They're having to do more things to amuse the tourists- these days, you can't even be amused enough at a sporting event, they have to have huge foam "mascots" to amuse you further- so I guess in order to do that, they have to keep the programs centrally located. More of the dumbing down of America. Nancy ------- I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. --Daniel Boone On Jan 5, 2007, at 5:39 PM, Jurretta Heckscher wrote: > A further comment on the Carter's Grove sale: note that the Colonial > Williamsburg Foundation justifies the sale as follows: > > '"Our decision was guided by a thorough evaluation of Carter's Grove's > relevance to Colonial Williamsburg's interpretive focus. Our mission > is to tell the story of citizenship and becoming America in the 18th > century," said Campbell [the Foundation's president and chairman]. > "This is best accomplished in the Historic Area, where we present and > interpret Revolutionary War-era Williamsburg. Carter's Grove, with > its > multiple stories to tell, does not support this strategic focus."' > > I find that statement unbelievable. How is it possible "to tell the > story of citizenship and becoming America in the 18th century," above > all in Virginia, without incorporating the realities of the plantation > world, including of course its basis in slavery and the still > significantly Africanized world of the vast majority of Virginia's > African Americans, the agricultural workers who never came near > what is > now the Historic Area? > > Campbell's words imply that four decades of transformative scholarship > on Virginia, Virginians, the Revolution, and the evolution of American > citizenship and American identity are being fundamentally disregarded > in favor of a disembodied, sanitized "story" that flattens the truths > and complexities of Virginia's and America's history. > > Even if the Foundation's purpose is to celebrate the nation we have > become today--a defensible goal, in my view--how is it possible to do > that without thoroughly integrating our knowledge of the most > important > facts about the nation's historical foundations in eighteenth-century > Virginia? > > If anyone has been to Colonial Williamsburg recently and can reassure > me on these points, I'd love to hear it. Last week's article in > the NY > Times that Suzanne Levy noted (thanks, Suzanne) doesn't really do > that: for example, how would the writer have learned that > eighteenth-century Virginia was "not just a society that owned slaves, > but a society organized around slavery" if she hadn't happened to > visit > the soon-to-be inaccessible reconstructed slave quarters at, yes, > Carter's Grove? I'm not a Williamsburg-basher--on the contrary, a > childhood visit to Colonial Williamsburg (and Carter's Grove) was the > spark that led me to the study of history--but this sale and the > justification offered for it strike me as a tragically misguided > indication that Colonial Williamsburg may truly have lost its way. > > --Jurretta J. Heckscher > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the > instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html