- What does this book represent?

- You ask me and I I get goose pimples.

It's a temporary ledger, a a day book if you would.

Human beings recorded right next to the various sundry cargoes.

- Yeah.

- These pages absorbed the, the same air that they breathed.

I really consider this a sacred object.

- It is.

Can I touch it?

- Oh, please do.

This book represents those unnamed people in there.

A merchandise to Susannah Badger for two negro men, for two negro women, a boy and a girl for Sally.

- What would life have been like when they got off of the ship?

- So the first thing a captain would do was go to the London Coffee House, - Right?

- To report that he's in.

He would say, well, the ship has this to offer.

- I feel rage that this was done to my people without any sense of humanity.

On the other hand, I feel very grateful that the evidence is here.

- Yes, - It gets mighty hot here in the summertime.

Imagine the smell announcing the arrival of a slave ship.

And those Africans chained in those ship for months, stumbling out in fear, blinded by the sunlight, and marched over to that coffee house to be sold.

- They raised the individuals up on two barrels and a board.

These individuals would be scrutinized for their health, you know, undressing to see the body, right?

All of that would be happening right there at the same time.