The Difficult Plantation Past: Operational and Leadership Mechanisms and Their Impact on Racialized Narratives at Tourist Plantations
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THE DIFFICULT PLANTATION PAST: OPERATIONAL AND LEADERSHIP MECHANISMS AND THEIR IMPACT ON RACIALIZED NARRATIVES AT TOURIST PLANTATIONS by Jennifer Allison Harris A Dissertation SubmitteD in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Public History Middle Tennessee State University May 2019 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Kathryn Sikes, Chair Dr. Mary Hoffschwelle Dr. C. Brendan Martin Dr. Carroll Van West To F. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I cannot begin to express my thanks to my dissertation committee chairperson, Dr. Kathryn Sikes. Without her encouragement and advice this project would not have been possible. I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my dissertation committee members Drs. Mary Hoffschwelle, Carroll Van West, and Brendan Martin. My very deepest gratitude extends to Dr. Martin and the Public History Program for graciously and generously funding my research site visits. I’m deeply indebted to the National Science Foundation project research team, Drs. Derek H. Alderman, Perry L. Carter, Stephen P. Hanna, David Butler, and Amy E. Potter. However, I owe special thanks to Dr. Butler who introduced me to the project data and offered ongoing mentorship through my research and writing process. I would also like to extend my deepest gratitude to Dr. Kimberly Douglass for her continued professional sponsorship and friendship. The completion of my dissertation would not have been possible without the loving support and nurturing of Frederick Kristopher Koehn, whose patience cannot be underestimated. I must also thank my MTSU colleagues Drs. Bob Beatty and Ginna Foster Cannon for their supportive insights. My friend Dr. Jody Hankins was also incredibly helpful and reassuring throughout the last five years, and I owe additional gratitude to the “Low Brow CrowD,” for stress relief and weekend distractions. Many special thanks to the Harris and Koehn families, as well as Midge and Ron Wood for their support and encouragement. I am grateful that Dr. Lynn Denton and Dr. Rebecca Conard each believed in my potential as a public history practitioner. I thank Dr. Pippa Holloway for her reassurance and patience during my first few years in the public history program. Thanks to far away friends Michael Twitty and Toni Tipton Martin whose good iii work keeps me inspired. Additionally, I owe a great deal of gratitude to my friends Alyson McGee, Mary Mikel Stump, Lise Ragbir, Susan Gordon, Dr. Lisa Budreau, Leslie Biggs-Randolph, and Angellique Sunter. And I shall always be grateful for the mentorship of Jane Karotkin. I am also grateful to D. Finney Brown, Dr. Amanda Mushal, and Jane Harper Dollason for hosting me for dinners and visits during my travel research. Thanks to Dr. Ralph Williams for allowing me to attend his family business class and for providing me helpful texts. I cannot leave Middle Tennessee State University without mentioning Christy Groves, Chair of User Services at Walker Library. Thank you for repeatedly extending my library due dates, allowing me access to much needed texts. I also wish to thank Ashley Rogers, Shawn Halifax, Jack Neale, Jay Schexnaydre, and Jennifer Hurst Wender for their helpful conversations and correspondence. iv ABSTRACT Southern plantations are laden with historical meaning and cultural symbolism. When these sites of antebellum agriculture are transformed into places toured by the visiting public, these symbols and stories emerge. Though they speak to the experiences of those previously enslaved at the sites, site narratives are primarily influenced by the intentions and decisions of the site owner, management, staff, and docents. This dissertation study examines interviews with all levels of staff and management of these sites gathered by the Transformation of Racialized American Southern Heritage Landscapes project from a sample group of fifteen publicly-toured plantations located in Charleston, South Carolina, the James River Valley in Virginia, and the River Road region of southern Louisiana in order to link academic critiques of plantation narratives in the literature of public history to the mentalities and personal views behind site operational and narrative decisions, ownership and governance models, and allocations of funding and personnel. The dissertation concludes with recommendeD strategies for aligning the plantation institution’s management with public education that incorporates histories of enslavement throughout the site and provides greater community benefit through accountability to stakeholders and descendants. v PREFACE Over the course of 2016 and 2017, as racially targeted mass shootings, white supremacist marches, and attempted removals of Confederate public symbols commenceD, I had many conversations with friends, family, and strangers about politics. While some shared my political views, others argued as defenders/apologists for slavery, trying to convince me that it “wasn’t that baD.” Some argued that removing memorials of Confederate soldiers and slave traders was “erasing the past,” and that “our heritage” should be protected. It seemed that political events had emboldened many people to openly profess opinions concerning race they had previously hidden. Studying the history of slavery and its legacy has altered my perspective of southern heritage sites. While I used to enjoy visits to antebellum southern houses, I now think of these places differently. On a visit to Belmont Mansion in Nashville, I learned that Adelicia Acklen useD enslaved people to construct the house. The project was financed with money made by her former husband Isaac Franklin’s slave-trading business. Our tour group was told about the valuable decorative arts collection in the house. The docent picked up a small stone statuette of a horse describing how Acklen had purchased the statuette during a grand tour of Europe. My emotional response surprised me. I looked at the horse and imagining the people who were traded in order to afford that “tasteful” souvenir. After months of sorting through the data gathered for this research, with its weighty subject matter, I dreaded my site visits. I especially feareD visiting sites where I knew enslavement was discussed in detail, and the inevitable emotional impact of those site’s stories. However, my visits to such places were enlightening and revelatory. I vi realized that denial of the factual past, no matter how horrible, was far more painful than the facts themselves. To my surprise, the sites that ignore the significant link of forced labor to accumulated wealth were the most disturbing, while those places that honestly deal with their difficult pasts encourageD a purgative catharsis. Though the history of slavery is painful, until its significance and impact are completely interwoven into the public’s understanding of United States history, we must discuss it, even if our initial conversations are clumsy. Until every American understands the basic chronology of institutional racism from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to commercialized incarceration, such inculcation is necessary. Through this work, I ask for the consideration of the human, the moral, and the kind—the consideration of people over industry, but above all, a renewed commitment to patience and understanding in thinking about race. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................................ X LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................................................................. XIII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 1 TRANSFORMATION OF RACIALIZED AMERICAN SOUTHERN HERITAGE LANDSCAPES ................... 4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................................... 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 8 DISSERTATION APPROACH ........................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF INTERPRETIVE PRACTICES ........................................................ 19 HISTORIC HOUSE TOURISM AND PRESERVATION IN THE SOUTHERN UNITED STATES ................. 19 MEMORY, HISTORY, AND NARRATIVE AUTHORITY ..................................................................... 26 INTERPRETING SLAVERY AT HISTORIC SITES ............................................................................... 31 EICHSTEDT AND SMALL ............................................................................................................... 34 CHAPTER THREE: REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS, INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION, OWNERSHIP AND BUSINESS MODELS OF TOURIST PLANTATIONS ................... 39 REGIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TOURIST PLANTATION BUSINESS ............................................ 40 THE TOURIST PLANTATION INDUSTRY – MUSEUM OR TOURISM SECTOR .................................... 55 OWNERSHIP AND GOVERNANCE .................................................................................................. 59 PROFIT MODELS ..........................................................................................................................