Although the increasingly prominent use of the term "enslaved" may at
first glance appear to be a "politically correct" gesture, there's more
to it than that.  It's perhaps best expressed in Small and Eichstedt's
recent book "Representations of Slavery" (Smithsonian, 2002), which
reviews the state of historical interpretation of slavery at southern
plantation museums:

"You will notice that we use the terms 'master-enslaver' and 'enslaver'
to talk about those who enslaved others.  This is quite intentional.  It
is generally considered polite to talk about these famous men as
planters, politicians, or "great leaders".  We want to call attention to
how the frame shifts if we also talk about them as enslavers.  This
emphasis, while in itself a partial distortion, complicates these other
frames if applied consistently.  And while these men were not
politicians or great leaders every moment of every day, they were always
enslavers.  Their comfort and wealth were wrapped up with the fact that
they enslaved other people, appropriating their labor and controlling
their lives.  Such an approach, we believe, challenges commonly used
language and frames of understanding that replicate systems of racism.
It is also in line with suggestions by Michael Banton, Robert Miles,
Stephen Small, bell hooks, Leon Higginbotham, and others within the
field of race studies that we remove language that continues to mask
systems of domination.  We recognize the term may be awkward for some,
disturbing or irritating to others; however, we use it to unmask the
ways that dominant language obscures the reality of enslaving human
beings.

"The other term that we use quite consciously is 'enslaved' (instead of
'slave').  We use it to counter a long tradition of erasing the basic
humanity of enslaved people by naming them only in terms of a status
that was imposed upon them.  Using the term 'enslaved people' emphasizes
the point that 'people' were enslaved and that who they were exceeded
that status."

Hope that helps!


Max A. van Balgooy
Director of Interpretation and Education
National Trust for Historic Preservation
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: Deb Fuller [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:00 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "Enslaved"

Hi all,

I've been visiting other historic sites as of late and have noticed the
use of
the word "enslaved African-Americans" instead of just "slaves". Is this
some
new PC thing going on? How does using the words "enslaved" differ from
"slaves". In addition, if the slaves were recently arrived from Africa,
aren't
they technically just "African" and not really American yet?

Newspeak is truly upon us...

Deb

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