The Washington Post's account of the Williamsburg slave auction
reenactment also furnished an inadvertent lesson in how history becomes
corrupted. The following Correction ran October 12:
  "Because of a dictation error, an article yesterday about a reenactment
of a slave auction at Colonial Williamsburg incorrectly characterized
organizer Christy Coleman's demeanor. She was tearful, not cheerful."
 
***********************************************************************
Hank Burchard * The Washington Post * (202) 334-7243 * [log in to unmask]
***********************************************************************
 
On Thu, 13 Oct 1994, Mario Rups wrote:
 
> >interested in learning the thoughts of anyone on the list as to why this
> >event attracted such an antagonistic -- and opportunistic, I suppose --
> >response from civil rights organizations when, if memory serves, Roots
> >and The Color Purple received all but universal -- if undeserved --
> >approbation.  I have some thoughts of my own but I would be interested in
>  ...
> >Ken Yellis
>
> Perhaps your answer lies in David Harvey's posting itself:
>
> >Poster:       Dave Harvey <[log in to unmask]>
>  ...
> >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
>
> It is one thing to show evils of any sort as part of an overall whole, a
> fiction, a drama, even one based on reality, where moreover you KNOW that
> the evildoers are going to be punished or defeated or somehow get at least
> some of what they deserve -- because that is how fictions tend to work.
> The dramas you refer to have morals: the whole balances out at the end,
> somehow, even if not perfectly.
>
> It is QUITE another to have evil shown as part of business as usual.  To
> the buyers and sellers -- and, indeed, to the victims -- what happens is
> NORMAL.  The victims remain victims, the sellers get their profit, the
> buyers get their slaves, and tomorrow will be as today.  Ho hum.
>
> One can hold one's emotions in check to some extent if you know that, at
> the end of the piece, the villains will be down (or at least worse off),
> the victims up (or at least better off), and the final credits will roll.
> It's a great deal harder if there ARE no final credits.  These victims will
> not eventually triumph, these villains will not suffer for their deeds.
> The reenactment reflected reality, not fiction; it was not a morality play.
>
> And to be shown evil as a part and reflection of normality ... that is very
> hard to bear, indeed.
>
> Mario Rups (who spent four years in Williamsburg in the never-never days
>      when it represented the eighteenth century, not as it was, but as it
>      should have been -- and is favourably impressed by the changes implied
>      by the reenactment)
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
 
Hank Burchard * Weekend Section * The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW * Washington DC USA 20071-0001
VoiceMail (202) 334-7243 * Email: [log in to unmask]