You are standing in front of a reader rail titled “Window on the Past: Waterways.” To your left is a graphic panel titled “Breaking Free from Britain.” To your right is a doorway leading to the back hallway and on to section two of the exhibition: Colonial Life.

The reader rail in front of you includes text and two images.

The main text reads:

WINDOW ON THE PAST
Waterways
This window faces the Rhode River, an embayment of the Chesapeake Bay. An embayment is an indentation in the coastline. These waterways connected the Sellman family and their neighbors to the rest of the world. Ships collected tobacco and other agricultural products from local plantations and brought manufactured goods from Europe and slaves from Africa.

The illustration at the top shows men harvesting oysters on the Chesapeake Bay, ca. 1894.

The illustration at the bottom shows a bare-chested African American man holding a stick behind a pair of oxen pulling a large barrel. The caption reads: Large barrels or “hogsheads” of tobacco weighing upwards of 1,000 pounds were rolled down unpaved roads to landings, where they were loaded onto boats. Contees Wharf Road was used for this purpose.