|
|
|
|
Abstract
Some of the most prominent public debates on slavery in the United States at the present time revolve around Confederate monuments, related iconography and the legacies of the Civil War. But these are just one component of a far more extensive infrastructure of sites dedicated to a distorted and mythological memory of slavery, the Confederacy and Southern history. This involves a vast heritage tourism industry across the US South, comprising plantation mansions, work structures and a wide range of other buildings, including slave quarters and slave cabins. What are these sites, where are they located, how do they function and what messages do they convey? In this presentation I describe and evaluate these sites and their proponents in Louisiana and articulate how they form a continuum with racist, right-wing and extremist groups that promote white supremacy. I also identify less prominent structures and groups that fundamentally challenge these “heritage” sites and groups.
|
|
|
image: Nottoway Plantation, Louisiana. Known as “The White Castle. 365 windows and doors, one for each day of the year”. Photo by Stephen Small
|
|
|
Stephen Small is Interim Director of the Institute for the Study of Societal Issues and Professor of African American Studies. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at UC Berkeley, where he was a graduate student trainee in what is now ISSI’s Graduate Fellows Program. His current research is organized around the social scientific analysis of contemporary racial formations and addresses links between historical structures and contemporary manifestations of racial formations in the United States and elsewhere in the African Diaspora. Axes of stratification shaped by gender, gender/race intersections, and by class and nation are central to his work. His publications include numerous journal articles and chapters in edited volumes.
|
|
|
|
Professor Small is co-editor of Global Mixed Race, New Perspectives on Slavery and Colonialism in the Caribbean, and Black Europe and the African Diaspora. His most recent book, 20 Questions and Answers on Black Europe, was published January, 2018. His next book is tentatively entitled: “Inside the Shadows of the Big House: 21st Century Antebellum Slave Cabins and Heritage Tourism in Louisiana”, to be published in 2021. He is currently co-writing a book (with Dr. Kwame Nimako) on Public History, Museums and Slavery in England and the Netherlands.
|
|
|
This event is free and open to the public. If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) or information about campus mobility access features in order to fully participate in this event, please contact 510 642-0813 or issi@berkeley.edu with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
