Eric Mueller: The Disgraces of Privatized Memory

The growing privatization of historical sites, described in this NYTimes article, is a troublesome trend.

History in private hands can be a perilous thing. Consider Historic Poplar Grove Plantation just north of Wilmington, North Carolina, which, its website tells us,"preserves the homestead of a successful farming family," the Foys.

Visit the website a bit. You'll learn that "plantations were self-contained and self-sustaining. If you didn't make it or grow it or raise it, you probably did without it."

(Who did the growing and the raising?)

You'll learn that "Joseph Mumford Foy personally selected the trees from which the lumber was cut to build the present manor house."

(Who cut the lumber and built the house once Joseph Mumford Foy did his personal selecting?)

You'll learn that "the farmer worked hard all spring to get the ground prepared and get the crop in the ground," and that"when a successful crop did come in there was joy all around, and lots of work because food storage was a real concern. Corn could be dried, peas and beans hung in their shells for later, root crops put into the cool root cellar, apples and pears carefully dried in the sun."

(Who prepared the ground and got the crop in? Who did the harvesting, and was there really joy"all around?" Who dried the food?)

You'll learn quite a bit about the Foy family.

(That is, the white people in the Foy family.)

Oh, and you'll learn about the animals that lived on the plantation.

What you won't learn much about are the slaves that the Foy family owned -- the human beings who did the work.

My wife and I visited Poplar Grove a few years back. We were given a tour by a white woman dressed in period costume. We heard a great deal about the Foy family. At the end of the tour, I asked the guide to tell us a bit about the lives of the slaves at Poplar Grove. She said,"well, what we know is that the Foy family treated their slaves very well. In fact, they were so happy here that when the war ended and they were freed, 63 out of 64 of them chose to remain right here on the plantation as tenant farmers."

This is privatized history. It's incomplete, deceptive, and accountable to nobody. It disgraces the fullness of the memory of a place like Poplar Grove Plantation.