Cross 2, Ties, Fall No. 2007/Vol. 3, Public History at Sites of Protest Mid-Atlantic Regional Center for the Humanities Rutgers University-Camden Volume 2, No. 3 Fall 2007 Public History at Sites of Protest: Citizenship on the President’s House Viewing Platform Photo by Doug Heller foundations that survive and telling the story At www.ushistory.org, readers will of what they represent has meant telling long- find a detailed record of on-going public buried truth about the presidency, slavery and mobilization around the President’s the formation of the nation. House, as well as the history of the In 1790, President George Washington and House and its occupants. Visitors can his wife, Martha Custis Washington, arrived learn about the work and express their in Philadelphia with eight of the nine enslaved own opinions. Africans who would eventually toil at the nation’s first executive mansion. Washington Dr. Cheryl LaRoche talking with visitors on the viewing platform. ordered that sleeping quarters be built for fter years of protest, archaeological enslaved stable workers at a site now five feet In This Issue Ainvestigations began in March 2007 from the front door of the Liberty Bell Center. on a portion of the President’s House site Despite protests, construction of the Center Public History at Sites of Protest: on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. The went forward in 2003 without archaeological Citizenship on the President's House dig lasted – thanks to relentless public investigation of this slave quarters area. Viewing Platform pressure and interest – until the end of July. The fact that the story of American slavery 1 was being buried beneath an international Archaeology exposed foundations for the Exploring the Mid@lantic kitchen where the enslaved chef, Hercules, symbol of freedom galvanized an angry and 2 labored and probably planned his successful insistent public. Protesters demanded a full Featured Resource: escape, the bow window where George excavation of the rest of the President’s House site as part of a larger project to interpret and The Tuscarora-English dictionary, language Washington and later John Adams stood in as a window on Native American culture commemorate the unrecognized contributions state, and a subterranean passageway used by 3 those toiling in the kitchen to transport food to of enslaved African captives. Projects to Watch the State Dining Room, out of sight of visiting Important African-American historical and 4 dignitaries and other official guests. archaeological sites frequently emerge only Regional Roundup after lengthy public protest. At the African As the site emerged from obscurity, potent 4 reactions and powerful debates emerged as Photo by Doug Heller well. Buried for decades under a public toilet, MARCH Happenings 5 the site has become one of the most important new historic finds in the region, and one Famous Last Words: Rosalind Remer of the hottest places for public protest and 7 citizen engagement. On a sturdy, utilitarian wooden viewing platform overlooking the dig site, archaeologists and other interpreters spent the summer engaged with a stream of impassioned, inquiring visitors gripped by the historical and moral significance of what emerged from the ground. Pointing out the Professional archaeology team at the President’s House site www.march.rutgers.edu Cross Ties Newsletter/ Fall 2007 Photo by Doug Heller Burial Ground in New York City, for example, EXPLORING THE an insistent public quickly recognized and fought for the deep historical significance MID@LANTIC of the site against public officials inclined to dismiss or ignore it. Sonny Carson, one of the The Mid-Atlantic region has a rich history most forceful activists at the African Burial of African-American and Euro-American interaction, including numerous sites of memory Ground, called for an insistent, persistent, and institutions working hard to uncover and resistant public. At the Philadelphia site, interpret the complex history of race, slavery, various informed, outraged, and committed resistance, and emancipation in America. community protest groups sustained years www.africanburialground.gov of pressure on the National Park Service Students visiting the Liberty Bell observe the dig. This website, connected to the Office of Public and Independence National Historical Park and in cities, not just on southern plantations. Information and Education at New York’s African without fragmenting or losing focus. These Proprietary control of scholarship was angrily Burial Ground, offers background, online source two sites of protest began with government material, and updates on efforts to design and build challenged as new understandings dislodged malfeasance concerning African American a commemorative installation here. Some human old narratives. remains were ceremonially reburied here in 2003, history and developed despite reluctance having been removed in 1991 during construction to engage fully with the often painful and Participating in these organic and of a Federal facility. That story, and others related troublesome aspects of that history. unpredictable processes of civic debate to the site, and to African slavery in New York Photo by Doug Heller becomes central to professional work at sites City, are available through this site. of protest. Though this complex, multilayered www.petermotthouse.org/museum.html process brought together interdisciplinary The Peter Mott House, home of Peter and scholarly teams, the scholars, mostly Eliza (Thomas) Mott, was built circa 1845 and served as an Underground Railroad station. uncomfortable with high emotions, strident Peter Mott was a preacher and the first Sunday rhetoric and frank discussions about race, school superintendent at Mount Pisgah African struggled with the spiritual and emotional Methodist Episcopal Church in Lawnside, New dimensions of visitors’ responses. In Jersey. Restored and operated by the Lawnside Philadelphia, archaeologists and interpreters Historical Society, the house is on both state and National Registers of Historic Places and on the viewing platform witnessed, and has been open to the public since 2001. Links NPS archaeologist Jed Levin talking to visitors. supported, countless individual struggles to other New Jersey Underground Railroad sites with centuries-old historical tropes glorifying In addition to a mobilized and effective can be found through at www.nps.gov/history/nr/ Washington, excusing slavery, and tolerating protest community, both cities also had travel/underground/nj2.htm. slavery at the founding of the nation. www.explorePAhistory.com African-American mayors—David Dinkins in New York and John F. Street in Photo by Doug Heller This site, which covers the entire state of Pennsylvania and is regularly updated, Philadelphia. The mayors offered crucial also includes a search function. Searching local government support, strengthening and for “slavery” produced 87 hits, searching for validating community demands. New York Underground Railroad produced over 600. Congressman Gus Savage, then chairman of Searching for “George Washington” produced the U. S. House Ways and Means committee, 111 hits. Hits include text, sites, historic markers, and educational tools, so it is an excellent starting exerted his influence to close the African point for touring or teaching. Burial Ground to further excavations, while at www.udel.edu/BlackHistory/overview.html the President’s House, U. S. Representatives The University of Delaware offers on its Chaka Fattah and Robert Brady secured website a short essay called “Black Americans in Federal support for interpretation. Delaware: An Overview,” by James E. Newton, as part of an e-book edited by Carole Marks, Sites born in protest create unique working and entitled A History of African Americans of conditions for public history professionals. In Passage, kitchen, and bow window foundations. Delaware And Maryland’s Eastern Shore. both cities, the public grappled passionately Even with the site’s national academic The e-book contains other useful essays on with the deeper meaning of freedom and African American experiences in both Delaware and public visibility, the local Philadelphia personal liberty in the face of slavery. In and Maryland. community remains vigilant to prevent loss Philadelphia, months of public discussion and www.heritage.umd.edu/CHRSWeb/ of this heritage. Ignoring skyrocketing media attention deepened understandings of AssociatedProjects/Hampden.htm interest in the finds, the officials in charge slavery. Many people realized for the first The University of Maryland has developed clung through the summer to their original time that slavery had existed in the North, a community-based archaeology project in intention simply to rebury the archaeology Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood that continued on page 3 2 www.march.rutgers.edu Cross Ties Newsletter/ Fall 2007 FEATURED RESOURCE The Tuscarora-English Dictionary The Tuscarora-English dictionary, language Photo by Francene Patterson as a window on Native American culture When New Line Cinema decided to scholarly and public understanding of make its 2005 film The New World, the Native American history. Rudes, who got corporation sought an unusually high his undergraduate and graduate education degree of authenticity in presenting at SUNY—Buffalo, spent decades studying both English and Powhatan lifeways. Tuscarora, an Iroquoian language spoken Achieving that ambition required by a matrilineal society that migrated north substantial