Synopses & Reviews
Focusing on the agency of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the South, this work argues for the systematic unveiling and recovery of subjugated knowledge, histories, and cultural practices of those traditionally silenced and overlooked by national heritage projects and national public memories. Jackson uses both ethnographic and ethnohistorical data to show the various ways African Americans actively created and maintained their own heritage and cultural formations. Viewed through the lens of four distinctive plantation sites—including the one on which that the ancestors of First Lady Michelle Obama lived—everyday acts of living, learning, and surviving profoundly challenge the way American heritage has been constructed and represented. A fascinating, critical view of the ways culture, history, social policy, and identity influence heritage sites and the business of heritage research management in public spaces.
Review
“Antoinette Jacksons book is about extending and complicating the history of African Americans, and providing a new and more inclusive perspective for our national public memory. Speaking for the Enslaved lays a foundation to challenge the dominant narrative and it shows how the descendant community can add a more inclusive and textured story about the past.”<br>—From the Foreword by Paul Shackel, University of Maryland
Synopsis
Focusing on the agency of enslaved Africans and their descendants in the South, this work argues for the systematic recovery of subjugated knowledge, histories, and cultural practices of those traditionally silenced and overlooked by national heritage projects and national public memories.
About the Author
Antoinette T. Jackson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She received a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Florida, a MBA from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a BA in Computer and Information Science from Ohio State University. Jackson also directs the Heritage Research and Resource Management Lab at USF, which she launched in 2006 as an avenue for community engagement and student participation in applied projects and initiatives with relevance outside the academic arena. Jackson is interested in issues of identity and representation at public and/or national heritage sites. Her research focuses on heritage, heritage tourism, and the business of heritage research and resource management in the U.S and the Caribbean..
Table of Contents
Foreword by Paul A. ShackelPreface1. History, Heritage, Memory, Place2. Issues in Cultural/Heritage Tourism, Management, and Preservation3. Roots, Routes and Representation: Friendfield Plantation and Michelle Obamas Very American Story4.Jehossee Island Rice Plantation—a World Class Ecosystem: Made inAmerica by Africans in America5. “Tell Them We Were Never Sharecroppers”: The Snee Farm Plantation Community and the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site6. The Kingsley Plantation Community: A Multiracial and Multi-national View of Heritage in America7. ConclusionReferencesAppendixIndexAbout the Author