Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the customs and challenges of marriage during slavery.

Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the coping mechanisms African American characters must employ to survive plot twists and power struggles in Mercy Street.

Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the history of the first African American doctors to practice in the United States.

Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the parallels between Charlotte Jenkins and real life abolitionists who challenged racism, slavery and the roles of women.

Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the transitions newly freed slaves had to make, including education, finding work, discovering their new rights, and learning to maneuver within society.

Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the significance of a new character in Season 2, Charlotte Jenkins, based off of the historic figure Harriet Jacobs.

For the last Season 1 blog post, Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the importance of family and its impact on the contraband community.

This fact sheet and glossary is meant to point the viewer to important dates and places with emphasis on Alexandria's African American history.

In this post, Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, discusses the extreme brutality that was always a part of slave culture.

In this post, Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, dives deeper into women’s roles and sisterhood, as seen especially in Episodes 3 and 4, where women are seen supporting each other through difficult times.

In this post, Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, dives deeper into the lives of enslaved children.

In this blog post, Audrey P. Davis, Director of the Alexandria Black History Museum, explores the history behind the African American "contrabands" of the 1860s.

Mercy Street opens in the Spring of 1862 in Alexandria, Virginia. This timeline is meant to point the viewer to important dates and places with emphasis on Alexandria's African American history. It concerns the period leading up to the Civil War, through Emancipation and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.