Colonial Williamsburg

Ok, first of all, i appologize if I came off sounding harsh about slavery...or giving anyone the impression that i think slavery is "fun" or ok.

I'm going to try to present my thoughts on the portrayal of slavery at Colonial Williamsburg more clearly here.

As i said in class, i've worked at cw since i was 10...so like half my life. therefore, i've witnessed the changes that have occured there over the years. also, ive met people who have spent their entire lives working and loving and RESEARCHING history in order to help people learn and appreciate the past while still enjoying their vacation.

on the basic level, everyone who interprets history (interpret being the key word) go through extensive training. we learn the basic facts as well as more specific facts. we learn dates of course but we also learn about the lives of individuals who go relatively unnoticed in history books, people George Wythe who was the first professor of law here and schooled Thomas Jefferson and signed the Declaration of Independence. we also learn much about slavery here in williamsburg and throughout the colonies...and while we learn, we learn the straight facts. we research court cases, diaries, etc to get a better handle on this very sensitive subject.

of the interpreters of colonial williamsburg (the costumed employees), about 80% (which is a rough estimate) are what we deem "third person interpreters." in other words, these men and women, regardless of their skin color give tours and explain history to the public not portraying individual people of the past and not in any specific roles. Therefore, just because an employee is black does not automatically mean that they will be deemed "slave"...so if you go and visit there with your family and see a black man in costume, he could very well be in the governor's palace talking about the governor and NOT working in the fields. by that same token, the "african american interpreters" who focus on life for african americans during the 18th century have several white interpreters. these men and women (black, white or whatever) are given the freedom to speak and INTERPRET history however they choose. So if you meet a man who says, "well not all slaves were miserable" that is an individual take on history, not the view of everyone and hopefully they are going off of their individual research.

on the other hand, there are scripted actors who do portray real people of history. However, it should not be assumed that what they are saying is simply edited to only show happy thoughts. these scripts are edited and edited and do take into account both primary and secondary documents. colonial williamsburg takes pride in its research and does not automatically give an african american a torn and tattered costume and send them on the streets saying "yess'uh massuh." Though slaves did outnumber whites in williamsburg 52% to 48%, not all were enslaved. that's why you may see some african americans portraying freed slaves or "happy" slaves.

No matter the case, colonial williamsburg as far as i know (and maybe i'm being too generous) is not trying to gloss over slavery. if you speak long enough with anyone, they will relay all they know to you. if you look online, at www.history.org, there are historical accounts and specifics about individual slaves and there lives.

i guess what i want to say is that at colonial williamsburg they are not re-enacting history, they are interpreting it. they are also catering to the public in several ways and not simply trying to make money (at least the men and women who have spent their entire lives working there are).

for my part, from experience interpreting to the public, it is an uncomfortable position to be in at times. i could sit in the parlor of a wealthy person's home and because of my "poor" looking costume, people would go "are you the servant??" everyone gets it...even me a white girl. maybe more people would joke about it outloud to me, rather than be deemed racist by saying the same thing to an african american, but still not everyone going to williamsburg is going to take away what they wish.

if you choose to see racism you will see it. sometimes it is thrust upon you (like in Syreeta's case at Binns) and other times it is less apparent and at times, it is an excuse for any "injustice" experienced. Colonial Williamsburg aside, slavery and race are still sensitive issues. Being a white girl, i do feel that my claims even in this class arent legitimate. I havent experienced racism on an extreme level, at least not that i've noticed. But i do remember middle school and high school where my school seemed quite segregated...but not simply because me and my "white" friends were racist. often, at least from my perspective, the reason black and white people didnt sit together at lunch was because we came from different neighborhoods and often we just acted so different. that again may sound harsh and i appologize but its true kind of. also i often felt like the african american kids would push me and my white friends aside a lot, as if we were the reason for their hardships. again, oversimplification, but there was definitely tension for whatever reason.

sometimes being white i do feel frustrated when people play the race card. as i said earlier, racism is there. that cannot be denied but other times race has nothing to do with the immediate problem. for example, my mother is the director of the spa of colonial williamsburg. she is a white woman in a seat of power. she once said to me, "sometimes i dont want to hire african americans because if i ever have problems with them or reprimand them they call me racist." now of couse she DOES hire african americans and she does treat them equally...but i can totally relate to this statement. case in point, recently an african american man worked for the spa and he was STEALING from us right and left and trying to sell our products on the street. he would abuse the system and steal. when my mom terminated him, he got very aggressive and said "i'm just a black man...you gotta problem with me because i'm just a black man trying to live my life." irregardless of the problems in his life, he was stealing. my mom terminated him just as she would a white man in the same position.

its things like this that anger me as a white girl. like the song played in class "we're all a little bit racist" and i guess the best thing to do is just be AWARE and not paranoid. it is a tough situation, but i thought i'd kind of say maybe what todd's been thinking in some of his blogs. thats all, sorry this is so long...

In Response to the proposals...

I'm still kind of trying to find my inspiration for my project. I do have a more concrete idea, but I have no idea what kind of medium I'm going to use.

Everyone elses sound great though. I'm really happy to see/experience them.

Recent thoughts

First off, I'm really flustered (I think that's the best word to describe it) about our upcoming projects. I have an idea of what I want to do, but I'm worried about making a meaningful project out of this...especially in a week. So basically I'm flustered.

Second, I went to the first meeting for AATC-IPAX and it was really amazing. It's great to be part of something with so genuine and good. I also am so excited about the potential we have to really make this group come alive and do wonderful things.

That's all.