Martha:  You are right on target as always.  However any material goods that they Ver able to acquire does indeed open up a window into lives that we may not be able to gather information from as easily as some others ( that is wealthy planters,farmers et al)  and can indeed show us that these people were human and wished to bring some happiness into their lives via freedom and the right to acquire at least something to pass on to children and other relatives who may appreciate them in the future.  Jane Steele.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Martha Katz-Hyman <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Sep 20, 2007 10:01 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Mount Vernon Opens Rebuilt Slave Cabin
>
>I was part of the team of curators that furnished the Carter's Grove Slave
>Quarters at Colonial Williamsburg in 1989.  One of our goals was to show
>visitors that enslaved people lived in all kinds of physical and material
>surroundings--from field workers who may have had very few possessions, to
>an overseer who had a bed, table, chairs and even a copper stewpan to
>prepare meals.  It was a challenge to explain these contradictions to
>visitors, who often equate enslavement with few, if any, material goods,
>when, in fact, enslaved people lived at all levels of the material culture
>spectrum.
>
>But in the most important aspects of their lives, free people had what
>slaves never did:  control over their own lives without fear of punishment
>or reprisal.  I think that would have been worth far more than any material
>goods or comfort that enslaved people might have had.
>
>Martha Katz-Hyman


Lillian Jane Steele