C O M M U N I T Y & M E M OR Y
The Living History
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of Slavery
T he 1,268 acres of freshwater marsh at
the Howfyl-Broadfield Plantation State
Historic Site, located on the Altamaha
River delta of the Georgia sea coast, is maintained
by a private trust as a nature center. But histori-
cally it was a large rice plantation, its ditches,
dikes, and fields arduously cleared, constructed,
and cultivated by large numbers of enslaved
Africans and African Americans. The plantation
supported five generations of owners until the last
descendant willed the property to the state of
Georgia in the early 1970s. There is a plantation
house with period furnishings, and along several
miles of trails visitors can observe the relict fields,
now gradually returning to salt marsh. This place
was once a prime example of the slave society of
the Lower South, but until recently slavery wasn’t
much mentioned at Howfyl-Broadfield Planta-
tion. Huge live oaks festooned with Spanish moss
provided a romantic backdrop for the annual “old-
fashioned Christmas” observance of the Glynn
County Garden Club. Candles lit the way to the
plantation house, decorated with greenery and
bows, where guests were greeted by actors por-
traying Scarlet O’Hara and Robert E. Lee. Around
back they were served wassail, heated in a 150-
year-old black kettle. Howfyl-Broadfield is one of
hundreds of historic slave plantations where slav-
ery was a repressed memory, while people memo- A runaway slave hides from the slave patrol, a re-enactment at
rialized the “moonlight and magnolias” version of Carter’s Grove plantation. Many visitors are caught up in these
Old South history. dramas, some offering to help slaves escape, others turning on the
owners. Slavery is the most painful topic in American history.
But those days are now behind us. During the
past quarter-century there has been a growing in- SOURCE: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA.
terest in the history of slavery, in part prompted by
the confirmation through DNA testing of Thomas Jeffer- guished historian of slavery Ira Berlin, behind the interest
son’s relationship with Sally Hemmings (see discussion in in slavery is the crisis of race in America. In a society in
this chapter). Hollywood told a version of that story in which blacks and whites hardly talk to each other, slavery
“Jefferson in Paris,” and attempted to seriously dramatize is a way to discuss race, a way of addressing some of the
slavery itself in the films “Beloved,” “Amistad,” and deepest hurts that Americans feel.
“Glory.” The United States Congress entered the action, Incorporating slavery into the interpretation of his-
mandating that the National Park Service address the his- toric slave plantations has proved controversial. The
tory of slavery at its Civil War sites. President Bill Clinton issue arouses deep anger and bitterness for many African
went to Africa and issued a statement of regret over the Americans, embarrassment and shame for many white
historic role of the United States in the slave trade. What people. According to Rex Ellis, a director of interpreta-
accounts for this national attention? According to distin- tion at Colonial Williamsburg, the historical park where
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Interior of a slave cabin at Carter’s Grove plantation, Colonial Williamsburg. The
incorporation of slavery into the interpretive “living history” programs of colonial
plantations is an important part of struggling with the nation’s history of race and racism.
SOURCE: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Williamsburg, VA.
he works “was never a place for blacks to come to.” Al- tated. Some parts of the slave past, however, may be
though he grew up in the area, neither his African Amer- too sensitive for the medium of living history. When
ican family nor any of his neighbors would visit. “That the interpretive staff at Colonial Williamsburg staged a
place points to slavery,” his father would say, “and that’s slave auction, civil rights groups picketed and sang “We
something we don’t want to talk about.” But in the mid- Shall Overcome.” At another living history program in
1980s Colonial Williamsburg made the decision it was Georgia, middle school students who witnessed a re-
something that had to be talked about, and in 1989 the enactment of a slave auction were asked to imagine
institution opened a reconstruction of the slave quarters what it would feel like to be a slave. “There I was on the
at nearby Carter’s Grove plantation, staffed by inter- auction block,” one African American student wrote. “I
preters portraying slaves and masters. For the first time had to take off my clothes in front of all those white
African Americans began to come. Many visitors — people. I forgot to be proud and I was ashamed.”
white as well as black — found themselves caught up in So far the movement to incorporate slavery into the
the re-enactments. Some offered to help the slaves es- interpretation at historic sites has not changed things
cape, while others turned on the slave owners and had very much at Howfyl-Broadfield Plantation. An archae-
to be physically restrained. On the other hand, some of ological investigation of the site in the mid-1990s did
the African-American actors reported feeling that they reveal traces of the old slave quarters out back, not far
were being treated like slaves, not only by visitors but from the Christmas wassail kettle. Archaeologist Kay
by those playing roles as masters. Wood would like to do more excavation and create an
Slavery remains the most painful topic in American interpretive exhibit featuring the history of slavery on
history. For years “there was an unwritten rule not to be the rice coast of Georgia, but funds are short. “There re-
controversial,” says Dwight T. Pitcaithley, chief histo- ally hasn’t been a lot done on rice plantations in Geor-
rian for the National Park Service, but “it didn’t make gia,” she told a reporter. “This is where history begins on
for good history.” Pitcaithley oversees the program to this coast. This is where Georgia begins.” But mean-
include the history of slavery at the nation’s Civil War while the old-fashioned Christmas celebrations con-
battlefield sites. The idea is to make slavery as vivid in tinue, perpetuating a different memory of the rice coast,
the public imagination as the bloody war it precipi- a memory in which slaves are invisible. ■
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