As the nation has mourned the horrific slaying of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, discussion has centered on how a person could commit such an atrocity.  This conversation leads to the clearly still open sore that is racism in America.  Based on the information we have now, the killer murdered these innocent people in an effort to incite a race war and ultimately to return a long rejected status quo.  The young man believed that segregation of the races and subjugation of African Americans is what our country needs.  Most of us believed that this type of thinking was dead and that our society had sown up the wound left by slavery, we believed that we had moved on.  While this horrible chapter of our past can never be removed we thought that we had eradicated this type of thinking.  Yet in the wake of the Charleston slayings we find ourselves questioning the place of racism in our society.  When we do this we are examining the long shadow slavery has cast over our nation. 
          The perspectives of those who built, maintained, and lived in the Bellamy mansion whether black or white, enslaved or free provides a rare and authentic glimpse at the state of our nation during the final years of the Civil War.  The museum provides a narrative that, in part, conveys a snapshot of the social construct that is still affecting our nation today.  The museum gives an honest representation of the lives of the Bellamy family members and those enslaved men and women who worked for them.  Our fully restored urban slave quarters offer a unique glimpse into the daily existence of an urban slave during the mid-1800s. The few sites that are still left to us, such as the Bellamy Mansion, are treasures that all should see.  The importance and justification of their upkeep has been made clear again by recent events and subsequent exploration of our past.  In order to grasp the repercussions that we are feeling in the wake of the Charleston shooting we must understand the social construct that created them.  For this reason the Bellamy Mansion Museum is more relevant today than ever before.  
           Because of this we are committed to conveying the story that our slave quarters have to tell.  We do this through showing the quarters as well as an exhibit, "Still Standing: Why Slave Dwellings Matter", which is currently on display.  We invite you to come visit and experience these artifacts, which we are so lucky to have.  The exhibit will remain up through July the 19th. These are only a part of what the museum has to offer and we encourage you to take in the entirety of what we have to offer on one of our tours.