Presenting Race and Slavery at Historic Sites: Manassas National Battlefield Park.

摘要

National Park Service officials have urged U.S. Civil War sites to examine, interpret and display the causes of the Civil War as well as their broader social implications.1 In other words, battlefield parks like Gettysburg and Manassas should commemorate Civil War battles along with the social histories that place the war within a larger historical context. Presentations of social histories and issues such as slavery and community life before, during, and after the Civil War should not detract from reinterpretations of battles. Instead, a display of social histories can ensure that complex socio-economic issues related to battlefield sites are viewed and understood by the general public who flock to Civil War attractions. The Presenting Race and Slavery at Historic Sites project is one attempt to assist frontline staff, historians and interpreters in exhibiting social histories and issues related to the development of national park sites. This project was designed to analyze the presentation and interpretation of slavery and race at three historic sites: Arlington House, The Robert E. Lee Memorial; Frederick Douglass National Historic Site; and Manassas National Battlefield Park. These three sites were selected because they represent three different kinds of historic places that involve the subject of race and slavery: the home of a revered leader and general, the home of a prominent African American leader, and a Civil War battlefield.