Owens Thomas House and Slave Quarters to unveil new exhibit

The Owens-Thomas House is adding a new exhibit that better reflects its history.  It will tell the story of the slaves who once lived there.

The $1 million effort was supported by a $250,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

It's also several decades in the making, having first been discussed in the 1990's.  "Any given time between 1819 when the building was complete and the end of the Civil War, there were between 8 and 14 enslaved people here on the site," said Shannon Browning-Mullis, Owens-Thomas House Curator. "Meaning they were at least half or often a majority of the people who lived here, so we're just not telling an authentic full history without their stories.