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.

At Jamestown, Va. where this system of "owning" people came to these shores
in 1619, money is being raised for a Slavery Museum.  Doug Wilder,
ex-governor, who is black, is heading up the effort.  The Jamestown
Settlement museum describes how a few early black colonists (having been
indentured, along with white people, to pay for their passage over)
acquired farmland once they earned their freedom, and then purchased slaves
at auction.

The purchase of human beings has nothing whatsoever to do with the
cross-burnings and the ugly side of Southern history.  It was (and is) a
worldwide issue.  Only in the United States South do you find some people
trying to sugarcoat the bitter pill -- and then blame "others" (i.e.,
Yankees) for noticing that .  And I'm surprised some are in the museum
field.

Ross Weeks, Jr.
Tazewell, VA


----------
> 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.