On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Ross Weeks Jr. wrote:

> As a Yankee living in Mr. Jefferson's Virginia for 38 years now, I have
> always been amused at how far people will go to "gentrify" the word
> slavery.
>
> Slavery is slavery, pure and simple.  A servant may, perhaps at the loss of
> a living, go somewhere else at will.  A slave had absolutely no choice.
> Servant and slave are not synonyms.  A slave may perform as a servant; a
> free person may also perform as a servant.  Servanthood is a line of work.
>
> And here we have museum folks bashing visitors without a Southern drawl for
> wondering how an historical institution can call slavery something less
> degrading than it actually was, and get away with it.

        If you think THAT was yankee-bashing, you should see
alt.thought.southern, the land of unreconstructed rednecks and full-on
neo-militia polemics. I certainly was NOT yankee-bashing, and if you
re-read my message, you will see that I indicated only a few Yankees
(apparently you're one of 'em) are unwilling to accept an explanation of
why we'd use the word servant. The historic house museum I worked at has
been restored to the years 1859-67, and we know for a fact that the family
that lived there called their slaves 'servants'.  I still think it's more
valuable to problematize the family's whitewashing of the term 'slave,'
and to show the differences between kinds of slavery, than to use the term
when it's not historically accurate in the context of the house.  As
noted, we made it VERY clear that the people the family referred to as
servants were indeed slaves.  So I ask you, what's your problem with this
approach?  Should we ignore the fact that the family that lived there had
a different understanding of slavery than we do today?

> ----------
> > From: JR Chancey <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: slave interpretation
> > Date: Saturday, February 21, 1998 11:59 PM
>
>
> >
> > >When pressed, she admitted to the fact they were
> > > slaves, but made it a point to say that I was  rude yankee for bringing
> > > the subject up!
> > >
> > > Greg Koos
> > > Boylan P wrote:
> >
> >I have, however, had Yankees accuse me of trying
> > to whitewash the practice by using the word 'servant,' even after
> > explaining why we used it.  I think those folks were just determined to
> > find evidence that all Southerners are at heart a bunch of sheet-wearing
> > yahoos, however, and for the most part I think our visitors understood
> why
> > we did it that way.
>
>