Why a National Slavery Museum is a Bad Idea

http://www.bet.com/articles/0,,c3gb1420-2077,00.html

By Jared Taylor, Special to BET.com

Posted Jan. 16, 2002 -- Promoters of a national slavery museum claim it would heal the wounds of the past. In fact, it would cause wounds in the present because continuing emphasis on slavery more than 135 years after emancipation has two purposes: to offer Blacks a ready excuse for failure and to make Whites feel guilty.

Constant reminders of slavery suggest to Blacks that if they are more likely than Whites to be poor, in jail, on welfare, on drugs, have illegitimate children, or to drop out of school, it is not really their fault. It is, instead, the legacy of slavery and of the continuing racism that slavery is said to have burned into the minds of Whites.

The message for Whites is even more blunt: Whites are guilty of terrible crimes, from which all Blacks suffer to this day. The implication is that Whites should therefore agree to the demands of Blacks, whether for racial preferences, reparations for slavery, or calls for "sensitivity."

All this is extremely damaging. It helps no Black person to tell him that White wickedness, past and present -- and not his own abilities --determines whether he will succeed. Likewise, Whites are increasingly annoyed at being blamed for things they did not do.

At the same time, because one of the purposes of a slavery museum is to make Whites feel guilty, it would be likely to ignore or downplay certain facts: Slavery has been widespread in virtually every period of history, and was hardly unique to America. Slavery was widely practiced in Africa long before the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and virtually every Black slave who came to North America was first enslaved by other Blacks and then sold to Whites. Slavery in Africa was abolished by Whites -- not by Blacks -- and in Sudan and Mauritania it continues to this day.

In the United States, the 1830 census found that more than 3,000 free Blacks owned slaves, and there were Black owners in every state in which slavery was legal. In 1830, free Blacks owned more than 10,000 slaves in just the four states of Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina:

Andrew Durnford of Louisiana owned more than 100 slaves. Madame Ciprien Ricard, also of Louisiana, owned 168 black slaves. Black masters bought and sold their property and offered rewards for runaways, just as White masters did.

At the same time, only a small minority of Whites were slave-holders. In the states of the Confederacy, only one in five White households owned slaves. Needless to say, the millions of Whites who are today descended from post-emancipation European immigrants had no ancestral involvement in slavery at all. Finally, slavery was ended by the efforts of Whites, not Blacks, and came at the end of a war that cost the lives of 600,000 White soldiers.

For all these reasons, slavery is hardly the simple tale of bad Whites and good Blacks many make it out to be. Any museum that slants the past, and that pits one race against another through excuse-making and guilt-mongering, will harm our society rather than help it.

Understanding Slavery: An American Journey By Stephanie A. Crockett

BET.com

Jan. 16, 2002 -- They are faded images from long ago and far away: shackled Africans, brought to America packed into the hulls of ships. Led by chains to an auction block, where they were observed and inspected like cattle. Sold to the highest bidder, like property. A people doomed to a life of enslavement, humiliation, and self-hatred.

Those images would be ancient history if America had been able to deal with its ugly roots deeply knotted in the institution of slavery. But along the way, America turned away.

It is that history that both Blacks and Whites are now trying to revisit. There is an overwhelming interest in slavery now, so much so that Americans throughout the country are pushing for museums and memorials dedicated solely to the history of slavery in the United States.

Not since "Roots" was broadcast 25 years ago have Americans, Black and White, been focused on the issue, and never before have they dealt with it on such a large scale. Sen. Sam Brownback, a White Kansas Republican, and Rep. John Lewis, a Black Georgia Democrat, teamed up to get $25 million in federal funding to support a Washington, D.C. Black history museum. New York Assemblyman Arthur Eve has teamed up with a White Republican, Sen. Dale Volker, in hopes of recreating the freedom trail in New York.

In Charleston, S.C., once the largest slave port in the country, Mayor Joe Riley, who is White, has refurbished an old slave mart, and he plans to build a $30 million African American Heritage Museum dedicated to Charleston's history as the major importer of human chattel. In Cincinnati, Ohio, a memorial and museum will document and memorialize the Underground Railroad, the principle escape route for fugitive slaves, scheduled to open on the banks of the Ohio River in 2004. And a national museum in Fredericksburg, Va., could open as soon as 2003.

The surge of interest is a result of several cultural, political and educational forces coming together.

Hollywood and the book publishing industry are cautiously exploring subjects that once were taboo, providing Americans with more opportunities to view history in new ways. Books like "The Wind Done Gone" parody classics like "Gone With the Wind," painting a more accurate anti-bellum picture of slavery. Movies like "Amistad," which tells the story of a slave revolt, dispels the myth of the "happy slave." HBO's new "Middle Passage" turns an unflinching eye on the harrowing Atlantic slave trade in which tens of millions of Africans lost their lives on the trip to the New World. "The Story of Sally Hemmings," a television mini-series, tells the story of slave master Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings.

The debate over reparations for descendants of African slaves has moved out of Black radio and on to the world stage, President Bill Clinton has apologized for slavery, civil rights criminals are being brought to justice. Last year, at the U.N. Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, the United Nations agreed that slavery is "a crime against humanity."

WHY NOW?

There are two main reasons why this surge is happening now, explains Robert P. Forbes, associate director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale University. One reason is because older Americans who've studiously avoided the topic are dying off. At the same time, millions of younger Americans have been exposed to African American studies in school systems across the country; Black History Month and other educational opportunities created a generation who are more willing to face the reality of slavery's impact, Forbes says.

"I think it's largely a generational phenomenon," Forbes says. "A lot of work that was put off for a century is really beginning now."

The last time slavery was a topic of national interest was in 1977, when Alex Haley's "Roots" aired over eight days on ABC. The mini-series was based on the book that detailed Haley's ancestors' journey from Africa to slavery in America. Some 130 million households -- 80% of the American people -- watched the eight-part series, and the morning-after discussions were wrenching.

LeVar Burton, who played the slave Kunte Kinte in the series, said the 12-hour show created a national furor. It opened the eyes of Whites, who said they had no idea of the horrors of slavery.

And it made Blacks proud, because for the first time, they could see themselves as a proud people before they were forced into slavery.

"We realized that "slave" was not a genus designation, it was a temporary job description," Burton told BET.com. "Part of the gift of what Alex gave us was the courage to have the conversation."

"The country watched "Roots" together, we watched it in droves and we talked about it the next day," Burton said. "You couldn't be a part of that viewing audience and not be introspective."

Introspection led to Americans trying to find out the truth about their history. For White America, it meant searching for the truths about slavery. For Black America, it meant finding the most information they could about their ancestry.

That education is continuing now, says Forbes, which is a step toward healing a nation.

"The first thing it means is knowledge," Forbes explains. "We need to know so much more than we know now. That is I think the place where all Americans can meet on neutral ground, is in a much greater understanding of the past and the role of slavery in creating the world we live in today."

Former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, the first Black governor of the state, wants to continue to educate a nation through the Jamestown Slavery Museum planned for Fredericksburg. Wilder has secured 35 acres of land anchoring a strip mall that will be home to a national museum offering thousands of books on the subject, lecture halls and classrooms, and a virtual reality trip in a packed slave ship.

"Our people have not taken the time to tell the story as it should be told, should be read and should be understood," says Wilder, whose grandparents were slaves. "What we need to be about is the business of making sure we lay the groundwork for a fuller understanding of who we, Americans, are. All of us."

Mayor Joe Riley is leading the way for refurbishing the slave mart in Charleston and building the museum dedicated to the history of Charleston as the largest slave port in America. Riley says that there is a responsibility to preserve, memorialize and tell the story of slavery in Charleston, where 40 percent of all slaves entered America.

"It is a very important part of our history that we have a duty to represent," Riley says. "We human beings all benefit from, and are enhanced by, exposure to the truth, and by an increase in our knowledge and a better understanding of history."

Besides, Riley says, it is simply time to deal with it.

"There is so much to learn about how slaves were captured, who did it, how they were brought here, how they were sold, how they worked, how they lived and so much more," Riley points out. "When we do that, we're posthumously recognizing a large group of maybe somewhat forgotten people whose role in our history and country's development was very significant and whose lives deserve to be honored."