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87-Year-Old Woman Sees The 'Slave Cabin' She Was Born In At African-American Museum
87-Year-Old Woman Sees The 'Slave Cabin' She Was Born In At African-American Museum
Photo courtesy of the National Museum of African American History & Culture

87-Year-Old Woman Sees The 'Slave Cabin' She Was Born In At African-American Museum

87-Year-Old Woman Sees The 'Slave Cabin' She Was Born In At African-American Museum Photo courtesy of the National Museum of African American History & Culture

The National Museum of African American History & Culture has many important items a part of its exhibit, including a cabin that housed enslaved people beginning in 1853. The museum has since restored the cabin and recently a woman that was born in it had the opportunity to revisit it.

Isabell Meggett Lucas had lived in this two-room wood cabin with her 11-person family on Edisto Island, South Carolina. Lucas and her nine siblings were all in one room, while her parents used the other room.

"When I was a child, we'd get out and play, and climb trees," Lucas said in an interview with NBC. "I remember my grandmother cooking and feeding us."

During her time living in the cabin, Lucas never knew that slaves had lived there. And although the cabin did not have certain amenities (the house did not have electricity or running water, nor did it have a refrigerator or bathroom) Lucas and her family still enjoyed living in the community where the cabin was at.

Called the Point of Pines Cabin "slave cabin," it was the only remaining cabin of 10 cabins that were built in a row within the same area. According to NMAAHC curator Nancy Bercaw the land was owned by Charles Bailey, who acquired his wealth through slavery.

The cabin was given to the Edisto Island Historic Preservation Society and eventually passed on to the Smithsonian. It was then taken apart and reconstructed for display in the slavery and freedom section of the museum.

Over 1,000,000 people have visited the NMAAHC since its opening. The museum announced the accomplishment a couple of months ago on its website.

"The opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture was a 13-year journey to foster a broader understanding of the black experience in a national and international context," Lonnie Bunch, the museum's founding director, said in a statement. "It has truly become a place of healing, reconciliation and celebration where people can embrace not only African-American history and culture, but how that layered history has shaped America's identity."