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From: Dana Eness <eness@leh.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-family@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:798] RE: COABE plantation tour
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What does the acronym COABE stand for? Dana Eness
**********************************
Dana Eness, Assistant Director
PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME
Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Louisiana Humanities Center/Turners' Hall
938 Lafayette Street, Suite 300
New Orleans, LA 70113
http://www.leh.org
Tel. 504-523-4352 Ext. 126 1-800-909-7990
Fax 504-529-2358 E-mail: eness@leh.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Janet Isserlis [SMTP:Janet_Isserlis@Brown.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, February 27, 2002 10:48 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [NIFL-FAMILY:797] COABE plantation tour
Colleagues,
I'm sending you copies of a message I sent to COABE and the response
that I received from them about a tour they've included amongst their
offerings (f tours/trips) during their upcoming conference. My
intention here is not to malign COABE necessarily, but to bring to
our collective attention the fact that an important learning
opportunity risks being neglected. I have never organized a national
conference, and can't imagine the level of detail that such an event
necessitates. Nonetheless, it feels important to be mindful of
learning opportunities -- found and neglected -- and it is in this
spirit that I offer the following, with apologies to those to whom
this will be cross posted.
Janet Isserlis
[my letter to COABE] To whom it may concern:
I received your brochure yesterday and was startled, angered and
saddened at the description of the Boone Hall Plantation tour you
provide therein. Your text:
Boone Hall Plantation Tour
Go back in time to the antebellum days when plantation life in the
South was self-sustaining and held a charm all its own. Arrive at
Boone Hall Plantation through the famour three-quarter mile "Avenue
of Oaks." Boone Hall was granted to one of South Carolina's first
Settles, Major John Boone, in 1676. Originally a cotton plantation,
Boone Hall spread over 17,000 acres. Hand-made brick and tile were
also manufactured on the plantation. These same brick [sic] have been
identified in the mansion, garden walls, slave cabins and many of
Charleston's oldest and most historic buildings. This plantation has
been used in the filming of "Gone with the Wind," and more recently,
"North and South." Enjoy a guided tour of the grounds followed by a
guided tour of the mansion.
Your narrative completely obliterates any possibility of
problematizing issues of race and racism inherent in slavery as it
was practiced on the plantation, thereby reducing what could be
viewed as a powerful opportunity to witness a terrible force in
history to an attractive side trip, part of the local color. I am
deeply saddened that a group of educators would not be more attentive
to the implicitly racist point of view given in your text. Where we
have an opportunity to educate ourselves, and by extension, those
with whom we learn and teach, you have done nothing to promote a
critical stance, or even the asking of important questions.
Instead, your text promotes a romanticized, sanitized glimpse of the
backdrop to "Gone with the Wind," itself a film that is open to
discussion. I fervently hope that you consider writing a more
appropriate description as an insert to the brochure and create links
on your web site that facilitate a more educational exploration of
our history.
The following two excerpts provide examples of ways in which a more
critical stance might be developed so that a trip to the plantation
might result in more than the acquisition of local color and could,
instead, provide an impetus for those present to reflect upon and/or
reconsider not only their own understanding of slavery and racism in
this country, but also the ways in which those things are taken up in
the educational contexts in which they work.
Another account, written by a student
http://www.scriptllc.com/oudc/thetrip.html
During our visit to Charleston, we went to the Boone Hall Plantation.
I was overcome with emotion and found myself crying uncontrollably.
It was as if all the slaves who lived there came to me at once to
tell me their horrible tales. The experience was overwhelming. The
entire tour of the plantation was conducted without a single mention
of slaves. The tour guide discussed the architecture and the
furnishings in the house extensively including the floors, tables,
china and silver. The trees were mentioned many times. But the
people who built the plantation, the people who lived there, some of
whom died there, the people who worked from sunrise to sunrise,
these people were never mentioned.
As an African-American, it was not surprising that the plantation
evoked profound feelings and emotions in me. My Jewish peers,
however, were also moved and were as outraged as we African-
Americans. They questioned the tour guide about what they understood
to be a humiliating oversight. We all learned a great deal from the
experience. Even though we may not have entirely understood one
another, we learned that it is important to be sensitive to other
people and to respect one
another's feelings. This trip taught us how to be tolerant. I have
learned one very important lesson: we African-American people must
learn to love ourselves. We must learn about ourselves in order to
stand strong with others. And we must all know about each other in
order to understand. After the summer trip, my commitment to
enlighten others and to learn are considerably stronger. I had a
chance to get to know the other students better; I also learned a
great deal about myself.
And this, an account of a tour taken despite the NCAAP boycott in 2000
http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamondback/00-02-29/news1.html
At about 3 p.m. the bus stopped at the Boone Hall Plantation, a
17,000-acre farm when it was established in 1681, according to
brochures. Three hundred years later, the farm has shrunk to 738 acres.
The tour bus drove down the half-mile dirt drive shrouded by Spanish
moss-covered oak trees. Jason Wiles, a senior entertainment
management major, said he could feel the reminders of slavery.
"As soon as I got off that bus, I knew where I was," he said.
Lined a few yards from the street were nine slave houses, three
unrepaired after damage done during Hurricane Hugo in 1989. The
buildings were cloaked in the original brick, made at the plantation,
with shells still stuck in the cement between the bricks.
The group headed to the main house for the tour and was greeted by a
blonde young woman in an old-fashioned blue dress, complete with
hoops to flare out the skirt. They met the tour guide, who then
focused the tour on the antique furniture and mentioned little
about slavery.
Belcher said he was upset because the slaves were referred to as
"craftsmen" and "they" instead of overtly recognizing the enslavement.
"It was a wonderful demonstration of erasing history," Belcher said.
Many others said they were upset with the production. "It was like
they knew what happened but they were hiding it," said Taiwo Oladapo,
a junior chemical engineering major.
After the tour Belcher sat on a bench outside the plantation while
the others either did handstands in the backyard or lounged around
the ancient oak trees, many taller than the main house. Belcher said
he found racism in the reconstruction after the hurricane.
"The slaves' quarters were destroyed but the gardens were
maintained," he said.
The plantation does offer another tour, led by a historian who takes
the group through the slave quarters, said Julie Rose, Boone Hall
office manager. "[The tour] is all about how the slaves would have
lived," she said.
I thank you for your attention to this matter and look forward to
your response.
Janet Isserlis, joined by Heide Spruck Wrigley, Elsa Auerbach, Andy
Nash and Mary Ann
Florez, Maria Elena Gonzalez and Judy Titzel
COABE's response:
COABE 2002 offers the tours described in the registration brochure for the
pleasure of conference participants. The tour description is the one offered
by the tour company and the Charleston Visitors Bureau.
[me again, to this list] Again, finally, my intent here is not to
embarrass or malign anyone, but to make us all aware of a learning
opportunity -- not only in terms of the way in which the tour is
described, but in the fact that such a tour could provide either a
strong learning experience or render us, again, complicit in
disappearing this country's history of slavery and in perpetuating an
insidious form of racism in so doing.
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