Hambrick began to work on the museum in 1991. Returning to Ascension Parish after years away, she noted that despite the tens of thousands of visitors that area plantations received, few were able to learn anything about the contributions of Africans and African Americans, whether slave or free. As late as the 1990s, after academic historians had been writing for more than a generation about black history and social histories, few of the plantations provided the histories of African Americans in the region, either before or after the Civil War. People of African descent had a 300-year history in the region and had contributed significantly to its economy and culture. In addition, many worked on the plantations that had continued to operate into the 20th century.
