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Freetown Village Living History Museum (Visit this link)

Freetown Village is a living history museum which depicts the lives and lifestyles of free African Americans in the year 1870. Freetown Village is a symbolic community representing many of the predominantly African American settlements scattered throughout Indiana during the post-Civil War years. The residents of Freetown Village are composite characters of the approximately 3,000 men, women and children identified on the 1870 Indianapolis census. The geographical focus is in the old Fourth Ward, the oldest African American settlement in Indianapolis. In 1870, five years after the Civil War ended, towns grew and prospered. Many who were former slaves discovered a new-found freedom and control over their lives. African Americans could now be paid for their work, purchase land, attend school, be legally married and not be separated because of slavery.

http://www.freetown.org