Behind History Lies the Truth

by Tony Moore

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything." This is something Mark Twain quipped, but he probably wasn鈥檛 thinking about the different truths that can be told and how one truth can be swapped out for another, depending on who鈥檚 telling the story.

In Remembering the Atlantic Slave Trade, last fall鈥檚 Dickinson Mosaic, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies Lynn Johnson, Associate Professor of History Jeremy Ball and Joyce Bylander, vice president for student development, set out with eight students to explore how the slave trade is remembered and memorialized on both sides of鈥╰he Atlantic.

The Atlantic slave trade occurred from the early 16th to the middle of the 19th century鈥攍asting about 350 years. Over its course, it saw more than 12 million Africans forcibly extracted from the continent and shipped off across the world. Between 350,000 and 400,000 embarked on ships bound for what would become the United States鈥攚ith between 10 and 20 percent dying during the voyages.

The 300,000 or so Africans who made it to our shores left behind a legacy and seeded a history that is still with us every day鈥攕ometimes in plain sight and sometimes not.

鈥淲e want to help students see that we can sometimes imbue sites with a story that we want to have told,鈥� says Bylander, 鈥渂ut is it the truth, and what story is missing in whatever stories get told?鈥�

Different versions of the truth

鈥淭he difference between this Mosaic and any other history course is that we didn鈥檛 really study what happened in the past,鈥� says Frank Williams 鈥�15, a law & policy and Africana studies double major. 鈥ㄢ€淲e evaluated the present: How is the story of the slave trade being told right now鈥攊n Ghana, in South Carolina? What are the ways in which people in modern society are expected to understand the slave trade?鈥�

Student coursework with all three professors focused on the significance of the 鈥渟lave coast鈥� of West Africa, representations of the slave trade and African survival through the lens of arrival in the New World.

But as with previous Mosaics鈥攚hich have taken students from Morocco to Cuba to the Mediterranean鈥攖he answers to questions asked in the Atlantic Slave Trade Mosaic were found mostly outside the confines of history books. And for 16 days on two continents the group walked in the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands of slaves brought to the U.S.

鈥淗aving students be in Ghana and Charleston and鈥� giving them the tools to really think about, listen to and learn about these stories鈥攖hat was really important,鈥� Bylander says. 鈥淚t was the 鈥榝eeling,鈥� as one student put it. They needed to feel these places and not just read about them.鈥�

And those feelings were at times overwhelming, as the Mosaic cast new light on 鈥渨hat could have been,鈥� according to Dominique Brown 鈥�15, a psychology and Africana studies major who traces her ancestry to Ghana.

鈥淓specially going through the dungeons, it鈥檚 hard to imagine that one of my ancestors could have been in conditions like this, and the only reason I鈥檓 here is because of that,鈥� she says. 鈥淭o think of that and to really experience it鈥攊t鈥檚 hard to explain, because there鈥檚 gratitude that鈥檚 associated with it, but there鈥檚 also sorrow.鈥�

On either side of the ocean

In each Mosaic location鈥攆rom Ghana鈥檚 Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle and Donko Nsuo (Slave River) at Assin Manso to Charleston鈥檚 Avery Research Center and Boone Hall Plantation鈥攕tudents were immersed in slave-trade narratives, and a striking trait of the experience was just how differently history was presented in West Africa and in Charleston.

鈥淓verywhere in Charleston you walk around, you feel an ancestral presence, but no one is talking about enslaved Africans, even as you tour plantations,鈥� Johnson says. 鈥淛ust hearing the silence was profound to me.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a silence that is stunning, and we continue to perpetuate it,鈥� Bylander adds, elaborating on what is known as 鈥渉eritage tourism.鈥� 鈥淧eople like to go back to the past, but they don鈥檛 like to go back to the difficult past, and so if you don鈥檛 make the story nice, people won鈥檛 come to visit.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 a matter of whether you鈥檙e going to be an educator, or a learner, and go out and look for the true story,鈥� says Hannah Glick 鈥�15. 鈥淏ecause you could definitely go to these sites and see very elegant wallpaper, a nice piano, a nice portrait ... and miss the point of who was cooking the meals, who was taking care of the home, where the slaves were kept. To stray from this Gone With the Wind-style narrative is shocking, but it鈥檚 the truth.鈥�

Conversely, in Ghana, Bylander says, 鈥淎ll they鈥檙e talking about is the enslavement of Africans, and they have been making that narrative prominent.鈥� Johnson adds that it鈥檚 a narrative not just about loss but also about victory.

鈥淭he first time I went [to Ghana], I was in awe,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e survived this? They survived this? And then you start to understand that you need to learn more about it鈥攏ot just about victimization but survival, and I wanted to make sure that was a narrative that the students understood.鈥�

Legacies of the slave trade

With a new perspective of the past came a new understanding of the present, and the link between the two eventually led the group to look further at just what it means to call oneself 鈥淎frican American.鈥�

鈥淚 always felt that I could not claim 鈥楢frican鈥� as a cultural identity because I was not born in an African country, and I don鈥檛 know where in Africa my ancestors came from,鈥� Williams says. 鈥淚 also felt like I didn鈥檛 fit the archetypal American figure. I was lost because I had no land to claim. But I realized that 鈥楢frican American鈥� is an identity in itself.鈥�

That identity is something that has risen from the past, a past that many people would rather hide than explore.鈥═o Johnson, it is essential that the sights and sounds and experiences of the past be remembered, so they become the possession of the people instead of footnotes in history books.

鈥淭o be able to reclaim that history,鈥� she says, 鈥渢o be able to speak of it proudly and talk about the strength and survival of the people who made it, who made it possible for the rest of us to exist, was a really powerful and positive thing and something that the students embraced by the end of the Mosaic.鈥�

Williams clearly found the Mosaic transformative, and he doesn鈥檛 shy away from any of the truths that revealed themselves over those weeks鈥攖ruths that ended up spanning more than the Atlantic Ocean.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 control how my ancestors got to America,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I can control the way in which I choose to carry out the legacies they created once they got here, and I embrace this wholeheartedly.鈥�

Read more from the spring 2014 issue of Dickinson Magazine.

Published April 22, 2014

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