> This List is not a blog, as you say, however, it does seem to me that
> certain aspects of current events do pertain to Virginia history and
> therefore qualify for inclusion and submission to this List ...
It seems to me that something else merits mentioning here: the threat of
inappropriate development at Fort Monroe, as warned against by both the
Civil War Preservation Trust and APVA Preservation Virginia. This national
historic landmark occupies the 570-acre sand-spit peninsula just east of the
Hampton end of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. That land is Old Point
Comfort, where the 1619 ship importing Africans stopped en route to
Jamestown. The Army leaves in 2011.
If it is true that professional historians and nonacademics alike are still
coming to grips with the Civil War, and if it is also true that -- as Robert
F. Engs of Penn says -- Fort Monroe is not just _a_ place where slavery
began to die, but is _the_ place where slavery began to die, then I'd hope
to see some discussion in this forum about Fort Monroe's future.
My preservation group, Citizens for a Fort Monroe National Park, advocates
an innovatively structured, self-sustaining grand public place at Fort
Monroe. Unfortunately, narrow parochial interests have predominated so far,
countenanced and indeed supported by almost all of Virginia's political and
journalistic leaders, even despite the CWPT and APVA alarms. These interests
seek to privatize land that has been publicly owned since the days of
Jamestown.
The irony is that even if you care not about multiple dimensions of
enrichment, but only about financial enrichment for Hampton, the
self-sustaining national park approach actually yields more than does the
parochial approach.
Yes, some of what I'm saying is not directly about history, and yes, some of
what I'm saying is most decidedly political. Nevertheless everything that my
CFMNP.org colleagues and I have been doing with our evenings, weekends, and
vacation days for the last two years has engaged the most profound
historic-preservation question facing Virginia at this moment. See for
yourself: watch the Norfolk PBS affiliate's masterpiece 27-minute
documentary, available easily and freely online via a link near the top on
the right at WHRO.org. No one who cares about Virginia history, or American
history, or the history of freedom itself, can help but be moved by this
film.
I'm grateful for this chance to comment -- and for any forgiveness I may
need, and might get, if the comment is somehow indeed too political.
Steven T. Corneliussen
Poquoson, Virginia
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