can even call this a museum about the slave trade. Virtually no information on the actual atrocities that the slaves encountered, nothing about the vast numbers of slaves or how they were treated. No pictures or names or personal stories of any slaves. No information on the perpetrators. Just a few maps of where the slave trade took place. Absolutely zero accountability. Honestly left the museum feeling angry. Would not recommend paying and giving money to this place.

This museum has two locations, one on ground level where you buy the tickets and one just around the corner on the first floor (or second for US). The staff is very helpfull and friendly. On the first floor you also receive a tablet with additional information of the exibition.

I hope a lot of people go there because this history is important. However, I really hope the museum will invite more critical curators and improve on their exhibition. The word racism was not used in any context. It is important, in my opinion, to also teach that these legacies continue to shape socities today, albeit in different ways. Wealth is still distributed unequally and Black people in Europe and other parts of the world still face racism daily. Also, I disliked how in the English translation passive verb tenses were used. E.g. "the slaves were made to work in households and on fields" --> "Portuguese people forced African people to work in households and fields in enslaved conditions." Call out the enslavers! Also, I really dislike that so often the talk is about "slaves" --> "enslaved people" is more respectful highlighting that this is not about just any other "good" but that this is about diverse people (with dreams, cultural identities, beliefs, family) who were forcefully and violently reduced to this status and condition. Although this has more to do with US history, I recommend reading Zora Neale Hurston's "Barracoon: The story of the last 'Black cargo'". IN 1927, she interviewed Oluale Kossola who got enslaved and shipped to the US. This is what I was missing from this exhibition: The point of views of the people enslaved. And also, as someone else said, a memorial is missing. Nothing outside of the museum encourages you to stop and reflect on how many families got separated here, and what hardship people endured. Conclusio: Glad this place exists bc this is the only reminder of the trade with enslaved people. But the exhibition could be so so so much better!

The museum doesn’t have many real artifacts directly connected to enslaved people. Instead, it focuses more on the perspective of those who enslaved them.