> 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