In this Book
- Ancestors of Worthy Life: Plantation Slavery and Black Heritage at Mount Clare
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: University Press of Florida
- Series: Cultural Heritage Studies
Despite the contributions of enslaved African Americans to our country’s economy, culture, and history, records of their existence are all but expunged from plantation sites, which are reluctant to show and interpret the homes and lives of the enslaved. One such site is Mount Clare near Baltimore, Maryland, where Teresa Moyer’s work examines the lives of the plantation’s enslaved and investigates the issues keeping these findings from being publicly presented.
In this balanced discussion of racialized practice at historic site museums, Moyer presents a rich and contextualized study of the inextricably entangled lives of the enslaved, free blacks, and white landowners. She demonstrates that inclusive interpretation of plantation and other historic house museum sites can be done. Moyer argues that the inclusion of enslaved persons in the history of these sites would honor those “ancestors of worthy note,” make the social good of public history available to African Americans, and address systemic racism in America.
Table of Contents
- Illustrations
- pp. ix-x
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xv-xvi
- List of Abbreviations
- pp. xvii-xviii
- 1. Introduction
- pp. 1-20
- 2. Slavery and Iron at Georgia
- pp. 21-43
- 3. The Creation of Mount Clare
- pp. 44-71
- 4. Slavery and Revolution
- pp. 72-87
- 5. White Widowhood
- pp. 88-114
- 6. Manumission and Freedom
- pp. 115-144
- 7. A Broader History
- pp. 145-164
- 8. Conclusion
- pp. 165-174
- Bibliography
- pp. 201-212