THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 6, 1994 TAG: 9410060483
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICK K. LACKEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
Colonial Williamsburg, which has been criticized for sanitizing 18th-century history, plans to present its first portrayal of the sale of slaves.
As part of a re-enactment of an auction of estates that occurred in 1772, four Virginia-born slaves will be sold, including a husband and wife to different owners. The re-enactment is scheduled for noon Monday in front of Wetherburn's Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street.
``We felt we have reached a point we are ready to show, rather than just discuss, some of the issues and horrors of slavery,'' said Christy Coleman, director of the Colonial Williamsburg's African-American Interpretation and Presentation Department.
Colonial Williamsburg is a 173-acre, living history museum, with about one million paying visitors a year. It depicts 18th-century Williamsburg.
The portrayal of the sale of slaves was proposed by the 13-member staff of Coleman's department, all black.
Several members of the Colonial Williamsburg's Annual Events Committee, which must approve all major events there, were reticent about showing the sale of slaves, Coleman said.
There was fear, she said, of what the public and employees, black and white, would think.
``Quite frankly,'' Coleman said, ``when we first started doing African-American programs 14 years ago, we were asked, `Why are you throwing that stuff in there? This is about building America and the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson. It's not about slaves.'
``Even when slave quarters opened up five years ago, visitors asked, `Why are you building that? It is going to be horrible.' It has turned out to be one of our most popular sites among people, black and white.''
A 1775 census, Coleman said, showed that half of Williamsburg and 40 percent of Virginia were black.
An estates auction that failed to depict the sale of slaves, who were legal property, would be an inaccurate portrayal of history, she said.
But Salim Khalfani, Virginia field coordinator for the NAACP, said many blacks share his concern that the event is ``designed to entertain rather than to teach the truth'' about enslaved Africans.
``We are always concerned when the African holocaust is going to be portrayed as entertainment,'' Khalfani said. ``There have been so many myths and lies and distortions in the past.''
Coleman said, ``We are not intending to sensationalize this at all. There is no intention to overdramatize it. The drama is inherent.''
She would hope, she said, that all future estate-sales re-enactments would include slave sales, so history is accurately presented.
The Annual Events Committee never voted on the slave sale, she said, but its chairman, Arthur Barnes, manager of 18th-century entertainment and programs, endorsed the sale, as did every staff member in Coleman's department, ``so it was a go.''
Coleman will portray the slave who is separated from her husband when they are sold to different owners.
``Right now,'' she said, ``it's so far from me personally it's still an academic, intellectual exercise. It has yet to be emotional, but I expect it will.''
Asked what other events lay ahead, she said, ``Prior to 1720, 90 percent of free blacks and mulattoes were born of white mothers. They were free because their mothers were white.'' That is a part of history, she said, that has yet to be presented. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this story.
by CNB