Rethinking Representations of Slave Life a Historical Plantation Museums
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Louisiana State University Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2006 Rethinking representations of slave life a historical plantation museums: towards a commemorative museum pedagogy Julia Anne Rose Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Rose, Julia Anne, "Rethinking representations of slave life a historical plantation museums: towards a commemorative museum pedagogy" (2006). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1040. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1040 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. RETHINKING REPRESENTATIONS OF SLAVE LIFE AT HISTORICAL PLANTATION MUSEUMS: TOWARDS A COMMEMORATIVE MUSEUM PEDAGOGY A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Curriculum and Instruction by Julia Anne Rose B.A., State University of New York at Albany, 1980 M.A.T., The George Washington University, 1984 August, 2006 Dedication In memory of my loving sister, Claudia J. Liban ii Acknowledgments I was a young mother with two little boys when I first entertained the idea of pursuing a doctor of philosophy degree in education. At that time, it seemed unrealistic and difficult to find a program where I could study and conduct research on museum learning. I have since learned that when I embrace life’s serendipitous connections I can learn and achieve big things. I thank my husband Kenny Rose who encouraged me to pursue my education over the years and who helped me find my niche at Louisiana State University. Kenny was a mentor, counselor, reader, and editor while I attended graduate school and while I wrote my dissertation. Kenny’s support and guidance has helped me to think pragmatically about my studies and my priorities in life and continues to be my devoted friend. I thank my three children, Ian, Jason and Diana who grew along with me while I was attending LSU. My children’s love, tenderness, surprises, and laughter continue to motivate me to ask more questions and to try new angles for living. My advisory committee members generously shared their expertise and insights with me. I thank my major professor, Dr. Claudia Eppert, for her mentorship and for introducing me to the educational psychoanalytic literature. I sincerely appreciate her encouragement over the years and her close reading of my work. I thank Dr. Petra Hendry for including me in the Old South Baton Rouge projects as a graduate research assistant and for her enthusiastic interest in my research. Her support enabled me to take on the mammoth challenge to document the Magnolia Mound Plantation enslaved community. I thank Dr. Bill Doll for including me in provocative seminars and for iii helping me make deeper connections between museum learning and curriculum studies. I thank Dr. Miles Richardson for helping me find poetry within the relationships between historical sites and the stories they stand to represent. His mentorship on ethnographic research was foundational to my design for this dissertation. I thank Dr. Thomas Durant for his encouragement to dig deeper into the socio-historical stories of Louisiana slave life. Dr. Durant’s comments on the new tour narrative in this dissertation were a boost to my analysis. Several more professors gave me support in my studies and in my research at LSU. I thank Dr. Tiwanna Simpson, Dr. Sharon Weltman, Dr. Jay Edwards, Associate Dean Faye Phillips, Dr. Nina Asher, Dr. Michele Masse, and Dr. Bill Pinar. I thank the museum workers at Magnolia Mound Plantation in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their gracious and generous participation in my doctoral research. The museum workers opened to me their work places and their personal attachments to Louisiana history in their efforts to expand the representations of slave life at their historical plantation museum. I am forever grateful for their gifts of time, space, and collaboration. iv Table of Contents Dedication........................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments..............................................................................................................iii List of Tables .................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures..................................................................................................................viii Abstract.............................................................................................................................. ix Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Purpose and Rationale .................................................................................................... 1 Research Questions......................................................................................................... 9 Outline of the Remaining Chapters ................................................................................ 9 Chapter Two: Context of Magnolia Mound Plantation .................................................... 12 Personal Testimony....................................................................................................... 12 Magnolia Mound Plantation ......................................................................................... 13 Interpreting Slave Life at MMP.................................................................................... 18 Historical Baseline: Magnolia Mound Plantation......................................................... 21 Chapter Three: Literature Review .................................................................................... 25 Museums, Education, and Society................................................................................ 27 Curriculum Theory and Educational Psychoanalytic Theories on Loss in Learning ... 29 Learning and Teaching About Trauma......................................................................... 39 Interpretations of Slave Life at Historical Site Museums............................................. 53 Interpreting the American South: Collective Memory and Collective Loss ................ 77 Finishing Remarks ........................................................................................................ 85 Chapter Four: Methods ..................................................................................................... 88 Rationale for an Action Research Design..................................................................... 89 Potential Benefits and Outcomes of My Study............................................................. 92 Getting Access to the Study Site................................................................................... 93 Sample Selection........................................................................................................... 95 Research Protocol ......................................................................................................... 98 Defining the Interpretation Target at MMP................................................................ 100 Data Collection ........................................................................................................... 102 Action Research Data Collection................................................................................ 103 Archival Research Data Collection............................................................................. 114 Data Collection Summary........................................................................................... 134 Chapter Five: Data Analysis ........................................................................................... 136 Data Coding ................................................................................................................ 137 Clustering.................................................................................................................... 138 Development of Propositional Statements.................................................................. 139 v Synthesis: Loss in Learning........................................................................................ 143 Chapter Six: Findings ..................................................................................................... 144 Complexities of Museum Workers’ Engagement with Difficult Knowledge ............ 144 Baseline for Interpretation of Plantation Life at MMP............................................... 144 Theme 1: Reception –We Are Evolving..................................................................... 148 Theme 2: Resistance – It Just Can’t Be ...................................................................... 158 Theme 3: Repetition - I Need to Read that Again .....................................................