Book Review - Slavery and Public History

I just finished reading Slavery and Public History: The Tough Stuff of American Memory edited by James Oliver and Lois E. Horton. This book was the topic of a discussion session at last year's AASLH Annual Meeting in Rochester, but I chose to attend a different session at the same time. Many of the nation's leading historians are featured in this very thought provoking collection of essays. All of the essays are equally good, though the topics of some are a bit dated. I don't want to write a full review of each essay, as that would take up a massive amount of space, but a few observations can be made.

David Blight's essay is excellent, and I continue to be awed and amazed by him. Having had the opportunity to hear him speak on three separate occasions, I can say he is one of the best presenters around, and a very nice and gracious person as well.

Ira Berlin's essay is very good, though I felt that it was cut short. He elaborated more on some points, and much less on others. I wish he'd gone further on some of those.

The essays by John Michael Vlach, Joanne Melish, Lois Horton, Dwight Pitcaithley, and Bruce Levin were my favorites. Each of them highlighted the current state of cultural politics and the "Culture Wars" in today's public history field by looking at different controversies that have arisen in the past decade or two. All of these essays were very thoughtful and well written.

James Oliver Horton's essay was very good, but it is the one that I did take issue with on at least one point. In the essay, he committed the misstep of stereotyping. What do I mean by this? On pages 46-47 he stereotypes all Civil War reenactors as card-carrying SCV members. While discussing the Virginia governor's 1998 mention of slavery as a cause of the war in his proclamation of Confederate History Month, Horton writes: "Centered in the South, but spread throughout the country, there are networks of Civil War reenactors, mostly men, who dress in period costume and meet on weekends to re-create their 'authentic' versions of the Civil War.....almost immediately after Gilmore's proclamation their lines were buzzing with reaction." He then goes on to quote SCV sources of discontent. Later, in making a comparison he writes: "The Confederate flags waved by fans at University of Mississippi football games...or flown over South Carolina's state capitol...and the recent surge in Confederate reenactments (emphasis mine) are all relevant to the discussion about slavery and race that Americans seem unable to have." So why do I have an issue with this? First, it is unfair and invalid to imply that all reenactors are members of the SCV. There are thousands of Union reenactors in this country that certainly are not, and surely not all Confederate reenactors are either. It is simply an unfair characterization. Also, to use the term "Confederate reenactments" is misleading. I have yet to attend a reenactment where no Union troops are present (it wouldn't really be a reenactment then, would it?). I realize that to most people this isn't a big deal, but I consider myself a reenactor and have many friends who are as well. We aren't all SCV members, and in fact, some of us wear the blue as much as, if not more so than, the gray. Many of us are able to have conversations about slavery and the causes of the war, and are perfectly comfortable doing so. To lump us all together under the SCV banner is simply irresponsible.

Now that my soapbox speech is over, I would recommend this book to anyone in the field of public history, or anyone who is interested in the issue of slavery and it's interpretation. I think all historic site and museum employees would be wise to take a look at this book and learn as much as possible from it.

My Career as a Historian - Part Eleven

Wow, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I posted something in this series. Getting pretty slack here lately I suppose. Well, here's post #11 and I'm thinking there will be only two or three more after this, which will bring my career up to the present or pretty close to it.

Fall semester 1998 I began earnestly working on getting the thesis together. I was still thinking Ph.D program and started looking at a couple of schools. My doctoral program thoughts were fueled by attending the annual meeting of the Southern Historical Association in both 1997 and 1998 (Atlanta and Birmingham, respectively) and getting a taste of what the professional academic world was all about. I met some excellent historians at those conferences, particularly David Goldfield and James C. Cobb. I was in awe of these men and wanted to be just like them. To that end, I presented papers at a few smaller conferences, particularly the NC Association of Historians and the UNC-Charlotte Graduate History Forum. My presentations at these functions were OK, but not stellar. Still, I connected with some great historians and other graduate students. I looked at Ph.D programs all over the South and some in the mid-Atlantic. Top choices on my list included University of South Carolina, West Virginia University, University of Tennessee, University of Georgia, and Vanderbilt. Not a single application was ever filled out.

My thesis advisor left for maternity leave the spring semester of 1999, leaving me to communicate with her via telephone and email, and mailing thesis chapters to her for review. At this point I was completely jaded, thoughts of a Ph.D had all but vanished, and now I just wanted to get finished and get out. I realized that what I was producing was not Ph.D worthy material. My research methodology had serious holes in it, my writing was good, but not great, and it just wasn't up to par. But, I figured if I could make it good enough to pass I'd be done with it. It was at this point when Otis Graham decided to share a bit of advice with me, albeit too late to do me much good. He knew I was on the brink of burnout and he said he wished he had met me as an undergrad. He would have given me the same advice he gave his own son when he graduated from college. He said, "I told him to get out of school, go out in the world, and become 28." 28? What was he talking about? He explained that his theory was college students should take a break after graduation, live in the real world for a few years, and by the time they were 28 they would know what they really wanted to do with their life and could go back to school and do it. My biggest fear had always been that if I took that break I'd never come back.

Along with the stress of writing and defending the thesis, I was trying to find a job. The search intensified once I realized that a doctoral program was not in my future. I applied for a number of jobs, and awaited call backs and interviews. Meanwhile, the thesis was almost finished and it was time to defend. I ended up having to do a lot of what I'll call remedial research. The first draft was absolutely shredded by my advisor and I had to do a lot of background research that I should have done earlier in order to catch up. The defense played out exactly as I had expected. Otis Graham threw me a couple of "softball" questions that I easily answered and he was satisfied. Alan Watson challenged me, which I was certain he would, but didn't give me anything I couldn't handle. Then it came time for what I knew would be the real test, my advisor Peggy Shaffer. She absolutely grilled me, even more so than I expected. At one point she said something that ruffled Alan Watson's feathers and he cut me off and argued a point with her in the middle of the defense. When it was all said and done I wasn't sure if I was going to successfully defend or not. It was all very uncomfortable. Dr. John Haley, the graduate coordinator at the time, told me it was the roughest thesis defense he'd ever witnessed and commended me on my handling of it. I got the feeling that he was less than pleased with my advisor at that point. Of course, I did successfully defend the thesis, much to my relief. But I knew that it wasn't the best work I could have done, and in fact when I received the bound copies back from the library a friend asked what I thought, and I responded "It's the same old piece of crap that I wrote, just with a hard cover on it."

As for the job search, I turned down an interview with the NC Transportation Museum, a state historic site, to take the position of Executive Director of the Carteret County Historical Society in Morehead City, NC. My first career move was in some ways good, and in other ways not so good. More on that in the next post.

My Deepest Apologies

I've been really slack about posting to the blog lately. Numerous reasons for this abound. I ended the spring semester (previously mentioned in an earlier post) and began summer session at the two colleges for which I teach US History survey courses. I've also been spending a lot more time on Facebook, messing around, taking stupid quizzes and friending people who I don't remember from high school just because they sent me a request. If you are on Facebook, look me up; be sure to tell me you read the blog, so I'll accept your friend request. Work has been rather busy of late, with a number of overlapping projects.

I've been working for my mom a little bit on the side. She is now retired and dad is in the nursing home, so my brother and I have been helping her clean out my dad's old shed behind the house. My dad has a serious hording problem, so that has been an absolutely monumental challenge that I'm not sure I was prepared for. Finally, our spring softball season has finally started (albeit three weeks later than usual) and I am experiencing the annual getting back into playing shape aches, pains, and general discomfort. That being said, I played very well in our first game; our second game may be in question since I still can't walk very fluidly.

The Memorial Day weekend is upon us and on Saturday I will be at Fort Macon State Park in Atlantic Beach, doing cannon demonstrations. If you are heading to the beach for the weekend come on down and see us. Then on Monday I'll be helping out with a special program at my wife's place of employment, the NC Maritime Museum in Beaufort. So it'll be a busy weekend, but hopefully I can find some time to catch up on the blog.

Loss of a Friend

Today I learned that Lonnie Gene Jarman, Jr. passed away Saturday night. I first met Lonnie when he applied for an internship at the CSS Neuse a number of years ago. He started as an intern and helped me organize the site's photograph collection, as well as some of the research files. He stayed on as a part-time tour guide for a few years. He became interested in the living history aspects of the site, made his own navy uniform, and joined our just-formed unit, the Ship's Company of the Roanoke (which is now the Carolina Living History Guild). He went to a number of events each year and continued working at the site, all while going to college part-time, working as a substitute teacher, and raising his son. He was always busy, which sometimes led to him being unreliable unfortunately. He continued working at the site after I was promoted in October 2006, but by then had quit going to events with the CLHG. After being passed over for a full-time position at the site, Lonnie became disgruntled and quit. I haven't seen him in at least a year, and probably longer. Lonnie died of peritonitis and complications following surgery. He was in his mid-40s and leaves behind a wife and son. I feel awful bad for his son, who was his life, and I wish Lonnie all the best on the other side.

Busy, busy

Wow, has it been a week since I posted? Things have been and will continue to be busy for the next little while. This past week I was grading final exams, tallying final grades, and turning in paperwork for both of the classes I teach. One more semester in the books, but little time to rest because summer session starts in a week and I've got two classes to get prepped. I've been an adjunct for about nine years now. I've been teaching exclusively online courses for the past five years or so. I sometimes miss being in the classroom, but that isn't really feasible for me these days. Online classes offer me a lot of freedom, but lately I've been in a rut. I used to teach US History I, US History II, and World Civilization I; however, for the past two and a half years I've done nothing but US History II. I am bored and burned out. I have asked to be assigned US History I (which is my favorite) but so far, nothing. Yet again this summer it will be US History II. I'm hoping fall semester will bring some relief.

The other problem is that I teach at two different schools. A few years ago, I was teaching five or six classes a semester. I had to cut back when I was promoted to my current job in October 2006, but I still have the ability to do three or maybe four classes. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the rut of getting one class from each school. We've grown accustomed to this financially, so I don't want to decrease the load, but I am thinking about trying to work exclusively for one school. It would make things much easier to keep up with. The two schools have slightly different calendars (which is always confusing), and one school forces me to do much more administrative paperwork and other things that I frankly don't feel are necessary and I hate to spend my time doing them. So, I plan to talk to my supervisor at the one school and see if he will commit to giving me two classes per semester; if he will, I'll teach exclusively for them and cut the other one, and all their crazy administrative requirements loose for now. I'd really love it if one of these colleges would allow me to develop a North Carolina History course or even a Civil War History course, but it would almost certainly have to be done in a seated setting, rather than online. I need a change, and that would certainly provide it.

Otherwise, lots going on at work recently. I'll be in Raleigh this Tuesday, Fort Fisher on Thursday, and Bentonville Battlefield on Saturday. Should be a fun week!

My Career as a Historian - Part Ten

I've recently strayed from adding posts to this series, but I want to get back on track as I figure after this post I will have only two or three more to finish up the series.

The summer of 1998 changed my life in a lot of ways. I had one year left of graduate school, and that would consist of only an internship and writing my thesis. However, I had to find something to do for the summer. The previous summer, my roommate Charlie, his friend Brent, and I had worked for a temp agency. I went there first, looking for something to keep me busy through the summer. My job at the paint store had actually been run through a temp agency, so I was familiar with the process. I went to a different agency when the previous one couldn't find me anything. The new agency set me up with United Carolina Bank (specifically their mortgage division) in Wilmington. UCB had sold their mortgage division to BB&T, and they were in the process of closing down their headquarters in Wilmington, packing up all the files, and sending it all to Greenville, SC. It was a process that would take all summer (and I won't bore you with the details). I was hired first and my supervisor asked if I had any friends that wanted a job, so I pulled in Charlie, and he pulled in Brent. The work was repetitive and somewhat tedious, but very detail oriented. Plus, we were a couple of college guys working in a business that was about to be shut down, so the full-time employees were basically all losing their jobs. However, we brought a breath of fresh air and enthusiasm to that place when they really needed it and it turned out to be a really fun summer.

For the summer of 1998 however, I decided that I needed to try and find something in the history field and get some experience under my belt. I applied for an internship at the Cape Fear Museum in downtown Wilmington, interviewed, but didn't get it. Then I saw an ad for a seasonal position at Fort Fisher State Historic Site. It was called the Mary Holloway Seasonal Interpreter program and was a position designed for college students. I sent in the application and got a call for an interview. I had never even been to Fort Fisher before so I was interested to see what this was all about. I interviewed with Leland Smith, who was the program coordinator and oversaw the seasonal interpreter position. He explained that the job entailed dressing out in a Civil War uniform, giving guided tours and musket demonstrations, and helping out around the gift shop. He offered me the position on the spot and I accepted. Little did I know that this is the position that would launch my career.

As I found out very quickly, a number employees in NC Historic Sites got their start in the Mary Holloway Seasonal Interpreter position (I can think of at least three off the top of my head). I was eager to get started, but I hadn't thought much about the Civil War since I was a kid. I had become more interested in lots of other historical topics and was currently focusing my energies on post-World War II southern industrial development. But, I needed experience and this was going to be it. As soon as I put on the uniform and fired the musket for the first time, I knew this was going to change my mindset. After my training and first time firing a cannon my entire game plan for my life went out the window. Before, I hadn't really been serious about working in the public history field. Sure, I was concentrating in public history, but I still thought I was going to go on for a Ph.D, or at the very least find a job teaching history at a community college. Once I got started at Fort Fisher I loved it, and I could now easily see myself actually working in the public history realm.

Aside from this life changing summer internship, I had also moved into a new apartment. No big deal, right? But this was kind of a big deal. This apartment was much farther away from campus than I had ever lived so there were very few college students in the complex and many young and middle-aged professionals. My roommate, though a college student, was also a Marine Corps officer candidate who went to school and worked 60 hours a week, so his mindset was much different than the typical college kid. Making that move was my first step into the "real world" so to speak. It got me a few steps away from the college campus environment and closer to some of my friends who were no longer in school and were actually working for a living now. That change in mindset was probably very good for me at that point in time.

Unfortunately, one of the side effects of working at Fort Fisher was that it completely ruined my focus on my thesis topic. All of a sudden, the only thing I was interested in was the Civil War, particularly in eastern North Carolina. It was very difficult to stay on task and continue working on a thesis project that I had already started and was bound and determined to finish. I remember clearly having a conversation with my thesis advisor, Dr. Shaffer (see mention in a previous post) where she asked me, point blank, what it was I wanted to get out of my thesis. My response was that I wanted to write something that was good enough and professional enough to get me into a Ph.D program. Now, not only was the Ph.D starting to look like a pipe dream, but getting the thesis completed was looking fairly difficult.

While working at Fort Fisher I began scanning the weekly job postings from the Department of Cultural Resources, thinking that I might try to land a full-time job and finish the thesis while starting on my career. I actually did apply and interview for a job at the President James K. Polk State Historic Site but did not get the job. After the seasonal interpreter position at Fort Fisher had run its course, I decided to stay on staff as a regular temporary employee. Aside from working on the weekends, I continued to travel with Leland and other staff members to other historic sites around the area to help with cannon demonstrations. I felt like I had found a niche and I wanted to run with it and see where it would take me.

Fun at Beaufort

My mates and I had a great time yesterday at the 35th Annual Wooden Boat Show, sponsored by the NC Maritime Museum in Beaufort, NC. We set up a mixed Civil War/Age of Sail living history display, along with two new friends that portray the 10th US Infantry from the War of 1812. Here's a couple of photos. Chris Grimes (author of the blog Albemarle Soundings), John Moseley, myself, and Jim Greathouse

Two Days in Beaufort

Today and tomorrow I will be in Beaufort, helping out with the 35th Annual Wooden Boat Show at the NC Maritime Museum. Today I will be a slave to my wife, her coworker Michelle, and whoever else decides they need my help. This afternoon I will be working as a dockhand for the sailboats that are giving rides to the public, but this morning is anyone's guess. Tomorrow my mates from the Carolina Living History Guild will be joining me as we do a mixed Age of Sail/Civil War living history. Looks like we'll have about 10 guys out there this weekend and will be portraying Union Navy from the Civil War, War of 1812 privateer sailors, and we'll even be joined by two guys doing 10th US Infantry of 1812. Should be an enjoyable weekend, assuming the weather holds. If you're looking for something to do by yourself or with the family this weekend I would encourage you to come on down to Beaufort tomorrow and take it all in!