Boylan P wrote:
>
> > From: "Robert T. Handy" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Very good response.
> >
> > Now, what do you think of our concept of a "plantation (sugar)
> > interpretive site" with slaves (actors of course).  Will it serve the
> > purpose of 1.) explaining slavery as an economic system and attitudes
> > about Africans; and 2.)serve to make sure no one forgets the associated
> > evils (which, as these exchanges have noted, were many)?
> > --
> > Bob Handy, Director
>
> ===========================
>
> I have serious problems with many kinds of "re-enactment" and similar
> interpretation (and have written on this over the years).  Though in
> principle such approaches have a lot to offer, the issue of achieving
> authenticity is much more that Oliver Cromwell's "warts and all" reported
> instruction to the painter of his portrait.  The problems are particularly
> acute with things that were inherently dangerous.  Museums claiming to
> offer "authentic" underground tours around historic mines are not allowed
> show how really dreadful conditions were in terms of killing dust,
> roof-falls, fire-damp explosions etc..  You can't kill off the couple of
> people a month in acute accidents and 20% of all your regulars in the
> longer term through illness and disease induced directly by the unhealthy
> conditions.
>
> The same is true for many other areas of dangerous or disease-inducing
> historic working conditions if you want to be "authentic": as Sir Walter
> Scott said about the Scottish fishing industry in his early 19th century:
> "It's no' fish you're buying, it's men's lives".  Similarly, re-enacting
> the "Middle Passage" of the African slave trade you cannot chain down
> hundreds of human being for weeks on end with no fresh air or sanitation,
> and simply throw overboard the bodies of the dead and dying every morning,
> and the same problems must arise in trying to be authentic about the true
> conditions on a West Indian, American or Brazilian plantation.
>
> If only out of self-interest of those claiming to be owners of these "human
> chattels", the material needs of many slaves may well have been  quite well
> provided for in some cases (as they would no doubt have pampered the
> "celebrated horse Blucher" sold in the same Carolinas auction as 50 slaves
> according to the auction bill in the Wilberforce Collection) this surely
> does not answer the central question.  Good food and housing, when
> provided, were still no compensation for the gross violation of basic human
> rights that the concept of slave "ownership" represented.
>
> I can think of only one example of interpretation or re-enactment which did
> try to address such issues - not in relation to 18th/19th century
> African-American slavery, but to 8th - 12th century Viking feudalism.  This
> was - significantly - not a two or three hour visit "re-enactment" but a
> whole week spent by a group of perhaps 70 - 80 children from a nearby
> school in central Jutland (Denmark) in the early '80s.
>
> The programme included the usual "living history" activities - domestic
> chores, farming, crafts etc. and camping out in temporary structures -
> nothing unusual at that level.   However, there was an attempt to reproduce
> the contemporary social order as well.  Lots were drawn at the beginning to
> decide who was to be the (one only) Lord of the Manor, the half-dozen or so
> Overseers and "foremen", while the rest became, and lived the week as,
> serfs - ploughing the fields by hand etc.
>
> The food offered was also classified according to the allocated social
> status, the Lord having a far better diet than the serfs etc. Though there
> were no physical punishments etc. (and so it was not entirely authentic)
> there was a system of rewards and payments based on chocolates to be saved
> up and taken home at the end of t he week living on a 1st millennium diet.
> (though this was .  Inevitably, by the end of the week there were great
> differences in the rewards accumulated: the serfs went away more or less
> empty handed, while the Overseers/Foremen had lots of chocolates to take
> home, and the lucky "Lord of the Manor" had accumulated so much capital in
> the form of chocolate that he was reported to have had to phone his parents
> to collect him by car as his loot was too heavy to carry away!
>
> All this was too much even for Social Democratic Denmark and following
> protests at all levels, not least from politicians, the very interesting
> Viking Camp experiment was never repeated so far as I'm aware!
>
> Patrick Boylan

Great response!  You've given me a great deal to think about.  How
indeed, would we re-enact the misery and death inflicted upon slaves in
this region by typhus, yellow fever, and cholera, all of which were
rampant in this swamp infested county.  The average life of a slave
working the Brazoria County sugar plantatations was five years.  I don't
think we can do a living history presentation of that.

To the drawing boards! (I can't say "back" to the drawing boards because
we simply at the conceptual stage now.  You certainly have contributed
greatly to that process.

Thanks
--
Bob Handy, Director
Brazoria County Historical Museum
100 East Cedar
Angleton, Texas 77515
(409) 864-1208
(409) 864-1217 (Fax)
http://www.bchm.org