You’ve probably run into people, most likely white people, who think that slavery wasn’t that big a deal, and even if it was, it’s over. Besides, their family never owned slaves so the whole issue doesn’t really involve them. Maybe, at some time in the past, you’ve even thought some of those things yourself.
Writes Margaret Biser in her remarkable essay: “Up until a few weeks ago, I worked at a historic site in the South that included an old house and a nearby plantation. My job was to lead tours and tell guests about the people who made plantations possible: the slaves.”
She summarizes and responds to the questions and reactions she encountered most often. For instance:
“People think slaveholders ‘took care’ of their slaves out of the goodness of their hearts, rather than out of economic interest.”
“People don’t understand how prejudice influenced slaveholders’ actions beyond mere economic interest.”
Read the whole thing here.
We flinch away from the realities, maybe because we don’t want to think about our ancestors who owned slaves, or our ancestors who were slaves, or the myriad unfreedoms in our own lives today.
Singing songs the slaves sang gives us a way to enter into a world that is so hard for us to imagine. We are moved, and so are our audiences.
Last summer the Spirituals Choir sang at the Royall House & Slave Quarters in Medford, Massachusetts. It was a powerful experience indeed, to sing where slaves might once have sung some of the same songs we were singing. (For an account of our trip, click here.)
If you’re on Martha’s Vineyard this month, here’s our July schedule:
Wednesday, July 8, 6:30 p.m. West Tisbury library. Free.
Saturday, July 18, 7 p.m., Union Chapel. $15 at the door; under 12 get in free.
Sunday, July 19, 11 a.m., Unitarian Universalist Society, Vineyard Haven.
Sunday, July 26, 6:30 p.m., East Chop Lighthouse. Part of the Vineyard’s celebration of Della Hardman Day.
Thursday, July 30, 6:30 p.m., Oak Bluffs library. Free.