I think it could be a valuable history lesson but it might be dangerous to present it.
Someone in my family had a bill of sell of a slave. I remember reading it but it seems to have disappeared; no one knows who had it last or what happened to it.
As I recall the most salient thing about it was that A vended to B a person (I don’t remember the name or sex) warranted to be sound in body and mind a slave for life. Bolding mine. That phrase chilled me then as it does now.
Lynching was terrible, and far too common, but still an occasional event. In the scheme of things, most black folks did not get lynched; the threat of it was the common experience, and that’s hard to convey in reenactment. Also, I reckon a gang murder is more imaginable, in a way, than the banal brutality of the slave auction.
Nothing wrong with that, except that it’s then just a movie. We’re accustomed to seeing all kinds of things in movies and mostly feeling safely uninvolved on our side of the screen. Real people in front of you is immediate(d).
But acknowledging the history in film is certainly much better than not at all. I’d want to edit it so it worked as a long continuous loop. Then play it on a big screen in a place in the city near where it would have taken place, set up so people could wander into it directly from the street, and out again.
I’d be uncomfortable attending but, as you say, that’s the whole point. I reckon it’s a very good idea.
Unless the reenacted auction had a narrative beyond a bunch of black people getting appraised and sold in the public square, then I can see how it could come across as contrived and voyeuristic without the benefit of being educational or enlightening. The audience ideally should be able to get inside of the head of the “characters” and know their inner thoughts, not just watch them and their reactions as they are being dehumanized. Because the real point you’re trying to make is that these are fully dimensional people having their worlds turned upside down simply because of their slave status. Making people uncomfortable for the sake of it doesn’t make much sense to me.
Rendering their experience in a 2D kind of way, just to showcase this brutal facet of slavery, runs the risk of actually objectifying enslaved people rather than the opposite. A theatrical production would be a better medium than a reenactment, IMO.
I know the area you’re talking about, and I would add this to the other very good reasons why this should be reconsidered: no white male should have a hand in proposing or mostly running this kind of event. Acting as an advisor for historical accuracy, yes, but not the driving force behind having it happen. Too big of a can of works for that individual.
It could be good but how accurate do we make it? The Williamsburg-like versions I know of are somewhat like the usual Easter recreations of the trial of Jesus; more a form of Passion Play. To make it good history and more of a lesson do we want to go the “Passion of the Christ” route and show the actual/historical brutality? That becomes the question. The former, no issue – like you say they are not that terribly uncommon. But once you go past a G-rated version ----------
How real would you make it? Would you have slaves stripped in front of the prospective buyers?
I actually spoke to that above: you’d have to tone it down. No examining of teats or teeth or other regions, no caning them if they cry or try and talk to the buyers, etc…
How much do you need to see? What do you think you would learn from such a thing?
I think it’s a good idea, but I would absolutely positively want the local black rights activists involved in the proposing and organizing of the idea, and if they think it’s a bad idea take their word for it.
What you learn from any living history reenactment, but one that is curiously under explored. Everybody knows there was slavery, but the mechanics of it are often lost. (It was only in the late 20th century that antebellum house museums started giving any care to preserving or restoring slave quarters.)
I’m a huge fan of material culture. I like works of history that allow me to smell the horse shit if that makes sense (trivia: in NYC there were piles of horse manure more than 4 stories high every few blocks). I think it adds a perspective that is lacking in both history books and movies. I’m also a fan of authentic Civil War reenactment (as authentic as you can have without amputations and with soldiers who are overweight)- hearing an actual cannon roar and standing around in 90 degree weather in person is a lot different than seeing it in a movie. Some native American encampments are great as well- an anthropology as fascinating as anything in Star Trek or Game of Thrones and it was here. We obviously can’t have 100% authenticity, but we can get as close as possible, though I am thinking that a stage might have to work best for this.
I’m one of the few people who left the Holocaust Museum not overly moved. I found it too academic and too sanitized. The two things that most stopped me in my tracks and made me “connect” to the events- to the degree I’m willing- were the actual cattle car- putting my hand on the wall and realizing there were hands of people actually transported to the camps, and not with air conditioning- and the catwalk that has the three stories of framed photographs of Jewish families from a particular Polish village, some of them in ultra-orthodox garb and some in bathing suits on the beach- again made me realize that “these were six million individuals” more so than reading stats in a book.
Sorry for any odd spelling, I’m dictating to an often wonky audio program.
Well, if the purpose is to convince a few white people to not display a confederate flag, you might change a few minds. Probably very few.
Other than that, I don’t get why it’s SUPPOSED to be disturbing. Generally something like this would be a reminder not to repeat the mistakes of the past, but I don’t think the US is in any danger of accidently slipping back into slavery. Maybe in some post-apocalyptic sci-fi story.
The only other thing it does is give yet another generation of black people a reason to resent and/or hate whites.
“Never forget!” sometimes doesn’t seem like the healthiest way forward.
I understand what you are saying. Unfortunately what you are asking for is likely to appeal more to those with a different agenda. Some subjects should be limited to scholarly works in some circumstances. This is a country where you could hold a live re-enactment or produce a documentary in sickening detail, but it will be greatly controversial. I consider slavery has left a scar on this country that may one day fade away but currently what you suggest would simply inflame the tissue and lengthen the time it will take to heal.
My worry would be the same as Alessan’s basically. The potential for it to become a clusterfuck of a spectacle because of some tasteless goons is just too high. Especially if it was toned down to make it less obscene, which while I agree would be a necessity, already starts it off diluting the mundane horror of it all.
Well meaning but bad idea, I’m afraid.
I think these folks are more worried about making white people uncomfortable. And I think probably more white people would be uncomfortable, judging by the recent attempts to whitewash slavery by some as “a social security system” and “slaves were better off than free blacks” and so on.
But I love the idea, and I would absolutely be interested in seeing it done, This is how to keep history alive and interesting. And we need to see all the bad parts of history, even more so than the good parts.
It’s fair to question the point of reenacting a sanitized version of a slave auction, especially if you know well-read people will see it as an inaccurate depiction. Make it too soft and it would smack of an agenda to downplay the truth. But obviously you can’t it make it too brutal without turning stomachs during an occasion that is supposed to be uplifting.
I agree…the important thing is the circumstances surrounding the performance.
It seems that the city is planning a festival atmosphere, probably advertised with a slogan such as “fun for the whole family!” If so,–then it would not be appropriate to stage a serious and disturbing performance. Especially if it is an outdoor stage, with lots of visitors casually wandering around and buying cotton candy for the kids…
If you change it a formal event, in a fancy location (an opera house, not a movie theater) , tickets sold in advance, people seated by ushers.etc --then it would work.
But you’d be preaching to the choir, not reaching the people who need to be educated.
I wouldn’t go to see it as an audience member. I’d have to think about whether I’d be willing to participate as an actor.
I don’t think that a re-enactment would work in the way that it is/was intended.
I don’t think it can be done well (it’ll have to be sanitized, dramatized, and other ways changed. By the time it’s live, who knows what will be there). I don’t think it would be received well. I would guess something like the plantation tour guide comments, but worse.) It will probably make me slightly uncomfortable, but I think that the actions of the other observers will make me much more uncomfortable and unsettled.
I’d prefer something other than a staging - an interactive exhibit, a gallery with actual artifacts, a monument, something else other than the re-enactment.
This. You do not do something like this without the full input and creative control of the black community.
I couldn’t attend such an event. Just the description here makes me want to vomit. But that doesn’t mean I think it’s a bad idea. What I think is secondary to what people, especially black people, in that community think.