Hi, I’m a former historic guide who has heard plantation tourists say some pretty racist things about slavery. AMA

Do foreign tourists react differently than americans on the topic of slavery? Any particular "culture shock"?

The foreign tourists I spoke with were generally pretty well-educated on the subject of American slavery and sympathetic to the point of view of the enslaved. Weirdly, occasionally an African guest would say something unsympathetic though.

Have you had any particularly memorable experiences of people finally "getting it," or otherwise being deeply affected, by the experience of seeing slavery close up? Or have people ranged mostly from neutral to terrible?

Oh, for sure. All the time, especially with kids. You can see everything on their faces. Adults, too, would get somber or thoughtful or quizzical or interested. Occasionally there'd be moist eyes. Honestly I don't remember a lot of specific good moments though. They blend together. :)

What is the best way for a guest to respond to comments, either from other guests or from guides, that minimize slavery or are otherwise problematic?

For example, I once overheard part of an art museum tour where both the guide and the guests were praising a slave owner for allowing a slave learn to read and write because the owner "believed that's what God wanted."

Dear Lord. I think politely pointing out the fact that the master benefitted monetarily from every possible "nice" thing he did for the slaves is helpful. As a guest, you could even push it further by asking the person if THEY would want to be a slave.

For better or for worse, showing anger directly tends to turn people against you and make them defensive and entrenched. No matter how justified that anger is.

Do you pay much attention to how local education authorities/school boards operate? How big an effect do you think that that kind of work has on the general populace's understanding of history (particularly the uglier parts that you would have to cover as part of your job)?

It has a huge effect, huge. So much of what teachers say gets taken for granted by kids who can't be expected to know better. Lots of folks visiting my site after the slavery tour have muttered dark words against schools and teachers who failed them years ago re:diverse history, and those guests are glad to see slave history taking its rightful place at more and more historic sites.

A shoutout here to Mrs. Wilson, who told our first grade class that though George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did great things, they also owned people and that was bad. Way to get the minds thinking, Mrs. Wilson.

What was the most insensitive thing you have heard from a group when giving a tour?

Probably the time a KKK member told me she figured enslaved mothers would be almost GLAD to get rid of their teenaged children who were sold away from them. https://storify.com/afamhistfail/on-hoods

What advice would you give to someone (me) who works in a predominantly economically disadvantaged, predominantly white community, in trying to raise awareness about the continuing need for racial reconciliation and social justice when said community I am in doesn't necessarily always see that need?

What a good question--I wish I had a good answer, or someone to direct you to. I feel like gently demonstrating that while poor people of all races struggle against similar forces keeping them down, POC have an extra set of constraints they have to break through to be successful, could be helpful. Wish I knew more about how to make that happen in a practical way.

Have there ever been any major squabbles between patrons themselves as a result of something horrific a patron has said/asked?

As someone going into the public history field with a background in African-American History myself I've appreciated your stories a great deal.

Occasionally there's been pushback from other guests--comments, raised eyebrows, meaningful eye contact with each other/me--but no major fights on my watch.

Wish my coworkers could chime in on this though. Some of my African-American colleagues have intense guest moments on the regular.

Any favorite slavery or African-American stories to tell when you were a guide? My favorite to listen is York's, the black slave friend of Clark that joined him on the Lewis and Clark expedition.

I love escape narratives so much. One guy at our site was a manservant/valet to his powerful master, and after years of watching and waiting he appears to have forged a freedom pass (his master was a lawyer, so he would've been in the perfect position to do it accurately) and just left. It was in the dead of winter too, the most dangerous time of year. And they never found him, so far as we know. I love that guy so much.

Other favorite: William and Ellen Craft.

Was there ever anyone who seemed to have their opinions about slavery change upon visiting the plantation? Like, was there anyone who was vocal or just seemed to think that slavery wasn't that bad, but after the tour seemed to reconsider? Was there ever the opposite?

Yes! There were definitely people who visited thinking slavery was kinda alright and left realizing it was bad, as well as people who came knowing it was bad then realizing it was horrendous. But (probably obviously) the more vocal someone was in defense of slavery/slaveowners, the less likely they were to reconsider.

As for the opposite: I sure as hell hope not. One coworker told me once about hearing a mother-daughter pair walk past the slave cabin, see how awful it looked, and sniff "Slaves were dirty." So they used the material culture they saw at the museum to confirm their own biases. I am guessing they arrived racist already.

I loved your article. Your conclusion about these ahistorical views of slavery feed into the cacophony of neo-confederate garage ultimately spawning the likes of Dylann Thomas was striking and poignant. Sharing your article on facebook, however, elicited other responses like; 'come on, how can people be this dumb,' or 'I just can't believe this is true, she is embellishing and hyperbolic'. Much of the conversation these people what to have is about how the media whips people in a frenzy over what they think is not an important/non-existing issue - racism. They of course always say, 'well not all white people are like this, the entire country can't be racist, that's crazy' What would you say to these people?

One project I hope to get to sometime is compiling all the tweets people have sent me detailing experiences exactly like mine at their museum/school/wherever.

At any rate, the incidents I tweeted about were generally just the worst ones. A more common racist response to the mention of slave history was narrowing of eyes+crossing of arms+U-shaped mouthline. So in a sense, they are correct--I only share the most extreme moments.

Tbh your FB friends seem a little racist though.

Did you find there was an increase in visitors following the Oscar success of '12 Years a Slave'? Did you have people asking questions about what was depicted in that film? Also, what did you yourself think of that film?

(Great article in Vox, by the way).

I didn't see an increase in visitation but did get a slight increase in questions. To my knowledge the film looked unbelievably true to the material culture and (likely) emotions of the time. Chiwetel Ejiofor was incredible, everyone was incredible. Awesome movie.

It should be mentioned that there are some questionable bits in the source material though--like did Solomon Northrup actually think Benedict Cumberbatch was a great slave owner, or did the abolitionist ghostwriter put that in to pacify Southern readers?

It should also be said racism isn't confined to the South.

I'm going to preface this by saying I think slavery was absolutely horrible and I believe in human rights no matter what someone's race, sex, age, etc are. A few months ago I read random slave narratives that were collected as part of a WPA project in the 30's. While there were certainly horrific stories, I was surprised how many ex-slaves looked back at their time in slavery with a certain amount of fondness.

I suspect this was because they were out of the frying pan and into the fire, so to speak. I imagine there weren't many opportunities for ex-slaves and life could have been extremely difficult. One thing they often commented on was that food was more available when they were slaves. Another factor could be that many of these people were children when they were freed, so they possibly hadn't seen the worst of slavery.

My question is: what was life like for ex-slaves? What kinds of jobs, assistance, education, etc. were available to them? How often did slaves elect to stay as paid workers on the plantations they were freed from (I didn't read about any that stayed)?

Again, I'm not insinuating that the slaves didn't have it rough, even the "good" stories I read didn't sound like a good time to me; quite the opposite. Thanks for doing this AMA and for combating ignorance and prejudice every day.

The thing about ex-slave narratives is that it's hard to tell how truthful the interviewees felt they could be with the interviewers--how much they trusted them or felt safe with them. So claims of ex-slaves missing their old life are pretty suspect, and may even have been fabricated by interviewers. Likewise, stories of ex-slaves staying on with their masters are also suspect if someone claims them as evidence of "good slaveownership" or nostalgia or whatever, because as you suggest, law/custom/individual prejudice prevented a lot of newly-free African Americans from getting other opportunities. The "sundown towns" are a great example--places where black residents couldn't even leave their houses after dark on pain of violence/killing.

That's not enough of answer to do the question justice though--I'd recommend Douglas Blackmon's book on this.

I loved your Tweets. Thanks for doing this!

What would say the ratio of ignorance (people who legitimately didn't know the horrors of slavery) to obstinance (people who didn't WANT to know the horrors of slavery) was? And did a lot of your co-workers share your propensity for taking the time to talk about slave history?

Thanks for reading!

To your first question: 75/25

I worked in a department of people specifically hired to talk about African-American life. As for other folks around the museum: The same issues the public has with African-American history are the same issues the museum community has with it, though maybe to a slightly lesser degree.

How do you keep your cool? I've read your Twitter and I am honestly amazed you handle this ignorance with such a calm and generally kind tone. I consider myself a calm person and I was raging at some of those comments.

Haha. Well, not wanting to lose my job was a major motivator.

I hope I responded with grace and tact overall. But realistically, I am sure people could see my involuntary WTF face sometimes.

Were there times when someone was just obviously trolling you? How would you deal with that if they won't stop? Make them leave?

With obvious trolls (like a guy who sat down on a bench where I was working specifically to share his thoughts about how having a crappy job is "basically slavery today," grinning creepily) the best thing to do was give short clipped answers til they went away.

Most of the problematic interactions weren't intentional trolling though. Racist, yes. But most people hadn't come specifically to mess with us.

Which historical sites that you know of do a great job of interpreting the history of their enslaved population?

My faves include Middleton Place, the Peyton Randolph home at Colonial Williamsburg, and Gunston Hall.

Wish I were better-travelled to give you more good recs.

Llamas or alpacas?

Alpacas, man. So fluffy.

I just posted about taking my kids on these tours. What can I do to help the message really sink in, and help them understand?

I'm not a parent, but I get the sense that telling them little bits about slavery from a young age is helpful. Check in and find out what they're learning about slavery and race in school. If you can, encourage them to interact with African-Americans, both adults and children, on a personal level.

Like I said though, not a parent--hope that's helpful.

What qualities were most important in a slave when purchasing? How did the potential owner measure these desired qualities of slaves?

Great question. Muscle tone, appearance of health, and physical beauty could all be considerations (keep in mind how unprotected enslaved women were from their masters). They also wanted workers with valuable skills. For example, there'd be no South Carolina rice culture without the agricultural expertise of kidnapped Africans.

I just found out about you within the past day or two, so I apologize if I'm asking questions you've answered elsewhere.

Have you seen or heard about school study media (textbooks, lectures, etc.) that make the sort of egregious statements you document?

Do you have any insight into why the idea that just being a slave isn't bad enough to want to escape slavery? It's a popular trope in fiction, too - usually in the form of explicit depictions of brutalizing or torturing slaves being used to justify their desire to escape. Have you noticed a certain type of person or mindset behind holding that idea?

Thank you for all the work you've done, by the way, both as @afamhistfail and as a historian. (Is that the correct title?)

q1 - I've definitely heard about various textbook scandals saying slavery was more or less alright, but no specifics come to mind.

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q2 I don't think people get taught about the constant fear that kept enslavement functioning. You don't have to get shot to be psychologically brutalized by having a gun pointed at you all the time, metaphorically speaking.

Also it goes without saying that many textbooks have been written by white people/institutions trying to make themselves look better.

Have you seen this? http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_history_of_american_slavery/2015/06/animated_interactive_of_the_history_of_the_atlantic_slave_trade.html

I have! I love it! So happy Bouie/Onion/their other contributors are compiling knowledge in an easily-gettable form like this. So much of my slavery knowledge is from boring obscure academic sources. (No offense to boring obscure academia. <3 u academia)

Have you ever experimented with using the word kidnaper instead of slaveowner when teaching the subject?

Yup. Definitely took the intensity level up two or three notches.

They naped kids?!

The bastards

Do you plan on doing more in depth writing on your experiences? The twitter account has been one of my favorite things on the internet since I found it. Good luck with whatever is next for you!

I definitely do. I'll keep Twitter updated. Thanks for asking/reading!