A History of Gee’s Bend from 1816 to the Present
OCTOBER 2023—AUGUST 2024
From the settlement of a cotton plantation by Joseph Gee in 1816 through the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement to celebrated exhibitions at major art museums worldwide, this exhibit explores key moments in the history of the storied community of Gee’s Bend. On view through August 2024.
Following the signing of the Treaty of Fort Jackson in 1814, which forces the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to cede 23 million acres of their land to the United States government (including much of what is now Alabama), white settlers arrive in the territory to stake their claim to plots of land. Joseph Gee, a planter from North Carolina, purchases over 6,000 acres of land along a bend in the Alabama River and establishes a cotton plantation with 17 enslaved people.
