Slavery Trails

Slavery Trails is a series of site-specific augmented reality (AR) art installations created by artist Marcus Brown. This project uses digital technology, sound, and storytelling to honor the lives of enslaved people and to uncover the hidden histories of slavery in the United States.

Each AR installation is placed at a location where enslaved people were once held, sold, transported, or forced to labor—such as city street corners, ports, or former marketplaces. When viewed through a smartphone or tablet, these locations are transformed with digital sculptures, many of which are self-portraits of the artist in the role of an enslaved person. The works often include musical elements that evoke memory, pain, and resilience.

One powerful example is the installation at the corner of Chartres Street and Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans, where Solomon Northup, a free Black man, was sold into slavery in 1841. The artist places a digital figure on that very spot, connecting past and present.

Slavery Trails is more than an art series—it is a decentralized memorial, using augmented reality to mark historical sites that are often unrecognized. It invites all visitors, especially those from communities impacted by slavery, to remember, reflect, and reclaim public space as a place for truth and healing. To support the project buy some art here.