ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, December 22, 1996 TAG: 9612230085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG
Bristol is a carpenter at the Nathaniel Burwell plantation just south of Williamsburg. But it's not a well-made table or chair that makes him happy this Christmas.
``He actually has his eye on a young lady,'' says James Ingram, an interpreter who plays the 20-year-old slave at Carters Grove, the 18th-century plantation reconstructed by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. ``He's hoping possibly to be able to get married some day.''
Christmas was one of the few times slaves were allowed to see friends, relatives and sweethearts from other plantations. Colonial Williamsburg interpreters re-create the customs of the season in a new Christmas program called ``Putting Slavin' Aside: Christmas at the Slave Quarters'' that depicts how the Christmas spirit influenced even the most oppressive side of Colonial life. Slaves would sing, dance, tell stories from Africa and - if they were lucky - sneak some companionship.
Secrecy was not always necessary. Bristol's heartthrob is Kate, a 20-something slave who might get permission to leave a nearby plantation because she cares for the owner's ill daughter, Ingram says. Show a pass to anyone encountered along the way, and no further questions would be asked.
Others had to take risks, says Marcel Reddick, who wears a soiled black apron and a plain white-and-blue bonnet in her role as a slave. Field workers could sometimes run off for a while without notice. On the then-rural Peninsula, travelers did not cross paths often, so the chances of being caught were not great. ``Think about when you were a kid, going out to the woods,'' Reddick says.
For slaves without romantic pursuits, Christmas was a time to take a break from heavy work and, sometimes, to eat better - George Washington is said to have given ham and rum to his slaves at the holidays, Reddick says.
Don't count on tipsy actors at Carters Grove. Liquor is not on the menu. But another staple of Colonial fare, rabbit, is. Workers were skinning the animals in preparation Thursday.
Dinner conversation over the holiday centered on the trials and joys of everyday life. Jobs were easier on a corn and wheat farm like Carters Grove than on a tobacco or cotton farm, Reddick says. Tobacco and cotton required more painstaking work with the hands.
But slaves were still subject to cruel punishment, especially if they treated a master with disrespect. Christmas was a time for elders not only to tell stories about life in Africa, but also to warn youngsters about what to say and not to say to masters, Reddick says.
Slaves lived in groups of four to six in wood cabins. Some larger cabins were split into sections, with 40 or 50 men sharing two levels. A 4-foot-deep root cellar provided storage space.
At Carters Grove, cabins have brick fireplaces and stone floors with straw beds. The foreman, a slave in charge of slaves, has a private cabin with a raised bed, a Windsor chair, an ivory fork and a china mug. Common slaves have china mugs with broken handles.
Cabins might be decorated with ribbons, but anything as fancy as a wreath is out of the question. ``Who down here has time to put an apple in a wreath?'' Reddick says. ``They want to eat it.''
The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation created the program to answer questions posed by Carters Grove visitors, says Christy Matthews, director of the African-American Interpretations and Presentation Department. The program answers those questions in a joyful, festive atmosphere, she says.
Material for the program comes from books and diaries. Most accounts of slave life are from the 1800s, Reddick says, but the program's creators figured slave life in the earlier century was somewhat similar - although probably easier, prior to the bigger cotton plantations of the 19th century. The Burwell plantation had about 100 acres of crop land.
Historians hope to find more clues about Christmas celebrations here in the future. For now, educated guesswork will have to do.
``You'd have to take a quantum leap to know what happened,'' Reddick says. ``Slavery was different in the 18th century, and that's what we want to get to: How different was it?''
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB