Yes Ann, I am employee of Colonial Williamsburg (a Conservator) and I
spent my lunch hour observing the slave auction program. The opinions
which I am expressing are my personal observations and feelings about the
event.
The beginning of the program was delayed for fifteen to twenty minutes
due to the crush of local & national media and of a small contingent of
protesters from the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference. Representatives of these groups met with Colonial
Williamsburg's President Robert Wilburn and the Director of African
American Presentations and Programs, Christy Coleman. These few
individuals threatened to verbally and physically obstruct the program
which over 2,000 people had assembled to see. The assembled crowd were a
pretty even mixture of African Americans and Caucasians and the general
mood was a wonderful mixture of curiousity, eagerness, and solemnity and
respect for the occasion. This mood soured quickly when the protesters
shouted down the staff member who tried to introduce the program, and
then the protest leaders were allowed to directly address the assembled
crowd (and cameras). The NAACP representative called the event "a
carnival" and the SCLC representative told everyone that he wanted to be
arrested and dragged-off by local police. At this moment, no one was sure
what would happen and there was the electricity of confrontation in the
air. Ms. Coleman made an emotional statement in which she told everyone
that, "we came here to tell the story of our mothers and our
grandmothers. We wanted to do this voluntarily, to teach about the evils
of slavery..." The program than commenced.
The program itself was not overacted nor overdramatized. It was comprised
of primary source descriptions from The Virginia Gazette from 1773.
Letters of credits were called for and received by various "Gentlemen". A
parcel of land and property was auctioned as part of an estate sale.
Then, intermingled in the auctioning of other property were four slave
characters. The charcters were silent and sad, maybe even angry, but the
emotion you perceived was constructed by your own perceptions. The last
slave that was auctioned was seperated from her husband and she was led
away in a veil of tears. In my mind this singular re-enactment struck
just the right note. I was personally struck by the normality of the
occasion. The sense that this monsterous practice of chattel slavery was
just another piece of commerce. This reminded me of those powerful scene
in Schindler's list where the Nazi officers go on in normality in the
midst of the horror and brutality of the Holocoust. After the
re-enactment was concluded the audience and the protestors were invited
to share their feelings and thoughts. The protest leaders busied
themselves with the media and those who were genuinely there to learn
stayed for more than an hour in dialogue.
I personally think that the issue of race and our shared history should
be gently probed in this way - as long as people can remain civil to each
other in the process. The effort to research and present African American
History has been underway for over fifteen years at Colonial Williamsburg
and I think that it is one of our most relavent and important educational
efforts. Some people may disagree with our methods to "re-enact" such a
history. But I find that it is one of the most effective ways to explore
historical issues as a shared experience, as a community, and, in doing
so, we learn more about ourselves.
Dave
David Harvey
Conservator of Metals & Arms
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
P.O. Box 1776
Williamsburg, VA 23187-1776
804 - 220 -7039
=:|\Pinnacle Online - Open and dynamic Internet services:=
=:|o\. | | | ______ :=
=:|_/||\ ||\ | |\.| __ | Voice: 804/498.3889 email: [log in to unmask]:=
=:| || \|| \| o | \| \_ .| Data: 804/498.9762 login: guest or new :=
On Wed, 12 Oct 1994, Ann McMullen wrote:
> Renee Raduechel's recitation of the action at her suffrage rally prompts
> me to ask if anyone actually _saw_ the slave auction reenactment held at
> Williamsburg last week? What happened and what did you think of it?
>
> Ann McMullen
>
|
