Recently, I read the article Talking About Slavery When Your Museum Wants To Avoid It by Cait Johnson in the periodical History News. The subject has always been one that has interested me. It still shocks me that the subject is often completely ignored, even though it should be at the forefront of many museum’s missions.
Johnson had recently visited Blandwood Mansion, in Greensboro, North Carolina. As she entered, she became aware that the homeowners had historically owned slaves. This awareness immediately led to confusion, as a wall label stated that a passage was meant for ‘Servants bringing food,’ and not slaves bringing food. In fact, there was no mention of slavery or enslaved people at Blandwood, save for one very vague wall label. In 1850, the residence had 64 slaves living and serving on the property. In many ways, the story of Blandwood should be the story of these people.
One of Blandwood’s operators had asserted to Johnson that it was technically correct to label them as servants, as the museum’s mission encompassed the timeline after the abolition of slavery as well as the period preceding it. That museum operators can get away on this with a technicality unacceptable.
A docent at Blandwood further justified the absence of any slavery narrative by noting that discussion of slavery “Makes visitors uncomfortable.” For Anglo-Americans who have lived in Greensboro for three to four generations, the incorporation of a slavery narrative into Blandwood would be a constant reminder of the evils their ancestors perpetrated. For African-Americans, it would be a constant reminder of the centuries long suffering their people endured. Regardless of the pain the subject inflicts, whitewashing history to exclude the stories of these 64 slaves, and countless others throughout the nation hinders our social development and ability to process and learn from the past.
Johnson believes the solution to the problem is the incorporation of top-down institutional development in establishing institutional identity. What this entails is that a museum or other facility make their mission and emotional involvement absolutely clear to the staff. If Blandwood’s mission were “The uninhibited and truthful depiction of slavery at Blandwood Mansion,” that would be a start. Johnson voiced her belief that this sort of clear institutional identity would then inform employee identity. Studies have shown that docents and other museum employees develop an emotional connection the subject matter once the institution voices its own stance. Johnson added that while new museum professionals may be pressured by less empathic institutions to omit such painful and divisive narratives, but that while these new employees do not control the interpretive identity of the museum, they do have a great deal of flexibility with their tour scripts and what parts of the narrative to stress. Therefore, all museum professionals have room to establish their own identity as a museum professional, and that identity must be founded in truth.
