The visitor's experience

So, when visiting an historical site with a slave past, what is it that you want to see represented? Do you want to see the domestic slaves working in the house with field slaves out on the grounds? Do you want to see slave interactions between other slaves and their white owners? Do you want to see what the living conditions are like? Or do you want an exhibit that shows how the transatlantic slave trade made the slave population in that area what it was at the time?

What can I possibly do to make your experience with the uncomfortable fact of slavery better? Would it be better if I focused on who the slave was as a person? Or do you want a total overview?

I ask these questions because I am preparing to create a presentation about slave interpretation for a conference next year that I am hoping to present at. I want to meet the expectations of the visitor but I also want them to leave with something memorable for the good, and not just that slaves had it bad. I am not sure how to word that or even make it work because you can't change a person's perception. Example: Saturday as I am working in the garden, an older white gentlemen comes up to me and the other African American interpreter and asks us what we're cooking? No fire is lit, we aren't in the kitchen, she's sewing and I'm hacking up weeds with a hoe and we get asked what we're cooking? So glad sir that you know that the cooking on the plantation would have been done by a slave but, please before you make any statements, ask about what we're doing right now and then ask us about our other responsibilities.

My state of shock worked itself off in the garden but it did get me to think about how we can change the visitor experience without infringing on their rights to think what they like. I just hope that I can make an impact on what people think when they think about the enslaved. So what do you want to see? Post your thoughts and suggestions.

Where are the black folks on the plantation

Wanted: Willing and able African Americans interested in their role of the building of the US Economy circa 1780-1850. Must be eager to give the public information based on this time period as it pertained to African Americans. Must be willing to do some labor, field work, domestic work in all types of weather. Interested? Join an elite group of African Americans sharing their history.

Sure it doesn't really seem like much but a lot was said in that little advertisement. The sad part is, I may fix that up just a little bit and peddle it to local colleges to get the volunteers that I need to help out on site. How is it that I work on a plantation that had at one point 139 slaves, and at the end of May, I will be the only one there? I can understand that people don't wish to discuss slavery aka our not so hidden shame, but I continue to run into individuals who are so ignorant to the topic that they believe whatever was written in the history books from 1950.

I will be working with our volunteer coordinator over the summer to start a campaign to increase the amount of African American volunteers that are available. There's nothing like being at work on a Saturday when visitors from all around come to the site and you have to either be in the kitchen or be in the slave cabin or be in the field and potentially miss out on sharing information with the visitor because they will find a way to avoid you. Now if there was an overwhelming presence, or even 5 of us out there at the same time, the visitor would have to acknowledge the history and ask questions related to slave life.

I already know why some African Americans won't come out. They don't want to do the work. They don't want to be in the fields or seen as a slave. I have a new respect for slaves as I do the work that they did, and face some of the same encounters with nature that they would have dealt with. Before the work becomes backbreaking for me, I have the ability and the FREEDOM to stop and take a break, walk away, get some water, and not worry about being beat for "laziness". I have the ability to go home to comforts and food before the sun goes down and the ability not to wake up while it is still dark and not have to be in the fields when the sun comes up. Do you have what it takes to be an interpreter of slave life?

To come full circle with the story of slavery, we must be willing to step back into time so that we are able to teach the public about it. That way, there won't be a question of "Where are the Black folks on this plantation?", instead they will ask, "Was there a part of the plantation that African Americans weren't a part of?" When we get there, we will truly be doing something. For now, I'll be the lonely voice representing those 139 slaves whose life was guided by the land I walk on.

Re-creating the slave community

Names on an inventory, narratives collected by the WPA, oral histories passed down form generation to generation...or as I like to look at it, the haunting of the slave community. The slave owners of the past have done us the favor of creating these communities by owning persons as property, but the interpreters of the present are responsible for re-creating such communities so that those today could understand their lives. How do you do that? Why would you want to? What purpose does it serve to delve back into American history and re-create a painful memory?

I ask myself that question a lot, especially when I look to see how many other African Americans are interpreting slave life and are doing it because they truly believe in getting the story of the slave across. I just wish I knew how to create this community when I am essentially an army of one. We are looking to find an intern to help with the interpretation of the enslaved experience this summer, and not surprising to me, there are no leads. I haven't given up hope, but I am not surprised, nor will I be surprised if there ends up being no one willing to apply for the position. Although I pretty much know why someone wouldn't jump up and down for a chance to portray a slave, I have to ask, why not? You are not going to have the same labor experience and you will not be treated as less than a person. You will just explain the experience to visitors while carrying out light demonstrations, perhaps gardening, cooking or sewing. There will be no whips involved and no one (at least no one in their right mind) would be slinging racial epithets at you. In fact, the work that you would end up doing might have some visitors accusing you of sugarcoating the truth. I look at it as a gift given to me every day that I am at work that I can teach someone something new about the slave experience. But enough on that soapbox, let me step down and let's look at how we can re-create the slave community.

I believe that the one thing that is hindering African Americans from jumping up and down racing to volunteer at historic sites is the fear that once they put on the attire of the slave, even when it is taken off, they will be treated as if they are still in costume. Fair enough, you want to be able to make sure that at the end of the day, people understand who you are, and that while you are interpreting, especially if you are not doing first person interpretations, you are first and foremost sharing information about a group of people. As sensitive as the subject matter may be, sometimes you have to take your personal feelings and set them aside to make it through the day. While dressed as a slave, that is what the public will see you as. Some of the public might treat you as one. But it is what it is. That thought alone is responsible for so many not interested.

There are some who think that they will be put to back breaking work. Where I work, we all have a hand in the labor. As a working plantation, we still plant the same crops and do the same work that would have been done in the 1780s or 1840s. Cotton and corn have to be put in. Flax needs to be planted so that we can spin it into linen thread. Sheep need to be sheared, and gardens need to be taken care of in order for us to have the heirloom vegetables that would have been on the plates of those we interpret. We all have a responsibility to each other to make sure that things are taken care of around the farm in order for us to do our jobs properly. It's not just the responsibility of the "slave", but of everyone who steps foot on site to present to the public.

There is the accusation of sugarcoating the truth. Some of the harshest criticism African American interpreters receive is from their own race. If we don't discuss the cruelty and abuse, then we are hiding the truth. If we discuss the cruelty and abuse, then we are glorifying the institution of slavery. What people fail to realize is that you cannot generalize slavery for every plantation and every slave owner. Really the story of slavery has to be told from the perspective of that particular site when it comes to living history. If the plantation owners did not record how they disciplined their slaves, then we can't say that they beat their slaves within an inch of their lives. It's not to say that it didn't happen, but when you are looking to be historically accurate, you can't invent history. You can't create things and not have documented proof just to sensationalize the story. To me, that is the biggest form of disrespect a site can do to its history.

I wish I knew the solution to getting more and more African Americans involved in slave interpretation. I wish I could make others understand why it needs to be done. Those who complain that the history books don't do enough to explain, highlight, inform, whatever, this part of history can change that by re-creating the slave community. I'm sure someone would say that this needs small steps and time, but the time is now and small steps will not get you closer sooner. Let's take giant steps towards interpreting slave life and close the gaps that history has left behind. Let's re-create the slave community.

I laugh every time I watch this sketch but I know somewhere, there is an interpreter who acts and thinks like this. I pray I never meet them!

n American interpreters are out there