Abstract
In the public interpretation of historic sites, authenticity and community involvement are interconnected, allowing for tourism communities to be engaged in a particular place or history, often outside of one’s own personal experiences. While the public views history as objective, the designed presentation of heritage artifacts demonstrates that history is largely subjective, as facts can be compiled and presented to create disparate “histories,” aligned with heritages.
The current interpretation of American antebellum plantation houses and their associated slave quarters begins to interrogate how context can be integral where multiple heritages “collide” at a single location. As a system of exploring one’s history and feeling of belonging, heritage represents a value system and the tangible and intangible legacies of cultural/ethnic/religious/etc. groups. When these histories and values come into conflict, as is often the case in war or similar divergence, the aftermath of these differences can be difficult to interpret for an audience temporally and culturally removed from the initial conflict. Only through the involvement of descendent community stakeholders from each side can the interpretation begin to represent an authentic and increasingly objective experience for visitors.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barthel, D. (1990). Nostalgia for America’s village past: Staged symbolic communities. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 4(1), 79–93.
Bograd, M. D., & Singleton, T. A. (1997). The interpretation of slavery: Mount Vernon, Monticello, and Colonial Williamsburg. In J. H. Jameson (Ed.), Presenting archaeology to the public: Digging for truths (pp. 193–204). Walnut Creek: Altamira Press.
Campbell, C. G. (2001). Colonial Williamsburg Foundation: Seventy-five years of historic preservation and education. New York: The Newcomen Society of the United States.
Cheuk, B. L. (2002). Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (1955). Colonial Williamsburg official guidebook. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (1968). Colonial Williamsburg official guidebook. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. (1979). Colonial Williamsburg official guidebook. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Davis, D. B. (1986). Slavery in the Colonial Chesapeake. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Ellis, R. M. (1989). Presenting the past: Education, interpretation, and the teaching of black history at Colonial Williamsburg. PhD dissertation, School of Education, College of William and Mary, Ann Arbor.
Evans, W. M. (2009). Open wound: The long view of race in America. Urbana: University of Chicago Press.
Fesler, G. (2010). Excavating the spaces and interpreting the places of enslaved Americans and their descendants. In C. Ellis & R. Ginsburg (Eds.), Cabin, quarter, plantation: Architecture and landscapes of North American slavery (pp. 27–49). New Haven: Yale University Press.
Goodwin, A. R. (1907). Bruton Parish Church restored and its historic environment. Williamsburg: The Franklin Press.
Greenspan, A. (2002). Creating Colonial Williamsburg: The restoration of Virginia’s eighteenth-century capital. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Hamp, S. K. (2006). The value exchange: Museums and their context. Curator, 49(1), 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2151-6952.2006.tb00199.x.
Handler, R., & Gable, E. (1997). The new history in an old museum. Durham: Duke University Press.
Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village. (1957). The book of Greenfield Village. Dearborn: The Greenfield Village Print Shop.
Holland, J. J. (2016). The invisibles: The untold story of African American slaves in the White House. Connecticut: Rowman & Littlefield/Guilford.
Jones, T. (1994). ‘Living History of Undying Racism Colonial Williamsburg “Slave Auction” Draws Protest, Support’. African Diaspora Archaeology Newsletter (1) 3: 1–3.
Lewis, K. E. (2016). Plantation layout and function in the South Carolina Lowcountry. In T. A. Singleton (Ed.), The archaeology of slavery and plantation life. London: Routledge.
Orser, C. E. J., & Nekola, A. M. (2016). Plantation settlement from slavery to tenancy: An examples of a Piedmont plantation in South Carolina. In T. A. Singleton (Ed.), The archaeology of slavery and plantation life. London: Routledge.
Phillip, M.-C. (1994). To reenact or not to reenact? For some, Williamsburg Slave auction shows discomfort of humiliating past. Black Issues in Higher Education, 11(18), 24.
Rentzhog, S. (2007). Open air museums: The history and future of a visionary idea. Stockholm: Carlssons.
Shelley, D. A. (1972). Greenfield village and Henry Ford Museum: ‘Americana preserved. In The Henry Ford Museum Staff (Ed.), Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum (pp. 6–7). New York: Crown Publishers.
Simonds, W. A. (1938). Henry Ford and Greenfield Village. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company.
Singleton, T. A. (Ed.). (2016). The Archaeology of slavery and plantation life. London: Routledge.
Stanton, L. C. (2012). Those who labor for my happiness: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Swank, S. T. (1990). The history museum. In M. S. Shapiro (Ed.), The museum: A reference guide (pp. 85–114). New York: Greenwood Press.
Swigger, J. (2014) History is Bunk: Assembling the Past at Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.
Tate, T. W. (1965). The Negro in eighteen-century Williamsburg. Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia.
Vlach, J. M. (1993). Back of the Big House: The Architecture of Plantation Slavery. Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Barry, K.M. (2019). Heritages in Conflict: Interpreting Controversial History with Stakeholder Engagement. In: Jameson, J.H., Musteaţă, S. (eds) Transforming Heritage Practice in the 21st Century. One World Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14327-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14327-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14326-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14327-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)