Anne Pemberton wrote:
> One thing that I hope children will gain from this story is that freedom 
> burns in the hearts of all who are oppressed, and that suppressing the 
> expression of that freedom leads to gruesome consequences. Freedom is 
> precious, and not just to our forefathers, but also to those who were 
> enslaved by those same forefathers.

I'm not even close to being qualified to comment about the gruesome Nat 
Turner incident, but it seems to me that the broad truth articulated above 
is going to stimulate further efforts to understand the slavery era 
better -- whether or not this constructive revisionism distresses slavery's 
remaining apologists on the one hand or, on the other, inspires revisionists 
who seek to misuse history for mythmaking.

And I simply can't resist repeating that in the freedom story at Fort 
Monroe -- the national treasure at Old Point Comfort under threat by condo 
builders who are countenanced by the commonwealth's leaders -- neither the 
"gruesome consequences" part nor the implied victimhood part applies. In my 
view, Anne is talking about something recognized fundamentally in our 
national ideals, something that illuminated itself in an especially 
beautiful way when, at Fort Monroe shortly after Fort Sumter, the formerly 
enslaved Americans Frank Baker, Sheppard Mallory, and James Townsend 
self-emancipated, starting a cascade of self-emancipation that gloriously 
illustrated that very first thought in Anne's statement.

(That's self-emancipation, mind you, and not just Emancipation bequeathed 
belatedly by white politicians -- right, Mr. Cabell?)

Steven T. (Steve) Corneliussen
Poqoson, Virginia 

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